"It is only for so long can you learn from yourself, Li Xinyuan," the voice, familiar and poisonous, rang through the all-encompassing darkness. The void around him seemed to exist beyond simple night, a piece of a living breathing thing. It surrounded the surgeon, swarmed his mind and devoured his senses; it deprived him of sight, of his own thinking facilities.
The only thing he could hear, the only sensation he could feel, was the thing's words, coming in a hissed drawl as it licked into his ears. It drew closer, the sound of its approach muffled and squirming. Like a thousand worms crawling in tandem with one another.
The surgeon tried to step back, thrashing uselessly in place. He couldn't move.
He couldn't move. Neither his feet nor his hands.
Deprived of his vision, sight, and voice, Li Xinyuan struggled against the unseen binds rooting him in place. As the creature drew closer, the pit in his stomach deepened, breath turning light as he gasped without a sound.
