Poison City

 

“What the - how the hell did he find us?!” Kevin’s eyes opened wide.

 

Marcus thought for a brief moment, then cursed: “Fuck, that scapegoat doll. In that rental house.”

 

“That - how is that possible?” Kevin asked: “You were so careful - and I thought your Qi would burn off any curse laid upon you - FUCK! Is it me!? How?”

 

“I don’t know how, but that’s the only explanation. And - I’m not sure how he did that.” Marcus took a deep breath: “Okay, we should meet him. Kevin, Mick, you are civilians, you go to the inner room and hide with my father. Find anything that could work to - to conceal yourselves.”

 

“I’ll meet him with you. ” Keryn nodded at Marcus, then she turned to Kevin and Mick: “Be careful, alright?”

 

“Here.” Marcus handed the pistol he got from the truck to Kevin: “Be careful.”

 

“No worries. ” Kevin nodded at Marcus and patted Mick on the shoulder.

 

“Be careful, son. ” Elvin sighed: “Your father cannot help you here.”

 

“Don’t worry. I’ve got this. ” Marcus answered with a smile: “I’ve got a feeling he’s not hostile.”

 

“Well, that took a while.” Luo Zhuge was a thin man in a pair of sunglasses, seemingly at a similar age to Marcus. He came into the safe house with a limp, and showed no concern at all when Keryn slammed the door behind him. 

 

“It’s brazen of you to come here and find us.” Marcus asked: “How did you find us? And what do you want?”

 

“I think you knew that already. If not it’ll be a waste of both our time.” Luo Zhuge chuckled and sat down on the sofa: “It’s that doll you told my greedy landlady to exorcize. No worries on that though, because it’s not really a scapegoat doll, though it looks like one. Pretty neat, huh? You’d think that you just got cursed, while in fact you got a tracing spell on you, allowing me to track you down.”

 

“So that’s what it is.” Marcus narrowed his eyes: “What do you want? And - did you kill those men?”

 

“No.” Luo Zhuge’s smile disappeared: “They were my colleagues. I don’t like them, but I harbor them no ill will. I tried to warn them. Tthey just wouldn’t listen.”

 

“And what is it that you tried to warn them about? What did you know that your colleague didn’t?” Keryn asked.

 

“It’s very simple.” Luo Zhuge pointed at the lights above on the ceiling: “When you’ve tuned in enough, and when you’ve gone through what I’ve gone through, you’d learned to notice the signs early on as well. Very - very early on.”

 

“Which is?” Marcus asked.

 

“Whispers in the substations, cries and moans coming from transformers, and terrifying haunting incidents and rumors spreading around areas with poor grid quality. ” Luo Zhuge chuckled: “And initially, it was just haunting incidents, sightings of horrifying visions and past events. But then, it escalated to actual murders and freak suicides.”

 

“How long has this been happening?” Keryn asked.

 

“Not so fast - you’d better tell me something in exchange for this kind of information.” Luo Zhuge picked up Marcus’ tea cup: “And - maybe a cup of tea? You’d help a man suffering from thirst, right? Detectives?”

 

Marcus narrowed his eyes, took the tea cup and headed to the kitchen. The water boiler was still hot, so he just wiped the cup around its mouth and poured more water into it, without adding any more precious tea leaves.

 

“Tea.” Marcus thrust the tea cup before Luo Zhuge: “Now spill. What do you want?”

 

“I’m just curious - since you have been looking into me, ‘they’ are looking into me, that means ‘they’ are desperate.” Luo Zhuge did not even flinch, as he took the cup and drank half of it: “Which then means, it is my chance to act as well. So - this is a really long-winded way of me asking: what are they up to?”

 

“Who’s ‘they’?” Marcus and Keryn asked at the same time.

 

Luo Zhuge shrugged, raising his eyebrows: “Who the fuck knows for sure. It’s basically - a group of people who are not above hurting children. Would this be enough to convince you to give me an honest answer?”

 

Marcus exchanged looks with Keryn, then nodded: “They’re possibly planning another food festival.”

 

“That’s expected. Doesn’t count.” Luo Zhuge put the tea cup back on the table: “Detectives, please, we’re all smart people here. Let’s have proper respect for each other, no?”

 

“You are aware that they are going to perform sacrificial rituals?” Keryn narrowed her eyes.

 

“Well yeah. Because - I’ll let you know later.” Luo Zhuge laid back on the sofa: “Tell me something new, will you?”

 

“They are targeting transplants.” Keryn answered: “And we think - the transplants in the Northern District are the most victimized group.”

 

“I know that already too.” Luo Zhuge scoffed and sat straight, appearing ready to leave: “Next! I’ll give you one more chance. If you are still this incompetent or dishonest, then I’m outta here.”

 

“Electricity.” Marcus immediately raised his hand to stop the uninvited guest from actually leaving: “Electricity is the warding power that keeps the paranormal at bay for the Northern and South-Western District. It is the very reason the incident at that substation happened. The driver knocked out the electricity, and the girl he killed came back for revenge.”

 

Luo Zhuge narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment: “This - this doesn’t make too much sense, how is this possible?”