39 Screams from Afar

Ming Cheng had been surrounded by all his friends, sitting around on the wooden floor of the room leading into the garden.

They had all arranged themselves in a square with Ming Cheng sat closest to the kitchens, directly opposing Qi Qing with Wang Yuan sitting closest to the official serving doors and Qi Tao facing away from the gardens.

He sat away from Ming Cheng respectfully enough to avoid touching him and causing another scare, while maintaining a closeness that was obvious for anyone and everyone to see, the gap between him and his sister large enough to be noticeable to any wandering eyes.

"Hey Ming Cheng, would you like more radishes. You can have all the radishes you like, here!" Qi Tao called out, first waving his arms around for a bit to get Ming Cheng's attention first, before, as steadily and slowly as the hyperactive boy could, moving his chopsticks to pick up the offending piece of radish that he wasn't particularly eager to eat.

Ming Cheng heard him loud and clear, and immediately knew what the other boy was doing.

He was going to accept the vegetables being offered to him, and would have as well - considering more food was more food, and more food was always good food - if it hadn't for Qi Qing abruptly grabbing her brother by the back of his shirt and glaring at him for not eating his own vegetables.

Qi Tao's face immediately contorted into the expression ready to begin some pitiful whining, but one raised chopstick, as a threat, was enough to shut him up and have him eat, if at least a little bit begrudgingly, the radish that he was about to offer away.

"You, don't offer your vegetables to someone else!" she hollered out, pointing at her brother menacingly, before turning her body and focus to Ming Cheng to then declare," And you! Don't encourage him!"

Ming Cheng blinked at the smaller girl who brandished her two wooden sticks as if they were needles, capable of doing actual harm towards him, when he suddenly heard a scream.

A scream that he recognised immediately.

It was one of the those that were never forgotten after being heard only once.

It was one of the screams that people gave as they approached the end of their lives, a final and desperate call for help given off just as they realised that their situation was inescapable, but nevertheless were unready for death.

It was the scream given off by children as they realised that they would not live through their encounters with the wild feral dogs that had cornered them into one filthy corner of some back alley, death the foe that they have managed to stave off for seemingly their entire lives descending down to take them away to hell against their wills in the most painful fashion possible, ripped apart by the rabid and the starving who had descended all the way into bloodlust unrepentant and too desperate to survive to ever even consider going back.

It was the scream given off by the mistresses of men with knives to their throats, as they realised what sort of career their marks had indulged themselves in, after deciding to rob them to take all items worth any sort of material value, through whatever means that may have happened - whether it be a compromising letter with a controversial business partner regarding assassinations, or a finance report involving the trade of highly illegal substances.

The screams were all the same, all made up of the same horror, the same pain, and the same fear, all wrapped into one terrible noise that seemed to be so short, but last so long at the same time, dragging out the menace and threat.

And their unfortunate and terrible deaths.

Ming Cheng began moving his head about, standing up to see further, trying to locate where the deadly noise of warning had come from, his face hardening to become serious and his legs automatically falling into the automatic stance for him to run as soon as he learned which direction he needed to go to get away.

He could feel the eyes of the others on him, their bodies frozen in surprise as they saw him shoot up and begin shaking.

Lan Chang had also pulled herself up, walking over to Ming Cheng, and asked him in her own serious tone, pointedly not sitting down at all as soon as she recognised his position," What did you hear?"

"Somebody just screamed like they were dying," Ming Cheng answered her, still looking about, deciding to concentrate on the garden as, no matter what: it would be either his escape route, providing the most familiar and wide paths to run down, or it would end up being the source of the screaming.

Lan Chang looked about as well, joining Ming Cheng in his search for the noise, prompting the others to also join in on the hunt for something that they hadn't even heard.

A series of whimpers and choked sobs then began, erupting from the same source of the scream, and Ming Cheng began whipping his head around in a desperate attempt to find the source.

Unable to do so, he even went as far as covering one of his ears and turning around to try and find where the noise came from.

It was a fruitless venture, his attempts leading to nothing but the realisation of two things.

"The crying is in my head... It's all the same loudness... The crying is in my head."

Ming Cheng did not see the horrified expressions of his friends, only the warmth of Lan Chang's embrace as she held him close to her, letting his head fall onto her shoulders as she gathered him up in her long sleeves.

She easily picked up her son, pulling his food plate onto the same hand that balanced her child.

"We'll be eating in our room," she apologised to the other children, abandoning her own food to let Ming Cheng enter the comforting silence as quick as she could.