Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 3 2018 | Page 258

landed right on your sister’s hands. She told me everything you know, and I’m terribly sorry for what
happened. Turns out I also saved a life today just in time. I guess it’s the last thing I could ever do for her.”
“I don’t see the necessity of me thanking you when I would prefer to be dead. Goodbye, now that you’ve
freed yourself.” Payne cooed, folding up his arms frantically.
“You can’t go back to the future. Not until I have finished my last mission.” Xia grabbed Payne by the
arms.
“I can guarantee that you would not regret it.” The faerie added. She knew wholeheartedly that it was a
selfish thing to say, still, the lies managed to slip out of her biting lips effortlessly. “White lies” as humans
called them, she said to herself, “an innocent lie”. Yet when was ever a lie innocent enough to not be
labeled as a lie?
She was conscious of the fact that the truth carved into the flesh on her hand was going to be unbearable
and she had taken the path to avoid it, which was not the best idea to say the least.
“Shifu he……he” A shadow of Bajie the pig grew as he sprinted towards the monkey.
“What is it?” Wukong clenched his jaws hard.
“He died! Right behind the bushes when I woke up!” Bajie’s eyes refused to hold back the tiny drops of
grief as they streamed down his cheeks.
Without a word, Wukong stormed off in hurried steps to the repulsive smell of the decayed flesh with a
stoic expression. Tang Sanzang’s eyes were accusing yet blank, with lips matching a shade of blue where the
oasis was undoubtedly stiff. Xia gasped at the sight as if her life had just turned into a horror story ever since
she escaped. It must have, for Payne gulped with a mien of dread and panic all the same.
Because mayhem strikes the trio before they could even get hold of what had been going on.
Xia, as in Payne’s twin sister, arose from the sanguine fluid’s crimson, her body covered by it drenching
from the dagger in her palms.
“Why are you here?” Payne whimpered at the unwanted twin, his rage burning hot like a dragon’s mouth
alongside with choking tears.
“Face your fears, coward.” The Xia smirked with a twitch so malicious everyone shivered at her words.
“Payne, go away! It’s not your sister! It’s only the White Bone Demon in disguise!” Wukong had seen it
through the disguise.
“Payne, run for your own good!”
His eyes did see reality, his ears did hear the words, his brain did get hold of everything shown before him.
Without a slight hint of hesitation, Payne galloped towards the monster as he snatched the dagger from her.
With all the might he had left in him, Payne sliced a lethal into the monster’s chest. Every single piece of
fragment in his heart broke free for they were no longer shattered into pieces - facing them healed him by
connecting the deceived smithereens back together into completeness.
“Clang!” The dagger dropped out of Payne’s hands. The monster was gone.
“Payne!" Wukong and Xia the faerie rushed towards him.
“I think it’s time for me to go back,” he breathed.
“There’s one thing you should know.” The faerie stopped dead for a moment as she inhaled deeply, “I
know you would never forgive me, Payne. On the day Xia committed suicide, I saved her - for the sake of
her body so that I could live in it when I break free from the golden hoop.” Regret washed over her like
the long slow waves on a shallow beach. Each wave was icy cold and sent shivers down her spine. How she
longed to go back and take a different path, but now that was impossible. The