Kaleidoscope of Death

Chapter 93: Shrine

After confirming the umbrella's usage, Ruan Nanzhu hid it away in a drawer in the room. Then he burrowed his way into Lin Qiushi's bedding. After coming into this door, his body had felt consistently cold, seemingly an aftereffect of his injuries. Lin Qiushi let Ruan Nanzhu burrow into his arms, half-shut his eyes, and drifted into a light sleep.

The rain outside was much too loud, but Lin Qiushi didn't want to stuff his ears with paper for fear of missing something. So he wasn't exactly sleeping well. Most of the nights, he remained only half-asleep.

Tonight was no exception. Curled up in Lin Qiushi's arms, Ruan Nanzhu was quick to sleep. But just as Lin Qiushi felt he was going to sleep as well, he was jolted up by an awful scream.

"What happened?" In Lin Qiushi's arms, Ruan Nanzhu opened his eyes as well. He clearly also heard the scream from outside, and asked his question.

"Someone's in trouble," Lin Qiushi said. Actually, he didn't only hear the scream. He also heard something rolling down the hallway, clunking along. It sounded at first like the basketball that hit their door last night, but it also sounded heavier.

Ruan Nanzhu got up, went to the door, and very lightly pulled open a crack.

Lin Qiushi, following at his side, peeked out. It was in a corner at the end of the hallway that he saw the source of the scream.

It was the teru teru bōzu. Its string, tied to the hallway ceiling, had broken for some reason. It had fallen to the ground, and was endlessly rolling ahead. The crude-drawn features twisted up ghoulishly and the mouth gaped wide, letting out a miserable wail: "It hurts, help me, help... somebody help me..."

Lin Qiushi had heard this voice before. Upon careful thought, he realized it was the group member who'd gone missing on day two. In other words, it was the victim who'd had his head cut off yesterday and gotten turned into a teru teru bōzu.

"Help, help..." The teru teru bōzu was still rolling in the hall when once again, the song started in the yard. Children appeared in the dark holding hands, once again singing that chilling rhyme: "Wicker hole, wicker hole, the bird in the cage, when oh when will it come out, in the night of dawn, the crane and turtle slipped..."

They spun on, surrounding that person in the center. Their young voices made the rainy night all the more fearsome.

It seemed others had also been woken by the screaming—at any rate, Lin Qiushi heard at least three or four times the sound of doors being softly pulled open.

That teru teru bōzu rolled staunchly on. Just before it could reach them, Ruan Nanzhu, reacting swiftly, immediately shut the door. Moments later that awful cry came from right outside: "help me, help me, where's my body, where's my body..."

Lin Qiushi really wanted to answer, your body's in the courtyard. But he didn't dare—who knew what would happen if he did.

The teru teru bōzu, just like that, rolled on and on, until it seemed to hit something. Then all the noises disappeared. When Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu once again carefully opened the door, all traces of him were gone from the hall, and all that was left were the kids happily playing their game in the rain.

Lin Qiushi said, "someone was walking in the hall just now." He'd clearly heard, after the teru teru bōzu's cries stopped, footsteps from the hall.

Ruan Nanzhu asked, "where was it headed?"

Lin Qiushi answered, "toward the estate owner's room." Good thing he was so sensitive to sound, so without looking, he could know more than other bystanders.