Confusion

"How did I get here?" Yang Lin muttered, his dark pools reflecting a slender woman, snow-white hair that descended her shoulders like a tapestry woven from the finest silk, complementing her loose robes that draped along with her figure till they bled into a small pond.

The pond's waters exuded a soothing sensation with each ripple. Oddly enough, the bright moon mirrored into the said pond remained intact, not fluctuating the least. As for this woman's feet, the clear surface appeared so opaque, as if to veil her skin.

"Who knows," She replied, her melodic vocals tugging at his heart, almost blurring off his unsettled desire towards Ming'er, a desire he was yet to express, yet it trickled down his fingertips in a fleeting haze before he could clutch it.

The mere thought rocked his consciousness as a vivid recollection slowly fabricated into fruition. It was a cold night, Grandma Mo expressed a tale of times long forgotten, and then it happened.

Events too accelerated to pinpoint in details, details he did not get the drive to bore this beautiful woman with, though he had an inkling she already knew. Nothing about his current situation made sense, nothing at all.

Combing his mind for some memories, a flashback of his worn-down adoptive mother tending to his miserable state before their shredded door surfaced. Then, amidst the morbid reality of corpses was a white fox, its conspicuous trinity of tails spell-bound Yang Lin's gaze.

"I comforted my mother… And, I think I heard something…" He whispered, be it to himself or to the woman, he did not know. Though, she smiled faintly nonetheless, not even bothering to conceal the silver, palm-sized flute dangling about her delicate neck. Only then did he piece together the puzzle.

He looked up at her, still knee-deep in bewilderment as he said, "You bewitched me? Are you one of them?" Panic swelled his heart, sweat-soaked, he attempted to move, only to somehow induce a wretched wave of pain with a grating itch of bones.

A silent scream then followed.

Too confused he was. He observed everything except for his own.

"I would not move if I were you," The woman spoke, a gentle smile curving her peachy lips. "Was I so mesmerizing that you did not notice? Every bone in your body is fractured, and you've been in this pond for… Weeks? Ah, where are my manners? Good morning."

A million emotions infested his dilated pupils reigned by fear. He had just realized, not only her feet occupied the pond, but his entire body neck, and below.

He didn't know, because he did not feel a single limb of his. He had also just realized, his vocals cords were churred beyond repair, he eluded himself to believe he spoke aloud, but it was just a conversation between that woman and his subtle consciousness.

She had explored his mind like an open book all along. Frightened, pain smote, his iris lost their spark as he drifted off to sleep. Again.

"Oh, my..." The woman gasped as if surprised. "This makes it seven-teen times this month…" She chuckled lightly, her feet swaying about in the pond below.