Poison City

 

“Detective, we’ve been expecting you.” Wuzui was waiting for Marcus at the gate of the temple, but he was surprised to see the young boy with him: “And, who is this young friend of yours?”

 

“Some kid I met on the bus. He needs some talismans to keep his parents safe.” Marcus gently patted the young boy on his shoulder: “Thank you for meeting with me and your help.”

 

“Come on in, Master’s waiting for you.” Wuzui nodded and opened the gate.

 

“Is Master Liaoran home?” The young boy asked.

 

“He is, let’s go and see him.” Wuzui smiled.

 

Three of them made their way into the inner sanctum, where Master Liaoran was meditating, sitting on a hay mattress with a small metal incense burner by his side. The room was well lit by candles but had a fuzzy feeling to all the lighting, possibly due to the faint smoke in the air. 

 

Master Liaoran opened his eyes and stood up as Marcus and the young boy approached along with Wuzui: “Welcome, detective. And I can see you met a friend on your way here.”

 

“Yeah, I think he needs some talismans for his parents.” Marcus nodded.

 

“Oh, I’m not talking about the young man with you.” Master Liaoran shook his head: “Wuzui mentioned you have some questions for me. And young man, I applaud your love for your parents. Unfortunately I have run out of talismans, so I’m going to have to make some new ones now. Hope you won’t mind.”

 

“No… no problem. ” The young boy said: “My mom and my dad will be back in the morning - so I still have some time.”

 

“Wonderful.” Master Liaoran nodded at Wuzui: “Wuzui, can you bring me the materials? And detective, I see fate is being very peculiar and humorous today, so why don’t you just ask the questions while I make the talismans? I assume our young donor here would find them beneficial as well. Young donor, can you keep a secret? Keep everything in this temple.”

 

“Yes… yes! Of course, I promise!” The boy was flustered for a moment, but then he nodded.

 

“Okay then Master, if you deem it proper.” Marcus took a quick look at the boy then uttered his thoughts after a short moment of hesitation: “Here’s my situation - I just went into a house where a family was murdered with some of my colleagues. And inside the house, we were attacked by a ghost… Hmm, come to think of it, it might not be one ghost, could be more. I can’t tell…” Then he proceeded to tell the master and the young boy what he saw, and the fight between him, Kevin, Keryn and the four total ghostly figures. Up until now, he still could not decide if the “ghosts” of the murdered family were really their spirits, or were they merely shadows originated from the mysterious aura that filled the house. Or even, could they be the scouts or minions sent by the rotten woman, due to the woman’s claiming their lives?

 

“I cannot give you a definite answer, but I must say, they are all possible scenarios.” Master Liaoran shook his head as he sat back on the ground and started writing on eight pieces of light yellow paper of good quality with a writing brush and some kind of thick red ink that gave off a salty smell: “Yet in the end, as you should be able to tell, it makes no difference.”

 

“I understand, Master. ” Marcus nodded: “My colleagues and I will look into the family and their connection to this woman. But here’s my other question - ”

 

“You’re worried about the vision you saw.” Master Liaoran nodded as he raised his hand, finishing up the final stroke on the first talisman he was making: “And with the 15 year anniversary of the sunken cruise ship coming up, you’re worried AND curious about what kind of pattern there is.”

 

“Actually, I think we’ve found the pattern.” Marcus scratched his nose: “It’s some kind of 15 year circle, and at each circle massive amounts of people die with some kind of ritualistic marker along the elemental cycle. Last time it was the drowning of hundreds of people, so water. This time, if the vision is indeed some kind of warning or precognition relating to fire. And the mass grave we found? Estimated around thirty years old, and showed signs of people dying under trees and entangled with tree roots. So it was wood. Metal, wood, water, fire, earth.”

 

“Go on.” Master Liaoran looked at Marcus with a smile, and started drawing a second talisman.

 

“So, I want to know, how do I confirm this? And does that vision even mean anything?” Marcus asked: “I don’t really believe in precognition. But… How can I find out if this vision is really something that will happen? Without alerting anyone, of course.”

 

“There’s no way you can do that. ” Master Liaoran sighed: “The only choice you’ll have is to choose which ones you’d want to alert. The people? Or the spirits.”

 

Marcus let out a long sigh, then after a moment of consideration, he responded: “The spirits.”

 

“Good choice.” Master Liaoran smiled: “And here’s another thing to keep in mind: the visions you and your colleagues saw might not be just memories or things that happened in the past. They could also be the visions people have in mind. For example, if a person wants something really much and has strong and clear enough daydreams about it, they could become memory-like pieces of vision. And should this person fall victim to a paranormal entity, this piece of vision could be taken by their killer as well.” 

 

“Oh! Oh, I see…” Marcus immediately nodded, then scratched his jaw, drowned in his own thoughts: “So, this means that someone in on the plan was killed by the woman. And their vision was absorbed. Which means there’s indeed  a plan to actually set fire to the food festival.”

 

“What?!” The young boy screamed, “This is bad! This is horrible! My parents are bringing me to the festival, and… and my friends!”

 

“Don’t worry, I’ll try to stop them.” Marcus nodded at the young boy: “To be safe, I think we need to get it cancelled.”

 

“And if what you’re saying is real, then it means it’s some kind of large conspiracy.” Wuzui interjected from the side: “And I don’t think your being a detective can sway that, Detective.”

 

“I understand.” Marcus nodded: “So it needs something else - if I just go out there and start telling people about this, it will no doubt paint a target on my back and alert the people behind this.”

 

“So, there’s something you could try.” Master Liaoran finished up the second talisman and got started on the third: “It’s not that unlike the ritual of spirit calling. But it requires you to go to the spirits, it’s a bit more dangerous, but has a higher possibility of success.”

 

“Okay, what is it?”

 

“Before I tell you, you’ll need rest, and if you could, you need to have something that could tie yourself to the spirit you seek. I have to warn you, the one killed by the woman is probably already gone for good. And you may run into imposters.” Master Liaoran raised his head and looked at Wuzui: “Wuzui, can you go get the jujubes, the wine, some sticky rice, some spirit calling incense and a burner.”

 

“Understood, Master.” Wuzui immediately headed to the storage room on the side of the inner sanctum.

 

“Detective, stay for a bit, if you don’t mind.” Master Liaoran sped up a little with his making of the talismans: “Like I said: it will be quite dangerous. You will need your strength to handle it.”

 

“I - I wanna tell my parents…” The boy sniffled, trying not to cry: “I wanna go home.”

 

“Just stay a little, kid.” Wuzui came over, dropped everything on the ground and patted the boy on his shoulder: “Don’t worry, I can teach you some tricks to fake being sick.”