THE SLUMBERING CURSE IN THE BLOOD

His eyes were bloodshot and his stare, murderous.

After being married for so long, this is the first time I have seen him this way. My heart, once icy towards him, is now shredded to pieces upon seeing his massive transformation. Every step and movement he makes now feels so foreign to me.

He looks down at the corpses trailing at my feet and singles out a female corpse. This female corpse belonged to a woman, one formerly of exceptional beauty.

She is Yining, a woman he got to know during his travels. Although I can tell there is no love between the two of them, she owes him a debt of gratitude, having saved his life once. While he cannot marry her, he sought to provide her the best. Until one deep night, when the darkness in me raged wildly and caused me to lose complete control of myself.

Why did it have to come to this? I scream frantically, recalling bit after bit what had happened.

He encircles the corpses, noting every one of them and repeating their names after him.

“Sixteen lives. SIXTEEN! Xiyu, how could you do this?” He erupts at me, his fiery pupils focused intensely on me. I, Muxue Xiyu, have committed a heinous crime.

A sea of silence fills the cave. I have no words to say in my defence.

“Xiyu, what made you turn into this …. Monster?” he interrogates me, leaving me no space for remorse. His breath is austere and this just breaks me even more to know how he now perceives me as a killer.