Forbidden Nightmare

Li Nanke slowly awakened.

His cheek rested against cold, hard tiles; the warm pool of blood had long since cooled, half his face submerged in it, the metallic scent invading his nostrils relentlessly.

The blood flowed from the corpse of a ragdoll cat before him.

Supporting himself, Li Nanke sat upright, feeling pain in every inch of his body—the most intense radiating from the back of his head. He reached back and found a clump of dried blood matted into hair.

The hair was mid-length, not his own cropped style.

This body wasn’t his either, but that of a tall, melancholy, disheveled white man.

He looked around at the unfamiliar, wrecked home—shards of glass and broken furniture littered the floor, clear evidence of a violent robbery.

Against his will, Li Nanke cradled the ragdoll cat in the pool of blood; its little body was already stiffening. Though he felt no affection for this animal, a heavy sadness inexplicably welled up inside him.

“V was the only thing left to me by my late wife. On every lonely, sleepless night, it was the only companion at my side…”

These hoarse words slipped from his mouth unbidden. He carried the cat down the corridor into the garage.

His beloved vintage car had vanished from the center of the garage. Faces twisted in wild grins flashed through his mind.

Li Nanke walked into the yard outside the home and buried the cat himself.

“Those bastards—I’ll make them pay in blood for what they’ve done!”

Rage blazed in his chest, his breath hot and searing. Clenching his fists