Can I Sleep With You Tonight?

They wandered through the corridor, going deeper inside the west wing. The entire area had a separate building, three stories high. They were currently living on the ground floor, right beside the open ground. If one thought carefully about this matter, they would realize why their prison cells were close to the open ground—to make it easier for the guards to throw them into the burning heart.

Throughout this time, as Xie Ai walked behind the couple, he continued to feel goosebumps all over his arms. On his back, there was a trace of lingering stare boring onto his back, making him feel on edge.

When he turned around, his eyes couldn't help but see a dark abyss behind him, squinting his eyes to see clearly. Without specks, it was harder to see anything clearly.

Even though it was blurry, Xie Ai questions how that woman had died when her body was on the open ground as if she was being cooked alive. He only felt goosebumps and a vomiting-like sensation deep in his stomach.

But honestly, the fact that his vision wasn't clear made him even calmer. Since he couldn't see any ghosts, how could he be scared of them without coming closer to him?

This time it was different. He was constantly feeling someone's eyes on him, intensely boring holes into his back. When he turned around to glance at the corridor behind him, he could see traces of eyes deeper in the darkness. Those eyes were especially colored emerald green, making him feel a shiver down his spine.

Xie Ai suddenly bumped into the couple.

"Oi, don't you know how to walk?" Qi Jingguo scolded the white haired guy. "Are you learning how to walk crooked?"

"No…. There's something there….." Xie Ai finally spoke as he pointed toward the dark corridor.

Qi Jingguo looked, and looked, and looked but nothing was wrong. The corridor remained cold and dark like before. So he sighed and said, "There's nothing for now. Let's go."

Xie Ai also turned around to watch.

Emerald green eyes continued to stare at home through the darkness, making him yell out a shriek.

"What now?!" Qi Jingguo glared at the white haired guy. "You want us to beat you to death now? Stop screaming!"

"No…. there's really someone…." Xie Ai's voice was trembling at this time.

How could it not tremble, even with blurry vision, he could see the color of those eyes that stared at him. They matched evenly with that of his ex's eyes, and the intensity of that stare also matched with how that guy had looked at him before dying—intense indifference and coldness with only a lingering affectionate feeling.

Xie Ai felt choked up a little as he stopped and stared into the dark corridor. His heart thumped in his chest as he shakily took a step toward the darkness.

"Hey… where are you going?" Qi Jingguo felt something was wrong as he instantly grabbed the other's hands, nudging his lover on his side. "Xiao Min, quick, stop him."

But he only nudged the air. He turned swiftly to his side only to see no one standing beside him. His face changed as he gripped the other guy's hands and started running toward the darkness.

Xie Ai finally woke up from his dazed condition as he kept running. "What's going on? Why are we running?"

"Because we're trapped in a hallucination! Can't you tell?!" Qi Jingguo had a rare trace of anxiety deep in his eyes as he glanced around the corridor before stopping. "Now we're back from where we started running. Great."

They stopped once again, catching some breath. Xie Ai looked around and frowned, asking, "Where's Yu Weimin?"

Just as he turned around to face the other guy, Qi Jingguo also ended up vanishing out of the blue. Xie Ai's eyes widened as he felt traces of coldness engulfing his entire being. He shivered and hugged his arms, rubbing them up and down.

"You guys… where did you go….?" He spoke tremblingly and let out a forced, nervous chuckle. "It's not funny, you know…. I'm getting really scared."

Soon, he heard the sound of footsteps coming closer and closer to him. The sound came through the darkness of the corridor. As he continued to stand there, he felt those footsteps didn't seem to be of an adult, rather a child.

His face changed as he took a step back. Just then, the footsteps stopped as a childish voice spoke to him through the darkness. "We can finally talk now that unnecessary people are away."

Xie Ai felt goosebumps all over his body. "Wh-what do you want to talk about?"

"Can I sleep with you tonight?"

"Absolutely not!" Xie Ai's heart thumped multiple times faster as he tried to keep his calm. "Ju-just go away!"

"But…. I don't have anywhere to go. You feel familiar to me. Have we met?" The voice asked innocently.

Xie Ai squinted his eyes into the darkness, trying to see clearly. But he couldn't.

If he still had his specks, he could have seen a little boy hiding into the shadows, trying his best not to appear into the light. But it was just Xie Ai's misfortune that he ended up in this condition unknowingly.

"Big brother…. Please, answer me…. I'm scared… they're going to kill me… no, please, let me hide with you, okay?"

"No, wait!" Xie Ai felt himself on the edge. "Answer me first. Did you create this hallucination?"

"Yes," the voice replied without any hesitation.

"Why?" Xie Ai frowned as he continued to look.

"I…. I only wanted to talk to you." The little ghost felt shy as he said, "Can't I? Outsiders have come so many times, but they never made me feel like this. Can you let me stay closer to you?"

Xie Ai shook his head, thought for a while, and he finally compromised and said, "You can stay with me at night."

The kid's eyes sparkled with joy. He really did seem like a kid if you ignored his dead eyes without any pupils.

"Now…. Can you let everything go back to normal?" Xie Ai asked in a careful tone.

"If it goes back to normal, we can't talk."

"Then….." Xie Ai couldn't believe he was arguing with a ghost. "Why don't we not talk at all?"

"How could that be?! I have this feeling… if I don't stay close to you, I'll end up being worse than dead…. Why?" The little kid seemed genuinely confused at the moment. "You're really not my big brother, are you?"

Xie Ai now wanted to cry. "Little ghost, you…. First act like a ghost and scare people. Why are you talking to me like this?"

"Because…." The kid's mouth stretched to form a grin. "I like you."

Xie Ai fell silent. The first time he received a confession, he ended up being duped by that faker of a dead ex. The second time he received a confession, it was directly from a ghost kid.

Why couldn't he get to meet normal people anymore?! What was wrong with his life?!

He took a few deep breaths and tried to calm himself. Maybe he should try to extort some information from this kid. After all, the ghost was so talkative. It was a rare event in itself.

"Little boy… who the heck are you?"

"Me?" The little boy also went unnaturally silent at the moment as he tilted his head innocently. "I don't remember my name anymore. I don't know who I am…. Just…. Don't go, okay? Don't leave me…. If you leave, I'll die. We can stay like this for eternity. I'll keep you company!"