Poison City

When Gloria opened the door to her small apartment, she found sticky rice on the ground, some talismans stuck to the frame of the door, and Sue asleep on her small couch, holding a knot made by red threads.

She put the glass bottle of sticky rice wine gifted to her by Tae Kuo on the counter, then placed a few more talismans on the small wooden table next to her sofa. She then took one Ethereal Eye Talisman out from her jacket’s inner pocket.

She cleared her throat, then chanted with a low voice and a tiny bit of her Qi on her fingers: “The Gods of Three and Nine, the Righteous Power of Two and Eight, heed my call, connect with me. Come to my aide, be my eyes and ears, lift the veil off the fog. Be it so.”

A light blue energy wave swept through the room, revealing traces of light orange and light red energy, and most interestingly, some kind of red mist shrouding a part of her bookshelf. When she came closer, she could see that it seemed to have come from the wooden box, where she stashed her talismans and blessed knots she collected from the temples she frequented. To her utter relief, there were no traces of any ominous or grim energy remaining on Sue. But to be safe, she still decided to relay Tae Kuo’s advice to her and Sue via a note.

Taking one look at the time, Gloria wrote faster - she needed to go to her other job. If it was any other time she would have stayed. But today was just unfortunately the busiest day of the week for her - she had to go to a waitressing shift, then go to the Northern District to babysit for a rich family. Neither of which were good jobs, but they helped her keep the roof over her head, and other things in check.

The bus ride over to the little coffee shop near the docks took around half an hour. It was late afternoon, so it should be a relatively casual shift for her. But when she got there, the coffee shop was filled with people, and there were some that were waiting outside as well. So she could only go in through the personnel door on the back.

“Hey, what - what happened?” As she changed into her uniform, she asked Gabby, the new temp waitress that the shop hired.

“Looks like a tour bus broke down nearby.” Gabby shook her head as she tried to ruffled through the spice and condiment cupboard trying to find something the customers asked for. “Gloria, sorry, do you know where we keep the cinnamon? And do we have any sugar substitutes?”

“We - we don’t have any sugar substitutes.” Gloria shrugged: “Did anyone ask for that? And let me guess, South-Western District tourists?”

“I guess, I can’t really tell. And three out of six of them asked for it, so I guess you’re right. And they needed some soy milk… the other guy, I forgot his name, he just got off his shift, can you help me? ”

“Sure. You go talk to the customers. We’re out of anything that would replace sugar, and we are low on cinnamon and soymilk.” Gloria put on her apron and rushed to Gabby’s side: “Tell them if they want honey instead, or almond juice.”

“Thank you!” Gabby was about to go to the front desk, but then turned around and asked: “Almond juice? Do you mean almond milk?”

“No, almond juice.” Gloria shook her head and sighed: “It’s very similar, but thinner, and sweeter. So, ask them if they want that - ”

Gloria was the most senior employee of this shop, for the owner of this shop, Luoshan Zi, a no-nonsense aspiring business woman, is somewhat of a personal friend of hers. She was one of the few people she grew up with and helped raise Gloria, when she drifted into these stiff and sometimes dangerously unfriendly lands.

“I’m sorry, what. What do you mean you’re out of sugar substitutes?” Just when Gloria found a small bottle of cinnamon and some packets of chocolate powder, she heard a female customer complaining to Gabby.

“What happened?” Gloria went to the front desk and asked.

“You don’t have sugar substitutes? Why don’t you have sugar substitutes?” The one customer complaining was a middle aged woman with a pair of sunglasses on her forehead, for some reason she appeared to be agitated by this very simple fact.

“We actually ran out, because not many of the local customers ask for it. I am very sorry.” Gloria shook her head: “But if you’d like, you can try our local baked tea, it has a certain special scent - ”

“You’re a coffee shop! How the hell do you not have any sugar substitutes?” The woman scoffed: “Do you wanna do business or not? What do you mean there is no sugar substitute? Can’t you go get some now?”

“I’m sorry, we can’t right now.” Gloria frowned.

“That’s bullshit! That’s bullshit!” This middle aged woman started spitting from her mouth, as she pointed her finger straight at Gloria: “You! Get me those sugar substitutes now!”

Gloria frowned, she couldn’t help but feel something was off with this customer. The other customers were staring at them, but none of them seemed willing to say anything. Judging from some bright yellow sticker they all shared, they seemed to be with the same travel group. Not one of them was willing to say or do anything, they just stared at her, Gloria and Gabby.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t do it. If you’d like to order something else we’d be glad to help you. But if not, I’m afraid we’ll have to help other customers with their orders.” Gloria pointed at the coffee machine behind, gesturing to Gabby to start making the drinks. “Now, would you like just regular coffee or tea without sugar or sugar substitutes?”

The middle aged woman stared at Gloria for a short moment, then grabbed the metal napkin box on the counter, raised it above her head and tried to throw it at Gloria. But before the box left her hand, Gloria already snatched it from her with a speed to which almost nobody else could react.

“What - ” The middle aged woman was stunned where she was, and she did not know what to do or say. It was as if there was no logical next step for her.

“Honey, let’s go.” Just this moment, a middle aged man with a hunched back walked up to the middle aged woman and begged: “Let’s just try another coffee shop. Maybe there’s another one around the corner somewhere. I’m sure they have it.”

“You better watch out! You better watch out! You fucking bitch!” This middle aged woman shook her fist at Gloria before she turned around with a huff.

Gloria narrowed her eyes and concentrated her Qi on her eyes - she did not know why this idea came over her, somehow it just did. And there she saw it - a shadow of some kind of long worm, whose body made of sections was wrapped around the middle aged woman’s neck.

“Nine-legged Worm?” Given the woman’s outbursting demeanor and the shape, Gloria muttered to herself. She saw this kind of creature only once before, and it was far smaller back then.

“What? ” Gabby asked from the side.

“Nah-nothing.” Gloria shook her head, still frowning.