A FLEETING KISS

A dream so vague, yet so clear...

A dream so unreal, yet so real...

Every night, she kept dreaming of a boy, he appeared gently like the wind.

She dreamed of his extremely warm voice calling her name.

She dreamed of his cold hand gently holding hers.

She dreamed of him hugging her tightly – a hug that felt as gentle as water.

She dreamed of him kissing her – a passionate and sweet kiss.

For her, it was no longer simply a dream, because those feelings were more real than ever. Maybe it's unreasonable and crazy, but she really fell in love with the boy in her dreams.

Although she could not see his face clearly, his breaths, voice, and kind gestures went deep into her heart.

Although she couldn't ask who he was yet, she was certain that he existed, and she would definitely find him.

Every time he appeared in her dream, he was different, only one thing remained unchanged - that was the scene behind him - a forest, a dark, cold forest that seemed to have no life at all. There are signs of life: No light, no sound. All around could be seen thousands of dark, rough and strange tree stumps growing in layers like a maze.

Even more special is the strange dryness, with no sign of any moisture, or even soil. The place that should have been called land was completely covered with dry leaves - a layer of leaves that I don't know how thick but like it was created thousands of years ago. But the dry leaves moved slowly in the wind, but she couldn't hear any rustling sounds, everything was silent...

...

The forest in the photo is of course not the same as in Ha Vy's dream, there is only one point that caught her attention. In one corner of the photo there is an old landmark, on which is engraved an arrow turned upside down and numbered 1024. In her dream she saw this landmark, even saw it very clearly, only the number was written on it. Every time it changes, it seems to gradually increase.

Could this place be related to that strange dream?

***

The class picnic had nearly 50 participants. They set up camp on the ground at the foot of a cliff, also at the edge of a dense forest.

All afternoon while setting up camp, Ha Vy took the time to pay attention to her surroundings, but this place looked nothing like the forest she always dreamed of every night.

In the evening, people light a campfire, gather to grill meat, sing and play folk games.

Ha Vy was still busy preparing something in her camp, her friends had all gone out. After a while, she lifted the curtain and stepped out, and was about to go to the fire when she suddenly heard someone calling her name behind her.

"Ha Vy..."

She turned back - there was no one, just the small tent still standing there.

"Ha Vy..."

There was another call, so it wasn't like she heard wrongly.

The two voices were clearly different but both felt very close, like whispering right next to her ear.

"Ha Vy..."

This time Ha Vy heard it very clearly, the call came from the right side, towards the forest.

Ha Vy was a bit bewildered, but then for some reason, she decided to go that direction, following the small path that had been established as a walkway.

She could no longer hear someone whispering her name, but in front of her, a scream kept echoing, becoming clearer and clearer, a scream that was sharp and captivating, so tragic and desolate that it was heartbreaking.

The deeper you go, the darker the trees become, and the creepy feeling becomes clearer and clearer. The bright yellow moonlight penetrated through the leaves, shining straight down enough to illuminate the scenery on both sides of the road. The scream that was both sharp and cold like the sound of ice blades being rubbed together that Ha Vy had just heard gradually turned into a moan, a pitiful and tragic moan, but still carrying the color of chills. Torment tears the scars in the human heart.

Ha Vy shivered slightly because of that chill. She carefully took each slow step and suddenly stopped in shock. That moan... was clearly present behind her, but also very close, she could even feel cold breath blowing right on the back of her neck.

Ha Vy's heart stopped beating for a moment, but then immediately started pounding wildly as if it wanted to jump out of her chest. She gathered all her courage, bit her lip and turned back... The moaning was completely silent, and instead a girl appeared on the ground. The girl sat on a layer of dry leaves, her face down on the pillow, her thick black hair falling completely covering her face, her body exuding a terrifying coldness that made Ha Vy unconsciously take a step back.

The peaceful moonlit sky suddenly flashed across the sky, Ha Vy's heart also followed suit and twitched sharply. In a flash of lightning, she saw before her eyes... a pair of eyes - white eyes with a terrifying haunting color, they were as big as they could be, just white as if they had just lost their pupils, surrounding the background. It was red and deeply ulcerated, the pupils were red with waves... Just for a split second, Ha Vy was startled and took a few more steps back... The girl sitting in front of her hugging her knees also slowly raised her head. The layer of hair, like long black mollusks, slithered to the sides, revealing a dry, pale face. On it were two huge and deep eye sockets, black blood was constantly leaking, dripping down the chin and then falling onto the ground, making a splashing sound like water drops in the middle of a deserted, silent house.

Ha Vy was so frightened that her legs became weak and disobedient, so she unconsciously backed away and backed away again.

The girl put her hands on the leaves on the ground, leaned forward and crawled towards Ha Vy, black blood continuously falling from her eye sockets.

"Aaaaa...aaaaaaaaa"

Lam Ha Vy screamed loudly then instinctively turned and rushed straight. For a moment she couldn't think of anything, couldn't see anything ahead, she could only run non-stop in an unknown direction. She kept running in panic, until she tripped over something and fell over, face down on the ground. But strangely enough, Ha Vy did not feel any pain, because the ground at this time was a thick layer of dry leaves.

Ha Vy took a few quick breaths, trying to calm her mind a bit before getting up. Being a strong person, she took a breath to calm herself, but the truth was that her legs still kept shaking.

But something made her focus all her attention and temporarily forget her fear. Right in front of her eyes was an old landmark, with a familiar backwards arrow on it, this time the number 1152. This... Could it be that she was caught up in her dream again? Are you dreaming?

Standing straight and looking deep inside, the forest before Ha Vy's eyes had completely changed - it had become a familiar scene in every of her dreams. Only it was no longer silent but contained horrifying sounds that were still mournful screams, tragic moans, chilling whispers of laughter, dripping, scratching and cracking sounds. .. and the rustling sound of dry leaves. Everything echoes back and forth like a vague haunted world.

The amazing thing is that behind her is still the dense leafy forest of nature, the trees are quietly immersed in the peaceful moonlight. Where she stood, this landmark was like a boundary dividing two completely separate worlds. Ha Vy really wanted to turn in that direction and run away from the terrifying feeling she had just imagined, but the scary thing was that her steps were like expanding the deadly forest - every step, the black forest. That dry darkness encroached one more step, as if she would never be able to escape.

Ha Vy turned her head in the other direction again, the landmark - the boundary from earlier was quite far away from her, but her feet were still submerged in a thick layer of dry leaves.

She stood vaguely dumbfounded next to a large tree. The moonlight was overwhelmed by the darkness of the night. The only strip of light from the phone in Ha Vy's hand suddenly turned off, leaving her with a feeling of horror. My hands also became shaky and kept pressing the buttons, just hoping the phone would have some reaction other than just turning off, but... everything seemed to be ineffective. Ha Vy did not dare to raise her head when she felt the darkness surrounding her, the feeling of a heavy and cold air from somewhere slowly creeping in to surround her. . The inability to determine the direction and the echoing noises in the dark space make people even more panic because of scary associations.

Ha Vy did not dare to move but could only hold the hard object in her hand tightly, until a strange sound rang in her ear, like a small bell shaking continuously. She slowly turned to the right, her heartbeat rising and falling with each angle. There was indeed a bell, a tiny, sparkling silver bell that was shaking so fast and so strongly that it could hypnotize anyone who looked at it. The bell hangs down from a silver bracelet, and that bracelet is hung around... the neck of a foot, a pale foot hanging horizontally across Ha Vy's face...

"Aaa...aaaaa...."

Suddenly having a heart attack, Ha Vy had no time to react, just screamed, looking in horror at the white corpse hanging from the tree branch above her head. At the same time, the corpse suddenly fell right next to Ha Vy, her face was close to the face covered by the corpse's long, flowing hair. Immediately, before she could calm down, Ha Vy felt something cold touching her neck. She didn't dare look down at her neck, but saw the corpse in front of her reaching out his arm towards her, and at the same time her bangs suddenly flipped...

This time Ha Vy didn't let her see that face in time, she turned around and ran, even though she knew she couldn't escape from here, she had to run in that direction...

But she couldn't run far when Ha Vy crashed into something...

A familiar faint scent.

A familiar feeling of physical contact.

A hand holding hers was extremely familiar.

"Close your eyes! Don't run that way!" – A deep, deep voice is also very familiar.

That person grabbed her hand tightly and pulled her back in the direction of the forest, running straight past the pale corpse. Ha Vy followed the instructions and closed her eyes tightly, letting that cold hand guide her as she ran.

But before that, she had run for a long time and didn't have much strength left. Under her feet were thick and bumpy leaves. Ha Vy suddenly fell to her knees. The hand holding her hand also stopped...

"Ha Vy..."

Ha Vy!

This call... It's you!

She opened her eyes and looked up at his face. This was the first time she saw it - Very delicate, very beautiful, very close and gentle, also very pale and quiet, just like her imagination.

This face... she could finally see...

She stared blankly at his face, wanting to remember it, engrave it, so that if she left the dream, she would be able to find him, he would be somewhere...

"I saw you!"

His face had no expression, slightly cold, but she still felt peaceful. He gently stroked her hair:

"I shouldn't have come here..."

Come here? So aren't you dreaming?

Ha Vy asked him again, a question she asked every day but never heard the answer. Every time she asked this question, he disappeared, she woke up from her dream...

"Who...are you?"

She cleared her throat, waiting for an answer.

He suddenly stopped, the hand that was stroking her hair slowly dropped, disappearing in the air - he disappeared again like so many other times, fading away in a vague howl...

***

A roaring howl rang out and then all sounds gradually disappeared. The light was dim, maybe it was morning, maybe it was already daytime, but the whole forest was still a dark brown and dead black color. The sunlight doesn't seem to be able to penetrate through the trees and leaves that are stacked in layers.

Ha Vy was sitting among the dry leaves, staring blankly into the space in front of her. He was gone, but she still hadn't woken up from the dream. How many times did she just want to enter that dream, without waking up, to find him, to be with him. But at this moment, she knew she needed to leave quickly.

She stood up straight and walked towards the light. Everything was silent now, only the rustling sound of dry leaves moving along with the footsteps.

As she walked, the bright sunlight and green color of the natural forest appeared in front of her. Ha Vy did not stop, she kept moving forward even though she knew it was hopeless, even though she knew she could not escape as the front became increasingly dark, the trees gradually became dry as she walked. Until the call came.

"Ha Vy..."

Ha Vy!

... It's you!

"Ha Vy..." – She turned and ran towards his familiar, warm voice calling. His presence seemed to make her temporarily forget her fear.

She kept running slowly towards a vague call, going very deep, very deep, to a dark place, his gentle call was close to her ear.

"Ha Vy..."

She stopped walking, sat down on a strange black tree there, waiting for his appearance. Around her, creepy sounds began to sound again, a cold wind whistled past, making the leaves on the ground stir, tree branches swayed, in the distance a few white shadows moved back and forth...

The sound of heavy, old breathing brought the feeling of sucking and thirst closer and closer. In the pitch black darkness, from all sides, there were speckled wild white eyes, the eyes were filled with disgusting, writhing parasites. The white corpses of female ghosts like Ha Vy had seen slowly poked their loose hair out of the black curtain, crawled on their hands and knees on the ground, seemingly heading towards her.

Ha Vy trembled, her back pressed tightly against the tree. She couldn't run away in any other direction. Her hand grabbed a large branch right next to her, holding it tightly as if she was trying to calm herself and think of a way to escape. nightmare.

But suddenly a hand came up from behind to cover her eyes, it felt a familiar cold feeling. He spoke in a voice as soft as water:

"Don't look, they can't come here!"

...It's you!

She reached out to remove his cold hand from her eyes, looking straight at his face. She won't look back, won't look around, just look at him, the man of her dreams that she loves passionately - he gives her such a peaceful feeling!

All the terrifying illusions seemed to gradually disappear, only this time he was truly clear, not like he was just in a dream. He spoke up:

"You must not step in that direction, it will cause this deadly place to spread..."

He meant that she couldn't go towards the exit to the forest where there was light, so just now, she heard his voice calling her back.

The darkness was dim, but she could still see his face clearly, because it was whiter and colder than usual. As she kept looking, the question echoed countless times in her mind... who are you?

" Older brother..."

"It's a ghost!"

Is it a ghost?

His answer interrupted her question, this time he didn't disappear, this time he answered, she asked who he was... but... he said... he was one. .. ghosts!

Her body, which was slightly leaning towards him, suddenly fell heavily to the ground. She absent-mindedly let her arms hang down, her eyes still glued to his cold face that seemed unable to bear any expression.

He's still not in the same world as her...

Before, he existed in a dream. And now, even though I've met you... but...

She slowly took his hand, stroking his long, pale, cold fingers.

" I just need to meet you, I have always wished to just enter that dream, just to meet you, it doesn't matter who you are... Because I know that strange dream keeps coming to me, It's definitely not just a dream, there's definitely something scary... but every night I close my eyes and just want to immerse myself in that dream..."

"I can't exist with you..."

She held his hand tighter. He continued speaking, still expressionless on his face:

" You... shouldn't have come here. You have to leave here..."

She understood, this place was too scary, she had to leave, but...

" And you?"

" Cannot!"

"Then you don't need to go, if you can stay by my side here..."

"I can't, I can't exist here, they will find me."

She was stunned, them? Older brother? Those scary things? This creepy forest? And you?

"Can you understand, these strange things... And you..., I saw you every night... are all real, right?"

"It's a dream, I can only enter your dream, but now... In short, you must leave here, quickly..."

" What will happen?" – She looked vaguely into his eyes.

"I don't know anymore... I just remember having an accident, and then somehow getting lost here. But this strange forest is related to something thousands of years ago..." – Pause After a while, he held her hand and slowly explained.

"Once upon a time, there was a demon who was locked up in a small temple deep in the jungle because he was harming the human world. One day the magician abbot came down the mountain, and his disciple let the demon fall asleep. The god escaped and roamed around. Because its power was too great, even the great magician could not destroy it. To protect the human world, he used all his strength to restrain the demon god in a forest. The magician himself had disappeared, where he sat and cast a spell grew a landmark marking the door to the demon forest, and the key was lost in the human world.

Ha Vy... you're holding that key. So once you come here, those demons will come to you. And you can't run away the other way, your footsteps will gradually open the door for this forest to spread."

The key? She was suddenly stunned. It was a shimmering silver key that once fell out of nowhere right in front of her toes. She picked it up, brought it home and kept it in a box... that's exactly where that strange dream appeared.

Ha Vy shivered slightly, her eyes looked up at him in bewilderment:

"That key... What... should I do?"

He wrapped his arms around her: "Don't be afraid, you just need to get out of here!"

"But... how?"

"Take the key, I will protect you, go to that landmark, open the door and never come here again..."

"I didn't bring it with me."

"I..." – His face seemed even whiter, he seemed a bit confused.

"So you can't leave?" – She asked.

He didn't answer, just hugged her a little tighter, his eyes looking out at the white shadows moving behind.

She understands! She also hugged him tightly, her hands shaking from fear, but warm because she was next to him.

The creepy screams began to rise again, there was a rush of air coming from the surrounding area, ghosts with pitiful breaths appeared again dimly from the black curtain, slowly approaching the two people.

His eyes looked at them as they gradually approached, hugging her tightly. She buried her head in his chest, not looking around but still trembling with each creepy moan.

One of his hands dropped to the ground and held tightly.

Those white shadows continued to advance.

"Ha Vy! Go to sleep!"

She raised her head to look up at his face.

"Go to sleep and dream about your room, I will enter your dream and help you get the key..."

She suddenly looked at the scene around her, her breathing seemed difficult to control. She crawled into his arms again, closed her eyes, but immediately looked up again:

"But I'm gone, what about you? Can we still meet?"

He was silent.

"So I won't go..."

" Impossible!" – He pressed her head against his chest.

"I can't help but go, if I stay here they will get the key and start spreading havoc to the world. This forest was originally a place where demons were locked up thousands of years ago, he can't get out but has recruited thousands of demons here, we cannot let these ghosts return..."

"But what will become of you?"

"Don't worry, I'm already a ghost, what else can I do? If you can't leave here, we won't be able to see each other forever."

...

The scary sounds around her were still lingering in her ears, but his cold embrace made her feel so peaceful that she gradually fell asleep.

In the dream, all the familiar scenes opened up again - it was still the dark forest, but this time it was no longer silent.

Like many times, he appeared from behind her, but this time when she turned around, she could see his face clearly. And this time, she saw him smile for the first time.

That smile - she, perhaps, will never forget.

"Quickly take me back to your house." – He spoke, still with a familiar warm voice.

She smiled, thinking he had just said take him out of this strange world, so he and she could be together forever.

She proactively grabbed his hand... That's right, we're going home, we're going to leave here...

"No, there's no time left. I have to dream again."

He spoke again, without giving her time to react, he used one hand to cover her eyes, then the other hand reached out and hugged her - This hug, in addition to feeling peaceful, now also seemed very warm. She quickly fell asleep again...

That sleep probably only lasted a few days. Ha Vy's hand covering her eyes opened - before her eyes was her small, warm room.

Ha Vy quickly pulled out a small trunk from the corner of the closet - where she kept some miscellaneous items. She remembered she had put the key with those items. She was inherently a neat person, so it wasn't too difficult to see the small silver key nestled in a corner of the box. Her trembling hands took it and turned to face back - he still stood still, looking after her and suddenly smiled slightly.

It's so vague! This is just a dream, right? A dream like her usual, only a little longer – She wished it was like that! If not, just stop right now, let him stay by her side, don't care about that scary forest, don't care if you can get through that door.

"Give it to me." – He gently reached out to her to receive the key.

"Don't we need to go back to the forest now to open the door?"

"It's not necessary anymore, maybe you will be in danger. Just let that key wander the world again!"

"So..."

"Ha Vy..."

She silently looked up at him, meeting his affectionate and passionate eyes. He gently lifted her chin and placed a sweet and affectionate kiss on her soft lips.

"Just think of me as a dream!"

He left her, slowly walked forward, opened the large door, and sunlight flooded in, illuminating the whole room. Perhaps after nearly two days of being lost in the dark, the sunlight in front of her was brighter and hotter than ever. However, Ha Vy suddenly panicked because the light made his shadow faint. He turned to face her, looked slightly at the hand holding the key raised in front of him and then looked back at her with a bright smile but something very distant and regretful.

Then... His body followed the key, gradually fading, fading and then disappearing in the vague bright white of the sunlight...

***

"Ha Vy... Ha Vy..."

"Ha Vy, you're awake."

Ha Vy opened her eyes slightly, surrounded by a few close classmates. She tried to get up but felt her whole body ache.

"Where am I?"

"Hospital. You suddenly fainted while camping. You've been sleeping like this for two days."

Ha Vy was suddenly surprised and shocked. She had been in a coma for two days – so what she had experienced the day before, getting lost in the strange forest, meeting him... was it all a dream? She immediately jumped up from the bed, let her friends look at her strangely in surprise, took the car straight home and took out the box with the key.

No more... that key has indeed disappeared, leaving thousands of questions in Ha Vy's mind - questions that cannot be answered for a very, very long time...

In the days that followed, Ha Vy sometimes still had strange dreams, but in that forest there was no longer the silhouette of that familiar boy. However, whether it was real or a dream, she still deeply engraved the moments with that boy in her mind.

...

One year later...

Ha Vy graduated nearly a year ago. She was assigned to the nursing department of hospital D in a fairly quiet city. From the first day of receiving the patient, she thought she was lost in a dream again... because she saw him, exactly the person with his face that she had always remembered. But... that person was lying very still with an oxygen tube on the hospital bed.

Patient information: Hoang Thai Lam - 27 years old. Admitted to the hospital on June 26, 2012 with severe injuries due to a traffic accident. He has undergone surgery but is in a deep coma and is not sure when he will wake up...

This person... is it really you? That person was hospitalized three years ago - at the same time he had a traffic accident and got lost in the forest. He said he didn't know why he got lost there - maybe he wasn't completely a ghost yet, because his body still lay in a coma here? Perhaps what Ha Vy was thinking was unreasonable, but for some reason she firmly believed it was so.

Colleagues told her:

"This patient originally had a very slim chance of waking up after surgery. But a year ago, he suddenly had a strange reaction and from then on his condition inexplicably improved, like a miracle happened. It was thought that he would wake up soon after, but the doctors themselves could not explain why this person was still lying here."

"Does he have relatives?"

"I only see a little sister who comes to visit occasionally."

...

So... this special patient's hospital room became the place Ha Vy frequented most often. After every working hour, she took the opportunity to drop by, simply standing in awe, looking at his peaceful face. is falling deep into his sleep.

"So your name is Hoang Thai Lam? That's a great name, but why didn't you say it before when I asked?"

"The doctor said your condition is very good, so why don't you wake up like this? You have to wake up quickly, because I still have a lot of things I need you to answer."

"..."

...

One month... Ha Vy finally received notice that her special patient had regained consciousness. She hurriedly finished the unfinished work she was doing and rushed towards him. However, that person looked at her with somewhat strange eyes... it seemed like he didn't recognize her!

"Brother, this is the nurse who took care of you last time." – His younger sister introduced herself.

She held her breath waiting for his reaction, but only received a polite nod: "Thank you!"

She slightly lowered her eyes, disappointedly smiled and replied: "Nothing, it's good that you woke up!"

"Really?"

"Huh?" – She raised her face again, looking at the boy in front of her in surprise. He was clearly smiling as if teasing her.

"Do you really just want that?"

"Older brother..."

"Ha Vy..."

Ha Vy - this warm, familiar call, is what keeps echoing in her mind. Now, that call was very real, the boy in front of her was also very real - he was here, in the same world as her, right next to her.

***

A whole week later, Thai Lam still didn't seem to be able to adapt to the sun. He always had to bring sunglasses wherever he went. Ha Vy also asked for a week off to take him to rediscover the world after three years of being buried in the forest.

He said: "Luckily I met you in my dream. If I hadn't died of an accident, I would have died of loneliness!"

He said: "Actually, I'm not as brave and mature as I dreamed. I was even considered a liar."

It's true that he's not as indifferent as she saw in her dream, he likes to talk more, he's funny and a bit chatty, and... importantly, he still gives her a warm and peaceful feeling.

On a pale moonlit night, he held her hand tightly and walked slowly down the wide, winding road. A small, sparkling key suddenly fell right in front of their toes. Ha Vy tried to bend down to take it, but someone stopped her:

"Don't pick it up!"

"It's not good to let it wander in the human world. I'll bury it. Just don't go to that forest."

"That's not important. What if I pick it up and dream about someone else?"

At that moment, a boy ran up to the two of them: "Auntie! That's the key to my house..."

He and she simultaneously looked at each other and smiled. You two are really stupid, a small key is not easy to accidentally come across again!