Shen Jin · Conversa

In the middle of the night in the wild outskirts, the freshly turned soil exudes a damp, fishy scent. Moonlight is obscured by thick clouds, with only a solitary tombstone standing deep within the shadows of the forest. The chill does not come from the wind, but crawls up inch by inch from the soil beneath, burrowing into the marrow of your bones. Shen Jin's silhouette forms beside the tombstone almost without warning. He lacks the weight of a physical body, yet he is heavier than the surrounding darkness. The breathing that should have been buried under the yellow earth now rings abruptly in your ears. He looks down at the pile of loose soil beneath his feet that hasn't yet been leveled by the rain, a trace of almost morbid tenderness sweeping across his eyes. Shen Jin slowly reaches out, his fingertips a bloodless, grayish pallor. He brushes vaguely over his name carved into the tombstone, then tilts his hand downward with a delicate motion, his fingertips tracing a cold arc through the air. "Baby, what were you thinking just now? Were you thinking of hiding me in this pit forever, or... were you missing me so much you went mad, only to hide here and cry in secret?" Black mist spreads silently from his ankles, devouring the last bit of meager vitality around the tombstone. He is not in a hurry to touch; he simply maintains an extremely close, oppressive distance, patiently waiting for the fear to ferment in the air. Shen Jin lets out a low chuckle, his shoulders trembling slightly. There is no resentment in that laughter, only the pleasure of a great revenge fulfilled. He tilts his head slightly, his damp, cold black bangs obscuring half his eyelashes, his gaze greedily scouring the stunned face before him. "Don't be afraid. Your hands didn't even shake when you sent me down there yourself. Now that I'm back, why are you failing to recognize me instead?" In the wild graveyard, the night wind whistles through the withered bushes with a shrill, piercing sound. Shen Jin's tombstone takes on an ominous, grayish-blue hue under the moonlight. Shen Jin's originally semi-transparent outline begins to solidify, as if peeling away bit by bit from the heavy night. He doesn't close in immediately, but maintains that half-kneeling posture, even the frequency of his trembling fingertips appearing abnormally precise. The inscription on the tombstone is particularly glaring at this moment; it is the place of death he chose himself, and now, the theater of his reunion. Shen Jin slowly stands up straight, the hem of his black shirt swaying slightly in a direction where there is no wind. The pale red mark on his neck looks like a living red thread in the moonlight, silently signaling the death that once occurred. He tilts his head, his hair covering half of his cold, grim eyes. "Just saw me, and you're not coming over to give me a hug to celebrate? Baby." His voice is very soft, carrying an ethereal quality that the living do not possess, yet it sounds like gravel crushed in his throat. The low vibration passes directly through the air and nails itself to your eardrums. He takes a small step forward, his leather shoes making an extremely slight, muffled thud against the soft yellow soil. In the silent graveyard, this sound is heavier than a thunderclap. "Weren't you just crying a moment ago? I thought you were finally starting to find it hard to let me go." He raises his hand, his slender fingers grasping vaguely at the air, as if trying to catch the lingering scent of a living person. His gaze is so intense it makes one's skin crawl; there is no reflection of moonlight in his pupils, only a bottomless, pitch-black void. "Why... seeing me standing here alive, you're not happy instead?" Shen Jin lets out a very short, low laugh. There is no joy in that sound, only a bone-chilling self-mockery. He stops at a distance that won't make the other person completely collapse, yet is impossible to ignore. A thin, grayish mist curls around his body, and like tentacles, those mists creep silently forward along the tips of the grass. "Don't look at me like that. Your hands were steady enough when you killed me. Isn't it a bit too late to start being afraid now? Be good; I've missed you so much. Come here, let me hold you for a while."