Chapter 15 Chapter 14

Dylan didn't know how long he had been lying on the ground.Her eyes never left the doorway, Tristan could walk in at any moment.Though he may have weathered the wind and was out of breath, he will be safe.He'll show up safely and take control of the situation.This is required. Her heart pounded violently in her chest, tearing at the stiff muscles.Her physical strength had been exhausted from overwork, and her body began to tremble. After about a few minutes, but it felt like a long time, the cold began to invade her body from the ground, and penetrated deep into the bones.Her trembling limbs began to stiffen, and she knew she had to move.

She sat up from the ground, her muscles ached and she couldn't help but let out a groan.She still didn't dare to take her eyes away from the door.Tristan could arrive at any moment as long as she kept looking there.A voice deep in her subconscious told her that the idea was absurd.But she clings to it, because it's the only way to keep the fear from rising up in her throat and screaming uncontrollably. Dylan braced her trembling legs as best she could, and with the help of the door frame, she finally stood up.She clung to the crumbling piece of rotten wood, terrified and tired, with no strength left.Standing on the threshold, she could hear the whispers and growls of demons outside, though something near the sanctuary muffled the noise.With her feet planted firmly behind the threshold, she only poked her head out to look at the night sky, hoping to catch a pair of blue eyes or a mess of blond hair.Her eyes found nothing, but the continuous noise disturbed her ears.The demons who tried to pounce on her were repelled by some kind of magic power in the safe house, and let out angry roars one after another.Dylan gasped, pulled his head back, and the noise died down immediately.

Dylan backed slowly through the door and into the house.She stepped on something and nearly tripped, and in that fleeting moment, she took her eyes off the door for a moment, but the room was so dark she couldn't see what she had stepped on, which gave Dylan the creeps.She couldn't stand being alone in the dark at night, it would drive her crazy. fire!There are always fireplaces in these cabins.But she had to turn and walk away from the door, and that meant facing the reality that Tristan might be gone.No, she told herself, Tristan would be back.By the time he arrived, she should be just in time to start a fire.She groped her way through the house, and there was really a stone fireplace at one end of the cabin.She knelt down and groped with her fingertips.Her fingers brushed the ashes and pieces of wood in the grate.To the left of it she found some dry firewood, but there were no matches, and no electronic switches like the ones at home that would make the electric flames dance while the heater blew out hot air that was as desirable as the lights.

"Please." She whispered.She realized that she was begging an inanimate thing to function, but she couldn't stop herself, "Please, I need this." With the last word, her composure collapsed, and a pent-up sob I can't hold back anymore.Her chest trembled, her eyes were closed, and the first tear rolled down her cheek. A crackling sound caused her to open her eyes, and she instantly showed horror.But the scene in front of her made her gasp in surprise.There was a flame in the grate, weak and flickering in the wind blowing from the door, but stubbornly continuing to burn.Dylan's hand reached out involuntarily, and grabbed a handful of firewood.She carefully placed them on the fire, holding her breath, for fear that her own careless hands and feet would kill the nascent flame.

They persisted, but continued to crackle in the wind.Dylan looked back at the door, feeling like closing the door shut off hope, and meant keeping Tristan out, but she couldn't let the fire go out.Like a movie in slow motion, she slowly stood up and moved towards the door step by step.She stopped there, struggling with the thought, wanting to rush out the door in a desperate search for Tristan.That would mean surrendering himself to the demons, and Tristan didn't want that to happen.Unable to look any further, she closed her eyes and closed the door. The latch closed with a soft click, and Dylan felt like his heart exploded.Tears blurred her vision, and she stumbled across the room misty-eyed until she reached what felt like a bed.She threw herself on it, crying loudly, as if her whole body was crushed by the crying.

Fear surrounded her, and she was trying to restrain a strong desire to rush out the door shouting, kicking and beating. "Oh God, oh God, oh God!" she said over and over between sobs.What should she do?Without Tristan to guide her, she had no idea where she was going.She would get lost, wandering the wastes until nightfall, an easy prey for the demons.Does she have to stay here and wait?Who will take care of her? If she doesn't need to eat and drink, will she have to stay here forever?Like those cursed princesses in absurd fairy tales who look to the prince to save them? Then something else came to her mind.Loneliness and fear brought back all the things I hadn't had a chance to think about since the accident.Joan's image appeared in front of her eyes, and she imagined where she would be now, whether her funeral was held or not.In her imagination, she seemed to see the scene when her mother received the bad news from the hospital, saw the extremely shocked expression on her face, saw her beautiful curved eyebrows frowned, and covered her mouth with her hand, as if This seems to hide the fact.Dylan thought about the fights they had had, about the mean, annoying things she had said, and the things she wanted to say but hadn't said.The last decent conversation they had had turned out to be an argument over whether she should visit Dad.She could still recall the look on her mother's face when she told her she was going to see him—Joan staring at Dylan as if Dylan had betrayed her.

She went from one thing to another in this way, as naturally as day and night alternated.Her father, what kind of reaction would he have?Who will tell him?Will he be sad for this daughter he doesn't know at all? Suddenly, Dylan thought about the situation and his own death, and suddenly touched the heart.It's so unfair.How much did she lose in this death?Future, family, friends...all gone.Has even her soul ferryman left her now?No, Tristan was not only her ferryman, he had slipped away just like everything else in her life. Dylan thought her tears had dried up long ago, but when his face suddenly appeared in her mind, hot, salty tears ran down her cheeks.

It was the longest night Dylan had ever experienced.As soon as she closed her eyes, all kinds of haunting images flashed in her mind--Jan, Tristan, the horror of her father without a face, and the nightmare on the train passing by.The night passed slowly and sluggishly.The fire in the fireplace turned to a faint orange flame, and the darkness outside gradually dissipated, with a gleam of light seeping in through the windows.The first dawn light dispelled the dull gray and brought some life to the cabin.But Dylan didn't notice any of this. She continued to stare blankly at the logs in the stove until their fiery warmth dissipated completely and turned into a heap of ash, and the burnt wood smoked helplessly in the grate. .Her body was petrified and motionless, as if she was frightened by the sound of shells on the battlefield, she lingered in numbness and sluggishness.

It wasn't until mid-morning that she realized that dawn meant she was free to run out of this somewhat prison-like sanctuary and go find Tristan.What if he was lying somewhere in the valley, wounded and bleeding?What if he had been waiting for her to save him? She glanced at the door, which was still shut against the horrors of the moor.Tristan was outside, but so were the demons. Are the shadows in the valley thick enough for them to strike?Was the morning sun enough to keep her safe? At the thought of going out to the wilderness alone, she hesitated again. But Tristan was still out there.

"Get up, Dylan," she told herself, "don't act pitiful." She pushed herself out of bed and walked to the door, her whole body aching from yesterday's overwork.She held the doorknob with her hand, paused for a moment, took two deep breaths, and tried her best to turn the handle to open the door.But her fingers just wouldn't follow orders. "Enough." She muttered. Tristan needs her.With this in her mind, she finally turned the door. Immediately, the cold air rushed into his lungs. Dylan was so cold that his heart stopped.When she tried her best to have a panoramic view of everything around her, her heart started beating wildly again.

The wilderness she had spent the past few days almost getting used to was gone.There are no rolling hills, and no luxuriant grass.The grass had been covered with dew, seeping into Dylan's jeans.The climb up the hill along that meadow was a pain in the ass.And now all that is gone.The pale gray sky was gone, and so was the gravel path that led to the safehouse last night. The whole world turned into a large expanse of dizzying blood red.The two mountains are still there, but now they are covered with a layer of purple dust.There is no vegetation on the mountain, and there are jagged rocks on both sides of the steep hillside, escaping sideways, like a knife and an axe.In place of the gravel road was a sooty passage that looked as if it had been paved with boiling asphalt.It rises and falls, constantly bubbling, as if alive.Layers of dark clouds covered the blood-red sky, drifting slowly toward the western horizon.The sun glowed fiery red like a burning hob. But that's not the scariest thing yet.On the pavement, hills, and trails, thousands of things slide, crawl, and wander (well, Dylan can't find the right words to describe what they look like).They were human, but vaguely visible, with only a very rough outline to tell their age and gender.Dylan stared carefully at the closest human figures, but they didn't seem to see her, or even know where they were.They were focused on one thing only—following the glowing orbs that lit their respective paths. Over the heads of each figure hung a mass of black shadows, a group of black ghosts hovering around and in front of them.When Dylan saw them, he gasped in horror, worrying about the humanoids. However, although the demons circled around them, they always kept a certain distance.It suddenly dawned on her that the spheres must be at work.The demons dare not get too close to those dancing balls of light.However, she observed that the brightness of the balls of light weakened where the shadows were most intense, and the demons dared to swoop down and get closer.She stared at all this obsessively, and her mind suddenly became brighter. She is also one of these people.This is the real wasteland, and Tristan is the sphere of light that guides her.Without this ball of light, is she safe outside?If she left the safe house, would the demons attack her during the day?The only way to be sure was to step outside the magical protective circle of the hut, could she do that?As she thought about it, she walked slowly to the door with unsteady steps. no.Leaning out a little, she heard the hissing and howling of the demons.Enough, Terrified, Dylan flinched back and slammed the door shut.Her back was against the door, as if to keep the demons out. She struggled for only a few seconds before collapsing to the ground with her arms around her legs, her head hanging on her knees, and she began to sob. "Tristan, I need you," she called softly, "I need you!" Her voice was hoarse, and tears rolled down, "Where are you?" She cried and said, her lips trembled violently, and her words were broken and vague, "I need you..." She's stuck here, and not only does she not know where to go, but if she gets out, the demons will catch her.The only safe place is this hut, but how long is she going to stay here?How long was she going to wait here for Tristan? Time passed by slowly.After a while, Dylan recovered a little.She stood up and pulled a chair over to the window.She sat down in her chair, her head resting on her folded arms, which leaned against the window sill.The scene in front of me is the same as what I saw at the door just now. A crimson wilderness is dotted with dazed moving souls, who both follow others in a daze and are followed in a daze. This scene makes people dumbfounded.The sight of those demons made her stomach churn, and she remembered their claws and the screams that echoed in her ears. Dylan's back was sweating at the thought of facing them again, and she knew she couldn't go outside today.Tristan might still be fighting to get to her from outside, and she had to keep the hope that at least she could wait another day. At sunset, orange, bright red and wine red afterglow intertwined, absolutely brilliant.Afterwards, it started to get dark.As night fell, whoops and screams echoed around the cabin.Dylan had lit the fire early—this time with matches she had found above the mantelpiece.It took longer to start the fire this time than the night before, but finally she caught the fire.The fire devoured the twigs, and the larger logs were lit, crackling and crackling, bringing a warm and comforting light.She no longer sits by the window. The darkness frightened her, and she couldn't tell what was staring at her from outside.She lay on the bed and stared at the flame until her eyelids slowly drooped and she slipped into a half-dream and half-awake. When she woke up hours later, it was still dark outside.She stared at the ceiling, and for a moment her mind could go anywhere.She felt like she was back in her tiny bedroom at home, surrounded by wall-to-wall posters of movie stars and her cuddly bear, or in a strange house in Aberdeen, ready to come the next day Get to know her dad.But now, she is not in these places.She's hiding in a safe house, and she's dead.Her ribs seemed to be bound tightly by steel rings, making it difficult for her to even breathe. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she tried hard not to let them fall. It was warm in the cabin.The fire she had carefully lit was still burning in the hearth, and shadows danced on the walls, but it wasn't the shadows that pulled her from sleep.Lying on her side and watching the flames, she realized the real reason for waking up.There was a figure against the firelight, and he stood there motionless, and she was so frightened that she was half numb.She watched carefully, and the figure began to become clear. It was a figure she was familiar with, and it was a figure Dylan feared she would never see again.