Chapter 23: A Series of Coincidences

“You want me to join the club?” Theo squinted his eyes and asked.

Mao Lin nodded her head vigorously. “That’s right. You might not know this, but the more members a club has, the more funds the school will give them.” She spread her hands out, indicating towards her surroundings. “Look at this room. You really think I wanted to set up the club in a shabby place like this? No, the only reason why we’re here is because we only have three members, the absolute bare minimum number of people required in order to be formally recognized as a club.

“I want to improve the club’s current situation. That’s why, as much as it pains me to do so, I am left with no other choice but to recruit new members.”

“Is that really the only reason why you want me to join?”

Theo’s skepticism further increased. He honestly did not believe that a club like this would have any trouble recruiting new members.

Admittedly, the club itself seemed pretty weird.

It was like some malformed offshoot variant of a typical run-of-the-mill occult club. Even under normal circumstances, clubs like that tended to be unpopular, much less one located within the school’s abandoned building. Still, the Paranormal Research and Strange Phenomenon club held one distinct advantage that most normal occult clubs lacked; its members.

Mao Lin, Shirley, and even the blue-haired Mary, all of them were beautiful women. If they actually went out of their way to advertise the club, then without a doubt, dozens of desperate teenage boys would fight tooth and nail just to sniff the air within this stale clubroom.

“Even without you saying it, I can already tell what your thinking.” Mai Lin suddenly said. “Why aren’t we just mass recruiting by the school gates or something? With our members, we’re sure to attract a sizable population to our cause. After all, who doesn’t want to spend their high school life with three beautiful girls… something along those lines, right?”

Theo silently nodded his head.

“Well, the reason for that is actually quite simple; we don’t want to attract any unwanted attention.”

“Unwanted attention?”

She nodded. “A place like this, a club filled with three spry, beautiful, ripe-for-the-picking maidens… it’s definitely a tempting sort of thing for any young, healthy male. Unfortunately, while our collective beauty is one of the club’s greatest strengths, it is also the club’s one fatal flaw.”

Mao Lin sighed. “You know what’s been going on with the school lately, right?”

“You’re talking about the delinquent situation?”

“That’s right. These days, it feels as if half the school is made out of bastards! Delinquents, thugs, gangsters, whatever you want to call them, they’ve been acting as if they own the damn place. There’s not a single thing that us little clubs can do in order to oppose them.”

“It sounds like a tough situation.” Theo nodded his head and agreed.

“Yes, it certainly is. That’s why I’m trying to keep the spotlight away from our club as much as possible. I want to avoid all those troublesome fellows. Can you imagine? Just what would happen to our little garden of flowers if those ruffians were to catch wind of us… I certainly can’t imagine it. No, it’s not that I can’t imagine it, but that I don’t want to imagine it!” Her face contorted as she vigorously shook her head.

After a moment’s pause, she turned back towards Theo and faintly smiled. “Plus, between the two of us…” She suddenly leaned in close and whispered in Theo’s ear. “Do you really want to see your precious childhood friend hanging out with guys like that?”

“No, I don’t.” Theo subconsciously answered. He almost worried himself half to death with some non-existent male club president. If it meant keeping Shirley out of the wrong hands, then Theo wasn’t afraid of even the devil himself.

“Then you understand.” Mao Lin nodded. She took a step back and continued. “That’s why we can only resort to such a method. Recruiting new members in secret, and using our other members as secret proxy recruiters… It’s all a very inconvenient process, and not many of us have had much luck, but it’s the sacrifices we make to stay safe. At the very least, it protects this proverbial flower garden from being trampled by those warthogs.”

After some thought, Theo nodded back. “Okay, I can see where you're coming from, but… I do still have one question.”

“Shoot.”

“If all of this was just to get me to join your club, then why tie me up?” As if to prove a point, Theo tried moving his arms. He silently winced as he felt the coarse rope dig into his skin.

“Oh, that?” Mao Lin laughed sheepishly. “Theatrics. Were you not entertained?”

Beside her, Shirley shrugged her shoulders. “Prez told me to do it. Mary was in on it too.” She pointed towards the quiet blue-haired girl standing beside her.

On the other hand, Mary didn’t even react. She kept her head down, her eyes focused on the book in her hands. At some point during the conversation, she was holding a book. Where did she get that book?

Theo shook his head and pitifully stared back up at Mao Lin. “So, you’re saying all of this was planned from the very beginning?”

“Basically, yeah.” Mao Lin nodded. “From the very moment you walked into the room. Shirley already informed me that you’d be stopping by. I simply pretended to not know. Had you pretty good back there, didn’t I?” She laughed to herself.

Theo helplessly sighed. “Then, can you let me go now? This is sort of uncomfortable.”

“Oh, right.” She snapped her fingers. “Shirley, help our new recruit out.”

Shirley moved towards him and began untying the knots. All the while, Theo caught sight of the playful smirk that occasionally danced on the tips of her lips.

This girl, she was seriously enjoying his distressed appearance. Theo restrained another sigh, before he stood up. He rubbed the sore parts of his arms. A bit of his skin had turned red.

In the meantime, Mao Lin gestured him towards another chair. Theo looked warily at her. “You won’t tie me up again, will you?”

She grinned a toothy grin. “Nope, only snacks and some tea.”

Theo hesitated, but ultimately gave in. He sat at the rectangular table located at the center of the room. The seating arrangement was a bit unusual. For some reason, Theo sat in the center. Shirley sat to his left, while Mao Lin sat to his right.

Mao Lin snapped her fingers again. “Mary, bring out the snacks!”

Mary finally looked up. She tucked her paperback book underneath her shirt, before she once again walked towards the side of the room covered in shadows. A few seconds later, she came back out with a circular tin can. She placed the can on the table and opened it, revealing a fancy set of store-bought butter cookies.

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She sat down by the table, directly opposite of him. She nibbled on a cookie. Mary stared directly at him, but at the same time, Theo felt as if she wasn’t really staring at him. Her gaze was dull, filled with this sort of empty haze. It wasn’t him that she was looking at, but rather the wall directly behind him.

“Um, this girl is…”

“She’s Mary.” Mao Lin answered. “The third member of the club. She’s a 2nd year, so technically your junior, but within this club, we don’t treat our members based on seniority. Don’t mind her, she’s always like that.” Mao Lin abruptly grabbed a cookie from the can and reached out towards the other side of the table. She directly placed the cookie into Mary’s waiting lips.

“Look, she’s like a little animal.” She laughed. “Also, she likes to read horror novels.”

As Mary munched down on the cookie, Mao Lin turned back towards Theo and looked at him with enthusiasm. “Now, I’d much rather we talk about you.”

“Me?” Theo raised a brow in surprise.

“That’s right, you.” She nodded. “You’re the kid that went missing seven months ago, right?”

“Did Shirley tell you?”

“She did, but she didn’t have to. I’ve looked up all the past happenings and unusual events that have taken place within this city for the last seven months. Naturally, I knew about you.”

“Why seven months?” Theo couldn’t help but ask. It aligned perfectly with his summoning.

She smiled. “Seven months was when I first moved to this city.”

“You’re a transfer student?”

“That’s right.” She nodded. “I came to live here with my… um, relative. You know how it is, people are always saying how the East Coast is so much nicer than the rest of the country. I wanted to experience it for myself.”

“Oh.”

“And as for you, I won’t pry into where you went or what happened. Even if I try, I doubt I’ll get any results.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I already heard from Shirley that you’re not willing to divulge anything.”

“Then, if you’re not going to ask anything, why bring it up in the first place?”

“To confirm, I wanted to hear it from the source itself.” She paused for a moment. “Also, I wanted to talk to you about coincidences.”

“Coincidences?”

“Yes. Since you’re going to be our newest member, I thought I might ease you into club activities through a story or two. Don’t worry, the type of stories that I tell are the ones filled with nothing but the truth and only the truth! It’ll be a good way to get you interested in what we do.”

“Wait, I haven’t exactly agreed to join you yet.”

“Now, now, let’s leave all that for later.” She waved her hands dismissively. “First, let’s get back to the previous topic; coincidences.”

Mao Lin cleared her throat. A serious expression suddenly replaced her usual playfulness. After a few seconds of silence passed, she began narrating in a noticeably deeper voice from before.

“You see, I came to this city seven months ago. Around the exact same time, weird things started to happen— not to me personally, but the city in general. At first, I didn’t really notice it, but it soon became readily apparent that the atmosphere within this city was not normal.

“I honestly didn’t think anything of it at first. You know, new city and all, maybe I was just unfamiliar with the norms or something? To my surprise, after doing a bit of research, I discovered that all the weird happenings started roughly seven months ago or around the same time as I first came to the city.”

“You keep talking about weird things happening in the city.” Theo interrupted. “What sort of weird things?”

“I was about to get to that. Don’t interrupt.” She chided. Mao Lin let out a cough, before she continued, “Now, where was I? That’s right, so, I thought to myself, ‘could I be the one doing all this? Am I bringing ruin to this city?’ You know, since the coincidence of my arrival and all.

Of course, that wasn’t the case. Nothing actually happened around me, the weird occurrences occurred somewhere else around the city, so in the end, I dismissed the idea. But still, for a time, I really did believe it was all connected back to me. It almost felt as if the city was personally welcoming me.”

“You still haven’t explained what sort of weird things were happening.” Theo urged her forward. At this point, his own thoughts were practically identical to Mao Lin’s at the time. Could his disappearance seven months ago have something to do with the things she kept referring to? Unlike her, Theo actually had a basis for his delusion. After all, his situation was sort of paranormal in nature. Well, rather than paranormal, it would be more fantastical than anything else, but his point still stands.

He couldn’t confirm any of this unless he actually got specifics on what these weird happenings were.

“Oh right. I almost forgot.” Mao Lin laughed to herself. “Yes, well, first of all, the gangs. You noticed that they’ve been increasing lately, right? Well, I did some digging, and I found out that Harwick city normally isn’t like this. In fact, gang-related incidents only really started to take off around seven months ago.”

“That’s not really paranormal though.” Theo creased his brow. Was he really the cause of all the gang-related incidences happening all over the district? No matter how much he thought about it, he simply could not connect a fantasy summoning to an increase in gang-related crimes.

“Well, I agree it might not exactly be paranormal, but the next two coincidences certainly are.” She paused for a moment. “The lights and the bodies.”

“The lights and the bodies?” Theo unconsciously repeated.

“Oh, I’ve heard about those.” Shirley suddenly chimed in. “I think they were talking about the bodies in the news a couple of weeks ago.”

“They’ve become somewhat of a local urban legend.” Mao Lin added. “But first, let’s talk about the lights. Well, calling them a light show would probably be more appropriate. What happens is that sometimes, during the late evenings, the skies above the city start to glow with iridescent greens and sparkling blues. It’s sort of like an Aurora, but a lot less murky and a bit more distinct. They don’t appear everywhere, only on certain spots, mainly around Mountainview district.

“Like before, the lights all started happening around seven months ago.”

At that moment, Theo noticed Mary’s shoulders slightly twitch. It was a small action, barely noticeable. Normally, nobody should have noticed, but thanks to Theo’s Accumulative Perception, and the fact that Mary happened to be in range, he noticed.

He stared up at her. Mary was still staring at him, but this time, Theo caught a slight trace of light within her empty gaze. She wasn’t as absentminded as before.

Theo thought that this was slightly interesting. Does this girl know something about the lights?

Unfortunately, before he could delve any further into the topic, Mao Lin already moved on. “The lights aren’t really that famous within the city. That’s mostly because most accounts of them only come from first-person encounters and eyewitness reports. There still hasn’t been any verifiable video footage or even pictures of the phenomenon.” She sighed in disappointment. For a moment, her expression dropped, before she immediately bounced back up. “The bodies on the other hand… they are a completely different story altogether.”

She looked over towards Shirley. “You’ve heard it from her, but this particular incident is currently being documented by both the police and many major news sources. Heck, it’s even made it to national news a couple of times.”

“What is it? Spit it out already.” Theo goaded.

“A string of murders. It started seven months ago. All suspected to be from the same killer. The thing that really makes this story stand out though, is the condition in which the bodies were found in. Like dried husks, no different from a mummy’s corpse. Every single one of them, without exception, all appear as if their blood and innards have been sucked out through a straw. Many believe it’s a serial killer, but—”

“The President thinks it’s a vampire.” Shirley interrupted.

“What else could it be!” Mao Lin shouted. “Vampires are well known for sucking blood and striking during the dead of night, which is completely in line with the killer’s M.O. I refuse to believe otherwise.”

“Vampires, huh…” Theo met real vampires back in Mistelhan.

In truth, not every vampire was evil. In fact, some joined the human nations during the war against the Demon King. Vampires were actually just a divergent species of man that branched out from regular humans during the ancient era. In summary, they were humans with a special constitution. Unlike regular folk, vampires could control and manipulate life force. The reason why they sucked blood was to absorb the life force of others. On the downside, their bodies negatively reacted with celestial energy, primarily solar light.

In truth, because of the constant presence of the moon and the sun, vampires were always in a weakened state, even during the nights. They were only ever truly at their peak indoors or underground.

Of course, like most things, even a vampire’s weakness can be circumvented…

Do vampires really exist in Plume? He wondered to himself. If they really did, then he wondered whether there was any variation between Mistelhan’s vampires and Plume’s.

“And finally, there’s the third coincidence.” Mao Lin’s words snapped Theo out of his thoughts. She looked up at him and smiled. “You.”

“Me?” Theo blinked. “You’re referring to my disappearance?”

She nodded. “You disappeared seven months ago, around the same time as when all the weird things started happening. Where did you go? What did you experience? Even if I know you won’t answer, I still can’t help but ask.”

“Well…” Theo scratched the back of his head and awkwardly chuckled. Before he could come up with an excuse, Mao Lin’s skirt suddenly vibrated. She widened her eyes for a moment, before she pulled out a smartphone. She looked at the screen for a moment, before she clicked her tongue in annoyance.

“Sorry guys, I’ve got to go do something.” She apologized with a bitter expression on her face.

“What happened?” Shirley asked.

“No, nothing important. Just some ha—someone I don’t like. They’re being real pushy, so I can’t exactly ignore it.” She sighed dejectedly, as she grabbed her things and quickly made her way towards the door.

“Alright, I have to go. Shirley, make sure you get your boyfriend to sign the application form. As for everyone else, I’ll see you tomorrow!” She waved her hand goodbye and left like the wind.

Half a second later, Shirley’s flustered voice echoed through the clubroom. “He-he’s not my boyfriend!”