Silent Crown

Chapter 101 Calling from the Dark

A naked corpse lay on the ground, fresh blood pooled around it. The eyes of the cold body stared up into the black sky. She looked like a typical prostitute from downtown. Her cheap dress was torn and had been dyed red from the blood. The deep red made the ragged dress seem more expensive, full of stunning beauty.

"I’m sorry, I’m sorry." A frail figure kneeling in the puddle of blood choked out, "Sorry…" The voice was weak and in pain. It sounded like a girl, but her thin figure was hidden under a cloak. All Ye Qingxuan could see was a strand of golden hair that fell from under the hood. But she was a living person. Thankfully, she was a living person.

Ye Qingxuan let out a sigh in relief and walked out from the corner. He gazed around in caution, but besides the girl, the place was empty. It was good; he could attack and retreat.

Taking a deep breath, he walked over carefully, ready to flee at the smallest sign of danger. But nothing strange happened, even as he approached the girl.

She was still kneeling in the puddle, sobbing and choking out an apology. "I wanted to help you, I’m sorry…"

"Hey, are you okay?" Ye Qingxuan gulped and lightly touched her shoulder. The crying girl flinched in shock. Her entire body stiffened, trembling with fear.

Taken aback, Ye Qingxuan withdrew his hand awkwardly. "Don’t be scared. I’m not a bad guy. I just saw you crying. Can I help you?"

"Did you touch me?" The girl spoke with her back facing him. Her voice was fragile, but there was no longer any trace of fear. Instead, there was unrestrainable anger.

"Huh?"

She turned her head stiffly, her neck cracking. The voice that came from the dark hood was distant and scratchy, like delirious cries after waking from a nightmare. "You-just-touched me?"

"I’m sorry, I…" Ye Qingxuan reflexively tried to explain himself, but his voice suddenly broke off. When the girl moved away from the corpse, he finally saw the whole body.

The dead prostitute stared up lifelessly at the sky. Under the dim light, two shriveled breasts sagged limply on each side because her entire chest had been carved open. Two rows of ribs reached out to the sky like an infant’s hands. The intestines were placed neatly on the ground beside the body.

Still in the puddle of blood, the girl held a shriveled heart in her hand. The heart was almost squeezed to the point of bursting in the angrily clenched fist. The scene seemed so familiar to Ye Qingxuan.

Shadowed by the hood, the face slowly rose. Fury filled the two beastly eyes, "You want to dirty me too…you dirty…"

Ye Qingxuan ran without hesitation.

--

Not even ten minutes after getting the Butcher off his heels, he had began to run for his life again. He probably broke the record for the worst luck in Avalon today! First, he had run into a gang fight and was chased by the Bloody Butcher. Then, because he was stupid, he had run into Avalon’s legendary Ripper!

Avalon’s Ripper! The murderous monster from Whitechapel Church! The one who liked to dissect victims while they were still alive and take their inner organs. He could never forget the pictures from the files! First the Bloody Butcher, then the Ripper…were these lunatics so bored that they all came downtown to play?

Before he could take three steps, a crazed scream sounded behind him. The piercing sound was filled with fury and murderous intent, almost breaking his eardrums.

Ye Qingxuan really wanted to cry, "What are you angry about? I’m too tired to be angry, alright! This isn’t the East, where a girl can’t be touched by a stranger, and you’re not some lady either. How are you going to live if you get this angry just because I touched you?!" he wanted to yell back. But before he could speak, a crash sounded from behind. Ye Qingxuan looked back in shock to see the wall and floor shatter under the frail figure’s bare hands!

As if hacked by an invisible ax, cracks appeared under the furious scratching. A sharp crack snaked toward Ye Qingxuan. If not for his fast reflexes, he would have been split in half by the invisible ax.

Inhaling the cold air, Ye Qingxuan sped up, but the shadow behind him stayed in its place. Watching him run away, she murmured to herself, "Purify, purify…"

When he had finally lost the shadow and made a few more turns, Ye Qingxuan let himself relax. But before he could catch his breath, he heard footsteps getting closer.

"Purify…" The figure was suddenly there, walking toward him with empty hands. As "he" or "she" or "it" walked, everything—stone tiles, walls, abandoned houses, insects on the ground—in its path was sliced into tiny pieces.

"What do you want?!" Feeling a gust of cold air hit the back of his head, Ye Qingxuan turned and started running again. As he had predicted, the Ripper was in front of him again after a few hundred meters.

"…You dirty monsters must be purified…for this world…" the Ripper murmured, walking toward Ye Qingxuan.

"For what?" Going crazy, Ye Qingxuan could not stop himself from yelling, "If you really want to help the world, go and fix yourself!" But then his vision blurred and the shadow was right in front of him. He stepped back reflexively. A formless pressure sliced his finger. Blood flew through the air in an arc and landed within the creature’s hood.

Freaked out, Ye Qingxuan instinctively curled into a ball. But he realized that he had not been sliced in half as he had expected.

As if sensing the liquid on her face, the Ripper raised a white finger, feeling the wetness. The blood seemed to have some strange allure to her. She licked the fresh blood on her finger and froze. "This is…blood?" the Ripper murmured. "Why…is it your blood?" She sank into confused intoxication as if the youth’s blood was some type of poison, or was sweet like a drug.

Ye Qingxuan took this chance to quietly retreat. Seeing that she did not react after a few steps, he turned and ran. He swore to himself that if he survived this, he would never get curious about crying sounds at midnight ever again!

Maybe there was something wrong with his senses or something really had happened to her. After a long time, he had still not run into the eerie shadow. Did he really lose her?!

Panting, he walked down an alley, wandering around the odd city like a headless fly. Finally, his eyes lit up after he made a turn. He had finally found a familiar street. Princess Street, named after Anglo’s second princess, was one of downtown’s main streets. It meant that he was almost out of downtown and was not far from midtown where the academy was. A bit further was the police department. He could faintly hear the clattering of the surveillance police’s horses.

--

As always, the city was shrouded in fog. Every night, condensation would come with the sea wind, turning into fog as the temperature dropped. The fog was like a white sheet, layering and covering the entire city—like the white sheet put over a corpse.

It was late at night. Other than the street lights being extinguished, the only sounds came from an occasional carriage, and the distant crashing of waves. As the clock tower struck eleven, storefront lights dimmed one by one. The city slowly fell into slumber.

"It’s finally over," Leaning against a wall, Ye Qingxuan rubbed his numb face and screamed. No matter what, his unlucky day was about to be over. But he had forgotten something—the day was not over until midnight.

--

Suddenly, a gust of sea wind blew and the fog grew even heavier. The slightly obscured image in the distance disappeared. In an instant, the fog thickened and blinded almost everything. Light from an unknown source illuminated the fog, turning it the white of fresh bone.

In order to not get run over by a carriage, Ye Qingxuan could only walk with a hand on the wall. As if a sewer had been broken, he stepped through a buildup of water. Splashing sounds filling the air. According to his mental map, he just had to walk toward higher ground. Thankfully, the Tower Bridge was right ahead. Once he crossed the Tower Bridge, he could say goodbye to all of this and enter midtown! With this in mind, he sped up, walking forward in the fog.

Through the fog, the vague silhouette of the tall bridge began to appear. But there were no police patrolling it. The copper gate before the bridge that should have been shut at night was not locked either, causing Ye Qingxuan to turn pale. Where did everyone go?

Standing before the gate alone, he looked around suspiciously. There was nothing in the heavy fog. He finally realized that he had not seen anyone in a long time—not a single person!

At some point in time, everything had turned still. Night was supposed to be still, but there was nevertheless sound in that stillness. There should have been the howl of the wind, insects crawling in the dirt, and the sound of the crashing waves under the bridge. But now, all sound had disappeared as if the world had asphyxiated. He finally realized something was wrong, but he did not know what. It was as if the entire world was different from the one he had known.

Soundlessly, a gust of wind came from afar, rippling through the fog. For an instant, the clouds and fog were blown apart and moonlight shone down on the still world.

Ye Qingxuan raised his head, studying the moon. The pale blue moonlight fell into his eyes, reflecting the menacing contour. Tonight, the Indigo Moon that represented disaster was high up in the sky.