《Beneath the surface - ZhanYi version》

《Chapter 8《part 3》》

"So many years of education yet nobody taught us how to love ourselves . . ."

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The little prince's POV

The light shone bright; even with my eyes closed, it burned on my retina.

I tried to turn my body away from the light, only to find out I couldn't move, no matter what I tried.

It was then that I opted to open my mouth, but no sounds left, even when I tried to scream at the top of my lungs.

A hand touched my shoulder, the warmth of the skin burning me as the person dug their nails into my shoulder, a warm breath close to my ear as the male voice whispered, "There's nowhere for you to run to, Xiao Zhan."

The peculiar way the man spoke; there seemed to be a tilt to the man's voice, almost as if he would be smirking while speaking, but he also didn't sound much older than forty.

Xiao Zhan?

Was that my name? I wanted to shake my head, trying to get rid of the pounding headache that seemed to corner me as the man breathed into my ear.

"Stop squirming; you'll only make things harder," his voice sounded brash and harsh, bitingly painful to the ears, but the man sounded further away from me now, though it was hard to determine with the feeling of my head spinning circles.

I tried to move my head towards his voice, but the restriction didn't allow a bit of movement; even opening my eyes felt like a lost fight, a battle I wanted to give up on.

I tried to speak again, but a loud sigh resounded from somewhere, a further corner, "Xiao Zhan, ah, Xiao Zhan, stop fighting it."

Xiao Zhan. I let the word roll from my tongue without a sound; the name felt foreign; it didn't belong to me.

As I sharpened my senses, I heard the light tapping of footsteps coming closer as I counted them: one, two, three, fo-.

The sound stopped as I felt a hand behind my head; removing the blindfolds, I stared into a blinding white ray of light.

I blinked, closing my eyes, but the light still burned.

A hand grasped my jaw, tightly gripping as it forced me to open my eyes, looking into the almost blackened pupils of a man.

I wanted to scramble away, my fight and flight instinct kicking in, but the man chuckled, his gaze crazed.

"You'll never escape your past, Xiao Zhan," the man said, cackling as he let go of my jaw, and I gasped for breath as my view tilted.

I tightly squeezed my eyes shut, and it felt like my body got thrown around; I felt like throwing up when the feeling slowly settled down.

It felt like sitting on a boat during a heavy storm, the water uncalm, and I fought to stay above water with my head.

My eyes shot open as I realised I no longer held the restraints, my hands free to move.

My eyes wandered to my surroundings; this time, I could see more clearly with no white light blocking my eyes; instead, when I strained my ears, I could hear a low yellow humming light enlightening the small steel room.

It looked like a prison without the bars.

I stood up from the wooden chair I had been sitting in as I let my hands trace the cold concrete of the wall, taking all the details in.