All I could see was fire.
The fire burned, as if I'd returned to the day Gu Mo was killed.
That was where it had all begun.
I hadn't been able to save Gu Mo. After that, I hadn't saved a single person in Greenleaf, either. Now I couldn't save Fatty, Skinny, or the others. I couldn't save... my family...
The flames slowly died out.
My heart seemed to grow cold along with them.
I saw Chen Yihan's face.
His head hung in the window, suspended by fishing line.
At the severed end of his neck, muscles writhed as a cow's body grew from it, but the four legs were those of a sheep. These bizarre bodies began to give off the aroma of roasting meat. Their hair fell away like shed skin, and their surfaces turned a charred yellow, as if baked by invisible flames.
Something moved beside me.
Chen Yihan's body began to transform, sprouting a fish's tail and an octopus's tentacles.
The moving body soon fell still, roasted by invisible flames until it gave off the smell of cooked meat.
I tried to reach out, but a flock of crows swarmed in through the window.
The black crows rushed inside, flapping their wings and cawing wildly.
By the time I came to my senses, they had swarmed back out.
All that remained in the room was the fishing line hanging from the window.
The aura of death had vanished.
I lay in bed. Through the haze, I saw doctors and nurses surrounding me.
I saw Chen Yihan standing not far away.
Then my consciousness cut out.
When I came to again, I felt utterly drained.
I saw light spilling in from outside the hospital room, and moonlight beyond the window.
Chen Yihan was gone, but when I