The last section of the incense has burned into ashes, falling into the sooted copper basin. The sweet woody scent of sandalwood lingers heavily in the room accompanying the darkness of the warm summer night.
Sandalwood is well known for its purification properties and how it helps to soothe aggression and irritability with its calming scent. But even with the purest and finest sandalwood, nothing can bring peace to Bai Ling's mind that has been plagued by his nightly terror. The whole night, he has been turning in his bed, tormented by the same reoccurring dream. The agony and fear in his mind, only he alone can fathom.
The scene of his dream has been replaying over and over again in his mind. Everything seemed to have slowed down in time and Bai Ling can only spectate the events unfolding in his dream. He watched as the soft smile slowly dissipated from the gentle face and the dark brown eyes started to fade into a lighter hue. Bai Ling looked down, as the warm blood trickled down his own two hands, slowly turning cold and thick. All that was left in his embrace was a cold body of a man laying in a pool of dark crimson blood. The smell of rusty iron started to creep into his senses, suffocating him in his sleep.
"No, no...!!" Bai Ling screamed, breaking the silence of the night. His own voice echoes into his ears yet his eyes are still shut tight. Cold sweats started to bead all around his body, soaking into his night robe. With his heart pounding hard, Bai Ling's eyes remain in a constant flutter, his long lashes batting against his moist skin. As his breath starts to quicken in short paces, his hand clutches against his chest, heavied with a throbbing pain. No matter how hard he tries to wake up from this bad dream, he seems to be trapped and forced to finish the scene in its entirety.
This nightmare has stayed with him for the past decades. Every night when he closes his eyes, the sight of the man with the disappearing smile never fail to creep in. Bai Ling embraces the dream, although unwilling, he has no escape of a memory that cannot be erased. It will live within him till the day he rests, never to be awaken.
But in recent nights of this warm summer, something has shifted. Bai Ling remembers every thing as vivid as if it just happened yesterday, the unforgettable memories that turned into a haunting nightmare. He remembers the man's lingering warmth that slowly faded away, the softness of his blood stained clothes and the weight of the lifeless body in his arms. His heart recalls the pain and the aches of losing this person. The nightmare has become a painful reminder of that fateful day when he lose the light of his life and plunged into a dark abyss of his own tragic despair.
In this night, Bai Ling has started to forget parts of the dream. It is an odd feeling, how he remembers every thing but this person. Alas, after so many decades of having that memory played over and over again in his mind, the face of the man has turned into a blur. The figure that appears without fail every night has now become a stranger.
"Who are you?"