Poison City

 

“Zhuge? That’s a - not so common family name.” Gloria thought for a moment: “And I can’t say I have heard of this name before. What is with him?”

 

“He was living in a relatively cheap rental place. Kept a low profile, paid for everything in cash, hadn’t even shown the neighbors his face.” Marcus looked out from one of the windows as he recounted and organized his mental notes: “He had planted a row of chrysanthemum in his place. Oh, right, most suspiciously, he had a scapegoat doll buried under a floorboard, and a small wood carving and a chisel hidden in the walls. Well, I said ‘he had’ because we presumed it’s his, and not from the house owner or any of the previous tenants.”

 

“Wood carving?” Gloria sat up upon hearing this: “What does it look like?”

 

“I - I am not entirely sure, it’s not finished, and very rough.” Marcus scratched his jaw: “I can check when I get back - what kind of significance do you see?”

 

Gloria took a deep breath, then posed a question instead: “Cat Granny, what do you know about her?”

 

“That’s a - a famous urban legend, right? A cat touched an old woman’s body, and then the woman woke up - ” Marcus searched through his memories: “And - I guess that was it?”

 

“That’s the start of it, but not the whole story.” Gloria nodded: “She was the - well, you can say first known snatcher of kids. According to legends, and some actual documented history snippets, after she turned, she began roaming the streets at night, kidnapping and eating children. Eventually the community collective sent out a team and destroyed her - killed her with fire, essentially.” 

 

“Okay, and the wood carving - ”

 

“She appeared again recently.” Gloria answered before Marcus could finish his question.

 

“What?” Marcus’ eyes opened wide: “How is that possible? Did someone revive her?”

 

“That’s our question as well. We don’t know, we need answers, and that blue envelope case, 1148, is about a grimoire, held in a vault in the city.” Gloria shrugged: “And - don’t worry, that thing won’t be around again, at least I hope so. My friends and I dispatched it - it was not the real Cat Granny, but some kind of manually risen shadow, projection, or risen doll, zombie, depending on how you look at it. And inside of that conjured projection, we found a small piece of wood carving - it was a three dimensional spell or talisman, created to maintain the projection.”

 

“Projection …” Marcus pondered the word choice, then nodded: “I see - I see. And you suspect, the means to make that carving is documented in that grimoire.”

 

“Yeah. And many other disturbing crap.” Gloria nodded, then chuckled: “So, uh, you’re gonna work harder on getting it now?”

 

“I don’t know how much harder we can work on it. But I’ll try.” Marcus also chuckled: “Trust me, I want easy access to those Blue Envelopes as well. But - there’s just a ton of trouble that might come with it.”

 

“Yeah, so I heard, from you.” Gloria shook her head: “But hey, when we’re outta here, you’d better get it as soon as possible.”

 

“I’d like that. Because I have one case I wanna get as well, 1149.” Marcus looked out the window once more, and immediately raised his finger and did a “shush” gesture.

 

Gloria crawled over and looked out the window with him. Just in time to see two men walking along a hallway on the other side of the building with unfinished walls and exposed wires dangling from the ceiling. One of the men was carrying a black backpack. And the other had a pistol in his hand, and a knife on his waist.

 

“Looks like they’re not giving up.” Gloria whispered, frowning: “And - why the backpack?”

 

Marcus checked his phone, still no signal.

 

“Signal jammer?” Marcus frowned and spoke his suspicion: “There’s no reason that we can’t get a signal everywhere. This is probably the only reason. These guys don’t really worry about radiation, do they?”

 

Gloria checked his phone, then looked out the window: “I think you’re right, should we - should we go ambush them?”

 

“Let’s see.” Marcus moved his arms and shoulders. His muscles were still sore, if they could speak, they’d probably be screaming at him for even considering getting into another fight: “I - I think I need a minute. ”

 

“Yeah, well.” Gloria nodded, grimacing as she stretched her arms and legs: “Let’s wait a bit longer then.”

 

The two men walked and looked around for a bit, before they found a corner to sit down, light up smokes and rest.

 

“Holy fucking shit. What the hell!?” Gloria scoffed.

 

“Maybe we should take this chance to leave now.” Marcus scratched his lower jaw: “Since they’re not really looking.”

 

“No, we should wait a bit.” Gloria shook her head: “If they’re like this, it means that there are others in the area also looking.”

 

“How long do you think they’re willing to look? ” Marcus asked.

 

“I’d say - at least a few more hours.” Gloria sighed: “And before we can rest up to - to maybe seventy to eighty percent strength, I’d say we wait until we absolutely have to leave.”

 

“How secure do you think this corner is?” Marcus asked.

 

“Very.” Gloria nodded: “We found this spot kind of by accident. It’s an unplanned space due to a design flaw. It’s not even on the blueprint. So, as long as we’re careful, we’d be safe. And even if they come our way, we can just go from the ceiling.” She pointed upwards at their ceiling, specifically at a small sunroof. “That one was not hardened, last time I checked. And we can easily break through.”

 

“Okay. As long as you’re certain of it.” Marcus sighed and laid back down.