Zhou Yan refused the leader’s invitation. If he accepted the offer, contact with Luo Jin would decrease and his time in this world would increase.

  The leader was surprised. “So that’s your answer? How ‘bout this, you can name your conditions instead.” He slowly lowered his hands as he continued talking. “Do you want money? Or maybe women?”

  Before the leader could lower his hands any further down, Zhou Yan had thrown the knife towards him causing him to quickly turn to the side to avoid the flying bde.

  Using the shortened distance he gained from pushing the bulky man, Zhou Yan charged towards the leader and tackled him down onto the floor.

  The leader fell and smmed the back of his head on the ground.

  Grabbing the gun that was at the leader’s hip, Zhou Yan stood back up--the position allowed him to see Luo Jin. While the leader was still on the ground due to the impact, Zhou Yan pointed the gun at the leader’s head.

  When the leader finally dispelled his dizziness, he found himself in a delicate situation. With the gun being pointed at his head, he slowly got back up and raised both of his hands up.

  The two thugs behind Luo Jin saw that the leader was being held at gun-point and one of them pulled out a knife and held it to Luo Jin’s throat.

  “How ‘bout we talk this out? I’ll give you what you want and we’ll part ways after.”

  Zhou Yan had a steady hand on the gun. “Let Luo Jin go.”

  The leader gnced back and nodded. “You heard him, let ‘em go!”

  The thug who had the knife against Luo Jin’s throat lowered his hand and shoved Luo Jin forward.

  Luo Jin stumbled but walked forward after he stabilized himself.

  When Luo Jin walked past the leader and stood behind himself, Zhou Yan swiftly pulled the trigger on the two thugs.

  The two thugs had no time to react and fell onto the floor with a heavy thud.

  The leader looked back and saw the lifeless bodies of his underling on the ground--bleeding out from their heads. He roared at Zhou Yan, “What’re you doing!?”

  Zhou Yan calmly replied, “I never agreed to it.”

  Livid, the leader pulled a knife out of his pocket and tried to attack Zhou Yan but was shot in the shoulder.

  The bullet shot straight through the shoulder and made the leader drop his knife. He had no choice but to stand where he was and watch the two young boys leave almost unscathed as he held his shoulder while it bled out.

  Just before the two boys left the alleyway, the leader gritted his teeth and smmed his fist on the wall. “Just you wait, boy! You’ll be the first one to go.”

  Zhou Yan said nothing as he left the alleyway with Luo Jin.

  Luo Jin walked behind Zhou Yan and questioned with a hint of worry. “Is it okay to leave him as is?”

  Zhou Yan answered as he took back his bag and pced the gun in it. “Yes, the angrier he is towards me, the better.” He wanted the thugs’ attention to be on him and not Luo Jin--it was for the sake of the mission, he reassured himself.

  Silence enveloped the two as they returned to Zhou Yan’s home. Every now and then, cars would pass by them and illuminate the road for a few seconds before continuing on their journey to pces unknown.

  Ever since they had departed from the alley, Zhou Yan could feel a noticeably perverse gaze on his back. He gnced back but a car came by and blinded Zhou Yan--the gaze quickly disappeared.

  When Zhou Yan’s eyes refocused, what appeared in his vision was an extensive darkness with mp posts lighting up spots of the sidewalk.

  Standing in the dark, Luo Jin saw that Zhou Yan was looking back. “Is something wrong, Xiao Yan?”

  Zhou Yan shook his head and continued forward. The gaze had returned but it was less noticeable than before.

  They arrived in the quiet neighborhood and made it to the front of Zhou Yan’s house.

  Luo Jin stood at the front and waited for Zhou Yan to enter his home before leaving.

  But Zhou Yan invited Luo Jin to stay over the night. It was already te and he wasn’t going to take any chances about leaving Luo Jin alone.

  It seemed like Luo Jin knew that Zhou Yan was going to invite him in as he wasn’t fazed, but he still rejected Zhou Yan. “I shouldn’t bother Xiao Yan’s family too much.”

  Zhou Yan didn’t know why Luo Jin refused and asked again to which Luo Jin refused again.

  There was an unsettling silence between Zhou Yan and Luo Jin.

  Standing at the top step of the front door, Zhou Yan looked down at Luo Jin with furrowed eyebrows. There was a hint of irritation but Zhou Yan quickly noticed the change in his emotions and calmed himself down with a hint of confusion on his face.

  Luo Jin observed the changes in Zhou Yan’s emotion with relish.

  Soon, the sound of a car’s engine pulled Zhou Yan’s mind back. He found it a little strange but expected it to continue further into the neighborhood.

  The car slowly drove closer and parked in the driveway. Father Zhou stepped out of the car and saw that Zhou Yan and Luo Jin were standing at the door. He loosened his tie as he walked closer towards the two young boys.

  Father Zhou questioned, “What are you two boys doing out here so te?”

  Luo Jin answered Father Zhou before Zhou Yan could respond. “I took Xiao Yan out to py, Uncle. I was just about to leave.”

  Shaking his head, Father Zhou discouraged Luo Jin’s idea. “It’s already te. Stay in one of the guest rooms.”

  “Okay, Uncle.” There wasn’t a hint of refusal from Luo Jin.

  Zhou Yan gnced at Luo Jin’s back after he walked past him into the house but followed soon after.

  Father Zhou had already entered the master bedroom and it was just the two of them left.

  Since it was already te and there was still school, Zhou Yan went ahead first.

  Luo Jin watched Zhou Yan leave without a hint of hesitation but smiled.

  When Zhou Yan entered his room, there was a cup sitting on the nightstand. With no one watching him, Zhou Yan grabbed the cup and went into the bathroom. He poured the liquid down the sink and turned on the faucet to wash away the residue. Setting the cup down temporarily, Zhou Yan cleaned the cut on his face and brought out the cup once he was done with the bathroom.

  He pced the cup back onto the nightstand and changed out of his school uniform.

  Zhou Yan id his head on the pillow and closed his eyes. His breathing slowly evened out and it almost seemed like he fell asleep.

  After a while, the door to Zhou Yan’s bedroom opened quietly.

  Zhou Yan had been waiting to see if anyone would enter his room and quickly noticed the door being opened. He waited to see if the person would do anything, but it was hard to tell anything as there was a ck of footsteps from the person who entered. There was a hint of blood that emanated from the person.

  Not long after, the door closed, indicating that the person should have left. But the scent of blood lingered in the room and inched closer towards the bed.

  Zhou Yan still hadn’t moved an inch.

  The smell was becoming overwhelmingly strong.

  A drop of blood nded near Zhou Yan’s lips.

  Quickly opening his eyes, Zhou Yan grabbed the perpetrator’s hand. The wrist was ice cold to the touch.

  The perpetrator swiftly pulled Zhou Yan’s hand off of them and pinned it down.

  Zhou Yan used his other hand to try and knock the person away, but his hand was caught and both of his wrists were held above his head. He struggled and kicked his legs around but the other person wasn’t moving.

  The person straddled Zhou Yan and let out a chuckle. “You’re such a bad boy, Xiao Yan. Why didn’t you drink your medicine? Don’t you know that your body needs it, but it’s okay now, I’ll feed you a strong dosage tonight.”

  There was a sharp grittiness to the voice.

  A hand roughly pressed against Zhou Yan’s mouth and a concentrated bloody stench filled his nose. He closed his mouth as tight as possible.

  The perpetrator noticed that Zhou Yan wouldn’t open his mouth and ruthlessly inserted two of his fingers, that was dripping with blood, into Zhou Yan’s mouth.

  Soon, Zhou Yan’s entire mouth was filled with a metallic taste. He choked on the liquid being poured down his throat and coughed out some blood but it couldn’t stop the blood from seeping into his stomach.

  As his consciousness was beginning to waver, there was loud banging on the door.

  The banging brought back some of Zhou Yan’s consciousness. He tried to move his arms and shout, but his wrist and mouth were gripped tighter.

  The perpetrator whispered in Zhou Yan’s ear like they were a pair of lovers having a secret rendezvous. “Shh, It will be over soon.”

  Just before Zhou Yan’s consciousness faded out, the perpetrator let out a chuckle. “They’re already too te.”

  ***

  When Zhou Yan opened his eyes, he found himself in the same space as the previous dream.

  A strange quietness enveloped the area. It was dim and an unusual viscous liquid covered the ankles of the boy standing.

  Zhou Yan started walking around the area. There was an almost unnoticeable hint of anxiety in his footsteps as he trudged through the thick liquid. He gnced around the pce, but there was nothing--everything looked the same.

  Behind Zhou Yan, a hand reached for his hand and pulled him to a stop.

  The hand was warm. Zhou Yan looked back, but the person’s face was undecipherable.

  The person hastily spoke, but it sounded like a bunch of gibberish instead--not a single word could be made out. They started pulling Zhou Yan back the way he came from.

  Zhou Yan had a feeling that he needed to follow the person.

  They ran and ran for what seemed like an eternity until something took a hold of Zhou Yan’s ankle and dragged it down into the puddle.

  Viscous liquid spshed onto Zhou Yan as he violently fell onto the puddle.

  Zhou Yan tried to lift his leg out of the liquid while the other person also tried pulling him out, but his leg wouldn’t budge.

  All of a sudden, Zhou Yan was dragged deeper.

  Before he completely submerged into the thick fluid, Zhou Yan inhaled a rge amount of air and held his breath as he was dragged under.

  Having lost hold of the Zhou Yan, the person panicked. They kneeled down and started digging into the liquid with no sign of progress in an attempt to save Zhou Yan.

  Zhou Yan, with his limited oxygen, tried swimming towards the surface, but the thickness of the fluid and the bck objects wrapping around his body proved the task to be impossible. When the air in his lungs ran out, he had no choice but to open his mouth in an attempt to take in more oxygen, but because he was in the viscous liquid, what came in wasn’t air but the thick fluid which tasted like blood.

  He realized that the viscous fluid he was dragged into was the blood he was being fed and quickly tried to cover his mouth. But the bck tentacle-like things held his hands back as he slowly sunk deeper.

  Zhou Yan watched as the surface, and person, slowly disappeared from his view--his conscious growing hazy from the ck of oxygen. The sound’s from the person were growing fainter and fainter.

  When he finally closed his eyes, he was like a beautiful sculpture--froze in time.