Suto-Ri

One word. A single word had left me a nervous wreck for an entire day, if that's even possible. Ever since that man uttered that word, I was looking over my shoulder every few seconds, and holding my breath before turning a corner, scared of what would be waiting on the other side. I was scared of my own shadow. Who knows what could be lurking within it? Or behind that bush? Under that rock? Within myself? Anything and anyone could pose a possible threat now, and I could no longer be sure who was or wasn't my friend, and who was or wasn't trying to kill me. I was a mess. I probably looked like one too. I needed to go find that man and find out what he had meant when he said that word. That one, single word. Geez. Who knew one word could have so much impact on a person? I guess it wouldn't have, coming from anyone else. But that man... why did it have to be him who said it? When he spoke it, the word gained a whole new meaning. It was an evil word. It was something to be feared. It could spell my death. As I made my way towards the inn, I could tell who had been close enough to hear what the man had said and who wasn't. The ones who hadn't heard didn't give me a second look. They walked right on past, more interested in where they were going or who they were with than me. That was good. That's how it was supposed to be. But then there were the others, the people who knew what the man had said and knew what could possibly become of me at any moment. Death. Dismemberment. Or worse. These were the people who walked around me, not past me. They acted as though I had some incredibly deadly, incredibly contagious disease. I probably did. They avoided my eyes, as if my sickness could be contracted through eye contact. For all I knew, it could. I really needed to find that man.

This is what happened. This one man, he came to my village, Liululi Village, earlier today. It was morning, and the sun had just begun to rise above the distant mountains, bathing Liululi in beautiful golden yellow light. The large willow tree in the center of the village, surrounded by its jasmine flower offspring, had been breathtaking. The sagging branches always seemed to me to be reaching down for the delicate white petals of its children, as if to embrace them. And just like I did most mornings, after washing my face, I stood at my window and gazed out at the willow, just a few hundred feet from my house, until the golden morning light began to become more blue-gray. But just as I was about to get dressed, I heard a commotion. Liululi Village was pretty much void of commotions. The only times you'd experience one was when a traveling merchant came through selling fruit for less than half the going rate, and everyone was scrambling to buy some before it disappeared. Liululi was a drawl, peaceful place. Which I liked. The commotion was close by my house this time, so I glanced out my window. But I didn't see what I had expected. A mob of hungry villagers crowded around a panicked merchant, all clambering for our villages' primary food of consumption, fruit. That's what I had expected to see. Instead, I saw a dozen or so people slowly heading in the direction of the village gates, caution in their steps and curiosity, maybe fear, on their faces. After a while, they sped up to a slow jog, as more villagers appeared, all heading towards the gates. What was going on? The scrambling had never started until the merchant had set up his stall, and they always did that by the willow, not the gates. Could it have been someone else? Fueled by curiosity, I dressed in a hurry, skipped breakfast, and made my way towards the gates as well, running. I wanted to get there before there were too many heads to peer over. If I had known what was going to transpire there this morning, I would have jumped back into bed, curled up in my blankets, and gone back to sleep. Not like it would have helped.

Thanks to my long legs, I managed to get there before there was too much of a crowd. I did have to push my way past some people, but I eventually made it to the front of the mini mob, and I saw what had caused the commotion. A man. A stranger to the village. He was wearing deep violet robes with thin plates of dark red plate armor on his shoulders, elbows, forearms, knees and shins. I had seen enough monks to know one when I saw one, but this one was different. I had never seen a monk wear armor before. And his staff, a wooden rod that came up to his shoulders, topped with a metal ring with smaller rings dangling from it, was battle-scarred. I thought it was just supposed to be for show, not actual battle. And there was a reddish brown stain on the metal rings. Blood? Why would a monk have a bloody staff? Other than that, I still didn't see why he was causing everyone to act so strangely. We had seen corrupt monks before, taking advantage of their statuses as holy men to get free drinks and food, bashing anyone who resisted with their staffs. How was he different? As I glanced around, I saw fear, curiosity, awe... a whole slew of emotions in their eyes and on their faces. What in the world was going on?

I watched as the crowd silently parted to let the man through, and that's when I saw why they were so transfixed by him. He was tall, taller than me, with pale skin and short hair as dark as onyx, streaked with white even though he looked like he couldn't have been a day over thirty. He had black stubble all along his jaw, and he wore the weather-worn look most travelers did when they passed through. But it wasn't his ruggedly good looks that was mesmerizing the villagers. It was his eyes. Or rather, one of them. His left eye was dark brown, nearly black, like my own, like everyone in the village. Nothing special there. Most people in the country of Longwei had dark hair and eyes. His right eye, however, was, for lack of a better term, freaky. Wide, as if he didn't have eyelids, and where it should have been white, was jet black. His pupil was snowy white instead, and where his left eye was brown, his right eye was a fiery orange, flecked with specks of red and yellow. It was hypnotizing, spellbinding, captivating, and yet horrifying at the same time, because now I knew why everyone had fear mixed in with the emotions on their faces. He wasn't a monk. He was an exorcist.

When I had realized the truth, my heart nearly skipped a beat. An exorcist? That meant someone, somewhere in Liululi Village, was possessed. Either that, or there was a nasty spirit slinking around that could cause serious damage if left unchecked. I prayed it was the slinking spirit. At least that way it could be taken care of before it became a real problem.

I was standing on the man's left side, so when he passed by me, his freaky eye disappeared, and I took a deep breath. I hadn't even realized I had been holding it. As he exited the ever-growing crowd, the two guards who normally watched the gate finally realized that this guy with the bloody weapon was somewhat suspicious, and ran to catch up with him, one of them bumping into me and muttering an apology. They jumped in front of him, their spears clenched and raised in front of them. "Excuse me, sir," the one who had bumped into me said. He spoke politely, but there was something in his voice, and in the spear pointed at the man's neck, that said he meant business. The exorcist stopped and stared at him. The guy looked pretty shaken, despite his brave stance. I didn't blame him. I couldn't even imagine what it felt like to have that eye just... stare at you. The "seeing" eye, exorcists call it. They supposedly gain it through some kind of forbidden ritual, and with it, they can see all manners of things that, personally, I'm perfectly happy not seeing. Spirits, ghosts, whatever you want to call it. I've heard that exorcists see those kinds of things no matter where they look, whether they want to, and in abundance. I didn't want to think about the stress that puts on a person. Which probably explained the white streaks in his hair.

"Can I help you?", the man asked. He had a voice that reminded me of rocks tumbling down a sheet of silk; husky and rough, but soft. The other guard spoke up.

"No disrespect, sir, but what is your business in our village?" In other words, are any of us carrying an unwanted hitchhiker of the otherworldly persuasion. The man smiled pleasantly.

"I assure you, I'm no threat. I'm merely passing through on my way to Jiang Village. I have a job to do there." No one had to ask what he meant by job. The guards inspected him for a moment longer, then stepped aside to let him through. They seemed convinced. Somewhat. They still gripped their spears with both hands.

"Very well," the one who had bumped into me said, "rest up in our village's inn for the night, then be on your way in the morning." Then he bowed. "Welcome to Liululi, the village of the jasmine willow." The man nodded.

"I intend to do just that. Thank you." The guards nodded as well, and watched as he began to walk away. The crowd was starting to disperse, mumbling and muttering to each other about what was soon-to-be old news. Things died down quickly in Liululi Village. A good thing if you manage to embarrass yourself in the center of the village.

I sighed; the morsel of excitement had done little to perk up what I was sure to be a long, boring day at home, waiting for my sister and mother to come home from their hunting trip. I began to head home, and that was when all hell broke lose.

The man stopped a few feet steps away, half-turning and saying, "Ah, yes, there was one other thing." In a fluid movement so fast I wouldn't have caught it if I hadn't been staring at him, the man whipped around and smashed the ringed end of his staff into a nearby woman's face with a sickening crack. The guards stood still as statues, stunned, as the woman crumpled to the ground, unmoving. I was just as stunned. Everyone was. It was as if time had stopped. No one moved. I don't even think anyone was breathing. The only movement was the wind in the trees and the slow smile that was beginning to spread across the exorcists' face. Then, all at once, time started again. With a bang. People ran screaming, and the guards fumbled for their spears. But I was still frozen. I had never seen anyone commit such an act of violence, least of all against an innocent woman. What was I supposed to do? Run? Fight? None of the other men were fighting. They were running. Yes. I should run. I told myself that, but my legs weren't cooperating in the least. I stood frozen in fear as the guards both lunged at the man from either side. He took a relaxed step back and the guard's spears came to a stuttering halt as they tried to keep from skewering each other. The exorcist still wore that sickly sweet smile. One of the guards, the one that had bumped into me, charged the man, swinging his spear wildly. The man ducked, swayed, and sidestepped every swipe. Using his staff, he whipped the guard's spear out of his hand with a slight flick of his wrist. It went spiraling through the air and snapped in half against the wall of a nearby house. The man grabbed the guard by the face as the other guard came charging. He kicked that guard in the stomach, doubling him over, and grabbed him by the face as well. Oh god. Was he going to crush their heads? Could exorcists do that? And more importantly, weren't exorcists supposed to help people? Not break faces and crush heads? This one must have missed that part of orientation.

But, he didn't crush their heads. Instead, he turned the guards around and shoved them to their knees, forcing them to stare at the woman he had attacked. I subconsciously looked as well, and gasped. She was beginning to convulse, writhing around on the ground as if someone was tickling her. But her expression was not one of someone being tickled. She looked like she was being burnt by invisible flames. Her eyes were impossibly wide and her mouth stretched open in terror, but no sound came out. It was a terrifying sight. It didn't help with my petrified status. The guards looked freaked. I was freaked. The man was still smiling. The woman wasn't happy about any of this. Tossing the guards aside, he clutched his staff and raised it far above his head, the wooden end pointed towards the woman. I wanted to move. I wanted to scoop up the woman and run with her to safety, although with a monster like this in the village, I doubt anywhere was safe. Even if I saved her, he'd likely just kill someone else. I watched in horror as he brought his staff down with all his strength, which from the looks of his arms, was a lot.

But instead of piercing flesh and bone, the end of the staff seemed to collide with something I couldn't see, and I heard a scream. It didn't come from the woman. It was something inhuman, something I had never heard before. It chilled my blood and sent a shiver down my spine, whatever it was.

The man shoved harder, and the scream got louder, and I saw something writhing just above the woman's body, mimicking her every move. Never had I seen such a ghastly sight. The screams began to die out, then ceased all together, and I gaped as the thin, wispy blue-gray... thing, floated up and away from the woman's body, thinning out in the air and disappearing altogether. I stared at the man in awe, not fear. Well, a little fear. But mostly awe. Because I had just witnessed an exorcism.

The guards,picking themselves up off the ground, looked just as awestruck as I did as the woman groaned, struggling to sit up. Her face didn't have a scratch or a bruise on it. I had always heard that exorcists worked in strange ways, but I didn't know that meant scaring the crap out of the people they were trying to help, and injuring a few guards in the process. But what's done was done. I could move my legs again. I could breathe again. The guards were climbing to their feet, looking shocked and confused but other than that no worse for wear. I nearly sighed with relief. Something stopped me.

The man was helping the woman to her feet as she thanked him, and the guards began calling for a doctor, just to make sure she was alright. She seemed to have hit her head when she hit the ground. The few people who had been watching from the windows of their nearby houses began to approach, some of them clapping. He was saying something to the guards as a doctor came and took the woman away, and in mid sentence, he stopped talking, and whipped his head around to stare at me. It petrified me. Literally. It scared me so severely I froze up again, possibly worse than when I thought he had hit the woman. I was starting to feel pretty pathetic. I mean, he was the good guy, right? He had just saved the day. And yet, despite that, his warm, pleasant smile began to spread into one that was less pleasant and more vile. It was the kind of smile that made you feel sick to your stomach. An evil smile, one that no one else seemed to notice but me. My eyes flicked over to his right one, the seeing eye, the one that had told him that the woman had something inhuman in her. It stared back. Not past me. At me. Possibly into me. I had no idea what that eye was capable of. Then, through his sickening smile, the man said a word. A word that ceased the applause of those close enough to hear it, and seemed to stop time. For me at least. The beautiful morning light suddenly seemed more gray than blue, and everything fell quiet. Even the willow and the jasmines seemed less beautiful. I could have sworn my heart had stopped. I know my breath did.

This man was an exorcist. A person who specialized in finding, tracking, and destroying evil spirits and ghosts. He was a professional. If he said someone was possessed, no one would so much as second guess him. Which is why, when he looked at me, flashed me that evil, toothy grin, and uttered that word, it felt like my life could end at any moment. Because it could.

The exorcist whipped his head around to stare at me, grinned maliciously, and said, "Interesting."

End of Chapter One