Autophagy

"Young man," the woman said while smiling. "I'm Isabel Fraser. Mother of Mia Fraser."

Song Lei looked at her without any expression on his face. "Uhh..."

He stood up sluggishly and took the woman's hand. "Nice to meet you..."

The woman shook Song Lei's hand and backed off. They kept their silence for some time before Song Lei realized what was going on. "Umm... I'm Song Lei. But how did you know that I'm a young ma- Oh..."

He stopped before finishing his sentence and looked at himself in the mirror. He was back to the body he got in the New World.

"Mister... Mister? Are you okay?" A childish voice sounded in the room. Song Lei looked around but couldn't find the source of the voice until he felt a tugging on his leg.

"Mia?" Song Lei asked while raising one of his eyebrows.

"Yes, Mister," the little girl said while smiling. Song Lei crouched and gave her a pat on the head. He then stood back up again and turned his head towards Isabel.

"By the way... Are you going to stay like that?" Song Lei asked while closing his eyes with his hand. Although all of his being screamed for him to peek a little bit between his fingers, he chose not to do so.

Isabel looked up and down to understand what was the problem. When she realized that she was naked, she smiled faintly. "My my! You got quite the reward huh?" Isabel said. "You can open your eyes now."

Song Lei stopped blocking his sight and looked at the woman. Some flesh bloated out of her skin, slowly but surely forming up into a black-colored dress.

Song Lei gulped and spoke, "So? What should we do now?"

The woman looked at Song Lei with surprise.

"Don't you already know what to do? Then how did you know all that stuff..." Isabel thought. "You weren't just acting right?"

"Umm... No..?" Song Lei tried to lie.

"Oh god... So you don't know anything? My and Mia's story, what kind of world we are in, none of that?" She asked. Song Lei shook his head instead of talking. His face was flushed.

"Whatever... I guess I'll have to explain," the woman said while sitting on the bed. Song Lei didn't move from the place he was standing and kept looking at her. Mia was still holding his leg. She seemed to be in her 6 years old form.

"First of all... Do you have any idea about where we are? You don't right? Let me explain... This place is called a dream prison," Isabel started explaining. "It's an artificially crafted space, made up by my and Mia's subconscious."

Song Lei's eyebrows twitched. He had thought that no one knew the fact that they were in a dream space inside the dream space itself. Isabel seemed to be different.

"You're surprised, right? Well, I remembered everything when you saved me from my grief. I'm awestruck too," she said. Song Lei nodded. "I used to be an earth-bound soul with high intelligence back in the city with Mia. Unfortunately, we met 'him'. Ugh..." Isabel said. She started coughing and held her chest in pain.

Song Lei run up and put his hand on her back. She made a gesture, letting him know that she was fine.

"I can't talk too much about him. He put a curse on me and I'm too weak to resist. It isn't that important as you'll eventually learn who 'he' is while climbing the apartment," Isabel said while emphasizing the word 'he'.

Song Lei nodded and sat beside her. Mia jumped on the bed and hugged Song Lei's arm.

"What you should know is, he is very powerful. He was the one who created all the dream prisons and put us in, we now have to fend off any human that comes on our assigned floors," she said. Her face was sour as she spoke, she seemed to be in some amount of pain.

"So? What are we supposed to do now?" Song Lei asked. "What is even going on in this place?"

"You've probably guessed it already. But everything that happens in this mansion represents Mia's subconscious. There's a main villain in the mansion and we have to defeat it," Isabel explained.

Song Lei looked at the ceiling for a second and tried to guess. "Is it the flute monster?"

"What are you talkin-? Oh... Are you talking about the monster that sounds like it's talking through a flute? You're right. I'm surprised you could figure it out by yourself," Isabel exclaimed. She patted Mia's head.

"And? Who is that? What does it represent?" Song Lei urged her to continue.

"That part is a bit complicated. It may take a bit long to explain. Do you have time?" She asked.

"I don't know. Do I?" Song Lei threw the question back at Isabel. He didn't know how urgent things were at the moment.

"You're right. We do have the time," she started talking. "I was once an innocent girl, just like any other. I fell in love with a handsome man and got married to him," Isabel said. "Things started spiraling downwards once I learned that he was the son of a rich family. My first meeting with his family was a disaster," she explained.

"Because I was an orphan and a normal girl, they never wanted their son to marry me. They had countless candidates for him to choose from and he had gone ahead and picked up a commoner girl like me," she said with a tinge of sadness in her eyes. "My husband wasn't a very courageous and independent person. He was easily manipulated by others, always being used by people. I worked hard to make our family stable. Then we had this little cutie over here," Isabel patted Mia with a smile on her face.

"Her being born was both like a blessing and a curse," she started. "My husband's family was incredibly angry at me for not giving birth to a boy that could take over their company. Even then, we somehow managed to pull through."

"But one day," Isabel said with a grim expression on her face. "We learned that Mia was terminally ill. This was the last straw for my husband's family."

"What did they do?" Song Lei asked.

"They sent someone. Someone that was going to ruin our life," Isabel said. She gulped loudly and continued. "That woman appeared at our door...."