20. 'Her Story'

*Song Meng POV

Carrying Qin Shan into her room, and helping her gives way to temptation. Tempatation that I know that I can not resist. I leave quickly and think about the words I said to her.

"I will wait for you." I have no doubt that this will be possible. I believe in this life, on this world, in this universe, she is the only one who I will be for. She will be mine eventually, waiting is not something that I am worried about.

The next morning I am surprised that she asks me to lunch. After I had been so forward with her last night, I thought that she would be embarrassed or even repulsed by me. I underestimated this girl once again.

When we meet up, I notice that we are matching and point it out. She looks me up and down, looks at her own outfit and laughs. I'm happy that our friendship didn't take a toll.

At the restaurant, I focus all my attention on her. I see her reaction to other girls staring at us and laugh on the inside. 'Is she jealous?'

We order and eat together before Qin Shan quietly says,

"Thank you for waiting for me. I do need a little bit more time to adjust but I really don't deserve you or any of this right now." She says this fast, all in one breath and after she finishes I laugh again.

"I'm more than happy to wait for you, and, remember, if you ever need someone to talk to, call me up. Okay?" She relaxes and an unnoticable tension seeps out of her in waves.

"Okay." She brightens up. "Thank you again." Pfft, this girl is too cute.

After eating, we go and walk around the mall. We don't enter any stores but just enjoy the time together. There she opens up to me a little bit more about her life. She was always an only child, she had a very sheltered life... the details of her life just swirl together but I am happy that she trusts me to talk about things.

"But. When I was a toddler - maybe like 3-4, I made a childhood friend." My heart stops cold. And suddenly I'm listening to every word, every emotion that she feels. Purple starts to exude from her in wisps.

"Well more of caretaker really. It was a teenage boy. He was pale and dark but he always protected me. I am forever grateful to him. My parents tell me that he was somewhat of a 'dark knight' but I never understood." Her voice is distant and I know everything. That 'teenage boy' was me.

"The only reason we departed was because I had an accident. A bad one. The only one he wasn't there for." My head starts to race, could this be the reason why she moved away suddenly?

"Song Meng, do you want me to tell you, there are some... details that are not to pleasant." She looks a little bit nervous and a bit concerned.

"I'm fine, go ahead." I need to know what happened.

"When I was four, I was coming home from pre-school. My dad was driving the car and my mom was in the passenger seat. The windows were open and it was a gloomy day... actually likewise to how it's been all October." She looks up at the sky

"Hnn..." I say and she continues.

"In the window, my parents said that something started to form and it looked like an apparation. The figure was smokey and pale, eyes bloodred, wearing like, robes or something. It... it bit me." My hands start to tremble, I start to see red. 'Some hungry lunatic had to bite her.'

Seeing my reaction, Qin Shan stops.

"I don't have to say anything else if it makes you uncomfortable." Her voice is soft, gentle, but I need to hear the rest.

"No, it's fine, please continue" I try to keep the anger out of my voice. Not anger at her, but at whatever freaking beast had the audacity to appear in her car and bite her.

"There was blood everywhere. My parents were screaming and swerved. They say that I passed out. What I remember is that I woke up in the hospital. I had a bad memory impairment from the incident and got traumatized. My family quickly shifted to living in Beijing so I could get treatment for the trauma." She breaks off and looks me in the eye.

"Remember when I told you I moved to Beijing because my aunt died [1], well, the real reason was because I was so broken. Every night I would see the figure, it would come and attack me in my dreams. I developed a sleeping disorder and an eating disorder. I was afraid that I would become food. It was totally illogical but it didn't help my height much huh." She chuckles, obviously trying to lighten the burden of her speaking. There are tears starting to sparkle in her eyes.

"I don't want to hear anymore if it makes you upset." I tell her and she nods, obviously a little bit relieved. I pull her into an embrace.

"I'm so sorry that happened in your past. It will never happen again. I promised you that I would always protect you." I murmur into her ear and she just melts against me.

Silent tears start to go down her face - I'm doubtful she knows they are falling.

"Thank you so much." Her voice is hoarse. I can't imagine the trauma that she went through. Worst of all, I know that the thing that had bitten her, well, it was one of me. One of my kind.

It's possible that to shut her parents up, the Court decided to take action when they were in America. All the pieces of the puzzle are fitting together now. All except one little piece. I look down at the small figure who is basically sitting on my lap.

"Thank you for trusting me with your story." I whisper to her.

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[1] In Chapter 10, Qin Shan had told Song Meng that she moved to Beijing from Shenzhen because her uncle could not take care of himself.