Tick tock

the days fly by,

time is up

your turn to die.

When Tao looks through his pictures of previous victims, he tenderly each one’s face and reminisces their times together.

There’s Xiumin, a shy singer at the local bar (well, local at the time; Tao has since then moved many times) with puffy cheeks and a gummy smile. He was Tao’s first. Tao remembers going to the movies with Xiumin, remembers their crazy road-trips and inadequately planned camping sprees.

He had almost felt bad about killing Xiumin later. Almost.

And then there’s Luhan. Beautiful, bubbly Luhan. Luhan was a rubix cube genius and competed in international competitions, never placing below first. He was Tao’s second. Luhan had met Tao at Xiumin’s funeral, pretty doe eyes sparkling with tears. They helped each other move on, until Luhan was the only one moving - off a cliff and into the raging sea below.

Tao didn’t feel anything in the slightest. People were expendable, right?

Yixing was Tao’s third. He was a dancer, always lost in his own world of dreams. Tao helped ground him and bring him to reality, urging him to fulfill all his wishes. He leads Yixing to a talent audition, and Yixing scores a position as a trainee in the company. At the celebratory dinner, Tao “accidentally” spills alcohol on Yixing, before “accidentally” setting him on fire and then dousing him in the Han River.

It had all been his attempt at kindness. After all, Yixing got into the company anyway.

Tao’s fourth was an idol named Chen. Always caught up in love scandals and photographed at nightclubs and bars, Tao met him at the newly opened strip club downtown. In a sea of flashing lights and bodies in constant motion, Tao and Chen exchange numbers before Tao buys Chen a drink. Chen’s drink is special, laced with poison and ecstasy that leaves the idol writhing in pain and discomfort as Tao casually sneaks out of the club that soon echoes with screams of horror.

Tao is pleased.

He looks through photographs of potential new victims and sighs as he spots a blonde man with sharp features. The name underneath reads Wu Yifan and Tao knows that before long, this beautiful face will be all over the news.

Tao looks up Yifan on the Internet (it’s worth a shot) and finds that he is an aspiring painter whose studio is located around the block from Tao’s apartment.

He poses as a prospective buyer and stops by Yifan’s studio to check out his works. To his surprise, he quite likes the stunning landscapes painted with intense colors and harsh brushstrokes. Yifan is a quiet man who prefers to keep to himself, Tao soon finds. After repeated attempts to flirt and woo, he finally gets the artist out on a date to the coffee shop across the street from his house.

Over the days, Tao finds that Yifan likes his coffee black, no milk, no sugar, and steaming hot. He finds that Yifan has the most adorable, quirky smile, and that he quite likes the way Yifan throws his head back to laugh, as if all the sorrows in the world would not be able to weigh him down.

Over the days, Tao falls in love. His memories with Yifan are filled with fingers laced together and blankets and legs left in tangled messes; butterfly kisses and cuddles.

But Tao is a murderer. And in the dark of the night, steals away Yifan’s last breath.

Yifan was Tao’s fifth, and this time, he does feel bad. Maybe humans aren’t as expendable after all, he thinks as he numbly walks out of Yifan’s apartment.

Tao is Tao’s sixth. Gone in a flutter of fabric and a splatter of blood on pavement; a Fallen Angel descending from the twentieth story of one of the many skyscrapers dotting the Beijing skyline.

Tick tock

the days fly by,

time is up

your turn to die.