Cenisa held her shoulder but the arrow was in her back. Her body stiffened. "I got it!" the man who shot her, shot her in the back again with the repeating crossbow. "Die zombie!" Cenisa wiggled, something hatched in her head. She grabbed the man's foot and spirit drained out of him slowly. She rose off the ground slowly and took hold of his neck.
It felt as if he was running out of blood and couldn't move a muscle. All he saw was her wavy smile, the crossbow was in the dirt. Her head twisted back and she bent to the side, Cenisa took a deep breath. She feel the energy all over.
It smelled like flowers, crispy, potent. It was wisp of purple and blue floating around her and the villagers running into their homes. Was this qi? It was airy, the smell of life itself drove her crazy.
She was so distracted by the scent, guards had surrounded her. She sucked in air, this was so beautiful and the bodies that gave it… smelled so good.
She jumped in the air and landed on one of the guards. She snatched his neck, drained him, and flung him into another. The stiffness she felt eased, she was more agile. She sped to the next, her teeth flashing in her eyes. "Jiangshi!" he trembled. Even with the weapon in his hands he couldn't move. She caught his neck and the sweetness became one with her.
Dead bodies looked so pretty.
She shuffled her shoulders. "GODDAMN!" she threw her head back in bliss. An arrow struck her shoulder. She turned to the right to see Bolin, she hissed.
"Jiangshi!" he pulled off his necklace. "I TOLD YOU TO MOVE!"
"YOU WILL NOT MOVE ME!" she snarled and sped to him. She wanted to snatch the talisman but she halted abruptly. Bolin with the necklace in her face. "We've been attacked by Oni and I lost my parents! What is it about this damn village that draws you things. You move when I say move!"
She fell out the sky. She wasn't in her right mind to tell him that, she just wanted to feel his neck. Bolin had a thick neck, there was some muscle on his body. He trained well. Such a healthy face with energy to empty.
"Move!" Bolin yelled. She scorned, go back to the woods! Now!" For a moment she could move but it wasn't her own will. Her back went back, everything she saw was in reverse even the screaming.
She dropped to the ground. Cenisa looked at her surroundings. She was in the woods again. She got up on her feet and tried to run out the woods but her body was propelled.
She roared to the sky, it was dark orange fading into purple. In her vision, she saw Chinese characters and heard muttering in the language. She didn't understand it. She wiggled her ears and covered them. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" she screamed.
Outside the woods, Bolin's lips moved, he stood in front of the woods repeating the insignia. "The blood of the spirit ought to the nib for the mouth's knife."
.
.
.
Cenisa remained in the woods with the pinecone-apples. She had eaten a great many and slept under the big tree. The villagers would come around to pray in front of the woods and a large white rope blocked any trespassers. They even covered the outer section with paper talisman. Once they did that she didn't feel like doing anything.
She pluck the nuts out the pinecone and laid them on a loose leaf. She ate a couple and a surge would pass her. She was getting addicted to pinecone nuts and apples. Together they didn't taste too bad. But given her personality and biology, Cenisa had weird taste buds to began with.
One, where the fuck was she? She told she was in a village and she accepted that. Somehow she had found her way to fucking china and she didn't know a lick of chinese. She didn't even know how to say she where the bathroom was.
And that was the most important sentence.
She was in the air. She was in Georgia, was born in Georgia, raised in Georgia; uncle Clement moved to New York and she never understood that. Her cousin Trinee had cancer but at least she wasn't stuck in chinatown.
Christian knew most things but he also claimed to be a hardcore atheist. She wondered if he would believe this.
Damn, those feel good moments were so good. She felt strong even tho it met killing people. It came through her arm, her legs tingled as if she had to pee and that spark up her back that felt like Charlie giving her those neck kisses she loved so much.
What would Charlie do?
If Charlie was hear, he slap some sense into her. She ate a pinecone nut and she was starting to feel full. Cenisa made time in the woods to do things like move the path with the bushes in the way. So now she had a solid walkway.
The gardening towel was still in the woods as well as the dead bodies. She went ahead and buried them, it was the least she could do.
She just felt so weak. She remembered the head pain she endured, she was thankful that was gone plus she stopped scratching her cheek.
What about the woman who told her she could get in the restaurant because she looked strange. It was true, she had on some shorts and a sleeves yellow top, her favorite heart earrings and blue cardigan.
Her hair was weird, in a Chinese sense but even some of them had braids in their hair. But she definitely stood out.
Noise picked up in her ear, she went to the entrance to hear the clatter. "What is it!"
"Calm down, it's been four days!"
"People are dead. It killed Jingguo!" a woman cried. "It should die." Cenisa rolled her eyes. She wasn't an it and as far as she was concerned, Chinese niggas were crazy anyway.
"If it wasn't for Bolin, that thing wouldn't be trapped in the Meishi Woods. We should tell the Xiyi family!"
"The family is dealing with death!" hollered a frail voice. "They can't handle a demon and family at the same time."
"We should use the plate!"
"We don't have enough poison for it." answered the Guardsmen. "Wait! Goddamn it! The plate is broken! Have you forgotten!"
"What can we--"
"Make a new goddamn plate! It's just a plate," voiced a booming tone. "Shut up Jingyu!"
"It's because I'm drunk and homeless that nobody listens to me but if I was part the Xiyi." he paused, "You all would kiss my ass!"
"This village is protected by the Xiyi!"
"Fuck em! And I mean that with the help of the Gods!"
"Jingyu! Go to your cave!"
"Make me!"
Cenisa snorted, that man was funny. Drunk but funny. "What we need is a samurai."
"We're broke!"
"Find somebody humble enough to do it." And Jingyu spoke again. "I hat ethis damn village, always asking for help. What about fucking independence!"
"Jingyu, get out of here!" boomed a female. "WEAK!" Jingyu hollered. "THIS VILLAGE IS WEAK!"
"Lynch him!"
"Stone him already!"
"Put him--Put him in the woods with that thing!"
Again she wasn't a thing. "I'll go my damn self!"
The noise rose. She went back to her nuts and into the thicket. The noise gathered in the woods. "We should of cast you out ages ago."
"Hurry up and die you wasted man!"
"I'll die staying in this weak village! Why does no one have good sense to understand we rely on the Xiyi for everything!"
"Jingyu you've always been against the Xiyi!"
"And I am! Don't you want to stand on your own!"
"Stay in here and waste."
"Suck my dick!"
Cenisa hid behind the tree. Jingyu was in the woods now. She didn't even want friends. She ate a nut and hopped in the tallest trees, sitting on the low branches.
She looked at the entrance she made and a skinny tanned man with a crooked mustache and bread at length with his his chin wobbled through. He looked left, right, she jumped higher and he looked in the direction of the tree. "Are you up there!"
She jumped further, the leaves shook. Jingyu shruged, "What are you?"
She was quiet. Was she really hiding in the tree? She heaved, "Cenisa!"
"A Cenisa?"
"No!" she jumped down and dropped the pinecone nuts. "My name is Cenisa Lewis!"
"Oh… where… did you come from?"
Cenisa thought about it but she also didn't have much to lose. "Geogria."
"Geogria?" He thought on it. But he skipped it, "What are you?"
"A human, I think." He was a drunk man. She thought about her cousin Albert, he loved whiskey. That man was always talking while caring about people. She treated him like cousin Albert. "You're cute." he told. "What!" her head jostled. "I'm just saying… the woman in the village all damn near look the same. They love makeup."
She was actually wearing a thin amount. She had rushed outside and did plan to return but fuck all that now. "Ce-nisa?"
"Nisa is fine…"
"I'm homeless. How dd you get here?" he pointed at the ground. "I fell out the sky!" she blurted. His eyes spread for a mintue. He was so calm, she thought he believed her to be stupid. "Like you can still I'm not form here. Look at my skin!"
"It's ok. You fell out the sky. Do you know about Janluut?" he asked. "No!" she shook her head vigorously. "It's another town, far away. They made Nahae, it's black people in China."
"So you mean that girl is racist?"
"Less or more so… she has no reason to be. Do you know Old Lady Li Liu?"
"Who?"
"I don't know why--" he chastised himself. "She's black, Xinchou and her used to argue a lot. It started over some soup."
"How do you get out?"
"You can't tho," he held his chin. "I could. You can't. Cause your weird."
"So I'm stuck?"
"Yeah…" he caressed his beard. "If you were a demon. Which you don't look--"
"I'm not having sex with you."
"IF YOU WERE A DEMON I'D FUCKED YOU UP. I don't want any of that! I'm saying you would have the means to use magic!"
"I don't know that!"
"No shit or else you wouldn't be here!"
The two sat far from each other. She gave him some apples from the tree and it came to him, that she was a jiangshi. "What is that?" he was starting to draw that he didn't like her. At least when she asked questions. "It's a corpse that has rose up."
"A vampire or zombie?"
"I'll try again, how did you get here?"
"I went to the bookstore and I took something."
"Thief…"
"So…"
"If you were me, they'd beat you. Go on." he ate an apple. "It was this big paper all rolled up and I was like , I could sell this. So I took it."
"Marvelous."
"I locked out my apartment and suddenly the paper, was like evil or something."
"Ok… curses…"
"And a man came out the paper and I was in the air and I fell, and…" she stopped talking. "I'm not… I'm not."
"Dead? Deaf? Lost… wait… blind--"
"No! I'm not--"
"Falling? Bouncing…"
"Will you shut up!"
"You aren't talking!"
Cenisa grumbled and hopped in the tree. "Wait! Finish!" Jingyu yelled. "No! Fuck off!"
"I'd be upset to if I found out I was dead and hoping mad." he thought about it. "Maybe that's why."
Cenisa put her back on the truck of the tree. This was annoying. Jingyu stood under the tree. He looked at her foot, "What's Georgia?" He asked.
She didn't answer. "Have you heard about the Messages?"
No answer and punched himself in the face for asking like she knew. Of course she didn't know.
"Do you like tea?" he rolled his eyes. "What about beans!"
Why would he ask her that? "Stop talking to me!"
Thunder boomed up high. She farted but Jingyu didn't hear, she came down. He looked at her, "At least you have brains…"
"Shut the fuck up." Thunder boomed again. "Its rainy season."
"So?" she folded her arms as the sky leaked. "It's bath day…" he took off his clothes and piled the rain in his palms. It was pouring from the sky, lighting went across the clouds.
Cenisa couldn't shield herself but stood near a boulder with some moss. Jingyu slashed his face with rain, held his palms out again. He went under his arms and caught the rain again to wash his stomach. "I usually do this with a bucket!" he yelled at her. She turned away. "I'm not dirty! But I'm homeless!"
"Ok!"
"I don't even smell bad. I think it keeps me young so I started thinking about what I learned in Janluut! Though, I don't have a stick to draw in the ground. We could go there!"
"I can't leave!" This man was using the showers from the sky to get every part of him. "Hey! Can get a leaf from the tree tops?"
"I don't wanna get hit by lighting!"
"That doesn't actually happen."
"Yes it does!"
"No it doesn't!" he screamed. "I built the lighting rod for this goddamn shanty town!" he washed his ass.
Cenisa was soaking wet from the heavy rain, pools were starting to form in the grass. Lighting roared and flashed across the sky. "Get naked!" he washed his hair. "I really wish I had my bucket."
"I'm not getting naked." he obviously wanted to see her body. "It's going to rain for like three damn days, or more!" he shouted. "For real!"
"Yes dumb ass!"
Cenisa took off her clothes. "Nice ass!"
"Oh my god…" she took off her pants, lightening struck the tree. Cenisa pulled her wet pants back up. Her heart was beating fast. It struck the tree again, she ran to the other side of the woods. "Goddamn…" Jingyu stared at the tree. He hurried out to the other side and lightening struck it again. "I gotta get out of here!" she ran to the barrier and was pushed back. "Oh my God!" she screamed. Something hit the ground and Cenisa dropped to the dirt feeling the earth shake.
The sky howled as if God was fighting up high. "Jesus."
At least Jingyu knew it would end in a couple of days… or more.