Chapter 31 - 31. ...nightmare...

DRIP. DRIP. DRIP.

It was dark...

It was very dark in there....

This place was isolated from the world above, it was perpetually dark here throughout the year....

The people who were brought here couldn't differentiate between day and night anymore; they have become insensitive to light, they have become, or were actually, were forced to become the netizens of darkness.

They were never given a second chance to life or light, they were kept here to rot....

Hidden from the world above, under a vast land was built a prison, the 'Hell on Earth'.

It was for those who betrayed 'the clan' or tried to harm it.

A tunnel led to the deepest part of this underground hell...

Only this place was used for the highest level of torture one could go through.

It was not for outsiders but for the clan's own blood.

It was to train the future generations to become cold-blooded both inside and out, they didn't need to 'feel'; not for anyone or anything, including their own family and blood.

Inside the last room, a child's body was left hanging with a metal chain....

The body seemed to be that of a 5-6 years old boy's.

It was bruised till there was not a single spot on the frail looking body without a purple-blue mark on it; part of the body was burnt probably from torture by heavy current.

Blood was either seeping out or had clotted from some fresh, some old wounds throughout the body; the treatment to the small body was in one word BRUTAL, in four words HEINOUS AND EXTREMELY BRUTAL.

People from the world above would never even stop to think that a child his age was going through such harsh treatment and torture but, this body was actually surviving through it.....

His gasps from his light breathing were extremely faint but they were there, they were the signs that he was still alive.

It was not under his control so, he was sweating a lot due to the immense pain his body felt and the regeneration of wounds it was gong through, but if it was his choice, he would want not to sweat at all... because after the sweat dried up it would live unnecessary salt which made the wounds and pain worse...

He 'tsk' ed.

He had already lost the light in his eyes and was numb to the pain.

His dark pupils were now like black-holes, they were deep and if stared at for too long would make you feel like they can suck your soul into them; they were unfeeling and made you feel like you are looking into the eyes of death itself, they were extremely creepy.

The boy seemed to have adjusted with this darkness for ages as he had a creepy smile on his face as murderous intent was oozing out from his small body, giving chills to the guards nearby....

The basement was stuffy and the temperature should have been a bit on the higher side but inside this cell, the air was far too chilly, it was also a form of 'training' but never once did he felt cold due to it, the blizzard brewing inside him was far colder than this, he was far too used to it.

He was not acting his age as this world had been too cruel on this child, all of this was noticeable at first glance.....

The child's head was filled with the cruelest methods to torture the one who made him suffer like this.

He won't be able to do it now, he was too weak but he will make sure to enact his vengeance.

No matter how long he takes or how much he has to pay for it....he was even ready to sell his soul to a demon to fulfill it; he won't mind a bit, as long as. he was able to make them suffer a thousand time more cruelly, his life was nothing but secondary to him.

Though he got used to this darkness and numb to the pain, that didn't mean he would forgive those pests who treated him as such.

He was not in the least a pure soul and if anything at all, his heart was pitch black, deeper than oceans and darker than the black holes....

As his mind went deeper into the darkness of this hell, inside this god-forsaken world, he suddenly felt a tinge of warmth from above his head, which soon spread throughout his body.

He was startled for a second but at the same moment realized the source of this warmth and involuntarily smiled.

This warmth was the reason he was now afraid of darkness, no, it was that he was repulsed to it.

He has tasted the bliss of this warmth, no way, he wanted to return to the past when all he felt was cold and dark both literally and psychologically.

He mumbled, "Linlin"

.............

Qin ZiXuan was still in a daze when he felt the presence of someone beside him.

It has already become a norm, like always, he knew who it was instinctively.

She was the one he yearned for, the one he was ready to die 'with' but not 'for'; because he didn't like the idea of leaving her alone in this world, it was better for them to be always together, even after and during death or so was his line of thoughts.

He was disgustingly possessive but he didn't mind it.

His feelings were warped and dark but he didn't mind.

She was the only one who could make him feel like this, there was no one else.

Another reason was that he was sure that there will never come a day when he has to choose between his life or hers, he won't ever let her be in danger, never again.

Qin Meilin was sitting on the bed beside him, she was probably trying to comfort him by gliding her hand through his hairs, which was now being held with a death grip by him; but she didn't wince nor frown from the pain, she just sat there with a small soothing smile on her face, brightening his whole world and life.

"Linlin...", he dazedly mumbled.

"hmm....Good Morning", he heard her reply as he slowly opened his eyes.

"Good Morning", he smiled at her.

As he let go of the hand he was holding onto, he took out the pain-relief cream from the bed side-draw, it was a sub-conscious and reflex reaction on his part.

She must have seen him frowning and sweating because of that dream or was it a nightmare...

She being who she is, would have come to comfort him from the pain he was feeling.

When he felt that warmth in his dream, he would have taken hold of it like his life depended on it; it was not something new, both were used to it as it has happened many times in the years they have been together.

But of course, that didn't mean that he was fine with hurting her, hurting her was only fine when she also felt pleasured, which was for the future, not like this where he hurt her because of his insecurities.[Sorry, the author has a dirty mind which went haywire even while writing a serious scene...wuwu]

He looked at the reddish bruise on her fair and soft skin, he took her hand close to his lips and kissed it softly, as if, trying to relieve her of her pain or maybe he was licking her wounds, to her, he was a cat after all.

As she saw his reaction, her eyes softened and were filled with warmth.

She used her other hand to softly pat his head, it was her way to assure him that she was fine.....

"You are sweating a lot. Are you okay?", she asked after he was done applying the cream, worry written all over her face.

"hm...I'm fine. I had kept the heater on yesterday and forgot to close it till morning. I have been sweating since I just wanted to sleep a little more and didn't get up to close it so...." he trailed off.

He lied but he couldn't tell her the real reason for acting like this, right?

"Really?", she knew he was lying, he has never told her the reasons for his constant nightmares but she never pushed him to answer her.

"hahaha....really. Anyway, I really am sweating too much, I should take a bath.", he said swiftly changing the topic.

Meilin was still not satisfied with the answer but let it go for this once, she understood that even he had times like this, where he had to hide things, yes, even from her.... just like she does from him.

Though she didn't like it one bit and she didn't mind being called a hypocrite for this still, she didn't want to probe him further....

She was sure that he would share everything with her once the time was right, plus, she didn't want him to think of those bad memories he was trying so hard to bury inside him.

"hmm....You should go and take a bath", she told him before getting up from the bed to take out some clothes.

"hmm", he nodded absent-mindedly.

He hadn't seen such a dream in the last few years.

Was this some sort of sign for what was to come in the near future?

He was not someone who believed in supernatural non-sense but his intuitions were also telling him that a storm might be coming and since she was now beside him, he didn't want to take a second chance for anything.....