Poison City

It was a chilly, breezy and cloudless late afternoon, noises of doors banging, people cursing and fighting, and even guns fired were coming from a five-storey apartment complex located at the border area between the South-Western and South-Eastern Districts of Poison City. It was an impromptu drug raid, carried out by three detectives of the PCPD, along with a few uniformed officers. Under ideal circumstances, they would have waited for their backup to arrive. But this was in an area where the roads were narrow, bumpy and generally very poorly maintained. Thus when they spotted a fleeting window of opportunity, they had no choice but to go in - lest they let a large subgroup of the drug gang and one of its core leaders that were in charge of a quarter to one third of the hard narcotics in Poison City and employed children as young as eight as drug mules, go free.

 

“Bang!” Pieces of wood and drywall flew off as one shirtless, tattooed young drug dealer with the left side of his head shaved was thrown against the side of the hall. The short and double barrel shotgun was taken away from his grasp before he could even try to squeeze the triggers.

 

Detective Marcus Cai tossed the shotgun to the ground beside him after bashing the perp with its butt and let the officers behind him cuff him up - this should be the last one inside this complex, the others should all be handled by the officers guarding the entrances. There was one last room in this storey - one with a metal door and some pieces of light yellow paper stuck on it and its frames.

 

“Don’t! Please let him go!” The restrained young drug dealer begged Marcus as he walked towards the metal door: “He would be in danger if he comes out! Please let him go!”

 

“Shut up!” The uniformed officers pulled the perp up and dragged him away.

 

“No! No! Please don’t do this!” The drug dealer tried to resist the grip of the two officers, but it only earned him some kicks to his legs and being more violently shoved down the stairs.

 

With the two officers taking the perp away, Marcus was now the only one in the hallway. But this was of no concern to him - he approached the door carefully from the side and then took a few seconds to examine it - the yellow pieces of paper were not random decorations, but were actually talismans - paper talismans made of the same kind of yellow paper that was commonly used to make paper money and paper “gold nuggets”, which people in the South-Eastern District burned as sacrifices and gifts to their dead ancestors and family. The symbols and patterns on them seemed to be drawn using some kind of low quality red ink, Marcus could easily see coarse grains left behind by the brush strokes.

 

“Police! Come out at once!” Marcus banged on the metal door.

 

“Please leave me alone!” A weary and frightened voice of a man came from behind the metal door: “Please! I’ll tell you everything! Just … just leave me in here! I can’t go out there! It will be the death of me!!”

 

“I’m afraid that’s not an option, sir.” Marcus said: “If you have crucial information, we can get you into protective custody. But you’ll have to come out first!”

 

“NO! NO!” The man cried: “I can’t go out there! Please! You wouldn’t understand! She’ll kill me!”

 

Marcus took a deep breath, then unleashed a full force kick onto the metal door. The frame of the door was loosened, and the wall around it cracked up. But the door itself still stood, as it seemed like the door was reinforced from inside and bolted shut.

 

“Please, please just go! Leave me alone!” The man inside cried: “Please! I’ll tell you anything! I’ll do it here! I’ll sign a statement. I’ll do anything you want! As long as I can stay here!”

 

“Considering what you and your friends have been doing, you don’t get to demand that.” Marcus shook his head, as he took a brief moment to focus and activate his Qi - The Style of Ferocious Tiger, a simple name for an ingeniously simple martial arts style. As more Qi than usual coursed through his meridians, he looked around to make sure no other officers were watching and readied his stance: “One last time: open up! Or I’ll kick this fucking door down!”

 

“No… PLEASE! Leave me be! Just let me …”

 

“Bang!” The sole of Marcus’ right foot made contact with the metal door once again, this time the kick was so forceful that it dented the door slightly, while ripping it off from its hinges and throwing it onto the ground inside the room.

 

A loud, throaty, seemingly terrified and yet almost unbearably high-pitched scream exploded beside Marcus’ left ear and got his head ringing for a short while. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up straight for a brief moment, but soon they became as they were. A slim and pale man wearing a dirty white cotton vest and a pair of old jeans inside the room was lying on the floor, crying and staring at Marcus, visibly shaking and had an obvious wet spot on his crotch, spanning to both his inner thighs.

 

The stench of urine and sweat filled the stale air inside the room. There was but one dim and flickering light hanging from the center of the ceiling, which made the room lacking in lighting but not completely dark. On the walls hang at least a few dozen paper talismans like those that were stuck on the door frames and the door.

 

“No! Nonononono…” The slim man went into a cradle position and started mumbling while crying: “She’s gonna kill me! She’s gonna kill me!”

 

“Get up, GET UP!” Marcus wanted to put his gun back into his holster, as he could tell the man was in no condition to harm him even by a little, nor did he look able to do so because of his poor mental and physical state. But he remained cautious and closed in on the supposedly last perp in this rundown complex one step at a time.

 

The slim man crawled on his butt backwards away from Marcus, while having his eyes fixated on him, or maybe, something on or behind his left shoulder.

 

“You’re under arrest, get up!” Marcus lowered his gun, but still uttered his order in a calm, stern tone: “Hands above your head!”

 

The slim man stared at Marcus for a short while, his terrified facial expression gradually loosening up, tears ran down his messy and dirtied face along with snot and drool. “Oh my god - thank - thank you! ” This slim man crawled up to Marcus and tried to hug his left leg: “Thank you! Thank you so much! You saved me! You saved me!”

 

“What the - ” Marcus was quite confused, but he stuck to his job: “Stand up! Turn around and hands behind your back!”

 

“Okay! Okay, just - please don’t leave me!” The man tried a few times to stand up, and finally did during his fifth or sixth try, and let Marcus put him in cuffs and take him along like a tired pet.

 

“Who is ‘she’?” While driving his car back to the precinct with the slim man sitting in the passenger seat instead of the back seat, due to the incessant begging of the man, Marcus asked: “Why does ‘she’ want you dead?”

 

“I - I don’t know man, really.” This perp shuddered as he seemingly tried to recall certain things that led him to this state: “I - I swear! I have absolutely no idea who she is and what she wants! I - maybe the spirit of some random woman I pissed off back in the days. ”

 

“Spirit?”

 

“Yes! Spirit! Or - or - or ghost! Specter!” The slim man curled up in his seat: “She torments me - she - she haunts me in my dreams AND while I’m awake. Almost every corner I turn, I could see her face, just staring at me, with those terrifying eyes, until now - if not for you, she would’ve killed me… THIS I am very sure. She would’ve killed me… somehow, I can’t even imagine…”

 

“... we’re going to request that you take a drug test when we’re at the station.” Marcus sighed and shook his head.

 

“You don’t - you don’t believe me, do you?” The slim man looked at Marcus while slowly banging his forehead against his curled up knees: “I - please, you don’t have to leave me, but just please stay by my side - I fear she may come back. I think she WILL come back. So please, please stay by my side …”

 

“That will depend on how well you cooperate.” Marcus shook his head and turned around a corner of the narrow road: “We will need to know everything you can give us. And you’re going to have a full statement and confession.”

 

“As long as I am safe and away from her - I am willing to do anything - ”

 

“Tell me more about her. How did you get involved? Why is ‘she’ targeting you?” After some careful maneuvers, Marcus finally made it to a slightly wider street, yet he still had to be careful because the streets were more crowded - the locals of the South-Eastern District were not known for their warmth towards law enforcement officers like him, and the apathy and despise the pedestrians and jaywalkers were showing them now was one of the better scenarios Marcus knew they would encounter.

 

“I - it’s complicated, and I want to be somewhere safe - ”

 

Just this moment, Marcus’ phone rang, and he had to put it on speaker.

 

“Come back to the precinct, now!” That was Captain Ko, in a clearly unhappy tone.

 

“Already on my way.” Marcus sighed.