The Yaoguai: Finale (complete)

Mari was the child of her mother’s second marriage. Her brother James, from the first, never quite warmed up to the idea of having a sister, let alone a second father. Mari never knew much about her mother’s first husband, but believed he died when he accidentally fell from one of the top stories of the hotel. When she was still quite young, her own father met a similar fate after a tree in the garden collapsed on him. Mari could not recall his funeral, even though her mother insisted they had one.

Growing up in the old hotel, Mari grew accustomed to several things. She memorized the layout of the hotel and found that every so often it changed inexplicably. She had also gotten used to the residents of the hotel; new, old, and other. She could walk by a room and have an understanding of who was inside. She was never aware there was anything strange about it until she grew up.

Unlike James, Mari was adamant about going to college. After reading about it in a book, she so badly wanted to go. Her mother always tried to squelch the idea because, in her words, Mari had a guaranteed career when she grew up. This never stopped Mari, though. She managed to save up money and went to college for exactly one year. She was called home when her aunt tragically passed away.

By then, Mari knew enough about the real world to realize the hotel and her family were much stranger, even scarier than she had originally assumed. Mari assumed the role of guardian for her family, not because they needed protection, but because she felt that the world needed to be protected from them. There were things gathered in the hotel that didn’t need to get out. Not to mention what her mother kept in the garden.

Fei Qiangwei had once been in love with a Yaoguai named Zhanglang. Mari had heard the story directly from her mother once, when Fei was drunk. She described the affair in detail, and how she gave birth to a child even before James. Eventually, the romance turned sour and Fei imprisoned Zhanglang on the hotel grounds, using him as a beacon for all the spirits that now resided within the hotel. 

Mari was never sure how her mother kept a Yaoguai trapped until she died. Once she did, she knew the secret - her mother’s roses, imbued with her own magic, along with the decapitated heads of many of the Qiangwei family. These included James’ father, her father, aunts, uncles, cousins, and most recently, James’ wife and Mari herself. The headless spirit of each ancestor was another link in the chain that kept Zhanglang tethered to Fei’s malicious intent. Mari, as the newest link, kept him shackled. 

Now, the chain was broken. Each link was scattered to the winds. With the bond that Zhanglang had formed with Sun, he was free, and his anger was strong. 

Mari had tried to stop it, but she was too late to save her husband. When Zhanglang banished her, she found herself in a graveyard miles from the hotel. As she rose from the ground, she looked around to see other spirits, lost and confused. The headless ones that had come with her were now wandering, begging for their heads.

As Mari gathered herself, she could see the lights of the hotel in the distance. “Please Sun, please,” she prayed, hands clasped above her empty neck. “Stay strong.”

She felt a tap on her shoulder, and when she turned around she saw an old woman standing there. “Who are you?”

The old woman smiled. “Give me your hand, young lady.”

Mari extended her palm, and the old woman placed a cockroach there. “What is this?”

“A way to save Sun,” she said. “Crush it before the Yaoguai, and you will have a small window of opportunity to overpower him.”

Mari clutched the insect close to her chest. “Thank you. But who are you?”

The old woman chuckled and nodded her head. “I am Sun’s grandmother. Someone who loved him as much as you do.” She faded away as she spoke, turning to dust in the breeze and blowing away into the night.

Mari instantly raced back towards the hotel, careful to keep the cockroach in her hand.

Back at the Wild Rose, Sun was coming into the dining hall. He had never been there before, but what he saw chilled him to the bone. All around the table were grotesque and frightening specters, their mouths wide open as they shoveled food from the table into their gaping maws. Bai was bouncing around the table, snatching up morsels and screaming at the slobbering specters.

James, Fei, and Bo sat at the head of the table, watching as Sun as he entered. Fei glared harshly at him, rising from her seat to fetch him closer. Her sharp fingers dug into his wrist as she dragged him to the table. “I told you not to be late!” She forced him into a chair. “Now stay there!” She shoved a plate before him and served him.

“You know I don’t eat meat,” Sun said calmly.

“You’re a Qiangwei. You do.” Fei grabbed a piece of meat with her bare fingers and started to force it to his lips. “Try it.”

Sun kept his mouth shut.

“Try it,” Fei’s voice dropped to a hissing growl.

Sun glared at her.

“Eat it!” Fei started to smash it into his mouth when her wrist was captured. She looked up to see Zhanglang standing over her.

“Fei, my darling,” Zhanglang hissed. “You haven’t changed a bit.”

Fei smiled and started to laugh. She looked at Sun and shook her head. “Oh, you stupid, stupid boy.”

Zhanglang grabbed Fei’s neck and, with a simple twist, he snapped it. Fei crumpled to the ground as James and Bo screamed. Bai clapped his hands from the other side of the room. The specters swarmed close, clambering on top of Fei and feasting on her flesh. “Now this is a party!” Zhanglang laughed triumphantly. 

Sun closed his eyes to avoid looking at the pile of writhing bodies feasting on Fei. He hadn’t meant for that fate to befall her, but it was apparent that Zhanglang did. He watched as Bai came up to greet his other parent, slowly taking on a shape more like Zhanglang than the one he had worn with Fei. A shiny carapace and wings sprouted, from his back and his hair grew out thicker from his head. 

After his transformation, Bai started chasing Bo and James around with some of the other spirits in the hotel. The two men locked themselves in the kitchen, while the creatures clawed and screamed at the door, covering it in bloody prints.

Zhanglang sat down beside Sun, putting his arm around him. He propped his feet on the table as he reveled in the chaos around them. The walls in the hotel were warping, becoming flesh-like and oozing. What appeared to be dark blood dribbled down from the seams, and more of the horrible monsters writhed from the pulsating walls.

Sun was beginning to realize to an unsettling degree that he had traded one monster for another. At least with Fei, he could only see this world through the lens of his camera. With Zhanglang, his vision was horribly, painfully clear. He just wanted to go home, and that had clouded his mind so much he didn’t see Zhanglang’s deal for what it was. He wanted to escape Fei, but he ended up with much the same.

Outside the hotel, Mari had run up to discover writhing, dripping vines surrounding the entire grounds, creating a barrier like a spiderweb. She couldn’t get through them no matter what she tried. Headless and desperate, Mari wandered around the entire property, hoping to find a way to get in. She wasn’t the only one. A crowd of headless bodies were wandering around as well, trying to find the heads that Fei had taken.

“Oh, this is all hopeless,” Mari lamented. She looked at the cockroach in her palm. “I have to get to Sun somehow.”

As she approached the garden, she noticed that part of the fleshy webbing was thinner near the roses. Wiggling her hand through, she was able to grab hold of a rose bush. Out of curiosity, she yanked back, pulling the rose bush with her so it brushed against the sinewy strands.  The strands recoiled and shrank away from the rose bush with a shrieking noise. With a gasp of triumph, Mari was able to slip through and fall into the garden. 

She stumbled, falling and dropping the cockroach that Sun’s grandmother had given her. It skittered away, running fast as Mari gave chase. It fell into the crypt, and Mari floated in after it. As she landed inside, she saw a peculiar shape standing before the shelf of heads.

“Mother?” Mari asked.

The spirit turned, haggard and hunched, her long hair falling and dragging across the floor. She reached out, pointing at Mari. Her hand shook, and her finger was knobby.

It was hard to feel sorry for her mother’s passing. In fact, it had been a relief. It had been Mari’s mother who killed her, such was her desire to keep Zhanglang under her control and to keep the spirits from inhabiting the hotel. Their greed made her richer, and better able to manipulate the poor fools who fell into her traps. 

Mari looked down and saw the cockroach on one of the rotting roses. She picked it up and held it close again. Her mother continued to point at her, eyes hollow and mouth slowly falling open. 

“I can forgive what you did to me, but I will not forgive what you have done to my Sun.” Mari kept her voice low and even. She regarded the empty space where her mother’s face should be. “I’m going to go save him now. You can stay here for as long as you like.” Mari floated back towards the surface, and all the while, her mother pointed in disapproval.

Mari was stunned by the changes to her old home as she walked inside. The walls were wet slabs of meat oozing who knows what. The floor pulsed and buckled, so she tucked her knees up and floated over it. All around, the horrible, greedy spectres her mother loved so much were running amok.

Mari decided to look into the kitchen before going to the dining hall. As she moved through the walls, she found her brother and uncle hiding in a corner. She wondered if they could see her, but she doubted they would acknowledge her. She moved on, through the door that led into the dining hall. There, she saw the discordance of all the creatures in the hotel running wild. They were gulping down food and fighting over it. They were running across the walls and ceiling, screaming and dripping. 

As Mari floated into the room, she saw Zhanglang with his arms around Sun. Anger grew inside her, but she knew she couldn’t hold on to it, or she would have no chance against Zhanglang. She approached quietly, but Zhanglang still noticed her. He stood while Bai watched from the back with curiosity.

Sun looked up from the table, seeing Mari but not recognizing who she was. Mari could see that he was in pain, crying silently as the terror went on around him. Her resolve had always been set, but seeing him, she was more determined than ever.

“Headless thing, be gone! We do not have your head here,” Zhanglang said mockingly. “You’d best go back out to the gardens.”

Sun’s brow furrowed for a moment. Zhanglang laughed, placing his hand on Sun’s head. “Ignore them, dear Sun, and continue enjoying the evening. I will get rid of this one.”

“Don’t touch him!” Mari howled. “I warned you not to touch him ever!”

Zhanglang snapped his fingers. “Bai, take care of them.”

Bai stood there, looking at his parent and then back at Mari. He stood hesitantly, cowering like he had done at Fei’s skirts for so long. Mari had been kind to him. He could remember that. Mari had been small and sweet, often sneaking him sweets under his locked door. He had been a secret most of her life, but she treated him like an imaginary friend behind that locked door.

“Come now, Bai,” Zhanglang said through clenched teeth.

Bai was torn between his parent and his sister. He skittered on all limbs towards Mari, but as he approached her, he took hold of the hem of her skirt and clutched it tight. Tears filled Bai’s bulging eyes, and he wept.

Zhanglang approached. Mari tried to move forward, but Bai held her back. She looked up as Zhanglang stood before her.

Mari held out the cockroach in her palm, and saw the expression on Zhanglang’s face change. She was ready to crush it when there was a cry of pain from the table. Both of them turned to see Sun taking a knife to his wrist. “Sun!” Mari screamed.

“You idiot!” Zhanglang rushed towards him, ripping the knife from his hand. “If you die, where does that leave me?”

Mari crushed the cockroach, and from inside its shell a beautiful, bright luna moth fluttered out. It rose from her palm and into the air, the light around it growing and growing until it was blinding. Zhanglang screamed as the moth’s light intensified, encompassing the room and swallowing it up. 

Sun hung suspended in the light. The blood from his wrist trickled up into the air, forming bright beads of red glass. He looked up, and saw nothing but light. Then he saw the moth floating down towards him. He stretched out his hand, and it was embraced. Fingers laced with his, and he saw Mari. She floated above him on moth’s wings, with a large smile on her face. Her long hair was soft white, and her skin was like the glow of the moon. The wings on her back were bright green and fluttered gently.

Sun smiled at the sight of her face, and closed his eyes as they met for a kiss. Mari’s fingers slipped around his wrist, healing the cut he’d made.

“Can I go with you now?” Sun whimpered.

Mari wrapped her arms around him, holding him in a tight embrace. “I would rather you didn’t.” She cupped his face between her hands. “I know it’s hard, and I know you are hurting. I never should have stayed, Sun.” She pressed her forehead to his. “I was selfish and wanted to live my life with you. But I should have continued to guard my family.”

“Please!” Sun cried. “I can’t… I can’t go on in a world without you.”

“There is so much more than me in it,” she said. “You have your family still, and you can depend on them.”

Tears flowed from Sun’s eyes as he took Mari into his arms again. He buried his face in her shoulder and wept uncontrollably. Mari held him tight, kissing his face and hair. She stroked her hands down his back.

Sun woke to hear a buzzing noise. He half expected to see Zhanglang, but the more he came to, the more the buzz became beeping and chattering, the sound of a busy hospital. He looked around, and only saw glow at first before the hospital room came into focus. He saw his father asleep in a chair, and his sister pacing back and forth as she whispered into a phone.

Sun woke to the loving welcome of his family. For the first time in a long time, he felt an overwhelming relief. 

“We got the call last night,” his sister said. “The police told us they were taking you to the emergency room.”

“What happened?” Sun looked between their faces, overwhelmed by their presence.

“That awful hotel collapsed,” his father said. “It just… they can’t explain it. The whole place just imploded and sank into the ground. You were the only one who survived.”

“They said they found you outside in the rose garden.” His sister continued. “We’re going to take you home as soon as the doctors give their okay.” She hesitated as she gave him a concerned look. “Do you remember anything?”

Sun remembered Mari, the beautiful moth he had seen. He remembered embracing Zhanglang and seeing Fei die. He could see the light above him from the bottom of the crypt, and once again, he could remember Mari’s smiling face.

Sun closed his eyes and shook his head. “No,” he lied. “I don’t remember anything about last night.”

“Well, It’s a miracle you’re still here,” his sister sighed. “Not to worry. We’re going to take care of you until you can get out on your own again.”

Sun relaxed back into the bed and nodded. “Thank you.”

The days went by in a blur, alternately slow and fast. Sun was sitting on the porch of his childhood home when it finally dawned on him he was really home. He looked out over the yard, seeing the sidewalk laid out beyond the sea of green grass. He stood, watching the black asphalt go on and on through the sleepy neighborhood. More houses had sprung up since he was last there, but the air was the same. The feeling was the same. 

He smiled and settled back down in the chair when the door opened. His father came out, bringing him a drink and sitting beside him to talk.

The days started to separate after that. He could recognize a new one from the old. His sister kept him on a schedule, making sure he took his medication on time, ate his meals, and kept his room tidy. She took him for his doctor’s appointments, and helped him get a new camera. It was lucky he never gave Fei permission to handle his finances. 

Slowly, Sun started going out on his own. He wandered around his old neighborhood, and took a job at the local photography studio where he got his first start. He updated the blog that he and Mari had kept together. He put up photos that had not been published, mostly ones of Mari. He started writing about his recovery and his depression. He talked about the normal things, and left the other parts out. He was not sure how he could explain Zhanglang to anyone. 

One evening, as he sat on the porch, going over files in his camera, a luna moth came and settled on the light. It sat there, wings slowly moving before stilling in the glow. Sun smiled at it, and as he extended his hand, the moth fluttered down into his palm. Its legs tickled as it moved from his hand and to the scar on his wrist.

“Hello, Mari,” Sun croaked softly. “I’m glad you came for a visit.”