Echoes of the Nightmare

[A dark, disturbing story. I don't recommend reading it, but this is one I absolutely had to write. It means a lot to me.]

Li Sijing was ill.

In his dreams, a handsome man appeared, coldly killing the people he hated. And the people he hated kept suffering potentially fatal accidents in real life.

He was sick, he thought.

No one could use a dream to decide who lived or died.

Then that man stepped out of his dream and into his home, claiming to be his uncle.

Li Sijing had no memory of having an uncle he'd never met before.

But the man from his dreams, cold and handsome, smiled warmly at him.

"Good nephew, have you forgotten? I held you when you were little."

-

At first, Li Sijing became a director for the sole purpose of making a film called "The Box."

It was a mystery script he had written based on his late grandfather's old diary.

The script wore the foolish, absurd guise of a ghost story, but beneath it lay cruel slaughter. Even so, it stubbornly preserved a glimmer of humanity at the story's end.

Just like the lovely blessing his grandfather had written for him in the diary:

"May you cut away the nightmares no one else can unravel."

Then

The producer was in a car accident. The lead actor was attacked.

Children went missing. The dead came back to life.

The fear Li Sijing had forgotten gradually seeped out of his dreams and into reality, staining his vision red.

Only a pair of strong hands covered his eyes as he stared stubbornly into the nightmare.

"Good nephew, don't be afraid."

The voice at his ear was gentle, just like the one he'd heard when he was six.

"I'll cut away your weakness, your fear, and your nightmares."

*

Everything begins with fate.

All suffering is a prologue.

Every nightmare is the long echo of a childhood shadow.

Time gives you the strength to cut away your own nightmares.

*

1. Mutual salvation. A fake uncle-nephew relationship. The uncle isn't even human.

2. I personally stacked 98 layers to pick traditional Chinese colors for the cover. I've got a diagnosis: I'm the Son of Heaven (straightens collar).

3. The entire story is drafted, 71 chapters. The fact that I spent so long revising the whole thing doesn't mean it's a great story. It's just a story I like. I like dark, disturbing stories.

4. Just after I got back, I received the wonderful gift of "Yanchao Mu Character Ensemble | Feeding on Negative Entropy" from the WYY group. What an extravagant welcome, T_T. I'm sorry I made that decision once. I'm grateful I decided to live, and thankful to every friend who waited for me. I'm back.

Theme: All the time a person experiences is an invisible force that can break through countless nightmares. Don't let it stop, and you can become stronger than ever before.