The Cripple, The Blind and The Mute (Part 1)

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.". – (Martin Luther King, Jr)

Two high-schooler girls finally arrived at the bus stop but it was already 10.30 P.M and the neighborhood around them was already quiet and they were the last passengers from the bus. A girl was focused with her cell phone and dialed a number but it seemed no one picked up.

"Hey, Jen Hui, my brother didn't pick his call. Should we wait here for a moment?" the first girl asked her friend.

The second girl looked at her watch and thought for a while. Then she replied her

"It's already dark and getting quieter here. I think we just have to walk right now. Our houses are only a few blocks away from here. Everything will be okay, I bet." the second girl grabbed her friend's hand.

"Let's go."

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Xi had just finished her late dinner on her hospital bed alone. This was going to be her last night before getting discharged in the following day. She sent Amma and Guan home to let them take a rest properly after accompanying her during her stay. Though the hospital meals were so unpleasant to her taste buds, she ate it all clean. She put the tray on the table and left it there.

She was all alone because she was the only patient in the room. She enjoyed the moment then packed and rechecked her belongings freely. After she was finally sure if nothing was left behind, she decided to open her laptop. She finally had time to continue her work without Amma's nagging.

She opened her browser and checked her mailbox. She was surprised. At first, she thought that her mailbox would be crowded and at mess because her absence, but it was not like what she expected before. She deleted the spams and read the rest carefully. Her eyes were suddenly fixated into an email.

That threat email came again. She looked at the calendar carefully. The same sender ID, same email subject. It had been 3 years already. The pattern of the email was not different since the first time and it kept coming every 7th January in every year. The same sender ID and email subject.

[Sender] : Mei.Mei.

[Subject] : I will find and kill you!!!

Automatically, she archived the email into a specific folder. These was the 3rd email. As usual, she opened the message body. At first, she thought that it would be blank like the other two. But she kept scrolling to the bottom of the message. She finally found an unfamiliar word. It was written : "Arachne". She got goosebumps. It was the first time when that mysterious sender wrote another word.

"Arachne." she whispered.

Her curiosity suddenly came. She immediately open the browser and searched that word.

The top article explained "Arachne (/əˈrækniː/; from Ancient Greek: ᾰ̓ρᾰ́χνη, romanized: arákhnē, lit. 'spider', cognate with Latin araneus) is the protagonist of a tale in Greek mythology known primarily from the version told by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BCE–17 CE)"

"A greek mythology? What the hell is this?" She was curious.

Xi was not scared of it. It was very usual for a journalist like her to receive the threats like that. She just wondered who sent it.

She dozed off for seconds.

Unexpectedly, Yamla came in front of her out of nowhere. She was startled and was ready to hit him.

"Would you please act like a decent human and have manners for onceeee???" Xi whispered to him with anger.

Yamla just replied her simply

"I'm not a human. So why do I have to act like one?" His emotionless face was so annoying.

"But I am a human and you know it very well." She talked to him with strong intonation.

Yamla just crossed his legs and looked at the paper cup in front of him. He pointed it

"You only ate it?"

Xi was so silent and too angry to reply to him.

"I want you to follow me. This is gonna be your first lesson."

She didn't answer him.

"Why don't you just answer me?" Yamla asked her once again

Xi just looked at him fiercely. Then she sighed.

"Isn't it obvious? Can I just say "No"? She talked back.

"NO!"

"So you know the answer." Xi mocked him with her annoyed face.

Yamla was so annoyed. As the Supreme King of the Underworld, nobody dared to him. They just bow before him, they wouldn't even dare to look him in the eyes. She was the first creature ever who dared to talk back to him. Just like her Great Mother. He cursed Her silently.

If it wasn't for His promise to Her, He would just turn this stubborn girl into a toad, or piglet, or maybe an owl.

He grabbed Xi's hand and without saying anything teleported her into the unknown.

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"Local Morgue of Kwangju"

She read the sign and her eyes lit up. She stared at Yamla and dropped her jaw.

"Easy, girl. Your eyes gonna pop out if you keep doing that." He talked to Xi with a flat expression.

Actually, this morgue was like Xi's top-list most visited place. She could even build a basecamp here because of her frequent visits here in order to find any facts of crime. She could be a detective herself with her persistence and curiosity to solve crime puzzle. But being "dragged" suddenly like what Yamla did before definitely startled her.

After she could control her amazement, she finally spoke her heart out.

"You dragged me to the morgue in the hospital robe????"

Yamla was surprised. He shook His head. Even at the moment like this, this little brat still thought about her outfit. He waived his hand and suddenly Xi's outfit totally changed. A black leather jacket, a white shirt and a legging.

"This is quite your fashion choice." She once again complained with what Yamla did.

He glared at that rude girl and talked to her angrily.

"Accept it or I'll turn you into a Toad!"

Seeing that Yamla could do anything He wanted to do, Xi was a bit afraid if He would change her for sure. Being a toad was not a good end for Xi.

Xi immediately shut her mouth.

"Here, you're gonna find your story to be reported, as human and your first lesson as My apprentice. Just go inside and you will find out why."

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She went inside the morgue and bumped into someone. Fate definitely played a trick on her. She met that rude brat, Jasper Chu. They looked at each other's eyes.

Jasper Chu wore a neat attires of white blouse with rolled sleeves and slim-fit black long pants. His bulky body was shown clearly. He had his hair done. Not quite an attire of detective. Fair enough to say , "Superstar Detective". Xi shook her head.

On the other hand, Jasper was kind of surprised meeting her in the morgue. She wore all black in gothic style. He shook his head. He wondered if every journalist had peculiar taste like Xi. He couldn't hold himself not to ask her.

"What are you doing here?" Jasper asked her.

"Looking for the news." She replied him accordingly.

Jasper Chu nodded for a second.

"And you? What are you doing? I think your outfit was misfit to wear in morgue." She asked him spontaneously and pointed at him with her mocking tones.

He glared angrily at her but didn't say anything. He just walked away and left her.

Xi looked at her watch. 03.00 a.m. She smelled something was fishy. She decided to run and followed him.

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A corpse of girl was there. The victim was predicted as teenager. The victim wore a high school uniform and blazer. But there was no name tag of her. She had been there since 30 minutes prior. Dr. Kwok, the forensic doctor already injected her formaldehyde chemical for autopsy preparation. Xi automatically grabbed and used the rubber gloves on the tray. Xi moved the victim's head. The victim got a big wound at the back of her head and her cause of death most likely was loss of blood. A sharp heavy material could be the weapon the perpetrator used to do the crime.

"YOU AGAIN!!" Dr Kwok shouted while looking at Xi's presence. Xi just ignored him.

Xi opened the victim's eye and instantly Xi's eyes lit up and changed its color into gold. Xi got a headache. Her head felt like it was burning. She felt unbearable pain. Some memories crawled into her heads slowly. The memories which were definitely not hers. She finally realized that it was the victim's last memory. She saw everything in the victim's perspective. Someone grabbed her hands and said "Let's go". It was so dark on the neighborhood blocks. On the vision, the victim kept looking at her wrist watch. Her watch was white and there was a butterfly ornament on it. Not long after it, Xi on the victim's memory heard someone screaming. Someone who grabbed her hand before, ran away without looking back any seconds. The victim felt her head was so heavy and painful. The victim touched her head and realized her head was bloody. She turned around and saw someone. The perpetrator was there. Although he was faceless, the victim already memorized his eyes perfectly. The evil eyes which were full of hatred. After looking at her eyes, the perpetrator took her bag and cellphone then ran away. He was cripple.

The victim closed her eyes for the last time then the vision Xi got just ended

Feeling so drained and trauma of the pain on her head, Xi fell down on her knees. She passed out.

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