The m, Gloria went to Luoshan Zi’s coffee shop to kickstart today’s shifts as usual. Maybe it was because of the rexing baths she took with Sue yesterday; or maybe it was because the weather was unusually pleasant, with the cool breezes, blue sky, white clouds and bright but not burning sun.

  Though the poorest distri the entire Poison City, and the butt of many jokes for those who beloo the upper css, the people of the South Eastern District did have one prized traditional site: medial bathhouses. These were specialty houses only the most traditional and native of the South Eastern District residents frequented. Gloria did not grow up in this district, but she was lucky to be raised by some of the loatives, one of whom was Luoshan Zi, her boss. She was actually the one whht Gloria to a bathhouse for the first time on her 15th birthday.

  “So, how was your day yesterday?” Luoshan Zi was already in the coffee shop prepping the kit and ing the coffee maes when Gloria went in.

  “Eh, thank you for asking, but could have goer.” Gloria shrugged and shook her head: “Anyway - I brought Sue to that bathhouse you used t me to, and had a specialty bath, with sage and gihat made it a quite bit better.”

  “Wow, ime call me first.” Luoshan Zi chuckled: “I’d wanna go with you, and - maybe get you a deal.”

  “Sure, sure, ime. I figured I might o go there again soon.” Gloria sighed: “And - how are you? Busy? ”

  “Well, business is not as good as we’d hoped, as you tell.” Luoshan Zi raised her eyebrows, but still smiling: “And - uh, I started pig up teag young kids Kung Fu and other martial arts again, because you know, things are getting a bit weird right now. ”

  “Yeah, yeah… ” Gloria immediately turned and looked down at the sink as she was washing the dishes - she did not want to trouble Luoshan Zi too much with the knowledge of what she had been doing, or what she had found out.

  “Oh? You’re not worried?” Luoshan Zi asked curiously as she started brewing their signature coffee: “Or do you already know what was happening iy?”

  “I - well - I heard about stuff.” Gloria still did not look up.

  “You little minx - you’ve been looking into it haven’t you?” Luoshan Zi raised her void poked Gloria on her shoulder: “You’ve been sniffing around, haven’t you?”

  “Yeah - maybe a little.” Gloria had no choice but to look her friend aor in the eyes: “You know, the thing I entered at Fuman’s - I just o find out what went wrong, okay? I had a hunch, and I followed it…”

  “... alright. ” Luoshan Zi sighed: “Just be careful.”

  “Woah, that’s it? ” Gloria chuckled, a out an exhale of relief.

  “What do you expect me to do? Stop you?” Luoshan Zi shrugged: “Nah, I just want you to be safe - my nagging you and trying to stop you will not work, will it?”

  “It probably won’t.” Gloria chuckled and almost ughed out loud along with Luoshan Zi: “But seriously, I really appreciate your support. It - it means a lot.”

  “Well, it better does.” Luoshan Zi rolled her eyes, smiling: “And - I’m just saying this because I DO want to be supportive, if you run into any trouble, you let me know as well, okay? I just found out about your meeting, and I could have helped you.”

  “Oh my god, I’m so sorry - ”

  “Uh-uh-uh, don’t apologize to me. I just want to help you, okay?” Luoshan Zi gave Gloria a quick hug from the side: “And do let me know if you need help.”

  “Well… ” Gloria scratched her hair: “Maybe - maybe there’s something - ”

  Befloria could name what she needed, a group of guests rushed into the coffee shop, carrying uncheap-looking bags and a rge suitcase, wearing thid appearance-c clothing.

  “Wele, what we offer you?” Gloria immediately put up a smile and asked the guests. But she immediately froze, because the guests who came in were her thaeiths, the family for whom she used to babysit: the father Briah, the mother Samantha Teith, and the son Kevih. “Mr. and Mrs. Teith, and - Kevin, what are you doing here?”

  “We need help. Gloria.” Samantha Teith immediately came over to the ter and grabbed Gloria by her hands: “Please! We need help! ”

  “Okay. What - what happened?” Gloria held Samantha Teith’s hands tight, trying to help her warm up and calm down a little, “Let’s take a seat, and tell me…”

  Luoshan Zi went over to the door and flipped the “OPEN” sign to “CLOSED”, came bad patted Gloria on the shoulder and poi the kit. After getting a grateful aowledgement from Gloria, she went into the kit and started making tea.

  “Okay, we chat here. What happened?” Gloria poi the most spacious booth to sit the Teiths down.

  “Our home is not safe now. ” Briah nervously looked around, and even peeked out the window as if he was leading his family in hiding: “I don’t know what it is - but - but - I think something not normal - ”

  “It’s the cat granny! It’s the cat granny!” Kevin interjected, but was quickly held back by his mother.

  “Shhh, Kevin, lower your voice.” Samantha Teith shook her head with an almost whispering voice: “Let’s not make a fuzz.”

  “Is it true?” Gloria frowned: “Did you see it?”

  “No - no, we did not see it.” Briah shivered, then shook his head. He coughed and rubbed his eyes. The bags on both sides of his old Gloria he had not slept well at least for a few days.

  “It was a shadow - I - we don’t know what we saw.” Samantha Teith looked at Gloria: “That thing tried to get to Kevin, and - it just passed through our locked window and the doors as if they were nothing - I don’t know what happened! I don’t uand …”

  “Tea.” Luoshan Zi came over with a wooden tray with three steaming mugs: “Don’t worry, just tell us what happened.”

  “Well - the other day, at night, we heard the arm we put on the window going off - ” Samantha Teith sniffled, then wiped her h a piece of dirty tissue. Luoshan Zi frowned, and handed her a box of fresh ones. “And - and we smelled smoke ing from Kevin’s room - ”

  “- Kevi with us for the past few days, because things were getting much more worrisome.” Brian sighed, “I went to check it out, and I just saw this - this thing h over Kevin’s bed. I didn’t hesitate, and I just swung the baseball bat… But it just - just ged shape and bounced over me and rushed towards our room.”

  “And I - I tried to pepper spray that thing. It just scratched me and tried to snatch Kevin away - until - ” Samantha Teith held Kevin tighter, enough to make her son squirm and protest: “Until that jade medallion we bought for him drove it away.”

  “Show me the scratch.” Luoshan Zi immediately said, almost at the same time as Gloria.

  Samantha reached her left arm out, hesitantly pulling the thick sleeve up.

  Three long darkened scratch marks, surrounded by swollen skin tiny dark veins, as if the nails were toxic or ced with poison.

  A huge thank you to my patrons:

  mant06

  Jonathan

  You made the writing journey much more pleasant.

  Also, please don't fet to chey new novel, "Lime's Fable" on amazon! Due to some personal mistake, the paperback is live while ebook is in preorder. But - choose whichever you like!

  Egao