CHAPTER 4: UNFORGETTABLE NIGHTS

CHAPTER 4: UNFORGETTABLE NIGHT

Up in the puffy white clouds, Cecilia flew gracefully like a heavenly fairy as her white, long dress trailed behind by the wind. She giggled like a child as the cool breeze brushed against her face. Up ahead, the clouds started to move to the sides and revealed a mystical paradise. It had gigantic mountain peaks covered with green foliage, and numerous of waterfalls poured out from the center of the mountains’ mouths, like clouds, into the deep blue sea. As she got closer, she saw transparent plants and flowers that glowed neon colors. It wasn’t like any other scenery that she had seen before. It was magical.

She landed on the paradise and felt the soft green grass underneath her bare feet. Excited, Cecilia ran through a field full of beautiful transparent flowers, laughing and twirling around. Blue butterflies started to fly around her and she became amused by its friendly gestures. One of the butterflies landed on her hand and felt it tickled in her palm, making her giggled.

Suddenly, everything that was once beautiful faded into darkness. In seconds, plants and flowers around her started to wither away, waterfalls poured out thick blood, butterflies vanished into thin air, and the animals around the valley morphed into horrific demons. Their teeth became razor sharped and their pupils turned blood red.

From distant, shadowy figures lurked from the dark forest. They stared intensively at her with their glowing red eyes, making her feel very uncomfortable and scared. She turned around and tried to fly, but her body wouldn’t let her. It grounded her on land, making sure she cannot escape. Then she heard an evil laugh from behind. It got louder…and louder…as if it was right beside her. She panicked and covered her ears tightly with her hands so she couldn’t hear it, but it was too late. The evil laugh had already embedded into her mind. All of a sudden, the mystical paradise disappeared underneath her feet and she started to fall into the dark abyss, screaming in horror.

She quickly woke up, screaming from the top of her lungs and breathed heavily as she tried to catch her breath. Then she looked around and realized that she was in her dark bedroom. Relieved, she let out a sigh and realized that it was only a dream. It had been a long time that she had nightmares, so why now? She shivered from the thought of it and quickly got up to put on her robe.

---

 In Kai’s place, he was awaken by the doorbell and forced himself to get up from his bed. He stood up and yawned while stretching his arms. Kai looked at the clock and saw that it was only three o’clock in the morning.

The doorbell rang again. “I’m coming!” he shouted being annoyed by it.

 He dragged his tiring body to the door and opened it. To his surprise, he saw Cecilia stood there, dressed in her white cotton robe and trembled in fear. Worried, he helped guide her inside to his place. Kai closed the door and as he turned around to face her, she had already hugged him. Her hug was so tight that he felt her body shaken in him. He wrapped his arm around her and stroked her back to comfort her.

 ---

She lied next to him on his bed, staring at the bright stars from his opened window. Kai held her in his arms and pondered of a similar scene from their childhood years.

In the orphanage one night, he felt something pressed down next to him on the bed as he was sleeping. His little body started to tremble in fear, thinking that it might be a ghost. He wanted to sneak a peek at it but was too afraid that it may stare back, grinning at him. Then a familiar floral fragrance filled the air around him and he knew who it was. Cecilia. He opened his eyes and saw her tiny, silhouette body asleep next to his. Relieved, his body tension lessened; but at the same time, he was puzzled by her strange behavior. He didn’t want to wake her up, so he let her slept next to him through the night.

The next morning, the boys saw them sleeping on the same bed and they didn’t dare to question them. After she left, they gathered around Kai and told him about her strange behavior. They told him about a boy who came into the orphanage a month ago prior to his arrival. He didn’t have a name, so they called him ‘Nameless’ and became Cecilia’s older brother.

One day, there was a ruthless boy who came into the orphanage and started trouble with all of the children. On one fatal afternoon, she and Nameless snuck up to the roof to eat some candies that they had stolen from the staff lounge. They met the bully there and he started trouble with them. He stole their candies and started to call them names. Then the bully pushed Cecilia and she fell to the ground, scraping her knees and cried in pain. Nameless got upset. He ran up to the bully and tussled with him. Since the bully was a bigger boy, he pushed Nameless away from him and he staggered backwards uncontrollably. Then Nameless’s small body fell off the cement rail and plunged to his death.

Nobody knew what happened next, but all they knew was that the bully was hospitalized after the incident. The staff and police questioned her about it, but she was too shocked and couldn’t remember what happened. At the end, they could only rule it as an accident.

After the incident, it was hard for her to go to sleep. She woke up in the middle of the night, screaming in terror, waking everyone up in the girl’s unit. There were many times when she snuck out of the unit to go sleep on Nameless’s empty bed as if he was still there to comfort her.   As months went by, her nightmares lessened and so were her nights sleeping next to Kai. Although he missed her presence, he was happy that she was healing inside from the trauma. That was what he wanted for her anyway; to get better. If she was happy, he was also happy.

Tonight, he was surprised that she had nightmares again and wondered what triggered it this time. He snuggled closed to her to get comfortable. “Do you remember when we were young; you would come to my bed and sleep? It was the only way that you felt safe and protected,” he explained.

 Those were the good old days. Just like ‘Nameless’, Kai was like her older brother who took care of her. He protected her, never judged her, and never asked questions. He made her forget her grief, her guilt, and her night terrors. Her eyes started to get heavy and yawned. The next thing he heard was her breathing heavily. She had fallen asleep and he smiled.

 He leaned close to her ear and softly whispered, “When we’re married, I will promise to protect you with all my life. Then you won’t have any more nightmares…my lovely Cici.” He kissed her on the back of her head and continued to cuddle her until he fell asleep also.

 ---

The day of the Mission.

It was a clear night at Mystic Mountain. Only billions of stars shone in replaced of the moon to be its light. Tsui Man and five of his men stood outside in front of the forest, waiting for the other parties to show up. A couple of minutes later, they heard faint footsteps and turned to see Alex Wong and his five men walked toward them. Comparing to him and his men’s outfits-black muscle shirts and camouflaged pants, Alex Wong and his men all wore expensive suits as if they were going on a business trip. The most ridiculous thing was that out of all the men, Alex Wong stood out the most, wearing his bright white suit. Tsui Man placed his hands on his hips and scoffed by their outfits. He felt like he was working with bunch of newbies that needed to be taught.

 “Tsui Man, you must have waited for a while,” Alex Wong said as he and his men stopped in front of them.

 Tsui Man smirked, “Let’s cut to the chase. Where is my money?”

 Alex waved his hand to signal one of his men to come forth. The man came up to the front with a black leather suitcase and opened it to reveal millions of dollars in cash in front of Tsui Man. Tsui Man’s face lightened of excitement from the amount of money. The man closed the suitcase and handed it to him. Tsui Man took it and gave it to one of his men.

 “Alright, now that’s done. Let’s go in shall we?” said Alex Wong.

 Alex Wong and his men started to enter into the forest, but Tsui Man stopped them. “Wait, don’t rush in there too quickly. You may need these.”

 One of his men handed Tsui Man a night vision goggle. It looked like a pair of small binoculars that had a band wrapped around it to secure it in place. “We need to see in the dark, and at the same time, be invisible for the cops…” Alex Wong thought that was a genius idea and happily nodded.

 Then Tsui Man stared down at Alex Wong’s expensive white suit. “I suggest that you change also. You will attract the cops with that fancy outfit of yours.”

Alex Wong put his hands on his hips and scoffed upsettingly. He thought about what Tsui Man said, and then stared at one of his men.

“Give me your clothes.” His man didn’t hesitate and did as he was ordered.  

 After the exchanged of clothing and putting on their night vision goggles, they were ready to enter into the forest. They stepped inside, and a gust of wind blew at their face as if the forest was angry at them for disturbing the peace. They weren’t bothered by it and continued to move inward.

 Tsui Man was curious of Alex Wong’s agenda. All he knew was that Alex Wong came to him for help. “Tell me, what so interesting about this pillar and cave shit?”

 Alex Wong smirked, “As an antique collector, I have stolen many old scriptures. There was a scripture that talked about this Mountain thousands of years ago. It said that this place holds mystical places to different dimensions and the pillar is a gateway to it. So if I get my hands on that pillar, I can travel to other dimensions as pleased.”

 Hearing his ridiculous reason, Tsui Man started to laugh out loud. “You are full of shit do you know that?”

 Alex Wong huffed angrily and pulled out his gun to aim at him. Both of their men pulled out theirs also and aimed at each other.

Alex Wong stared dead straight at Tsui Man with his cold eyes and Tsui Man knew this crazy fool was serious. “Dare to laugh at me again shithead? Just remember who have the upper hand around here,” warned Alex Wong.

 Tsui Man huffed angrily and replied coldly, “Just remember this too. I am your source of getting what you want. If you kill me and my men, then you get nothing.”

 Alex chuckled and nodded. “This is what I like about you Tsui Man. You fear nothing.” He lowered his gun down and the rest of the men did the same also. Then he continued, “If I didn’t have to worry about these shitty cops, I wouldn’t need you. But since I know this is going to be big, I do.” They continued to walk through the dark forest.

 Tsui Man wanted to know more about his fairytale. “So, what are you trying to achieve with this then?”

 Alex Wong smirked. “Fortune and Power.”

 Tsui Man raised a brow. Alex Wong saw his confused look and smirked. “Just imagine the endless possibilities…selling it to the highest bidder or go and rule other dimensions…” He grabbed something underneath his shirt and pulled out a necklace. On the necklace was a circular pendant made out of the purest green gemstone, and carved on it was the celtic diamond-shaped symbol. “I stole this pendant five years ago at Mu Gala. According to the scripture, this pendant was Princess Ru Lan’s of the Celestial Realm. If I am correct, this little thing is the key to that dimension and more.” he explained excitingly.

 Tsui Man contained his laughter by not wanting to upset the crazy fool, so he nodded instead. He didn’t really care what Alex Wong’s purpose was, but he knew that the pendant was a rare piece of jewelry that may worth a fortune and would love to get his hands on.

 ---

 At the excavation site, twenty mixtures of CCIA agents and police officers guarded the whole premises, making it impossible for anyone to enter in. A bomb went off two hundred yards away from the excavation site, alarming the officers and agents. Some of them ran to check it out while others stayed behind. Then another bomb went off on the opposite side and more ran to check it out, leaving a few of them to guard the site. 

 One of the officers scoped around the area when suddenly a bullet pierced through his forehead killing him instantly. His body dropped to the ground, alarming the other officers and agents. They quickly raised their guns to aim at the dark forest and saw nothing. Suddenly, a couple more bullets came out of the dark and shot two more officers dead. The other agents ran for cover and tried to figure out where the shots were coming from. They started to shoot in the dark in hoping that they hit something, and then they stopped. From the distance, they heard gun shots fired and their colleagues’ dying cries; they knew that they were ambushed.

 One of the Agents that hid behind a tree yelled out to the dark forest, “COME OUT AND SHOW YOURSELF!”

 Suddenly, the agents heard footsteps coming out of the forest, crushing the dead leaves and twigs as the person made his way toward them. The agents came out of their hiding place with their guns aimed at the person. It turned out to be Alex Wong. He walked calmly toward them and took off the night vision goggle.

 They saw that he had a gun in his hand. One of them yelled, “Drop your weapon and put your hands up!”

 Alex Wong smiled and did as he was told. He dropped his gun onto the ground and put his hands up for them to see. As the agents got closer to him to make an arrest, out of the blues, shots were fired from the dark. Bullets went through the agents’ bodies, killing all of them on site. Alex Wong snickered at the dead bodies on the ground and thought that it was too easy. His men came out of the dark with their night vision goggles and guns in their hands.

 Seconds later, Tsui Man and his men ran out of the dark forest toward them after killing the others. He saw dead bodies on the ground and turned to Alex Wong. Impressed, he clapped his hands sarcastically, “Not bad.”

 Alex Wong smirked and then they turned to look at the excavation site. They were amazed by its massive size. The cave was nine feet high and ten feet wide. The team of archaeologists had done a great job in digging that the cave and the pillar were fully exposed from the ground up. Excited, Alex Wong ran to touch the pillar and felt the rough sand texture.

 “This is amazing!”

 Tsui Man walked toward the pillar and looked at the carvings. “Do you know what these shapes mean?”

 “No. All I know is that it’s not from this dimension,” he answered.

 Alex Wong took off his the necklace around his neck and felt the pendant’s smooth gemstone against his hands. He compared the two symbols from the pillar and the pendant and saw its similarities; he began to laugh excitingly.

 Tsui Man looked around and asked, “So, where’s your portal then?”

 Alex Wong stared at Tsui Man and smiled, “Inside.”

 They each took out their flashlight from their belts and turned it on. Tsui Man turned to his men, “Keep a watch outside while we go in.”

 “Yes boss.”

 Tsui Man’s men watched as their boss and the others engulfed by the cave’s darkness. Suddenly, they heard deadly cries echoed inside followed by some shots fired. Out came Tsui Man and Alex Wong from the cave, stumbling backwards as if they were hit. Both men fell onto the ground and the pendant was dropped close to Tsui Man. He saw the pendant and quickly turned to see if Alex Wong noticed it. Alex Wong was still busy trying to get up, so he quickly grabbed the pendant and put it inside his back pants pocket.

 From the dark cave, came out Kai and Cecilia. They stood cool with their cornered lips curled up. Tsui Man recognized them and grinned, “So it’s the love birds, Yang Kai Li and Cecilia Lin.”

 Alex Wong was surprised to hear Tsui Man knew their names and turned to look at him, “You know them?”

 Tsui Man nodded, “I use to work for the Black Ops so I know everything.”

Alex Wong thought about his pendant and searched his neck area. He started to panic. “My pendant! Where is it?!” He started to search around on the ground like a mad man while Tsui Man secretly smirked at him.

 Kai and Cecilia glanced at Alex Wong strangely, wondering what this ‘pendant’ that he was desperately trying to find. Enraged, Alex Wong stopped searching, pulled out his gun, and shot at Kai and Cecilia. They dodged the bullets in time and quickly pulled out their guns and shot back at them multiple of times. Tsui Man, Alex Wong, and two of Tsui Man’s men dodged the bullets, but the other three men weren’t as lucky. The bullets had pierced through their head and chest areas, killing them instantly. All of them ran for cover and exchanged gunshots through the night until there were no more bullets left.

 Tsui Man took out a small bomb that he made and threw it at them. They saw what it was and quickly dodged it, but the bomb exploded in mid air, forcing Kai and Cecilia to fly a couple more feet away. They landed hard onto the ground and became dazed by the explosion. Kai got up, but Tsui Man was already in front of him. He punched Kai’s stomach a few times and then threw a side hard punched to the right cheek. Kai staggered backwards and met Tsui Man’s other two men. The men teamed up with Tsui Man and continued to fight with him.

 Meanwhile, Cecilia and Alex Wong exchanged fist fights. Alex Wong swung a couple of punches at her but she swiftly dodged them. Then she punched his abdominal followed by an upper cut to the chin. Alex Wong flew backward and hit the ground. He became dazed by the blow and shook his head to refocus. As he got up, small tint of blood was on his cornered lip, so he wiped it with his thumb. 

 Upset, he charged toward her. They exchanged more punches and kicks, bruising each other along the way. Then he secretly pulled out a big pocket knife from his back pocket belt and slashed her side arm. It started to bleed but that didn’t stop her. She ignored the pain and continued to dodge his knife strokes. He tried to stab her in front, but she grabbed a hold of his wrist and hit his chest area a couple of times. Weakened by her hits, she finally grabbed the knife from his hand and slit his throat. Blood started to ooze down as he made gargling sound. Then she ended it by stabbing him on the stomach with his own knife. He fell to the ground dead.  Cecilia saw that Kai was still fighting with the three men and ran to join the fight. She jump kicked one of the men from the back and he fell uncontrollably to the ground. She helped Kai fought one of the men while he fought with Tsui Man and the other.

 As Kai was fighting with them, Tsui Man took out his huge knife that hung from his side belt and slashed Kai on his collar bone and chest area. Tsui Man then tried to stab him, but Kai got a hold of the knife and knocked it out of his hand. The knife dropped to the ground and then Kai did a couple of combo hits on Tsui Man’s chest area, forcing him to stagger backwards. The other man charged at Kai, so he quickly picked up the knife from the ground and threw it like a dagger. It flew with great speed and pierced into the man’s chest. He fell to the ground and died instantly.

 Cecilia was punched a couple of times on the face and body by the man and fell to the ground. As she was trying to get up, he picked her up by the neck and lifted her tiny body off the ground. Losing air circulation, she tried to pull his fingers out from her neck but his grip was too strong. Then she gave a hard kicked to his groin and he instantly let her go. She fell to the ground gasping for air while the man held onto his groin in pain. She saw that this was her opportunity to kill him, so she quickly ran behind him and wrapped her arm around his neck in a lock. She tightly squeezed his neck with her arm and the man started to lose air circulation. He raised his arms to try to grab her but couldn’t, and his vision started to blur. She then yanked her arms to the side hard and heard a ‘SNAP’. His neck broke and died.

 Cecilia let go of the dead man and was sore and exhausted. She turned to see that Kai was getting beaten badly by Tsui Man, so she ran to help him. She intervened and started to fight with Tsui Man while Kai recuperated for a bit. Tsui Man finally kicked her and she flew, hitting the pillar. She bounced off of it and was on the ground, bleeding from the mouth by the hard impact. Kai saw that she was injured and charged toward Tsui Man. Although Cecilia was seriously injured, she got up and ran to join the fight.

 All three of them got into a lock position, unwillingly to release each other’s grip. Suddenly, the hieroglyphic writings from the pillar glowed a bright white light, and where the celtic diamond-shaped symbol was, it glowed a bright green light. They turned and stared at the bright lights, frozen in awed. The lights became so bright that they began to squint their eyes. Then their bodies started to shine as bright as the lights until no outline of their human form were left to see. A couple of seconds later, the lights disappeared and everything was back to normal. However, the three of them had disappeared.