Black Butterfly Knot

Chapter 7: Long Night, Many Dreams

[ Note: guqin - an ancient chinese stringed zither instrument. It looks like a long board with raised strings running across it the long way, played by combo plucking and pressing down on the strings kind of like a guitar. Usually, set on a table or raised platform of some sort. Very classy! ]

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It was very uncomfortable and Ying Ru wanted to turn over, wanting to push it away, but as if there was someone besides her whispering comforting words to her, she listened and stopped moving. 

All she felt was a steady warmth on her forehead and her breathing suddenly became light and shallow, evening out. The pressure withdrew from her forehead, a quiet release of held breath. There was no sound, only the fleeting trace of a night visitor's presence. 

The person turned around to spare a glance at the object sprawled on the table and then at the girl now sleeping soundly on the bed. A conflicted expression lingered on his face. For the longest time, just standing there soundlessly, the gaze never lifted, only getting heavier.

"One lifetime is enough, why tie in another?" 

The sound of something flapping in the night breeze caught his attention. Silly girl, even forgot to close her bedroom window. With a barely audible creek, the wind was barred outside. Silence returned to the room.

The window was now closed, the door never opened, but the figure had already gone, disappearing like dust in the air.

Sometime in the night, Ying Ru stopped breathing.

She felt very light, or was it the air that was unbelievably heavy and thick? She couldn't tell which one it was. It felt like water, the air. She was walking through murky, rolling air as if it were something much denser. It appears as if everything in sight were drowned underwater, the pressure of the air in here pressed at her from all sides. 

Ghastly air currents, like those one would encounter in rapidly moving rivers, weaved up and down in elegant motions, completely covering the entire expanse like an enormous set of spiderwebs. Specks of glowing light bounced off of them, rendering them nearly ethereal. She wanted to reach out to touch one, but quickly recoiled when a sharp surge of energy entered her body, instantly making her uneasy and apprehensive. Ying Ru concluded then that it would be best not to touch them.

The diffused light bathing the area is inconsistently bright and dark at intervals, adding to the sense of nausea she recieved every time her body accidentally came in contact with one of the ghost currents. Everything she saw was as if veiled behind a thick mist or fog. No matter how hard she stared, squinted, or narrowed her eyes, it remained that way.

It did feel like she was indeed underwater, submerged in the same congealed air as the setting around her, yet permanently separated by it at the same time. 

She continued moving forward, waving a hand in front of her although it did little to make her movements any easier. She felt like she was swimming, but she was merely walking.

Ying Ru emerges from a doorway and everything is instantly brightened tenfold. Even the sun here stings more! The ghostly currents still thread the air, which is still heavy and thick like water.

There is snow everywhere she looked. White snow blanketed everything in sight for miles and miles around, painting a breathtaking scenery with just the one color in all its tones.

Snowflakes drifted lazily from above, seemingly undisturbed by the currents running through the air. She reaches out to try to catch some. They fall right through her hands. Not like sand in between her fingers though, but through her flesh and skin, as if they are mere remnants of the mind that aren't actually existing.