The Tale Of The Ghost Eyes - Chapter 112 A Wet Baby

“Come with me.” Police Li said, coming in from outside. He beckoned to Lv Bin and I.

“Where are we going?” I asked. “We just made plans to stay here for the night.”

“It’s not night yet.” Police Li said curtly. He considered us for a moment and then his face relaxed. “We’re going to Zheng Baolong’s house. It’s in the neighboring village.” Lv Bin nodded and followed at once. I couldn’t argue.

We piled into a police cruiser that hadn’t been there before. I looked curiously at Police Li’s impa.s.sive face, wondering if we’d learn anything new from this. When we got into the neighboring village however, Police Li steered us not to any houses, but a local restaurant. He gestured for us to get out and explained as we did so, “We’ll go when the sun begins to set.”

We spent the day lounging in the restaurant until late afternoon. I bit my tongue against every urge to rush back to Zheng Hongjun’s house, a.s.suming Police Li knew what he was doing. Around three in the afternoon, Lv Bin broke before me.

“We are wasting time!” He half shouted, slamming an open hand onto the diner table. Silverware and chopsticks scattered wildly and we drew several looks. “We have things to attend to at Zheng Hongjun’s house this evening.” His eyes met Police Li’s and the room went silent. “Take us back.”

The policeman’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t think there’s anything to gain from the grave robber’s house itself?”

“Nothing that has anything to do with us.” Lv Bin told him. “You might, physical evidence and what not, but we’re here for the spiritual side of things. Return us at once.”

Police Li considered us both for a moment and then closed his eyes, dropping his head into cupped hands. “You’re right.” His m.u.f.fled voice said. His hands were white except for bright pink spots around the knuckles. “I’m grasping at straws here. Fine. I’ll take you back there, but we may have to come back to this village. Do you understand?” He asked.

I didn’t, but nodded alongside Lv Bin just the same.

When we got back to the Zheng’s house, Zheng Hongjun was waiting for us in the doorway.

I called up to him, “Did you put out your cigarette?”

The man’s face curled into a puzzled look. “No.” He answered simply.

The room was ready for us by the time we got back around four. We crammed all of our things into it and prepared places to sleep.

There was a black-and-white photograph of Zheng Hongjun’s parents sitting on the dusty black desk. Although we’re Taoists and have a great understanding of death, a spider of fear crawled up my spine.

The man in the photo seemed to glare at us from his pose next to a long dead wife.

While I stared into the frame, Zheng Hongjun stepped in and placed a bug repelling incense next to it. He lit the incense and for a moment, only a moment, the flame reflected in the photograph man’s eyes, bringing him to life. I was suddenly very cold and very grateful to be surrounded by living people.

The remainder of the day crawled by. We talked about everything and nothing, and eventually the clock struck nine. Outside a waning moon inched into the sky. I looked out the window and marveled at how much light was emanating from the thin crescent.

I automatically began murmuring a calming incantation to myself while listening to Lv Bin and Police Li talk in the family room. My eyes glazed over as I watched the yard in the pale moonlight. Ever so slowly, my heart calmed and I could breathe again. I was so focused that I almost missed Zheng Hongjun’s youngest daughter walk past the family room, down the hall, and out into the yard. The door closed behind her with a soft click that drew me out of the fog of thought.

“Guys” I said with a voice unused to speech. They didn’t hear me. I stood up and went to the window to see. The girl was still wearing her white dress, which made her look the picture of insane in the bright moonlight. She glowed like a star. I squinted to get a better look and saw that she was hugging a pillow to her chest. She walked in a large circle and then disappeared around the back of the house where her room was. “But she can’t get in that way” I thought out loud. Lv Bin and Police Li didn’t notice.

After a few minutes she came out again, wandering in large circles in the moonlight. “The pillow’s gone” I noticed.

“What’s that?” Lv Bin asked, finally hearing something besides his own voice.

I squinted at the girl in the white dress and then drew back in horror. There was something on her back now, something small, dark, and horrible. I took a deep breath and tried to steady myself, waiting for her to circle closer to the house so I could see it clearly. I clapped a hand to my mouth when she finally did.

“What is it?” Police Li asked sounding annoyed.

“There’s a baby on her back!” I told them, not able to look away. The infant, if that’s what it was, was dark skinned like it’d been soaked in blood. Its eyes were squeezed shut, but its mouth was gaping open like a cave, much too large to be a human mouth. Its tiny dark hands were squeezed around the girl’s slender neck, but she moved like she didn’t even notice. “It’s a ghost. It has to be.” I whispered.

I took a shaking breath and turned to Lv Bin and his companion Da Lin, who was meditating in the corner. “Do you have any willow leaves and amulet ash? You need to see this, now.”

Da Lin looked to Lv Bin who nodded. He prepared the concoction quickly, draped the leaves over his eyes, and did the same for Lv Bin. When Police Li inquired I shushed him and prepared an extra set for him. “This will make it so you can see them.” I whispered to him, shooting a furtive glance out the window to see if she was still there.

When the leaves finished activating their supernatural eyes, we crowded around the window.

Lv Bin gasped in surprise, “My G.o.d do you see that?”

He took one step towards the door like he was going to confront the girl, when she came to us. She turned towards the window where we gawked and dashed towards it like she wanted in. Her face was impossibly pale, but the air around her was shadowed even in the darkness. “The child is ferocious.” I whispered.

“She looks like she’s dead” Police Li marveled. His mouth gaped open in awe.

“Zheng Hongjun didn’t see a ghost! He saw her! She’s enchanted!” I told them as it clicked into my mind. “Of course we couldn’t see it in the daytime! She’d just woken and her Yang air was fine, d.a.m.n it! Why didn’t I see it?”

The girl’s face twitched on the other side of the gla.s.s. She c.o.c.ked an ear as if listening to something far away. I took a step back as she stretched onto tiptoes to place her skin against the gla.s.s. A whining groan came from the window that pulsed a splinter of terror into me.

“Oh no.” Police Li said, turning his face away. “I can’t deal with this.” He turned his back to the window and walked to the bedroom.

“Let’s go too.” Lv Bin whispered. The girl’s head c.o.c.ked towards him. Her blank eyes roamed up and down in search of something.

“Now.” Lv Bin added.

I followed him from the family room and was not at all surprised to hear Police Li give a shout as we marched down the hallway. When we stepped through the doorway into the dead woman’s room, the girl was plastered to the window and staring in. Her skin stretched as it pressed into the gla.s.s. It pulled at her mouth and made her look feral. The dark infant latched around her neck looked like a sack of dead flesh against her white dress.

“Look at her eyes” I said, tracing their gaze.

She was staring into the picture on the desk, the picture of Zheng Hongjun’s mother and father. I stepped out of her line of sight and looked from the girl to the picture, and then back to the girl. Her eyes never moved. Police Li darted across the room and scooped up the picture frame, coming to the same realization as I had. He grabbed it and then slammed it, picture out, onto the windowpane. The image reflected back in the girl’s eyes and all at once she looked far more dead than alive.

I turned away, filled with unfounded revulsion. Concentrating as hard as I could, I resumed the meditation incantation and took a soul suppression amulet from my things. Outside of the window, the girl’s face pulled away from the gla.s.s. I heard her movement and dared a glance. The girl was looking at me now, mirroring my revulsion. Her eyes darted to the amulet in my hand and then she turned away from the window. The air around her shimmered its strange shadow as she dashed back off into the yard.

Lv Bin’s expression matched mine as we jumped into action. “She’s still human.” I said to no one in particular, grabbing my bag as I did. “We can help her!” I rummaged for the appropriate amulets and dashed down the hall.

At the same time Lv Bin ordered Da Lin to check on their colleague. “It’s not like Bi Lian to miss out on all of this, check and see the girl didn’t do anything to her!” Then he followed me out of the building.

Police Li looked around the room as it quickly emptied and dashed after Da Lin, not wanting to be left alone in this.

The crisp evening air crashed over me as I ran out of the house. The girl and her dark pa.s.senger were a ways ahead of us, but the open streets made it easy to track her movements in the moonlight. The night filled with a chorus of dogs barking and howling as we went. I saw the girl’s head swivel to the left and right as if she sensed the animals instead of hearing them.

She ran and ran, her bare feet slapping against the paved road. I followed as fast as I could. My bag was jouncing heavily against my back and all at once I knew what to do. I reached behind me as I ran and withdrew the Peach Blossom Mirror.

“Is that your fabled mirror?” Lv Bin asked in a panting gasp. “I can feel its Yang air from here!” He flashed an untrustworthy grin.

“Yang air?” I thought, “This is made of dragon scales that were touched by the air of the golden turtle!” I almost shouted to spite him, but bit my tongue. “He is not a man to boast to.” I told myself.

We followed the girl out of the village and onto a mountain path. The paved road quickly turned into a loose red soil. It was the same soil the villagers would take to burn in the winter. “Why is she bringing us here?” I wondered, too out of breath to ask out loud.

The girl rounded a curve that sloped upwards and suddenly dropped like a bag of rocks. I heard her skin sc.r.a.pe against the red soil with a sickening crunch. I rounded the corner as well and found her lying there. Her face was buried in the dirt, her white dress now stained and dirty. On her back, riding her like one would ride a surfboard, stood the baby.

Its small body stood straight up. The limbs would normally have been too weak to support it, but still they held. The thing’s torso pooched out like it’d just finished a large meal. It was almost funny to look at and horrible at the same time.

The baby considered the bleeding girl below it and seemed to shake its head. After only a second of consideration, it lurched forward in a staggering walk. It came to a stop at the edge of the path we’d come up on. It stood there still as a stone, looking over a four meter drop.

Lv Bin caught up to me and bent over, heaving in breath. He considered the infant shadow ahead of us and slowly drew a peach wood sword. “Whatever it is” He panted, “We should try to control it.” His other hand held a soul-binding amulet.

I nodded. “If it has been using the girl, it’s probably hurt her.” I whispered. “What’s it doing though?”

We approached it with almost silent grace. Our shoes crunched in the soft soil, but the spirit didn’t turn to see. As we neared it, a dark circle began to take shape at its feet.

“Is that?” I started.

“A bucket.” Lv Bin finished.

An image of a dead child being unceremoniously crammed into a bucket flitted across my mind and I shuttered. “Is this where they buried it?” I asked.

“The dirt must have washed away, releasing its spirit.” He whispered back.

“Why did it go after the girl?” I wondered.

As if reading my mind, Lv Bin answered. “It doesn’t matter why. We have to catch it before it hurts some one else.”

I held up my hand in a ‘wait’ gesture. “We should try to communicate with it first.” I told him. I looked around realizing all at once that I didn’t have anything to perform the ritual.

“How?” Lv Bin asked, but I was already communicating with something else.

I finished the invitation incantation and readied myself for the green spirit’s familiar power. I finished the incantation and stamped my foot into the red soil, quietly forcing out the final word, “Appear.”

The shadow infant ahead of us turned to watch the light stream into my body. I held my eyes open as his spirit joined mine. The red soil flashed a temporary green. A voice rumbled deep inside me, one that only I could hear and I nodded my head.

“Let’s get to the bottom of this.” I said out loud.