House of Aunts

Chapter 14

I raced after my aunts, who had taken off down the corridor and into Aunty Lotus' room. From her window, we saw a man lighting a cigarette and loitering.

"See? I knew we were bring followed that day."

What? This creepy man had been following me?

Aunty Lotus turned to Aunty Jinx, whose expression was stony. Then, she looked at me.

"Ruyi! You're supposed to go back to sleep!"

"But why?"

"It's not safe! Look at the strange man! He–"

"But this has got to do with me, hasn't it?" I asked.

Aunty Lotus stopped shrieking while my other aunt smirked.

"I told you, Lianyu. She's not stupid. She's going to figure it out eventually."

"Figure out what?" I asked.

Aunty Lotus sighed.

"All right. See that man right there? He's what you call a bad guy. A criminal. An utterly reprehensible excuse for a human–"

I was going to ask what "reprehensible" meant when Aunty Jinx shushed her.

"Hush, now. We knew this would happen."

"Then what are we to do?"

All of us looked at one another. At last, Aunty Lotus spoke.

"Ruyi, I think you should go sleep."

"But why?" I whined.

"It's not safe. Go to your room, shut the windows, and lock the door. We will deal with this."

I pouted.

"Now."

Sighing, I stomped to my room. But my aunts were already talking about the strange man outside.

"You cannot keep this a secret from her, you know. She's already starting to investigate," Aunty Jinx said.

"But she mustn't know! She should be free to lead a normal life like everyone else."

"We're masquerading as normal when we've never been. She already knows who we are."

"What have you been telling her?"

"What she should know."

"Jinx, I swear to the Jade Emperor–"

"What are you going to do about it? Are you going to shield her from who she really is and what's to be? We want to raise her to her full potential and not curb it just because there's some psycho out there!"

Then, Aunty Jinx turned to the door.

"Ruyi, I know you're listening in. Don't try to trick a trickster."

"Aww!" I whined.

"Go. To. Sleep."

The jig was up, and all I could do was to shuffle back to my room, with my aunts' voices getting fainter and fainter. I wanted to know about the strange man at the window. I looked out, and saw that he was still there. He waved at me.

I froze. Quickly scurrying away, I walked to my room and locked the door. I shut the windows. At least my Aunty Lotus was right. There was a strange man following me, and I did not like it at all. He could be dangerous. Or he could be kind. But I didn't know what he wanted with us–or me?--and I did not like it.

I closed my eyes and started to sleep, and soon, I drifted off. Maybe the recent events affected me, for I dreamt of the man.