Poison City

The taxi ride took around half an hour. The sun was inching closer to the skyline and the clouds were turning orange and golden. Marcus asked to be dropped off several blocks away from Captain Ko’s place while checking his phone constantly. Because according to what the captain told him, he would receive a message before he would proceed with performing the ritual. But so far, he did not even hear one word from him. Judging from what Kevin told him about the house, and the situation with Captain Ko’s wife, it would still be cautious to at least check around.

He bought a cheap cup of coffee and held it in his hand. The coffee was way too hot for a normal person, he had to pretend to hiss a few moments before getting on his way.

The area was relatively quiet. The houses and stores looked like they were on the higher end. And from the designs of the house as well as the decoration choices, he would say this was a place for the richer South-Western Residents - just like he remembered many years ago when he came here.

The wind was chilly. No suspicious people in sight. His random stroller persona seemed to be working, as no one he passed by even batted an eye. He took a few chances to look behind him as well as checking out higher ground, no one suspicious was around him or following him.

The captain’s place was just down the road. From afar, he could already see the door, the front yard, the blinded windows, hardened doors and finally, the very ugly tree at the far side of the front yard, with contorted, twisted and completely bare branches. And for some reason, something about that tree seemed to make it very easy to ignore. If he did not know about its existence or was looking for it, he might not have noticed it at all.

One step at a time, and the cup of coffee was more than half gone when he reached the house. No neighbors were watching him. The sun was further down, from where he was the sun was only a few notches away from the skyline. So he checked his phone one last time, before concentrating his Qi on his fingers and got ready to dig.

The earth below the tree was hard, wet, cold and reeking of rot and decay. Every handful of soil was shrouded by a thin cloud of gray mist. The deeper he reached, the wetter the earth became and stronger and more unpleasant the smell grew. He needed to push his Qi harder in order to ward off any potentially harmful effect the mist could have on him. His sleeves and his shirt were not as fortunate - they began to tarnish and gray with continuous exposure.

He got to about an arm’s length deep before he reached the jars - not one jar, but two clay ones, identical in appearance. Since Captain Ko said “jar”, it would seem reasonable that either of it should be fine. The two jars were similar in weight as well, so he chose the heavier one - not by a lot, maybe just a hair.

As he pulled the clay jar, it let out a slightly fragrant smell instead of the same rotten smell from the soil. It was an alcoholic smell, presumably from the wine in them. Probably the same kind of rice wine made for special rituals and ceremonies.

The mouth of the jar was sealed using a piece of stained and tarnished red paper, with an arcane symbol drawn on it. After placing it firmly on the ground, while the sun was still visible on the horizon.

With careful fingers, he lifted the paper up. A gust of rich, sweet smell rushed out. It was no simple rice wine, for with even a quick whiff he could tell it was high in alcoholic content. The wine itself was blurry yellow with a light brown hue. Something was at the bottom, he just could not see it right now.

With haste, he lifted the jar and began spilling it. It was a big and heavy jar, with enough wine in it to cover a broad area. Captain Ko did not leave him with any instructions on the excess wine, or how thick he needed to lay it on his doorstep and below his bedroom window, so he should probably just use the entire jar and use it evenly on the positions.

First was the doorstep. The light yellow wine spilled and almost instantly began sizzling and smoking. For anyone else this would be a confusing and even horrifying sight. For Marcus, though, it was actually expected and not all that surprising.

He splashed two layers of wine on the doorstep. Then he proceeded to the position of the Captain’s bedroom windows. As it turned out, there were two windows, both were blocked out from inside by thick yellow paper - the same kind of yellow paper commonly used to make talismans.

“Bang!” Someone or something bashed the first window from the inside just as he spilled the wine below the window. A hand-shaped dent was left on the yellow paper. Just as Marcus was about to spill another layer, the hand print on the paper began to darken - not simply like it would from getting in contact with heat, but also from dirty liquid.

“Fuck.” Marcus cursed as he took a look at the sun - it was gradually becoming blocked by some high rise buildings. He did not have too much time, so he just headed to another window. The wine sizzled and smoked, just like it was at the doorstep, only in a much fiercer manner. 

“Bang bang bang!” More invisible hands slammed the window from inside as he spilled the wine on the last window. Before he could finish the second layer, the hands began scratching the paper, leaving long and dark nail marks on the paper.

“Where - are you?!” A gurgling female voice wept. It did not come from behind the window, not JUST from there, but seemed to be coming from the air around Marcus as well.