The refreshing breeze, brilliant piano music and a warm and gentle female voice. “Brother, my sweet little brother, we have finally met.”
Under the shadowy oaks, the swollen old man continued to play. Gu Jun could not tell where the voice came from. He focused his sight, “You said you’re my big sister? What do you mean by that?”
“I mean what I said quite literally.” The female voice chuckled. It sounded like an older woman. “Little brother, look at how tense you are. You must have been under great pressure. Poor thing, it must not have been easy to shoulder the tragedy of the world on your shoulders.”
Gu Jun gritted his teeth slightly. ‘Yea, no thanks to you…’
“Yes, it is indeed not easy.” He said darkly, “To deal with bastards like you. But luckily, that thing under R’yleh is still asleep.”
“Ha ha, brother, I think you are mistaken.” The woman’s laughter brightened. “I have nothing to do with the thing at R’yleh, in fact you might even say we have a hostile relationship. To keep that thing asleep is actually our common goal.”
“Oh?” Gu Jun decided to play along. “Well that’s strange. According to my knowledge, our whole family should be R’yleh worshippers. So what happened to you?”
“Well.” The woman smiled. “I simply happened to find a better entity to admire. It has a thousand faces.”
‘Another cult?’ Gu Jun scoffed derisively, “Well, I’m sure they’re fucking admirable.”
“Little brother, mind what you say.” The woman said with added sternness, “A closed mouth catches no flies. Some things are better kept to yourself.”
“Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you.” Gu Jun repeated 3 times. “Was it you who was behind the collapse of the oak tree at Nan Xiang City’s Third People Hospital?”
“Oh, that…” The woman’s voice took on levity once more. “I was in the mood to see them dead so I did kill them, yes.”
Gu Jun had a hard time suppressing his anger. Those seven doctors and nurses had just finished a long shift helping those girls… But because of a whim, they were killed.
“Are you mad?” The woman sounded regretful. “If you have told me earlier, then I wouldn’t have killed them. Well, little brother, such are the fate of common people. Death is omnipresent. But you do not need to worry about that anymore because your big sister will be there to protect you from now on.”
Before Gu Jun could say anything, he heard incessant footsteps coming from around him. His eyes turned and saw many figures walk out from the forest. Even though he knew they were just illusions, Gu Jun was still stunned when he saw them. They were all little girls. Kedou and Huili led the group of girls. Their cute faces were filled with innocent smiles. The girls stepped on the fallen leaves. They were all the victims of the abnormal Tourette Syndrome. Some of them were in patient’s garb, while others wore frilly dresses. They looked normal but there was a spine-tingling evil in their eyes.
“Brother Dirty-minded Jun,” The girl who looked like Kedou greeted him with a sweet smile.
“Big brother.” The figure who resembled Huili greeted him as well.
Gu Jun scanned his surroundings. He had read some of the patient’s files yesterday so he could put names on some of the faces. There were Guo Qinying, Huang Yinuo, Lee Sihan, Zheng Xin… The girls slowly approached him from all sides. The piano music suddenly picked up tempo. The old man changed the tune to Mozart’s Turkey March.
“Brother Dirty-minded Jun, we just want to eat you.” Little Kedou said with a smile, “Then we will be able to live happily ever after.”
“You are not Lee Kedou…” Gu Jun warned in a chilling voice. Waving the scalpel before him, he screamed at them. “Do not come any closer!”
“Little brother, don’t be afraid.” The mature female voice rang out again. “It’ll be over soon.” Gu Jun could not tell what the girls were planning but they populated the forest, filling up every nook and cranny.
“Little Red Riding Hood, Little Red Riding Hood.” Little Huili began, “Grandma is here, I’ve brought delicious cake for you.” Little Xinying continued, “Little Red Riding Hood, grandma has journeyed for a long time. Grandma is quite hungry.” Little Kedou followed up, “Little Red Riding Hood, grandma just wants to eat you. Don’t worry, grandma will make sure no morsel is left of you.”
Suddenly, without any warning, the girls jumped at Gu Jun. He was unable to bring himself to hurt the little girls. Gu Jun was soon overwhelmed by their sheer numbers. Initially he could shove them back but there were simply too many of them. The girls were surprisingly powerful for their age. After Gu Jun shoved them back, they responded by kicking and punching Gu Jun.
Pain came from both his body and mind. Gu Jun felt control leaving his body. His muscle tensed and he fell frozen to the ground. He kept mumbling something but he could not tell what it was. Was it to plead for the girls to stop or was he calling Kedou and Huili’s names?
The girls ignored him. While they continued to tell each other fairy tales, they kicked, stepped, punched, mauled at their victim…
Once a girl had finished her work, another came to take her place. Every hit was more vicious than the one preceding it. They grabbed the mud and lobbed it at Gu Jun. They picked up the broken branches and small boulders to whack him. A girl picked up the scalpel Gu Jun dropped and plunged it right into Gu Jun’s shoulder. Blood gushed out from the wound.
In the background, a happy melody continued to play.
Gu Jun was soon engulfed by the intense pain. A blurry illusion flashed before his eyes… He saw what would become of him. The girls would continue to pound on him until he became a pile of rotten meat.
“Why, why?” Gu Jun did not get it. He felt a hard kick on his right forehead. It appeared to have shattered his polymer skull. His limbs were frozen solid. His heart and blood were ceasing. “Why do you want to eat me? Can my flesh give you immortality?” To his knowledge, the power of both Son of Misfortune and Son of Steel had already vacated his body, he was just a normal human now…
“Ha ha ha.” The female voice chuckled. “My silly little brother, it’s much better than that! You have no idea how precious you are now. After you are consumed, I can finally arrive at this world in my true form… This innocent and perfect world…”
The girls continued to deliver their punishment on Gu Jun. His consciousness flickered. His mind was too weak to even contemplate what the woman meant.
A girl rummaged through his backpack. She found the surgical instruments.
Wu Siyu’s watercolor was tossed into the air. Gu Jun’s blurry sight caught it. ‘Dirty-minded Yu, I miss you so much…’
Tsk, tsk. At that moment, a white static noise entered his ear. “If you can hear us… we are… innocent…”