Chapter 27 Chapter 26

Dylan realized she was still in the water, and the terror that followed almost made her panic.She jerked her eyes open to see the demons hovering above her head like a swarm of flies.She quickly closed her eyes, but could still feel the icy water lapping against her knees.It seemed that something was sliding around her ankles, like a coiled and coiled snake preparing to tighten her body, was this her own hallucination?Panicked, Dylan quickly lifted her left foot out of the water, but the thing swam to her other leg.This time there was no doubt—something must be there. Dylan screamed and reacted suddenly.With her eyes closed, she waded towards the shore.

Her gait is clumsy and laborious, as she lifts her sneakers fully with each step, shaking her ankles so they don't get caught again.She couldn't open her eyes.Her mind was blank, just like the starting point of all this experience - the empty carriage.In her imagination, the underwater thing was somewhere between a slippery eel and a claw-stretching crab, or like a monkfish, with a huge mouth full of sharp teeth.Thinking of this, she felt disgusted and frightened, so she could only continue walking without stopping until she heard the crunch of her feet on the cobblestones. Dylan was overwhelmed and exhausted.She collapsed, prostrate on the ground, her fingers touched the stones.It's ashore, she told herself, it's ashore, you're safe.

But she still didn't dare to open her eyes, she was completely lost.She knew there was a way up the mountain, but that way was in her wilderness, and there might not be one here.Even if there was, if she couldn't open her eyes, how would she find this way? Dylan lost his mind for a moment.Her facial features were twisted into a ball in pain, a drop of Mishui slipped quietly from between her tightly closed eyelids, and fell onto her hand until it burst open.She pursed her lips, her lips trembling, and her shoulders shook from sobbing. She's stuck here in a dilemma.Could it be that other souls can only stop here?

She stayed where she was for ten minutes, ten precious minutes of daylight. Suddenly a thought popped into her mind—maybe as long as she didn't look at those demons, she could still open her eyes.If she kept her head down and just stared at the road, unmoved no matter how much the things screamed for her attention, if she could do that...it would be better than sitting around until night.The pitch-black night, the biting cold, and the shrieking howls... Dylan knew that at night he would be doomed. She took a few breaths cautiously, opened her eyes tentatively, but only dared to lower her eyelids, waiting.Only three seconds later, a demon swooped down on the ground, scraping the cobblestones, and flew straight for Dylan's face.Dylan blinked instinctively, but still tried not to look at it, keeping his eyes on the ground.Finally, the demon suddenly changed direction, let out a resentful cry, and whizzed past her ear, and the wind blew a strand of Dylan's hair.

Dylan whispered, "Okay." Dealing with one demon was easy, but Dylan realized that now that she opened her eyes, other demons hovering above her head followed suit, swooping down on her side one by one.For a moment, the air was filled with black vortices, blurring the vision.But she was unmoved, stood up awkwardly, had to stretch out her hands to keep her body balanced, and was blown by the airflow so that she couldn't tell east, west, south, north, south, and the trembling air around made many goose bumps appear on her arms. She slowly turned her head and looked around, looking for the way.It was supposed to be near the sampan shed, and although the boat was still there, she did not see the ramshackle shed.Not being able to see the shed meant not being able to find the way, but did she really have to find the way?She knew she was going up the mountain, and that was enough.

That's all there is to it, because the afternoon is ticking by at an alarming rate. She looked at the ground, focusing on the smooth black stones, and then walked along the deep purple dirt road on the bank.The hillside was covered with tufts of vegetation, but not the heather and lush weeds she had grown accustomed to.The plants are dark purple in color, with leaves that taper into thin needles and stems covered in jagged spines.They stink, and when Dylan's jeans rub against them, there's a pungent rotten smell.She has now left the Lake District and the heat has returned.Her wet clothes became dry and stiff, and the speckled mud on them began to stick to her body with the dripping sweat.The top of her head was hot from the sun.

It was miserable.She couldn't breathe, she was exhausted, and every second the demon swooped down and tried to grab her.She didn't dare look up to see how far she had to go, but walking hunched over made her back ache.Now Dylan is terrified, in pain, exhausted, and she's crying again.The demons clucked and clucked, as if they could sense that she was about to give up resistance and give in completely.She couldn't seem to pull herself together anymore, tears blurred her vision, and her walk began to waver. The gravel road under her feet finally turned into solid rock, which showed that she was almost at the top of the mountain.Dylan suddenly kicked a stone that refused to give way, and tripped her foot. She hurriedly put her arms in front of her body, panting, her eyes still fixed on the ground that was flying towards her.

After falling to the ground, her hands were the first to bear the brunt.Then her chest also rubbed against the road, and she suddenly raised her head, only to find that she was looking into the eyes of a demon. For a moment she saw the malicious look on its wrinkled little face.Then it swooped down on her, and Dylan felt chills all over his body, just like sinking in a frozen lake before. As long as one demon is seen, it is impossible to avoid seeing other demons.They swarmed and attacked her together.Pulling and pulling, it penetrated deep into her bones.Being on the ground, Dylan first gave the condescending demons an opportunity.She felt her body sinking, sliding down bit by bit, as if the compact dirt road had turned into quicksand at this moment.

"No!" she yelled in panic, "Don't, don't!" She has gone through untold hardships to get to the present, but she is not here to die.Tristan's face appeared in front of her eyes again, those lake blue eyes were the panacea to get rid of the current bad situation, like a breath of fresh air, making Dylan suddenly full of fighting spirit.She stood up with great difficulty, shook the demons out of her hands and hair, and started to run. She felt hot on her legs, her lungs burst into sharp pain, and countless devil's claws hooked into her sweat-soaked T-shirt and invaded her hair.Dylan stared at the top of the hill, desperately trying not to let them catch him.The demons howled and buzzed around Dylan's head like a swarm of bees, but Dylan was still running.She had reached the top of the hill and knew it would be easier to descend.

It's really easy to go downhill.She was running too fast, too fast, too fast. Her feet couldn't keep up with the inertia of descending the steep hill.She has no chance of winning the fight with the demons—she doesn’t intend to fight them either, she simply lets herself fall along the inertia and rush forward, except to run as hard as she can, and to stand still as much as possible, she will do nothing think.If she falls here, it will be for naught.Her body swayed from side to side involuntarily, and she didn't have time to think about where her eyes should be focused. Suddenly, the safe house appeared, right in front of Dylan.The slope was much gentler, which allowed her to control her speed a little bit.She was only a few feet away from the hut, and she was about to rush in.The demons naturally understood this too, so they intensified their attack, circling close to her face, so close that she could feel their little wings flapping against her cheek.They circled her legs, trying to trip her up again.But they were too small, and it was too late.Dylan kept staring at the safehouse, and no matter what the demons did, they couldn't take her eyes off her.

Dylan flew around the corner of the house and rushed inside.She knew she didn't have to, but she slammed the door shut, and her ears were immediately cleared. She stood in the middle of the room, shaking and pumping oxygen into her tensely contracting lungs. "I made it," she said softly, "I made it." She felt very tired, as if she had just rowed across that lake.Due to the unresolved shock and the excessive secretion of adrenaline in the blood vessels, she once felt the heat surge in her body and her whole body was scorching hot.But in the dimly lit cabin, the air cooled quickly, and within moments she was shivering again. Dylan rubbed his bare arm.She wasn't all shivering from the cold, the demons were still flying around the window, their shadows swirling on the ground.She tried to ignore them, but it wasn't easy. Their howling pierced directly into her head, and the stone house was so silent that nothing could distract her from hearing. She sat on a chair, raised her legs to rest on the seat, rested her chin on her knees, and curled up into a ball for warmth.But that wasn't enough heat, and soon her teeth started chattering.Dylan got up and moved straight to the fireplace. There weren't any matches to start a fire like in the last safe house, but she remembered how she had lit a fire before, and how the oars had appeared in the boat.She piled the firewood in the small basket next to her into a crooked triangle, and then stared intently at the center of the triangle. "Please," she begged in a low voice, "please, I need warmth." Nothing happened.Dylan closed his eyes, meditated on his plea, held his breath, crossed his fingers and made a wish.First there was a crackling sound, and then a crackling sound.When she opened her eyes again, the fire was already lit. "Thank you!" she couldn't help whispering.Kneeling on the cold stone floor was uncomfortable, but she didn't get up.Although the fire showed no sign of going out, the weak fire could only emit a little heat, and she could only feel the wonderful warmth by putting her fingers directly above the dancing flames.The fire was also very faint, but the shadows outside the house were getting heavier and heavier. Dylan stayed where she was, wishing there were candles in the house. As the fire grew bigger, the chill gradually dissipated, and so did the chills that had been tormenting Dylan.The clothes were baked by the fire and gave off a stench of lake water. She wrinkled her nose, feeling that she was filthy, and couldn't imagine what she looked like now.Looking around, she saw a flush sink with an overflow, and a vanity.She'd done laundry in this safehouse before, and she remembered having used up all the soap the last time, but just being able to rinse the mud off and be cleaner than before made her feel a lot better too.She found the baggy suit in a drawer, and this time she didn't have to worry about Tristan seeing himself in this nondescript outfit. She secretly thought it was funny, remembering how embarrassing the scene was when she was dangling around the room with her thighs bare and her panties hung on a chair without any covering. Now that there's no Tristan to tell the story, the sink seems to be taking longer to fill than last time, and there's no bar of soap this time, she just doesn't know the difference between washing those dirty clothes with mud spots .But she did her best to scrub the mud off her clothes and hang them to dry on the back of the chair.She put on the baggy suit in the closet.The last time she had been in bed, snuggled up in Tristan's warm arms, this time she had ignored the bed, curled up on a faded rug by the fire, and there was no point in lying in it now.She was alone here, and the screams of demons were heard outside, and she would never sleep again. The night passed slowly.Dylan tried to clear his mind, just staring at the fire in a daze.This method was what Tristan had told her, and he had used it to pass the time at night when the spirits were asleep during the first few days of crossing the wasteland.It is not easy to be free from thoughts and desires—every sound outside makes her heart skip a beat, and she turns her head to peep out the black world outside through the window.Time passed extremely slowly, and finally the blood-red dawn outside the window woke her up, she let out a groan and stood up from the blanket.After sitting stiff all night, now all the muscles in her body are aching.Moving slowly and awkwardly, she shook off the ill-fitting dress and put on her own ragged, stiff outfit again.They still look filthy, but they smell better.Thinking of this, she lifted the hem of the T-shirt to her nose and sniffed carefully.For a moment she worried about her jeans, trying to roll up the hems again so that the sulphurous mud wouldn't splash on them so easily.Then she played with her hair for a while, trying to tie it into a neat bun. She knew that she was actually procrastinating on purpose.It's long past the time to go out now, she was wasting precious time during the day, but today is bound to be a bad day.She's already crossed the Lake District, yes, but now she has to cross the Badlands to find her next safe house. Without Tristan's company, the wilderness in front of him was almost featureless except for the red sandstone and black bushes, and it was a desolate scene.She had to concentrate on her journey, and she must never look at other spirits, nor at the orb of light that guided them, nor at the demons circling them.Oh, by the way, in addition to avoiding those, she has to find ways to find her own orb of light, which may or may not look like Tristan. Impossible, totally impossible. Suddenly, an irresistible sense of fear hit her, and she clung to the chair in front of her tightly, closing her eyes tightly to keep the tears from flowing.Crying won't solve the problem, and she is still facing a dilemma now-whether to move forward or backward.The boat was still there, right on the shore.She could row back, spend the night in the last safe house, and cross the dividing line again tomorrow.And then to be completely, utterly, eternally alone. Dylan took a deep breath, held it, and let it out slowly.She swallowed hard, putting her fear and doubts aside. She imagined what Tristan would look like when he saw her, when she saw herself coming back for him.She imagined the feel of his arms as he pulled her tightly into his arms, and the smell of him.She fixed these images in her mind, walked through the narrow room, and opened the door. As soon as she left the shelter of the hut, the demons who had been waiting for so long began to dance ferociously.They circled her and swooped down on her, just to catch her eye.She ignored the demons, keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the distant horizon, as if looking at them, but really staring into the distance.It's like there is a windshield in a car, and countless raindrops splash on it, looking out of the car through this glass.It was hard to keep her eyes out of focus, and it gave her a headache, but it was easier than staring down at the ground the whole time. At this time, the blood-red sun was mixed with smoky gray and dark purple, and it had not yet fully risen.Her bewildered eyes scanned the peaks and valleys, trying to make out something familiar to her—whether it was a road, a landmark, or anything else. nothing.She was almost certain that she had never been here before, and once again she felt a deep sense of dread.A demon whizzed past her ear without any risk, hissing menacingly at her, almost leaving her distraught and bewildered. Although she cringed a little at this moment, she was still trying her best to restrain her urge to retreat.She told herself that if she thought about it, she would always recognize something.But nothing.It was empty, nothing but hideous, jagged rocks and blood-red ground.Far ahead, a group of souls are drifting towards her. She cried out in her heart, "Where did you come from?" Safe house, they must have spent the night near a safe house somewhere.They all seemed to be coming from the same direction, and Dylan reasoned that the only way to go now was to head towards them, hoping their tracks would lead her to her safe house. Glad she finally made up her mind, Dylan strode forward with purpose.She was leaving the only safe house she could be sure of, and she tried not to think about it, because it only made the fear more intense and made it harder to fight the demons afterward. Tristan, she will meet Tristan today.She thought about it over and over again, praying silently.It gave her the strength to trudge through the sloping and bumpy road ahead, to keep going as the high sun scorched the ground mercilessly.This power made her ignore the shadows that kept rushing towards her that she glimpsed out of the corner of her eye. From day to mid-day, the sun is like a fire.Dylan began to meet the first batch of oncoming souls one after another.They were all heavy-footed, weary, and looked distressed, and many were wailing.There are souls who flicker and disappear, whose faces have no wrinkles, whose shadows are short on the ground, these are the souls of those who died young, children who died suddenly.They reminded her of the little boy with cancer that Tristan had ferried.Although, she reminded herself, that poor soul had fallen into the hands of greedy demons, and maybe now he was among these hideous shadows. She had to look at these past souls one by one, because whoever guides any of them now may be her ferryman.Yet without any twinkling orbs of light greeting her, one spirit after another passed her by, Dylan's hopes began to fade, and she was really looking for a needle in a haystack now.If she hadn't found him after all the trekking all the way to the wrecked train, she really didn't know what to do. Dylan was taken aback when she arrived at the safehouse, which she hadn't expected to find so close after finding the right direction.It was long before sunset, and the sun was still baking her forehead.She is still examining the passing souls, but there are far fewer souls coming, and they are all rushing to their next refuge. The small stone house was almost hidden by the huge shadow cast by the two peaks towering above it.If Dylan had been paying attention just now, she could see the deep basin ahead and recognize where she was now.Tristan had told her before that the valley had always been there. The safe house quietly appeared.Dylan let out a cry of relief at the sight of the house's dilapidated walls and decayed windows.Although the house is shabby and simple, it makes people feel warm and cozy.Although her legs were sore, she ran a few quick steps and covered the last distance.Exhausted, Dylan almost fell in through the door and stumbled to the bedside.She rested her elbows on her knees, her chin on her hands, and looked around.As much as she's glad she made it again, she's reluctant to come back here. She once spent a day and two nights alone in this safe room, hoping almost desperately for Tristan to come back.Looking at the fireplace made of wrought iron, and the only chair in the room—I sat on it for a whole day, looking at the real wilderness outside, and that was the first time she saw this scene—the past days Memories and emotions rush in like a tide, panic, fear, and helplessness. The sense of desperation was about to suffocate her.No, she struggled to shake herself off the emotion.Today is different from the past, and she is also different from before.She forced herself to her feet, grabbed the chair and dragged it to the door.She opened the door and sat down on the threshold, staring out, at the demons and the blood-red canyon. Tomorrow morning, she was leaving to find Tristan.She swore to herself that this time she would never be at the mercy of fear again, and this time she must find him.