Poison City

There was still some wine in the jar. So Marcus just tilted the jar a little harder and spilled more below this final bedroom window. The hard objects in the jar bounced as they slid to the side of the jar, making a few rubbery collision sounds.

“Where - are you?!” The female voice crept in on him again, this time louder, stronger and more demanding in tone: “Where are you? WHERE ARE YOU!?” This cry came at the same time as the hands slamming the windows. The yellow paper was covered in more and more dark hand prints and scratches. Whatever was inside the captain’s bedroom appeared to be more agitated and more eager to come out.

“Fuck!” Marcus cursed as he tilted the jar more and tried to spill the wine below the final window. A lot of the droplets did not even touch the ground and were simply vaporized in mid air. The hard objects in the jar tumbled out and bounced on the ground - there were five objects, all pale, semi-transparent on the outer layer and showed a rubbery or jelly like texture. A hoof, the black wall still mostly intact, hard and wet, presumably that from a donkey with black fur; A large eyeball, the black and white of which were still clearly separated, probably from a cow, or better yet an ox; a heart, whose muscle elasticity was mostly gone and collapsed on the ground; two severed fingers, the flesh on which was almost like it was made of gelatin, and the bones inside were visible.

Whatever wine it was, it sure seemed to be doing just the right thing - maybe the thing was to piss off the clearly angry unclean entity inside, maybe there was a little protective quantity that would ward the window off. But clearly not enough. And that was where his next step came in. He dropped the clay jar on the soft earth ground, bolted to the door and got on his knees. Captain Ko said he needed to bow, but he decided he needed to be more apologetic. It was not the time for ego or pride.

He kowtowed, three times. Each time, he said to the door with a calm, soft but clear voice: “I apologize to you, Mrs. Ko, on behalf of your husband.”

“Where are you!? WHERE ARE YOU!” Now the door and both the bedroom windows were being banged from inside, the single female voice became many, crying in unison.

“I apologize to you, Mrs. Ko. On behalf of Captain Ko. He needed to handle something and he can’t come back in time. So he sent me to apologize to you, on his behalf, heartfelt.” Marcus said to the door, his Qi already coursing through his meridians - if anything should come out, he would fight, even though through a warded door that thing was already making all the hairs on his body stand up: “Please forgive him. And please forgive me. I hope - I hope you can accept this sacrifice and wait for him to come back tomorrow.”

“Where are you - where are you - ” The pounding lightened, but the question continued.

“I don’t know - I wish I knew.” Marcus kowtowed once more. After this, he should ask for a raise, a big fucking raise it needed to be.

Just when he hesitated as to whether he should do it a few more times, two hands grabbed onto his collar.

Two men, in dark clothes covered in bloody scratches and cuts with their eyes gouged out, nose ripped off and tongues torn. Their fingernails were splintered, their fingers were crooked, twisted and some had sections severed and missing.

“Help me - ” One of the men croaked and mumbled to Marcus, his face covered in cracks, dark veins and twitching. Dark ethereal tar seeped from his fingertips and sores onto his clothes, rendering it brittle and burning holes in several spots. “Help me - it’s so dark - ”

He shot back up instantly, his clothes were torn and ashes were left in the hands of those men. Their lower bodies were still submerged in the earth, their chest cavities were open, with broken ribs, tendons and ripped internal organs dangling out.

Malevolent spirits, unclear whether controlled by the unclean entity inside the house or something else. The slamming on the door and windows continued, her pleas and questions did not stop either.

The two men growled and gurgled, their hands dug in the ground and pulled, launching them towards Marcus.

Qi rushed into his right leg. Two swift kicks landed right on the two entities’ heads. His Qi burst and blasted the two spirits, along with the physical impact from his kicks, exploded them into smithereens.

The two entities let out a deafening, lingering screech before the raining pieces of their being turned into ashes and smoke.

The earth around the house started crawling. Some other things were trying to crawl out of the soil.

“Mrs. Ko. I implore you. Please wait for your husband with patience. He’s going to come back to you soon.” Marcus bowed towards the door - he simply did not have the time to kowtow.

“Where - where are you?” The female voice seemed to have grown softer. And somehow, he began feeling a bit warmer as well.

“Fucking stupid. Arrogant prick.” Marcus cursed at himself before bowing once again: “I apologize to you, Mrs. Ko. The captain is handling something really important right now. And he will be back really soon. Please, be patient.”

Cracks burst open on the ground around the house. Heads covered in dirt and dirty cloth, with wooden nails going through the tops and temples popped out. Marcus looked around, just in time to meet the gaze of one head - though this head’s eyelids were sewn shut.

“I apologize to you, Mrs. Ko, on behalf of Captain Ko. He is handling something really important. He will come back as soon as possible. ” Marcus bowed once more.

“Where are you?” The female voice faded, almost into a whisper: “Where are you? Come back to me - ”

A lot of warmth returned to Marcus. The heads sunk back into the earth.

“Fucking stupid.” Marcus slapped himself on the face. Everything seemed to have settled down for now. Only the handprints and scratch marks on the yellow paper remained.

Shout outs to my patrons:

mant06

Jonathan

Thank you very much for your support!