“Now. All I was wondering is - is this.” The old man spent a moment organizing his words: “Are you someone who has the abilities to handle it? Or - were you just there, the wrong place and wrong time?”
“I - ” Wu Xiaoming’s mouth opened and shut a few times, he decided not to say anything: “I was just really curious, I wanted to be a paranormal investigation TV show host. I am just very interested - I was in way over my head, for god’s sake.”
“Okay, but you do know something, don’t you?”
“Well, I always kinda knew, I just - I just didn’t know it was like that.” Wu Xiaoming shrugged and sighed: “I just know a few things, but that body in the room, it broke through every protective stuff I brought, man. Everything I have.”
“Is that so?” Elijah Erikson nodded at Wu Xiaoming, then let out a long sigh, his disappointment was palpable: “I guess, it’s time I amp up my own protection as well. May I know what you used? What you brought?”
“Some talismans I bought from some of the stores downtown, a jade plaque from - from my family, some beads…” Wu Xiaoming shook his head: “None of them actually helped - Wait!” He opened his eyes wide and stared at the old man: “You know there’s a body inside? You barely flinched when I mentioned the body.”
“That’s because I already knew.” Elijah Erikson stood up: “Thank you for your time, Mr. Wu, I will try my best to find people who can help me with the situation - help us.”
Wu Xiaoming immediately stepped up and tried to make the old man stay for a bit longer: “Wait wait wait - who is the body? And - how did you know?”
“Well - it’s because it was there more than a decade ago when a staff member of the hotel accidentally broke in. He reported the finding to the police, but when the police came over, it was gone.” Elijah Erikson sighed: “And just a few days later, that poor young man was found dead in his own apartment - police ruled suicide. His family insisted he was not suicidal. But years of investigation led to nothing, so the case went cold. The same thing happened a few more times over the years. After some digging on my part, I am fairly certain that the body belonged to one of the Sproutlingers - to be precise, Nicolas Sproutlinger. He is the only one of the Sproutlinger family who ended up missing, and who - according to urban legends, was heavily involved with the underground occult scene.”
“Underground occult scene?” Wu Xiaoming pondered on the words a little before asking again: “What - what kind of occult stuff are we talking about?”
“I don’t know, and I can’t really say anyone alive does.” Elijah Erikson shook his head then turned toward Wu Xiaoming, extending a hand: “I am sorry I couldn’t be more help. And I sincerely hope you didn’t show up and get caught in the middle of this mess like you did. Hopefully there’s a way out of all this - I will do my best. And please, stay safe.”
Wu Xiaoming sighed, shook hands with the old man and watched him leave in his car with a classy black paint and exterior design.
“Alrighty.” Wu Xiaoming took a deep breath before heading into the kitchen - if there was nothing for him to do today, then he could just take the time to prepare. He was just a little bit of experience away from reaching level 12, where he would get another skill point, and then he could worry about which skills to unlock.
He still had an entire afternoon. A lot of time to wait for the battle, but not enough ime to actually do anything meaningful to prepare. He checked his phone, right now if he called a rideshare and headed into downtown LA, it would take him around one hour one way. Knowing the traffic and how the app would mislead its users, the actual time it would take would only be more, not less.
Two to three hours - a time simply wasted on a car. Probably not a wise use of his time.
Too bad that neither pre-made fire talismans or the black dog urine could be brought into the ethereal realm. It would seem like it would be prudent to sleep in the garage or the basement, where he could place the canisters of black dog urine around him. And it would be easier to clean up after laying down a salt circle - he spent a while this morning cleaning up after Du Bai. Good thing he kept the salt, so he would not be wasting too much and had no need to run out and buy again.
But if he was indeed “trapped” like this, maybe it was just the right time to actually do some digging in this very community. He actually hadn’t got a chance to do that yet. But to do it, he needed to familiarize himself with the layout of the community first. After the conversation, he could really use some fresh air and some time to clear his head.
With this thought in mind, he double checked that all the doors and windows were closed, then headed out.
The single lane road in front of the house was the main road through the entire community, with narrow bike lanes on the side and sidewalks. In the spaces between houses, were beautifully maintained trees, lawns and sometimes artificial landscape like small hills, fountains, rockeries and even one pond.
It was hard to tell what the difference between a regular house and a mansion was, but it was probably safe to say most of these houses were closer to mansions than regular houses. His father’s house was relatively close to the entrance gate. The artsy house right next door was easy to spy on, but on the front lawn stood a small sign that said it was protected by an automated security system, so there went the option of him sneaking in. In fact, it was safe to assume ALL the houses were protected - maybe with only one exception - the house of the man obsessed with bear fur suits, the house of the once former star Tom Barracuda.
He accelerated, making a very small left turn and pacing by the biggest fountain he had seen so far and two rows of very tall but very thin trees that he could not recognize, then a small pavilion that was not present in the ethereal realm. The house had whiter walls and classy chocolate-colored door and window frames. It stood right in front of a small hill, which would connect to the mountains and forest behind it. This entire community was on a relatively low point in a mountainous area. And this might just be why there were imps in the ethereal realm - but would there be any of them here?
Some police tapes remained on the windows and doors, but they were in no place to warn anyone due to their state of wear and tear. Wu Xiaoming walked around to take a peek at the backyard - a few trees in the backyard, a lot of fallen leaves in a dirty pool and on the lawn chairs - and on the heads and backs of a few bear statues and dolls.
The man was really, REALLY obsessed with bears. Enough for him to actually own a real bear fur suit and attract unwanted attention from paranormal creatures. It was hard to say whether his insanity was already there or actually driven by the attention.
Maybe, just maybe, he would not get into too much trouble if he just snuck into the backyard to take a look? The owner was dead for a while, there was no good reason anyone would still keep a close eye on this house for very long - at least not the open space in the back.
The waist-high wooden fences were no different than an open door. Wu Xiaoming hopped over, just to find that there were a few more bear-themed decorative pieces - just on the far and shallow end of the pool, sat a statue of a bear with a salmon between its jaws; on the edge of the backyard, closely adjacent to the forest and mountainous areas behind, were three almost life-sized bear statues; and on the rear walls, were several full-wall paintings of bears in the forest.
He remembered none of this from the ethereal realm. Granted, he did not really explore this house very much when he was over there. He could in theory check tonight, though he was not really certain what he would find.
In fact, it was a bit unclear as to what he could find here as well. He fixed his sight on quite a few things, none of them showed any signs of being infected by dark energy.
He tried to open the back door to the house - it was locked. There weren’t any police tapes on them. Though from the windows in the back he could see the first floor of the house - dirty dishes in the kitchen sink, an empty delivery box on the floor, two bear heads hung on the first floor living room wall.
It was really a bit ironic, and sad, that for someone who used to be a big deal would end up this way. Dying alone in his home, still obsessed with dressing like a bear, and even his spirit could not get a rest, and became infested with foul forces.
From the back window, he could count at least three interior security cameras. It would not be wise to go in there. So he just walked back into the backyard, sat down on the ground and fixed his eyes on the area behind the entire house.