The Tale of the Ghost Eyes Chapter 117 The Red Hair Elastic (1)

"Let's talk over breakfast," She said, "I don't think we should around here." She looked around at the other students.

I nodded and returned to my studies. My mind was a million miles away from world history. I watched the second hand on the clock tick by and tapped my foot until the dismissal bell rang. You Xiaoqing got up first and dragged me over to Xiong Ying.

"Hi Xiong Ying!" She said with a cheery smile that came from nowhere. "Do you want to go get breakfast? Shi Yong is buying!" I cast her a sharp glance and then turned it into the best impression of a friendly smile I could muster.

"Yeah! Join us, wont you?" I asked.

She looked at me curiously and then smiled politely to You Xiaoqing. "Of course!" She said in a cheery tone. The three of us turned and walked out the door. My head was pounding with nerves. It almost felt like the green spirit was with me again, like there was too much going on inside me that I couldn't explain. Then it dawned on me, "This is the first time I've ever invited a girl to eat with me…"

We got our food in the cafeteria hall and settled at a table. Before anyone could dig in, I leaned over my food and got as close to Xiong Ying as possible. In a hoarse whisper that tried to squeak I asked about the ghost.

She looked at me with a puzzled expression and then took a spoon full of eggs and shot them at me. The spoon made a little 'sproink' sound as it cocked forward and fired. "And here I thought you might be interested in me, but you're just a gossipy tool like the rest of them." The right side of her face pinched together in the most endearing pout I'd ever laid eyes on. Beside her, You Xiaoqing covered her face with a napkin and stifled a bout of giggles.

"I…I…" I cleared my throat and tried again, ignoring the eggs now bobbing gaily in my glass of orange juice. "I'm not a gossipy tool! I promise! I'm just curious."

"Is there any difference?" Xiong Ying asked.

My mouth opened and closed without answer and she launched another spoonful of eggs at me. You Xiaoqing laughed all the while. "Fine!" I said, blocking the second barrage. "You can think of me as the gossipiest of gossipers, the most gaudy gawker, whatever! Please tell me!" I held my hands together in earnest.

Xiong Ying rolled her lovely brown eyes and shrugged. "Okay, but this is old news gossip boy." She told the story from the beginning, pausing only to take bites of her food or cast some of it my way when I wasn't looking. The eggs had sunk to the bottom of my untouched orange juice where they would remain.

"I heard it from a senior last year, who heard it from someone older than him, so it's pretty old. I think like ten years or something. The boy dorm used to be the girl's, and the ones that lived on the second floor were like queens. They ruled the school from their dorm room so well that it had a name." She leaned close and whispered, "The Eighty Flower Room!" My head had instinctually leaned in to listen and my brow furrowed in confusion. She laughed and pushed my head back across the table. "I think it had something to do with their class number being eighty. Who knows, maybe they were supernatural old ladies?" She laughed again. I cast a look at You Xiaoqing who didn't see it.

"Anyway," Xiong Ying went on, "The older girl staying in the room came home one night from studying. She raised her hands and put air quotes around the word. "When she got to the dorm she met an old woman in rags."

You Xiaoqing pitched in by playing the young girl, "What are you doing here?" She asked in a mocking high pitched voice.

Xiong Ying took over as the old woman with a scratchy croak, "I'm selling these beautiful hair bands to save money for my sick grandson!"

I grinned at their acting and twirled my fingers in a 'keep going' motion.

Xiong Ying resumed narrating, "The eldest sister of room eighty-f was a kind and beautiful girl," You Xiaoqing fanned a hand at her face in false modesty, "And bought eight of the red hair bands to help the old woman."

"I'll give them to my sisters!" You Xiaoqing said as the older sister.

"The she went back to her room." Xiong Ying's narration voice deepened for suspense. "When she arrived she told her sisters all about the old lady. None of them had ever heard of or seen the woman, and they were all eager to buy more hair bands to help out her poor grandson. So they went back outside in a single file line to find her. Only, when they got to where she'd been, the old woman was gone!" You Xiaoqing waved her arms around in mock surprise.

"The eldest sister wasn't fazed though," Xiong Ying continued, "Because she still had all the hair bands. She gave one to each of her sisters in the dorm. They all thanked her one by one and put them in their hair." She laid her hands dramatically on the table. "That night… when they looked in the mirror…"

"They saw the ghost!" I blurted out. "Because the Yang air fades at night time they were more likely to see the spirit at night! It reflected the light back at them to soak in their Yang air! It's very easy for unhealthy people to see spirits in mirrors you know…"

The girls looked at me in open-mouthed silence.

"Are you trying to scare me?" Xiong Ying asked, "Is he trying to scare me?" She asked You Xiaoqing. She turned back to me, "Because I use mirrors literally every day." Back to You Xiaoqing, "Did you tell him that?"

"No!" I said a bit too loudly. "I'm not trying to scare you. Although you shouldn't mirrors too much, maybe just to wash your face and brush your teeth…" I gave her a weak smile. She returned it with a scowl.

"Please go on! I'm sorry I interrupted." I told her, looking to You Xioaqing for help. She only shrugged. After an uncomfortable moment Xiong Ying let out a loud "Hmph," shook her head, and then flung the rest of her eggs at me. They smacked against my shirt and landed in crumbles on my lap.

"Now I feel better!" She smiled. "Okay, where was I?"

"The red hair bands." I urged.

"Yeah," She scowled at me and then resumed the deep narrator voice. "Each of the girls admired their beauty in the mirror while wearing the headbands. Then, one by one, they took them out and went to bed. All…except…for one." She said dramatically, holding up one finger.

"The youngest one loved the hairband so much that she wore it to bed. The next morning everyone woke up to the sound of her screams!" You Xiaoqing switched characters and let out a very quiet "Eeep!" that was lost in the chaos of the cafeteria.

"They ran into her room and found the youngest sister drenched in blood." Xiong Ying said and then her face turned a deep red and she looked to You Xioaqing. The girls had a silent conversation that seemed to end with approval. When Xiong Ying continued, her voice was very quiet. "They thought it was her period," She said, "But it wasn't that time, do you get it?" I nodded, assuming that I'd catch on later.

"So she wasn't hurt?" I asked, trying to break the tension.

The girls both shook their heads. "They cleaned her up and went about their day like normal, each of them wearing the red hairbands." You Xiaoqing said.

Xiong Ying continued, "For the next week they went about their lives, going to class, going to clubs, ya' know, the usual. Until about a week later all eight of them were late for class. The teacher went looking for the girls, going to the fabled eighty flowers dorm. When they got there the door was locked. He knocked and knocked, but nobody answered. He finally called on one of the hall attendants to unlock the door. By this time several teachers had been told and crowded in the hallway. They burst in the door and saw this," She raised her hands and spread them to set the scene. "The room was dark even though it was filled with lit candles from wall to wall. Each of the girl's beds, all eight of them had the blankets pulled tight, covering the pillows. Imagine a tomb filled with mummies…" She was whispering now. "No body moved! The teachers whispered to one another, but all were still. Finally, one of them had enough! She walked into the room and knocked on the wall, raising her voice and calling the girl's names…" She brought her hands down on the table in a loud knocking noise, surprising You Xiaoqing into a very real squeal of surprise.

"None of the girls responded! So she grabbed the blanket on the nearest bed and yanked it off! And what she found…" She trailed off, raising one hand and drawing it across her throat.

"They died?" I asked in surprise.

"All eight of them!" She said, nodding excitedly. "The red hairbands were pulled down around their necks, strangling each one of them in their sleep. The teachers uncovered the bodies one by one to find pale strangled faces. They called the police and held an investigation right here on school grounds!"

"What did they find?" I asked.

"Nothing." Both girls said at once, then You Xiaoqing took over. "They ruled it a suicide, like a cult pact or something. None of the other girls in the hall had any idea what happened."

"The school tries to keep it on the down low. Nobody wants to send their kids to a suicide school, ya' know?" Xiong Ying smiled.

"I think the old woman was real though." She added in a hushed tone. "There's no way a group of girls would just up and kill themselves."

"No way…" I said, my mind rolling over the story.

Chapter end