Chapter 137

Chapter 137: Hunter

Yu Sheng, a beat late, realized how deathly still it was around the Little House.

The unseen Wolf Pack had melted back into the shadows of the Black Forest. Quiet wrapped everything. The fiercest wolf, the Giant Wolf of this generation of Little Red Riding Hood, still did not show. Yet Yu Sheng could feel that wolf’s gaze.

The wolf that had swallowed him once was staring from far away at the Little House. It had sensed prey. For some reason, it took no action.

What was it watching? What was it waiting for? Or was it wary of something else?

Carefully, Yu Sheng stretched his senses and tried to read a pattern in that gaze. Just then, in that gaze, he “saw” a shadow.

Near the Little House, on the Open Ground between the Forest shrubs, a human figure appeared out of nowhere.

Yu Sheng went taut. At the same time, he heard footsteps outside.

Human steps came nearer, over leaves and soft rot. Slow and steady, they reached the Door.

A jolt ran through Yu Sheng. He thought of something at once, glanced around, and slipped into a corner to hide.

Right as he hid, the Door of the Little House swung open.

A tall figure filled the doorway. In the dim, cold starlight, Yu Sheng saw green and brown Hunter’s Garb and a thick hood hiding the visitor’s face. The figure held a long hunting gun and, with a slightly silly half crouch, walked into the room.

The Hunter had come.

But the Big Bad Wolf was already dead, dead before the Hunter had arrived.

The tall figure in Hunter’s Garb took two steps and froze. They had seen the Big Bad Wolf on the floor, belly split wide.

The “script” they were meant to finish had been changed. This “Entity” made by the Black Forest stalled where it stood, like a process stuck mid task.

The Hunter did not move. Hiding in the corner, Yu Sheng also dared not move. The Little House sank into a strange silence.

Yu Sheng even felt the silence turn a little awkward.

Irene’s voice popped up in his mind: “Hey! Yu Sheng! You still alive? How’s it going? Why aren’t you back yet?”

“I’m fine, but something odd happened,” Yu Sheng answered fast while staring at the frozen “Hunter”: “How are things outside? Did Little Red Riding Hood and the kid ‘get back’?”

“All smooth here. Little Red Riding Hood is in the washroom next door puking. The kid woke up too. They’re both throwing up. Sudden wake up hit them hard,” Irene rattled on: “It even scared me! That kid actually came back to life. No heartbeat, no breathing for a long time, yet she revived! How did you even do that… anyway, what’s your ‘odd’ thing? Little Red Riding Hood says you killed ‘Wolf Granny’? So now-”

“Yeah, I killed Wolf Granny, so the ‘Hunter’ got stuck,” Yu Sheng sighed, cutting her off: “You know the ‘Hunter,’ right? The one who shows up at the last second to save Little Red Riding Hood. I stole their job.”

Irene went quiet. Maybe she needed a second to process.

After two beats, the Doll’s voice returned: “Huh? Stuck? That can happen?”

“That’s the only way I can put it,” Yu Sheng said, helpless: “They’re still standing there like a post. I’m in the cabinet’s corner behind them. I don’t want to step out too fast. I don’t know how an Entity made by the Black Forest will react. There might be taboos.”

“So you two are having a staring contest? Fine, I’ll just yank you out-”

“Don’t,” Yu Sheng cut her off at once when he heard she was about to drag him out. He remembered how rough that “jerk awake” felt and decided he would rather risk it here: “Let me test a bit. I at least want to see what the Hunter looks like.”

He rose from his hiding place on tiptoe and crept toward the tall figure in Hunter’s Garb.

The “Hunter” seemed not to hear. They stood like a statue beside the Big Bad Wolf.

Yu Sheng grew bolder and stopped masking his steps. In a few strides he reached the Hunter’s side and leaned to look.

Irene asked in his head: “Well? Still alive? What does the Hunter look like?”

Yu Sheng was quiet for two seconds: “Under the clothes, it’s empty.”

He stared at the “Hunter” and saw only a hollow set of Hunter’s Garb. No face under the hood, just a pocket of shadow.

The whole “Hunter” was only a set of clothes hovering there.

Yet, maybe it was his imagination, but it felt like “eyes” watched him from the empty hood. There was a sense of a hidden face and a steady gaze.

Yu Sheng slid half a step aside. The “Hunter” did not move, but that unseen gaze seemed to track him.

“Hello,” Yu Sheng hesitated, then tried to greet the Entity: “I’m Yu Sheng, uh, I just got here.”

“That sounds dumb,” Irene piped up.

“Shut up,” Yu Sheng said without changing his face.

The Hunter gave no answer. Only the feeling of being watched remained.

Yu Sheng felt awkward again and pointed at the wolf corpse: “I did this. Sorry I took your job.”

Right then he noticed the fold along the hood’s edge shift.

The Entity had moved its gaze where he pointed. It might even have nodded.

It could communicate.

Yu Sheng’s heart stirred. He kept his face calm and spoke with care: “The child that ‘Wolf Granny’ swallowed has been saved.”

The hood dipped again. This time Yu Sheng was sure. The Hunter nodded.

“Looks like you don’t mean me any harm,” Yu Sheng said, trying to seem more friendly. He offered his right hand a little: “If we are both fighting the Evil Wolf, we’re on the same side.”

The Hunter stepped back.

Yu Sheng blinked, surprised by the sudden response. Then the figure kept retreating, as if the entry had been put in reverse. The empty, hooded Hunter’s Garb slid backward with that same silly, eerie step, reached the Door in a few paces, and vanished into the wide night in almost a blink.

“Hey-” Yu Sheng reached out on reflex, but there was no stopping that odd Entity.

Irene asked: “What happened?”

“The Hunter ran when I tried to shake hands,” Yu Sheng said, just as puzzled: “I don’t think I touched a nerve.”

As he sighed, something caught his eye.

A scrap of paper lay on the floor. It must have fallen when the Hunter left in a hurry.

Yu Sheng bent to pick it up. It was yellowed and brittle, palm sized. Something had once been written on it, but layers of grime covered the surface-ink, grease, even, maybe, blood-so nothing could be made out.

“I found something,” he muttered, peering at it for a long time and getting nowhere.

“What’d you find?”

“A piece of paper from the ‘Hunter,’ but it’s so dirty and torn you can’t read it.”

“Think you can bring it out?” Irene sounded a bit unsure: “I can probably only pull your consciousness out… or I could go in there to take a look? My skill at weird relics and appraising old stuff is pretty much not there. You honestly shouldn’t count on me.”

Yu Sheng almost missed what was wrong with that line. He paused, then laughed, helpless and angry: “At least you’re honest.”

He tucked the fragile paper away with care and stepped to the wolf corpse.

“I’m going to try opening a Door from here and see if I can bring things out,” he said: “It’s my first time doing Door Opening from an ‘inner world’ like the Black Forest to the real world. I don’t know what will happen. Have Little Red Riding Hood and the kid stand back, outside the room if possible. You and Foxy stay close and watch.”

“Got it.”

After Irene confirmed, Yu Sheng drew a deep breath, then… took out his phone for a quick look.

He did not know if a “phone” pulled out while inside the Black Forest counted as a real object or just something he dreamed up. Either way, it had no signal here.

[No way to check in. The Special Affairs Bureau is probably used to this… right?] He put the phone away, grabbed one of the wolf’s legs, and pulled at the air. A faint, glowing Door opened beside him.