37 The Empty Eyes

The skull had been propped up on a beam of wood, jutting out from the walls that trapped Xiao Ying alone with it.

It rested facing him directly, staring into his eyes without respite or refrain, it's gaze seemingly eternal and unending with twists of hollow laughter dancing inside, only expressed by the wide, grim smile made by the skull's partially shattered and rotting teeth.

It was hard for Xiao Ying to break the stare that he had kept up with the skull, shuffling his body backwards to try and get away from it as quickly as he could, until his hand suddenly grasped something smooth and dry.

He instinctively flinched, swallowing down the scream that had built up in his throat.

Body uncontrollably shaking, Xiao Ying moved his hand away, bringing it into his chest, and turned around slowly, his eyes straining towards the side to try and get a glimpse of what he had just felt before anything else in a desperate attempt to satisfy the sickening curiosity that had suddenly developed in Xiao Ying.

He was met with another sight instead.

Xiao Ying's mouth dropped in horror as he looked upon the swathe of skeletons and corpses, their bones all bleached white by the darkness of the room they had all been trapped in, their bones of all different sizes and shapes making the floor beneath them almost impossible to see in the far corner.

Xiao Ying wanted to move.

He so wanted to move.

But he kept turning his head, wanting to look away from it all and begging for something almost smaller for him to panic over, to cry over, something that was not the corpse field that lay before him.

The skeleton directly behind him, the one that Xiao Ying had touched, had it's arms spread out, head hanging back, sat just as if it had been expecting a hug.

Xiao Ying screamed.

He needed to leave!

He needed to leave this place now!

He couldn't handle being here anymore.

Xiao Ying felt bile rising up through his throat, forcing him to gag as he realised that nothing was coming out from his mouth, only the spittle of saliva leaving him in lieu of at least the disgusting catharsis of vomit that would at least promise him some respite for the sickness that he felt.

With shaking, shivering limbs, Xiao Ying pushed downwards onto the floor, his knees badly wobbling and on the verge of collapsing as he pushed himself upwards, throwing out his arms to steady himself on the wooden beams that had trapped him into this place, this cell, this pit of lost and forgotten corpses.

Xiao Ying shuffled and moved himself up next to where the skull had fallen down onto the beam, it's now eternal resting place.

The only way to leave was go upwards, out up through the floor, considering that each and every wall around him was compacted with nothing but dirt and earth.

Taking in a deep breath, his throat momentarily closing around and irritated by the feeling of the stale, dry air and tiny particulates of dust, Xiao Ying heaved as he brought one leg up to support his body on the wooden beam, gripping with the very edges of his nails at the wood to steady him, lest he fall down backwards into the bony arms of an unknown, decaying corpse behind him.

Xiao Ying, letting one leg hang backwards for the sake of balance, reached up, and with tearful eyes, thrust a hand through the top of the ceiling, forcing it to become little more than a wispy presence as it reached upwards and towards the sunlight that was invisible from in the pit of despair.

The immediate feeling of warmth consumed the limb that had managed to free himself, and for a second, Xiao Ying let himself enjoy the feeling, closing his eyes and revelling in it.

He then let the uppermost parts of his hand, become sold, slapping it down onto the lacquered wood above him for some purchase.

He strained his body to stand on his tiptoes, forcing more of his arm to reach upwards and onto the safety of the platform above him, keeping note of the strange, solid pressure that the floor exerted on his arm, telling him where it was exactly, and where exactly his limbs needed to be able to let it pass through his body.

Finding himself too short to let much more than half of his forearm onto the floor above, Xiao Ying closed his eyes and gave a half sob and half resigned, terrified sigh on what he needed to do if he wanted to escape.

He slowly brought up his dangling leg closer to the wall that he was still clinging onto, making sure not to bend his knees to disturb his balance.

Opening his eyes slowly, Xiao Ying first looked up, seeing where he needed to go, and then looked back down to the ledge to see what he needed to do.

From the corners of his eyes, he saw the top of the skull and the dent that made up the back of it, too aware and keenly knowing that he was at the perfect perspective to see that particular detail.

Before he could regret the plan that he made for himself, Xiao Ying launched himself off the ledge that he had been balanced, kicking off the wall with his free leg to give him the slightest bit of extra height, and reached up, as much as he could in the smaller body of Liu Yang, up towards the ceiling.

He watched his arms disappear through the wood above him, and saw the matrix inside the layers and the grains, the compartments where swords, knives and daggers had been stored, and finally, the sunlight once more.

Xiao Ying threw out both his arms, forcing them solid, and kicked his legs about, his limbs swaying about below him somewhere he couldn't see, and certain that now, for a little while, things would be alright for just this moment.