To Escape Fate

by unbounded

Prologue-

The room was coated in a somber silence as the Emperor and his generals sat down. The Emperor was not afraid to break the silence.

"If we are going to have to destroy one of our cities, Nanshan. Its location is benificial to set up the attack on the northern tribes. due to it being right next to the various northern clans, normally this would be a bad move. However, the population is at its lowest in history." said the Emperor.

The Lieutenent general got out of his seat. "You can't be serious! We need to think about the citizens! Where will they go? There's no towns for many miles!" The lieutenant general said.

"It would ruin the ambush of the enemy if the civilians found out. It might be bad if there happened to be anyone who could be a spy. We also may need to investigate the unnatural occurence many years back causing most of the city to disappear." the Emperor said calmly. The Lieutenant general opened his mouth to speak.

"I recommend that you watch your words Lieutenant," said the Emperor. "I'm feeling merciful today, Lieutenant you will be stationed at Nanshan with your General and you will commence the attack after your arrival,"

"No way am I-" the lieutenant went silent. The Emperor got up and in the blink of an eye, the Lieutenant general's head had been removed from the rest of his body and was now in the hands of the Emperor.

"I admit there might be a lot of innocent lives lost if this works out. But it is for the good of Qin. This year will not be my last year of rule. Make sure this meeting doesn't go public, chancellor Zhou,"

"Your wish is my command. You wish for the Lieutenent's heir get sent there before we arrive I assume? We do need to dispose of him after all." The Emperor nodded.

There was a boy outside of the door listening to the conversation. He had purple hair that completely contrasted the rest of his appearance. He had grey eyes completely dull of color or interest or anything really. They were just empty.

The boy's name was Fan Fei. Despite what he just heard his father or the Emperor saying, he still had no emotions being displayed whatsoever.

Fan heard footsteps coming toward the large door. He darted across the long hallway with speed and precision. He hid himself around the corner right as the door opened. Only one set of footsteps could be heard stepping out.

Fan casually walked into the room as if he had just got there. He saw his father walking down the hall, in uniform.

"Yo," Fan said with the minimum amount of emotion. His father also known as the Grand chancellor turned the corner and looked over to him, and smiled.

"Guess what!"

"What?"

"We are moving to the city of Nanshan!" He said overethusiastically. Fan groaned.

"That run down city? No way, this isn't the city you remember. Barely a hundred people live in that ghost city. Especially since most people from the city disappeared mysteriously 20 years ago,"

"Doesn't matter to me! All that means is cheaper rent!"

"Whatever old man. It was getting boring here anyways," the general glared at his son.

"Didn't I teach you not to talk back? Or is it you want to go back to the 'Dark Place'?" Fan showed no signs of fear despite knowing that his fathers wrath was not something he desired.

"Whatever, I'll go." His father glared at him but otherwise stopped with the threat. He started walking away, once his back was turned Fan shivered in fear of that room.

The rising sun cast a shadow across the city of Nanshan. A small boy with bright blue eyes that were full of life jumped up from the floor. He ran his hand through his jet black hair. His name is Jingzi, and he lives at his parent's restaurant.

Jingzi ran full speed into the kitchen and saw his mother cooking for some early customers. "I'll be back Mom!" he shouted as he ran out the door.

"That boy. He grows up too fast, its kind of worrysome dont you think?" his mother said. Jingzi's mother had a look of warmth in her eyes.

"Yeah. He didn't even know it was his 13th birthday today." said his father.

Jingzi ran to the food shopping area. As he ran by one of the mostly empty shops he stole an apple.

"Hey kid get back here!" Shouted the shopkeeper.

"I'll pay you back!" Jingzi shouted back. The shopkeeper sighed like he usually did.

"Damn kid, he could just ask for the food!" he said sadly. "Its not like I get many customers anyway." he picked up an apple and started eating.

Jingzi threw what was left of the apple into the alleyway next to the school. He arrived at the school courtyard moments later. The school was devoid of life and there were no adults to teach at the school. Only a couple of kids including Jingzi attended the school.

"You're early Jingzi. What's up!" said Jingzis friend. He looked over to his friend that shouted his name. His name was Ling. His eyes landed on the boy. He had long black hair that was tied up at the top, so it hung behind his head. The most noticeable part about him was his dark red eyes. That and the fact that he was a couple of years older than Jingzi.

"What's up Ling? We playing tag again?" Ling shook his head.

"No, we can do that later. Today we could do something different,"

"Aw, I was really looking forward to tag-" Ling suddenly cut him off.

"Aren't you sick of tag, its boring and we have played it for like the last week. We're doing hide and seek and that's final!" Jingzi's smile came back almost immediately after.

"Don't tease me like that! I mean it's no tag but it sounds fun!" Ling chuckled. Jingzi stopped in his tracks. "Umm. Who's that over there Ling?" There was a boy with purple hair and grey eyes sitting against the school wall with his eyes closed. He sort of looked like a corpse, unmoving and not blinking. Jingzi reached his finger out to poke the boy.

"What are you doing? No, don't poke him!" Ling slapped Jingzi's hand out of the air. Jingzi stepped to the side and foolishly reached out to poke the boy. The boy suddenly grabbed his hand out of the air, his gaze now focused on him. Jingzi jumped in shock but the kid wouldn't let go.

"We were wondering if you wanted to play Hide and Seek?" said Jingzi nervously. The strange boy let go of Jingzi's hand.

"Fine."

"No, it's ok if you don't wanna," said Jingzi. There was an awkward silence, the boy covered his eyes and started counting to thirty.

"I mean, I was gonna seek but suit yourself!" Ling shouted as he ran away fast.

"15,16," echoed the voice of the strange boy. Jingzi ran inside the school and climbed up the stairs to the library. I'm gonna have to hide in here for now. Ling probably took my hiding spot I used yesterday. Jingzi thought to himself.

"Yo," said a familiar voice. Jingzi looked down at the white haired, purple eyed boy. It was his only other friend Wei, coincidentally also the only other person at the school. He closed a book that was in his hands. He looked up at Jingzi. Wei was a year older than him.

"Wei? Why hide here? Surely there are better places to hide," Wei frowned.

"I know, but I'm confident in this spot," Wei said. Jingzi faltered a little, not being too committed to having Wei change spots due to how stubborn he can be.

"Well, whatever. It doesn't matter much," Wei dug a book out of his bag. He had trouble getting it out at first but it popped out eventually.

"Here," Wei handed a book to Jingzi. He eyed it curiously.

"What is this?" Wei closed his bag. The book was massive.

"A gift." Jingzi looked at him happily.

"Thanks! I'll read every word!" Wei looked at Jingzi.

"There's only a few pages with words on them. I just needed to get rid of the book. It used to be my dad's, before he became a traitor and died around a year ago." Jingzi looked down at the book.

"Your father is dead? Why haven't you told me?" Jingzi put the book under his shoulder. He paced around the library with a neutral expression on his face. Wei sighed and pulled another book out of his bag.

"It wasn't that important, though he was Lieutenant general before he died. It wouldn't have mattered much if he was alive. So, you looking for a book or what?" Jingzi shook his head.

"Your weird sometimes, oh well, I'm bored," He noticed a book with a strange name. The Second World. What a strange title. He looked at the spot where the authors name should be, but it was empty. He was about to pull the book off the shelf when there were footsteps in the hallway.

No! I won't make it out of the door in time! Jingzi looked back at Wei, he had a rope is his hand. "See ya!" Wei jumped out the window.

Jingzi looked out the window and saw Wei swing and land on a building and cut the rope after he got on it. He stuck his tongue out at Jingzi. "You jerk, get back here!"

Jingzi jumped out of the window and hoped it was a soft landing on the ground below. He hit the ground and rolled. Then he got back up and ran around the corner. That was epic! Jingzi's inner celebration came to a halt when Ling suddenly came crashing down on top of him.

"Owww," Jingzi mumbled as he dusted himself off. Ling scrambled to his feet and grabbed Jingzi by the arm.

"Hurry! We have to run." Ling said in a rush.

"Why? What's going on?" Jingzi said in a confused voice.

"Just follow me." Jingzi shrugged his shoulders. This isn't something Ling normally does in hide and seek. Then again we don't play it much, strange. Maybe it's a new strategy? He thought as Ling let go of his arm.

"You must suck at hide and seek, cuz' you can't stick to any spots!" Jingzi said jokingly. Trying to lighten the mood.

"Shut up and run," said Ling. The grin on Jingzi's face faded away.

They turned to the next street corner. Jingzi asked what was in his mind."Is something wrong? Usually you laugh at my comments," Ling suddenly stopped. He wasnt looking at him but he was looking down at the street ahead of him with a look of horror on his face. Jingzi turned his head to look in front to him.

A mutilated corpse lied down in the middle of the street. When Jingzi saw it he dropped his book and threw up inside his mouth. What the hell! This can't be real! What in the world is going on! The sight was so sudden that Jingzi had not time to prepare himself. Ling noticed Jingzi had stopped and hunched over.

"Hurry up! We have to go!" Jingzi looked at Ling.

"But that person is dead!" Jingzi said in a panic.

"We arent though! We will be if we stay here! But if we run, we will live! I want to live!" Ling ran away without warning.

"Wait!" Jingzi shouted as he ran to catch up with Ling who had just ran around the next corner. But it was too late, when he turned the corner Ling was gone.

Jingzi ran into another alleyway, he froze. The strange boy with purple hair and grey eyes was standing upright while being covered in blood. What's that weird kid doing here? Jingzi looked down and saw a body. The person was definitely from Qin's military due to his uniform.

"You! What are you doing here!" The boy shouted at Jingzi.

"You killed him?" Jingzi said in a voice tinted with fear. The boy wasn't looking directly at him for some reason.

"Get away, now!" Jingzi couldn't move. The boy charged at him. Jingzi ran away into a different alleyway at the last moment. A guard slashed the air where Jingzi was standing moments ago. The strange boy ran deeper into the alleyway before he was seen by the guard.

Jingzi caught up with Ling as he ran out of the village gates. Little did the two of them know that somebody was following them.

"What in the world is going on Ling?" Jingzi asked while they ran. Ling stared into Jingzi's blue eyes with his red eyes. He turned his gaze back to the path he was running on.

"I don't know that much about it, but all I know is that the guards decided to attack the village,"

"The guards? How do you know-"

"They came into the school with their blades out, they were carrying some stuff into the place, and I barely got out before I ran into you," Jingzi started to breath heavily. No way... Aren't the guard of the country supposed to protect us? Jingzi thought to himself as he rejected the thought.

"Then I saw the ground on the other side of the school corpses! There was blood on the ground!" His eyes narrowed. "I don't know what happened to the rest of the village on that side, all I wanted to do was run!"

Jingzi was ready to break down and start crying, but he bit his lip to try and focus on the pain. The bite drew blood from his lip. Ling looked oved and could have swon he saw Jingzi's eyes change to red, he stopped and started panting for air. Ling looked over and saw that the boys eyes were the same blue as before.

"Why are you stopping? We barely even moved," said Jingzi. Ling looked at Jingzi with annoyance. Jingzi ran in place.

"Easy for you to say, you haven't even broke a sweat yet freak!" Ling was right, despite the fact Jingzi consistently ran pretty fast, all while holding some massive book under his shoulder, he still had not broken a sweat but he didn't feel fatigued either. Ling fell unconscious.

"I havent?" Jingzi ran in place. He wiped his head and found it dry.

Suddenly a guard jumped out of a nearby bush and charged at Ling. The guard's blade stopped right in front of his face.

Ling remained untouched as the guard coughed up blood and crumpled to the ground.

"You were following us, weren't you? We dont want to die yet!" Jingzi asked the boy who was standing behind the guard with a bloodied sword. The boy dropped the sword.

"It looked like it would be fun, but I guess it wasn't. How boring."

"Wait! Why did you save us? We aren't next, are we?"

"He wasn't following my personal rules, so I decided to kill him." He said with a matter of fact tone.

"Are they trying kill you as well?"

"Just follow me alright, I know a safe place to 'hide'." Fan picked up Ling and started running up into the forest.

"Normally I wouldnt trust you but, we arent dead yet so I guess I will." Jingzi thought as he followed Fan up the mountain forest.

"You know, we never learned your name? What is it?" Jingzi asked Fan almost ignoring his situation entirely.

"My name is Fan Fei." He said. Jingzi was hoping for a more emotional response, but Fan's face was devoid of expression.

"You don't have to tell me, it's just your name." Jingzi said jokingly. The silence that came after was uncomfortable to Jingzi since he was usually so loud around the rest of the village. But he kept his mouth shut and followed nervously.

The sun started setting on the horizon. The group of boys ran up the mountain to in hopes of finding the place Fan talked about.

"Where am I! Who are you? Is this where I repent for my sins!" Ling said as he awoke.

"Yeah this could be the place where we repent for our sins, depends on how Fan Fei is feeling though." Jingzi said in response, a shiver running down his spine.

"Yeah, this is the place." Fan said. Ling snapped a tree branch above the tree entrance when he got off of Fan's shoulder. Ling approached Jingzi questioningly.

"Why arent we dead yet?" Ling asked Jingzi.

"I don't really know, but we can't escape from him. He might kill us both." Said Jingzi, revealing how nervous he was.

The group of 3 boys advanced into the cave. The Jingzi turned around to look at Fan, his Purple hair draped across the left side of his face.

"Fan, shouldn't you be in front to give directions?" Ling asked. Fan looked back to the entrance of the cave. Then turned to face Ling before speaking.

"No, just go straight in it for now." Fan scratched his head and turned back to avoid eye contact.

Jingzi looked right back at Fan with an confused look in his blue eyes, the look broadly contrasted Fan's emotionless light grey eyes. Ling took notice of the confrontation, but didn't say anything.

"C'mon Fan! That makes no sense!" Fan looked back to Jingzi. His light blue eyes seemed to glow, even in the dark cave. Fan was annoyed at his urge to ask questions.

"Jingzi, now's not the time. Where I stand doesn't matter right now." Ling said as he glared back at the two boys who could not seem to get along.

"You sure-" Jingzi was cut off.

"You're right. It is strange, he might be planning something." Whispered Ling. They started to walk further in, with the only light source being the torch that Fan held in his hand. He had been dragging his hands against the wall, he came across claw marks on the wall.

"Do you believe in monsters?" Ling asked the two boys to distract them from each other.

"No." Fan said with nothing interesting in his voice. He had blank look on his face as he said it.

"I believe in monsters. My grandma told me monsters existed, and she hasnt lied to me before. She would lie to my parents sometimes though. At least before she died, now she cant lie to me at least!" Jingzi chuckled. He recalled the memories of his grandmother and frowned.

"I believe in monsters, they could be anything, anywhere, or even anyone!" said Ling ominously.

"Why do you believe in them though?" Jingzi asked Ling. He turned around and coughed in his hand.

"Um, it's a bit embarrassing, but it's because I read it in a book once." Ling had a gloomy look on his face when Jingzi started cracking up.

Ling's hand hit a gap between the walls. The light of the torch disappeared from behind him. The light disappeared? Whats going on? Ling turned around and nobody was there. "Where are you!" he shouted into the tunnels. He was met with was a deafening silence. Looking into the second path, he could not measure how deep it was with no light assisting him whatsoever. Ling turned around. This could be my chance to escape. He was met with a dead end. This wasn't here before, what's going on? Ling looked at the two tunnels ahead of him and decided that he was going down the new tunnel that he had discovered moments prior.

After walking down the path He started to see a light in the tunnel. "Guys! Is that you!" he shouted at the light. He ran down the cave to the light, but it was a dead end.What! A dead end? He continued to walk forwards. That's when he noticed something strange about the light.

"The light is coming from the ground?" Ling walked up to the light and saw that the ground was in fact, not the light source. There was a hole in the ground where the light was coming from. He looked down the hole.

There was a crumbling sound below him. Shortly after, the ground seemingly disappeared beneath his feet. He tried to grab onto something, lucky for him water was at the bottom of the pit which gave him a decent landing.

Ling swam upwards, he broke the surface of the water and gasped for air. He opened his eyes. The cave had a torch on the wall burning a blue flame. It didn't seem to have any heat or smoke coming from it.

Ling touched the flame to check for any signs of heat, he felt no heat whatsoever. What? I should be burned by a flame that size. Ling looked over to the center of the room.

There was a skull made out of some sort of shiny yellow mettalic material, it didn't look human. The skull was too small to be human. What is this? Fan got a closer look at the skull, it had writing on it that he could not read. He looked at the engravings closer.

Ling saw something he could read, it was a date written in the language of the ancestors. It was a simple date that he could easily recognize. 500 R.H.? This thing is 200 years old! I can only read the date. I don't think I would be able to translate it with my current level of knowledge.

Ling grabbed the skull to see if there was text on the back of it that was obstructed from view. Immediately he got a headache. I have a bad feeling about this.

"What? Ling's not in front of us anymore?" Fan said with a confused look on his face.

"Ling's gone!" Fan said to himself, his eyes widened in panic.

"Jingzi, where is Ling!" Fan asked. Jingzi looked around only to realize that Ling was nowhere in sight.

"Maybe he's just out of sight from us?" Jingzi said, not sure how to respond.

"He could be dead-" Fan said.

"Dead? It's a bit irrational to make such a claim so early." Jingzi said, not trusting Fan's judgement. "Wait, look around us Fan! We weren't here before! Where are we?"

They were not in the tunnel anymore. They were in a strange room that was mostly round on all sides with no entrances or exits on the walls around them. There was a hole in the ceiling with natural light flowing through.

Fan immediately looked around for an exit, he even knocked on the floor and walls. Unfortunately it was all solid rock.

"NOOO!" Jingzi cried as he hit the ground, his mood taking a complete 180. "This makes no sense! How are we even here!"

"Let's calm down, I'll look for a way out. You just do, whatever it is that you do."

Jingzi mood slowly got calmer. He dropped a book from his left hand. What the? A book? It can't be, I got rid of this book a while ago. He opened up the book, anything was better than waiting and doing nothing.

The book had a simple title. The Untapped Potential of Spirit. Oh yeah, Wei gave me this back in the city! And his dad is dead. I wonder if it relates to what happened back at the city. Jingzi opened up the book. The first page was empty. He moved the page, it was stiff like cardboard.

Jingzi tried to tear the first page but it wouldn't budge. He stopped trying to tear pages out and turned the page. The next page was also empty. He checked the next few pages and they were empty as well. There was finally some text on the tenth page.

There are two types of people in the world. The talented, and the non-talented. The talented are physically stronger and faster than the non-talented. The non-talented are the majority of people. Some are born with this special talent. I call it spirit. Each spirit manifests as some sort of energy that can be controlled based off of some sort of primal instinct. Every person's spirit has a unique power which can be almost anything you can think of... The text abruptly ended at the top of the page.

Wei looked up at the heavily clouded sky above him. The wind throwing his white hair into an unkempt mess. "A storm is coming? Damn, I need to find them before the rain covers their tracks." Wei was currently following the group's footprints which had led him deep into the uphill mountain forests. Rain started pouring down and the tracks disappeared. He saw a hole in the mountain further uphill. Wait, a cave? Did they go in? He could hear the ear splitting thunder that was above his head.

As Wei approached, he looked around the cave and found a broken tree branch above the cave. Wait, this tree branch makes it seem like they walked uphill further. This will make it difficult for me to help those two, Fan Fei is not a foe I want to have. Did they know I would be tracking them? No. that’s impossible. But I am gonna go with my gut, was it the cave, or uphill. As Wei focused on the decision he started walking. He started running up the hill, knowing that now was not the time to be indecisive.

After running up the hill for a couple of minutes Wei found himself over a flat plane of land. It was covered in tall grass, so tall that he couldn't see very far in front of him. He idly walked forward to see if he could find anything leading to his friend Jingzis location. All the sudden, he lost control of his footing due to the rain. Wei suddenly fell into darkness. Suddenly, he saw a bright flash of light before he fell into unconsciousness.

Jingzi kept flipping through the book when it started raining outside. He threw the book down in anger, as it was the only thing keeping him from boredom, and now it was soaking wet. A noise could be heard from the top of the cave. Suddenly there was a bright flash of light before he fell unconscious.

Fan sat in the corner of the room with a contemplative look in his eyes. He heard a noise from the top of the room and snapped his attention to the noise. He saw the rain pouring down through the hole in the ceiling. He looked down at Jingzi unexpectedly threw the now soaking wet book at the wall of the room. Fan didn't expect Jingzi to have an angry side too him. Suddenly a bolt of lightning came out of nowhere and hit the soaking wet book on the ground. The entire room lit up and then Fan was knocked unconscious from an unknown force.

Ling walked around the cave trying to get the right angle of light to see the skull better with when his foot got stuck on something and he started to fall. He fell, but the skull took the impact of the fall. It shattered on impact, suddenly a burst of light came out of the skull before everything went black.

Comments

[karnazom]

"It might be ." The King said calmly.

Srry mate but in Qin they are "monarchs" tio very specific because dynasty is like monarchy except much more weird

Also don't use this "." Way too much use this instead ",".

I would say more but my time to go to school draws near so I'll do it later. CYA

[unbounded]

Ah sorry, this isnt the qin dynasty of china, this is a different country from a different world. Therefore a different heirarchy.

[unbounded]

9780331
But thank you for the feedback. I'm gonna need all I can get.