Chapter 292 Demon from the past
Chapter 292 Demon from the past
Yan Mei's phone rang, a jarring noise in the near-death stillness of the environment around her. The unknown number displayed on her screen shouldn't have caused a sense of foreboding to swell in her mind but it did.
She eyed the phone for one brief second, weighing impossibilities before she clicked the call "hello" her voice sounded too frail, too wispy, and just like that, all the time between then and now vanished and she was just as lost, just as alone and even more vulnerable because she had so much more to lose.
"Hello my sweet little kitty, tell me that you've missed me. Wang Lu is not playing nice" the voice was urbane and friendly, yet only a fool would miss the cold tread of menace beneath all that conviviality.
It was just a voice, after all, it didn't sound any different from that of any average male but the memory made it much more, it shouldn't have knocked a hole in her confidence and reduced her to that person, that thing cringing on the floor and waiting hopelessly for the next blow but it did.
"Gu Zhi"
"Hello Dear, I have a gift for you, check your phone, and let's meet up at our favorite place" he instructed before clicking off abruptly.
Yan Mei froze, the words set off an avalanche of horror in her mind, images rose in her mind unbidden to blind her in a deluge of terrorizing memories.
She knew what it would be like but she opened the video and made herself watch it. It started as a mundane image, nothing special until one realized that the man sprawled indolently in the chair was tied just like to expose all his body.
She tried to steel herself for what was inevitable, but she ended up winning when the first blow landed. Her hand tightening around her phone until her knuckles shone white.
She waited until the very end of the video, taking note of how much he had enjoyed it.
It seemed impossible but it was back, it seemed unreal. In the back of his mind, a voice clamored that it was not real, that Gu Zhi was dead, riddled with bullet holes and rotting in an unmarked grave. That Wang Lu was just, out, somewhere, anywhere apart from there.
She had to go even if she didn't want to, even if every single cell of her body clamored to run away, she couldn't allow herself to be that weak, she needed to be strong. For him, for her, even if it broke her. The abyss lay just in front of, just beneath her feet and she was holding on to her sanity by her fingertips.
"It's time," she said and the stationary bodies around her flowed into action around her until she was the only one left. "It's time" this time she told herself softly and stood up, ready to confront her special hell.
*******
Yan Mei stepped into the warehouse, and she couldn't stop the wave of fear that rippled through her body. The space was too familiar, her body recalled the dank dry air, with that faintly musty quality too well. The shadowed alcoves with the light bulbs enveloped her in a macabre embrace, it felt like home; if a home was the place she had bled the most if the home was the place she had been so broken she couldn't even begin to recognize pain as something different from her.
Home, where every ache, every anguish bled together until her every existence throbbed. The home was begging for death while these walls swallowed her screams.
The memories came faster now, drowning out reality until all she could see was the blood that seemed to ooze from every bore, even her hair was sticky with it. And the click of another metal instrument coming for her body.
"Hello little kitty, I see you remember me" he stood in the middle of the halo of light bulbs, allowing the light illuminate him from every angle. But even if the room was dark, she would know it was him, she would recognize that air of dread anywhere.
He remained himself, unassuming, even genial but she knew, he was most dangerous when he was well pleased.
"Gu Zhi" the sight of him drove the words out of her mouth, a tortured exhale. She could feel the tremors in her hand, a response to him that she hated, a response that drove his menacing smile even wider
"Do you remember the fun times we had here?" Gu Zhi asked, idly gesturing to the empty room around them. It used to be a well-stocked torture chamber, complete with a cage for her. If she squinted, she could almost see it, the bars and the chains. "You couldn't get enough, you kept begging for more." Her torturer reminisced with a straight face, his eyes riveted on hers, enjoying her every reaction.
"Gu Zhi" her voice cracked midpoint and the name trailed off into a whimper that pleased him to no end.
He paused, before moving to the side and allowing her to see her dear ex husband. She involuntarily moved closer, a desperate need to touch him filled her, to make sure he was alive but the fear froze her just a few meters from them but close enough to see every bump and discoloration on his face. Anger burned in her gut, an emotion that was quickly smothered by helplessness
Wang Lu's face was stolen and bruised, his nose sticky with clotted blood, but even from the distance, she could see he was effectively gagged.
That reminded her of some nights, some other times when she had been even denied the ineffective release of screams. The metal ball sitting like a heavy judgment on her tongue, leaving only enough space to breathe. It was a tricky position, she could either choose to breathe or swallow the saliva flooding her mouth. Any attempt to scream led to choking, and how he pushed her, just waiting for her to fall off the edge, just like now.
"I love the way you say my name now, I like it even better when I'm all you can think about, all you can see," Gu Zhi replied languidly moving to the tray of instruments and caressing them casually.