The Tale of the Ghost Eyes Chapter 123 The Red Hair Elastic (7)

I looked at him in confusion. "You just came from the bathroom. I saw you march in and then head straight there. Find anything?" I shook my head. He returned the gesture with a sigh. "Well, did you go and check where the super fell out the window?"

I nodded this time. "I passed the window on the way up. There's nothing there any more."

"It wasn't the hallway window! It was the bathroom! I heard about it over the weekend." Gao Xinying continued. "It freaked me out, honestly. I mean, how often does weird shit like that happen?" I opened my mouth to tell him that it happens to some people all the time when his roommate interrupted me.

"I was here when it happened. It was terrible." He stared of at the blank wall.

"Was it just you?" I asked urgently.

"No," He said, still staring blankly. "Some of the other boys didn't go home for family weekend either."

"Tell me what happened!" I asked and so he did. He spoke in long low words that lacked feeling, like he was there, but not all there.

"We stayed up late playing board games downstairs where the older kids usually hang. After losing a few too many times, I went to bed around eleven. I wasn't asleep for more than an hour before I woke up to water. It was really loud. Like a tap was broken or something."

He waved his hand towards the door, "One of the guys who lives across the hall got up and checked it out. I guess he found one of the toilets just flushing wildly and a sink that wouldn't turn off. So…he called the super."

"The super arrived with tools and some of us offered to help him. Xuan Hailin turned off the main water and started with the sink. He worked on it for a minute and then turned the water back on. It kept on pouring. He wrenched the water back off and used a piece of wood to hinge the knob closed, but…" He looked at us, his eyes taking on a watery gloss of their own. "The water kept coming…"

"It flowed harder. So hard that it pushed the block straight out of the sink. It flew out of the basin and hit Xuan Hailin with a crack. It was…awful…it got him right in the eye and he flailed back. We watched him, helpless to do anything as he back peddled through the window." He put his hands over his eyes and shook his head back and forth. "Someone called an ambulance while the rest of us just stood there…but the thing is." He stopped and took in a shaking breath. "The water pressure dropped, like it just turned off the moment after it hit him. Like the water was trying to hurt him or something!"

My mouth jumped into action before I could think about how to phrase it tactfully, "Was he wearing a red band on his wrist?"

The boy nodded silently. Gao Xinying stepped in, "I asked him about it too. The medics tried to take it off and he stopped them, saying, "It's my wife's."

"What?" I asked. "It was his wife's hair band?"

Both boys nodded. "Was his wife killed by a red hair band too?" I wondered. "I'll talk to you later." I told them.

I left their dorm and went back to the bathroom. The sink they spoke of had been replaced. Someone must have come in after Xuan Hailin and repaired it. The toilets were quiet as well.

Outside of the bathroom was a notice that read: "Do not block off any lavatory equipment. If you have any maintenance concerns please turn off the water and inform a supervisor or teacher as soon as possible."

When my roommate fell asleep that night I took out my amulets and went back down the hall to the library. I knelt beneath the sink and pasted an amulet onto the pipe. "No one will find you here." I whispered and rushed back to my room. I crawled into my bunk, absurdly tired for how little I'd done that day. I went through a meditation incantation and fell into a restless sleep.

An hour later I woke up to a scream. My hand snaked out and grabbed the Peach Blossom Mirror beneath my pillow. The scream came to an abrupt halt that echoed in the silence. My ears were ringing with it as lay in bed, now wide-awake. "The amulet," I thought, "It worked." I rustled through my amulets and withdrew another safeguarding amulet. I reached under my bed and pasted it securely to the framing. With that I took a deep breath and drifted off to sleep, the mirror still in my grasp.

I checked the bathroom amulet in the morning. Its bright yellow color was severely faded and the corners were cracked. "It worked." I said, "It hurt it." I took down the spent amulet and replaced it with a fresh one.

The following night I woke up to the same scream. My eyes flashed open and I knew at once that I'd gotten it again. Then the footsteps resurfaced. I heard them squelch down the hall towards our room. A heavy breathing, too raspy to be one of the boys, echoed off the hallway walls. I felt my heart beating behind my eyes as I stared at the darkened door.

"I have my jade." I whispered, "I have the mirror. Come and get me." I told the spirit. It didn't. I waited in the dark, breathing quietly and staring at nothingness while my roommate slept. I moved my hands in a motion of defense, but it didn't come. "What are you afraid of?" I whispered.

Frost formed on the door, and then quickly melted away. I puffed out my breath to see if it was closer, but the room remained warm.

When the air fell silent and I was sure it'd gone another scream pierced the night. "That's not the same girl…" I thought, just as a fresh voice cried out. "Two…" I counted. "Three." When a lower pitched scream echoed out, I counted new voices that filled the air.

"Seven screams, seven girls." I told the darkness before my face. "It can't be the eighty-flowers group," I thought, "There were eight of them, weren't there?"

An eighth and final scream pitched through the hallway. It warbled with infinite pain and reached my ears in a grinding pitch that must've woken the others.

"It's them…" I thought. "It has to be…"

Chapter end