“Sounds like you were definitely out of your depth on this one.” In a coffee shop on the opposite side of the street, a middle aged woman shook her head at Erik Lee, the MAGLAA-certified medium/exorcist, and paranormal consultant to the LAPD. This was Lu Tianyi, a renowned Taoist exorcist in the circle and high level member of the MAGLAA - at least judging by her access levels. She was also Erik Lee’s mentor.
“Yes.” Erik Lee shook his head: “And I looked into it quite extensively before taking on the job - there’s not much in our files about this place, mostly just small haunting incidents and sightings, nothing really bad or serious. Not to mention potentially lethal.”
“Nothing bad, serious or suspicious, except decades of spirits lingering and hauntings that just won’t go away.” Lu Tianyi frowned at some printed files in front of her: “Even in the past few years, there’s been - four secret exorcisms already. But each time the same thing would just happen again. It’s like - an infection.”
“An infection that wouldn’t go away, I wonder what that’s like.” A young man in his early twenties came to the table and put down a plate of cheesecake: “But I guess, not particularly uncommon in this filthy town.”
“Geez, Guilin, still the angry cynic.” Erik Lee shook his head at the young man: “Rare quality these days - or common beyond cliche’, depending on the circle you roll in.”
“Thanks, I roll in the circle of exorcist apprentices, so you could say that's like, maybe slightly less than half of us.” The young man, Lu Guilin, Lu Tianyi’s son, answered.
“People can tolerate cynics only in small doses, a little bit of it and it’s cute. Too much of it, it's just annoying.” Lu Tianyi sighed, ignoring Lu Guilin’s eyeroll and continued reading her files: “What the - this is strange, one of the early complaints is ‘food perishes faster than normal rate’?”
“Hmm - yeah?” Erik Lee frowned at the file in Lu Tianyi’s hands: “That is - hmm - okay - that’s not good.”
“Any mention of eggs?” Lu Guilin asked while taking a bite of his cheesecake.
Lu Tianyi’s pulled out some more files from a small bag placed by her feet. She snapped her fingers a few times, flipped through a few pages and finally landed on a particular one: “Apparently especially eggs.”
“That’s not good. ” Erik Lee and Lu Guilin said at the same time.
“Yeah. Something is deeply inhabiting this hotel. My guess is - it’s before the founding of MAGLAA, and that’s why we don’t have a lot of its records and files.” Lu Tianyi sighed.
“But if it’s been that long, and the infection is so damn deep, shouldn’t it have been on the MAGLAA’s radar more?” Erik Lee asked: “I mean - four exorcisms is - not a small number but they could’ve done much more.”
“Some people are hiding it intentionally.” Lu Guilin scoffed.
“Or - being understaffed and the hotel being relatively dormant has led to less attention.” Lu Tianyi sighed: “But - since it had already started, we better do something.”
“Call for backup first?” Erik Lee raised his brows: “Sounds like - something big.”
“Yes, but Greg is busy and Wang San is in Hawaii.” Lu Guilin answered on his mother’s behalf: “And dear mom here doesn’t trust any other.”
“So it’s just us then?” Erik Lee laid back and sighed.
“Just us. But we can take the time to prepare.” Lu Tianyi looked at the hotel’s front gate: “Erik, can your detective help us to get the hotel management onboard? I don’t want to have to deal with them while we’re in the middle of an exorcism.”
“On it.” Erik Lee pulled out his phone.
Lu Tianyi took a look at the entrance to the hotel, then sighed and shook her head.
Before nightfall, the 8th level of the hotel was cleared out. Just to be safe, level 9 and level 7 were cleared out as well. It was not difficult, really, due to the two unfortunate deaths in the hotel - not even a lot of the staff wanted to come, not to mention the guests.
In the kitchen on the third floor, Lu Tianyi cracked an egg into a bowl, an egg that had been in the hotel for only two days. The egg yolk had an obvious strip of black, along with black spots sprinkled around the egg white. “This is bad. Things sure don’t look good for anybody.”
“That’s two days? ” Lu Guilin shook his head: “Should we try one more?”
“Here.” Erik Lee handed Lu Tianyi another egg: “Same, two days.”
An unpleasant stench arose the moment the egg cracked open, this egg was way more rotten than the first one. The yolk had already started to blacken from the center, with vein-like patterns crawling outward. Even more dark spots were scattered in the egg white.
“Well, third time’s the charm.” Erik Lee handed Lu Tianyi another egg: “Two days.”
“Why don’t you do it?” Lu Tianyi sighed and shook her head and backed off slightly.
“Okay. ” Erik Lee took a deep breath, then cracked it open with only one hand: “Ah - sorry, force of habit.”
The black strips on the yolk, dark spots on the egg white.
“Do you think they feed these to the guests?” Lu Guilin asked.
“Well, luckily I’ve never eaten the free breakfast here.” Erik Lee sighed and shook his head.
“Okay. You brought the eggs?” Lu Tianyi asked her son and her student: “Give me one.”
“Yes. Just one?” Lu Guilin pulled one egg out from their supply bag.
“Yes. We better save more for tonight.” Lu Tianyi nodded and accepted the egg: “Fresh, right?”
“Fresh.” Erik Lee handed Lu Tianyi a clean bowl, and a small jar of red ink.
Lu Tianyi raised the egg up to her face, blew on it, then closed her eyes and chanted a spell: “Tai Shang Lao Jun, your student ask for your aid in this ritual to seek clarity and truth. Great masters watching over us from the beyond, guide me from the heavens. The spirits of the sky and wind, the spirits of the earth and soil, heed my call.” She then dipped her left index finger in the red ink and drew a talisman symbol on the egg.
She held the egg high in her right hand for a few seconds, then cracked the egg into the clean bowl.
The first thing that caught everyone’s attention was three dark concentric circles on the yolk. And the next thing was dark treeroot-like patterns in the egg white.
“What - what does this mean?” Erik Lee and Lu Guilin both frowned.
“Circles or black spots in the yolk mean that something has established its dominion here.” Lu Tianyi frowned: “But - three circles usually just means the identity of the root is not detected by this spell. And these patterns in the egg white mean - the ‘meridians’ of its dark power is already all around us.”
“Sounds like we may be a bit underprepared.” Lu Guilin took a deep breath: “Should we wait - ”
“No.” Lu Tianyi sighed: “This thing is already awake, waiting for even one more day will just mean more lives will be put at risk. Guilin, call everyone and ask for backup.”
“Everyone?”
“Everyone.” Lu Tianyi nodded: “Let’s handle the consequences later.”
“Mediaum Association of Greater Los Angeles Area emergency hotline.” From Lu Guilin’s phone’s speaker, a pleasant female voice answered Lu Guilin’s call almost right away.
“Exorcism in Sproutlinger Hotel calling for emergency backup. ” Lu Guilin said: “This is a request from senior exorcist Lu Tianyi, MAGLAA identification serial T-135-466.”
“Age and detailed birth time for verification?” The female voice asked.
“What? ”
“New policy, when calling for backup we will need the caller to respond with the age and detailed birth time for identity verification. If you can’t provide, we are not able to send the backup. ”
Lu Guilin raised his voice: “What the, you know that’s very sensitive information right - since when?!”
“Since about a month ago.” The female voice responded, almost too calmly: “It’s a new policy, I apologize for the inconvenience.”
“Wait.” Lu Tianyi came over, took Lu Guilin’s phone, dipped her right thumb in the red ink and then pressed the screen with it.
A loud, sharp beep exploding from the phone made Lu Guilin and Erik Lee flinch at the same time. A trace of dark smoke arose from the edge of the touch screen.
“It made us. It just cut off our communication and tried to trick us.” Lu Tianyi frowned: “Let’s see if we can get outta here.”
“Who’s trying to trick you?” Just this moment, Detective Brian Tracy and a uniformed officer with a black cloth bag in his arms came in.