The Real Awakening - Book 3: Chapter 0: Prologue

12 o’ clock midnight.

There was a continuous drizzle outside the window.

The fragmented rain fell against the glass like sharp needles, drawing out wild arcs.

The bedroom was peaceful and quiet. The luminous clock on the wall glowed a pale green as the hands ticked from one marking to the other. The dim light from the streetlamps shone in faintly through the cracks between the curtains, surrounding the pitch-black room with a feeble halo.

She hugged her pillow to sleep on the bed as usual.

She had worked overtime today and come home late. It had been less than twenty minutes since she had washed up and gone to bed. She had yet to fall asleep completely; her consciousness was currently in a blurry, half-asleep state.

Suddenly, ding-dong—

The clear ring of the doorbell unexpectedly shattered the silence in the room.

She furrowed her brows, originally thinking it was a hallucination in her dazed mind. Thus, she flipped over and continued to sleep.

However, ding-dong—

The doorbell abruptly sounded once again, echoing through the vacant bedroom and gracefully lingering in the air.

She awoke with a jolt and sat up in her bed. Then she rubbed her bleary eyes and glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.

The glimmering green hour hand and minute hand were overlapping across each other, pointing to the largest number on the clock face: twelve.

Who could it be so late?

She tiredly yawned and twisted on the lamp. Then she grabbed a sweater to drape over herself as she put on her slippers and shuffled over to the front door. When she squinted through the peephole, she saw that there was absolutely no one outside the door. It was just empty air.

Could it have been a dream?

She doubtfully pinched her brows and cautiously opened the door. Then she stuck her body out to glance around outside.

There was a gloomy, straight alley outside sandwiched between evergreen trees under the illumination of the few streetlights. The narrow path wove between the edge of darkness and light.

The night was as dense as ink; everything was deathly still.

The ice-cold raindrops sprinkled onto her face, and she couldn’t help but shudder at the chilling wind that blew straight at her. Right as she was about to recoil back in and shut the door, her line of sight lowered and she discovered a strange, white envelope quietly laying in front of the door.

After a moment of hesitation, she picked it up and examined it. There were black words written neatly on the contrasting white paper:

White Sands Road, #150Du YaoFor your eyes only

This was clearly a letter for her. The bottom right space for the sender information was blank, with no name or address. There was no knowing where it had come from.

What’s going on? Do postmen work so hard that they deliver letters at midnight nowadays?

But why place it in front of my door instead of just sticking it in my mailbox?

She flipped the letter back and forth and was astonished to find that the back of this exquisitely handcrafted envelope had a red wax seal. And the seal was moulded into a bizarre shape: it had a pointed end, with an olive-shaped body and a semicircle on each side. It looked a bit like…like a bee?

She couldn’t help but let out a laugh as she muttered to herself, “What kind of weird thing is this,” and broke the wax seal. Then she opened the envelope and pulled out a delicate, golden-gilded card that had only two shockingly bloodred words in large print: Invitation Letter.

Invitation…invitation letter?

She tilted her head in confusion and stared at the card as she spun around. Right as she was about to close the door behind her, her body suddenly shuddered, and her movements slowed by half a beat. Then she went rigid entirely, frozen on the spot.

The next moment, a sharp weapon pierced through her back, the pain and blood wildly surging forth.

Her eyes widened in shock. She turned her head around and saw an eerie smile.

That person stood motionless under the dim streetlight, their snow-white clothes fluttering around like those of a demon. With a secretive trace behind their upturned lips, they serenely stared her, watching blood spurt out from her mouth uncontrollably, then watching her body shudder and twitch before falling straight down in terrified despair.

Thud.

The instant the letter fell to the ground, a thin train ticket slipped out with the sombre night wind. Light as a feather, it swayed through the air as it floated down…