27 Comfort Within The Dark

Fan Ying and Nuwa Yenay woke up to their daughter screaming. They both bolted up and ran to her room.

"NO! NO! NO! NO! PLEASE. STOP!"

"Help! No. no. no. no. NO!

Why won't anybody help? Why won't anybody care!

Why won't anybody love me!?

She kicked and pushed but it was only met with air. She was struggling with something but they didn't know what.

They watched as their daughter screamed and begged but they didn't know how to respond.

Nuwa Yenay sat by their daughters side. She took hold of her daughters hand but it was pushed away.

"You don't love me!"

"I love but no one loves back."

Her screams fell to whispers and her whispers turned to weeps.

"I'm scared! Why doesn't anyone save me?"

Both spectators stood frozen in shock. Before they hugged her and cried.

"We do love you. Daiyu don't cry. Shhh."

But no matter how they tried to hold her and comfort her she would struggle and cry.

"Lies. Love doesn't exist."

"We live for something nonexistent only to be disappointed in the end."

"Even father doesn't want me."

"The man…. Mean man…"

Both parents burst out in tears trying to calm their child but it all seemed futile.

"What are we going to do? She was to affected by that man."

Nuwa Yenay cried without knowing that the ma she was talking about was a completely different person. The couple comforted each other and stayed by their daughter's side.

Throughout the night neither slept. They took their daughter to Lilian's home but she had already gone out of town. They could only leave.

As they walked home with the two servants and their daughter, they passed by the physicians execution.

They walked up to him and Fan Ying lost control. He threw punches at the man who already looked like a corpse. The masses were confused by their passive general's outburst.

They began to question him.

"The poor man is going to die already! WHY ARE YOU MAKING IT WORSE?"

"YEAH! WHAT KIND OF GENERAL ARE YOU!"

He turned and his vicious glare send shivers down their spines but no one retreated. He couldn't do anything to innocent citizens.

He looked at him all before shouting, "What kind of general am I? I'm the kind of general that love his daughter. I'M NO HERE AS A GENERAL BUT AS THE FATHER OF MY CHILD WHO IS SUFFERING FROM ATRAUMA CAUSED BY THIS MAN AND HASN'T WOKEN UP SINCE YESTERDAY BECAUSE HE TRIGGERED IT AGAIN. SHE WAS SCREAMING AND KICKING THE AIR AT NIGHT AND SHE DIDN'T EVEN WAKE UP TO EAT.

HOW DARE YOU ASK WHAT KIND OF GENERAL I AM WHEN MY DAUGHTER IS SUFFERING BEACAUSE OF THIS BASTARD!? WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO CRITISIZE ME!"

He hit the physician repeatedly before being separated from him by multiple guards. The crown just stared in silence at their kind general becoming a pained beast for his daughter. They all turned to Nuwa Yenay who had been watching in tears everything that her husband had been doing.

In front of others, she always seemed so strong but today that perfect couple looked so tired, angry, and pained. The peeked at the child that had captured their hearts with her innocence and beauty in just a few days struggling in her mother's arms. She was crying so softly that is was barely audible. She looked pale and weak as her murmurs became louder and louder.

"No. no. take away the light!"

"It hurts! My heart. My head. It hurts!"

"Nobody love me. Nobody ever will. I know so please leave me alone."

She talked and kicked and cried. Her soft voice quieted down as her whole body stiffened.

She wasn't moving again.

"Don't move. If you move, people will see. People will hate. Hide."

Her gibberish was painful to hear. Women and men alike began crying and sympathized with the couple. They were in pain.

Everyone rose up and screamed for the criminal's death.

He watched as they were all moved by the child and he regretted his actions. He regretted meeting that child. It was the end.

He laughed out in a crazed manner.

"SHE IS A DEMON NOT AN ANGEL! I HATE HER! I HOPE SHE DIES! I HOPE SHE ROTS IN HE-"

He couldn't finish his sentence before the executioner got angry and beheaded him. He really hated these kinds of people.

The couple left and headed to the emperor's palace after dropping Long Wei off at their house.

They ran and eventually met Emperor Li.

-Fan Daiyu-

I don't know whether its day or night. I don't know what day it is. How long will this nightmare last. I don't even know how these people look but everyday they torture me so much. I know I used to think they loved me but something is telling me that it was all a lie.

[Love is a lie.

But if it is a lie then why do we live for it.]

{We like to live in an illusion we create ourselves. In the end we just disappoint ourselves. Didn't we already experience that?}

[I don't know! I don't know!]

My head feels like its on fire. It hurts.

-Royal chambers-

The emperor worried for the entire family after seeing their state. He brought him to his room and made all the royal physicians check on them. Fan Ying and Nuwa Yenay were exhausted but no matted what the physicians told them they stood wide awake looking at their child.

Nobody knew how to wake her up from her nightmare. Nuwa Yenay tried to sing to her but even that was to no avail. No one wasn't scared.

There was only silence until Daiyu began too kick and scream again.

"Why? Why is there no love?"

…

"I don't want the light to come. I don't want to see him. Help!"

"Let me go! I like the darkness."

"I like it's warmth"

"It's the only place where I felt safe."

The couple misunderstood her nonsense. They thought she was talking about her birth and the warmth of her mother's womb but she wasn't.

She was speaking of the little bit of peace she had during the few days she was living within her nightmares. Only within the dark corners of her heart could one unravel the feelings and memories she had locked up because only the dark corners were safe. Those have always been her home, her solace. This fact had been engraved into every inch of her body since…

Since when?

She couldn't remember.