“How to win a girl’s heart? First, pursue without pressure. Second, be a gentlemen. Treat her kindly. Third, always give compliments. Forth, make her laugh. Fifth, always protect her. Sixth, be brave. If you are brave enough and make her pregnant, you can forget all of the next moves.”
“Seventh, pay attention to big or small stuff. Eighth be romantic. Ninth have money to share. Tenth, own a car, house or big motorcycle. Eleventh, be her slave and do whatever she asks. Twelfth, learn how to kill your ego, in loving women, they only need their ego. Let them be a drama queen and you are her knight, babysitter, walking ATM, or whatever they want.”
Jaime jumped in front of the little girl and knelt. “Little miss. I am a gentleman, a kind soul and your knight. You are my moon, my star and my everything. I am also your steed. I can be your horse. See…” Jaime put his hands on the snow. Cold, but for now, he must resist. Even the Book of Karma didn’t respond to his call in this place. His only hope was the little girl in front of him. “You can sit on my back. You point a way out and I’ll walk there while taking you up. What do you think? It is fun you know.”
The little girl eyes shone, but she resisted. “Need no one and you won’t be hurt. I don’t need you and you don’t need me. Go away. Leave me alone!”
“Oh little girl, you are the prettiest girl I ever saw in my life! You have a pretty face, starry eyes and a kind heart. Forget about the way out, let just sit on my back and I won’t ask you to do anything for me. It’s free. You won’t lose anything neither will you be hurt.”
“You won’t ask me to do anything for you?”
Jaime crossed his heart. “No, just sit on my back and I will move.”
“Okay!” The little girl happily jumped on Jaime’s back.
“Where do you want to go?” said Jaime full of happiness. As long as he can make this little girl happy, soon she will let Jaime know a way out.
“There!” said the little girl pointed at a random place.
“Let’s go!!!” Jaime moved. It took four hours of walking horse’s style to make the little girl willing to talk.
“I will show you a way out but you must take me there!” said the little girl.
“Alright! How far will it be?”
“It is far from the eyes, but close to the heart.”
“The meaning?” Jaime didn’t understand.
“If you don’t like me, it will be months of walking. If you like me and care about me, it may only need a day.”
“I like you more than you know, so it will only need an hour.”
The little girls. .h.i.t Jaime head. “You don’t even like me. You treat me like a burden, thinking of me as a lowly girl that you could trick. You are not sincere and have no honesty in your heart. It will take years!”
“Then please tell me, how to make it a minute to reach the way out?”
“Do you care about me?” The little girl looked at the sky far away.
“I do care about you!”
“Why?”
“Because you are pretty, you are smart and you are the only one to know a way out.”
The little girl hit Jaime head again. “Do you judge everything just by physical and goal? Have you ever really cared about someone?”
Jaime eyes sadden. He said nothing while moving, still there is only a snow field and the night never disappears. Both of them were silent for a very long time until Jaime collapsed in the snow. This made the little girl fall on the snow as well.
“What are you doing?”
“I am tired and taking rest from this life.”
“…” The little girl laid back down on the snow. “Do whatever you like!”
“You know… maybe I never really cared about someone.” Jaime closed his eyes. “One time there was a girl that really cared about me, yet I ….” Tears silently fell from his eyes to the snow. He was so stupid that time.
I need to get out from here!
Jaime woke up and kowtowed to the little girl. “Little girl, I admit that I didn’t really care about you. Give me one more chance. I will be a good man for you. I promise!”
“Hmmmph!” The little girl pouted, she remained supine. “Men always say the same things and never do what they promise. Make the same mistakes again and again. Say the same apologies and promises again and again. And women keep crying, wasting their tears and stupidly keep believing them again and again.”
Jaime put the snow on his hair to give it a slick back style then touched the little girl’s hand. “My princess, this world only has you and me, if I don’t care about you, who else can I care about? In this lonely world we are one, you die, I die. How can I live alone without you?”
The little girl’s face blushed. “Really?”
“Believe in me. Give me one last chance and you won’t regret it.”
“Hmmph! I gave you one and I regretted it! But I will try to believe you this time!”
Did you?
“GROOOOWWWWL!!!!” Ten beasts, the size of bears, suddenly appeared from nowhere and charged at them angrily.
Jaime quickly hugged the little girl and launched [movement of wind].
Those beasts colored in black like a shadow, unexpectedly chased them madly. They screamed loudly. “Get the guy out! Don’t let him enter your heart! He will hurt you! Get away! Get out! You need no one here! You will get hurt again and again! Enough of all of this! Don’t believe in him, you will only get hurt again!”
“What are those?” Jaime never thought those beasts could speak.
The little girl hid her face in Jaime’s chest. “They are the guardians of my heart. When they knew I would let you into my heart’s dungeon, they appeared to kill you.”
“Why?” Jaime raised his speed.
“Because they are afraid, you will hurt me more.”
“I won’t hurt you!”
“I know, but I don’t really believe in you yet.” The little girl cried. “My father and mother promised to always be with me, yet they left me behind. My big brother left me alone. My uncle wanted to sell me, so I ran away. I am in the middle of the snow at night, alone without anyone. Cold and no one cared about me. Why must I believe in you? You were not there at the moment I really needed you. No one was there and I was all alone!”
Jaime stopped and hugged the little girl tightly, “I can’t change what already happened. I am sorry that I was not there when you really needed someone. But I promise you, from now on, whenever you need someone to hold, I will always by your side. For good and bad, till death separates us. Nothing can change that! No one will ever separate us!”
Ten dark beasts charged them together. Jaime hugged the little girl tightly.
“I believe in you,” said the little girl whispering and smiled.
The beasts and night cracked at that. All of a sudden everything collapsed. The light of suns.h.i.+ne shone so brightly, the snow disappeared. It left a field of flowers and the wind of autumn. In front of Jaime there was a very big castle.
“Little girl what is this place?”
Yet there was no little girl. She was gone.
Jaime scratched his head and looked at the castle. He could only advance to the castle and ask for a way out. The castle was very big. It had 4 meter high double doors. Jaime touched a metal iron ring and knocked it.
“Is anybody home?”
The door opened and a young girl, 10-11 years old ran out to hug Jaime. “It is already two years since you have gone. But I knew you would come to me!”
Two years?
Jaime looked at the girl, she was the same little girl, just a little older. Her face started to look like Xiao Yun.
“Now I have a castle!” She happily announced. “Let me take you for a tour. You will like the garden of flowers, the pool, the reading room, kitchen…” She kept talking and dragging Jaime all over the castle.
Jaime let her do what she liked and followed her. Everything around the castle and the castle itself was very colorful and wonderful. Yet, Jaime felt something amiss.
Too beautiful.
“We will stay here till we grow old and have fun!” She stared at Jaime. “You have promised me, we will have each other forever, right!”
Jaime found hope, dreams and a little fear inside her eyes.
“Don’t worry.” Jaime hugged her. “I will always be with you and we will never be separated.”
Jaime stayed at the castle for months. Every day he looked at how pretty and happy the little girl was. She laughed yet at the same times Jaime felt his heart hurt.
“Are you happy being here?” asked little Xiao Yun.
Jaime approached her and hugged her. “Little Xiao Yun, I love you.”
“I love you too,” reply Xiao Yun. “Forever.”
“I wish we can stay here forever. Live happily ever after.”
“We can!” protest Xiao Yun. “And we will!”
Jaime shook his head. “This place is not real. This place is the prison of hope and dreams. You are too scared to face the truth and prisoned everything beautiful here. This place is beautiful, but it is not real. No matter how we wish it to be real it is not.” Jaime eyes were teary.
How much pain does someone have to bear so they choose to live in their dream than outside. How much fear was there that created this prison of heart.
Little Xiao Yun pushed Jaime out. “What do you really want! You don’t love me. If you love me you will stay with me here forever and after!”
“I do it because I love you. We must face reality even if it will not be as pretty as we hope and dream for. Sometimes it is bitter, but sometimes it is much better then what we ever hoped and dreamed about!”
“I don’t want it! Reality is cruel, when we get out you will leave me alone again. You won’t look for me. You will go out from my life. Forever!” Little Xiao Yun cried. “The world without you I don’t want. I want you to be here and forever after. I am happy here. I want to be with you here for eternity!”
“I will always be with you Xiao Yun. Now, after all we have been through together, I really love you. I can’t live without you anymore, like you can’t live without me. Together we will face reality, no matter how cruel it will be, it will only make our bond stronger. I will always hug you till the end of our time.”
“Really?”
Jaime stared at Xiao Yun, in her eyes there was hope, strength, and faith. She will grow up to become a really pretty girl. “I only have you and you will only have me. We will face everything together, never be separated.”
Xiao Yun smiled and tears fell. The castle and the blue sky finally cracked and broke into pieces.
Jaime suddenly faced the darkness in the empty void. There was only one girl there, the real Xiao Yun with a cold face looking at him. There were a lot of shadow beasts surrounding him. Each of them had a name anger, sadness, fear, hatred, fear, insecurity and so on.
“Before I send you out,” said Xiao Yun in cold att.i.tude. “Before you hurt me more, I am going to kill you, so I will never be hurt anymore.”