Stolen Memories Are Never Forgotten - Book 1 (Completed)

Stranger

This chapter as well as the last one were pretty exhausting to write.  My emotions have been all over the place.  I hope you like what you read and thanks for continuing to support me and my new hobby!  

My song list for this chapter was basically any version of the song "Wangxian" on constant repeat.  

I apologize for any grammatical or spelling errors and, as always, nothing is mine so credit to the owners!  

Lan Zhan's eyelids fluttered open, his golden eyes trying to focus as he stared at an unfamiliar ceiling etched with cracks that spread like a giant spider web. The full moon shone brightly through the door and window illuminating the house in a cold light. He blinked a few times to get his bearings before sitting up and then the memory of what had happened slammed into him.

"Wei Ying!" he screamed, sprinting to the slumped unconscious figure at the table. Wei Ying's head was lying against the warped boards covered by his thick black hair. Both arms dangled lifeless from his shoulders and his hands were eerily still.

"Wei Ying! Don't do this to me! Not now! Not again! Don't leave me again!" Lan Zhan screamed frantically as he checked Wei Ying's pulse point on his wrist. 

'Oh thank the gods!' 

He could feel Wei Ying's shallow pulse under his tender fingers but it was weak. Delicately, he lifted Wei Ying's limp body off the chair, his head lolling to the side, and laid him carefully on the bed, making sure that his limbs and neck were not cramped in any way.

Lan Zhan carefully brushed Wei Ying's sweat soaked hair, now dried against his pale skin, out of his face and onto the pillow. He knelt next to the bed and took Wei's right hand, which felt abnormally cool, in both of his shaking ones and began to sob uncontrollably. He desperately transferred his spiritual energy to his love knowing that it would only help to heal his body, not his mind.

"I told you not to do it." he whispered in between his anguished cries. Lan Zhan's heart was breaking all over again, just like it had every time Wei Ying left him. He lovingly kissed Wei Ying's soft cheek saying, 

"You were never a nobody to me. Not since the first time I laid eyes on you at Cloud Recesses. You were always my Wei Ying. A man who loved unconditionally, who protected without question, and who sacrificed without hesitation."

Lan Zhan's breaths came painfully as his words fell from his lips. He held Wei Ying's hand even tighter as if he could hold onto the man he had loved for almost 20 years and bring him back. 

But, he knew that HIS Wei Ying was gone. 

Again. 

He knew because he remembered everything that had happened to him. He remembered losing his memory and becoming Wang Xian. He remembered Wei Ying finding him and leaving him and then finding him again. He remembered those nights of passion between them, even the one where he had been drunk.

Lan Zhan also relived Wei Ying's heartbreaking admission of his desires and why he left him that day on the hill. His mind replayed Wei Ying's painful confession right before Lan Zhan was rendered unconscious of what fueled his nightmares every night and of his agony from carrying everyone's death on his soul.

Leaning over Wei Ying's still body, Lan Zhan placed his lips next to Wei Ying's ear until they brushed it with a feather touch. "Wei Ying. My Wei Ying. Please come back to me and I will protect you against anyone and anything wishing to do you harm so that you do not have to suffer ever again. Please......" he shifted back onto his heels. "I will never leave your side. Every day.......means every day." he said, choking back another sob.