Chapter 12: What Morbius Showed

Su Ye followed the man in black because the corridor had gone quiet.

The nurses did not look up.

A trolley went by with no sound.

Lu Chen stood frozen against the wall with two paper cups, and he did not move either.

"Is he all right?" Su Ye asked.

"He is perfectly well. Time is paused around us for a few minutes."

The man held open a door that had not been there a moment ago.

"I am Morbius, chief judge of the hall of life and death. We have met, in a dream."

"The polite one."

"I try."

Su Ye should have been afraid.

He found he was only very tired and very curious.

"You said you could show me something about Chen."

"I did. You said no."

"I'm saying yes now." Su Ye's throat was dry.

"My grandfather's in that room. I think the people I love are in danger and nobody will tell me why. If you know, show me."

Morbius studied him for a long moment.

"It will hurt," he said.

"I know."

"You may wish you had waited."

"Probably."

Morbius lifted a hand, and the white corridor folded away.

Su Ye stood in the dining room of his own house.

The long table was set for eleven.

The white roses were in the middle, and his grandfather sat at the head with the cushion at his back.

His mother was laughing at something.

His father poured wine.

Su Lu sat at the far end in a cream dress, smiling.

Lu Chen sat beside her, white as paper.

"This is the seventeenth," Morbius said at his shoulder. "Of the first life."

He paused.

"You were here, though you will not remember it."

Su Ye watched himself lift a glass.

He was wearing a gray suit he had never owned.

He was turned toward Lu Chen, and his whole face was lit up.

Lu Chen was not looking at him.

He was looking at his own plate.

"Don't," Su Ye whispered.

The man at the table who was him drank.

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