Her trembling fingers clawed desperately at the sheets, dragging them up over her face as if she could block out the suffocating scent of sandalwood and roses, block out the walls that imprisoned her, and block out him.
Her body shook uncontrollably as a scream built in her throat, only to escape as broken, choking sobs.
"Let out... let out... please... please... I can’t... I can’t... I can’t breathe..."
Her vision blurred with hot, frantic tears that stread down her temples into her tangled hair. Her nails scraped against her scalp as she clutched fistfuls of her own hair, tugging violently, almost wishing she could rip her thoughts out of her skull to stop the pain.
Her heart pounded violently against her ribs, her lungs burning with each desperate gulp of air that felt too thin, too heavy, too poisonous in this room.
She felt her mind splintering at the edges, reality and terror crashing together until the suffocating darkness pressed down on her from all sides.
And then, like a dying candle finally snuffed out, her body went limp.
Her eyelids fluttered closed, tears still wet on her lashes, as her consciousness slipped away.
She fell back into unconsciousness, darkness pulling her down into its cold, silent embrace.
But even in the depths of sleep, peace never ca.
Instead, shadows clawed at her mind, dragging her into a twisted labyrinth of nightmares.
She found herself standing barefoot on a vast marble floor, cold and endless, stretching into darkness in every direction. The air reeked of sandalwood and blood, thick and suffocating as it curled into her nostrils.
"Yueyao..."
The voice slithered across the emptiness like oil, deep and low, dripping with possessive venom.
She turned wildly, searching for an exit, but there were no walls, no doors, only blackness and endless marble beneath her bleeding feet.
"Yueyao."
His silhouette erged from the darkness, tall and broad-shouldered, obsidian eyes glinting like death beneath the dim flicker of unseen chandeliers.
She stumbled back, her knees buckling as her trembling hands reached out blindly for sothing, anything, to hold onto, but there was nothing. Only emptiness.
"Please..." she whispered, her voice broken and small in the vast silence. "Please... let go..."
He smiled.
It was cold, beautiful, and terrifying.
And then his hands were around her throat, his grip like iron as he pressed her down onto the freezing marble. Her nails scraped helplessly against his wrists, her cries choking into strangled whimpers as his darkness closed over her, consuming her vision, her breath, her mind.
"Even if you run to the ends of the earth," he whispered, his lips brushing her ear as her vision dimd, "I will always find you."
Her body convulsed with silent, suffocating sobs as the marble floor beneath her dissolved into an endless ocean of black water. She plunged down into its freezing depths, sinking deeper and deeper, her screams muffled by the crushing darkness as pale, cold hands reached up from below to drag her further down.
In the suffocating blackness, she saw fleeting images swirling around her:
A tiny baby wailing in her arms, its cries echoing with a hollow, lifeless sound.
Shen Xuan stands in a sunlit garden, reaching out to her with tear-filled eyes, only for his small hand to turn to ash and crumble away before she could touch it.
Bai Zhi smiling sweetly as crimson blood trickled from her painted lips, dripping down her silk dress onto Yueyao’s trembling hands.
And finally, Shen Xiao’s face looming close, his eyes endless black voids that swallowed every last flicker of light.
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