32. Memories again

The floor was covered in blood and body parts, the few of them remaining lay unmoving on the floor and against the walls.

He was the only one still squirming from unexplainable pain, his back stretching painfully.

He had always felt intense pain every midnight, since the incident of him being stabbed while chasing those thieves all those months ago in the middle of the forest, but now, the pain had doubled in intensity.

He kept slipping between his senses and a dark emptiness he didn't understand and couldn not control, but he did his very best holding onto thin threads of his will and sanity.

Two long horns tore out of his back right under both of his clavicles, and came out burnt black. He fell on all fours fisting his hands together and growling in pain like a wounded animal.

The tear kept on stretching till his lower back, dragging him through heights of dizzying pain.

"Lord Hei Yue" he heard a lady call out, and looked up despite the pain.

They were in the open execution grounds, but she was serene as ever, her long hair without its usual ornaments, clothed in a silk cross necked hanfu.

His face was covered in blood, his eyes purple and swollen. He was held down by two guards, watching helplessly.

"Lord Hei Yue" she mouthed playfully, a silly smile on her face as she tried to be brave for him despite her fear.

He watched the sword come down and cut her through her neck. "Chun-hua" he screamed. Watching tearfully as her blood flowed from her neck, her eyes looking forever at him, her hands stretched out to him as she left the world.

He stayed stunned not believing that she had gone until the guards stood him up to take him away. He screamed struggling with all his might to reach out to her. 'His wife, they had killed his wife.

They were laughing at his efforts, laughing at her, and his entire family they had wiped out even his son.'

He saw her again standing before him, dressed in a blue hanfu with gold embroidery on it, her hair was tied up, beautified with golden hairpins.

She smiled at him sadly, holding their two year old son as he mounted his horse and rode away. The last time he had seen her all decked up.

His eyes reddened as he came back to the present. "Chun-hua" he said, his throat constricting with emotion. He groaned painfully as two wings came out of his back, growing painfully by the minute. He kept chanting her name. The name of the woman he had forgotten, and now remembered. "Argh" he screamed, holding onto his head that felt like exploding as all his past memories began flowing back to him one after the other.

Fire flowed out of his palm like molten larva, spreading toward the door, and melting it down.

He didn't notice the chaos that had ensued around him, he was too consumed by his pain to notice.