Highest rank #1 in DarkFantasy
Banye smiled. It was a kind of savoring smile admiring a prize. "Hello Fei, little human. It's been a long time."
Her mouth dried, she can very well remember her bargain with him two years back. Give me the power, make...
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The night is unusually darker that evening, the pale moonlight absent, and the shadows that lurked around the palace were deep and subdued. They gave of this eerie illusion that they were alive, breathing, moving, watching and paying attention.
Ying Yue kept turning her glance over her shoulder, trying to catch a slight shift, a flash movement of something. She often saw this at the palace before, back when she used to reside here. It was so common then that she'd grown accustomed to such shifts and forgot the shadows moved among them.
Servants talked of the curse, the silent hisses in the corner that seemed to tune down as soon as she comes around, they talked about her, the curse, and the prince. It was a word of tongue that was forbidden in the palace, and anyone caught talking about it simply vanished without a trace. People were frightened, and they learned to keep their mouths quiet for their own sake.
Ying Yue never left the bedroom that night, she had no reason to and far too much in pain. She groaned and moaned as the night progressed deeper.
"Can't sleep?" Jian tossed his arm around her hip lazily, his groggy voice was tired, his eyes fought to stay open. He didn't want to go to sleep yet, he wanted to spend the night awake in the darkness with his wife as though he's afraid he's going to lose her again.
"I spent all day asleep. No, I can't sleep." She murmured restlessly as she shifted around to face him. They locked eyes together, their features barely visible to each other. It was dark, and a single lantern burned and lent them light, turning the evening perfectly romantic.
His hand slid down her hips and tugged her closer while the other one searched for her hand, tangling them together. He smiled, and it was the kind of smile that broke her heart. She's a fool, she thought, falling in love with him all over again.
"Jian." She cooed softly.
"Ying Yue." He whispered her name tenderly. He knew what she's going to ask, or perhaps, dreaded what she's going to ask. He knew she has questions, far too many of them and he has answers – far too afraid to tell her.
He took her hand pressing his lips on it.
"I have questions, Jian. I have too many questions I don't understand."
"Hmmm..." He purred, his lips pressed on her shoulder. "I'm afraid I'm too tired to answer them. How about we wait until my brain is fresh. Perhaps in the morning?"
"You're just saying that..." She tugged on her hand and tried to pull it back.
"...but, Ying Yue." He moaned, he showered her with affection until he saw a shift in the shadow.
His eyes widened, and his mouth fell open as the shadow moved before him.
The shadow seemed to move and gain a life of its own.
She's seen that look on his face before, the terror, the face he has when he wakes up from his nightmares panting and gasping covered in sweat.
"Jian?" She rasped frightened.
The shadow took a form of a man, dark as midnight on a moonless night. Subdued, disembodied, and predatory.
It crawled and crept up to the bed. For a moment it flashed a face of a man too fast to make sense of.
It moved, hands coiled around his wife, it embraced and pulled her into his arms.
Jian snatched his wife back into his arms and yanked her out of bed, backing off with hasty steps to the lantern - to the safety of the light.
His eyes jerked everywhere, his firm hold locked on her chest.
He's nothing less than a wild animal.
She winced, she had not expected getting yanked out of bed. "What's the matter Jian?"
Then something inside him turned on, his widened eyes narrowed like a hunter.
"Get out of here!" He snarled, and she was too lost with what's happening to react to him.
"Get the fuck out of here!" His warning growl turned into a dangerous snarl. His grip hardening like chains on her chest and she moaned at the pain of her strained fractured ribs.
"Jian?" She groaned.
The shadow danced away from the bed, and broke off into tendrils of smoke blown by the air. It didn't stay long, just enough to play with the prince. Perhaps scare him a little bit, remind him he's still there, watching, lurking - preying.
The fire in the lantern snapped off as the shadow disappeared.
All she could hear was the loud thud of his heart beats and his deep controlled breathing.
He snatched her with him as he frantically searched for another lantern, snatching every lantern he could get his hands in the palace. More lanterns, on every square foot of the room, treating the light itself as a salvation.
"Listen..."He bent over to her height, forehead pressed hard on hers. His intense gaze focused. Jian gave her a kiss, a kiss that was a little too hard a little too shaky than usual. It instantly got her worried. She doesn't know what's going on, and she doesn't know what he saw.
This is the way he was, this is the way he always was after his nightmares. It was as if he's having his nightmares awake.
"Stay away from the shadows at any cost." He warned. "It is not safe; the shadows will take you away!"
Her eyebrows furrowed. She was reminded of the way he was, his terror, his anger. His constant nagging of staying away from the dark places.
He never told anyone else, it was always her who he bore the weigh of his obsession, that it caused her a great deal of stress.
She caught her breath, her mind swirled as she saw her old life spinning back to her. The same Jian, the same torment he dealt with.
She would like to consider she's not the cause of his anguish, but the way he acted, she was like a trigger, a bullet being fired and striking a chain of strings.
She is his curse.
"I will." She said dryly. "I will stay away from all the shadows and all the dark corners in the palace just like I used to."
