The night came sooner than they had expected. Wu Xiaoming and the rest of the group made sure they had laid salt, cinnamon bark and sage leaves all around the area where they would sleep before they would finally go to sleep.
They did try to arrange for a nightwatch schedule. But it seemed all of them were quite exhausted. Wu Xiaoming volunteered to take the first watch, but all of the rest disagreed - he was the star of the show, they wanted, and needed, him to be in his best state. As an alarming mechanism, Matthew set the EMF reader volume to high.
Wu Xiaoming did not argue, and simply cautioned them that they should be careful and never leave the room without informing someone. After checking around to make sure there were no obvious signs of danger, he went into the ethereal realm.
He woke up in the same room, as expected. He checked around the room to make sure there were no signs of negative energy lingering. So he pulled out his soapberry wood staff and walked out of the room.
The temperature dropped by a few degrees just one door apart. The lighting was slightly grimmer as well. It could be the salt and evil repellent circle, but it could be unrelated.
Still, nothing of note in the hallway outside. He checked the neighboring bedrooms one by one, found nothing. Then he went to the master bedroom.
He was not expecting anything, but was instantly alerted. The feeling of being watched came back, out of absolutely nowhere. He looked around and checked behind him, before entering and closing the door behind him.
The bed was still where it was, no notable change from last night. He checked the closet, then the windows, only to find that another set of three human-shaped bushes were outside the window. They were on the side of the house, instead of the backyard. And aside from the positions, their gestures were different as well. This time, all of them were “looking up” at the windows of the master bedroom.
Whatever malevolent spirit here, it was trying to confuse him, or worse, toy with him. This idea sent chills down Wu Xiaoming’s spine. He had not seen whatever it was that was inhabiting this area - not clearly anyway. Maybe it was the faint shadow watching them from a distance, maybe it was something else, possibly something that actually controlled the shadow.
It would be a good idea to find a reason to wrap up shooting tomorrow. The director was obviously excited and had a lot of stake in this episode being completed. It would require some hard proof to convince him. Even if he threatened the director that he would leave, there would be no guarantee that he would be okay with wrapping up early. Maybe he would even demand the rest of the crew to stay here and finish the shoot.
He left the master bedroom and walked downstairs. While he was two steps away, a string of footprints caught his eyes. They came from the front door, circled a few times in the kitchen, then went into the storage room.
He traced them. The footsteps circled in the narrow storage room a few times between the shelves, then disappeared at the corner behind the door.
Wu Xiaoming closed the door behind him and studied the corner - it was behind the door, and behind a metal shelf, in a way it was a rather discrete or even hidden corner. And upon closer inspection, a block of the wall and floor, made of several pieces of floorboards and a small piece of the wall seemed to have a darker and slightly wider outline than the rest of the floorboards and wall.
He pushed the shelf aside, then tried to dig his fingers into the gap around the block - but they were still too narrow for his fingers. He looked around, and found a small pry bar on the shelf. With it, he pried open the floorboard, and pulled a piece of the wall off. Underneath was a downward staircase just enough for one person to go through.
And through the opening, two voices came out. One was a familiar male voice, sobbing, begging and sniffling. It was the same male spirit from last night. And the other was a female voice, soothing but full of concern, sounding like she was trying to comfort the crying man.
With lightened steps, Wu Xiaoming descended the stairs. The stale and still smell of old bloodstains, sweat, old clothes, spilled paint and old alcohol struck him straight in the face, like a smelly cushion. He continued on his way down, and saw an empty basement with heavily cracked cement floor, and with some glass bottles, wooden shelves and cardboard boxes lying about. The spirit of the sobbing man had curled up by the foot of the wall facing the staircase, crying and sobbing. On his side, sat a female spirit - whose figure was richer in color, though still mostly semi-transparent.
He found the two spirits, and the female spirit also noticed him. She stood up, then stood in front of the male spirit.
“Who are you?” The female spirit seemed nervous, her brown eyes fixed on Wu Xiaoming, her long hazel hair flowed on both sides of her face. She was wearing an elegant long dress, though its color and style seemed to be quite old.
“I am - I am Xiaoming. Who are you?” It was not the first time Wu Xiaoming met something that could communicate in the ethereal realm, but it sure was the first time it was a spirit. “Why are you here?”
“My name - I’m Dolores Evans. I - I have been here for quite a while.” The female spirit nodded: “What are
you
doing here?”
“I am actually just visiting - investigating here. I mean no harm.” Wu Xiaoming shrugged, then threw out all the questions on his mind at once: “But - what about you? Are you a spirit here? How long have you been here? What happened to him? What’s wrong with this place?”
“Uh - that’s a lot of questions there, young man.” The female spirit shook her head: “But - to be honest with you - I don’t know. I have - I have drifted everywhere for quite a while, and I’ve been going in and out of sleep. So - I can’t tell you much about myself except for my name and - I think I used to be a singer - or actress. But I can’t remember - ”
“Do you know about Haoliwood?”
“Did you mean Hollywood?” The female spirit chuckled: “But yeah - I guess? I remember the place and - wow, I may need to go there, if I get the chance. If I can get outta here.”
“Okay.” Wu Xiaoming nodded, so this spirit was at least a few decades old: “What can you tell me about this place? This place seems - not good.”
“There’s some kind of - evil surrounding this house. This man though, I believe he used to be an owner.” Dolores looked back at the crying, sobbing man, “He still remembers some things from his past - like he used to live here, and he’s trying to escape. But - he cannot.”
“Why not?”
“Have you seen outside? There’s many of them in the woods, and they’re attacking anything and anyone that comes close. ” Dolores shook her head, then her eyes lit up and pointed at Wu Xiaoming: “Oh - I think I recognize you now, you are one of the guys up there, aren’t you?”
“You’ve been upstairs and - you’ve seen us?” Wu Xiaoming’s heart pounded his chest a few times.
“Well yeah - earlier, when I was awake, I tried to go up there to take a look and saw you guys sitting around and eating. Then some kind of machine started beeping so I ran off - ”
“Can regular people see you?” Wu Xiaoming interrupted her.
“I don’t - I don’t think so?” Dolores shrugged: “At least not normal people - I think you might be able to see me if I was in - you know what I mean - the other plane.”
“Okay. Okay.” Wu Xiaoming nodded: “And - the ‘evil’ you mentioned, can you tell me something about it? What do you know about it?”
“Umm - I - all I know is that it’s very dangerous.” Dolores sighed and sat back by the sobbing male spirit’s side, stroking his shoulders and arms: “Ever since I woke up here, I haven’t been able to leave the area. The other spirits - they have been hunting us, but also - it looks like they are also toying with us. They drive us from place to place, hurt us, and then block us inside. I don’t - I can’t tell what they are trying to do, but it’s not gonna be good.”
“So - they are currently out there? ” Wu Xiaoming narrowed his eyes.
“Yes, but they are hiding - they emerge only when we try to get out. If I really tried, I can see where they are hiding, but I can’t break through them - I’ve tried.” Dolores sighed and shook her head, then turned her eyes on the crying, sobbing man: “I think - that is how he became like this.”
“Thank you, but - ” An unsettling thought came into his mind: “Do they roam around in this house? Or are they only in the woods?”
“They come and go as they please. I think - this basement is probably the only place they don’t come as often.” Dolores looked around: “And I am beginning to think there is a reason for it.”