Shaman King Fan Fiction ❯ Within The Darkness ❯ Uncover Your Mind ( Chapter 3 )

 

 

 

 

Looking up at the sun, Helios is timid.

 

Why are ordinary things so strange?

 

 

 

 

Ku Li was frantic after Bason had run off. She didn't know where Bason went, but she knew something was desperately wrong with him. Bason was a kind, peaceful person. He would never snap and try to kill someone like that. All the children of the woods had gathered around Chu Jung. They were completely flabbergasted when they found out Bason had done this to Chu Jung. No one had ever thought Bason would snap and turn into some kind of maniac.

 

“I have to find him!” Ku Li cried. She didn't know what to do.

 

“I'll help you,” Kwan Yin said. Chu Jung had gotten up and was as dumbfounded about Bason as everyone else. Some of the other people were going to take care of Chu Jung; now Kwan Yin had to find Bason. Kwan Yin took Ku Li to her house so she could calm down for a moment. “Tell me exactly what happened.” Ku Li was playing the whole scene over and over in her mind. What had possessed Bason to do something like that? It had all happened so fast. In the blink of an eye, Bason went from standing by Ku Li's side to beating the life out of Chu Jung.

 

“Chu Jung came over and asked who I was,” Ku Li sniffed. “And Bason said it was Ku Li. And then Chu Jung said I didn't look high-class and commented on the dress I was wearing. He told Bason that I was a `poor excuse of a human just like you'. And then Bason… he snapped and said `I'm going to kill you' and then he started beating up Chu Jung.” Ku Li sniffed again, trying not to cry. She was so worried about Bason. She prayed that he was okay.

 

“Chu Jung has said worse things to Bason, and he's never done anything before,” Kwan Yin said. She remembered the many times Chu Jung had picked on Bason and driven him to tears. But Bason had never tried to hurt him before. “Do you have any idea what drove him to go berserk like that?” Ku Li shook her head. “Well, we have to find him. Do you remember which way he went?” Ku Li nodded and pointed in the direction Bason ran to. Kwan Yin and Ku Li walked past the still stunned Chinese children and ran into the dense trees of the woods.

 

“Let's split up,” said Kwan Yin. “That way we can cover more ground. You go that way and I'll go this way.” Kwan Yin and Ku Li separated and walked off in different directions. Ku Li walked slowly trying to think of where Bason would go. She concentrated on him; Ku Li could feel how upset Bason was. He had never been this bad. Bason's terrible emotions were starting to affect Ku Li, too. She wasn't making any progress. It was so hard to find someone in this meadow. The ground was covered in thick brush and dead leaves, so there would be no footprints. Ku Li had to follow her feelings.

 

Ku Li had been searching for what seemed like an eternity, and still hadn't found any sign of Bason. She sat down on a log and tried to think. She looked around at the seemingly endless woods. It was so vast Bason could be anywhere now. Then Ku Li heard something. She listened and concentrated. It sounded almost like somebody was crying. She tried to figure out where the sound was coming from. She saw a large fallen tree; the sound was coming from there. She walked slowly towards the fallen tree, the sound of crying growing ever louder.

 

Ku Li climbed on top of the huge log and looked down on the other side. There, lying on the cold ground, she saw Bason. He was lying on his side, curled up in a fetal position. Bason was sobbing, and tears were running down his cheeks. Ku Li climbed off the log and sat on the ground next to Bason. She gently stroked Bason's hair and tried to calm him down.

 

“Leave me alone,” he mumbled. “Just go away and leave me here. I don't deserve your compassion.”

 

“I want to help you,” Ku Li said. “What happened to you? You've never done anything like that before.”

 

“Don't you know?” Bason said with a disturbing smile. “It's my dark side. There's nothing I can do now.”

 

“Your dark side? What are you talking about?” Ku Li was even more worried about him now. Was Bason really going crazy? He didn't seem very sane right now.

 

“Yes. It's what every person has. It's trying to take over me. It wants my body.”

 

“That's impossible,” Ku Li said. “There's no such thing. It's all in your head.”

 

“No it's not. It's not my head thinking this. It's my soul knowing this.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“It's my soul knowing this,” Bason repeated. “When I was in that cave in South China… it talked to me. It told me it would give me anything I wanted if I let it take over. But I told it `no'. But it didn't leave me alone. It came to me again… when I was fighting for the country. My conscience was telling me not to let it take over, not to listen to it. But I did.”

 

“How did you let it take over? I would've felt it, too,” Ku Li said.

 

“For a split second I thought of what it would be like if I believed it. That's when it got me.” Bason could think clearly now. He knew exactly what happened.

 

“But your conscience said you had to accept it with your own free will. Your dark side couldn't just invade you like that.”

 

“Don't you see?” Bason shouted. “I did let it in with my own free will. But I didn't mean to.” Bason started sobbing again. “It was an accident. Now it wants to take over. It's trying to control me.”

 

“But how can your dark side try to take over you?” Ku Li asked. “Such a thing hasn't been proven, yet.”

 

“We don't need to prove it. I'm telling you the truth… I'm not lying. It's trying to take over me, I can feel it.”

 

“Come on. Let's go home. You need to rest for a while. We can figure out what to do later.”

 

“Okay,” Bason said. He slowly sat up and wiped the tears off his face. Ku Li hugged him and told him everything was going to be all right. She helped him stand up and began to walk him out of the meadow. She kept thinking about what Bason said. He wasn't going out of his mind, was he? Bason sounded like he was serious; he wasn't ranting like a lunatic. What if his dark side was really trying to possess Bason? What could she possibly do to help him? She never thought this could be happening.

 

Bason and Ku Li slowly approached the clearing where all the houses were. The commotion seemed to have died down. Chu Jung was back in his house and everyone else had gone back to his or her daily routines. Bason didn't look like he was in the right condition to climb the ladder to his tree house, so Ku Li walked him to Kwan Yin's house. No one was home when they entered. Kwan Yin must still be looking for Bason. Ku Li didn't want to leave Bason alone to go look for Kwan Yin; Ku Li would just wait until she came home on her own.

 

Ku Li warmed up some water and moistened a washcloth. She gently wiped the dirt and blood off Bason's face. It looked like he had gotten a bloody nose in the fight, but that was nothing compared to what he did to Chu Jung. Bason was still obviously upset, but he had calmed down significantly. “How are we going to explain this to Kwan Yin?” Ku Li said. “How are we going to tell her why you did this?”

 

“We have to tell her the truth,” Bason replied in a flat voice. “How else can we explain it?”

 

“I don't know,” Ku Li mumbled. She tried to think of something they could tell Kwan Yin, but she couldn't come up with any ideas. “But can we really tell her the truth? I don't know if she would believe us or not. Can we trust her?”

 

“Yes, we can trust her,” Bason said. “She never reveals secrets to anyone. We can trust her.”

 

“What about everyone else? What do we tell them?”

 

“What does it matter? They don't care about me. Who cares what they think, they can figure it our for themselves.” Bason was right; the Chinese children couldn't care less about why Bason beat up Chu Jung. Nobody really liked Chu Jung, and they would probably forget about it in a few days, anyway.

 

Kwan Yin walked to her house with a gloomy look on her face. But when she saw Bason sitting there, she ran and hugged him. “Oh you came back!” Kwan Yin exclaimed. “I was so worried about you. Why did you run off like that? Why did you attack Chu Jung like that?”

 

“It's a long story,” Bason said.

 

“We have a lot to tell you,” Ku Li added. Kwan Yin looked at both of them. What were they going to tell her? “We haven't been totally honest with you. There's a lot we need to tell you. You might want to sit down for this.” Ku Li remembered when the Asian countries tried to invade China and war broke out. Now they had to tell Kwan Yin. Ku Li thought of telling Kwan Yin only part of the truth, but then she wouldn't fully understand what was happening to Bason. They had to tell her everything, Kwan Yin would understand. “We promised we wouldn't tell this to people who didn't know,” Ku Li said, “but we have to tell you. But first, you have to promise not to reveal what we tell you to anyone. You can tell this information to no one.”

 

“Okay, I promise,” Kwan Yin said. “I won't tell anyone.” Bason and Ku Li then told Kwan Yin the entire story of the war. About the Asian countries, the Great Wall, and about Bason's dark side.

 

 

 

Kwan Yin sat at her table, almost in disbelief. Was what Ku Li and Bason told her true? No, they would never lie. “Wow,” Kwan Yin said. That was the only thing she could think of to say.

 

“It was hard for us to believe it when we first heard it,” Ku Li said. “But it's true, we saw it with our own eyes.”

 

“So…” Kwan Yin said, mulling over all the information she just heard. “Bason is being possessed… by his dark side.”

 

“Yes,” Bason said. “It's trying to take over me. And I don't know what to do.”

 

“This is so hard to believe,” Kwan Yin continued. “But it explains why Bason did that. You would never attack anyone like that, not even Chu Jung. What's it like? What is it doing to you?”

 

“I can feel him,” Bason said with a shudder. “I can feel him in my mind. He's trying to take over my mind, and I don't know why. I'm trying to resist, but it's getting harder. He broke through when I beat up Chu Jung. I don't know what will happen if I let him control me again.”

 

“What are you going to do about it, about your dark side?” asked Kwan Yin.

 

“I don't know,” Bason said, starting to cry again. “I don't know what to do! I can't get him out of my head! I don't want him to take my soul, I don't want this to happen to me.” Ku Li hugged Bason again and tried to comfort him. He couldn't hold his emotions anymore, and Bason began to wail. Why was this happening to him? What did he do to deserve this? Bason was so upset, he was crying for every single thing that had happened in his entire life. As upset as he was, Bason was glad his friends were here. He didn't want to cry alone this time, like he had on so many other nights.

 

“There's nothing we can do right now,” Kwan Yin said after Bason had calmed down. “You need some sleep. But first, you need to get into some clean, dry clothes.” Bason looked down at his clothes. They were splotched with mud and were still damp. He didn't realize that his clothes were still wet; he was too busy with other things.

 

“Oh,” Bason said. “I guess I should change into some clean clothes. I'll be back in a minute.” Bason stood up and walked back to his house. He slowly climbed the ladder and walked inside. Bason took off his wet clothes and put them into a basket. He opened a drawer and removed a set of clean clothing that he quickly put on. He felt better now that he'd gotten into some dry clothes. Bason climbed back out of his tree house and walked back to Kwan Yin's house.

 

“Much better,” Kwan Yin said.

 

“Ku Li, you can go change now,” Bason said. “Your bag and your clothes are at my house.”

 

“Oh don't worry, I already changed,” Ku Li said. Bason gave her a quizzical look. “I just borrowed some of Kwan Yin's clothes. We're the same size.”

 

“Oh,” Bason said.

 

“Are you hungry?” Kwan Yin asked. “You should probably eat something.”

 

“No, I'm not really that hungry. I just want to go to sleep.”

 

“Okay,” Ku Li said. “You definitely need your rest.” Bason turned around and prepared to walk back home. But before he could, Ku Li ran to his side and stopped him for a second.

 

“I love you,” she whispered, and kissed him on the cheek. Bason smiled and walked back to his house. Kwan Yin was right; Bason did need her. She had to be at his side. Ku Li nodded and walked out to Bason's house. She ran to his house and climbed up the ladder. Bason had just gotten into bed, and he saw Ku Li standing in his doorway. He started to get up.

 

“No, don't get up,” Ku Li said, motioning him to lie back down.

 

“What are you doing here?” Bason asked.

 

“I want to be here with you, you need me. You can sleep on the bed; I'll sleep on the floor. You need the bed more than me.”

 

“Are you sure?” Bason said. “You don't have to sleep on the floor. You can have the bed.” Bason tried to get up again, but Ku Li pushed him back down.

 

“Take the bed,” Ku Li insisted. Bason decided not to argue and lay back down. She bent over and kissed him on the forehead. Ku Li looked around Bason's house and tried to figure out where he kept extra pillows and blankets. She wished she'd brought one of her blankets with. Maybe Bason didn't have extra blankets; how often did he have visitors anyway?

 

“In the drawer under my bed,” Bason mumbled. Ku Li kneeled down and opened the drawers at the base of Bason's bed. Ah-ha, she thought, this is where he keeps them. The drawer had a thick, down comforter and a thinner blanket. She pulled the thinner blanket over her body and put her head on the pillow. This isn't so bad, she thought. The floor isn't very hard, and his comforter makes it feel softer. She heard various snorting and rumbling noises coming from Bason. Oh great, he snores. Ku Li rolled onto her side and tried to rest. For half an hour, Ku Li lay there thinking about what had happened earlier that day. She really hoped she could help Bason. Finally, her thoughts calmed, and she fell asleep.

 

 

 

Ku Li walked up a mountain, trying to find someone. This was strange, it was almost twilight, and this place should have been crawling with spiders. But it looked deserted. There were caves and various holes where spiders kept their nests, but there were no arachnids. It was as if they all died. Then she saw someone out of the corner of her eye. She turned and saw what looked like a teenager standing between two caves. “Hey, you there!” Ku Li shouted.

 

The teenager looked at her. “Come here!” the teenager answered. It was a young girl, wearing long, flowing robes and a hood over her head. Ku Li approached her. A thin scarf covered the girl's face, only her eyes were visible. The girl was the same size as Ku Li, and probably the same age.

 

“Who are you?” Ku Li asked.

 

“Your friend needs you,” the girl answered.

 

“Who? Bason?” Ku Li asked. The girl nodded. “I know he needs me.”

 

“His dark side is trying to steal his soul,” the girl said. “You can't let that happen.”

 

“How did you know that?” Ku Li asked. How could this girl, whom she didn't even know, know about what was happening to Bason?

 

“I know a lot of things,” the girl replied cryptically. “And I also know you are the only one who can help Bason. You, and only you, are the only one who has the power to save him.”

 

“How? How do I save him?” Ku Li pleaded.

 

“His dark side is pure evil, and pure hatred. This hatred is trying to infect Bason's soul. Only hatred's exact opposite can destroy it: love. Only love can reverse the damage Bason's dark side is doing to his soul. More specifically, only your love can save him.”

 

“But I do love him. Why isn't he getting better?”

 

“Does he know that you love him?”

 

“Of course,” Ku Li said. “I tell him that all the time. He knows I love him.”

 

“Are you sure? You tell him that you love him, but is it enough? You have an empathetic connection with him, do you use it?” Ku Li thought for a moment. Bason and Ku Li could feel each other's emotions if they wanted to. But they could only feel them if the other person allowed it freely. The girl continued, “You feel Bason's emotions because he lets you feel them, because he loves you. But are you letting him feel your emotions?”

 

Then it hit Ku Li like a ton of bricks. Bason didn't feel her emotions. Ku Li realized that she kept herself closed to Bason. Bason let Ku Li feel his emotions freely. But Ku Li didn't let Bason feel her emotions.

 

“You've kept yourself closed to him,” the girl said. “You won't let Bason feel your emotions because you're afraid. You're afraid he'll reject you.” It was true. “You're afraid that if you let him feel your emotions, he won't love you anymore.”

 

“I never realized that until you said it,” Ku Li said.

 

“You tell him that you love him, but that's not enough. You have to let him feel it freely. Open your mind to him, and let him know how you feel. That is how you will help him. That is the only way. He needs to know that you love him. That will give him the strength to fight his dark side.” The girl turned around and started to walk away. Ku Li walked after the girl, and grabbed her shoulder. The girl stopped, her back still towards Ku Li.

 

“Who are you?” Ku Li asked. The girl removed the scarf that covered her face, and turned around. Ku Li was stunned; it was like looking into a mirror.

 

“Who'd you think I was?” the girl said. “I'm you.”

 

 

 

Ku Li woke up, startled. That was the weirdest dream she'd ever had. It was still clear in her mind. She could still see the girl on the mountain. Ku Li remembered her words. But it wasn't another person telling Ku Li how to help Bason; it was herself. Somehow, it was Ku Li telling herself what to do. Ku Li had always known, deep inside her, what she needed to know. But she hadn't listened to that voice until now. Now she realized how she had treated Bason. She hadn't let Bason know how she really felt. She had to open her mind to him. She would do that, when Bason got up. She would let him know how she felt; he wouldn't be alone anymore.

 

Ku Li sat up and rubbed her eyes. It was still dark, but she could see the sky was brightening slightly in the east. The Sun would rise soon. She looked over at Bason's bed. It was empty. Ku Li stood up and walked over to his bed. She ruffled the blankets to make sure he wasn't there. Where did he go? Maybe he just had to go to the bathroom. He would be back in a minute. Ku Li sat on Bason's bed for nine minutes, but he didn't return. Ku Li was worried. She could feel that Bason was depressed. He was more than depressed; he was distraught. Where did he go? Ku Li stood up and paced the room, trying to think of where Bason could've gone. Then something caught her eye, a piece of paper. There was a piece of paper on Bason's table. Ku Li picked it up and looked at it. It was a note from Bason. She read it.

 

Ku Li, I'm sorry. I left in the middle of the night so you wouldn't have to see me do this. I can't trust myself anymore. I don't want to hurt you or anyone else. There is only one way I can get my dark side out of me. The only way I can keep it from hurting anyone else is by killing myself. That is the only answer. I guess I'll go to Lake Qin; it has such a fitting name. I'm sorry. I love you Ku Li, please forgive me.

Bason