An Unpleasant Wintry Night

In Shen Manor, the snow blanketed the whole compound and the top of its ancient buildings that had long survived from all the same recurring seasonal torments. The nearby trees were rid of their leaves that used to give aesthetic beauty to the gloomy atmosphere.

It was nighttime.

And the manor was oddly silent compared to the other days where it had always been bustling with laughter toppling from one person to the other. Even the torches that used to be lighting the gates were long extinguished allowing all the chill to conquer the whole place.

Mew.

Mew.

Even the stray cats seemed too afraid to be wandering in what Shen Manor had become.

It was no longer that place where the cats would play on. Waiting to be served some leftovers by the overly kind family who always had the heart to look after them when they were in danger of being nearly butchered by the neighbours.

Now what used to be their comfort zone had become nothing but a crime scene.

An owl circled above the manor then settled on the window of the Shen Manor Hall, oogling its eyes at the bloodied bodies that scattered on the floor of the spacious room.

Several members of the Shen family lay cold with gushes of stabs and their eyes were wide open as if to contain the image of their foe. Some seemed to have died whilst shouting. Their mouths agape giving chances for flies to come party on their demise.

Puddles of fresh blood and splattered drops supplied evidence on the floor and brick walls. All this was visible to the creature's ember eyes.

Close to the owl, a young man who looked so beautiful to the point that he could shame the beauties of Xuan Town, lay a corpse waiting to cross to the Underworld.

His name was Shen Qi. The last born of the Shen couple who had given birth to five children in total. Shen Qi being the last born was spoiled to the core. He had just turned nineteen years old when this calamity fell upon him and his family.

Shen Qi was a pure soul and never knew of the sins of the world. But that very night he understood what it was like to feel anguished. To feel fear before even meeting with steel.

He had called, "Father! Mother!" before collapsing on that very place.

The owl descended upon his body and stretched its feet before clawing at his face that had become as white as paper. The owl's ember eyes glimmered with a red glow and Shen Qi's soul seemed to have separated from his body.

"I was just in time. I hope his soul finds peace in heaven." The owl muttered watching the transparent body of the other person disintegrate into nothingness.

But the spiritual bird knew Shen Qi would live.