Chapter 2 A Lethal Game of Pen Oracle

Chapter 2 A Lethal Game of Pen Oracle I looked around the place, this was where four people lived. There was a light fragrance, probably someone’s perfume. The room was rather neat; so none of the girls were sloppy. “Let’s talk to them first. We have no direction right now.” I looked at the only window, thinking of reasons why two young women would jump. Haoran nodded. There were no goals yet; we had no results from the ME, nor any interviews with people. I picked up the file, I needed to look again at the autopsy report for Lin Xiao, who died seven days ago. Multiple bone fractures, frontal skull fracture, a streak of white in the blood, indicating brain matter. Also wearing a nightgown, with time of death at around 2 am. It would be as if someone woke up from sleep, climbed onto the window sill and jumped, though this theory made little sense. I considered the reason when a series of footsteps sounded. A young woman appeared. Xiao Teng said she was Zhou Nan, the roommate for Zhao Qi. Her eyes were red, she has probably just cried. Her shoulders were shaking, and a fear was in her eyes.  “Please sit. I just want to ask you some questions.“ I motioned for her to sit on the bed. Nan nodded and took a deep breath as she sat down. “I don’t know how things got like this. Lin Xiao has just been gone for seven days, and now Zhao Qi too. Who’s going to be next?” Her voice became fainter and fainter as she talked. There may be more to what she said, but her emotions seemed to be allover the place. I gave her a bottle of water and tried to calm her down. When she didn’t seem as emotional, I asked, “Do you know anything? Please remember as much as you can.” Nan’s head was lowered as she tried to talk again. “I know you may not believe what I say next, but I really think it’s the pen oracle. I saw a shadow when I was half-asleep, but there was nothing when I turned on the light, it was creepy.” About two weeks ago, Lin Xiao was obsessing about a guy she liked but unsure of his opinion of her, and that was when Li Ling said they should play pen oracle. “We were curious, so we decided to play.”  “Pen oracle? Why didn’t you tell us about it after Lin Xiao died?” Teng suddenly demanded as he took notes. Nan shook her head. ”We didn’t know if it was the pen oracle killing us, so I didn’t want to mention it.” I looked at Nan’s increasingly pale face, she seemed terrified. ”So you played pen oracle, then what happened?” Nan was silent for a few seconds before continuing. “We waited until 11:30 that night, we got everything ready, turned off the light and lit a candle. Ling and Xiao held the pen together, me and Zhao Qi sat nearby, then we chanted the mantra that called for the pen oracle. After 10 seconds or so, the pen they gripped actually started moving on its own...” Nan was so scared she started and stopped in her statement. I tried to organize the information. That night, the four girls sat around a flickering candle in a dark room. When the pen oracle came, Xiao asked if the guy she liked also liked her, and she was very happy when the answer was yes. They also asked a bunch of irrelevant questions with some satisfactory and some disappointing answers. But when it was time to send the pen oracle away, Ling stared at a spot behind Xiao with a face full of terror. That was when she yelled and let go of the pen, then ran to turn on the light. She leaned by the wall and s.h.i.+vered non-stop, scaring the other three girls. Ling was fine before, and n.o.body could figure out why she was acting so strangely. After they questioned her, Ling said she could see the face of a woman behind Xiao, who was deathly pale, had sunken features and messy long hair; she was freaked out so she turned on the light. We didn’t plan on this kind of story behind two young women who jumped to their deaths. Is it really the pen oracle back for revenge? I said no in my mind, I’ve never believed in spirits or ghosts.  “Maybe you’ve heard that if the pen oracle wasn’t properly sent away there would be troubles. After that night, I was worried, and Ling was also having nightmares. Xiao and Qi both didn’t think much of it, they thought it was because of the dark room and how nervous Ling was. They did have some nightmares. But we didn’t realize something would happen to Xiao so soon. I also heard that five years ago, another girl from this dorm killed herself by jumping. Maybe the pen oracle we invited was her.” Nan’s voice was still shaking. I could tell it was not just sadness for her friends but fear of the unknown. Soon after Nan left, Ling came in. Since the four girls lived together, they seemed to get along well. I noticed Haoran frowning, he must be debating something in his mind.  “Are you Li Ling? Tell us of what happened in your room since last night. What were you doing?” I repeated the question while inspecting her demeanor. I already knew who slept in which bed in this room from Nan; it was coincidental that Xiao and Qi slept in the lower bunks, while Ling and Nan were in the top bunks. Ling looked very nervous as she sat on a bed.  “I went to bed early last night.  I keep having nightmares lately, I don’t know why, so I went to bed around nine.” Ling answered, her voice a little raspy. I saw her eyes were also a little red, though they weren’t as bad as Nan’s. “Were you having nightmares because of the pen oracle game?” I asked casually. She looked surprised at my question, as if she didn’t know how I would know, but she quickly nodded. “So Nan told you guys about that. Yes, I’ve been having nightmares since two weeks ago, when we played pen oracle. I feel awful during the day too. But none of them believe me, they don’t think I saw anything.” From Nan’s statement and Ling’s expression, it was obvious Ling was certain she had seen a ghost. Did she really see something or was she trying to make something up?