Wen Reian

2005 years after The Long Night

Lêung Shãn

The man had turned down another alley, toward the poorest part of the city. Reian could hardly see because there were no streetlights. Only the silver glow of the full-moon overhead highlighted and cast shadows across the freshly fallen snow.

He wasn't aware of anything past the sensation of his own breathing. Reian would inhale, the cold burning his lungs as he exhaled soundlessly. He kept to the darkest parts of the streets, until he saw that the man had turned into a dead end...

Feeling like a shadow himself, Wen Rei watched as the man practically stumbled into the wall at the end, then cursed and turned to go back. It was then that their eyes met.

What was apparent immediately; Jin Yu's father had the same eyes as his son. What was also clear was the fact that Wen Reian had stepped directly in front of the man, and wasn't moving.

A crooked grin spread across the man's dirty face. He stumbled a little as he reached down and grabbed an empty bottle off the street. He held it up, seeming to check if it really was empty, then frowned and smashed it against the stone wall.

"Scram, boy!" He growled.

Pieces of glass had shattered as far as Reian's feet, and he saw the way the man was glaring at him now, the sharp edges of the bottle in his hand glinting like fangs in the moonlight. But so did Wen Rei's eyes; shining with all of his hatred and grief.

"I said-"

As the man lurched towards him, Reian's mind flicked through every bruise and broken bone that Jin Yu had suffered by this monster's hand.

Why does he get to live, and not A'Yu?! It isn't fair-

"Hey!"

Wen Reian had slammed his hands into the man, knocking him so off balance that he fell. Hearing the scrabbling of filthy hands as he tried to grab onto anything; a shard of glass?! Reian's robes? The boy lashed out-

Gasping for air as a bitter taste like blood filled his mouth, Reian kicked. Over and over and over... until the man was hardly conscious. Wen Rei was shaking. Crying, feeling as if he was doing everything he could to kill a deadly snake that had threatened to bite.

You don't get to live! You don't get to hurt the ones I love-

As tears blurred his vision and his blood boiled, Reian panicked as he realised he could still see the rise and fall of the man's chest, the broken bottle still in reach of his hand.

No! You have to die!!

"Angh-" the boy was choking through his tears, every breath feeling like daggers sliding down his throat.

With what was left of him, what was left of his mind; hatred and fear and suffering... everything inside Reian suddenly rushed out at once.

He screamed-

And as he did, he felt something strange. A coldness at the back of his neck. It made his fingers tighten and his legs give out. Collapsing onto the wet pavement beside Jin Yu's father, Reian's stomach rolled, the boy seeing stars.

He felt like he'd suddenly sent all his energy out of his body. He didn't know where, until his eyes fluttered weakly over to the man beside him, and his sunken face-

A shriek stopped in Wen Reian's throat.

For half a wonderful second, he thought the man was dead. But it wasn't just that Reian had killed him...

Unblinking, unable to move at all, he watched in abject horror as the man's face and body began to crack and crumble. His wide open eyes turning entirely white much faster than they should, his cheeks hollowing until Reian saw every outline of the man's teeth and jaws-

Dragging himself away across the ground on his hands and knees, Reian's heart was pounding so fast in his chest he thought it might rip apart. Out of the corner of his eye, the man's body was still decomposing; un-healing so quickly that in a matter of seconds, all that was left of him was a skeleton and shreds of clothing.

When Reian thought it was over, those too turned to ash, mixing with the snow and disappearing into the night.

I... don't-

Seeing black spots dance across his vision, Reian's adrenaline forced him to stand, but as soon as he did he was hunched over against the wall once more, convulsing and crying as he dry heaved and choked through every breath.

Shivering and sweating at the same time, for a while the boy debated lying down again and letting himself freeze to death in a place where no one would find him. What ended up stopping him was remembering Xie De's words. His insistence that Reian not harm himself in some way...

Wen Rei held his breath until the nausea passed. He felt that if his brother was going to his grave today, he should bury himself in a similar one, side by side.

And that's just what I've done...

The sun was rising by the time Reian even thought of going back. Before he did, he stopped at the fountain in the middle of town, washing his hands and his face numbly. He expected everything to look different now, but the world was still exactly the same and only he had changed.

He approached the hospital at last, but wasn't able to force himself to go inside. Wen Reian stood at the doors and watched as others went in and out. What finally ended up moving him were desperate, shaky hands on his shoulders; someone pulling him inside as their voice barely pierced Reian's daze.

"Reian! Wen Reian?!"

Slowly coming into focus in front of him was Sun Xieren's face. Reian wondered absently if he was dreaming now, because the boy was smiling widely.

That would be nice... he thought. If this was all just a dream I could wake up from. I don't think I'm that lucky-

Suddenly Xie De's voice echoed through his head, Reian snapping to attention suddenly as his friend shouted.

"Where is he?!"

Then Xie De was in front of him, racing down the stairs from the second landing, and even as Reian felt his eyes watering again, Xie De was there, pulling him into the tightest hug and then loudly rambling in his frostbitten ear;

"You're okay? You're fine?! Everything's going to be okay... oh thank god-"

Wen Reian felt hot tears stinging his eyes, his throat closing up when Xie De at last released him and gripped his shoulders hard.

That was when Reian saw that the older boy was smiling too...

"He's alive!"

Until that moment, Wen Reian had truly wondered if he was awake or not. Feeling his heart as it suddenly began racing once more in his chest, he didn't think to question anything as he was already running up the stairs with the other boys right behind him.

Before then, he had also been curious if he would ever feel alive again. Strong enough to speak or move or breathe. All his questions and answers died though, as Reian pressed his face against the window of the tiny hospital room.

There lying in bed, as bruised as he'd left him but nowhere near as pale, Jin Yu was blinking his eyes weakly as several healers examined him, all sharing equally confused expressions...

Wen Reian heard Xie De panting softly behind him then, as Reian had got there first. Then all he could hear was the older boy's voice as it rang with hope-

"He woke up out of nowhere, like a miracle."

As Reian stared at Jin Yu's eyes, they suddenly fixed on him...

Those eyes. His father's eyes. His father's life-

Backing away from the window, the boy began to shake. He was shivering so hard that his teeth were chattering and eventually his knees collapsed beneath him. Xie De kneeled in front of him and spent several minutes trying to calm him down, the whole time talking about what a miracle it was, and how it must have been something that Reian had done when he'd healed A'Yu.

No, that's not it. You don't understand...

Wen Rei wanted to speak these words but they remained sealed inside like all the breaths he was afraid of drawing.

I did this. Somehow, I traded their lives. My connection to Jin Yu's dwindling soul must have still been in effect without me noticing.

It was me-

I killed, instead of healed.