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Drabble: Locked Door
Category: Stories
// as currently - and to my great joy - the request for modern based storylines increased I tried to provide myself some challenge and my muse some pratice when it comes to set up Hou Xin in this verse - so, I took a random cue in form of two words I came by and tried to create a setting and story around them - the words were "Locked Door"... here we go: //
„Chéngshí dì,(Honestly), Jing Mao might have been right, this place gives me the creeps already, Ah Xin”, Ning Chen stated the moment they´d exited the car, now facing an old manor house located just beyond the boarders of the city.
“Most certainly there is an unusually strong, unsettling aura about the place, I agree on that…” Hou Xin nodded while reaching for a little bag and his bamboo staff on the back-seat.
“Ah, I am not even talking about that aura… you should see the place – it´s like the perfect serial killer or demon lair set of a movie.” Ning Chen gave back while walking round the car.
A pictorial description which earned him both, an amused chuckle bit also a slightly ironical shrug, “Haó bá, if you say so. You really watched the one or the other horror flick too much lately – shouldn´t one in your line of work not be affected by such superficial impressions?”
Ning Chen shot his friend a mocking scowl before pulling his own bag out from the backseat.
Making faces or gesturing towards his friend was in no way meant to mock or exploit the blindness of his fellow Qi-Master – in contrary, the two of them being friends close like brothers ever since their early childhood, working together in the field for such a long time, even after fate took away Hou Xin´s sight, just left them with such a deep familiarity that the younger of the two warriors simply forgot about his comrade´s handicap more often than not.
“Last time I checked it was OUR line of work. – And you are just jealous of my vivid imagination. – Haó bá, ready?”
“Shí, let´s see if our little purring Yaoguai was right.”
They recently received a clue from one of their informants – a young woman, or rather a cat Yaogui, disguising herself as a young woman. Hou Xin and Ning Chen where two of the few Qi-Masters who did not consider all Yaogui per se as a monsters and beings to be captured or even killed. In fact, some of their closest friends outside the Guard were of more or less non-human nature, and some of their best informants, too.
Not everyone inside the Guard liked this fact – however, as their results spoke volumes in terms of how fruitful such cooperation could be, the criticizing voices were kept at bay… for now at least.
The rusty iron garden gate pathetically hung from the last desperate scraps of decaying metal on one remaining hinge, leaving a gap wide enough to allow the two White Lotus Guards to slip through.
The overgrown path leading up the house, though appeared to be more trodden as it would be expected from a ground and homestead so explicitly trying to look abandoned.
“People have been here recently, haven´t they?”, Hou Xin, who utilized both, his Qi-powers to focus and but also the help of his bamboo staff to perceive his surroundings stated more than inquired, and was rewarded with an approving grunt from Ning Chen´s side. “Shí, the grass on the path looks like quite a number of people walked here, not too long ago.”
“Hm”, even after years of adjusting and proving his value out in the fields despite his blindness, little verifications like this still helped to bolster Hou Xin´s self-confidence and to battle the lingering self-doubt and silencing the nagging voice in the back of his head trying to convince him that he was just the tolerated side-kick tagging along.
The strange, unsettling aura surrounding the place grew stronger all the way while they approached the main building across the overgrown garden. When they reached the closed front door and tried to push open the crumbling halves of wood, they found themselves facing a greater obstacle than the decayed look gave away on first glance.
Indeed, the flaking structure did not budge one bit but felt like a piece of solid wall.
Hou Xin´s hands slid over the rough surface, examining every little crack and splinter, his mind focused deeply on the barrier blocking their way, entering its very essence in order to find the source of what kept it shut in such a persistent manner.
He searched… and found – something dark, something forbidden -
Almost as if touched by a hot torch the Qi-Master flinched back, briefly shook his head to regain his focus and drive away a flash of vertigo, then turned round towards Ning Chen who had been standing guard behind his friend.
“This door is looked good – and by forbidden means at that. It appears that there is indeed more to his house and someone is going to great length to keep its secrets hidden.”
To be continued… maybe… 😉
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