Song

Chapter 10: Nightmare

The hallucinations are much more vivid this time. The sudden shock wakes him from his sleep, like the start of every day. But soon after the bursts of pain fade, and he plunges into the strange world once more.

It's cold. So very cold. When Shu opens his eyes, a sheet of frigid white stares back at him. His vision sharpens. He lowers his head even more, and notices a pair of torn leather shoes where his feet are. His feet are a lot smaller than he remembered. Then, as his eyes glaze over to the rest of his body, he realises his feet aren't the only things that are small.

Shu's heart skips a beat. There's no mistaking it－ this is a child's body.

"What're you looking at?" a voice calls from behind. It's a boy. The voice－ so familiar and yet... there's something odd about it. Something not quite right.

Shu slowly turns around, and the sight punches him with a fistful of emotions. Shock at first. Then, confusion. And finally, dulling into an aching sense of dread or horror. It's a boy of his age, with short silver hair and sidelocks long enough to touch his shoulders. But it's those unmistakable dark grey eyes that crystallise Shu's suspicions.

"Song?" he asks shakily, both from the cold and the apprehension of the boy's answer.

"What?"

There's no way. There's no possible way.

"Song, is that... really you?"

"Hah? What're you talking about? Of course it's me." The boy who bears the splitting image of Song's childlike form tilts his head, looking a little more concerned now. "Oi, you all right? You don't seem like yourself. Cold?"

That monotone voice, the cold, every bit of sensation he's feeling right now－ they all feel real, too real for it to be a mere dream.

Something isn't right... wait, what was I doing before this? Though everything is confusing right now, he knows they're supposed to be older than this. What happened to their present forms?

"So the cold really did freeze your brain. What a drag."

Song moves over to embrace him. Snow continues to land all around them, but Song's warmth is like a blanket that blocks the cold out. An abstract feeling sprouts within Shu. He knows where he is－ when he is, rather. Their age and their rags give it all away.

Song eventually releases Shu. "Come on, let's go already. I'm starving."

"Ah. Okay."

They both make their way through the neighbourhood of ramshackle houses. Shu recognises the place. It's at one of the corners of Bai Hu town, a slum district called An Huo Chun. By five, they're accepted as Initiates and thrown out of the Palace during nightfall each day. Like all Initiates, they weren't given a place in the Palace to live in. The purpose was to force them to be independent and self-sufficient in a harsh world like this. Most Initiates chose to live in the slums because of they blend in with these paupers better than the average townsfolk.