Lu Li floated to the window on the second floor, peeking through the mottled glass at a faded long dress busy with its back to the wall, as if worn by an invisible silhouette.
The phantom silhouette faded away, and Lu Li passed through the veil of reality into the Inner World, gazing at the gray, desolate room where there was no silhouette or clothing.
The ghostly Inner World projects all things beyond life. The absence of the faded long dress suggests it is a form of life itself.
Lu Li returned to the real world just as the faded long dress turned and discovered the peeping ghost outside the window, scared it floated out of the room.
Boom—
The heavy slamming of the door vibrated the windows.
Lu Li landed back on the street, continuing into the town with Snot and the Crowd of Suffering.
Ahead, a house’s window cast a faint warm light; Lu Li and his companions approached the window, seeing three pieces of clothing around a candlelit dining table: a gray linen coat, a faded loose long dress, and children’s clothes.
"My good friend says they are talking," Snot said at this mont.
"What are they saying?"
Snot recounted with envy and yearning, "Dad says happy birthday to my beloved Little Justin, Mom says Little Justin has grown up."
The children’s clothes, about the sa size as Snot, raised its sleeves, running around the dining table. It was as if they vaguely saw a warm family of three celebrating a birthday.
"Mom says stop running, co back to eat, the boy says okay."
The children’s clothes climbed onto its chair, and the sleeves of the coat playing the father grasped the knife and fork, cutting into an indistinct plate and delivering it to the children’s plate, then continued to cut and serve into the neckline of the long dress playing the mother.
Lu Li saw that what was being forked was a piece of cut fabric, recalling the mountain of clothes seen in Kazvovo Town.
Was that the "slaughterhouse" for clothes?
"The child says there’s soone outside the window—"
At this mont, the children’s clothes holding the fork suddenly lifted its empty sleeve, pointing at the window.
Lu Li and his companions were discovered.
"Dad" left the seat and ca to the window as Lu Li watched calmly.
Swoosh—
It pulled the curtains, blocking the prying eyes from the street.
That was all.
It seed the clothes were indifferent to their intrusion, showing no reaction to the presence of human breath, even ignoring the evil spirit Crowd of Suffering.
Their reaction made Lu Li change his mind and, together with Snot, knock on the door.
A rustling sound like clothes being rustled ca from behind the door, then it opened. Candlelight spilled into the porch, and the linen coat stood behind the door, while the loose long dress and children’s clothes watched curiously from the dining table.
"Dad asks who you are," Snot continued to translate.
"We ca from outside and want to know what happened in the town," Lu Li answered.
The sleeve of the linen coat pointed toward the depths of the town.
"Dad says you should find the mayor yourselves, Mom says the mayor will help you."
"Do they have a tone?"
"What’s a tone?" Snot tilted his head, seemingly receiving an answer from his good friend, "My good friend says, Dad’s tone carries impatience and disgust, while Mom’s is friendly and curious."
Just like how the man and woman of a house might react to strangers.
"Thank you."
Lu Li’s apology left them stunned until Lu Li and Snot returned to the street, and the linen coat closed the door.
"Wait for here."
Lu Li approached the window veiled in dim candlelight, floated up, and passed through the house wall into the second floor.
A neatly made children’s bed was placed in the corner of the attic with a slanted ceiling, and a wooden staircase led up from the lit floor below.
The sound of the sea was blocked by the walls, leaving the inside silent, without the joyful birthday celebration of a family of three.
Amidst the eerie stillness, Lu Li checked the bedside table, under the bed, and beneath the pillow, eventually finding a diary on the windowsill.
"Justin’s Diary"
The cover of the blank notebook was scribbled with slanted handwriting.
Above in the attic, Lu Li opened the diary, reading Justin’s notes by the faint glow emanating from himself.
Inside were accounts of Justin’s daily life, and the carefree nature of the records clearly belonged to the Old Era—children of the Weird Tis wouldn’t roam about, gather seashells by the shore, or accompany their father at the port.
The diary only filled half of the notebook and abruptly ended after a day’s routine, indicating so kind of change.
Lu Li knew what had happened: the arrival of the Weird Tis.
Could the three pieces of clothing downstairs be Justin’s family of three?
But it couldn’t be confird yet.
The curiosities of the Old Era allowed Lu Li to imagine countless possibilities, like the clothes playing the role of Justin’s family, or clothes stealing their souls and mories.
After all, Twin Town kept the strange at bay for a reason—
And these animate clothes were the key.
"Are we wearing clothes, or are clothes wearing us?"
Gazing at the candlelight seeping from the end of the staircase, Lu Li placed the diary back in its place, leaving the attic before plants erged from the cracks in the wooden planks, returning to the street.
They continued on, entering the center of the town.
The "Flower Season" temporarily rested, with seaward winds dispersing the Blood Dandelions and clothes gradually appearing on the streets.
They were unfazed by the presence of the ghost, the strange, and the evil spirit, just as if they believed they were human, assuming the trio to be human as well.
Since the clothes were not surprised by Lu Li and his companions, Lu Li wasn’t shocked by them either. He approached a hunched linen shirt, inquiring about the town’s situation as if asking a resident.
Snot relayed what his good friend communicated: The elder welcod their arrival, stating the town was a safe haven away from danger. The Flower Season was annoying stuff blown in from the Blood Forest to the west of the town, but they could seek the mayor to receive clothes, like umbrellas shielding against the Flower Season rain.
Lu Li did not go to the mayor nor collect clothing. Following the chaotic, fragnted mory of the Uninvited Guests, he traversed the town, arriving before a tower-like slanted-roof building.
"Where is this?"
"A cetery."
Lu Li’s gaze skipped over the rust-covered fence, falling onto the slanting, shadowed tombstones.
The fragntary mory of the Uninvited Guests surfaced again, and Lu Li allowed them to erge spontaneously like inspirations, without erasing them with the Crown of Knowledge.
Waiting until no more mories arose, Lu Li carried Snot over the fence.
The Crowd of Suffering crawled over the fence, letting the spikes pierce its flesh, embedding rust fragnts within.
"Is anyone you know here?"
"No."
Lu Li wanted to confirm a possibility.
A shadow appeared at the cetery’s edge at this mont.
The rchant brought a notebook free of blood stains, and Lu Li turned to the last, creased page, the previously blood-covered penultimate line surfaced:
"[We are nothing... nothing, it is farming us...]
There were no substantial clues, just a confirmation that the notebook’s owner and the textile mound were indeed sustenance for the clothes.
Lu Li continued to wander in the dark, desolate cetery, stopping at a low, slender, indistinct tombstone.
"R.I.P."
"Justin Ray"
Below was engraved a line of text.
"——Our beloved rests here"
Reviews
All reviews (0)