"So what are we doing here anyway?"
"Hsien-Ko, keep your voice down!"
"I am keeping my voice down," the kuang-shi hissed back, "but you left me in my coffin for three weeks and woke me up just to make me tramp up the side of a mountain to watch some witch cast a spell. Considering I have no idea what's going on I think I've been pretty patient up until now."
"Sorry," Mei-Ling replied. "It's just that I think this may be our ticket home so I'm a little nervous about the whole thing."
"She's our ticket home?" An elderly woman with skin the color and texture of leather was kneeling on the ground in front of them whispering an incantation. The dirty brown dress she wore crinkled as she shifted her weight from one knee to another.
"Well not her but what it is she claimed she can summon up."
"Which is?"
"Nothing."
"You're losing me sis."
"Let me see if I can explain this... you know why we were summoned back into Makai, right?"
"The energy from the return of Jedah pulled us out of our current reincarnation and back into our previous lives as undead monster hunters, or at least that's the best theory either of us could come up with."
"Exactly, but Jedah's been missing for months and we still haven't reverted to being human. Something must be holding us to this previous existence. But what if we found a way to disable the connection between us and Makai? This woman," Mei-Ling nodded toward the witch, "claims that she not only understands the chaos of the Void, but is able to summon it into our universe of matter. Literally, she is able to bring up nothing.
"We've been spending our time looking for something that will let us return to life. But what if we went at the problem a different way and used nothing instead? My theory is that if we can somehow get this nothing she summons up between us and whatever is holding us here we'll become freed from this world and go back to our current lives."
"Or else we'll totally lose our grip on the cycle of death and rebirth and disappear altogether," Hsien-Ko replied. "Why didn't you wake me up and ask me what I thought about this crazy idea?"
"You told me not to!" Mei-Ling shot back. The young woman grimaced when she realized how loud her voice had become. "I'm just worried about you, that's all," she continued in a much softer tone. "The longer you're in that kuang-shi body the more you are acting like a reanimated corpse. That's the reason I let you sleep for so long, I didn't want you exert yourself and cause you to get even more tied to this realm."
"Gee, when you put it that way, that's sort of sweet Mei-Ling. But how are you doing? After all, we're both in the same predicament here."
"I'm doing well enough, thanks for asking. At least I haven't started turning blue," Mei-Ling said as she patted the cold, dead skin of her sister's shoulder.
"Too bad, a little color would do you good," Hsien-Ko replied. "You're too pale even when you're alive. Or... well..."
"What is it Hsien-Ko?"
"All this talk about our previous lives reminded me of something I was thinking about before I fell asleep in my coffin. Are we really sure we were alive?"
"What? Hsien-Ko, is being a kuang-shi affecting your memory as well?"
"It's not this," Hsien-Ko rubbed her light blue hands together, "at least I don't think it is. It's just that people aren't supposed to remember their previous lives and they certainly aren't supposed to return to living them."
"We're a little different. We've done everything from interact with the house of Aensland to meeting the Vampire Savior himself. It's not surprising we're a little out of whack."
"But why do we remember so much about that long period when we were undead? We can remember events from the Ch'ing Dynasty like they were yesterday even though the most we should know about that time in history is what we read out of a book. Why is so much from our present lives so foggy? Tell me, what do you remember about mom?"
"Mother? Gee... we spent our entire childhood with her but I'm still not sure I knew her. She taught us everything we know about fighting the Darkness but during all our time together I always thought of her as our teacher and our mother but not as who she was outside of those roles. For instance, I've always wondered what was on her mind when she cast that spell that doomed her. If she had known what would happen to her daughters because of her actions would she have still gone through with it? What would-"
"Ah," Hsien-Ko held up a finger to stop her sister, "that's nice but I wasn't referring to the mother we spent centuries working to free from the Darkness. Our current mother, the one from our new lives."
"What?"
"Tell me something about her. What time does she get up in the morning? What is her smile like? When does-"
"Stop it Hsien-Ko! Neither of us are well and this sort of talk is not going to help matters."
"But don't you see?" Hsien-Ko asked. "Our lives as Hunters feels wrong but we know so much about it while our current reincarnations are so vague it's like we never lived that new life at all. Was the time when we thought we were alive again just a dream? Are we really kuang-shi or is this an illusion? How are we supposed to know what's real?"
"You're being silly," Mei-Ling replied. "People have been trying to explain how they exist for centuries. I don't think we're going to solve that question while standing here on this mountain."
"And you're avoiding the question," Hsien-Ko continued. "Our problem is a lot more direct. What if we're trying to get back to a life that never was? Are we ghosts who are trying to fool themselves into believing they were alive? How do we know that our lives as Hunters are over?" Hsien-Ko paused, and then said in a quiet voice. "How do we know that we freed mom?"
"Hsien-Ko you're scaring me!"
"I'm not trying to be mean but I'm scared too. Are we really on the right path here?"
"I don't know," Mei-Ling shook her head. "All we can do is trust our hearts and try to do the right thing."
"You're right, but I'm still worried."
The sisters then stood in silence and watched the witch continue her spell. The old woman stopped her chanting, placed her hands on the ground and fell silent. For several minutes the only sound was an evening breeze that was blowing across the outcrop.
"Say sis, there's something else I was thinking of."
"Please Hsien-Ko," Mei-Ling replied, "you're going to break her concentration."
"I don't know what she's doing," Hsien-Ko said as she looked at the witch, "but I don't think she's paying any attention to us. Anyway, my question is, have either one of us ever kissed a boy?"
"What are you talking about now?"
"Hear me out. I don't remember much from when we were last alive so I can't say anything about what happened then. In our previous lives we spent most of our time being mentored by mom. Since magic is interconnected to the body we knew a lot more about how humans operate than most people but in that time and place we didn't have much say in who our future suitors might be. In the long period we spent not being dead or alive the only men who showed any interest in us were either perverts or monsters. Does that mean we're nearing our third century of being spinsters?"
"Considering we spent most of that time as the living dead I hardly think you should count that against us," Mei-Ling replied. "We also had other things occupying our time."
"I know that. What I'm getting at is have we ever been older than sixteen? Will we ever know what it's like to be an adult? Is it our fate to stay in this weird limbo where we're not really young or old, alive or dead or really much of anything? Will we ever get to experience everything that comes with being a person?"
"Hsien-Ko, this topic is even worse than the last one."
"I'm sorry to be so glum," Hsien-Ko said, "it's just that no matter what we do we never seem to get anywhere. At the moment I feel disconnected from everything."
The two sisters went back to quietly watching the witch lay on the ground.
"You're sure about her, right?" Hsien-Ko finally whispered.
"I'll admit her claims seemed a lot more convincing when she wasn't sitting on a rock halfway up a mountain. Is this part of the spell or do you think she's fallen asleep?"
"Do you think it would make any difference if we left and came back- hey, somebody's coming up behind us."
Shambling up the path was something with the semblance of a man. It moved with a slow, unnatural gait, as if it had been brought into full being without any knowledge of how to operate its body. The thick, dirty red skin and lack of definition to its body helped create the impression that it was a crude clay model instead of a moving, living being. When it saw the three women it let out a low, dry moan and began to awkwardly scramble up towards them.
"It's a golem, or maybe a homunculus," Hsien-Ko said. "Some sort of artificial human at any rate. How do you suppose it got out here?"
"I don't know," Mei-Ling replied, "maybe somebody abandoned it? But whatever happened the thing has probably been wandering around these mountains for ages. Without anyone to give it orders it must have gone insane a long time ago."
The monster stopped and let out a groan of confusion and anger before it started to shamble up the path once again.
"Whatever happened it's out of control which means it's even more dangerous than it would be otherwise," Mei-Ling concluded. "We better deal with it before it makes it up here to the ridge."
Before the two hunters could start down the path the old woman behind them screamed. "It's gone! The nothingness has gone!"
The two sisters looked back at the witch and then looked at each other.
"What is she going on about?" Hsien-Ko said, "How can nothing be missing?"
"First thing's first," Mei-Ling replied. "Let's take care of that thing before we worry about her complaints."
The roar of a gun froze the pair. The artificial man twitched then slowly tried to turn its bulky frame around as it groped at its back. A second shot caused the monster's body to spasm. The creature coughed once, bringing up a mixture of dirt and blood, crumpled to the ground, and was still.
A man in a suit and tie stood down the path from the body of the constructed man. Satisfied that the creature was dead he slung the massive revolver he was carrying onto his shoulder and headed up the path.
"I dunno what that thing was but it's not going to bother anyone now," he said when he was within a few paces of the outcrop.
"Er, thank you for the assistance," Mei-Ling said, "we weren't expecting to meet any trouble up here."
"We weren't expecting to meet anybody up here," Hsien-Ko added.
"My sister and I thank you for your help but may we ask what you are doing here? Finding someone who looks like they came from Earthrealm in this remote section of Makai is unusual."
"Makai? Huh. Anyway, I'm Dan, a member of the Smith 'family.' I was sent out to do a job but instead ended up... eh, somewhere where I'm not supposed to be is the best way to put it. While I was trying to figure out what was going on I stumbled across you girls and ugly back there. So what's your excuse for being out here?"
"The nothing! It's the nothing!" The old witch scrabbled on her hands and knees between the two kuang-shi to stare down at the dark haired man below them. "The nothing became caught on an idea and pulled it into our world! An error in the spell and fiction became fact!"
Dan frowned. "Wait a sec; are you the ones who dumped me here?"
"What do you mean?" Mei-Ling asked. The hunters tensed up as Dan's attitude became more confrontational. The old woman between them continued to stare at Dan with a mixture of amazement and fear.
"Look, I'm trying not to lose my temper here," Dan said. "Put things back the way they were and we'll call it even."
"An idea given form is no longer an abstract," the witch said. "What is done cannot be undone!"
"You mean I'm stuck here? Dammit!" Dan flipped the gun off his shoulder and shot the witch between the eyes.
The old witch pitched forward, the spray from the exit wound pushing her head to the ground. Hsien-Ko swore and took a step away from the dead woman. Mei-Ling cringed at the gory sight and then looked at her sister.
"Hsien-Ko, get ready!"
Centuries of practice allowed Mei-Ling to invoke the transformation spell almost instantly. The young girl's body vanished in a burst of light and energy which swirled together and flew to her sister. The energy re-solidified, becoming an ofuda which attached itself to Hsien-Ko's hat. Hsien-Ko's body jerked at the touch of the talisman. The human behavior Hsien-Ko had displayed before was gone, replaced by the twitching, peculiar movements of a Chinese ghost. United with her sister they were now the hunter team that had successfully battled against Darkstalkers for centuries. Hsien-Ko slid her arms into her long sleeves, held them up in front of her, and pointed the talons that hung from their openings at Dan. Even though her head rolled and swayed she kept her eyes focused on the killer in front of her.
If Dan was impressed by the fusion of the two sisters it didn't show on his face. The killer slung the gun back onto his shoulder and watched Hsien-Ko.
The kuang-shi crouched and sprung to her right. Dan snapped his revolver into a ready position and fired into the spot in the air that she was leaping into. Hsien-Ko, however, vanished the instant she left the ground. Since she was not quite in either the land of the living or the dead Hsien-Ko had much greater freedom of movement and was able to manage short hops that left her neither here nor there. Coming out of her teleport, Hsien-Ko swung one of her sleeves toward Dan. The heavy talons shot out from the cuff of her sleeve, dragging a thick chain behind them. Dan leapt out of the way as the metal claws tore into the ground but his evasion put him directly in the path of a dagger Hsien-Ko had thrown immediately afterward from her other hand. The knife sank into Dan's chest. The gunman groaned, lost his footing and rolled down the path.
"Ha, got him!" Hsien-Ko yelled triumphantly.
"Nice work but did you have to kill him?" Mei-Ling's voice said inside Hsien-Ko's mind. "I would have liked to find out why he thought he had to kill us."
"Yeah, that would have been nice to know, wouldn't it?" Hsien-Ko conceded. "But people shooting at us always makes me a little crabby. So now what do we do? Instead of a way home all we have is a huge mess and a pile of dead bodies."
"I don't know. This whole trip turned out terribly, didn't it?" Hsien-Ko could feel her sister's regret wash through the body they currently shared. "People died for no good reason and I forced you to turn into a full kuang-shi."
"You didn't force me to do anything," Hsien-Ko said. "I have as much say in our ability to unite as you do and that was an emergency. That guy down there... huh?"
Dan's spill down the mountain left his body facing away from the twins. Although it was hard to tell from only being able to see his back it looked as if he was still breathing. Slowly the killer pushed himself up with the hand that still held his gun while his left hand groped at his chest. All at once Dan's strength seemed to return as he stood up and turned to face Hsien-Ko. Dan smirked as he pitched away the knife. The white shirt under his blazer was not only free of blood but didn't even have a tear in it from where the knife had sliced in.
"No way, I got a clean hit on him!"
"Careful," Mei-Ling said. "Remember that we're not the only ones around here who are sturdier than they look."
Dan hoisted his gun back onto his shoulder and waited, his eyes fixed on Hsien-Ko. The young girl who had been dead for centuries and the man in the navy blue suit stared at each other, each waiting for the other to make the first move.
"I don't like this sis," Hsien-Ko whispered, "he's far too confident. We're letting him set the pace of the fight."
The talons that hung from Hsien-Ko's sleeves clanged as she slid her sleeves together. Hsien-Ko then crouched down until the fabric from her closed sleeves was nearly touching the ground.
If Dan was concerned about Hsien-Ko's movements it didn't show. The assassin watched Hsien-Ko fold herself into a compact stance but did nothing about it.
Suddenly Hsien-Ko sprang into the air and vanished once again. Because she disappeared the instant she had started her leap it was impossible to determine which direction she was going. One moment there was the rustle of fabric as she began to move and the next she was gone.
Dan fired wildly, peppering the rise with bullets. A stray shot caught Hsien-Ko in the leg as she came back into reality. The kuang-shi screamed and crashed onto the rocky outcropping. Dan slowly walked up the path until he was standing directly over the girl but Hsien-Ko remained sprawled on the ground.
"Humph, it was stupid of you to try the same trick twice, especially since I figured you were too squeamish to jump to your left and risk landing on a dead body," Dan jerked his head toward the dead witch.
"Who are you?" Hsien-Ko asked through gritted teeth. The pain of the bullet wound was causing her normally unresponsive ghoulish body to perspire.
"What? You don't know?" Dan broke into an angry smile, his face never losing its look of hostility and violence even when he laughed. "I'm what you were trying to summon up."
"That doesn't make sense, you're a person, you're something." Hsien-Ko managed to slide her arms out of their sleeves and prop herself up on her forearms. The pain from the injury to her leg kept her from moving the lower half of her body.
"I'm not a person, I'm a fictional character. I was created to be part of a story. You were trying to summon into reality something that doesn't exist, right? But that old bat made a mistake and instead of summoning up nothing she pulled up something else who's only ties to the universe are a few lines of code and some notes filed in a desk drawer somewhere. I'm essentially nothing but there's still enough of an idea about what I am that when that spell grabbed a hold of me I formed into a full person. Too bad for you that out of all the fictional characters you could summon up you ended up with a professional hitman." Dan pivoted the cylinder out of his large revolver. Over a dozen empty casings rattled to the ground next to Hsien-Ko.
"My story has been written and re-written and I remember it all," Dan continued as he clicked a ring of bullets from a speed loader into his revolver. "I've had love interests only to have them written out of the story. I've been killed off... hell, I don't remember how many times. All the chaos that comes with trying to write a story was inflicted on me and I remember every damn part of it. But even with all that editing, all that revision, I've always been written as a killer. It's my one constant, defining trait and I've learned to love it. Even here in the real world it seems I still have the knack for it."
"But why are after us? You've been freed from your story, you can do whatever you want now."
"Do you think I want this?" Dan snarled. "When a story is complete the characters have a purpose, a meaning to their creation. Not only that, but a story can have an audience for generations. Within the setting of a story I was immortal! But what am I now? Thanks to you I'm trapped in a reality where I don't fit. I'm not an actual person, I'm not the product of someone's imagination, I'm not anything. I may be close to nothing now but it's more than you're going to be in a second."
"It was a mistake!" Hsien-Ko yelled. "You're going to kill us over a mistake?"
"That's right." Having finished reloading Dan popped the cylinder back into the gun and aimed at the top of Hsien-Ko's head. "So long, kid."
It was with supreme effort that Hsien-Ko pushed herself up off the ground and away from Dan. Although she didn't put any weight on her injured leg she managed to stay balanced long enough on her good foot that she was able to pull another weapon out of her sleeve. A gong that was nearly as large as Hsien-Ko let out a dull, flat ring when it slid out and hit the ground. Hsien-Ko gripped the top lip of the massive gong to keep both it and her from falling over.
Dan stopped and watched Hsien-Ko's actions with mild curiosity. Upon deciding that Hsien-Ko's latest attack wasn't going to be any more interesting than the ability to pull a cymbal out of her sleeve Dan fired. As the gun went off Hsien-Ko furiously banged on the back of the gong. Dan winced from the magically enhanced noise. When he shook his head to clear the ringing from his ears he noticed the blood running down his shirt. A realization of what had happened crossed his face as he looked at the unharmed kuang-shi. The reverberations of the gong had magically reflected the bullet back at him. Hit by his own shot Dan fell and tumbled down the pathway yet again.
Hsien-Ko clamped her sleeve onto the top of the gong and began to hop away even before the cymbal had finished being absorbed back into her costume. The kuang-shi scrabbled furiously up the mountain, balancing herself with her talons as she kept her weight off her injured leg. Upon reaching another outcropping Hsien-Ko threw herself behind a large boulder and collapsed.
"Hah, that's what he gets for being cocky," Hsien-Ko said as she gasped for air that her undead body didn't need.
"Hsien-Ko, why are you blocking me out? I can help with the pain."
"Separate from me first sis, then I'll explain things."
The ofuda on Hsien-Ko's brow shimmered and re-formed as Mei-Ling.
"Now what about your-" Mei-Ling lost her voice when she saw her sister's wound. Hsien-Ko's trouser leg was black with blood and the leg just below the knee laid sprawled an impossible angle.
"Hsien-Ko your leg is off!"
"Yeah, that bullet hit the bone and tore everything else off along with it. Normally we can heal up pretty quickly when we're together but that hit did a number on me. I don't know what that guy is packing but if he gets a clean shot on us we're done for."
"Hsien-Ko, we have to re-bond right now! That's far too much for you to deal with on your own."
"No way. One of us needs a clear head if we're going to get out of this and I'm in too much pain to think straight. I hope you can think of something because I'm all out of ideas."
The girls silently pondered their limited options until Hsien-Ko let out a groan.
"Why did I run up the slope?" she moaned. "If I had run down past him we might have made it to the base of the mountain and away from him."
"But would he ever stop hunting us?" Mei-Ling asked. "He also admitted that killing is the only thing that made him the character he is. With that temper of his how long will it be before he starts murdering everyone he comes across? He could be worse than any monster here in Makai. No, we're going to have to deal with him eventually so it might as well be now."
"Okay," Hsien-Ko said, "but how?"
Mei-Ling was silent.
"What are we going to do?" Hsien-Ko repeated. "The guy isn't real and he doesn't seem to have any problem with it. How do we stop someone who doesn't exist? Please Mei-Ling, come up with something or we're not getting out of this one."
"Don't sound so dramatic," Mei-Ling chided. "Now hush up and let me think."
Mei-Ling hoped she sounded more confident than she was. How could they defeat someone who flaunted the fact that he was a fictional character? The paradox of his existence didn't seem to bother him. Their weapons appeared to be worthless and if he came back after Hsien-Ko's reflect attack it meant that he couldn't be harmed by his own gun either. She was also certain he couldn't be reasoned with. The emotions and motivations of a character in a story were shaped by the demands of the plot instead of normal behavior. Now that he was loose from the structure that defined him it was impossible to guess how he would react to problems he encountered. Mei-Ling fell silent as she pondered how to defeat someone who was little more than a thought.
With a jerk Mei-Ling's head snapped up. She went over to the edge of the depression they were in and peered down the slope of the mountain. Satisfied with what she saw she went over to her sister.
"How is your leg?"
"It hurts." Still sprawled against the rock she had collapsed behind, Hsien-Ko held her severed limb against the stump of her leg. "I'm glad I can't see it through my pants but I can feel all the muscles re-attaching themselves and, well, it doesn't feel very good and let's leave it at that. Is the suit coming?"
"He's coming but he's still a good distance away. You managed to climb quite a ways on only one leg."
"And here you always said I was lazy," Hsien-Ko replied. "So... do you have a plan?"
"Yes, I do." Mei-Ling pulled off her hat and placed it next to her sister. "I'm going to use the Igyo Tenshin."
"What?" Hsien-Ko yelled. "That's the spell that killed mom!"
"The only way to stop him is to either bind him or send him back to where he belongs. The Igyo Tenshin spell is the only thing we have that is powerful enough to have a chance of stopping him."
"But there's no guarantee it will work and no matter what happens you'll be pulled into the Darkness! I can't lose you too!" Hsien-Ko reached toward her sister but the movement caused her leg to shift. The pain made Hsien-Ko double over and grab her wound to steady it.
"Hopefully the spell only requires a sacrifice for what it pulls in," Mei-Ling said. "Since he's a physical manifestation of nothing pulling him in should make it so that the spell demands nothing from me in return. At least, I'm hoping that's what happens. Wish me luck."
Mei-Ling smiled to her sister and ran to the top of the outcropping. Hsien-Ko screamed after her but Mei-Ling did her best to ignore her cries. Standing in clear view of the mountain below the young woman began to chant the long, complex incantation of the spell.
Dan ambled up the slope, seemingly in no hurry to kill his latest victims. Upon seeing Mei-Ling he stopped and said, "What, are you going to try yet another trick? You might as well stop it, they aren't working."
Mei-Ling couldn't hear Dan's chiding over the spell rumbling through her body. Other spells she had cast had caused minor ripples inside her as she used magic to re-shape reality to her choosing. The Igyo Tenshin, however, made her shimmer with power waiting to be released. Normally a mistake in a spell would cause an unpleasant reverberation, as if her entire body itched at once. But with a spell of this magnitude Mei-Ling was certain any error would reduce her to atoms.
Dan said something else that Mei-Ling couldn't make out, spat off to one side and raised his gun. Mei-Ling felt no fear from looking down the barrel of the massive revolver aimed at her. The spell had been primed and now all it needed was the force of her will to release it. In that brief moment Me-Ling understood what must have been going through her mother's mind when she triggered the same spell centuries before. The certainty of destruction both in front of her and in her own hands, the exhilaration and fear of the power she was going to release, and the regret that she may never see those she loved again tempered by the knowledge her actions would save them.
Mei-Ling screamed, both as a method of focusing the release of the Igyo Tenshin and because the power being channeled through her made it feel as if wind was howling through the marrow of her bones. Tendrils of magic shot between Mei-Ling's fingers as she brought her hands together to complete the final motion for the spell. A wave of pure energy poured out of the young girl and down the mountain. She saw Dan's sneer replaced with a look of stunned surprise before the spell rolled over him.
So much magic in a concentrated area began to warp the laws of reality, causing a violent rainstorm to form out of nowhere. Mei-Ling was exhausted but delighted with the results. Although controlling the spell was draining it wasn't trying to draw her in along with what she was trying to seal. Her desperate attempt was actually going to work. With another yell Mei-Ling pulled the swarming magic together and willed it into the air. One final push would splash the spell against the mountain, dissipating it along with the killer it had overwhelmed.
The Igyo Tenshin pooled in the sky, a ball of glowing power that lit up the underside of the dark storm clouds above it. Mei-Ling looked down at the slope that she was going to drop the spell back on. Standing on the windy, rain swept mountain was a very angry Dan Smith.
Mei-Ling gasped and nearly lost control of the spell she was casting. As she fought to regain her hold on the energy being held in the air she wondered what had happened. Had she been wrong and the spell couldn't contain something as ephemeral as a concept? Had she cast the spell incorrectly? The only thing she was certain of was that if the completion of the spell didn't somehow stop the man that was after them her and her sister were going to be killed.
Dan took aim at Mei-Ling once again. The chamber in his gun began to glow as power built up for his next shot. With no other option left to her, Mei-Ling released the Igyo Tenshin.
Instead of coming down in one massive lump the magic cascaded down, mixing with the rain and wind to create a supernatural storm. The killer staggered under the deluge as the spell completed its cycle. As the downpour increased Mei-Ling lost sight of Dan. She wasn't certain if it was because he was being pulled away by the spell or he was simply hidden by the energy falling all around him but the only thing still visible was the glow from the enhanced bullet he had been preparing to shoot. Soon even that light, which was swaying about as Dan was buffeted by the onslaught, began to flicker and dim. Mei-Ling stared at the wavering light, as if her determination was enough to fix the shattered reality all around her. At first Mei-Ling was happy when the flickering light stopped moving. If the spell was working to such a degree that the assassin was unable to move it would soon pull him away altogether. Still, there was something unnerving about the light that she was unable to place at first. Too late she realized the light was back in the position it had started in; Dan was aiming at her once again.
The roar of the gun was lost in an explosion that echoed all around Mei-Ling. Pain coursed through every part of Mei-Ling's body and her eyes were filled with an ever-brightening light. She couldn't tell if she had been shot, if the spell had finally claimed her as well or if something entirely unexpected had happened. All she knew was that the rending pain she felt was fading as she drifted out of consciousness.
Mei-Ling woke with a start. Not fully aware of her actions, the young girl flailed with a delayed sense of urgency. Something was on top of her, binding her the more she struggled. It was only after her initial sense of panic wore off that she realized that she was in a bed and her twitching had twisted the sheets.
Disentangling herself from the bedspread, Mei-Ling sat up. The room she was in was too dark to see any details but there was light coming from beyond the doorway. Cautiously Mei-Ling crept out of the room and down a hallway to where the light was coming from. Sitting at a kitchen table eating a piece of fruit was her sister.
"Hsien-Ko!"
"Morning sleepyhead," Hsien-Ko said around a mouthful of tangerine. "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to sleep the morning away." Instead of the traditional, ghostly outfit she wore when dead Hsien-Ko was wearing an old nightshirt. The morning sun shone on Hsien-Ko's thick black hair and healthy, human skin.
"You're human! We're both human! Was that all a dream?"
"The fight with the guy in the suit was real enough," Hsien-Ko said as she moved a leg out from underneath the table. The smooth, bare skin of her leg was broken up by an ugly black bruise that circled her calf just below her knee. "Thanks to that jerk I'm not going to be able to wear shorts or a skirt for a month."
"But we're alive and we're home so that's all that matters."
"Sis?"
"Yes?"
"Why did you call me 'Hsien-Ko?' You don't think I was reincarnated with the same name as I had before, do you?"
Mei-Ling looked at her sister and then at the room they were in.
"I don't know this house," Mei-Ling said. "We are supposed to have lived a normal, modern life on Earth in our current lives but I don't recognize any of this. I don't know who I'm supposed to be or even my own name. Hsien-Ko what's going on?"
"I wish I knew sis, I wish I knew," Hsien-Ko said as she scooped out another section of tangerine. "If we're lucky we died on that mountain and are in one of the hells until we can get rid of our negative karma. If not, we are very, very lost."
"When I released the Igyo Tenshin I thought about both you and mother," Mei-Ling said. The young girl stared blankly ahead as she spoke. "But I thought of our old life and our mother from centuries ago." Mei-Ling looked directly at her sister. "What happened? Were you right when you said that we weren't supposed to live this life? Are we ghosts who don't know their place?"
"Maybe, but that seems too easy," Hsien-Ko replied. "Perhaps it's that the world is a lot more chaotic and random than anyone wants to admit and we can't keep up. Small wonder that imaginary guy was so angry with us for bringing him into reality; at least a story has some sort of order to it."
There was the sound of movement from the hallway that Mei-Ling had come through.
"It sounds like our parents -or whoever it is that owns this house- is awake," Hsien-Ko said. "Now we'll find out whether we're home or even more lost than we were before."
Mei-Ling listened to the sound of approaching feet and watched the doorway to the kitchen. She was torn between the horror of discovering she was nowhere at all or the equally terrifying realization that this alien place was home.