“Yeah, definitely an unclean mark.” Luoshan Zi narrowed her eyes at the wound, then she turned to Gloria: “Is this what you’ve been looking at?”

“Kind - kind of.” Gloria shook her head, and infused a little bit of her Qi into Samantha’s skin, who hissed and almost reflectively retracted her arm. But with Gloria and Luoshan Zi’s hands stabilizing her arm, she was not successful.

“What is going to happen?” Kevin asked, worried: “Is it gonna be okay? Can you help my mom?”

“Yeah, yeah, but I’m gonna need some help - ” Gloria frowned and took out her phone, ready to craft a message to Tae Kuo and Gyuu Park.

“Let me help you at the same time then, what do you need?” Luoshan Zi sighed, then took a quick step back to allow the distressed guests to talk with Gloria without disturbance or distraction.

“We need some sage, ginger, and talismans. It would be better if we have clear water placed under the midday sun for more than two hours. ” Gloria shook her head: “I’ve never seen anything like this. I may need to ask some friends.”

“I have sage and some ginger. And - different kinds of talismans, which ones do you need?” Luoshan Zi nodded and headed towards the kitchen.

“The evil repellant ones.” Gloria nodded: “And - could you make some ginger tea?”

“You’ve got it.” Luoshan Zi nodded and opened up a drawer, took out a small paper bag, a small box of matches and threw them at Gloria: “Here, I think this is most of my talismans, you look for the ones you need. Do you need a bowl?”

“Yes.” Gloria nodded, then after a moment, raised her voice: “Thank you, thank you very much.” Then she turned to the Teiths: “Sorry - but before we could do anything we’ll need to take care of this first. And I’ll ask for some specialized help if you don’t mind.”

“No - no - don’t worry about me, we need to protect my son first.” Samantha pulled her arm back and rolled down her sleeve: “Please, please help us, we really need to - ”

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“You know people who can help right?” Brian interrupted his wife: “Can you call them? Can - can they bring us to them?”

“Yes, I will text them right now and see if we can meet up with them. But first, tell me more about what happened - did you see it, whatever it is? Anything out of the ordinary you noticed?” Gloria started crafting her message while talking with the Teiths.

“Please, if you could, call them.” Brian sighed: “We can wait - ”

“Why don’t you listen to me!? ” Kevin struggled and raised his voice: “It’s the cat granny! It’s the cat granny!”

“Kevin!” Samantha held him tighter.

“What, mom? What?” Kevin slammed his hands on the table: “I know what I’m talking about, okay?! I know it’s the cat granny. Why wouldn’t you listen? You never listen!”

“Kevin! Don’t talk to your mom like this!” Brian also raised his voice: “Let’s focus on the problem and how to solve it, okay?”

“But it’s the cat granny! I know it!” Kevin turned to his father: “How can we solve it if you don’t even know what it is? ”

“Ginger tea!” Luoshan Zi came over and announced in a cheery voice as she brought over a wooden tray with three steaming mugs and a small glass bowl filled with clean water with a small spoon on the side: “Let’s relax a little, shall we?”

Gloria took the glass bowl, picked a yellow paper talisman drawn with red paint and red linings on the edges from the paper bag. With a quick flick of a match, she lit up this talisman in her hand, and let the ashes fall in the bowl.

When the talisman was fully consumed by the fire and turned entirely into ash, Gloria used the spoon to stir the water to make sure the ashes got fully dissipated into the water.

“Oh, no - Kevin first.” When offered the bowl, Samantha shook her head.

“You’re the one who got scratched - you go first, and you should drink the most.” Gloria frowned.

“I - I’m okay…”

“Just drink it.” Brian and Kevin said at the same time.

Samantha whispered a “Thank you”, then proceeded to take a sip of the water. When she wanted to pass it to Kevin, Gloria stopped her arm, and forced her to continue drinking. Gloria loosened her grasp only when more than half of the bowl went down Samantha’s throat, and the rest was shared half and half by Kevin and Brian.

“Okay, Kevin, tell me what you saw.” After pushing the Teiths to drink some ginger tea, Gloria turned to the teenage son of the family: “You told me a couple of times it was the cat granny. So tell me, and be sure to describe to me as detailed as possible - but be sure, don’t force yourself to remember if you can’t.”

“Okay - okay.” Kevin took a deep breath, and tried to adjust his posture on the chair: “So - at first I just saw a shadow, because the lights are not that bright. We have bad lights. And then - and then she just jumped at us after scratching mom. She had these very creepy long fingers and dark yellow nails. She tried to grab me by my clothes - ” He pulled his hoodie up a little by the chest area to show Gloria what happened: “But the jade medallion I had burned her - it burned her hand - and her hair, and - and her face… and I saw her face, in just a flash. Her face was very very yellow, and - and broken. She - she had these two sharp teeths - fangs out of her mouth. But then she immediately disappeared.”

“Can I take a look at this jade medallion?” Gloria asked.

“Here.” Samatha reached into her pocket and took out two small pieces of cracked jade that would roughly form a circle. The pieces had only a few green spots remaining, while the rest just showed pale white and were covered in black burn marks.

The burn marks looked like remnants of charred tar, while the pale, tarnished spots looked like the jade was dipped in acid and lost its color.