Cold!
The chilling sensation forced Shen Yu awake. His heavy eyes was groggily pried open and instantly a deep red spread over his vision.
What the....
Shen Yu rubbed his eyes with the back of his palm which was stained with dirt. Making them sting even more.
After some seconds of blinking the pain away, he slowly sat up, looking up he saw a red moon above his head.
Is it the solar eclipse today? Shen Yu doubted. No that can't be. Even a solar eclipse shouldn't look like this!!
It was huge with thick, clog with vein like streaks that squirm on its surface like a parasite clinging to it's host.
Shen Yu's heart skipped a beat, staring at the moon, if it could be referred to as that. The hair on the back of his neck stood on edge, and his breathing noticably increased.
The violent red spilled all over the sky, dying it with it's shade creating a hue that envelops the whole city.
Why was he lying on the ground of the bridge?
Noticing something was off, Shen Yu quickly got on his feet. The sudden moment cause an item he hadn't noticed was lying on his blossom before to fall.
The sound, crisp against the marble floor was echoed loudly in the still air, making him flinch.
Shen Yu subconsciously looked around. It was as if something was going to jump out in the next minute.
Nerves tense he hesitantly bent down to pick up the thing that fell.
It was a small notebook about the size of an adult's palm.
The rough back cover looked odly familiar to him.
He had seen this notebook before!!
It was packed in the big box containing his father's belongings when he died.
Shen Yu had looked through it before but the book was completely blank.
No longer calm, he turned the first page open. A chill went through his spine.
He couldn't think about why it appeared here with him in the first place, but there was words written in it now.
There are definitely the same book, so how come?
Thick bead of sweat slid down from his temple, rolling behind his ear. The air was cold, but there was this lingering stickness that seem to condense on his skin like a thin firm. Metallic and heavy.
It made him very uncomfortable.
Where am I?
The moment the thought dropped more words started to appear on the page.
As if there was an invisible person next to him that he couldn't see writing it.
With shaky hands, he pressed down the biting feeling to toss the strange notebook away. Calmed down and started to read.
No matter what he was already here. He might as well find out what was going on.
The first part showed an information profile of himself.
Name: Shen Yu
Age: 17
Status: Student
District: 23, west side Yinfeng.
The newly written part was still vivid. Shen Yu rubbed his thumb on the page and it came out completely clean. No stain.
'Between life and death, you might find yourself in a place that does not exists but bleed through the crack of reality. Ghosts, ghouls and the unliving crawling in every crook and cranny, waiting. This might be the last and best day of you life.'
Tip: survive in the pathway and locate the door back to the world of the living before the end of the day.
Penality: DEATH!
"Huh...is this some kind of a joke?"
After reading it over and over again, he confirmed there was no mistake.
Shen Yu did not understand much, but he did know that whatever this is wasn't going to be nice.
Flipping through the journal he finds a card with a fading, rustic door drawn on it, inserted right between the middle age.
After studying it for a moment, he confirmed that it couldn't be more ordinary.
Shen Yu was suspicious but since he found this notebook here this might be a clue to finding his father.
Although everyone said he was dead, Shen Yu didn't believe it. After all there was no corpse only that he died on the business trip.
Shen Yu clenched the notebook in his hand tight.
Looking around the city was the same as the one he lived in but looked old and desolate with a dark red moon hanging in the sky, bleeding a sea of red hue that enveloped the whole city in a thick mist.
Where was he supposed to find the said 'door' in such a huge place?
Forget by the end of the day, he might not be able to cover half the ground in a week?
"And what does it mean by the penality is death? I am not really going to die, am I?" Goosebumps rose in his skin as a lone breeze blew past and he shivered, eyes farting around cautiously.
Wether it was a harmless threat or not, Shen Yu wasn't willing to find out.
But how was he going to find the door without any guide? There wasn't even a tip or something.
The half grown teen shoved the notebook in his hands into his hoodie pocket and dragged his leg down the dirt part.
The sound was his footsteps was particularly loud even though he consciously tried to make them as quiet as possible.
His nerves was drawn taut by the unnervingly silence, like a rope about to snap.
"Baby shark dododododo...baby shark...." He whispered under his breath, trying to lighten the fog like atmosphere that. "Grandpa shark...dodododododo...."
Snap...
Shen Yu froze.
He stepped back and saw a poster lying on the ground with a large footprint not imprinted on it.
It was yellow with age, the corners curled at the edges and peeling making it hard to read what was written on it, but Shen Yu could see a blurred photo and under was the printed words.
Missing girl. Right next to it was a phone number.
The poster was too old, and the rest information had faded out.
Shen Yu thoughtfully folded it and shove it in his pocket.