74hy

366 Passing the Torch

The single eye colored with pain. He knew how helpless he was, he couldn’t even leave behind a wonderful impression for his son. But to his surprise, Lai Shang managed to recognize him immediately despite his current appearance. The boy showed no fear, no matter how much his father had changed, he was still his father.

His mouth was sewn together by the Death Curse. The man tried to speak but he only made the Death Curse on his face spread further. There was like an invisible wall between the father and son. Both parties tried their best to shatter the wall, but it was fruitless.

“You’re really home, mommy wasn’t lying! She said if I don’t go to sleep, I won’t be able to see you…” The boy claimed as his eyes reddened. Only before his father could he put down his guard. In that moment, all the suppressed fear exploded and the boy cried. For a boy, the cryptic world was too scary. Lai Sheng wanted to get closer to his father but the father who had already morphed into a monster didn’t dare to let Lai Sheng touch him. His Death Curse rushed out from the bedroom like a shadow, a black mist billowed around him.

The man in red didn’t expect there was another Soul Chaser hiding inside the bedroom but even more surprising was the fact that this Soul Chaser appeared to have abandoned his job of chasing after souls, but instead showed up here to stop him from doing his job. The pupils with black characters turned with confusion, and then a fist covered in Death Curse landed heavily on his face!

The head caved in. Blood mixed with the Death Curse and sunk into the skull. Lai Sheng’s father was like a thick tree, his roots had spread through Room 4064, his small movement could shift the shadow inside the room. The lights flickered. When the lights went off, the man already appeared behind the man in red. His hand reached for the man’s head, lifted him up and then slammed the head heavily on the ground. Picking up the man by his wrist, the father twisted the man’s elbows and then dragged the defenseless Soul Chaser out of the room. The father had decided to kill. The Death Curse around his body pierced into his skin, this appeared to be a warning for the Soul Chasers when they strayed from their job. Pain and torment didn’t change the man at all. Death Curse poured out of his one eye while his other eye reflected the image of Lai Sheng.

The boy stood where he was. He had no idea that he was his father’s only hope in the cryptic world. The front door closed and the sound of slamming and tearing came from the corridor. It sounded like a gunny sack filled with treasures was being slowly torn apart. Several minutes later, when the dirge reappeared on the 6th floor, the father returned to Room 4064.

Anger, hatred and Death Curse, they circulated around the monster but his left eye was a pool of gentleness. His mouth was zipped and his ears were stuffed with Death Curse. He couldn’t communicate with his son, he couldn’t even hear his son clearly but he could sense what Lai Sheng was feeling at that moment. Blood leaked out from his lips, the man tried his best to open his mouth. The black threads made from the Death Curse were torn apart. The father tried to call his son’s name but he couldn’t even do that. The lights inside the room dimmed. The father’s power appeared to be related to shadow, wherever he was, the light would be consumed.

The father and son met at the Ziggurat. The ghost who did the soul summoning finally met the son he couldn’t forget. Lai Sheng reached out towards the man. Seeing how desperate Lai Sheng was, even Han Fei wanted to give him a hug, much less his father. The man’s arms slowly lifted but as Lai Sheng was about to touch him, he put his arms down and took a step back. He didn’t want his child to see him in this ugly state. If possible, he wished for his son to remember him for who he was and not what he was now.

“Aiz.” The bedroom door slowly opened. A woman covered in layers appeared at the door. She looked at the father and son in the living room and her eyes filled with sadness and gentleness, “Lai Sheng, you mustn’t get too close to your father.” However, the boy didn’t listen to his mother, he insisted on moving forward. “Lai Sheng! Stop!” The woman’s voice became sterner but she too didn’t dare to come close to Lai Sheng.

Seeing the woman’s arms which were hidden inside her sleeves, Han Fei appeared to understand something. He walked to Lai Sheng’s side and gently stopped Lai Sheng. “I think it’s better if you tell the child the truth, even if tonight might just end up being a dream for him.”

Lai Sheng struggled in Han Fei’s grasp. Before his parents, he finally acted like a normal child. The woman inside the bedroom and the man who had turned into a monster looked at Han Fei. They stared at him for a long time before the mother said, “I know where your lost soul is hiding. I can hand him to you but I hope you can do us a favor.”

“What favor?”

“Bring Lai Sheng away from here.”

Lai Sheng’s young face filled with disbelief when he heard that. How could his beloved mother say something like that?! The small boy froze in the living room. Lai Sheng wiped away the tears on his face. His plain helplessness was pitiable.

“Lai Sheng, mommy has been lying to you.” She addressed the tearful Lai Sheng and her face was set in pain, “Your daddy left your world a long time ago. I thought I could take care of you alone and give you double the love, to make you the happiest child in the world. That is where your memory stops. You forgot about what happened later. I fell ill. You leaned against my bedside and accompanied me but in the end, I left.”

“I…”

“As your parents, we couldn’t let you go and that memory of ours was taken advantage of by someone nefarious. It is why you are here. All the soul-summoning rituals are meant for you.” The woman said as she pulled up her sleeves. Death Curse crawled on her arms like vines. “We were told that as long as we were willing to transform into monsters, we would be reunited with you. But when you were really here, we realized the truth. The thing’s target was you all along.”

“Was the thing that took advantage of you the manager here? What kind of person is this that he’d target even a child?” Han Fei hoped to get the help from his couple so he was already laying the foundation for that.

“It is not a human, not even an animal. It is the real devil, representing pure evil.” The woman was slowly changing into a monster but she was not worried about herself, all she cared about was Lai Sheng, “Our deaths were not an accident. All the coincidences were its way to kill us, and it did all that to draw Lai Sheng into the Ziggurat.”

“You still did the ritual knowing that it would harm Lai Sheng?” Han Fei probed.

The woman smiled sadly, “The child’s father has been turned into a monster and my memory has been touched. I once thought this place was real life and we were still alive. It was not until the ritual succeeded and I personally summoned my child to this dirty and scary world that the memory which was tempered with was returned to normal.” Her knuckles were white. “It did it on purpose, it wanted me to know without suspicion that I was the person who murdered my own son.” Leaning against the door, the woman lost all energy. Just the thought of what she had done drained her. She had personally killed the son she cherished and missed the most. That was going to be her lasting torment.

“The manager here hates everything good about humanity, it likes to torment people to prove the fragility of humanity. But this also exposes its weakness because it has never tasted any love and care from others.” Han Fei knew the things Butterfly had done. Since it didn’t believe in the good of humanity, it would show the ugliness of humanity to others as well. Misery loves company.

When Han Fei conversed with the woman, the boy struggled endlessly. Finally their whole family had reunited, he couldn’t understand why everyone was so sad. Seeing the Death Curse appear on his mother’s face, Lai Sheng was desperate. He pleaded for Han Fei to let go and begged his parents to not leave, but no one was there to answer his begging and pleas.

“Why are you doing this? Didn’t you say adults won’t lie to children? I am not afraid even if you have turned into monsters, I am not afraid of turning into a monster too as long as we can stay together.” Even if this was a nightmare, as long as his family could be together then he would be willing to keep on living in this nightmare. The soul who was summoned would forget that they were souls. They would live in the bubble of their memory and habit.

“Lai Sheng, mommy and daddy can’t hug you anymore but we will always be with you. We’ll be the wind, the rain, the bird in the sky and the squirrels on the trees. We will always be there for you.”

“You lie, you are lying to me again!”

“There are only 3 hours left until 4.44 am. Lai Sheng, you should go. We are already very lucky to be able to see you on this last day.” The woman didn’t waste any more time, she signaled for Han Fei to let go. The moment Han Fei did, the boy charged towards his mother. He ran very fast like if he was any slower, his mother would dissolve into bubbles and disappear. The small boy charged at his mother but he couldn’t close the distance between them.

When the boy passed the mirror beside the sofa, the silent father took out the colored photograph from his death portrait. He looked at his own laughing son and then shredded the photograph. The pieces of photography fluttered to the ground and shadow surged out from the mirrors in the living room. Then the entire Room 4064 changed.

Mold and dust covered all the furniture. The ceiling cracked bit by bit. Yin energy coalesced. Paper money appeared on the ground. There were white candles everywhere. This was what Room 4064 was supposed to look like. The shadow covered the room and then surged towards Lai Sheng. As the candles were blown off one after another, Lai Sheng’s consciousness wavered as well. After the shadow retreated, a boy was lying on the sofa. He was enveloped in a soft shell of Yin energy, softly asleep.

“There’s no more time, you have to bring him and go.” Death Curse appeared on the woman’s neck but she didn’t care, her eyes lingered on the child. “If you can’t leave before 4.44 am tonight, then you’ll be trapped here forever.” Before he lost his soul, Han Fei couldn’t see the Soul Chasers. However, both Lai Sheng and him saw the couple clearly, so it meant that Lai Sheng was in the same living undead state as he was. They were both halfway into the coffin.

“Will the manager’s soul return at 4.44 am?” Han Fei knew the significance of timing, perhaps he might see the real Butterfly tonight.

“Yes, so you have to figure out a way to leave before it returns. After it returns, all of our eyes will be its eyes, our ears will be its ears. Our love for Lai Sheng will be the blade that kills him.” The woman’s face was darkening.

“We didn’t dare to have Lai Sheng leave before this because he would die without our protection. It made use of that to keep our family together. But we are lucky to have run into you. I will return your soul to you and hopefully you’ll keep up your end of the bargain and bring Lai Sheng back to his real home.

“I like what you said, it is time for me to hand over the torch of life to Lai Sheng. Leaving him will be our last love for him.” After she said that, she walked to the sofa. Her face was now dominated by the Death Curse. She leaned down to kiss the boy on his cheek. “Mommy and daddy didn’t lie to you, we really do love you.”

Death Curse crawled over her lips. The woman stopped resisting. The Death Curse went fully out of control and obscured her face. The blood leaked out from her skin and dyed her clothes red. She used her last shred of rationality to say, “Your soul with your childhood memory ran into Lai Sheng’s consciousness. We were unable to stop it. Actually the Lai Sheng earlier was not fully Lai Sheng, he has a part of your personality.”

“My soul has gotten into Lai Sheng’s consciousness?” This was something Han Fei didn’t expect.

“Your missing souls contain the memories from your past. They should have been sucked into different people’s memories. I have no idea whether this is something the manager planned or it is something unique to your soul.” The woman’s voice came intermittently, her body was slowly evolving into the Soul Chaser.

“To locate your souls, you need to find living humans compatible with them and bring them away from this place.” The woman’s head slowly fell. The blood capillaries on her skin bulged. When she lifted her head again, her pretty face was already gone. Before Han Fei could speak, the woman already lost her mind. Her sharp nails pierced towards Han Fei’s heart.

Just as Han Fei was about to be impaled, the shadow in the room protected him.

The father with just one sentient eye blocked before Han Fei. He moved to hug his wife who had joined the ranks of Soul Chaser silently.