HAHAHAHA HEY HEY HEY YOU GUYS.

Being the ABSOLUTE FUCKING GENIUS I AM, I totaly uploaded the wrong chapter last time and didn't notice until just now. I haven't given anything away, but I did kinda disrupt the story flow a little HAHAHA.

SO.

If y'all could just flip on back to the PREVIOUS chapter, that's where the new chapter actually is :'DDD


He didn't understand how two people could stand to have tea while being surrounded by dead bodies.

Sure, the garden was nice enough, with roses and pretty birds and a clear blue sky. It was like something out of a Victorian novel, if you didn't count all the corpses. Those weren't so pretty. They were everywhere, though, leaning against the furniture and hanging off the rosebushes like some kind of sick, macabre decoration. Once in a while he could have sworn he'd seen a body twitch. It was horrifying and he wanted nothing more to get out of this place. But he couldn't move. He wasn't surprised about that, though. He rarely could move the way he wanted while he dreamt.

Oh sure, it was a dream. How could it not be? Where in real life would he see two men chatting away in a makeshift graveyard? The men themselves were not real, they couldn't be. Not when one of them had a pair of great white wings on his back that moved and fluttered about while he sat. And he was wearing a dress. Yao didn't often see that in real life.

The bodies really were moving. Jerking and writhing, trying to stand up. Yao felt a bit sick, because even though this wasn't the first time he'd had this dream, it still wasn't at all pleasant. He really wanted to run away, but the two men at the table didn't seem too bothered. The corpses were getting to their feet and the strange winged man and his companion didn't even blink.

In his dream, Yao brought his hands to his face. He needed to wake up soon, because he knew what was going to happen from here. The corpses would come towards him and he'd try to run, but before he'd be able to turn around, the ground would open up and he would catch a glimpse of Hell. At least, he assumed it was Hell. Heaven would not have a man standing in it with a predatory gleam in his eyes.

And Yao would fall in, and he would keep falling, falling, falling, like the girl in Alice In Wonderland. It would take less than a minute for him to get tired of screaming, although the man with the gleaming eyes would watch him expectantly. And he would keep falling toward his death, and he would pray for someone to save him, but the two men at the table would only continue sipping their tea. And Yao would fall.

He took a deep breath as the corpses started to take their first steps, the first stage of the nightmare. He pinched his leg, punched himself in the face, kneaded his forehead and told himself to just wake up already.

And to his relief, he did.

There were no more dead bodies. Only his ceiling, and the stuffed panda he'd brought from home as a keepsake. Yao sighed and rolled over in bed to glance at the window. There was no gap of light streaming in from behind the curtains, meaning that it must have still been the wee hours of the morning. He yawned. Normally, he was an early riser, but today he really just felt like sleeping in and forgetting all about his shift at the restaurant. But then again, going back to sleep might mean having the same wretched dream again.

His phone was buzzing. Groggily, he reached out and groped for it on his bedside table, managing to get to it after just ten seconds. Scowling, he held it up to his face. The light from the screen almost blinded him.

Someone had sent him a text message. He read it, still squinting because of the bright light. The message was rather longer than the ones he was used to, and there was no return number. Don't forget that with you, dreams have a deeper meaning, read the message in Mandarin. He sighed and put the phone back down.

Messages from the dead had become a part of his life, ever since he'd received his very first cell phone. They didn't faze him anymore. Sure, other people tended to get a bit weirded out when he mentioned it casually in conversation, but for the most part Yao knew that people didn't believe him. It didn't matter much. He knew he was talking to the dead, despite the rather unconventional method being used here. He'd asked once when the spirits had learned to use text messaging, but to this day he'd never received a clear reply to that.

"Fair enough, but I haven't had a prophecy come true since I was a child. Now my predictions are always wrong. I think I'm losing my touch." He whispered it, because it felt wrong to make noise in the silence of his apartment. Still, though, the sounds of New York City's night life could be heard from the street. His phone vibrated again. He looked at it.

Have you ever stopped to think that perhaps you are becoming more powerful as time goes by?

Yao actually laughed at this, although the sound was still thick and hoarse from having just woken up. "With all due respect, what part of that did you not understand? I said that thingsdon't come true for me anymore. I'm not looking into the future. I think I just have an over-active imagination."

There was quiet for a while, and Yao wondered if he had offended the spirit with his harsh words. Well, he hadn't really been harsh, but the spirits were understandably old-fashioned and took offence at the slightest hint of disrespect.

Contrary to his fears, however, his phone buzzed again after about five minutes. He almost snatched it up, ready to apologise for his rudeness. He was a good Chinese man after all, and respecting his elders was in his nature. But instead of the admonishing he'd expected, the message actually made him smile.

"Okay, maybe you're right," he said, chucking the phone aside and burrowing back under the covers. He had a long day of work ahead of him, so he'd try and get some more sleep under his belt, nightmares be damned. "I won't abandon all hope just yet, alright?" he continued. His speech turned into incoherent mumbling as he drifted off once more. "I'll listen to you."

In less than ten minutes, he had fallen back into the arms of sleep. He'd have no more nightmares that night, although tomorrow was probably going to be a different story. His phone lay on the ground next to his bed, silent for the rest of the night. For a full minute, the light stayed on, displaying the message still on the screen.

Your ability is to see into the future, Yao. Exactly how far into the future is anyone's guess. Be ready.