The Restless Spirit's Father

Then again, knocks came to the door. The group stopped with the gargantuan laughs and bites off of their meals. Wen Taio got up and opened it with a crack, only to see one of their neighboring students and cla.s.smate, Cheng Fei.

"Is there anything wrong? Are we too loud?" Wen Taio chuckled in apology.

"No, not really. I"m sorry, I didn"t mean to knock..." Cheng Fei trailed his voice before staring at the length of the hallway. "You must be pretty loud to hear, but... did you notice any girl pa.s.sing by? Just minutes ago. We heard her scream past our door. I thought you must have heard it too, but you were too loud, I guess."

"Constantly repeating "we"re too loud,"" Ruan Jin whispered as he shook his head.

"But a woman screaming, huh." Xu Disung hummed as he reexamined the sounds he remembered from earlier, which was not helpful at all. He only shook his head as well. "Nah, we didn"t hear anything."

Liu Xiaodan did not want to get bothered by their problem. He kept his eyes on his food and ate as much as he could. Soon, a weird shadow on the floor took his attention. His gaze went to the window in the middle of the wall, only to find one of the resident ghosts of the dorm slumped across the gla.s.s. His eyes darted away as fast as he could, not making it know that he saw... her.

"Guys, did you have any visitor?" Another student came, who was from the room past the one Liu Xiaodan was. "I saw someone standing by your door earlier."

"Uh, you mean me?" Cheng Fei pointed at himself.

"No, duh. It was a woman."

"Look, women are not allowed in here." Wen Taio raised an eyebrow. "Or at least in this floor. You"re probably seeing things. We"re eating so begone!" He did not want to hear more of them, so he just shooed them away. He closed the door on the confused men who had probably walked away as soon as he had. He sat down with the others. "What are they on?"

Xu Disung hummed again, with a straw stuck to his lips. "Maybe it"s a ghost!"

Ruan Jin took a sharp breath and straightened his back. He pointed at Xu Disung with a closed fist, chopsticks tucked under his forearm so it would not point at the other. "Brother, do not."

"Only possible explanation." Xu Disung eyed at Liu Xiaodan who had been tensed and quiet for a few minutes. "Not to mention our magic one was reacting."

"I don"t see ghosts." Liu Xiaodan growled, but his eyes were closed as if not wanting to mocked by the real ones, especially that lady on the window. "I just get distracted by phantoms. I don"t see ghosts."

"Nah, leave Xiaodan out of this." Wen Taio waved his hand to ease the tension. "He"s probably reacting to something else."

Lunch was over, and his friends were scattered all over the room. Liu Xiaodan was on his bed again, watching another movie when the sheets shifted next to him. He turned to his left and saw Liu Guangru lying on his side beside his father. The man looked around the room, noticing how everyone had earphones on since they were listening to different things.

He pulled out one of his before whispering. "Guangru." He watched the boy open his eyes at his call. "Can I ask you something?" Liu Xiaodan glanced at the woman on the window, only to not find her there anymore. He frowned; he was so sure she was still there seconds ago.

"Baba, what is it?" Liu Guangru answered in a sleepy tone, his eyes drooping to a close again.

Liu Xiaodan only chuckled and used his hand to close the kid"s eyes. "Sorry. That was nothing. Just sleep there." He brought his gaze back at the computer, forgetting about his supposed no-attachment rule. Then again, he just could not shake off the fact that Liu Guangru was like a child; and he likes children so he could not resist taking care of him.

Minutes after, Liu Xiaodan felt like dozing off while watching the movie"s credit. He flipped his laptop"s lid down and yawned soundlessly as to not wake Liu Guangru who was next to him. He shifted a little to put the laptop on the floor so he was free to lie down on his bed, even though the pillows and the headboard was on the other side. He used his foot to pull a pillow and took it with a hand. He then set it under his chin, and he closed his eyes.

A blood-curdling scream came out of nowhere, and everyone in the room was shook by it. Liu Xiaodan abruptly got up and hit his head against the bed on top of his. Ruan Jin swiveled his chair to face the door, and the other two crawled out of their berths to stare at the door. None of them dared to open it, but they all heard running footsteps around the hallway outside.

Knocks came to their door, and Cheng Fei"s voice was heard. "Guys! I know you heard that!"

Wen Taio, who almost dropped from his upper berth bed, raced to the door to open it, since Ruan Jin was too frozen to respond. He stared at Cheng Fei"s paling face. "Man, are you okay? What happened?"

"We don"t know! It just... screamed!" Cheng Fei stepped back and let Wen Taio take a look at the hallway, which was now crowded by the confused and scared Year Three students of Film and Television Productions. He then turned to the other side and got a view of the other students who came out of their rooms.

"That was definitely a ghost," Xu Disung murmured as he walked to the door to join Wen Taio in asking around.

A small whine came from Liu Xiaodan as he rubbed his head. He eyed at Ruan Jin who was still frozen in his seat, hoping that was just a prank by the other students. Liu Xiaodan recently found out that most of their course"s Year Three students consider the presence of ghosts due to the ill-making of their uppercla.s.smen two years ago. Though it started as a prank, they found strange footages of events happening inside the dorm. Then again, as a wielder of the so-called Third Eye, Liu Xiaodan could attest that there were at least twelve ghosts residing in the dorm.

However, the woman who showed up never made her presence known for a long while. She never had made a sound so loud multiple students would hear. She just used to be seen in photos; screaming on top of her lungs was nothing she had done before.

"X-Xiaodan! C-Come here! Quick!" Ruan Jin turned to his direction and called him with hand gestures as well as a trembling voice.

Liu Xiaodan rolled off of his bed and went to his friend, offering to hold his hand as he cried and chuckled in fear. He was terribly scared of them, and only Xiaodan took him seriously. This is why Liu Xiaodan kept on denying the fact that he could see them, so Ruan Jin would not have to worry every time the magic one loses focus.

"Baba, what are you doing?" Liu Guangru, who struggled to imitate how his father left the bed, managed to come to him. He stared at the man making weird noises before eying at the father. "Is he... scared, Baba?"

Since there was no one else in the room, and Ruan Jin had his eyes closed, Liu Xiaodan only nodded in response.

"Are you scared of her, too, Baba?" The kid stared at the father, who took quite a few seconds to grin in nervousness before nodding again. "I can talk to her if you like." Liu Guangru smiled at his father as he reached out his hands to him. "But you have to give me a toy!"

Liu Xiaodan made an "OK" gesture with his free hand.

"Okay."

Liu Guangru ran with his little feet towards the direction of the open door. Xu Disung and Wen Taio were about to enter when they both shrieked at the cold wind that pa.s.sed through the lower half of their bodies. It was Liu Guangru pa.s.sing through them. They happened upon Ruan Jin"s secret meditation to get rid of the scare, with Liu Xiaodan only shrugging his shoulders.

Just when Ruan Jin calmed down, screams from men echoed in the hallway. Since it was more of danger, Ruan Jin did not freeze. The four men ran out of their room towards the place where the students flowed. Right there in the steps leading to the third floor flowed a crimson liquid. It had a foul stench and notable stickiness, making it smear the steps with its residue. The disgusted noises of the men created more noise.

However, Liu Xiaodan was nothing but stunned at what they saw. To the other students, it was just a strange liquid, but to him, it was the blood of a ghost. Ectoplasm was supposed to be greenish or whitish they said, but the dead resident bled like a human. Perhaps it was because of what killed her in the first place. Liu Xiaodan refused to speculate some more, quietly retreating to get the poor woman out of view.

The ghost woman earlier was found in shreds by the stairs, but no one else knew it was her. Ghosts were no supposed to die out like that, but there she laid as if she had a body. He held his hand against his mouth as if trying to contain a puke from coming out so the onlookers cleared a small path for him. Liu Xiaodan continued to retreat until he got out of the crowd. He returned to their room and closed the door.

He stood in the middle of their activity spot, which was the room"s wide center where they play cards and lay down props if they had to. He took a deep breath and called out. "Guangru, can you come here?"

The child walked into his sight from thin air. He smiled at his father as if pleased and proud of what he had done.

"Guangru, was that your work?" Liu Xiaodan asked, trying to get into the authoritative tone of a real father. "The lady in the steps?"

"Yes, Baba!" The kid jumped in his spot, excited for his reward. He had his arms folded to his chest. "I took care of her! Did you like it!? She won"t screaming at Baba anymore!"

"Well, yeah, I did, but" -Liu Xiaodan reached for his forehead and ma.s.saged his temple- "can you make it less obvious? I don"t want my friends panicking next time."

Liu Guangru dropped his arms and stared at the man as if sulking. He would have been pouting, but he only stared at him with a developing glare. His silence took the human"s attention, which made Liu Xiaodan"s heart race a little. His human-like image dissipated even though there was light on him. The ghost child glared at the man.

"If I did, then you wouldn"t know."

"Then make it so that I"m the only one to know." Liu Xiaodan tried to overcome the fear the child was striking at him. He knew very well that crossing the child would mean "death," but he did not want him to be causing ruckus in the dorm as well. "Liu Guangru, if you want to stick with me, then you must make this place your home. Do you want that disgusting reddish goo all over our house"s floor?"

The child mellowed as the father started speaking again. He shook his head in response.

"Then you should make sure that you"re not going to spill it here, okay?" Liu Xiaodan was relieved by the child"s reaction. He knelt down and reached out his arms as if calling him to get closer. He waited for Liu Guangru to get close enough before he patted the child"s head. "Let"s go get that toy in a bit. I have to help out in cleaning that."

Before Liu Xiaodan could get up, the child lunged at him to wrap his arms around his father"s neck as if stopping him from moving. Then, he started climbing the father and decided to sit on his shoulders. He made a happy giggle as he held onto his father"s head as Liu Xiaodan got up. Since he was a ghost, Liu Guangru weighed nothing like a real four-year-old child; as much as Liu Xiaodan was concerned, he just weighed like a shoulder-mounted ENG camera, like the one Ruan Jin owned.

The father went out of their room and saw some students returning from the prior crowding in the staircase. He went to the scene and noticed that only a few students were left and stood there as if waiting. Then the cleaning materials arrived along with the housekeeper who was shocked by the mess. Since it was too much for one person, three students helped the housekeeper in scrubbing it, while four managed the resources like water and the red mops that needed cleaning. Two more waited at the side, spraying deodorizers to get rid of the awful smell.

After the ruckus, the stairs had a warning sign for being slippery and had two-thirds of its width unusable to the students. Only the part next to the handrails were allowed to be used. The students who helped washed their arms in the outdoor sink near the garden, soon getting into a water fight since the hoses had been turned on as they tried to whiten the mops again.

It was already three in the afternoon when Liu Xiaodan managed to get his free time. He walked all the way to the shops six blocks away from the school. Liu Guangru had never left his shoulders since he got on, but the man thought he was not getting tired at all. The child looked around as much as Liu Xiaodan did, only to settle with a black horse stuffed toy. Its height was from Liu Xiaodan"s wrist to his elbow, and the body"s width was around the father"s hand span. It was considered small, but enough for Liu Guangru to hug at least. It was a good thing that it did not appear separately from the child, making it look like resting on Liu Xiaodan"s head.

The father-son duo returned to the dorm before everyone started going out for dinner. Liu Xiaodan had bought himself some food when he was out, knowing that he had no more strength to fall in line after all the work he had done today. His roommates had gone out, and so Liu Xiaodan was left on his own in their room. Liu Guangru was in front of him, watching him eat. And since he was quiet, Liu Xiaodan even started feeding him some meat using his own chopsticks.