In a castle in the sky, memories unravel the truth.
There lies Yan, a woman who delves into her ghost-infested past, knowing it will give her the answers she seeks. What she doesn't know: if she stays in her past for too long, she may never wake up...
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"Why am I still alive?"
Two days. It's been two days.
So I am nearing the beginning of it all, with such thoughts and such words on waking up. Afternoon naps are hardly my thing, but it seems I've gone ahead with the unnatural patterns.
I rub my eyes. After a groan brimming with a sickness of life, I let the encroaching darkness claim me whole. It clears my head and encircles my temples, leaving me its dusty cloak and the six strikes of a bell.
A familiar figure unveils himself as the scenery spreads its thighs, unravelling a picturesque garden where the meadows reach my knees and a variety of flowers and berries mingle. The Hypno stands between two plots, his left leg sinking into a bunch of acanthus plants, the glossy, jagged, large-leaved foliage growing in all directions, red stalks nearly covered by white leaves. The rose-purple oregano flowers cower by his other foot, their minute green leaves swaying about as if to evade capture. In place of his usual ring is a white lotus pendant which he removes from his neck and places into my palm.
He meets my curious gaze with an unquenchable fire I have never known could exist in him. "You have been progressing well."
"I haven't found a way to escape." I clench my fists and blink. "You initiated this?"
"You called for me," Hypno says and rubs his hands in glee. "You have some questions for me."
"Will you answer them?"
We stroll through the freshness, bypassing spearmint and tansies, overlooking purple Kasib Berries and golden Ginema Berries on either sides, before he swivels his head with a wrinkled nose. Our feet pause in the middle of two lanes of Persim Berries just ripe for picking.
Hypno nods. I take it as a challenge. If anything goes, then I ought to ask the question I've been meaning to all along: "Why are you stalking me?"
"So I can root for you." He glances downward and I trail his shaking vision, keen on holding him tight. "I was told to."
"Adolf instructed you," I shoot.
He attempts to block my attack, but he flinches.
I repeat myself with more gusto than before, and still he refuses to answer me, like it is a taboo subject for him. He grunts and looks the other way with a frown.
