This notebook was hard to peel open at first, the pages and the spine made cracking sounds even when Gloria opened it with extra caution. The pages were slightly wrinkled, as if they were once drenched in water and were subsequently dried. There were also soiled ink marks on almost every page, some of the more serious ones even made it so that Gloria could not decipher anything at all.

“Yeah - not many of the pages are readable.” Sue shrugged: “I’ll try to find someone who can read pen prints and see if we can find anything, but if it was written by writing brushes, then there’s no way to tell at all. The notes I’m talking about are in the middle.”

Gloria sighed, then flipped to a more clear part in the middle, where the pages were soiled in the edges but the words at or close to the center.

“... the overwhelming gloom and darkness clouding the entirety of Poison City was making the people of the Northern and South-Western parts of the city who are of positions and power just as worried, if not more than the common regular resident in our district. Not long ago, they started talking, and even allowing some kind and certain extense of public discussion of paranormality, which they previously just shut down and slandered as ignorant folksy superstition …

“... There were certain factions of the city, and I meant those that include city leaders, who even openly expressed interest in pushing forward a city-wide project to suppress or even quell paranormality … ”

“... aforementioned project was unnamed, and there isn’t much direct evidence showing that it is even being developed. But from what we heard, and from what our contacts in the city hall told us, they are collaborating with a few civilian entities in order to develop certain technologies that would serve this purpose…”

And the next few pages seemed to be either horribly soiled and had only a few readable words or were even completely torn from the notebook.

“So, there was a ‘project’ to quell paranormality, huh?” Gloria frowned and went into her thoughts for a short moment: “I mean - it is interesting. And god - I actually think it is probably, or very likely a real project that actually happened.”

“You mean - the fact that the other two districts seemed to have less paranormal incidents than our district?” Sue raised her eyebrows: “Yeah, exactly, exactly. But we don’t know what it is, not yet.”

“You’ll keep looking into it?” Gloria asked with a smile.

“Yes. And I believe we’re onto something crucial.” Sue nodded: “What about you? What else did you find from the pigs?”

“Here. But I have to warn you, it’s really really gruesome.” Gloria handed the roll of torn files to Sue: “We are looking into the incident’s connection with water, and we’re going to the docs early tomorrow morning.”

“What - in order to investigate, you’re trying to go right at it?” Sue almost jumped from the chair while having her eyes fixed on Gloria: “Yeah, bring me, I want to go with you.”

“Don’t you have a job to do tomorrow?” Gloria shook her head: “And trust me - Gyuu and I got it.”

“Nonsense, I’m coming with you.” Sue shook her head: “You said early morning right? Bring me along, I want to help. And I don’t want to just stay on the sidelines and wait, while you’re literally out there fighting ghosts and spirits.”

Gloria sighed, then patted her friend on the shoulder: “Okay, but remember two things: one, whatever you’ll see, you did not see; and two, we are never there, okay? ”

“Yeah, of course.” Sue laughed and shrugged: “We just went for an early morning coffee, what’s wrong with that?”

—---------------------

The next morning, there was only very faint sunlight behind the cloudy sky. The wind was constant and chilling, but at least the air seemed fresh. Gloria and Sue walked through the streets with hastened steps and in thick coats. Before they came, they packed almost everything they could find that would protect them from anything paranormal and supernatural: talismans, bottles of blessed water, incense burners and blessed candles. Sue even brought a small blessed wooden buddha statue with her.

“Well, this is an occasion I was never trained for.” Gyuu Park got to the docks just a bit earlier than Gloria and Sue: “Sue, thank you for coming. I’d say that we don’t want civilians in an operation like this. But who am I kidding, everyone’s kind of a civilian when dealing with things like this.”

“And everyone is kind of a soldier when things like this happen, we don’t really have a choice, do we? ” Sue laughed out loud: “Now, what do you want to do here?”

“Well, hopefully just a simple ritual and everything will become clear.” Gyuu Park sighed: “But - if I am not mistaken, it can become a bit dangerous. So - prepare to run. And, uh, yeah, let’s go. We’ll just need a small hidden corner. ”

Three of them snuck into the area of the docks from the side. This was not the hot shipping season, nor was it fishing season in the lakes, so not many were using it, which meant that many warehouses nearby were empty and unused. There remained some wooden crates and boxes and shelves, but they looked like they had been untouched for quite a while.

“Here, this one looks good.” Gyuu Park pointed at a warehouse with two rusty metal doors and a metal chain keeping them closed. There was visible dust on the chains and the dirt patterns on the ground seemed mostly even. It seemed this was a warehouse that was not recently used.

“Okay, but rusty locks might be hard though.” Gloria brought out her small toolkit and started picking the lock on the chain: “I mean, we can try the window if possible…”

“Nonono, if we do this, we need to have every sign of harmony. ” Gyuu Park shook his head: “Breaking windows is a bad, I mean really BAD sign.”

“Oh, and picking out the lock isn’t?” Gloria smiled as the lock clicked and the chains fell on the sides.

“We’d have a harder time if the lock is actually on the door.” Gyuu Park shrugged while Gloria pushed the doors open: “But yeah. It’s not good, but sometimes we just don’t have the luxury. ”

The air inside the warehouse reeked of rust, mold and saltiness from the water and fish. The mud river was not exactly known for its quality fish product due to pollution, but more than half of the fresh water fish and crustaceans sold in the South-Eastern District came through here, so it could make sense that this warehouse was once used to store these products.

“Here, light it up in the Southwestern corner.” Gyuu Park handed a small candle in a bronze holder to Gloria: “And Sue, help me set the flags.”

The flame on the candle wick danced and flickered, even though there was no obvious airflow in this very warehouse. It settled down after a while, and seemed to be steady.

Gyuu Park and Sue placed six small flags at a central spot of the warehouse, two red, two green and two blue, each pair facing each other. At the center, Gyuu Park put down a small bronze bowl filled with prime white sticky rice with one long incense stick. Right now, Gyuu Park was drawing a circle with arcane symbols using red paint around the flags.

“This - you’re drawing a Qiyun related circle!” Sue’s eyes opened wide, then turned to Gyuu Park: “How - How do you even know this? This is supposed to be forbidden knowledge!”

“Like I advised Gloria.” Gyuu Park seemed to be somewhat tired out after finishing the circle: “When you need answers and can't find a way to get them - try the old ruins.”