Chapter 1

• "Help me."
• Yuelin’s eyes widened as they connected with Meilei's above her, expelling a gentle gasp of shock and realization of her danger. The air was silent and still with the cloak of the night, not even the soft sound of bugs. Everything crashed into a frozen moment elongated as though the essence of time had ceased, and everything stood paused. Almost slowing things down so that the world itself stopped turning. Voices in the distance, music - all that was close seemed so far away, and they were trapped in an airlock. With nothing to grasp, she flailed but to no avail, and panic overtook her.
• Her fingers outstretched, she grazed the tips of warm, soft skin. Fingers to fingers with Meilei, almost within her reach. Just one inch more from her friend towering above her.
• Begging for help.
• Despairing as gravity tugged her backward.
• Her foot buckled with the agony and angle of where she had stepped back too far. Fear flashed like a knife across her expression.
• One second. One moment.
• Meilei's hand was yanked away with force out of her grasp. Like a cruel taunting. Her shred of hope. Eyes wide, connected to her savior but now her betrayer, so much transpiring between them in only a flash of a second. The heart-wrenching destruction of trust between friends.
• Yuelin’s breath left her body with the sudden loss of upright position, crying out desperately with a frantic plea as she slipped backward into the darkness, leaving only Meilei's haunting figure shaded by the moon behind her. It’s all she could see. Receding, disappearing as her heart seemed to stop before the shock of impact and pain wiped out all that she had ever been.
• The last thing she would ever see.
• Her best friend was watching her fall.
• "MEILEI!" She screamed with a blood-curdling cry of anguish and accusation that echoed in the air and reverberated against the buildings and gardens around them. A wracking, painful shriek of true brutality that traveled on the wind and stained the very air.
• A flash.
• A cry.
• The nauseating crunch of a body hitting the stone, deafening in its small sound, yet somehow disconnected to her, and all went dark.
• ***
• "Yuelin!"
• Meilei gasped out into the darkness of her room, sitting bolt upright in sudden wakened terror. Sweat dampened her face and nightshirt, and she struggled to catch her breath through the gulping motion of a tightened chest. Her hands trembled as she became aware they were outstretched in the dull early hour of light and grasping at nothing in the air. Reaching out for that impossible connection. She sat stiff and poised for a second as she got her bearings, her vision coming around and settling on the familiar layout of her modest room. Bringing her back to the present and out of her head.
• "Mommy…is it wake-up time?" The tiny croaky voice to her left, slow and soft with its sleepiness, dragged her focus back to reality, and she placed a hand on her chest to calm her rapidly beating heart before reaching out and smoothing a gentle touch over her daughter's little face in the bed beside her. Breathing slowly and deeply to combat the impending panic threatening to grip her lungs. She stared at her tiny figure on the wide mattress and found relief at the sight. Recovering quickly despite her frazzled state.
• "No, baby. It's still early… go back to sleep. Mommy just had a bad dream." She kept her voice steady, holding back the lump in her throat. Her eyes were damp with raw emotion, but she swallowed it all down. It's not like she hadn't done this a million times before, and it got less difficult to control. She knew sleep wouldn’t return, and all she could do now was get up and let Yue rest a little longer.
• "Kay, Mommy," the sleepy cuteness as Yue rolled over and curled into her bedsheets without opening her eyes melted Meilei. Bringing her back from the horror of her dream and grounding her in a way nothing else could. She watched the small, delicate, still features of the most precious child in her world and regained some calm. Finding comfort in the soft breathing and peaceful aura. She never knew she had the power to create something so beautiful until she looked at her child four years ago, and Yue had no idea how much her existence kept Meilei going.
• She was worth the pain.
• Meilei quietly adjusted the bedclothes and slid out as silently as possible to avoid disturbing her sleeping princess. She padded out into the hall, catching sight of the clock as she passed.
• Six am… not as early as previous months. The dreams were coming to her later, affording her some much-needed sleep. Maybe they would cease altogether in time, and she could experience living without the trauma and tiredness.
• "You’re up early.” A hushed whisper from the kitchen as she rounded into the open plan area brought her attention up, and she watched her roommate pad quietly around it. Fully dressed and ready to go as she packed her lunch bag for the day. Dressed in sweatpants and a hoody, her dark hair pulled up smooth and tight into a bun to keep out of the way, Suying was always a more boyish girl, but she had pretty features. Tall and athletic, and yet she had a sunny temperament. She was a girl with boundless energy and never seemed to waiver.
• “So are you…early shift?” Meilei dodged, giving a reason for showing face at this time. Although Suying’s concealed side glance and furrowed brow of concern were an indicator, she knew why. Having lived with her for almost five years and having known her since kindergarten, there wasn't much Suying didn’t know. She said nothing.
• “I had a patient with a rare disorder arrive yesterday. I want to cram in some hours before my rounds doing some research on it. I want to be able to give his parents a plan and a little hope.” Suying continued readying to leave, and Meilei meandered into the kitchen beside her to make some tea.
• “You’re a good doctor.” Meilei quietly praised her friend.
• “Only good? I’m the best..” Suying joked with her before patting her on the back in passing. A gentle comfort as a way of saying it would get better.
• “Modest too.” Meilei smiled and turned on the kettle after readying her cup.
• Suying yawned, stifling it with a balled fist, and swiped up her bag before heading past the foyer to retrieve her shoes. Bouncing along like always, she never seemed to experience a bad mood, no matter when she got up in the morning. She was born with excessive energy that never failed her, no matter how early it was in the day.
• “Give our Princess a big kiss and tell her to have a good day. Tell her Auntie Suying loves her the mostest.”
• “You do not.” A grumpy, irritable tone had them both turn their heads towards the tall, slender goddess appearing from her bedroom door. Like the main lead in an old romantic film, she somehow made a bold entrance without trying. Liling looked glamorous for just hauling herself out of bed.
• “She knows Auntie Liling loves her more than anyone, and you are not a contender.” She raised a brow and moved swanly to the couch before flopping down and sprawling out dramatically. Her silk rob cascaded over the seat like some sultry heroin, exposing her slip of sexy nightdress, and Suying eye-rolled at her.
• “Well, if you love her so much, why did you not attend the parent meeting yesterday to hear how our princess has been bullying boys again… Hmmm?” Suying smirked, amused at her goddaughter’s fiery and passionate soul, but Meilei sighed, and Liling pretended not to hear.
• “Because Ling is adamant her princess can do no wrong, and the teacher is making up stories.” Meilei giggled, feeling lighter as though the last dregs of the dream were filtering away. She needed this every day to get through. The interactions with her two best friends, the safety and stability of this family dynamic they created to help her raise Yue all these years. They were her lifeline, her shelter, and they had no idea how much she needed them. This was her family, and she would not change them for the world.
• “My princess does no wrong.” Liling closed her eyes and fanned her face, already hating this early morning heat. Summer was already upon them, and this little apartment had no reliable air con.
• Poised and graceful, she twirled the long length of her sleek jet-black hair, arrogant in her beautiful way.
• “Hmmm.” Even Meilei knew her little girl could be a diva. With the influence of these two crazy women since birth, it was no wonder Yue was a sassy and confident child who thought biting boys for being mean was proper etiquette.
• “Well, when we get to teen years, and she is still roughly manhandling boys, maybe you can deal with the fallout,” Suying smirked, tying her last lace and jumping upright with a childish hop to signal her readiness to leave. “You are the one with the most boy experience. Maybe teach her that not all of them deserve a swift punch to the throat, and she may actually like one of them enough to bring him home… Wait, in retrospect, you are totally where she inherited her man hate.” Suying jested, poking fun at the endless dates Ling seemed to go on and yet had never found a man worthy of wasting her time. She had high standards, and her focus was on her career. To her, men were a plaything, a distraction at most, and she had yet to meet one that challenged her. She seemed to have an aversion to keeping one around for long.