18 ✧ 17 ✧

Xiao Mei Zhis mouth opened. But when she was about to speak, there was no voice. It was about time she close her mouth. At the same period she removed her hold on the sheets.

Misses Zhi then nodded as if she knew what her daughter wanted, "Ok. I will go get a water bottle for you. You do not have to talk if you hate these crutches that much." Her mother shakes the crutches in front of her,

"But I will still put this near you. Just in case you change your mind about it." She let her mother be while the crutches has been positioned down beside her on the bed before her mother walk out.

And again she was left alone in her room.

Xiao Mei Zhi sighed. She did not need water to drink. She wanted to wake up from this dream. But it was not possible, cause it was not even a dream to begin with.

Could it be that those shadows from her dream were meant to tell her something was coming?

She kept quite while darting at the netbooks black screen. It was time to search the answer. Suddenly an illusion from the screen came to view--the man with shadows.

She cleared her throat. . . Like come on, students like her would also search about the meaning of their dream. She press the turn on button in her keyboard, then it loaded her in. She click the search bar and type : What does it mean when I dream a someone was watching me behind the shadows?

After a second of scrolling down the page of her screen, she effortlessly found the answer; It was a symbol of being unsure to herself and unconciously wondering if she was doing things right in life.

So in other words, she was just hallucinating. What she saw was nothing. She could rest well now, as she massages the upper part of her nose bridge using her left hand. It was relieving tension from her pressure.

Her mother then came back with a glass of water, that was enough to accept it as her dinner. "I think, I am still half-awake." She then rested her back on the pillow that was supported by the wall, "How about your homework?" Misses Zhi asked.

Then Xiao Mei Zhi was thinking about her research, "I will do it now," but she can not ignore the fact that the money she will earn will affect their house bills. She got used to dividing her income already in advance and this was one of those days that she will pay late and another interest will add the bills up.

In extension of her thoughts, she just hoped that her mother would stop drinking beers for good. As she emptied the glass of water, "I am done taking my dinner," she said, then began on doing half of her home work.

Misses Zhi took the glass with her and watch her daughter, "After you finish the half of it you go rest directly. Understood?" Xiao Mei Zhi glanced towards the glass on her mothers hand, "I understood."

[Two and half hours of doing homework]

After the last paragraph of her answer, she touch a hand on her mouth. "Done." She prevented a feigned yawn of tiredness as it caught up with her.

She was drained. Dizziness captured her to another place.

But why she was now standing still somewhere?

A giggle reverberated. As a vine spreads out at her door. Misses Zhi called out but she was muted. Two people were chasing each other.

One of them was a woman with a soft voice , "Come human let's run away!" Another was a man hesitating to follow the woman, "What is this place?" He said then a deer run in front of them, going north.

And it slowly. . .

Slowly. . . turned into a huge hand. Heading towards her,

'Run!'

It catches up until Xiao Mei Zhis face was filled with darkness and its maniacal laughter echoed with a scream of horror,

"Mwahaha!"