Chapter 13 No shoes off!

“Master Third, what’s happening? You are frightening us! Did those priests really leave our villages?”The followers asked, feeling anxious.

Granduncle nodded thoughtfully: "They may not be able to escape this. We should head back now; I will try communicating with that ‘thing’ and see if we could figure out what is he after.”

I walked behind the crowd and asked that demon secretly: "Do you know what ‘thing’ is that?"

He said faintly: "You better not ask, it would only make you more terrified. I warned you not to come back. It's karma for the people of this village. It's nothing strange that they have come back to collect it."

"if, if that’s some evil spirits, why wouldn’t the Black and White reapers hunt them down but leave them here wandering around to endanger the livings?"

The demon said sullenly: "The living have court to appeal to, the dead also have a place to complain, as long as the 'thing' is not wrong, reapers of hell have no right to take it away. To demand the payment of debt and to pay the debt was the principles of the heaven and hell--right and proper. It works for the aggrieved ghosts who were held back from reincarnation, too. Hell is the place of reincarnation. Not until these ghosts fulfill their long-cherished wish were they be willing to accept the judgement and enter the reincarnation. Ghosts of the ones who were wrongly put to death or were murdered crowded in the hell seeking their chances for revenge and risking their afterlife. If they take a man’s life and mess up the world’s nature order, what’s waiting for them is purgatory and the possible thorough destruction. What kind of blood feud do you think they bear to push them make such choice? What do you think hell should do about them."

It was still a paradox to what I had learned from the elders. Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust; when they died, they died. I didn’t agree with some points of what the demon said; if these evil spirits were left to harm to livings, how many tragedies would have caused and how many extra evil spirits would have spawned.

"Just let those ghosts kill as they wish, is that really the good solution? Sooner or later the underworld would be overrun with ghosts. The dead should go to the place where the dead belong; to leave them wander around? How can the men running the hell make such a rule..."
I didn’t felt it right.

The voice of the demon grew cold. 'How can you know the sorrow of the dead?
You can never be reincarnated with the resentment and grievance filling your heart. Is it fair for the dead?"

Yeah, he was the dead, too. He knew better than I did. As the living, I was not in a position to judge.

"The 'thing' that you say stole my grandpa’s body, does it have a grievance so great that it have to harm the all villagers? My grandpa had a grudge with it too? My grandpa has never done a bad thing in his whole life, has never said a the word that hurt the others, why can't even die peacefully? You have your view of the dead, and I have my view of the living."

He didn't answer me, and I turned my back against him as well.

As I walked along, a cry of a baby broken the silence and peace of the village.
Apparently, other villagers heard it, too.
How could there be a baby crying in the middle of the night?

Granduncle pinch-counted on his fingers and became a bit panic-stricken: "don't peek around, walk straight forward, keep silent!"

I knew something was around us; when I turned to look at the demon, he had fallen meters behind.

I looked at him puzzled until suddenly he gave out a low roar: "Get lost!"

What was this about! If you didn’t like my earlier comments, just left it there! Why overreacted like this? I was a bit angered, too, and turned around with a snort.

Sullenly, I walked along with the crowd for a long distance; while I turned around to check on him, he was gone; such a moody freak! I didn’t know why I would feel a bit lost at his absence.

Suddenly, in front of crowd, granduncle and grandma stopped walking; : "No need to go further, we are in the Ghost Trap, there is no way out."

I panicked and looked back at the tracks where we had walked from; the scenery was a little familiar, as if we had just been here for a quite while. I heard of Ghost Trap from my grandma; she did tell me a lot of odd stories when I was a child even though she had always been strict with me and everyone did not like me so much in the family.

According to what grandma said, Ghost Trap was an endless loop set by the ghost to trap the livings. If you got lucky, you may get out of the loop at dawn; but some not so much and they were exhausted to death in searching for way out.

Grandma consulted granduncle: "Third, what do you think?"

Granduncle sat down cross-legged on the ground: "Let’s wait for the dawn break,I don’t see a way out. This Trap is not ordinary one; everyone should stay on high alert and try to get some rest if you could; don't panic, as long as you have done no wrong, you would be fine."

Trembling with fear, everyone imitated the posture of Granduncle and sat down on the ground; villagers of the Bridge Vill were believer of ghosts, so granduncle was the authority to them.

I sat down on the ground as well; this long day had been very tough to me and my feet hurt a lot.
Untying my shoelace, I was about to take off the shoes and let free my sore sole of my foot,

while the demon sneaked out of nowhere and snapped at me, “Try killing yourself before everyone by taking off yours shoes?!”

I was taken aback at his sudden snap and stopped what I was doing.
He stood not far away looking at me.
I rolled my eyes and ignored him with a snort; what was the point of reappearing again after telling me to go away?

I picked up what I was interrupted to do--taking off my shoes, only to hear him saying sarcastically: “Women, do you know any sense of shame? Showing off your bare feet in front of so many people!"

I felt somewhat speechless and ridiculed; so he reappeared simply to stop me from what I was doing; what an old school; what refrained him from making critical remarks about me wearing those short-sleeved T-shirts? What if I had worn the miniskirts? Would he nag me for the whole day?

"I am going to take them off; is it your business?"
Speaking, I resumed untying my shoelaces; everyone turned to look at me in a strange way as I was the only one who was speaking.
Grandma asked worriedly: "Rae, who are you talking to?"

I gave the demon a glare and said, "No, I'm talking to myself. I've got blood blisters on my feet. I've been walking all day and I thought I'd get a good night's sleep, who knows..."

Granduncle’s eagle-like eyes checked on me from time to time, giving me the creeps; but it was better not to ask him why, now.

I still didn't have the courage to take my shoes off with that demon’s deadly look on my face, and if he went mad we'd all be overwhelmed in seconds.

I wanted to ask the demon if he had any method to get us out of here, but obviously my speaking would stood out in the silence of everyone; they would either think I was possessed by a ghost or I was mentally ill.

Suddenly, a villager stood up abruptly, granduncle asked: "where are you going?"

Under the bright moonlight, the villager responded him with a nasty sneer, "I am going to find her..."