Plague Doctor

“Perhaps that is exactly what you’re sent here to do?” Keziah Mason looked at them calmly. “From how I see it, we’re all inmates of time, we do not have freedom of choice. Because no matter what we did, it could be how things should have been originally or it would ultimately change the future.” Inside the clammy underground prison, there was heavy silence. Gu Jun had to admit she had a point. This was a temporal conundrum and they were right in the middle of it.

But there was one thing for sure… No matter what this girl said, thought or believed at this moment, in the future, she would become a force of pure evil. People would change, especially those who had interacted with darkness. But could that change happen after death?

“What do you think this presence with 1000 faces represents? What is its name?” Gu Jun interrogated. Now it was even impossible to tell whether it was the witch who told Gu Jun about this presence or the other way round.

“I can’t say.” Keziah Mason shook her head. “But since it has 1000 faces, couldn’t it have 1000 names?”

“There has to be an original name.” Gu Jun said. The images of the medical workers crushed by the oak tree and the girls with Tourette Syndrome and their parents caused the anger accumulated in Gu Jun’s heart to boil…

After they arrived at this world, the witch’s presence disappeared. Where had it gone to? Could it be inside this young girl before them? Under this seemingly-innocent face, what kind of evil lurked within? But could she be blamed for sin that she had not committed?

Gu Jun could not decide but he was unwilling to let things end in such a temporal circle, something had to be changed. If everything was just a chess piece, playing along a predestined path, then who was the chess player? The Yith? The 1000-faced presence? Time itself?

“I still need to attempt something.” Gu Jun said as he reached for something around his waist. With a tingle, he took out the cell key. “Miss Mason, we are indeed an enemy but you got one thing wrong. You’ll be a philanthropist in the future, you will do many good things.”

Yu Chi glanced at his partner in confusion. ‘What’s this?’ Kezian Mason chuckled as if she heard through his lies. “Have you forgotten I have ten thousand pounds? I have never felt charitable with them before.”

“But you will, if you can survive this.” Gu Jun opened the cell door. He pulled the wooden door open and it creaked noisily.

“You won’t be able to do this.” Keziah Mason stared at him directly, “I can see that, sir, you’re the one with the kind heart.” Gu Jun’s heart tightly. Indeed, he found it difficult to push forward with his threat. The girl before him might not have succumbed to darkness yet… Could she be considered the same person as the witch that harmed him in the future? If he killed her here, would he have an innocent person’s life on his hands… Other than the temporal quandary, he was faced with a moral quandary…

“That’s where you’re wrong!” He closed his hands around the girl’s slender neck and slammed the girl against the wall to stop her resistance. The girl’s face reddened. Her body struggled instinctively but the girl was too weak to wrestle loose from a grown man. Plus her limbs were manacled. Her eyes bloodied and teared. She croaked for air.

“Captain Gu!” Yu Chi hesitated. The face of the fat man reddened as well. The girl’s face turned purple. Her pupils turned and her limbs went limb. Death was so close…

But suddenly air sucked into her lungs again. She coughed with difficulty as oxygen resuscitated her body. Gu Jun also took a deep breath. His fists tightened. At that last moment, he still could not feel the witch’s presence on her. She was not the witch or at least not yet.

“I am right after all…” Keziah Mason said between coughs. She chuckled bitterly, “Just what kind of sin I would commit for you to silence your morality to almost kill me…”

At that moment, hurried footsteps came from the steps. It was the other prison guards. “Sam, what have you done?!” They turned to look at the cell in shock and surprise, “You dare to touch the witch?” “Oh my god!”

“Did you know something we didn’t, Sam?” A tall guard with a hooked nose asked in a whisper. His tone was laced with prurient intents. The prison guards would naturally get more news than the normal citizens. They knew more about the things that happened at Salem and Arkham. They knew most of the inmates were innocent. This Keziah Mason… there were rumors that she was implicated because of her inheritance and beauty. The so-called evidence was planted at her home…

And combined that with what Sam had done… The girl almost died. If she was a real witch, she would have easily stopped Sam.

As their eyes swept over the girl’s barely covered body and her beautiful face, an obscene desire rose among them… Everyone knew the family history of this girl, she was the last one of her lineage. She could have died in the cell and no one would have cared. They could have done anything they wanted to do. Furthermore, she was a suspected witch, no one would believe her words.

“I got news that…” Gu Jun could sense the change in the air. “This girl is a witch.” The other guards snickered among themselves. They knew Sam too well. If the girl was a real witch, Sam would be the first to run. But if there was an advantage to take, he’d be the first to go for it as well.

“Is that so?” The hooked-nose prison guard sauntered towards the cell. “Then, I’ll have to interrogate her myself.” Seeing the salacious fire dancing in the guards’ eyes, Yu Chi said urgently, “What are you people doing? We have no right to interrogate the inmates!”

“Stop grandstanding! Get out of the way!” The hooked-nose guard pushed the fat man heavily to the side. “Sam, get out. You’ve had your fun, it’s my turn.” At that moment, Gu Jun and Yu Chi could feel their consciousness flickering. The hosts were resisting them. The more urgent they felt, the harder it was to stay in the hosts’ body… They had a hard time even uttering a word.

Keziah Mason was still recovering from Gu Jun’s assault. Staring at the approaching prison guards with their disgusting grins, she saw her imminent fate.

“Sirs, I understand it now. So this is how things will be… My power will come from this…”

“No…” Gu Jun tried to stop the guards but the host’s body refused to listen to him.

“We’re all inmates of time…” Keziah Mason continued in her rumblings. The prison guards ignored her for they had something else in their mind. Her face turned from purple to white. “We won’t be able to understand everything but we are never supposed to anyway…”

Suddenly, a cat’s meow rang through the prison. Gu Jun saw a fat multi-colored cat jump out from the previously empty cell corner and leaped on the hooked-nose guard’s face. Her two claws swiped viciously. The skin tore open and blood flew. The hooked-nose guard wailed in mercy. The other prison guards gasped in shock.