We snuck our way through the tightly strewn pack of stuffs. It was the moment that a piece of illogic splinted in my head, but I had no time to keep it straight as i almost trip several times. I stepped on something like pursed-up carpet, earning a sharp cry of pain in return, then a punch on the calf.
“What?”I mouthed, following her warning look and saw my feet was exactly on a scroll of picture— the next second, a creepy sound oozed out under my shoes.
“How Dare You! You move your smelly shoes away from my holy face NOW!”
The wriggling movement from under my feet gave me a big start. I bumped up immediately.
It took a second for my eyes to focus on a face revealed on the paper, to squeeze through the dim light and see a familiar face. I felt my breath catch in my throat, like an icy wind had blown down there and frozen the air solid.
A large foot print, just right, was on the left eye of his face, which was twisting into a very dangerous fox expression.
The girl let out a shriek before i could stop her, fell to her kneels. “My apology, your highness. We didn’t mean, no, I mean, she had no offense to dishallow your portrait.”
Fox? I narrowed my eyes against the darkness as his voice was louder, as if without any concerns to wake anyone.
“Better like you said, now, what are you doing here? New fishiew? Didn’t know Cube will be waking up?”
I had an odd urge to roll my eyes—it seemed too ridiculous to warn me in that way as if wanna deliberately tell someone. Uh...talking about someone...a thought suddenly sprang into my mind, and then a chorus of memory filled the air as everyone began pushing forward to get a look into the small opening.
I shook head. Something stirred inside, screaming...there was something wrong.
“New fishiew!” (“Are you listening...”)
A sudden dislike for that appellation swelled up inside me. Since I came across Fox, he’d never called me like that, not once even when I held his back. I stepped forward, wanting to see his face more clearly, as if the answer was printed on the scroll out there.
The girl held out a hand and pushed me in the chest, sent me stumbling backward.
I had to suppress my doubt. Three times...he called me that three times. “Trouble.”
“Finally you realize what kind of trouble you stuck in? Stranger smell and sound is easily to arouse Cube’s loathing. Now one more minute you stay here, the more dangerous you might be.” Fox coughed, “So follow Kingoto leave here.”
My deeper scowl caught Qianyu’s attention. She lowered her voice to explain me about Cube. “We are in the Cube now.”
“What?”
“Cube is the name of Scheeren House. It is said he was the toy palace of one prince, but bad temper made him queer himself with his master. So he was degraded to be Scheeren accommodation, which only makes him worse to blow things out of proportion, once his pride was challenged.”
[if !supportLists]A.[endif].. House? I was drowning in a sea of confusion. Was this some AI (artificial intelligence人工智能）product? (that sounded less possible,not fit to this style.) or just another species of monster? (kind of ) Somehow I had a surge of hallucination that I seemed to run across the line of Harry Potter. Well, here’s the problem— why I was here, no, no, it should be, who arranged for this everything?
My mind functioned without flaw, trying to calculate this predicament. Fragments flooded my thoughts, faces and images, memories and details of the past. I pictured Fox’s face, and monster named Vousi after me, a huge white wolf...and then Shawl’s face...suddenly a stab of pain sliced through my heart—I sucked in a startled breath as I heard noises.
“Fussing about details help you nothing, Qianyu, bring her to the central court.”
“But...you just asked me to bring her back...home.”
“Home will be later.”
“Beg my pardon, your highness, I don’t understand. She just a New fishiew, not eligible for court.”
Snort. “Too much question is not your privilege, little monarch. But today, I can give you a tip—Silence.”
An odd moment of complete stillness grabbed the air. It was as if a supernatural coldness had swept through the place and sucked out all the sound. Kingo looked like to be hit with a wave of terror, blistered with panic.
My mind was spinning. I was sure I’d heard it before—then the slightest hint of memory crept into my mind. “You mean Vou—”
“Not name it—” the scroll soared into the air and shivered. His gaze locked on me, frozen in fear. “It sneaked in Shangri-la, walking around...” his voice was hallow and haunted, but clear. “for hunt someone.”
“He’s here?” a sucked hiss beside me tore the air.
“Well, chat is over,” Fox’s eyes narrowed; his mouth pulled into a tight grin that didn’t look like it had anything to do with comfort. “Try your best to cross the left corridor, turn right around the central courtyard, go straight through the dinner floor into the kitchen where my people will pick you up.”
“Wait...left corridor...and turn right...no, no...and what courtyard?” Kingo muttered, seeming to print the map into her head. “hold on, your highness, are we...run around?”
“Or you wanna us run around.” I stepped over to grab her by the arms while she took hold of her feet. I felt her tensed in a sudden.
The scroll flipped, round on us. “Road whore, both of you, you think you could get through without wake up Cube, even you have your chance, what about that killer?”
Kingo hesitated.
“That’s why you need a bait.” I heard my voice, my emotions being scattered,: appreciation for myself standing against him, disbelief at Kingo’s belligerent ability, fear of what the final consequence would be.
The tension was palpable; we both felt like the air in the room had become glass that could shatter at any second. Both Fox and us looked as if the taut, ghost skin of our faces were about to burst—but Fox finally broke his stare.
“Stop padding stupid garbage into your little head,” Fox squint up his eyes. “Silent War, however, should not be conquered at the expense of his royal blood.”
“But your plan doesn’t say that.” I forced on him. “which will expose us totally in the eyes of Vo-cold killer.”
“Booshhit-it is the most convenient way-”
“Convenient for what? Cold killer?” I faked an evil grin. “We are even as blind as dead fish about where it would pop out~”
“Of course, you are” Fox roared, frustration raising the volume of his voice. “Then you wanna stuck here for good? You think this is a safe house or what?”
The last piece of doubt I had felt for him, however solid, complete affirmed at that statement.
Kingo looked surprised at the argument that I’d said anything. Her eyes darted around the room before she noticed my fingers slipped into the bag hanging behind.
“Staying with Fox is surely intact and reliable. But you...” my finger touched something cool and metal and a soft hook let a metal square slip into my palm.
Fox said nothing, just glared, his face devoid of expression.
“Who-are-you?”
Stillness
Dead stillness
Seconds ticked.
The scroll hovered around, shivered to float closer. I was filled with a queasy fear, forced hard to freeze my feet on the spot.
“Who I am?” The scroll trembled out a thrilling laughter. “the fifth son of the Great King of the Garna Sea, Mogas Momokie, pardon my late self-introduction, Oh, by the way, Fox is really a memorable nickname, for years not to hear.”
“Really? If you were some the third son, I think you won’t be care about this!” then a flicker of movement flew more fluently than I’d expected: kick my sliver lighter, toss into the scroll along an elegant parabola, boom—a bunch of flame followed a terrible smell.
A strange shriek split the air, a strangled gurgle of madness twisted the whole scroll. “Dare you—bastard, burn me!”
A hard pull suddenly yanked me away from the thrashing spark. My heart leaped into my throat as Qianyu’s hiss was in the ear.
“Grandma-Sea!”
“What?” I snapped my head with huge shock, jabbing my finger in his face. “He is your grandma?”
“He’s your grandma!” Kingo swatted me on the back, swallowed.
“Shut your face!” Grandma-Sea screamed. “Shut your dirty bloody face!”
“It is Sea-monkey, the guardian of the Cube, almost full of thousand years old.” Kingo’s voice was shivering. “We might be dead.”
“Why did she wanna be Fox? Cosplay?” all signs of terror catapulted out of my system. I looked around, trying to find somewhere to escape. But my eyes just refused to tear from the creepy face on the scroll.
It looked as if Fox’s face was melting slowly into someone else. His skin was getting withered as if his life was losing, stretched across his bones like a sheet wrapped tightly around a bundle of sticks. Rope-like veins ran along his side-face , pulsing and red until burst into flame, burned the whole face, leaving his bloodshot eyes fall upon me as if he were seeing his next meal.
“How-how did you know that?...but that didn’t matter anymore, YOU ALL DEAD—” Grandma-Sea laughed, her teeth seemed to glow in the flame, greenish in the red light.
“RUN—”
Kingo’s scream warned that the chat about the Grandma was over. There was the roar of real monsters’ roar. The wave of earthquake ran across the room. Something was waking.
An ear-piercing bawl echoed from within the room, followed by the horrible sound of crumpling metal.
I, startled, swung around to look and I saw several things simultaneously. Nothing was moving in slow motion, the way it did in the movie. Instead, the adrenaline rush seemed to make my brain work much faster, and I was able to absorb in clear detail several things at once.
The scroll was flashing everywhere around us, glaring down at us in flame. A horrible face pocked out from a sea of fire, an ape face with pair of eyes at the size of washbasins, like hanging two eerie lanterns. But of more immediate importance was her evil, creepy and wet hair that seemed extending infinitely and whirling wildly against the house. They were going to block the way, encircle us. I didn’t even have time to close my eyes.
Just before I heard the shattering crunch of the furniture folding around the walls, something hit me, hard, but not from the direction I was expecting. My head cracked against the icy blacktop, and I felt something solid and cold pinning me to the ground. I was lying on the floor, 0.1 millimeter close under a blast of Grandma-Sea’s hair that smashed the opposite wall into fragment. But I didn’t have a chance to be shock about that, because a low oath made me aware that Kingowas with me. Two long, white hands shot out protectively in front of me, and I noticed the muscles in her arms flexed, squamas popping out as she pulled me backward until finally, inch by inch, all of them protruded out, turned to the green vines,darted toward hair. The fragile vines fitting providentially into a deep dent in the side of hair.
Then those vines moved so fast they blurred. One was suddenly gripping the body of hair, and something was dragging me, swinging my legs around like a rag doll till they hit the flaming scroll. A groaning metallic thud hurt my ears, and several stream of hair attacked down—exactly where, a second ago, my legs had been.
It was absolutely silent for one long second before a new scream began, and the voice was impossible not to recognize. It was Kingo whose leg was entangled in a turd of the hair.
“Nooooooooooooo!” she screamed, spit flying from her mouth as she thrashed about, tearing at the hair around her ankle, to pry them away. But the combined strength of Grandma-Sea was way too much, forcing her bit by bit away.
“QIAN—” I shouted, trying to plant my feet, but it only lasted for a split second. The hair from the back sent me into the window hole with a whack. Only just one inch my body had barely been thrashed out of the hole when a hard pull from my ankle. Startled, I reacted quickly, looking just in time to see a flash of green. A patch of ivy locked my leg and threw me back. Shower of smashing glass rained on me. I had to jerked my body side to side to get a shelter. But then I found I was fully four feet away from her.
Dawn was beginning to make its mark, the sky outside the broken window seeming to have lightened considerably even in the last minutes or so. I stared so complete disbelief, not understanding how it could all be possible. It was like somebody had built the House and then set it afloat in the sky to hover there in the middle of nothing for the rest of eternity.
A violent wobble swayed the building. It shook me back to reality and turned face the bedlam. I still couldn’t place it at the moment. The vast, open sky below me had put me into some kind of hypnotized stupor.
Then something clicked. “QIAN...force her toward here!” I yelled, almost drowned out by the earsplitting sounds of the thundering gurgles from the house. “C’ m on!”
Instinctively Kingo knew what I wanna do. Looking to me, she nodded, then a hard wave. The huge vine whipped onto the wave of hair and gave time for her to get rid of her entangle. Meanwhile she jumped nimbly feet first at he creature, kicking out at the last second with every wanting bit of strength.
The inertia pulled scroll back to fling toward my direction.
“NOW!”I tossed my lighter into her face. A loud explode kissed scroll. Grandma-Sea let out a bestial, lunatic scream that I almost wanna covered my ears. But there was no time as the scroll had been burned half. The face on it was basically not a human being—madness in her eyes, the phlegm flying from her broken mouth, the withered skin stretched taut across her veins. She looked as monster as anything in the evil story.
“Run—hurry!” Kingo shouted.
The huge pain made the creature stumble over the edge of the window. During the sparks of instance, a thought sent a shiver up my spine. Instinctively I knew it was the only chance I had. Without too much thinking, I grabbed a handful of hair backhand. Its momentum was too much. The next second I was flung out of the window.
My mind couldn’t process the thought of the vast,open sky spinning overhead. The last ounce of my sight was Kingo’s shocked face. The echo of her scream bouncing off the distance.