บท 172: How cruel and twisted

When Liu Sumeng woke, he was trapped in a place both familiar and unfamiliar.

There was the scent of iron, rot and mold, and when he tried to move sounds of chains rattling. A wet dribbling and groans of pain. He was in a dungeon. Not this…

He couldn't be awake—a jolt of panic, horror and despair. There were voices, and they sounded like they were coming from above. But he was drowning in the darkness and breath came in short the world narrowing and growing distant.

Just a nightmare.

Just have to wake up.

It's over now.

It wasn't real, it wasn't--

"Sumeng!"

The voice zapped through Liu Sumeng's nerves, his eyes flew open and he was gasping from the shock, the disjointed feeling of being assaulted by polarizing emotions.