“What is this? Fuck - what is this?” Gyuu Park coughed and cursed when he entered the stairwell.
“What is what?” Tae Kuo asked, confused.
“You don’t see it? The fucking lines and - hair like shit everywhere!” Gyuu Park pointed at the ceiling and the handrails. After not getting a response from the Sifu, he turned to Gloria, who was staring at him in confusion as well. “Fucking hell - use your Qi?”
“... I’ve been using it since we came in. But I don’t see anything like that.” Gloria shook her head with a frown on her face: “But - I believe you, there’s probably some kind of resonance. So you lead the way.”
“Okay. Follow me, keep your eyes sharp!” Gyuu Park rushed past Gloria and up the stairwell.
They ran up two levels. The air became more chilly, the smells that were assaulting their senses were becoming more foul and stale. It was as if the air itself had become more dense and more ladened with additional, unpleasant moisture. Gyuu Park kept looking around, and shifting his position as if he was trying to dodge certain hazards. Gloria still could not tell what it was that Gyuu Park saw but she couldn’t, but she followed his action. Same did Tae Kuo.
“Yeeeeeee - Ahahahahahaha - ” A gurgling, chilling laugh came from somewhere above, even though the three were ready for something abnormal, they still felt a wave of horror brushing through their bodies.
“Go! Go!” Gloria spoke through her teeth, both herself and her teammates.
Gyuu Park continued leading the way, and before long they got to the 4th floor, with a side door connecting to a platform outside, connecting to another building.
They were about to go up, but the cry of a small child, or maybe even an infant came through the side door.
Gyuu Park looked back at the door, seemingly quite confused.
“Let me go and have a look.” Gloria pulled out a handful of the blessed rice and a bottle of blessed water, then said to the two men: “You go and drop the things off. Find me after that.”
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“Got it.” Gyuu Park and Tae Kuo nodded, then proceeded upstairs. The apartment was just one more floor up, and it would not take much time for them to do so.
“Ms. Zi! Sue! Open up!” Gyuu Park banged on the door: “Please! Let us drop off a few things and go help Gloria!”
“Where’s Gloria?” Luoshan Zi’s voice came from behind the door, cold and calm.
“Fuck - fuck! She’s the one to answer.” Tae Kuo banged his fist on the wall: “Ask us something else! Ask us something only we know! We’ve gotta help Gloria. NOW!”
“Okay - ” Luoshan Zi hesitated for a brief moment: “I’ll bring someone.”
“Quick, please!” Gyuu Park yelled.
“Okay! What - what is the number of emergency reparations team members we found together? The number we found that doesn’t add up? ” Sue’s voice came instead of Luoshan Zi’s.
“Seven! The number is seven!” Gyuu Park immediately responded after a short moment.
“Where the hell is she!?” The door swung open, with Luoshan Zi holding a candle in her hand and Sue beside her.
“Hard to explain. But here’s some blessed rice, blessed water, some candles and - and ashes from an incense burner. Do you know how to use them?” Gyuu Park threw the bags he was carrying into the room.
“What? Incense ashes? ” Luoshan Zi frowned.
“Use it the same way as wok bottom ashes! Mix it with some grease and rub it on yourself!” Tae Kuo also threw his bags down and was ready to leave: “We need to go now. Keep the doors locked!”
Gloria felt a dry tingling sensation in her nostrils and throat when she stepped onto the platform outside. Though there was no smoke, smog or dust in the air, just the dark particles, the true nature of which she had no idea.
This was not a simple platform, there were several outlets and vents for what she could only assume were from air conditioners, a small water tower, a giant seemingly unused satellite dish and a metal box that looked like a switch box.
She stepped onto the dirty ground, littered with stains from the rain and garbage tossed onto it from higher levels. Another cry came, and Gloria immediately lowered her body and lightened her footsteps, while infusing the rice in her hand with her Qi. She wanted to make sure that if there was anything, she wanted to be able to strike first.
One step, two steps, three steps. On the fourth, she saw a shadow crouching on the ground behind the concrete base of the water tower. It looked indeed like an old woman, with boney arms, fingers, ankles and a full head of long hair.
Gloria took one more step forward. Although she was not able to see whatever Gyuu Park saw earlier, she could still clearly see the dark tendrils made of dark particles growing from the woman’s back, and the grim, almost porridge and tar-like dark aura around her.
Just when Gloria was about to throw the blessed water and rice at the old woman, the old woman’s body twitched, and then a familiar voice spoke: “Please! Help! Someone took my son! Someone took my son!”
Chills ran down Gloria’s spine, and a really unpleasant thought arose in her mind. Without thinking for another second, she lunged at the old woman and threw her entire handful of blessed rice and a whole bottle of blessed water at her.
The old woman turned to Gloria, her blurry, glowing eyes open wide and revealed her fangs extenuating from her upper jaw. Gloria expected a scream, but all she heard was a hiss. She got a good look at the old woman’s face - a jaundiced, slightly wrinkly one with scratches on both sides of her mouth like whiskers of an actual cat, before the figure of the old woman melted and turned to a pool of dark tar on the ground.
“Fuck.” Gloria gasped, immediately turning around and running towards the entrance, just in time to see that Gyuu Park and Tae Kuo here to help her. “Go back! Go back!”
“What?” Tae Kuo and Gyuu Park asked. The door slammed shut behind them.