Plague Doctor

“Ah, ah…” The prison guard with the hooked nose screamed for mercy. The other guards bumped into each other in chaos. A cat? Why would there be a cat here?! The only entrance to this jail was the stairs. They had guarded this place for so long and had not seen a mouse much less a cat. Cats were often associated with witches and dark forces…

“Get away, get away!” The prison guard yelled as he tried to hit the cat. But despite its size, the cat was extremely agile. It jumped around the man’s head to avoid all of its attack while landing a few of its own. Lashes of blood appeared on the man’s face. The guard eventually turned to his colleagues for help. “Quick help me to chase it away!” The prison guards were overtaken by lechery earlier but now as they took another glance at the suspected witch, they believed they saw a ball of curious black fog around her. Sam said he had news that the girl was indeed a witch. Then did that mean the cat was her familiar?

“Run, run… We need to get others to come help us!” “I told you something’s wrong about her! Damn demon!” The other guards turned to escape. The hooked-nose guard scrambled out from the cell and followed the rest of them, “Satan, satan. Stay away!” Some of them turned back to look and saw Sam and his friend still stood there dumbly. They urged, “Sam, Gilman, let’s go!” “Just ignore them…” “Save ourselves first!”

Seeing the guards throng past in panic, the other inmates had no idea what happened but they made noises by screaming and knocking their shackles against the jail bars. It made the place even more chaotic and the guards ran even faster. Some even stumbled. At the same time, a satisfied meow echoed inside the prison.

Strangely enough, since the cat’s appearance, Gu Jun felt his consciousness stabilizing. Yu Chi was also recovering. Keziah Mason seemed as surprised by this cat’s appearance as they were… After looking around, Gu Jun’s eyes landed back on the cat. He looked at it and it looked back at him. The multi-colored eyes reminded him of something familiar… The cat padded over and its nose twitched as if sniffing for a smell.

“I didn’t see any cats in the prison earlier.” Yu Chi said in English which Keziah Mason also understood. “It just suddenly materialized out of nowhere.”

“I did not do anything.” Keziah Mason admitted, “I did study the occult but I have nothing to do with this cat.” Gu Jun frowned. Was this supposed to happen? Moments earlier, he thought that was it. Yu Chi and he would be dragged back to the library and Keziah Mason would be left to the guards’ mercy. It pushed her over to the dark side and started her journey into the abyss… But this cat came to save her, why?

Suddenly, the cat seemed to have sniffed something. It mewled several times in excitement. Its fur coat shimmered. To their surprise, it suddenly stood on its hind legs and reached out a paw towards Gu Jun.

“Huh?” Gu Jun was both confused and alarmed. He did not take the cat’s hand but asked, “Who are you?”

The cat called a few more times, there seemed to be annoyance in its tone.

“I can see that something is possessing it as well…” Keziah Mason said, “But I can’t tell what its real identity is.” This complicated the situation. Gu Jun wondered could it be the Yith? It wouldn’t be that out of the box.

The cat used its claw to scratch something on the dirt floor. Then it patted the ground to get their attention. Gu Jun lowered his head and saw an Arabic number. He asked in English, “5?” The cat nodded. It used its surprisingly flexible paw to give Gu Jun a thumbs up. Yu Chi also entered the cell and his eyes burned with passion. He was particularly interested in these mysteries, “It is trying to tell us something. What is the meaning of this 5? 5 days? 5 times? 5 people? 5 metres?”

As if confirming that they were looking at the same number, the cat clawed out a 1 next to the 5. So the trio saw the number 51. The two numerals were close enough to each other to make it 51 and not 5 and 1.

“51?” Gu Jun said as if to himself. The cat instantly nodded and gave him another thumbs up.

“51? It’s an odd number…” Yu Chi pondered in Chinese, “We’re in America, if we include Puerto Rico, the country has 51 states. But this is only 1692, the independence will come in 1775… The periodic table? The 51st element is Stibium, no, that doesn’t sound right either…” Then something came to him. Yu Chi gasped, “Fifty one, Area Fifty one.”

Be it at Phecda World or Mysterium World, Area 51 was an infamous location. There were many rumours about aliens circulating the place. Furthermore, they knew Area 51 was one of FBM’s secret bases.

Gu Jun’s heart skipped a beat. ‘This cat wants us to go to Area 51? In the year 1692?’ But Area 51 was in Nevada and they were in Massachusetts. Geographically, they had a long distance to travel and in 1692, the westward expansion trails hadn’t even started yet… So he began to have second doubts, was that really the meaning of 51?

While the duo discussed this, Kezian Mason was silent. She was as confused as they were.

“Meow!” The cat groaned in dissatisfaction. It waved her paws as if telling them that they were wrong. It patted the number again and then pointed at its mouth. ‘Recite this, recite this a few more times…’

Gu Jun seemed to hear its voice. He mumbled on his lips. Fifty One in English? Wu Shi Yi in Chinese…

“Wu Shiyi, Wu Shiyi?” His heart suddenly squeezed. “Wu Siyi? Wu Siyu?!” When he said Wu Siyu’s name, the multi-colored cats called out loudly. Its paws patted at itself and then at the number on the ground.

“What is the meaning of this?” Gu Jun tried to calm down. “You wish to threaten me? I’ve already said it. Come after me if you want, this has nothing to do with Wu Siyu…”

The cat spun away and tumbled to the ground. Its paw trembled weakly as if disappointed in him. But eventually it climbed up and scratched down a 50 next to 51. They were on the same line to each other but there was a space between the two numbers. It patted its paw requesting them to read it again.

Yu Chi was beyond confused. Gu Jun mumbled, “Fifty or Wu Shi in Chinese. That sounds like I am in Chinese… Wait a minute. I am Wu Siyu?”

‘I am Wu Siyu?’ He took another glance at the cat and the sense of familiarity returned.

“Meow!” The cat nodded repeatedly. It leaped right onto his shoulder. It brushed against him and then whined in its cat language. Naturally Gu Jun could not understand it, neither could Yu Chi nor Keziah Mason.