Serpent Sarcophagus novel Chapter 2

Listening to the crackling upstairs, I went up uneasily with something occupying my mind, and I knocked on the door.

It was David, the renter’s son who opened the door. The moment the door was open, a smell of alcohol spread out.

Instantaneously, I sensed something ominous. David looked at me with his drunk eyes, “Oh, Aurora, what do you want?”

There was something wrong with his eyes. I tried to look away in order to gain some sight of the inside. “Are you drinking the snake liquor?”

“Sure, why don’t you come to join us for a cup or two? Your father was selling it cheap today. Drink some, won’t you?” David smirked and looked down my neck.

I was uncomfortable with the way he looked at me. I took a shower just now, so I grasped the bath towel on me and said, “my father just told me that the snake died in the bottle. Maybe I can offer you the double price to buy it back, all right?”

The sound of the snake's tail against the glass was even louder when I stood at his door. I didn’t know whether it was an illusion.

“But it isn't dead! See, it's quite alive!” David grinned, pulled the door open, and stretched out his hand to pull me. “Come on in and have a drink.”

The door opened, I saw a big glass bottle on the tea table in the living room, which was exactly the kind of my father's snake liquor. Inside, a thick snake was swimming slowly with its eyes open.

David's father, Fletcher Russell, seemed to be very happy, holding his chopsticks and poking at the glass to keep the snake swimming.

But no matter how the snake swam, its head was always facing me. Lights in the living room were reflected on the glass, making the snake’s eyes flickering with the light of what seems to be hatred that was cast on me.

I was scared. So, I took a step back and swallowed air, “I will double the offer, please let me buy it back!”

“I won’t sell! Look, they're alive, they're all alive!” As David spoke, it seemed as if his tongue had grown too big and kept sticking it out, and his wide tongue seemed to have split at the front.

With his tongue stuck out, his head was slowly stretching forward. Though his shoulder did not move, his neck was able to lean forward in a weird way. In the misted eyes of his, the pupil seemed to be shrinking.

The smirk on his face became eerier and eerier, with malicious attempts hidden inside.

I turned my head to observe that snake soaked in the liquor. It snapped the bottle more fiercely with its tails when it kept swimming inside the liquor flicking its tongue, as if it had been annoyed by Fletcher’s constant poking.

Across the distance from where I was standing, there shouldn’t be any sound noticeable to the ear. But strangely, I heard a hissing voice calling, “Aurora, Aurora.”

I flinched away for I was apparently frightened. Regardless of this bottle of snake liquor, I hurried downstairs.

“All alive, all alive, Aurora, Hey, hey, hey...” David was laughing oddly behind me.

Staying at home proved to be a challenge after I got downstairs, so I packed up my clothes for tomorrow, took my schoolbag, and called my father, saying that I had some difficulties with my homework and would go to Pearl Chang's home to spend the night.

“Go, I will pick you up tomorrow morning, sending you and Pearl to school together.” My dad was over there drinking with his friends and bragging.

And he said loudly, “Listen! This is my daughter, see what a good girl she is! I never need to worry about her grade. My only daughter as she is, she is greater than most of the boys.”

After hanging up the phone, I went directly downstairs and took a motorcycle to Pearl Chang's home.

When I was waiting for the bus, I felt vague that something was watching me from upstairs.

Turning around, I spotted David standing on the balcony of the third floor, stripped to the waist.

His body bent over the bar that was shielding the balcony. His upper body was leaning down, a pose that made him easy to fall off even just by small negligence.

The motorbike driver followed my gaze, and he shouted immediately upward, “Hey, bro, mind if you fall down!”

David recoiled instantly with a quick reaction.

After I was away, David was still standing on the balcony, looking at me, the dim light of the road reflected in his eyes, like a faint green light.

On the motorcycle, I phoned Pearl, who was on good terms with me. She was waiting for me at the front door.

Pearl's father was a Taoist priest who lived at home. He built a small Taoist temple in the town. He usually made money by conducting religious rites for people. And he would also host some dharma activities on the first and fifteenth of the lunar calendar.

Her home sat on the upper story of the Taoist temple. Upon my entrance into the temple, I heard a rustle in the grass nearby, and the ornamental green plants bent to both sides.

“Maybe just some wild cats.” Pearl took a look and pulled me in.

As soon as I stepped into the temple, Master Chang, while having an evening study, shouted at me in a low voice, “Aurora!”

Being startled by him, I flinched. He, however, immediately grabbed that one liter of rice from the incense table, then splash towards me.