Those weren't the only things. We had a blackened wind chime outside the door. You couldn't tell how old it is by looks. Its pendant was a little cat. When the wind blew, it sounded vibrantly. However, the bell is now covered in copper colored rust and sounds dry and harsh, like the sound of a knife scraping against your bones.
Oh and there's another thing, a very scary thing, mirror! The two bedrooms each have a mirror that's exactly the same. The frames are dark red. The rectangular mirros are hung right above the beds. We later discovered strangeness and evil of the mirrors. Yet when we wanted to take them down, we found the mirrors were embedded into the walls.
Things weren't right since the first day we moved in.
Evening of that night, we moved our luggages into the house. Everyone was excited. So we decided to drive out to shop for groceries and household items. Lei's family was quite well off and got a car. His father's business partner who worked in this area lent it to him. The Camry was a little old but we were still overjoyed. I hadn't seen anyone else among our classmates with a car.
I can still vividly recall when Lei said: "I am going to pump some gas." I heard a soft meow. It was gentle and not loud.
The four of us looked surprised because we didn't have any pets. The meow sounded so close as if it were right in the house. Yet we couldn't see it!
At the time, we didn't bother too much. Yuan, Lei's girlfriend, said: "Where's the stray cat from?" I remembered I used to have a white cat then talked about it with them. Thinking back, if we searched for it, we might have been able to find that damned cat! But even if we found it, it might not have been any help to what was about to come. Perhaps it might start the nightmare in advance.
The first two weeks were fun. Everyone went to class on Lei's car and came home together in the afternoon. We would buy our groceries on the way back. The two girls did the cooking and dishes. Lei and I cleaned the rooms and moved the furnitures for a more comfortable house. We applied for a phone line, internet service, satellite TV, bought new furnitures… Everyone was excited moving into a new house. The days were busy but we were happy. The strange meow hadn't appear again. We had long forgotten about it. Those were like days in heaven.
Yet, good days never lasted long. The excitement to new things faded with time and the days became normal again. What was once exciting seemed nothing special. Dad, mom, you said that I didn't have the willpower and never took things to the end. I discovered I wasn't the only one like this. Most people I knew were like this. Hehe. I finally realize that this bad habbit is life threatening!
Boredom was getting worse with time. We found that it was difficult to spend time even with the four of us together. After we got bored of poker, majong, TV, and internet, we just sat around the table looking at each other after dinner. We tried and tried to come up with an entertaining activity. I vividly remembered that day, January 11, 2002. A Friday. We sat around the dining table.
"Let's play Pen Fairies."
This suggestion was stupid to a new level thinking back. Yet, we were interested at the time. Or actually, it was Lei and me.
"Pen Fairies? How do you play?" Lei and I had heard it but didn't know the details. The two girls were timid and didn't dare to play.
"I advise you to not play this game. Let's play something else." Yuan expressed her disagreement. "You are going to suffer if you play." She always looked like she was joking.
"Don't play those games!" Li said. "They are satanic and I heard they are real!"
"You heard? Hehe. I don't believe." I shook my head and laughed. Lei slapped his chest and said: "How can there be real Fairies? I don't believe in it! The only person I believe and rely on is myself."
"Right, right." I added. "If there are ghosts, then appear in front of me."
Li grunted. We had a fight over forgetting to get another bottle of soy sauce just before. She was still mad at me: "If a ghost were to appear, you won't even be able to run."
"How do you know if you don't try?"
"Don't blame me for not making it clear to you. Pen Fairies are evil! They will possess you if you invite them." Li tried to scare me.
"Anything bad to getting possessed?" Lei asked.
"Of course. The person will be in extremely bad luck. Furthermore, they won't go away that easily after possessing you. I had a classmate that didn't believe and tried it. She almost lost her life. She's an honest person and never lies."
I laughed it off, not believing a bit: "Never lies? Only the dead can do it."
Lei nodded: "I don't believe it either. Let's just take a try. Not like we have any other thing to do."