The Club for the Disturbed (2)

Menorosa County was divided into two regions: the new and old districts. One would think the old district was too small to be further divided. However, that was a mistake Rhodes made. As soon as he passed the old tram rails running across the small county, he entered a different world. The commercial spots were vacated, and the residential houses looked abandoned.

Rhodes surely wished Vanya would make his presence known at this moment. Walking along the streets of the Gloom was comparable to an apocalypse movie. The doctor pulled his coat closer to his body. A draft crept up on him, regardless of possibilities.

"Are you here for the theater?" A small girl's voice asked from afar. Rhodes turned to find a girl in casual clothing standing in an alley adjacent to the main street. 

The girl couldn't be older than eleven. Her thin hair and body looked pre-pubescent. It was summer break. Rhodes figured even a grade schooler could go where she wanted. It just felt strange for her to hang out in a scary place like what the residents called the Gloom. If one asked Rhodes, he wouldn't doubt the naming sense of whoever started it.

"Yeah, do you know how to get there?" Rhodes didn't fear a grade-schooler. He just paced his breathing and heartbeat, not to alarm Vanya.

"You're close. Just walk ahead and take the corner to the left." The girl walked closer and circled him once. "I can walk you there if you like. It's boring out here. Do you know? My friends said this place was the scariest. I can only die out of boredom here. This place is so dead."

"I supposed that's the reality for small counties." Rhodes walked ahead. However, he kept glancing at the little girl. His instincts screamed at him and insisted on not losing sight of this child.

The unlikely duo walked for a few minutes until the girl gestured toward the side. Rhodes turned and stepped forward, only to see a long alley blocked by a wall. The wall was stained with red and black as if someone drew an abstract watercolor painting on it. However, the mere sight of it made Rhodes tremble. It didn't help that a person was crawling toward him.

A knife was stuck to his back. The man barely moved as if his body was paralyzed by pain. He reached out a hand. "Help… Please help me…!"

Rhodes's world suddenly slowed down to a stop. It was as if he could feel the moment spirits would take him inside their dream spaces. A spike of danger came from behind him. Rhodes quickly dodged the knife that swung toward him.

"Oh… you evaded it." The girl scoffed. Her image began changing into an adult woman, but her clothes remained. The loose clothes now looked skimpy against the woman's bigger frame. "Men… always freely following children."

"You're a local." Rhodes got to his feet and slowly walked backward. He glanced at the man trying to reach the knife on his back. "Don't take the knife off. You'll bleed to death."

The man flinched and retracted his hands. He tried to look up to find Rhodes backing away from the woman with a knife. "That woman's a psycho! She said she'd walk to someplace and stabbed me!"

Rhodes snorted. "That makes two of us. Listen. Stay down. I'll attend to your wound later."

"Are you planning to escape?" The woman laughed, producing a shrill sound that made Rhodes's ears ring. The man on the ground also covered his ears. She aimed her knife at Rhodes's face. "I will make you suffer for stepping inside my street, human. Don't even think about running. I can always outrun you. Wherever you turn, I will be just a step behind you!"

"Saves me time." Rhodes discreetly clenched his teeth. He had never run into an aggressive spirit without Vanya around. His feet didn't even want to run and leave a victim behind.

His heart pounded loudly, but he held himself back from calling for Vanya. After all, the man would get sicker the more he aided Rhodes from his bed. Travelling through the spiritual realm burdened the soul, he said. He asked Rhodes not to make it a hobby.

The spiritual realm? Rhodes remembered something Vanya mentioned in passing.

"Haunted spots are different from dream spaces. The stronger entities could partially meld the two realms together during a haunting," Vanya once said. "If the entity wishes to touch the physical, they must turn themselves partially physical. The human touched will also become partially spiritual. It's the best explanation as to why their wounds don't appear as deep wounds despite the burning sensation."

Rhodes's eyes glittered. Even if the woman charged toward him, he smiled like a boy given new toys to play with. He didn't know what kind of person he used to be, but a spark of life surged within him every time he thought of diving into this place.

Entering an entity's dream space without Vanya's help was new. Fortunately, he wasn't so defenseless.

"Don't bother moving!" The woman whipped her knife and screamed. She only needed one more second to drive the knife deep into Rhodes's stomach. Her hand already itched to feel the warm blood splashing at her skin. Her eyes glinted at the sight of an unmoving target. "Let me skin you while you're still alive! Scream for me! Let me hear your voice until you run out of life!"

"You chose the wrong target!" Rhodes laughed. From the edge of his sleeve shot out heavy chain links. He used them to slap the woman to the wall. A loud boom quickly followed her shocked gasp.

However, Rhodes felt the heaviness pull him to the ground. Unlike when he was completely in his astral form, the chain links weighed twice as he expected. He fell to the ground with a hard thud. He might have even dislocated his shoulder and busted his lips.

The woman dropped from the crater on the wall. She looked at the man with heavy chains slithering from his hand. They even moved like wary snakes looking for prey. Her tongue clicked.

"What are you? You're scary!" The woman retreated, leaving the two potential victims.

The haunting receded, and the chains quickly retracted from inside Rhodes's sleeve. With a long groan, Rhodes sat up and held his painful arm. Just from feeling the tender area, he figured the bone popped off. Why wouldn't it when Rhodes carelessly whipped those chains?

Stupid but effective. Rhodes only laughed as he struggled getting to his feet. He walked to the wall and found a box to place his arm down. Keeping it still, Rhodes worked through the pain and gently put the shoulder back to its right position. He then used his jacket to make an arm sling. When he was done, he slowly trudged to check the man on the ground.

He sighed and asked, "Are you still alive?"