Coke Tab King chapter 3: Oolong Conveniently Distributed
I left Cynthia standing there dazed and went back inside. Feeling hungry, I decided to make myself breakfast. Now as it’s always been, breakfast is a rare occasion at my household. Mostly since me and both of my parents are usually not hungry in the morning time. I must admit that this breakfast in particular however, was the result and manifestation of my stress for tonight. About halfway through preparing an omelette, I happened to check the time. I felt what must have been my sanity slipping because to my surprise, five hours had passed since I had woken up. There is no way that the twenty minutes that we were in the woods had actually been nearly half the day. I finished cooking my omelette and sat down to eat. My appetite had disappeared at my realization but through sheer will, I was able to finish my plate. Knowing that I’ll have a lot to stress over later tonight, I spent the rest of the day relaxing and trying not to think about any of it all. I went to bed a little after seven in the evening and when I woke, it was two-thirty in the morning. Here I was again, sitting on my window seal in the witching hours of the morning, building the courage to make the series of maneuvers needed to safely reach the ground. Thoughts still waiting their turn to be pondered were flooding my mind in a cacophony that they might win the bid of my attention first. Foremost of all of these was the question concerning the dilated time. However these thoughts would have to continue to wait, I don’t want to be late in case Cynthia decides to not wait around and explore the haunted house without me. After reaching the ground, I made sure to check if my legs were broken before I stood. It only then occurred to me that I had forgotten my flashlight.
There’s no way that I’m going to climb back inside just to grab a half-functional flashlight now that I’m already on the ground.
So I decided to go without it and pray that Cynthia didn’t make the same mistake as I. Making haste to reach the house before three o'clock, I sprinted down the sidewalk of my street. Right before I reached main street, I had run into something I must have missed seeing which caused me to trip and tumble. I looked back to see a girl who I had recently seen at my school by the name of Milly Helena. She’s in a class below me, but I never remember hearing about her transferring. A bit of an odd one but she’s been pretty nice every time I’ve interacted with her in the past. Upon seeing it was her that I had run over, things made a bit of sense. You see, Milly is basically two thirds of my height so in my haste I must have hadn't looked down to see her, at least that’s the explanation I told myself. For a moment I thought she was dead from the way she laid on the ground motionless but after a few seconds she twitched and came back to life. “I’m so sorry Milly, I didn’t see you there. You didn’t get hurt did you?” I apologized as sincerely-sounding as I could in hopes that she’d remember it and not go telling everybody she saw me out so late. Though to be honest, I wasn’t actually that sorry about the whole matter considering she could’ve greeted me so I’d notice her or have just stepped to the side and avoided me. She sprang to her feet before I could offer to help her off the ground. “Ah, don’t worry about it, I’m not injured.” Strangely enough, she was wearing the usual outfit she wears to school. I only now thought to ask what she’s doing out so late. “By the way Milly if you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing out on the street so late?”
“Oh, I just have insomnia and taking walks sometimes helps.”
A bit odd that her parents would just let her do that on her own but I’ve never met them so I’ve no clue what kind of people they are. “Makes sense I guess. I’m in a hurry so I’ll leave you to it.”
I ran off without leaving a chance for Milly to respond, that interaction was too awkward for me. Everybody at school seems to love Milly but to me she just seems weird, and not in the same way Cynthia can be a bit odd at times. No, this weirdness doesn’t come in the way she acts or looks, but it manifests itself in her presence alone. I must admit that the short interaction we just had felt more unsettling than when the demon trees had me cornered. Many things felt off to me, like how she was dressed as if she was walking home from school. Or the fact a girl her size didn’t seem afraid in the slightest to be casually walking along at night in a backwoods town like ours. But among these things, what stood out in my head the most was the bizarre phrasing of her “just” having insomnia. I haven’t spoken with her much so I don’t know how she usually speaks but that felt like a weird way of saying it. Not to mention the fact that she never seems tired when at school for somebody who has supposedly had trouble sleeping badly enough to go out at night for walks in order to cure the problem on multiple occasions. But these thoughts would have to wait their turn just like the others because I made it to the road Cynthia mentioned. Indeed, it was very much overgrown. Vines covered the rusted gate and the tree limbs obscured the view of what I’m guessing was originally a long, winding driveway that curved into a right turn at the end. Just enough of the crescent moonlight reached through the trees which had formed a sort of canopy over the path to allow me to barely see my way without a flashlight. Making the turn at the end, I was met by the most curious surprise that has been thrown at me in the last two days. Cynthia was sitting on the stairs leading up to the porch of a house which was fully illuminated with the glow of electric lightbulbs.
“Cynthia, this isn’t a haunted house like you promised, this is just somebody’s home!”
“Sure does seem that way, doesn’t it? But I promise you this house is as haunted as they come, so we need to be extra careful.” I was about to protest further but I remembered everything weird which has happened so far and decided to hear her out. “Okay, this is a haunted house then. Please explain to me what a ghost needs electricity for and how it’s paying for it?” Cynthia snickered at me as if I were speaking nonsense. “You’ll figure it out soon enough. Now before we go inside, I need to explain a few things about ghosts to you so listen up because I’m only explaining this once. The more powerful ghosts that you’ll come across, like the one we’re about to encounter, are usually bound to a specific location. Whenever you’re in their domain, you have to follow their rules. Kuchisake’s rules are pretty simple, for the most part. The major things to remember are let me do the talking, be polite, accept any gifts she might hand you, and don’t react if weird things start happening. If you happen to break any rules or she starts trying to attack you for any reason, ask her for a cup of oolong tea and drink it to the last drop once she hands it to you. Our main goal is to stab her with one of these nails when her guard is down.” Cynthia handed me a three inch nail that had a paper tag tied on via red string. She then turned around and went up the stairs before knocking on the front door. There was no answer at first. My mind was still trying to process the info dump that Cynthia vomited onto me before my thoughts were suddenly interrupted. My heart sank in my chest as the door actually began to open. A lady that looked around her mid thirties was standing on the other side of the door. Except this was no regular lady, she towered over both me and Cynthia.
She had to have been eight foot tall at the very least. She wore a white robe that was half concealed by her black hair which reached down to her waist. It was hard to tell if what I’m looking at was even human or not. The way she moved felt alien and her face just looked somewhat off. It’s not that she was ugly, if anything I’d say she looked beautiful. But there was something distinctly human that was missing from it all. She bent over so she could see out the door and stared for a moment as if she were evaluating us before she spoke. “Are you lost or have you come looking for something?” Cynthia answered for us both as if she had this already rehearsed. “We’re just visiting.” The lady stepped aside, allowing us to enter. She motioned with her hand towards the room on the right. Cynthia stopped me from going any further and made me take off my shoes alongside her. Afterwards and in following the direction of the Lady, we entered the small parlor room on the right. The two of us sat on a couch opposite of another where she sat, a coffee table separating them in the middle. We all sat there in complete silence for what felt like half an hour. I started to feel anxious from the stillness of it all. The lady stared as if she were waiting, but it sure didn’t feel as if we were at liberty to freely speak. Her unblinking gaze felt like a cold hand running down my very soul. The lady’s mouth began moving as if she were speaking but no sound came out. She stopped as if waiting for a response before she finally spoke up. “Are you enjoying your visit?” I began to answer but Cynthia quickly cut me off before I had a chance. “It feels like home I suppose…” The lady then stood up and slowly walked into the door behind her leading to the kitchen before disappearing out of sight. She appeared again, walking through the main entrance to the room, this time walking at the same pace across the ceiling.
I remembered Cynthia’s warning to not react to anything strange so I told myself these are just basic ghost party games. With nothing else to do, I studied her movements as she walked loops around the ceiling. Upon closer examination, I noticed that her pace didn’t match her stride. She was effectively gliding across the ground, or ceiling in this case. Just when I started to feel more comfortable with the strangeness going on, the lady without warning fell to the floor and crumpled on the ground. I looked over to Cynthia to see how she was reacting to all of this but she was sitting still and looking forwards in silence the same way she has since we sat down. After what felt to me like hours had passed and no sign of movement from the lady nor Cynthia, I stood to go check if the lady had died a second time. Almost instantly as soon as I stood, the lady was back in her seat and Cynthia was mid sentence in conversation with her. The conversation went silent and the lady’s gaze changed towards me. I knew without a doubt I had been tricked into breaking one of her rules. I quickly sat back down and followed Cynthia’s prior instruction. “Sorry for interrupting but may I have a cup of oolong?” The malice that had formed in the lady’s eyes melted and her expression changed into one of near excitement. “Why no need to apologize, as the host I’m obligated to offer my guests a drink.” She set her left hand forwards facing up with her right hand covering it. Upon lifting her right hand, a china teacup was sitting on her palm. Now to most people, they might be surprised if this were to happen in front of them. But considering I’m no stranger to vessels of drink appearing from people’s hands, I was unphased. I took the cup and drank it all as fast as I could. The oolong tasted very sweet, as if you gave a child free reign of the sugar jar. Overall though, I must admit the tea was very pleasant.
When I was finished, I set the cup down on the table in front of me where it vanished immediately. Cynthia and the lady then went back to their conversation as if nothing ever happened. The two of them were definitely speaking to each other but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. The language felt as if it were still indeed English but none of the words meant anything to me. I couldn’t begin to visualize what the words would even look like if they were written down. I chalked it up to another of the lady’s tricks and ignored the conversation. Accepting the nonsensical ramblings of the two next to me, I began studying the room around me. The lighting in the parlor room was brighter than the more shadowy entrance hall and the nearby kitchen, the contrast bringing about a feeling of isolation in the sole well-lit room. This contrast was amplified by the goldish-yellow wall paper of the parlor compared to the deep purple walls of the other rooms. Overall however, aside from the heavy feeling of uneasiness that filled the air around me and sunk to the bottom of my lungs with each breath making me dread the next worse than the last, the couch was pretty comfortable. All of a sudden, the lady flew sideways and slammed into the wall as if she was hit by a car. I flinched back into my seat reflexively and just like before, everything went back to as if it never happened. This time however, the lady was fully standing up and staring down at me. “Sorry, I started to doze off there. May I have a cup of oolong to help wake me up?” My excuse worked again because the lady sat back down and handed me the cup in the same way as before. I chugged it down again but this time the sweetness was way stronger than last time. It was headache inducing and made me feel a little sick.
I sat the cup down on the table and again, it vanished before Cynthia and the lady went back to their conversation. I began feeling a little agitated over the whole ordeal. Two times now, this ghost has used cheap tricks to get me to break its rules and Cynthia hasn’t done anything at all. I sat there for what felt like a few more hours, listening in to the conversation to try to make sense of anything they were saying. Again, the lady acted out of the blue. She threw a tea cup at my head and I was able to react in time to catch it. I put the cup in my pocket to accept the “gift” and it vanished just like when I set it on the table. The conversation went back to what could be considered normal again. I waited another few hours, it still being night outside whenever I looked out the window behind me. I began to wonder if I had been trapped in some sort of purgatory. I never knew how boring having an actual ghost sitting in front of me inside a haunted house could be until tonight. Eventually after enough waiting, I grew restless and decided flipping the coffee table over would probably get results. As soon as I heard the table hit the ground, I found myself back in my seat. This time, the lady was standing over me while staring down. I thought to myself that this bitch is finally feeling as agitated as I am. I didn’t even bother trying to make an excuse for flipping the table over. “Oolong tea please.” She stared down at me for a few more seconds before returning to her seat and handing me yet another cup. I nearly gagged when I went to drink it. The tea tasted as if it were concentrated liquified sugar. I dug my fingernails into my leg until I nearly broke skin in order to distract me long enough to slurp down the viscous concoction. I set the cup down once again on the table and the conversation resumed. I knew now that I had to break this loop or it’d never end.
I thought for a minute before realizing how simple the solution was. I clapped my hands together to draw attention before pulling them apart to reveal an aluminum can. The lady stared at me again, but not in the same way as before. The look in her eye was that of curiosity in seeing that I could do the same trick. “Curious? Here, you can have it.” I leaned over and handed her the can before preparing myself at the edge of my seat for my opportunity. After eying the can all over for a few seconds, the lady opened the tab and released a cloud of black smoke that filled the room. I took my chance and lunged at her before stabbing the back of her neck while she was still discombobulated with the nail Cynthia gave me. When the smoke cleared, the lights were out and the moonlight coming through the window revealed that the house around me looked heavily run down. I looked over to see Cynthia standing where we took our shoes off. Her flashlight illuminated the room enough for me to see the lady standing in front of me, bound by red yarn wrapped around her which was connected to the floor on both ends by tagged nails. “I’m not sure what happened but good job Val.” Cynthia walked over and stabbed the lady with another nail before the lady suddenly vanished. “I’m proud to announce that Kuchisake is now my property.” Cynthia smiled with an air of accomplishment. “What was that back there? You didn’t even help at all. What were you two even talking about anyways?” The agitation in my voice was more than apparent at this point. “I have zero clue what you’re talking about. I was taking off my shoes and suddenly the lights went out and you were in the room standing next to a sealed Kuchisake.” Cynthia seemed genuine so I decided to let it go. “Don’t worry about it then, I’ll tell you about it later. More importantly, did you somehow capture that lady?”
“Yep. She won’t listen to me right away but with some convincing, I think I can get her to help us if we ever had to fight something or someone.” The idea that we could have something as reality warping as that lady helping us sounded great to me, it just barely made up for what I had to go through. “Amazing. Now let's head back home before we encounter anything else.” Cynthia laughed at the idea that we might find a second ghost as if it were an impossibility but I really rather not put that theory to the test.