Infinite Horror: Zheng Zha and Chu Xuan: Redemption

I had a dream, a dream of standing shoulder to shoulder until death. Then, at the end of the dream, there was no death side by side. Dreams are such a subtle biochemical reaction. They're more like a special lens through which you can see the truest, cruelest, kindest version of yourself. They strip away every illusion and reveal the truth you long for, but don't really want to face. But why are there always people who know it's fake, yet willingly lose themselves in such cheap illusions? Maybe it's because, as someone once said, a good dream is hard to come by. Or maybe reality is too hard to bear when you don't even have an illusion to comfort yourself. So some people become far too attached. Some people refuse to wake up. Before anything else: This is more than just a story. On many nights, I turned off the lights in my room, held my little beat-up laptop, and tapped away at the keyboard to the ticking of the second hand on the wall, carefully writing out thoughts I'd been turning over for a long time. This was a story about them that I'd planned to tell all along. At first, it came from a brief flash of inspiration. Then the people living in my mind, along with my understanding and memories of Infinite Terror, spontaneously helped me sketch out its shape and weave flesh, nerves, and a soul into it, until it began to breathe and grow. They are real. They breathe, their hearts beat, and they feel sadness and pain. The love that comes after life and death, the pain hidden behind happiness, the feelings and bonds between them that words cannot describe, all live in my heart. I'm not good with words, and what I write is awkward and clumsy. Even so, I hope I can convey these feelings to you, the person reading this story. And, obviously, when one person writes a story, it's easy to let their own subjective views, experiences, and background creep in, bringing along things that don't belong to the characters. Reading other people's stories can also stir emotions that find their way into my writing. To put it nicely, that's inspiration; to put it less nicely, it's plagiarism. Whether intentional or not, I have to cut all of that out! I hope I can offer you, the readers who love this story, the most authentic version of these characters. To borrow a line from Spider: "I write books because I want to write about a feeling, an urge to make myself cry. A bond that Zheng Zha and Chu Xuan should have." I know that Infinite Terror ended four years ago, and the so-called Infinite Future 2017 is still a long way off. There are very few people still hanging around the Infinite Terror fandom, and those who are, especially fans of Zheng Zha and Chu Xuan, are mostly newcomers. Since I've been through this once before, I've prepared myself for the possibility that not many people will read this. I'll keep writing unless I die unexpectedly. I've been busy preparing for my senior year exams lately. I'm sure everyone knows what senior year is like. I'll update on most holidays, and during winter break. But once the second semester of senior year starts, I'm afraid I won't be able to do much. In the summer of 2013, I'll go on vacation with a friend, but I promise a huge update! Though there probably aren't many people following this story anymore... Even so, if this story called Redemption manages to move you even a little after you finish reading it, that would be the greatest affirmation I could ask for. Thank you.