That night, Shuo had a strange dream.
His dream was full of light, golden and warm, like the sunshine he had basked in as a child, yet it trembled violently, like a frightened little animal.
He stood in the light and looked down at his hands. His palms were bare, holding nothing, yet that light was clearly flowing out of his body, streaming up into the sky and burrowing into that gray cloud.
He tried to catch it, but he could not hold on to any of it. Like water, the light slipped clean through his fingers.
"Shuo."
Someone was calling him, the voice so faint he could not tell whether it belonged to a man or a woman. He turned around. There was no one there, only a field of dazzling light.
"Shuo."
The voice drew closer and closer, as though it were right beside his ear.
He snapped his eyes open. The hole in the shed roof was still there. Dawn had not yet broken, and the sky was pitch-black, but something sat in the opening-a pale purple eye, staring fixedly at him without blinking.
Shuo did not move. He simply lay there, meeting its gaze.
Three seconds passed. The eye blinked softly, then vanished in an instant.
He sat up, his heart racing and pounding in his chest.
He looked down at his hands. A speck of light was actually floating above his palm, as faint as a firefly in the night, flitting between his fingertips.
"Fuck."
He swore under his breath, a hint of irritation in his voice.
Woken by the noise, Sai sat up, rubbing his eyes. "What's wrong?"
Shuo held out his hand, his voice a little grave. "Look."
Sai leaned closer and stared for a long while, looking utterly bewildered. "Look at what?