Faded Memories

Xue Ming sat on the vanity chair, staring at her clear reflection on the smooth surface of the mirror. She felt quite troubled as some of her memories started to fade.

The obvious one was the man she met at the hospital last time. His existence in her memory becomes blurry and hazy. Like some kind of mist covering her sights, erasing memories of the past. Putting down the hairbrush, she felt a slight pain on her head.

" It started again..." Xue Ming takes a deep breath, trying to ease some pain. She left the vanity table and walked to her enormous bed. Her eyes lost its focus, her head throbbing more intense. She felt light-headed before her feet tripped. Lost her standing, she falls onto the bed. She groans in pain.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Because of the pain, she failed to hear someone knocking on the door. Slowly, she succumbed into the darkness.

" Jiejie?" Xue Qiqi called. No answer. She felt weird as the time still early. Did she sleep already? Xue Qiqi twists the doorknob and found that the room was unlocked. She frowned.

" Jiejie? Are you in there?" Xue Qiqi push opens the door and steps inside.

The light in Xue Ming's room still on, so she shouldn't sleep yet. Xue Qiqi thoughts, as she walked around and found her sister lying on the bed with a weird posture. Xue Ming's upper body was on the bed, but her lower half on the floor. She felt funny once looking at her sister sleeping style.

" My gosh, Jiejie. If you're so sleepy, please lie down properly." Xue Qiqi shook her head and went to wake her sister up.

" Jiejie, wake up. Don't sleep like this. Your body will ache tomorrow." Xue Qiqi shook Xue Ming's shoulder. But, no respond.

" Jiejie? Jiejie, wake up!" Xue Qiqi frustrated. She felt like waking up a dead wooden log.

" Jiejie! Come on, wake...up...Jiejie?" Xue Qiqi felt something was amiss. She saw Xue Ming's forehead sweated a lot. Her face was so red as if burned. Xue Qiqi put her hand on Xue Ming's forehead, but quickly pull it away.

Too hot!

" Jiejie! Wake up! You had a fever." Xue Qiqi pulls Xue Ming's body to face her up. She put her finger under Xue Ming's nose and found her breath was so shallow and faint. Xue Qiqi's heart went cold. A fear travelled up to her heart.

" Gege!!!" Xue Qiqi left. She ran out, calling Xue Lang frantically. In the middle of the night, the Fairy Villa broke into chaos.

########

In Xue Ming's dream...

Where is this?

Xue Ming walked aimlessly in the dark. Everything around her was too dark to looked at. No light, not even a speck of it. It's like a bottomless of darkness with no end.

Where should she turn? Left? Or, Right? Or, maybe turned back? Or, instead walked straight upfront?

She floated freely.

Yes, float. Because her feet didn't touch any solid ground. Unable to discern the real direction, she stays afloat. Thinking about how to escape this dark place.

But, where is she actually? Why she here?

Unconsciously, her feet step forward. Either left, right, front, or behind. She doesn't know. Her feet bring her to a place she doesn't recognise. It quite a long journey. A day, a month, or a year, she doesn't know. She only keeps walking forward without any sense of directions.

Until she heard a faint voice, calling her from behind.

'Don't go there...'

She felt confused.

Why can't I go there?

'If you go to that side, you will never be back again...'

Again, the voice pleaded.

What kind of place that side was? Xue Ming asked.

'a place that doesn't belong to you...'

'please come back. Once you go to another side, I can't help you anymore...'

Xue Ming stunned. Help?

What do you mean by helping me?

....

'You've dead once, so I can help one time only. I brought you to this side of the world just for you to live on.'

'I'm sorry. I can't stay any longer anymore. My times were up. What I want to say before I go is...you're you. You're Xue Ming. Either in past life or present time, you're Xue Ming. Remember...you're Xue...Ming...'

The voice becomes fainter and fainter before finally disappeared. Maybe, forever.

Wait! Don't leave, yet...

At last, she's gone.

The last remnants of the voice made Xue Ming thinking about her miraculous reincarnation. In the past, she is Xue Ming. In the present time, she also Xue Ming...But, how about in the future? Is she still called Xue Ming?

Unbeknown to her, the last straw of her memory of that man vanish completely from her mind. From there on, the man as if never existed from the start.

**************