Chapter 5: The Blood Thread
424 Words
The next night came too fast.
I hadn't slept. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw shapes behind my eyelids—shadows of people I knew, whispering my name in voices that weren’t theirs.
By the time Madam He called me to the ritual room, my hands were shaking.
The room had changed. The lights were dimmed to a low amber. The floor was covered in salt and ash. Incense smoke curled like fingers toward the ceiling.
“Sit,” Madam He instructed, gesturing toward the center of the circle.
Leo stood across from me, his robe tied tight, a red thread looped around both his wrists. His face was unreadable.
“What’s the red thread for?” I asked.
He met my eyes. “Binding me to the ritual. If the spirit tries to leap, it hits me first.”
“That’s dangerous.”
He smirked faintly. “That’s the point.”
Madam He stood outside the circle with a bowl in her hands—filled with what looked like black oil.
She began chanting.
The air grew thick, heavy. My ears popped. The circle around me lit up with a faint red glow.
“Cici Chen,” Madam He said. “Speak your name.”
I swallowed hard. “Chen Cici.”
“Do you accept the burden of the curse?”
“I never asked for it,” I whispered.
“But do you accept it?”
I looked down at the jar—now glowing faintly on the floor beside me.
“Yes,” I said. “I accept it.”
Madam He nodded. “Then give it form.”
The scroll began to rise from the jar, twisting in midair. The red ink flared bright.
And then it burned.
From the ashes, a shape emerged.
It was... me.
But wrong.
Same face. Same clothes. But her eyes were voids. Her fingers too long. Her mouth twisted in a bitter grin.
She floated above the circle, watching me like prey.
“She’s your guilt,” Leo said. “Your shadow self. The part of you that believes you deserve this.”
The spirit-Cici tilted her head. “Why didn’t you pass the jar on, Cici? Why didn’t you lie, like Erin did?”
I didn’t answer.
“Don’t you want to live?” she hissed.
I stood.
“I do. But not by cursing someone else.”
She laughed—sharp and mocking. “Then you’re weak.”
“No,” I said. “I’m human.”
She lunged.
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