The Dead

A Cold Encounter

Zhan Yao sighed as he sat by the open window of his study, in the late night; and just then a curiously cold breeze caressed his skin. His peaceful vision was interrupted by an unpleasant terrifying visit. The deads. The light turned off and he could no longer see inside that obscurity but the disgusting features of a wondering soul. The fog came out of his mouth nearly freezing inside his throat.

His body was itching and he couldn't move as if he had been suddenly poisoned and polluted by the foul vapours of a plague. Zhan Yao's face turned pale. His two eyes were sunk out of sight, and peered from far to try and ignore that forced presence. The man at his left side was watching him close. He was waiting for the moment their eyes could meet so he can speak.

"I know you can see me young man. You had a pact made between you and the devil. This is why you can control our darkest fears, our most dreadful secrets, and greatest weaknesses. The burden had to be carried by you. And no one else. But the price is solitude, sorrow and separation, and you must be willing to pay it." The yellow glare in his eyes flashed in.

"I heard that all you do is ignore us" The smile widened, stretching the pale lips across the discoloured teeth in an expression of profound self-satisfaction, blended with the most unforgiving hatred and contempt for Humans. The hideous disease of which he was dying had touched his brain. Zhan Yao instead swiftly got up and turned on his torch before he heard him talking again.

"My son...." The man paused before the cold had gotten worse and Zhan Yao stood there shivering with his pale blue lips hiting against each other.

"He killed me" The sound of disappointment made Zhan Yao's heart aches. The tall, white and delicate angelic face of his had turned unexpectedly dark. He felt deep distress in his violet eyes as he looked at that man's face, he felt the shadow of that sickening smile stealing across his own lips and parting them and drawing them against his will.

"He kept feeding me the wrong medication and poisoning me with the help of his wife and now the two are having the heritage all to themselves. Help me expose them please" Hearing that for the first time Zhan Yao thought it was like a bad dream, for he tried not to shake but the fear inhabiting him couldn't keep hiding and he forced a creepy smile at the unreasonable request.

Zhan Yao dashed quickly to his room in that heavy silence. Before he could hear the footsteps of an old man walking closer to his bedroom. The door was brutally open but no one was there. It was only a black shadow moving on the floor even more closer. He pulled the duvet to cover his face. But soon felt the heaviness enfolding his body as if someone was laying on top of him and suffocating him.

"Ahhhh....... I can't breath" Suddenly his world crumbled and soon the cold darkness overtake him all while two bright tears ran down his cheeks to his mouth, and dropped from the upper to the lower lip.

"I am still alive!" Exclaimed Zhan Yao surprisingly. Waking up in the next day after being attacked last night was something he got used to it. Every time he thought he became one of them, he finds himself alive with serious bruises and injuries all over his body. The evil souls never showed up with the intention of hurting him but always took the chance to leave their marks on him.

Zhan Yao sniffed the air and winced. He looked at the reflection of the dead man from last night in the big mirror, its sightless eyes staring past him. Saliva mingled with blood seeping from his mouth. He certainly died gasping and cursing his killer after poisoning him. It was pitiful before it could be more dreadful for the man who's eyes could see the unconscionable.