Sun Yueying spoke dully and cold. Her face resembled Uncle Sun’s through both the family resemblance and a new lack of expression. Zhao Yuan, who still held my twisted ear stood frozen in place. She turned to Sun Yueying, refusing to abandon her authority. "What do you mean Sun Yeuying? Go where?"

​

Yueying’s brown eyes became a mottled grayish green. In a heartbeat they looked like scum covered pond water. She gazed at us in silence, not blinking and looking more and more like her dead grandfather who stood mere yards behind her.

​

Xiao Chun’s mother was gone. I’d been so focused on Yueying’s transformation that I hadn’t noticed the lack of her headless body. My eyes darted around the statue of a girl in panic. She was nowhere, or everywhere, but I couldn’t see her. I turned around.

​

My eyes rolled around the circle of children before I found what I sought. Gray dead eyes met mine with a cryptic smile. Xiao Chun's mother stared back at me. The headless body was behind me, and her right hand had raised its head so it sat mere centimeters from my face.

​

A scream burst from my mouth and I pushed Zhao Yuan’s hand away from my ear with a strength fueled by fear. I ran forward from our circle to the edge of the path. Just off the curve of the road was a steep slope of wild jujube plants, thistles, and thorns bushes. Not even considering the impending scratches and pricks of nature, I started to slide down the hill.

​

Zhao Yuan, shocked by my burst of action, shouted at my back, "Xiao Yong, come back! I won’t actually hurt you! If you get scraped to hell in those bushes my dad will ream me!”

​

“She thinks I’m afraid of her!” I thought and almost guffawed at the idea. It occurred to me that they could not see the pale ghosts drawing into them.

​

I bit my lip and hissed in pain as a thorn bush tore into my left arm. Pushing through the biting plants, I turned and shouted at Zhao Yuan, "Get away! Quickly! Can’t you feel the ghosts?"

​

I dove headlong into the clusters of thistles and thorns. Zhao Yuan, Zhao Jie and Liu Nannan exchanged scared glances at the sincerity in my voice. Thousands of tiny cuts soon covered my legs, arms, and belly where my shirt had pulled up. A large thorn made its home in my right hand palm and I winced before yanking it out with my teeth.

​

Sun Yueying, still staring ahead with her murky discolored eyes spoke again. "Go."

​

Zhao Yuan let out the whine of a pampered child not getting their way. “Sun Yueying stop acting weird, it was just a joke!” She looked back towards where I had disappeared into the foliage. “Xiao Yong, get back here! You’re acting like a fool! She grabbed her little brother and Sun Yueying by their wrists and started to pull them back the way we came.

​

Sun Yueying, with her new eyes and frigid demeanor recoiled from Zhao Yuan’s grip with such speed that the older girl and her little brother collapsed backwards onto the path. Zhao Jie fell beneath his sister and yelped when a sharp stone drew blood from the back of his calf.

​

Zhao Yuan looked scared for the first time. She looked down at her brother’s bleeding leg and the fear on her face became rage. "Sun Yueying, what are you doing?” She hissed in a voice that was deeper than before. If you are pretending to be crazy, I will make you sorry. Look what you did to Jie!"

​

Sun Yueying didn’t look down, but spoke her single syllable chant once more, "Go."

​

Liu Nannan was frightened to tears. She took a step away from the rest of the kids and fat tears began to stream from her eyes. She took another step back then turned and bolted towards the village. Her teary voice advertised their situation to Yuan’s great dismay. "Shi Yong and Sun Yueying have gone crazy! Ghosts! Ghosts! There are ghosts…" The nasally chorus faded away as the girl ran.

​

Xiao Chun's mother didn't chase the chubby girl who’d turned to spread the word. The old dead woman turned around and followed the way I had gone, holding her head up like a grisly search lamp. I caught sight of the wrinkled face held up like a lantern, but turned away as another thorn dug into my left hip. My face, arms, thighs, and back were covered in blood from new tiny cuts.

A sticker bush stabbed into my right foot as I brought it down with all my weight. I cried out in pain and lost my footing, falling heedlessly into a heavy cluster of thistles. My eyes were tearing up and my chest began to hitch with a wail that I meant to hold in. I felt my courage and determination to flee leak out of me with the rivulets of blood coming from my skin. I moved to stand, but my legs wobbled and the foot that had gone on a date with the sticker bush throbbed in protest. “I can’t run away…” I said under my breath.

​

Zhao Yuan and Zhao Jie were frightened, that much was clear by their pale faces and wan expressions, but they couldn’t see the dead figures standing so near to them. Although Zhao Yuan was scared, she wasn’t beaten yet. She picked up Zhao Jie and shouted down the slope to me, "Xiao Yong, don't move. I’ll find a way to get you out. Maybe I’ll drag you through thorns on the way out too."

“She’s enjoying this! I thought, “What a jerk!”

​

Encouraged by his sister’s tone, Zhao Jie took a deep breath and groped for some courage of his own. "Xiao Yong, don't be scared. My father gave you that paper amulet! No ghost will be able to get anywhere near you!”

​

“The amulet!” I accidentally said out loud. I had completely forgotten the paper amulet from Zhao Laohei. It was still in my pocket! I plunged my hands into my two front pockets, searching for the new lifeline in a hurry.

​

The old woman’s expression, still being held out like a newborn lion, curdled when I withdrew the paper amulet. I wasn’t sure she’d been able to see me from where I was, but I looked up the slope and watched her sickly smile be replaced with a deep look of sorrow. The disembodied face frowned, producing hundreds of new wrinkles that drove a sour feeling into the pit of my stomach.

Xiao Chun’s mother curled a finger that looked at least seven inches long around her disconnected chin and raised the head even further upward. Her sickly long arm cracked loudly as the elbow extended, I heard the sound of bones grating on bones as she turned.

​

The severed head moved towards Sun Yueying who was still murmuring the mechanical tune, "Go..."

​

The old ghost moved in a wide arch around the Zhao siblings as if she were loathe to touch them. Her movements were jagged and abrupt as she closed the distance towards Sun Yueying.

​

When Xiao Chun’s mother was beside Sun Yueying, she stretched her left hand and clasped the girl’s numb hand in her own. I watched in horror at what happened next. A transparent Sun Yueying stepped slowly out of her own body, and was turned around, still holding Xiao Chun's mother’s gnarly fingers. The two of them turned to Uncle Sun and were at once beside him. The ghastly trio moved and vanished into the nearby site that was Uncle Sun’s tomb.

​

When they disappeared, my fear went mostly with them. Still shaking I was nervous and aggrieved. I huddled down in my new home of thistles and thorns and began to cry.

​

Zhao Yuan had jumped into the clusters of thistles and was tromping her way towards me. She grabbed my arm and pulled me into an embrace. Still hesitant, and almost positive that she was going to yank my ear off again, I cringed a little and couldn’t quell the flow of tears. She didn't hurt me, but touched my head in a soothing big sister way. "I’m here, don't be scared. I’m here."

She hugged me until my tears had dried up and we walked, carefully dodging thorns and wiry branches, back up to the path.

“Are you okay? What happened to you?” Zhao Jie squawked at me, his face mirroring the fear in mine.

​

“I’m fine.” I said and took his hand. His leg had bled quite a bit, but he looked relatively chipper regardless of the situation.

We looked towards Sun Yueying as one. Six eyes skated up the path to where she stood in silence.

​

“She’s dead,” I thought, “I saw her die.”

​

She stood a statue in the middle of the road, not blinking her now murky gray-green eyes, eyes that had been a lovely brown an hour ago.

​

Zhao Yuan was maintaining an impressive amount of control given what had been happening around her. She set her jaw in an expression that read ‘I’ve got this’ and huffed out of her nose. "Sun Yueying, stop joking around!" She walked towards the shell of a girl and reached for her hand.

​

Sun Yueying’s head jerked to the side, like she was listening to the path below her feet and those discolored eyes locked onto Zhao Yuan. Sun Yueying smiled, "Xiao Chun's mom was here! She said she would give me candy. Haw-haw..." The laughter stopped like it had been cut from her body.  

​

Zhao Yuan stopped, clearly unsettled by the crook of her friends neck and the unnatural laughter. “Sun Yueying, what do you mean Xiao Chun’s mom was here?” She whispered at her. “Xiao Chun’s mom is dead…”

​

She took another step forward and took Sun Yueying’s hand again. “Come on, we’re gonna go home.” Zhao Yuan pulled her empty friend forward and this time the girl went with her. Zhao Jie walked ahead of them, not wanting to be by the girls. I held Zhao Yuan’s other hand and we started back towards the village.

​

We walked fast, not daring to look back.

​

Sometimes Sun Yueying smiled, other times she cried as we went along the path. Her neck seemed unwilling to support her head and it lolled about grotesquely. She babbled in gibberish part of the time and then came back to Xiao Chun’s mother. When the old woman filled her thoughts she looked back the way we’d come and stop walking so immediately that we almost fell over the first time it happened. Zhao Yuan heaved at her and we got the empty girl moving again.

​

Zhao Yuan was sweaty and panting by the time we could see the edge of the village. She gritted her teeth and squeezed my hand. I held her hand tightly and pulled on her to help drag Sun Yueying.

​

We left the mountain and came across a crowd of men running towards us. Liu Nannan must have gotten to the village and told them what happened. Several of them were carrying shovels. Master Liu, Zhao Laohei and Sun Sheng were leading the pack. Zhao Laohei cried out when he saw we were safe.

​

Master Liu closed the distance between us with impossible speed and fell to his knees before me. "What monster did you meet? Why are you injured?" His tone left no room for discussion, but before I could answer his eyes flew to Sun Yueying.

​

In fact, everyone turned to her, because she had begun to speak again in a lilting little girl’s song voice, "Xiao Chun's mom will give me candy, and she’ll be my grandma. She is so nice to me..."

​

Sun Sheng threw his shovel to the ground and hugged his daughter. "Xiao Ying, what are you talking about? What's wrong with you?” He looked at me, “Explain this nonsense!"

​

Sun Yueying repeated herself, seemingly unable to hear her father.

​

Sun Sheng looked to Master Liu for help. The old master stood up slowly and said to the crowd around us, "Sun Sheng, Xiao Yong, and Sun Yueying, stay here. Everyone else go back to the village. I don’t want you to see these spirits."

​

Nobody wanted to see the ghosts, too many strange things had happened already. The villagers heeded Master Liu and the crowed began to trickle back the way they came, warming up rumors and gossip as they went.

​

When Zhao Yuan left, she turned around and called, "Xiao Yong, don’t be scared. I’ll wait for you on the bridge."

​

Zhao Jie added, "I’ll wait for you with her."

​

I felt safe for a moment before the crowed began to part, as they left the fear crept back into my stomach, making my neck ache and my bloody skin sting. Master Liu looked down at me as if seeing me for the first time, “You’ve gathered quite a spattering of cuts young man,” And smiled humorlessly.

​

I looked up at him, not wanting to waste any time, "Why did you ask us to stay here?"

​

Master Liu’s smile fell before my eyes. “We have to go back to Uncle Sun’s tomb. I think you knew that, didn’t you?"

​

I looked at Master Liu’s old face and started to cry again, “No…”

​

"I don't want to go."

​