by Peter Fang
Gretchen felt disheartened by the news. She regretted that she was not a pure devotee so that she could perform the cast herself. She explained to the priest the situation in her apartment building, and the priest asked her to put the spell they found from the parchment on their front door.
Shao copied the spell from the picture on a piece of talisman paper so that she could use it for self-protection.
Gretchen was delighted to learn that she had made a friend in the Dao community and made a promise to help the priest with his library project.
Shao was appreciative but politely turned down her generosity. “Did you get what you needed?”
“I think so. How will I know this spell actually works?” Gretchen looked concerned and uncertain.
The priest bowed slightly, his hands clasped in front of his chest. “I can’t guarantee anything, but each living thing and spiritual being has its way.” He pointed at the yin-yang sign on his wall. “Never forget that. I wish you good fortune and good luck.”
Gretchen bowed in return but felt a sickening nausea brewing inside of her.
The weather turned stormy as she left the priest’s house. Gretchen put the talisman paper inside a leather envelope for extra protection, and then she carefully laid it inside a carrying case she had brought with her. Gretchen then cradled it with both arms as new born child.
When Gretchen returned home, she further fortified her apartment with her usual spirit-deterring paraphernalia—she even put up a fixture mirror of the Bāguà sign on the front door’s wood frame. She then put on her jade jewelry, went to her small backyard porch, and burned bundles of joss paper.
After an hour of praying and mustering enough courage, she carefully took out the talisman paper and headed out her apartment door. A cold draft was coursing through as she stepped out into the hallway.
“Yin chi—not good,” she murmured to herself. “For sure, now, I shall be rid of this spirit from the apartment.” She quietly walked against the wall and headed over to Ansen and Maria’s unit. Once there, she put the talisman paper on the front door post. To her surprise, the paper quickly dissolved into the wood frame. She backed away slowly to her apartment, and that was when the lights in the hallway flickered; one by one, they were snuffed out like someone had blown the candle. Gretchen first thought the power just went out, but when she looked outside the window, the streetlights were still on. She doubled back away from the door as quickly as she could and ran, but halfway down the hall, she heard Ansen and Maria’s apartment door open with a creak. She felt the hair pricks on her neck as the yin chi reached behind her.
Just mere feet away from her front door, she felt a strong pull on her shirt––it felt like someone had snagged her with a large fish hook, trying to reel her in. She tried to fight it off, but the force knocked her off her feet. As she fell, the back of her head hit the ground, and her glasses went flying. Without her glasses, she could only see a blurry, dark figure walking towards her, and it was making an ungodly sound, like an animal in pain. She felt another sharp tug from something on her back. She wasn’t sure what the dark figure was; it could be Maria, it could be someone––or something, but it sure felt evil, so she fought to free herself. She looked down farther with her myopic vision and saw a long, black hook-like finger pulling on her shirt. She gazed up and saw an arm covered in blue, limpid skin with webs of dark veins. With a deep, wet growl, the thing yanked Gretchen violently several feet back. She smelt the awful breath from the creature that was blanketing the air around her. Suddenly, the beast let out a loud shriek. Gretchen saw the dark silhouette of the creature covering its face in agony with its four hands. The barbed tentacles that were grabbing her retracted in a blinding speed as the thing screamed and ran away, followed by the sound of the apartment’s door slamming shut. Gretchen stood up slowly and tried to run, but her vision narrowed, and she passed out.
When Gretchen awoke, she first thought she was back in her apartment. She reached for her glasses, but it was gone. She saw a dark shadow approach her, so she hacked out a scream but was relieved when it turned out to be her neighbor, Teresa.
Teresa warned, “Don’t move. I think you took a fall and bumped your head on the ground.”
Teresa’s comforting words ironically felt like a piercing needle burrowing into Gretchen’s head. “No, I’m fine.” Gretchen struggled to get up, but the pain was too much; not even her steely stubbornness could overcome the feeling. Slowly, she remembered what had happened.
“Did you see Maria come out?” Gretchen pointed her shaking hand at the hallway. She grabbed Teresa’s arm, trying to pull herself up.
Teresa believed Gretchen was suffering from hallucinations, which could be a sign of a concussion. “Don’t move, Gretchen––you may have hit your head hard. I will call the medic, and they will come shortly.”
“No, you must not stay here; it’s not safe.” Gretchen pointed at Maria’s apartment—her voice loud and hoarse. “There’s a demon in that apartment!”.
Alarmed by Gretchen’s outburst, Teresa threw a sharp glance down the hallway. “Are you pointing at Maria and Ansen's apartment?”
Gretchen tried to claw back to her apartment, but she winced as she moved her limbs.
“Don’t move. The medics will be here soon. I already called them.” Teresa knocked on another neighbor’s door, but no one answered.
“Go get the police!” Gretchen screamed. “Maria’s the one that made me fall.”
Teresa walked down to Maria’s apartment and listened, but she couldn’t hear anything, so she knocked on the door. “Maria? Are you there? Can I get your help?”
The door clicked open, and there was Maria. She looked a bit pale but otherwise normal. She smiled at Teresa and nodded. “How are you, Teresa? How was your trip to Hawaii?”
“Fine, thanks. I’m sorry to bother you, but Gretchen had a bit of an accident in the hallway, and she said you made her fall.”
Maria rolled her eyes. “She is mad at me because we complained about the incense smell from her apartment. She also thinks I am a witch for some reason. She tried to talk to me as I got out of the elevator. I said hi, but I never touched her. She got angry with me, so I just came inside.”
Teresa looked at her apologetically. “Yeah, I understand. Somehow she fell after you got into your apartment. I think she has been practicing that yin-yang thing too much and it’s getting to her head.”
“Come in for a second. I need to tell you something about Gretchen,” Maria whispered to Teresa.
Teresa went inside Maria’s apartment, but Gretchen started screaming, “No, don’t go inside, stay out here,Teresa!”
Teresa was startled by Gretchen’s screaming, so she stopped near the entrance. She pointed back at Gretchen. “I should go back and help her. Can you give me a hand?”
By now, Gretchen had crawled almost back to her apartment. Her head was still throbbing, and her back was sore, but she just wanted to get away from the hallway before the damn demon came out and had another go at her.
Maria poked her head out and saw Gretchen already back in her own apartment. She said sheepishly, “I'm afraid I will only do more harm than good if I get near her. Right now she probably hates my guts, so I’d better stay away.”
Teresa was a bit surprised by Maria’s lack of interest to help, but her explanation made sense to her. “Well, okay. If the medics don’t show in five minutes, can you do me a favor and call 9-1-1 again?”
“Sure, I’ll keep that in mind.” Maria closed the door slowly behind Teresa; for a split second, Teresa swore she saw Maria’s profile shifted into a dark silhouette. After the door shut, Teresa heard a disturbing growl behind the closed door. Then she realized it must have been Joey. She shook her head, believing that Gretchen’s delusional behavior had unsettled her.
Fifteen minutes later, the paramedic showed up. They determined that there were no broken bones in Gretchen, and it was just a bruise to the head. But just as a precaution, they want
ed to bring her to the hospital as a precaution. As the paramedic folks were trying to persuade Gretchen to let them take her to the emergency room for an MRI, Gretchen blurted out, “I want to see Maria––I need to talk to her now. Please ask her to come out into the hallway.”
Teresa frowned apologetically at the responders and whispered something in one of the guy’s ears.
Gretchen acknowledged the stares from everyone. “I am fine, I really am! But I need to talk to my neighbor first, please. Just a few words with her, and I will go with you to the emergency room. I just need her to come out and talk to me for a second.”
“I already went to talk to Maria, and she said she’s afraid that her presence will give you more anxiety…” Teresa was regretting being entangled in the two neighbors’ dispute. At this point, she really just wanted to get on with her life.
“No, really, I’m not going to argue with her. I just need to see her and ask her something.” Gretchen reached out and held on to Teresa’s arm.
“Ma’am,” one of the responders said. “If it makes you feel better, I will ask your neighbor to speak with you.”
Teresa and Gretchen smiled in silence—both were relieved that someone else was taking the responsibility.
The responder walked down the hallway in his heavy boots until he was by the front door. He raised his hand, hesitated for a moment, then firmly knocked on the door. No response. The responder knocked on the door again, waited for a few seconds, but still nothing. He looked back at the crowd and shrugged his shoulders.
The door opened; Maria was there, looking pale.
“Sorry to bother you again, ma’am. Your neighbor, Gretchen…she would like to speak with you. Do you mind?”
Maria hesitated for a second, then replied, “Sure, give me a second; I’ll be right out.” She left the door open, went to grab a shawl, and then came out. Right before she got outside the door, she laid her hand on Joey’s head and whispered something to him; Joey sat down obediently. Maria closed the door behind her; then turned to the guy, and said, “Sorry, my dog sometimes gets a little excited with strangers. Sounds like it’s becoming a real ruckus out here.”
“Ma’am,” he lowered his voice so only Maria could hear him. “Your neighbor fell on her back, but we believe she may also be suffering from a mild head injury. We need to take her to the hospital ASAP, but she refused to cooperate until she talked to you.”
Maria rolled her tongue to cover up a smudge of dried blood near the edge of her lip. She sighed. “I understand. She took a strange…devoted interest in me and my boyfriend recently. We had some differences regarding her cultural practice in the apartment. The incense she burns makes an awful smell in the hallway. We asked her to stop, but she refused, so she’s holding a grudge. I'll talk to her so you boys can be on your way.”
Maria followed the responder to the small crowd around Gretchen. Maria smiled at her and said, “I’m here. They said you need to chat with me before they take you to the hospital?”
Gretchen tried to sit up, but her back was still in pain. She stared at Maria and cutting words came out of her tight lips. “I know what’s in that antique, and you are already infected by the demon. You need to leave this host, or I’m going to destroy you. I have posted that talisman outside your house, so now you can’t leave without killing yourself. You are trapped! It's only a matter of time before I get a Dao priest here to return you to ashes.”
Maria’s smile suddenly melted, and her face began to rot. Soon, a demon consumed Maria’s body and reached out to grab Gretchen.
Gretchen looked around at the people around her for help, but they just stood there and watched as if everything was normal.
“This is your last warning, Gretchen. Do not get involved with our affairs. This is not your fight, so leave it alone.”
Gretchen uttered something back, but it was only in her mind.
“Go to sleep now and leave all this behind, or else I will feed you to the queen.” The demon reached out with its talons and touched Gretchen on her forehead. She felt the sharp prick, and then everything went dark.
Teresa felt slightly nauseous; she thought she had blacked out for a moment.
Maria was still talking to Gretchen, but Gretchen's eyes were closed.
Teresa heard the last few words from Maria, “…so leave it alone.” She looked at the paramedics, and they were just staring at Gretchen in a trance.
“What happened?” asked Teresa. “I missed the conversation for some reason. I must have spaced out.”
Maria patted the paramedic boys on the back. “Gretchen is fine now. She fell asleep. I think we’d better take her to the hospital.”
“Yes, ma’am, thanks for your help…funny, I don’t remember what was going on.” One man shook his head. “I’m getting too old for this.”
“Glad to help, guys. Now, if you would excuse me, Joey doesn’t like to be left alone too long.” Maria nodded to everyone and retired to her apartment.
Teresa checked her watch, and it was showing 6:30 p.m. “Oh weird, I thought we had been standing here for an hour, but it’s been only five minutes?” She calculated in her head that there was time left to pick up her boy after the soccer practice at 7 p.m. She checked the voice message from her boy at 7:30 p.m. “Mom? Where are you? You were supposed to pick me up half an hour ago. I’m going to Robert’s house for band practice. Stop by and pick me up later. Love you!” Teresa checked her watch again and noticed her watch had actually stopped moving. She swore under her breath and rushed downstairs.
Back in Maria’s apartment, Joey stood guard outside the master bedroom like a statue. The door was locked; Maria submerged herself inside the bathtub with soothing water. Like an injured fish, silky blood strings seeped from her skin and into the tub. There were lines of deep cuts covering her entire body. Some of the lines met and made the skin peel upward; Gretchen’s powerful spell had done its damage. She needed fresh water to heal her wound from the talisman’s burn. She had used a spell to prevent people from seeing her true form while she was out in the hallway. The talisman unveiled her true form and did damage to her body. Luckily, whoever created the talisman did not use the attack spell; instead, the one outside her house was used to entrap the demon spirit, so she could still go outside the apartment for a few minutes. But she could not leave the house for long, or she would burn into ashes. Her long nails clung to the edge of the bathtub as she soaked in the water; the cracked skin slowly healed, and she returned to human form. In her meditative state, she contemplated how she could break the spell. Old memories reemerged like rediscovering an old song inside her head. She recognized the undulating thoughts from the demon within; now it felt like part of hers; she felt powerful and in charge of her destiny. Like an addictive drug, she could not go back to a life without it.
She soaked in the bathtub for a long time until a fresh sound surfaced inside her head; she heard the queen reaching out to her.
My child, hang in there. That Gretchen has my old enemy’s blood; she’s a descendent of the warlord that destroyed me.
Maria replied in her mind, How come she’s different? I couldn’t read her mind, and I couldn't tell she had that spell with her until it was too late.
The queen said, She’s related to the warlord that killed my human form a long time ago. This chance meeting is fate, and I need to kill her. If I kill her, I can regain a lot of energy.
Well, until I can get out of this house, I’m trapped in this place.
It’s worse than that—you will die soon if you don’t get out of this house. The spell has poison sewed in. It will eventually poison your blood, and you will bleed to death.
How can we break this spell?
It’s unbreakable by the spellcasters. It has to be broken by someone that cares about you.
You mean Ansen?
The queen cackled, Ansen? He’s the one using you. And you know by now that he and his men have plans to kill you. If you survive, you will have two more days
. Beyond that—
I’m not afraid. Whatever it is. I am ready. Live or die; it’s my fate, Maria said defiantly.
We shall see, the queen replied.
30
The Catacomb
Koda’s Monday was shaping up to be a hectic one: one gunshot wound near Chinatown with the possible suspect in custody. That meant a lot of paperwork and no sleep that night.
But in the back of his head, he still hadn’t forgotten about Manfred. The only thing he had to go on was his gut instinct, so he looked up Manfred’s background, and something did not add up. It turned out that Manfred moved into Seattle only a year ago, but he and Meredith emigrated from China in 1953. Then he worked for a construction company until he quit in 1971. After that, there were no records of him, nor his wife. Manfred and his wife would have been around ninety years old today, but the records showed Manfred was not a man in his nineties. Koda went over all of the evidence that his friend, Matt, secretly gave him but came up with nothing. Matt also said the company Roberts and Sons Financial was going through legal channels with the FBI, so the lead on the necklace with the M.W. initials would have to wait.
The waiting drove Koda crazy, so he decided to visit Chinatown’s old antique shop again.
The place was still closed off, and the door was shut. He knew that everything inside the shop would have been analyzed and collected. He wouldn’t find anything interesting inside the shop. But what about outside? He went around the back and followed the wall until he came to the back of the shop where there was a set of garbage bins. If the investigator was thorough, the garbage bin content would have been collected. He knew Matt was thorough, so Koda was a little surprised that when he looked inside all the garbage bins, the garbage was still there. Perhaps they belonged to the nearby stores. He took out several bags of garbage when something on the inside wall of a bin caught his eyes. It was a business card. Koda carefully peeled it off and checked the name: Hwa-Mei Storage, located near Chinatown, Seattle. On the back, there was a scribble of unit number #303. It was not far from the antique shop, so Koda decided to check out the place.