DIFFERENT WORLD

Chapter 11: NORMAL

Audio titled: A LIFE TIME WAITING FOR YOU

Advice: Listen to the song at the end of the story.

Chapter
XI
Normal

***

He couldn't handle it. Wu Xie's hate and sadness and confusion and chaotic, idiotic emotion bubbled inside him until Zhang Qi Ling felt like he might die under the pressure. He couldn't be sure how long it had been since he'd entered the hospital, but now, he could barely walk under the onslaught of Wu Xie's Call.

His last soul had been collected and he leaned breathlessly against the wall, gritting his teeth against the pain. Wu Xie's scream was like a physical blow and his stomach rolled dangerously. Zhang Qi Ling brought a trembling hand over his eyes, rubbing at the stabbing pain before pushing off the wall.

His knees buckled and he would have stumbled but for a sure arm that slipped around his waist, holding him up.

"Yaba Zhang?" Hei Xia Zi looked at him with black eyes full of concern behind his dark glasses. "Are you alright Yaba Zhang?"

Zhang Qi Ling nodded sharply, his lips pressed and thin as he pulled free of the God's hold and caught himself with one hand on the wall. His fingers clawed at the paint before he punched the wall. He was not weak. He was the God of Death! Whatever Hei Xia Zi was trying to say went unheard as despair flooded through him and he painfully stood straight, hands fisted at his sides, while his eyes flashed.

"Enough, is enough," he whispered to no one and disappeared.

***

Zhang Qi Ling appeared in a dimly lit apartment. His eyes bypassed the small, but clean kitchen and he walked directly into the living room. Asleep on the couch was Wu Xie, his dark brown head vivid against the black upholstery. A worn, green blanket was wrapped around his body, nearly covering his head, and the corner slowly moved with every breath that Wu Xie took.

It was the reminder of Wu Xie breathing while Zhang Qi Ling's chest constricted painfully that made him walk swiftly across the room. He ripped the blanket off of the sleeping man and Wu Xie yelled in surprised!

"Wu Xie..." Zhang Qi Ling suddenly stopped—because of a piercing painful stab in the chest, he couldn't continue.

"Xiao ge? Are you alright? What's wrong?" Wu Xie said in alarmed, forgetting that his still angry at him.

"Wu Xie... Please, stop.." Zhang Qi Ling whispered.

"What do yo mean, Xiao ge?" Wu Xie tried to moved forward but remember that Zhang Qi Ling has the ability to kill him. So he moved until the coffee table separated them. "I don't understand. What are you stopping me for?"

Zhang Qi Ling shook his head and slowly sat up. "I maybe a killer in your eyes, but it's my job." He began. "A job I can't do when you are Calling me ALL of the time. I can't think when you are screaming and crying. Wu Xie... Can you stop this?" by the end of his sentence, Zhang Qi Ling was standing, and his figure seemed to loom in the darkness of the apartment, filling every corner and creeping toward the ceiling. "Please..."

"I never called you. And if I did, you NEVER, EVER came!" Wu Xie pushing himself up to his feet, anger and a mixture of confusion clouding his judgment.

"I have been at your beck and Call since birth. I can't get away. I try so hard to ignore you but it's like a..." Zhang Qi Ling's hand came up over his heart, bunching the fabric while his face twisted in pain. Wu Xie stepped forward and Zhang Qi Ling hands dropping to his side. "And I have never killed anyone."