⚠️TW: Panic Attack. Mention of blood
"My name is Xiu Fen. Your name is Xiu Y/n."
༻ ❍ ༺
Y/N CRACKED OPEN HIS EYES ONLY TO GET A NOT SO WELCOMING GREETING BY THE BURNING LIGHT OF DAY. HE TRIED TO SIT UP, BUT THE ANONYMOUS ACHE IN HIS BACK WAS TOO HARSH TO ALLOW HIM TO DO ANYTHING MORE THAN MOVE HIS FINGERS.
What even happened...
Y/n eventually powered through all the aching in his body the the best he could. He tried regaining control of his body in a 'healthy' way, starting by one limb at a time.
After far more effort than necessary— he got into nothing more than a sitting position. Yet he refused to move himself any further, despite that his mind was yelling at him to move.
But Mother Nature really just has it in for him—
—He felt the coolness of water rush over his legs and torso. It wasn't that calm though, considering it was an actual wave.
"Holy shit!" Y/n scrambled to his feet and dashed away from the freezing water, dampness coding his mint green pants. What a way to wake up!
The water was cold enough to be considered ice from his perspective, but he's weak so he might just be over exaggerating! But the sand, which is scorching hot under the blare of the sun, is making his feet hurt by just standing.
The whole experience wasn't very like-able to say the least without all these descriptions of a beach!
But other than the fact that Y/n was definitely nowhere near where he was when he got knocked out in less than three moves by a seventy something year old man. Something felt different, way too different, and it wasn't that he was drenched in water and that sand was sticking to his clothes.
Wait— clothes!
Y/n looked down at his body and noticed that what he was wearing was definitely not his hoodie and jeans.
He was wearing what looked like pajamas he saw when watching C-Dramas, but more...CE time coded.
The material that formed the clothing was neither soft nor rough, the fabric was as unidentifiable as it could possibly be. But the most notable thing was the fact that his hair was reaching down his back and flowing off his shoulders. His hair was definitely not this long when he went to ballet, and he needed a haircut right now. To wrap it all together, winded around his feet were bandages that only let his heal and toes show, they looked surprisingly new without all the sand on them.
Y/n's mind raced with possibilities, and none of them were all that good.
Am I dead and in heaven? Would heaven have such cold water and hot sand?
Did I fall into a twenty year coma?
Was I kidnapped and thrown onto a beach?
Am I having a nightmare or a lucid dream?
Y/n's train of thoughts was going off the rails at an alarming speed. Wherever he was, it was not good at all.
Suddenly Y/n felt a light tap on his shoulder, and the quiet crack of a wrist under skin.
He turned around to see an elderly women, dressed in old run-down robes. She was leaning on a cane with one hand behind her back and the other resting on the wooden cane. She had a head scarf covering her hair but an ever so bright white smile. Wrapped around her body was a faded and raggedy red dress with a old looking brown belt that was snagged at its ends.
Despite all this, the outfit actually looked quite comfortable and moveable. It was an old lady after all, so Y/n tried his best not to judge.
"Are you okay boy? You're soaking wet." She asked in a worried tone. Y/n frowned slightly.
That's when it clicked for Y/n, in all the worse ways possible.
She was speaking in fluent mandarin, and Y/n could in fact understand everything.
Y/n stayed silent for a moment, at least trying to take everything in, before saying in response.
"Uhm.. I woke up on the beach..." He was also speaking fluent mandarin!
Since when did I know mandarin? I only took like one class when I was six because my parents forced me for extra credit!
The old lady chuckled and pointed a boney finger to a cute little cottage that was within a bamboo forest just off the coast of the beach. Y/n couldn't help but wonder how he didn't notice the forest before.
"Let me take you in boy, I'll get you fixed up."
This lady was too nice to refuse, and Y/n could really be fixed up right now. And have a cigarette, that would be good too.
Y/n followed the old lady to her house and noticed that it really did look like an ancient Chinese house. The roof was curved and outside had red lanterns with Chinese symbols that Y/n didn't understand.
So I can speak mandarin but can't read it?
Where's the logic?!
Well, I just appeared here in these clothes out of nowhere so— where's the logic in anything?!
The old lady opened the door to a humbly decorated room. On one side was an old looking kitchen, the wood walls peeling from...scratch marks?
The other side had a cheap but expensive looking bed with silk curtains draped around it. And at the bedside was a basket with many different colors of yarn and two visibly used wooden needles.
In the middle of the room was a short table, that nearly touched the ground, with a dirty white mat as the seat. In the center was a glass jar with a single white flower inside. Seeing the flower, an image of the old man seemed to creep into Y/n's mind.
"Do you want to become a swan?"
Y/n felt his body go still and stiff.
Why am I thinking about what's going on?! I should be running for my life trying to find a way out of here!
I should be trying to wake up!
I want to go home.
Someone bring me home!
His hands began shaking and his body erupted in a cold sweat. His mind wasn't functioning properly, all it could process was that he wanted to go home; even though his sister could annoy the actual life out of him.
"Are you okay dear?" The old lady's voice croaked.
"I..I..I-" Y/n was visibly upset and confused.
"Let's get you fixed up, is that okay?"
Y/n rubbed his eyes with a hand and took a deep breath before saying in a shaky voice:
"Yes, that would be great."
───༻ ❍ ༺───
In the time that Y/n had finally calmed down, the old lady had washed his hair, made him food, gave him a mint green outer robe (that was freshly washed, thank the gods), and gave him a pair of white shoes.
Y/n sat at the short table eating La Mian made by the old lady, he seemed to struggle with chopsticks; it even drew a few chuckles out of the old lady.
He couldn't help but wonder if all this kindness was a reward for surviving a cane-beating.
The old lady took a sip of tea from her wooden cup before clearing her raspy throat.
"What is your name boy?"
Y/n hesitated for a moment before saying.
"Y/n,"
"That's a lovley name, may I ask your surname so that we can find your folks? We might be on an island, but the gods can certainly help."
God, what do I tell her...
My folks aren't even from this world as far as I know!
And what will the gods take in from this whole situation?
"Uhm.. I don't have one. Well I don't remember it! Everyone just calls me Y/n you see, ever since I was young no one really..."
"That's fine, but you need one. You will be seen as a fool with no surname."
"..."
Thanks?
"How about you take mine. It's something we can keep between just us."
Y/n nodded pretending to know what she meant by the last part.
Why would it need to be secret between them? Wait, isn't this a typical way to build trust? Why would she need to build my trust so much?
"My name is Xiu Fen. Your name is Xiu Y/n."
I could get used to that, although I don't know what Xiu means.
Y/n nodded and thanked her.
"I honestly don't know how to repay you.. you really don't know how much this means to me."
"Oh but I do." Y/n gave the old lady a confused look.
What?
The old lady began to remove her head scarf.
Crap! Is it disrespectful to look?
What's going on?!
Should I look away??
But it was too late to think before Y/n noticed that the headscarf wasn't associated with tradition or respect at all.
Oh! Extra note, she wasn't being kind to him when she fished him off that beach.
He should've looked away.
Under the head scarf wasn't hair but bloody gashes that were shaped like faces.
What the..
Oh shit!
Oh fuck!
All of a sudden all the dots connected at once in Y/n's brain. All of his nerves spiked and everything he had been taught about "stranger danger" had resurfaced in his mind.
This lady had the human face disease, which meant she wasn't alive, which also meant she was a ghost, but the cherry on top, Y/n was in his least favorite novel, TGCF.
Y/n dropped his chopsticks in shock and fear, the color drained from his face. The old lady made a hissing sound, a forked tongue slipping through her teeth. There was a blur and then she was lunging at Y/n, her once white perfect teeth were now sharp daggers built to cut through flesh. Human flesh.
Y/n threw himself out of the way, making the demon topple onto the table, crashing the glass jar with the flower. A few shards of glass stabbed into the demon's chest making a scream come from her blood stained mouth. Her voice no longer sounded that of an old lady's, but a demonic high pitched shriek.
Y/n stiffened for a moment, the shriek piercing his ears.
Surely the gods are better than this?!
Y/n got up from the now scratched wooden floor and bolted for the door. Y/n ran at the door, adrenaline being the only thing in his veins, and it flung open showing the beach and the water.
God fuck it!
Y/n sprinted at the water faster than he's ever sprinted in his entire life. His feet hit the freezing cold water that reflected the setting sun. Y/n didn't care how wet and cold he would get, the water would have more mercy than whatever the demon lady was.
Y/n dove into a wave when he hit the mark that stopped at his waist before he heard a wild screech than was so petrifying and horrid that it made the fish under water flinch even more than they did when Y/n jumped in. Y/n poked his head above the water coughing up sand a few times before he saw the demon lady violently pacing around the shoreline. She waved her fist at him an undesirable anger on her face.
She can't swim!
Y/n only laughed and yelled;
"Thanks for the surname!" The demon after a few more rounds of pacing turned around and passed "her" house going deep into the bamboo forest.
The bamboo forest and the house dissolved into nothing, it was all an illusion created by the demon. The only thing left was a sand covered island, with no cottage or bamboo at all. But the shoes and outer robe she gave him were also gone, now only the bandages on his feet were left for him.
Y/n was in about 5 feet deep water at the moment, but he feared that if he went back to the island the demon, or something worse would just come out of nowhere and kill him. After all he was in TGCF for gods sake, anything could happen.
When Y/n first read the novel online he started disliking it not because of the book itself, but because his sister would make fun of him for reading a book with gay characters. And eventually his parents found out and would constantly tease him about it. It wasn't until that he hit the fourth book that he never opened the tab on his phone for it ever again.
If only he knew back then that finishing the book would've given him some footing for what to do now.
A sheet of black and stars painted the sky within seconds of Y/n being drained in his thoughts.
And since Mother Nature still hated him—
Y/n felt his body change, inside his chest where his heart was emitted a dim gold light.
Huh?!
Everything went pure white for a moment before Y/n felt his body reprogram itself. He blinked a few times before looking at his reflection in the water.
THE FUNNY THING WAS, IS THAT THE ONLY THING HE SAW THROUGH THE RIPPLES OF THE WATER WAS A WHITE SWAN.
I hope you liked this chapter! I am currently sick at the moment so it's probably not my best work \: but who cares because next chapter some of the characters from the novel TGCF will be coming into the picture.
- Gwen/Author