"Jinlin!"
She ran from the kitchen to the front room. Her mother was standing at the door. She smiled and beckoned Jinlin closer. "Come meet our new neighbors."
She stood back behind her mother's legs and looked around her at the man and the girl in the door. The man was older and unkempt and had worry lines around his eyes. The girl was her age.
"This is Doctor Wen Zhi and his daughter, Fuya. Introduce yourself."
She said hello to Doctor Wen, who smiled openly. She did not say hello to Fuya because her greeting was caught in her throat.
She'd seen eyes like that before in another girl. Pain-filled eyes that would turn dark with something else.
The girl's name had been Wildflower and she'd stood behind a man who was too young to be her father, a man who had promised to help her get the bowl for Purveyor Shouji. The man had been tall and strong, but scary. Jinlin wasn't afraid of Wildflower though; she was Jinlin's size and had smiled at her shyly.
Just before the man went into the tomb, Wildflower turned to her and said, "Don't worry, Jinlin. We'll help you get your mother back."
And she had smiled back because Wildflower was someone like her, small and scared in this graveyard.
Then Wildflower had cried out and Jinlin had moved forward to help the girl. Wildflower's fingers curled around her shoulders in pain, but it was Jinlin who cried out when the fingers bit into her skin and pulled. Wildflower had looked up through her hair with eyes that were crimson. Then she pushed.
Jinlin fell hard onto the stone, her knees and elbows scraped and bloody. Wildflower came towards her, walking strangely. She shambled, looking much heavier than she really was. Each step appeared difficult and off-balance. But she was smiling...
Then the man had barked ya zhen and the girl followed after him, into the dark. Jinlin had never been so glad to be alone in the Necropolis.
And now here was another girl with the same eyes, eyes that changed and looked at her with pity and then hatred.
"Say hello to Fuya," her mother prodded. She choked out a hello. "Why don't you two go play? I'd like to talk to the doctor without you two underfoot."
"Yes, Jinlin. Let's play down by the river," said the girl with the wrong eyes. "It will be fun."
Jinlin shivered and shook her head and told her mother she did not feel well. Her mother chastised her for being rude, but she didn't care. She pleaded to be allowed to go to bed and finally it was the doctor who urged her mother to let her go to her room.
Jinlin was surprised. He was a doctor; he must have known she was lying. Yet something in the way he looked told her that he knew. He knew something was wrong too.
As she walked away, she felt those eyes on her back and she couldn't help but turn around. Fuya was waving at her. Everything seemed alright, until she smiled and said, "I'll see you later, Jinlin."