He turned around.
The little girl's face was deathly pale, and her eyes were full of fear. But when she looked at Li He, they filled with a trace of indescribable dependence.
"You're safe now. Do you want to come with me?" Li He pointed toward the darkness beyond the cell door.
Under normal circumstances, the space beyond the door would be the fourth level of the Liminal Space.
He wasn't sure he could protect her, but leaving her here to wait for death wasn't his style.
If he couldn't protect her, that meant he wasn't capable enough. But abandoning her outright would leave his conscience troubled.
The little girl took a small step forward and tugged at Li He's clothes.
Li He smiled faintly, took her cold little hand in his, and leaped into the darkness with her.
His five senses returned.
A cool, damp breeze flowed into his nose, and he felt a slight swaying beneath his feet. Li He opened his eyes and surveyed his surroundings.
The fourth level of the Liminal Space.
He was in a slowly moving cable car.
The car was small, three meters square, with no doors. Glass windows took up both side walls, and beyond them lay a thick, impenetrable white fog.
The white fog obscured everything.
There was no sky, no ground, no landmarks of any kind.
Only the occasional glimpse of steel cables above the car proved that they were moving upward.
Li He sat on one side of the car with the little girl beside him.
Across from them, on the opposite bench,
sat a solitary Teddy Bear.
A brown, fuzzy Teddy Bear, just the right size for a child to hug.
It sat upright, its two button eyes gazing ahead, its mouth sewn into a curve of