“What the fuck, Detective, what are you doing here?” Erik Lee groaned with a heavy frown.
“I was just - coming in to ask you if you need to evacuate more people, and I just came in because you did not answer the phone.” Detective Brian Tracy also frowned: “What happened?”
“Let’s head out first. ” Lu Tianyi picked up the cloth bag by her feet and began rushing out: “I’ll explain later. Come on! ”
The whole group of five began rushing towards the stairs. But they were sorely disappointed, the door to the staircase was locked, and it seemed an invisible force was behind it, even when the two police officers used all their life force, the door would not even budge by a little.
“Hold on, let me try.” The uniformed officer reached into his cloth bag and took out a glass canister of light yellow liquid.
“What is this?” Erik Lee asked.
“Ugh - ” Detective Brian Tracy hesitated, seemingly embarrassed..
The officer hesitated as well, then he muttered as he twisted open the lid of the canister: “Black dog urine. I got it from a friend - ”
“Do it.” Lu Tianyi nodded without expecting a proper explanation. “Give it a shot.”
The officer nodded, then splashed some of the liquid from the canister onto the door. The smell of urine filled the air. Light smoke arose from the door, revealing dark, treeroot and scar-like marks that were not visible before.
Erik Lee and Detective Brian Tracy forgot to close their mouths for a moment: “It worked? Holy - ”
“Not enough - looks like whatever the thing is, it’s not letting us leave.” Lu Tianyi sighed, reached into her cloth bag and took out a thick red candle with a dark wick. “Let’s see if it’s possible - ”
“
Ding
” a pleasant chime came from across the hallway - it was the elevator. Its door opened, without anyone inside.
“Looks like it’s trying to lure us upstairs.” Erik Lee narrowed his eyes: “But - what the hell?”
“Nothing good. ” Lu Guilin shook his head then took a look at his mother, who just lit up the red candle with a specialized long match: “Can we break through the door?”
Lu Tianyi did not answer right away, and simply raised the candle at the door. Smoke arose from those dark marks under the light yellow glow, some parts even began bubbling. But a shadowy energy almost invisible to civilians’ naked eyes rumbled underneath the door’s surface, and pushed back against the cleansing power of the candle.
“It’s borrowed quite a bit of power - from somewhere or something.” Lu Tianyi frowned: “I’m afraid we cannot break it very easily.”
“Can we wait?” Detective Brian Tracy asked.
“I’m afraid not.” Lu Tianyi pointed in the direction of the hallway.
Three room doors opened, and guests inside walked out - regular, unaware guests walked out of their rooms, with their eyes fixed on the group of five, mouths open and backs slouching.
“How the hell did it do this?” Erik Lee raised his voice: “This is much more than just a powerful spectre or a reanimated body - this is - it’s something else.”
“It’s because it’s more than that.” Lu Tianyi took a deep breath: “This is a - a ‘realm’ of some kind.”
“A realm? In here?” Lu Guilin frowned.
“What is a ‘realm’? ” Detective Brian Tracy asked.
“Basically a place, or a space heavily corrupted by unclean energy, where the unclean beings inside have much stronger control over everything than they would normally.” Erik Lee answered on his mentor and Lu Guilin’s behalf: “For example, spirits and ghosts manifesting in broad daylight, loss of power of blessed artifacts, and sometimes even the twists and alteration of laws of physics. It should be rare - extremely rare.”
“But here we are.” Lu Tianyi stepped away from the door and towards the guests: “They are under the influence as well - possessed, even. I think whoever the controller of this realm is, it’s trying to lead us up - to the Queen’s Suite, if I’m not mistaken.”
“But if it has this kind of power - why can’t it just kill us directly?” The uniformed officer asked.
“Even for a realm, it’s not that powerful, not usually. ” Lu Tianyi took a deep breath: “For example, I, Guilin and Erik are exorcists, we have power and artifacts with us that would make such a feat difficult. And you, detectives, you are officers of the law, you have power vested in you - this kind of power makes you harder to manipulate and control directly by unclean entities as well."
“And so, it just controlled the civilians, in an attempt to force us up there.” The uniformed officer nodded and took a deep breath.
“Yes.” Lu Tianyi nodded: “Which means - whatever the case is with the door, we need to go up. And - ” She started walking towards the elevator: “I don’t see any other way.”
“Wait! Master!” Erik Lee went up and grabbed Lu Tianyi by her arm: “You can’t! This is an elevator - isn’t it one of the first places one shouldn’t go when the place is haunted?”
“Doesn’t look like we have a choice.” Lu Tianyi shook her head: “I will go up there, you stay down here and break the officers out the first chance you get. Then - call for backup.”
“I’m coming with you.” Lu Guilin stepped forward.
“I’m coming too.” Detective Brian Tracy and the uniformed officer said at the same time.
“What - ” Erik Lee frowned at the two officers: “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Splitting up like this seems like a recipe for failure. I don’t think it’s prudent to do so. ” Detective Brian Tracy looked Erik Lee in the eye: “Master Lu said we have power vested in us - therefore we could help, even if just to be there and maybe block some blows for you.”
“I agree.” The uniformed officer nodded: “Also, we are not completely useless, I have my - my canister, and Detective Tracy has his - his things.”
“Officer Bai is right, we are not entirely useless. We have our own - equipment, if you will - ”
“I appreciate that.” Lu Tianyi nodded: “But - if you are to go up, you need to listen to me. You need to obey my every command.”
“Not a problem.” Officer Bai took a deep breath and nodded.
“Alright, Detective Brian Tracy, Officer Du Bai.” Erik Lee let out a wry deep breath: “Remember what the master told you. Ready all of your - equipment.”
Lu Tianyi led the group into the elevator, which had been waiting all this time, with the candle in hand. She raised it above her head so that the aura would reach above the car. The rest of the group came in and stood around her.
Lu Tianyi took a deep breath: “First test of the thing’s power level - let’s see if it can drop this car.”
“Elevators in LA are subject to frequent inspections, so unlikely.” Detective Brian Tracy took a deep breath. “Hopefully.”
The door closed, and the elevator car began moving up.
Before long, the car stopped at the 8th Floor, just as expected. Lu Guilin and Erik Lee stepped forward in front of the two officers. The two officers almost did the same thing, only to realize they themselves were the civilians here.
As the door opened, a folded paper talisman shot from Lu Tianyi’s right hand and right into the air. A faint shadow of a human face exploded in the air after an elevator-rocking screech. The chilling grimness in the hallway was pushed back by half a hall, allowing the lights to regain their brightness for a brief second, before it began inching back at them.
“OUT OUT OUT, NOW!” Erik Lee barked as he pulled Lu Guilin to lead the two officers out of the elevator. Lu Tianyi followed. The door shut behind them.
Dark cracks crawled in the wall along with the grimness, like rapidly expanding tree roots, like dark lightning arcs, like slender, crooked fingers with sharp nails. And along the cracks, bulges and bumps the shapes of hands, forearms and even human faces raised and swam towards the group of five.
“Its control here is particularly strong. We’re close to the center of it.” Lu Tianyi frowned: “The power and the aura here - it is very strange. It’s not - it’s not like the other realms I’ve dealt with before.”
“What is strange about it, specifically?” Lu Guilin asked.
“Very strong, disturbingly strong levels of control and - order. It’s still, silent. But - somewhat lacking in emotion and drive. ” Lu Tianyi frowned: “Which seems particularly out of place, because - ”
“Lacking strong emotion means it’s not a strong spirit? And this kind of control - this kind of realm, is not natural for this kind of spirit?” Officer Du Bai asked.
“Exactly.” Lu Guilin nodded: “Now, be careful. I can still feel the negative energy.”
“It’s stronger than last time I was here.” Erik Lee’s voice was full of disbelief: “What the - ”
“It’s either that its energy is leaking from the injuries you dealt it, or we’re in big trouble.” Lu Tianyi shook her head.
The rumbling under the surface of the walls closed in on the group. The cracks grew thicker, sharper and wider. At the same time, pieces of the exterior wall dropped, revealing dark, tar-like liquid underneath.
Rising and poking out from the liquid were pale, eyeless faces and equally pale arms and hands.