16 The Beginning of a Nightmare (I)

Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months. Xueyue led her new and happy life. Once in a while, she would check on the progress of the search of her former demon generals, and on her extra time she would check on the family she left in the Philippines. It looked like despite the death of the Fuentebella Family's youngest daughter, they stood strong. She was actually glad they took to heart the last advice she gave them before she chose to leave them.

Meanwhile on her new life, not much had changed. Liu Bai, Khalil, was still as hyper and as clingy as ever, she still got along well with Mr. and Mrs. Li, as well as Yiheng and Erhua still hated her and refused to neither talk nor recognize her existence in the Li Family (which never really bothered her). There was quite a change though; Sanhao and Simeng started treating her like a sister.

Yeah, Erhua did not like that.

As for her friends, the seven of them still stuck together. They actually became quite famous in SVIS due to their individual talents in both academic and sports. They became known as the Seven. They were called that because they always stuck with each other and they have been getting awards from competitions both nationally and internationally.

But that was about to change…

It was lunch time. The Seven were gathered on their usual hangout inside SVIS campus, the rooftop. They were trying to catch up with one another since three of them were gone for a long time.

Although the Seven were a tight-knit circle of friends, Xueyue and Liu Bai had never really told them anything about their past. Well for one, it was a crazy one and impossible to believe. Although the other five already got to the quirks of their two strange friends; like talking in another language, appearing and disappearing all of sudden or using unfamiliar terms, the seven of them stayed close.

In the middle of their conversation, Jianran suddenly noticed something wrong with the sky.

"Uh guys? Is it just me or are there two suns?"

Everyone immediately looked up and their eyebrows furrowed in confusion when they saw two bright objects in the sky; one was obviously the sun while the other was unknown. But there confusion immediately switched to panic when one of the bright objects expanded and became even much brighter they had no other choice but to close their eyes. What they did not know was that they won't be opening their eyes again for a week. Or at least most of them.

Such a phenomenon happened all over the world. To places where it happened in daytime, it seemed like there were suddenly two suns in the sky, while on places where it was night, it looked like the bright light ate the moon.

After the light enveloped everything, dyeing the world in nothing but brightness, humans and animals fell into deep slumber. It all happened suddenly that they weren't even prepared for it. No matter what they were doing, or where they were, they all fell asleep. And when the bright light vanished, no one was awake.

While the residents of the world were in deep slumber, a figure donned in a white cloak was floating in the sky. Although their face couldn't be seen because of the cloak's hood, a devilish smile was on their face.

"Step one complete. Let chaos begin."

***

Three days after everyone fell asleep…

Some movement was detected at the rooftop of a school. Moments later, a figure rose up, stretched their body and even yawned. On a closer look, the one who woke up was Xueyue.

"Ugh, my head. What the hell happened?" once she opened her eyes she gasped. "I'm… I fell asleep on the rooftop? Why?"

She noticed that her friends were still asleep on the floor and that the food they were just eating was turning black due to molds.

"What? Everyone? Wake up! Jiangran? Wuji? Song Tian? Hae-song? Feng Xian? Liu Bai?"

She heard Liu Bai groan but he returned to sleep anyway. She nudged his knee with her foot and yelled; "Khalil! Wake up!"

Liu Bai shot up his eyes wide. "What? What? Did the teacher catch me sleeping again?"

Xueyue only shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Wake up Khalil."

"Why are you calling me with that name? What if-"

"Just do what I said and look at our surroundings."

Liu Bai immediately glanced around and a frown was etched on his face. "Why is it too quiet?"

"Exactly. And look." Xueyue tried shaking their friends awake but they wouldn't even budge. "They're not waking up."

"What hap- Wait, do you think it has something to do with that really blinding light?"

Xueyue nodded. "Liu Bai, I think everyone is asleep."

The pair decided to check the entire campus and left Jiangran and the others inside a barrier. The two were already dreading on what they would find. The first place they headed to was the faculty office and saw the teachers asleep on their desks, one of them even fell asleep in front of the coffee machine.

"Do you think we should move him?" asked Liu Bai with uncertainty.

"No. If ever they're only asleep on a short period of time like we did, she'd question why she's in a different place."

"Okay? But why did we suddenly fall asleep anyway? And how long have we been asleep?"

Xueyue pointed to a digital clock on the wall and Liu Bai gasped in surprise.

"Three days? We've been asleep for three days?" he yelled, not caring for the sleeping people in the vicinity. Not that they'd be waking anytime soon. "How long will the others sleep anyway?"

"I have no idea. I have no idea why we fell asleep, or what cause it, or how long will everyone sleep." she sighed. "Let's check our classroom."

On their way to their classroom…

"Hey, you think the Li Family and the Liu Family fell asleep as well?" Liu Bai asked.

"Well, considering everyone is sleeping at the moment and the city being unusually silent in the middle of the day even though it's a city, I guess everyone is currently sleeping." Xueyue answered after pausing for a few seconds to think.

"But why are we awake and they're not?"

Xueyue sighed. Liu Bai asked a valid question and she had no answer for it.

"Dunno. Let's just check on our classmates then let's go and check on our respective families." she suggested in which Liu Bai agreed.

The two headed straight to their classroom and saw their classmates sleeping as well. Xueyue noticed that Erhua and Sanhao weren't there so she immediately set out on looking for them. She found them in one of the school's music rooms. Erhua fell asleep on the piano while Sanhao was sleeping on the floor, his sketchpad on his lap.

"Well, they're fine. I guess there's that." Xueyue commented. She casted a barrier on the room the two was in and left.

Although Erhua did not like her, Xueyue still felt a little responsible on the twins. They did not know the real nature of their family's work and she did kind of drop by unannounced on them. Plus, Xueyue is not so childish or stupid to stoop low and confront Erhua about it.

At least not now.

Xueyue and Liu Bai were relieved that none of them seemed to be in danger so they returned to the rooftop.

"Now what?"

"We're not moving anyone." she told him. "Once they wake up and notice they weren't where they fell asleep, they'd get suspicious and start pointing fingers. I don't know what's going on but I don't want to start a panic."

Liu Bai couldn't help but give her a look of admiration. Xueyue on the other hand just looked at him confusedly.

"As expected of you my queen. You've thought of everything!"

"No, I'm just too skeptical and I've read too much novels." she sighed. "Let's go check on the Li and Liu Families. Also, try to contact the Ceio and the others. Maybe they woke up as well. Tell them we'll meet up at the SVIS rooftop."

"Roger!"