Mizpah《Zhanyi version》

Chapter 9

Present time . . .

"I love you, Zhan, in the way an addicted love the high . . .

I love you the way the cutter loves the knife . . .

Love isn't always roses and held hands, but tell me, what am I to you . . . ?"

Once again Zhan did not answer, his eyes still closed, feeling the breeze of coldness touching his face before opening his eyes in which there were tears who hadn't had the chance to fall, and Zhan started to tell the last part of his story . . .

***

Eleven years ago . . .

He held the Chrysanthemum.

Slowly Zhan walked towards the window, placing the white and yellow Chrysanthemum down, knowing that Yibo would find it eventually if not tonight than it would be tomorrow.

Zhan peeked through the window, seeing his lover sitting on his bed curled in a warm blanket, and a small lonely smile crept its way towards his lips before Zhan turned around to walk away.

Walking into the darkness, melting into his backgrounds while memories collided over each other, and one particular memory took it over.

"Am I dead?" I stared at the clothed black woman in front of me whose face was totally hidden inside her cloak, but I felt her smiling softly down at me.

"Yes and no." I stared at her, and I guess she understood my questions because she answered them softly, "yes you're not alive anymore, but now you're not dead, you're rather taken into a deep slumber of darkness," her voice was smooth like silk and pleasant to listen to, almost like music.

"What?" Still confused I looked at her, and she slowly took off her cloak hiding her face, she was a short slim yet young maiden with an oval face and a sharp chin, she was probably just a few years older than me.

It surprised me.

But there was something else catching my eyes her eyes they were white that gave her the appearance of someone blind, but the way her eyes bore into mine told me more than enough, she was not blind.

"As I said, you're in a deep slumber, you're in other words in a deep coma, it's up to you to survive, I can not help you, but you need to go and search for your memories and body," she gave me a small nod, and I looked around me for the first time.

But even before I got the time to see where I was everything started to fade, and I quickly turned to the maiden, but even she was fading, and she whispered something, words as soft as the wind before she disappeared too, "succeed in the mission I failed . . ."

Zhan once again turned to the house where the small light of a candle was whistling before closing his eyes, remembering all the happy moment with his lover, hoping that when he would wake up that he would remember them all, and if Zhan did not, the memories would live somewhere inside them, he would remember, Yibo.

He walked into the quiet word nearing the place his body was waiting for him, and Zhan took a deep breath before stepping into the closed hospital, there where his body had been for nine years, waiting for him.

And he walked through the silent condors, glancing into each room, he was nothing more than just a ghost searching for his body.

520.

The room where his body was, in the room with the number which stood equal to I love you, and without any more thoughts Zhan walked straight into the room, only to froze down, staring at himself.

He didn't even remember how he ended up in a coma, all Zhan remembered were the times with Yibo, he did not even remember what happened in between those times, everything was a blur except for his face, Yibo's face was all that mattered, nothing more.

Zhan looked down at himself, he did indeed looked like he was in a deep slumber, almost as if he would wake up every possible moment, just like the sleeping beauty, and Zhan chuckled at himself before trying to touch his face.

But unlike with Yibo, his hand went straight through his own body, and only a cold shiver ran down Zhan's spine, nothing else.

Zhan kept staring at himself, almost not believing that this was he himself, he had no sense of time, nor of the world, after his soul left his body, he was wandering, and now he found his own body it felt everything except exciting.

"So you found yourself? Honestly, I underestimated you, I expected you at least a few days later, but you t least did succeed, you know how many people I have needed to bring over in desperation because they couldn't find their own body?" I turned around, there she was standing, the same maiden of nine years ago, she hadn't aged at all, so young and still with the same deep eyes.

"Will I remember him?" Without naming Yibo's name, it was as if he understood me, her eyes glistening softly in the streak of moonlights falling on her face.

"Maybe . . ."

"What do you mean?" I looked at her and then back at my body.

"If you had been a year later you would have passed away, at least your soul, like you noticed it's harder and harder for you to remember who you are and what you are doing, so you're fading from existence, luckily you found your body on time, and you will remember him if he is the one if he is not the one you won't be able to ever remember him . . ."

"What do you mean by if he is the one?" She smiled softly, her finger taking a strand of her hair, averting my gaze.

"If he is your soulmate you will remember him, if not you will eventually forget him or remember it all like a dream, and you'll be shrugging it off like nothing . . . So the choice is up to you," the maiden stared at the moon that was shining bright outside, mumbling the words softly, yet I heard them clearly.

"Let's just do it," I sighed, and she turned her head towards me, her eyes unreadable just like her expression.

My hand slowly moved forwards to my own body, and when I touched it, all that visible was a white flash in front of my eyes, blinding me, and everything started to become black the moment after it, with only the soft murmuring of the young maiden in the back of my mind, "what a tragic love story . . ."

And a cold shiver ran down my spine.