Part 2: Illusions Under The Moon
Fingers tightened around a stubborn bottle cap, the knuckles turning white with pressure. Veins showed through a yellow-toned skin and the cap was twisted off successfully, leaving a few shallow cuts in the hard flesh of the unaffected digits.
Then, the injured hand clawed itself around the slender neck of the bottle and raised its opening to dry, parched lips, chapping with dead skin. Gulping down the liquid hastily left a few beads of lime-colored liquid streaming from a blue tinted lip down to a pale chin.
Blinking a few times, Wufei set the bottle down. Staring at its blank label, he blinked again and swayed as he stood, then he let the empty hollow glass slide from his grip and fall onto the floor, smashing at his feet, sending thousands of tiny shards scattering in a mad dash along the wooden floor.
Unfazed, he walked past the wreck, pieces of glass crunching beneath his shoes as he made his way out of Duo's room, past the closed door of the bathroom they shared, and on an invisible, slanted path leading into his room.
Dark shadows played across his wall from a lone tree outside his window whose branches shook violently in the biting wind. Flurries of shapes took place, overlapping, pushing each other out of the way like a shadow storm. The blurry figures taunted and teased him, almost scaring him at some points in taking form of monsters and other creatures that would require a vivid imagination in which he thought he had lacked.
He stumbled to shut the curtains across the room and sneezed as the dust arose from the old untouched fabric. Falling onto his bed, he flailed his arms and felt like he was falling down into a lake, floating, then submerging, then drowning.
And in his violent dreams, he found his lost family, his parents who embraced him in a strong and warm hug, and his beloved who was still as young and lively as he had remembered her, before she left him, like everyone else had. In those blissful times, he remembered who he once was, before war had struck and lashed at him, pulling him screaming from childhood to manhood with no mercy and indifference to the blood it had shed and taken from him.
Wufei opened his eyes and felt hot and sticky at the same time. It was somehow comforting, having this normally uncomfortable feeling again. Rising from an open field of tall and wild grass, he achingly stretched and was on his feet in an awkward instant. Looking down at himself, he scorned and inspected his dirt-stained, red sleeveless and white sweatpants.
Observing his surroundings, he realized he was standing in an open field on top of a rolling hill. A sense of dizziness settled in from the heavy weight of nostalgia. A girl's laughing voice called out to him, and he felt the blood drain from his face. Suddenly, he was cold all over while a wave of tingling sensations crawled up his spine. He hadn't been to this place since...
Turning around hesitantly, he gasped at what he saw. It was Meiran, his girlfriend who had died a year ago. So how could this be? It must be a dream.
'This has to be a dream,' Wufei thought to himself, but seeing Meiran as alive as she was dared to challenge that thought.
"Wufei, what are you doing standing around like that?" She laughed, her voice ringing out in his ears like it always did without that girlish annoyance he found in most girls. She was clad in a simple, thin, beige top that hung off her shoulder, wrinkled in between the gentle slopes of her breasts and ended in slightly ripped fringes where her navy shorts began, revealing tanned and long, lean muscled legs slightly hidden by the grass. Brown hair shined with the light of sun, and played around her shoulders while her equally dark eyes rested upon him.
Feeling the heat creep up into his cheeks, he almost stuttered and berated himself for being weak. However, being only a teenage boy with hormones, he could only admire her figure in silence and hope that she would not notice how he looked at her.
"Wufei?" She called out teasingly to him again, throwing him out of his reverie.
He cleared his throat and tried to sound irritated with authority, "What, Meiran?"
"What, Meiran?" She imitated his voice with more obnoxious tones. Snickering and with arms akimbo, she raised her head up high, "Nice try, but first off, you aren't in control of me. Second, you aren't as tough as you think you are, little man."
Shocked by her smart remark, he twitched with genuine annoyance. He was no little man, and would not be insulted by her. Switching back to his old mode, he forgot about retaining emotion and snapped, "Little man, huh? Well, I'll show you!"
"Try and catch me, Wufei, unless you think you're too slow for me!" Meiran laughed mockingly at him and ran across the large field that extended far down to the tiny dots of trees in a small plantation.
Dashing after her, his breath picked up, the air pumping in and out of his lungs faster, his feet leaping across slender, waist high, green stems of grass which leaned and swayed around him, a gentle breeze touching the very tips, moving them in a perpetual motion. Concentrating on her fleeting form and the way her hair whooshed about as she ran, he chased her under the heat of the sun and the high humidity, clouds hanging above in the air, hardly moving in the pure azure sky. It was yet another thing he had failed to notice and appreciate when he was home.
At the end of the field was a small lot of farmland where peach trees, in their ripe stage, flourished with branches that spread out like the frame of a fan with slight hints of green and yellow-orange fruit weighing down from the leaf-full branches. Yet, still, she ran through the trees, looking over her shoulder to see if he had given up. With renewed determination, he wiped away the sweat that was already forming at the side of his face and brow, and sped up, skipping over tangles of roots and ducking under low branches. Stopping in a crouching form under the shade of one of the large plants, he listened to her footsteps which rounded to the right. He cut and sneaked carefully across the trees so she would not hear him. Then, as he saw her stand still in wonder of where he was, he leaped up and pounced on her, bringing them rolling out of the patch.
Tumbling and stopping on the beaten and narrow dirt path that bordered the peach trees and a golden wheat field, he ended up lying on top of her, them both out of breath. Gasping for air, she laughed again, her hair sweaty and fallen in tangles and masses along a dirt path imprinted with the shapes of many footsteps. He found himself lost in her youthful beauty, in her warmth which he had now captured in his arms, burying his head into her neck, his hot breath colliding with her smooth skin. Her scent was fully intoxicating.
"Meiran..." he whispered, almost crying. He never realized how much he had missed her.
"Wufei..." she smiled, combing her hand through his thick, loose hair. "You caught me, little man."
Grinning, Wufei lowered his head to hers, their foreheads barely touching before their lips met, in a shy and chaste kiss. No longer hesitant, Wufei made the next kiss longer, enjoying the softness of her lips against his, of how sweet she tasted and how she left a minty taste in his mouth when they drew apart.
"Hey, you kids! What are you doing on my property?" A loud voice yelled from a figure behind the peach trees. A portion of his straw hat and jeans could be seen through the layers of leaves, and he was obviously approaching them.
Quickly scampering up to their feet, they ran from his yelling voice, out into the field, and down the hill with the wind whipping and attacking their loose clothes and hair, pushing them back as their feet touched the ground with each long stride, their hands still joined together. At the foot of the hill, they slowed down and looked back up the hill, the sun still bright above in the afternoon as they caught their breath and smiled at each other, chuckling at each other's bedraggled appearance.
"Meiran," Wufei began before a loud explosion sounded beside them.
Opening his eyes wide, Wufei immediately felt nauseated and vomited into the bucket conveniently placed beside his bed. Someone patted his back as his stomach still convulsed when there was nothing left to release. Leaning over his bed for a while, he closed his eyes and felt the clumps of hair slide over his disgusted face.
"Wufei, you okay?" A voice asked. And it wasn't Meiran's.
"Yes. Leave me be." Wufei sat up, swatted Duo's hand away, and promptly left his room and went into the bathroom.
The light flickered on automatically, and Wufei peered into the mirror, observing his appearance. His normally clean hair was oily and disheveled, puffy in some places and flat in others. His breath no longer tasted of mint, but of the sickening taste of undigested food.
Rinsing his mouth out, he turned to Duo who was standing in the doorway. Staring at the American's worried face, he turned away, full of shame, not only for himself, but of the memories he had disgraced with his failures.
"Wufei...are you-" Duo asked and was shut up by Wufei's glare.
The Chinese boy, looking very dangerous at the moment, stepped towards Duo with a threatening look on his face. Suddenly, he fell to the ground, his back hunching over as he put his face into his hands and cried.