Poison City

 

The night wind was especially cold, even though Gloria was able to leave the Teiths’ residence more than an hour earlier than she normally would. The wind grew more chilling and more cruel with each minute.

 

Sensing something getting close to her, Gloria immediately looked back, but there was nothing behind her. Even when she concentrated her Qi, she could not see anything in her surrounding area.

 

She stepped up her footsteps and practically started running towards the railway station. Dried leaves and stones scratched the ground, and patches of dark cloud moved gradually to cover up the moon.

 

The station was empty at this hour, as it usually was. When she stood on the edge of the platform, she kept looking around even though she did not see anyone or anything following her. This feeling only dissipated when she got on the rail and started heading back. About halfway, she received a phone call from Sue.

 

“Where are you!? When are you coming back!?” Sue sounded a little hysterical.

 

“Relax, take a deep breath. I’m coming back now, how do you feel?” Gloria sighed in relief and asked.

 

“I’m okay - I’m okay. But I’m scared! Can you come back?”

 

“I’m on my way back now. Don’t worry. I checked on you before I left, you should be good.” Gloria immediately tried to console Sue: “I will bring some food back, I’m thinking soup. What do you want?”

 

“Just - just come back as soon as possible! Okay!?” Sue calmed down slightly, but was still anxious: “Bring - bring me whatever soup you order for me. Thank you. Please come back as soon as possible.”

 

There was only Gloria in her car, so she did not need to worry about disturbing others with her call. But right before she hung up, the train stopped at a stop, and a group of three men came up onto the train.

 

They seemed to be weary and all of them were sweating. All of them had similar exhausted and numb looks on their faces. One of them had a small spot of red liquid on his face. But he quickly wiped it off after finding out that Gloria was looking at him.

 

“Whatcha looking at, girl?” One man with a bald spot on his head and wearing an old trench coat stared back at Gloria and growled: “Mind your own damn business!”

 

Gloria did not say anything, but simply moved away not saying anything. The three men found their places to sit, and remained in their seats for the remainder of the trip. 

 

“Oh my god! ” Sue rushed to hug Gloria when she opened her door, almost making her spill the soup and steamed buns she bought. “How can you leave me like that!? How can you leave me like that! Dammit Gloria!”

 

“Sorry! Sorry! This is my fault.” Gloria put the food down and hugged her friend back: “I - I have some questions I needed to ask, and I kinda need to keep my promise to the Teiths, can’t really cancel on them last minute. Plus I still need to make rent this month. But - but you would be safe nonetheless, all of those things I have would have kept you absolutely safe.”

 

“I don’t care! Don’t you dare do that again!” Sue hit Gloria on the shoulder, with tears in her eyes.

 

“I won’t, I won’t. I’m so sorry.” Gloria hugged Sue again: “... I brought buns and soup, you wanna have some?”

 

“... so, did you learn anything from that mysterious friend of yours?” Sipping the hot soup carefully and slowly, Sue asked: “And - did he tell you if we are marked?”

 

“Did you make and drink the ash water like I said in the note?” Gloria asked.

 

“Ye - yes. ”

 

“Then you should be good. ” Gloria nodded, then held Sue’s face and looked at her from left to right: “And you look good. Stay here for tonight, then we can check with Sifu Kuo tomorrow.”

 

Sue let out a long exhale of relief, then immediately asked again: “But - do you know what’s going on? Will this happen again in the coffin home?”

 

“We’re still looking into everything. And this has caught the attention of the community collective.” Gloria sighed: “And none other than Bulu Wang came to investigate. I would need to answer to an inquiry from them now.” 

 

Sue gasped. “Oh my god. I - I’m so sorry!” 

 

“No worries, Sifu Kuo will vouch for me. And I don’t think I did anything wrong.”

 

—------------

 

“Yeah, I think you should be fine. But we’ll need to do a ritual to confirm.” The next morning, both Gloria and Sue got to Fuman Coffin Home right when it was about to open and asked Tae Kuo to examine Sue once again for any residual signs of being marked or targeted by the unclean beings from the coffin. Even with the assurance from the Kshiti Temple and Gloria, she was still worried.

 

“What’s with all of these tapes?” Gloria raised her chin at the orange tapes around the building of the coffin home, some even sealing the door.

 

“The community collective did that, basically we won’t be able to place any new bodies for a while.” Tae Kuo sighed: “The existing bodies will be going through inspection, we’d have to tell the relatives that. And hopefully they will be buried soon.”

 

“Okay.” Gloria thought for a moment, then asked Tae Kuo: “Sifu Kuo, can you check me one more time? Last night when I was on my way back from the Northern District, I felt something was following me, and I just couldn’t see anything - ”

 

“No problem, I will check for you both.” Tae Kuo pulled out a string of keys and opened the backdoor to the coffin home, through which they entered the backyard.

 

The door to the main room was also sealed by tape, though all of them could easily look past them and see the conditions inside: all of the coffins had some more talismans stuck on them. There were some red ropes on the ground, connecting each coffin like pipes.

 

“They’re doing some kind of ritual as well. They will come later today, both of you feel free to attend.” Tae Kuo took out two incense burners and some incense sticks from the back room, then two leaves with matte but slightly reflective surfaces, whose stem seemed to be hollowed out into tiny tubes: “And I took the chance to ask them for some more supplies as well, it’s not much, but should help you for now. You know what these are?”

 

“Processed tung-oil tree leaves?” Sue asked.

 

“Yes. And one ingredient for body makeup as well.” Tae Kuo handed the leaves to Gloria and Sue: “Now, put the stems’ ends between your teeth and keep them in the air. And hold these burners in your ends.”

 

“Okay, you’re doing that ritual? Wouldn’t that be a little gross for the morning?” Gloria spoke through her teeth while holding the burner.

 

“Gloth? Wuuuat duh ya mean ith gloth?” Sue couldn’t speak with her teeth clenched very well, but both Gloria and Tae Kuo were able to decipher what she was saying.

 

“Don’t worry, it’s gonna be done in a minute.” Tae Kuo nodded as he put two incense sticks into each of the burners: “Since you both drank the ash water, this would be the easiest way to tell. ” He then lit the incense sticks up: “Okay, lift the burners up and try to scorch the leaves with the incense. Try to inhale some smoke. It’s not super pleasant so try to endure a bit. The ritual needs a certain amount of smoke to work. But don’t worry about it.”

 

Both Gloria and Sue sucked on the leaves. A tiny trace of smoke entered their mouths. The smoke was pungent and dried up their throats. When it reached their stomach, it made their stomachs growl and rumble.

 

“What the - ” Sue was not ready for it. The burner in her hand dropped on the ground before she did. She heaved while kneeling on the ground, then vomited out a pool of thick, gray substance.

 

Gloria had gone through this before, so she held the burner in and spit the leaf to the side in a much more graceful manner. A moment later a small pool of thick gray substance appeared on the ground before her. One thing that she noticed was that her pool of vomit had some kind of light green pattern on the edge.

 

“Yeah, here’s some tea.” Tae Kup came back with two wooden cups and handed one to Sue: “You look clean! No sign of further paranormal latching.”

 

“What is this ritual?!” Sue whined: “And why?”

 

“It’s an after ritual for the ash water.” Gloria took the other wooden cup from Tae Kuo and sighed: “If you drink it and do this within one day, then it can force you to vomit out some of the captured traces of unclean energy. ”

 

“Normally I would not do this. But since we’re all worried, it might be good to let it out earlier so I can take a look.” Tae Kuo shrugged: “Don’t worry, it’ll wear out soon.”

 

Then, when he got to Gloria, he froze.