The Bizarre Detective Agency Chapter 82

Lu Li stepped back into the piano room, lifting the oil lamp to scan his surroundings. The room was shrouded in a profound darkness and silence. There was no sign of Anna or Gades.

What had happened to them? Or, perhaps, had something happened to him?

Lu Li crossed to the window and tried to open it, but the frame wouldn't budge, as if it were fused to the very wall.

Lu Li took a short step back and drove his elbow into the glass pane.

Thump!

His elbow slammed into the glass with a dull thud. The pane didn’t even shudder, but a sharp, distinct pain shot through his arm, as if he had just struck a brick wall.

It wasn't that they had vanished, he realized. It was that he was trapped.

An unsettling, indistinct feeling hung in the air, permeating not just the room, but what felt like the entire house.

His gaze fell upon a coffee cup resting on the low table beside the piano, and he reached for it.

Lu Li lightly tapped the surface of the coffee.

Tock-tock.

The sound was flat and hard, as if he were rapping on concrete, and a dull ache spread from his fingertips.

Clearly, the coffee wasn't frozen.

The surroundings were static, every object fixed in place... Lu Li pondered the situation.

Thud... thud... thud...

Suddenly, the sound of slow, heavy footsteps echoed from beyond the door.

Lu Li tensed, momentarily forgetting about the room frozen in time as he moved swiftly toward the door.

But just as he neared it, the door slammed shut on its own with a resounding bang, the wood brushing against the hem of his coat.

Lu Li froze, his hand instinctively going to his hip, half-drawing the spirit gun from its holster.

Clatter!

Suddenly, a clatter echoed from behind him—the coffee cup had fallen to the floor, its dark contents spreading in a pool.

It was as if some unseen entity was moving objects around the room.

Remaining vigilant, Lu Li watched as a sheet of paper floated through the air and settled upon the piano keys. A moment later, a quill pen lifted itself and began to write.

In the glow of the oil lamp, Lu Li watched the words form on the paper: "Where did you go?"

A new line appeared immediately after: "You vanished the moment you stepped out. But your ghost sees you. Anna says you’re inside the wall, but you aren’t responding when she calls."

Inside the wall?

Understanding dawned on Lu Li. He walked to the window and gazed out at the world, which was shrouded in an impenetrable darkness.

Outside, everything was cloaked in a thick, black fog, making it impossible to discern anything.

"I'm inside the seal," Lu Li whispered.

The quill paused before continuing to write: "Anna says she can hear your voice. You're inside the seal?"

"Yes," Lu Li nodded.

Anna had said he was inside the wall, just like those black silhouettes. That could only mean one thing: he was now in the same space they occupied.

Though Lu Li had no idea how he’d ended up there.

And neither, it seemed, did Gades.

Thud... thud...

The footsteps outside the door were getting closer.

Lu Li glanced at the door. "Lock it," he said. "I can’t move anything in here, and there’s a ghost right outside."

"Will it be in time?" the quill wrote.

"If you ask another question, we definitely won’t be."

The quill dropped onto the paper. Lu Li watched as the lock on the door suddenly engaged.

Thud... thud... thud...

The footsteps drew nearer, stopping just outside the door. Then, abruptly, they ceased. Silence fell over the dimly lit hallway.

The final footstep had landed right on the other side of the door.

Lu Li aimed the beam of his oil lamp at the door. On the illuminated white wood, the handle began to turn, slowly and deliberately.

Click.

Someone pushed against the door, but it held fast. The lock was secure; the creature outside could not enter.

Back in the real world, Gades watched the doorknob turn. He suddenly grasped the nature of the seal, snatched up the quill, and wrote, "How did you get in there?"

The script was a frantic scrawl, but Lu Li could make it out.

After writing, Gades glanced at Anna. She conveyed Lu Li’s response. "If I knew, I wouldn't be here."

"I think I understand what's going on... Hold on. I'll try to erase part of the seal and create a breach. But while I'm doing that, I can't help you. You'll have to deal with any danger on your own."

"Alright," Lu Li replied. He heard the footsteps outside the door begin to retreat.

"Open the door."

"Why?"

"If it has another way in, I'll have nowhere to run," Lu Li explained, then added after a thought, "Protect Anna. I don't want anything to happen to her while I'm in here."

The quill remained still for a long moment before slowly scrawling, "Got it. Don’t die."

The quill dropped to the paper, inert once more.

Lu Li set the lamp down, brushed some imaginary dust from the piano bench, and took a seat.

Click.

The lock on the door clicked, and the door swung slowly open.

Lu Li fixed his gaze on the doorway.

Just then, a black, withered hand emerged from behind the door, its fingers curling around the edge of the frame. It was followed by a dark head, a ghastly smile plastered across its face as it peeked into the room.

In the room's dim, lamplit glow, the sudden appearance of the silhouette in the doorway would have terrified most people. But Lu Li remained perfectly composed, his expression unreadable as he watched it.

Lu Li wanted to lure the ghost further inside, to close the distance. At about twenty-five feet, he couldn't be certain of a kill with a single shot from his spirit gun. Unfortunately, he discovered he was incapable of feigning fear or terror, so he decided to try a different approach.

"Oh, how terrifying! What ever shall I do? I'm going to die! Someone, please help!" Lu Li intoned in a perfectly calm, even voice, addressing the specter in the doorway.

The ghost remained motionless, watching Lu Li in silence.

Abandoning his attempt to bait the creature, Lu Li rose to his feet, tucking his right hand behind his back as he began to walk slowly toward the door.

The ghost in the doorway seemed to sense the shift and began to slowly retreat from view.

Lu Li had no intention of letting it escape. He kicked off from the floor, lunging toward the ghost.

Sensing the danger, the ghost spun around and tried to flee.

The spirit gun was no longer hidden behind his back. Lu Li gripped it tightly, extended his arm, and squeezed the trigger.

Bang!

A deafening roar ripped through the strange space of the house. The blast sent the dark figure flying.

Lu Li dashed into the corridor to see the ghost moving with incredible speed. It defied gravity, scrambling onto the ceiling. Scurrying on all fours like an insect, it vanished around the corner—a stark contrast to its previous slow, clumsy movements.

Lu Li glanced down the opposite end of the hall before taking off in pursuit of the ghost.

A staircase leading upward appeared before him. At the top of the stairs, at the very edge of the lamplight, the ghost was frozen on the ceiling. Its charred face, fixed in that same ghastly smile, stared down at him. Then it turned and, quick as a spider, vanished into the shadows.

Is it luring him?

Or...