“The blind man was old, broke, and blind as a bat. Why would any decent girl hitch her wagon to him? Unless she had a screw loose!” I shot back.

  “What the blind man did has zip to do with Grandpa.”

  My grandpa was as straight as an arrow, no way he’d do anything shady.

  Grandpa.2 let out a puff of smoke like a dragon breathing fire.

  “Back in the day, it was your grandpa who set the trap and railroaded her into marrying the blind man.”

  “That’s nuts!”

  “If not, why’s this spooky stuff haunting your family and leaving everyone else alone?”

  I opened my mouth, but my brain seemed to hit a brick wall.

  I mean, like they say, “Every dog has its day, and every wrong has its pay.”

  There’s no smoke without fire.

  But still, I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

  Grandpa had no reason to pull a stunt like that!

  “What your grandpa wanted most back then was in the blind man’s hot little hands,”

  Grandpa.2 said as cool as a cucumber, not a flicker of emotion.

  My eyelids started twitching like crazy.

  It’s worth mentioning that when Grandpa was young, he was a Wind-water master.

  He and Grandpa.2 learned their tricks from the same old school, though Grandpa.2 was always a few steps behind in the talent department.

  Over the years, whenever the village or the neighboring areas had some freaky things going on, they’d come running to Grandpa first.

  Grandpa lived a simple life, didn’t ask for much, except for one thing he was obsessed with, he had half of an ancient book handed down from his master.

  Word on the street was that whoever got their hands on this book could crack the code of Lunar&Sunny.

  But he only had half, and the other half was MIA.

  Grandpa spent his whole life on a wild goose chase for it.

  If the blind man really had the other half, then...

  I started to waiver, like a boat in a stormy sea.

  Grandpa.2 got up and strolled into the yard, giving Anbay and me some space to hash things out.

  “Can we trust this guy?” I felt like a lost puppy.

  “Not necessarily,” Anbay peeked at me.

  “But right now, he’s our only life raft.”

  Anbay was spot on.

  Plus, our parents were AWOL, and their lives were hanging by a thread.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  We couldn’t afford to dilly-dally; time was money.

  After we made up our minds, Anbay whistled for Grandpa.2 to come back in.

  When they waltzed back in, they were hauling a bunch of stuff: a charcoal brazier that looked like it was from the Stone Age and an ancient copper basin that had seen better days.

  The three of us huddled around the basin, which was two-thirds full of crystal-clear water.

  Grandpa.2 blew on the charcoal like he was trying to wake a sleeping dragon until it was red-hot.

  I felt the heat wave hit me and instinctively reached up to touch my ear.

  It was like sitting next to a bonfire in the middle of a sweltering summer – not exactly my idea of a good time.

  Grandpa.2 picked up a small knife,

  “Girl, I need a little of your blood.”

  Anbay jumped in like a knight in shining armor,

  “Hey, use mine instead!”

  Grandpa.2 gave him the side-eye,

  “This gig calls for virgin blood, kiddo.”

  Anbay, looking as red as a beet, yanked his hand back.

  The guy was known for being a bit of a ladies’ man, so his V-card had been punched a long time ago.

  Grandpa.2 turned back to me,

  “Girl, gimme your hand.”

  Honestly, this was giving me the heebie-jeebies.

  As a kid, I’d peeked at Grandpa doing his hocus-pocus, and none of it ever needed virgin blood.

  But we were backed into a corner.

  Worried sick about our parents, I stuck my hand out without a second thought.

  The blood draw was painless, like a mosquito bite.

  Three drops plopped into the water.

  Instantly, the blood started spreading like wildfire.

  Grandpa.2 hovered his hands over the basin, muttering some incantations that sounded like gibberish to me.

  All of a sudden, he reached into the brazier and snatched up two burning coals!

  He held onto them like they were gold bars, and the sizzling sound of his flesh burning was like bacon frying.

  If Grandpa.2 hadn’t given us the stink eye to keep quiet, I’d have screamed my lungs out.

  With veins popping out on his forehead like a road map, Grandpa.2 hollered and crushed the coals into powder that rained down into the basin.

  Then, it was like a scene from a horror movie.

  The water in the copper basin, which had been as calm as a millpond, started boiling like a witch’s cauldron.

  A deep, dark red color spread through it like a virus, turning the water into what looked like a pool of blood.

  My heart started pounding like a jackhammer.

  Pale eyes bobbed up from the bottom of the basin.

  What the heck were those?

  I leaned forward, my curiosity getting the better of me, and instinctively grabbed Anbay’s hand.

  Rising up from the basin were a pair of eyes – cold, mean, and screaming death.

  Anbay slapped his icy fingers over my mouth, reminding me of Grandpa.2’s warning to keep my trap shut.

  Grandpa.2’s eyes were bloodshot as he snatched up the eyeballs like a pro and cupped them in his palm.

  I had to swallow back the vomit that was creeping up my throat.

  The smell in the room was like a toxic cocktail of cheap perfume and raw meat – enough to knock you out.

  “Done,”

  Grandpa.2 announced, and just like that, the stink vanished.

  I peeked at the basin again, and the water was clear as a bell.

  Swallowing my disgust, I asked about our parents.

  “Life or death, it’s a coin toss,” Grandpa.2 replied.

  “At the crack of dawn tomorrow, we’ll know if they made it or not.”

  I checked my phone. It was 1 AM.

  Summer days start early, which meant we had only a few hours left on the clock!

  “Grandpa.2, what’s the game plan?”

  Anbay asked after calming me down.

  Grandpa.2’s face was as serious as a heart attack.

  “Unless we squash this grudge, that ghost will keep coming back to haunt your family like a bad penny.”

  He told us we needed to break the curse on the blind man’s wife first by digging up her body.

  My heart sank like a stone.

  I didn’t know much about Lunar&Sunny stuff, but I vaguely remembered Grandpa chewing someone out for messing with graves.

  He said it could open up a can of worms.

  Seeing my hesitation, Anbay whispered, asking what was up.

  I wasn’t sure if I should spill the beans.

  I knew Grandpa.2 was our only hope.

  Our parents’ lives were on the line.

  But his solution...

  Should we go along with it or not?

  Sweat was beading up on my nose like pearls.

  Anbay, unable to sit still, piped up,

  “Anna, you stay here while I go dig.”

  “No dice,” Grandpa.2 cut in.

  “Us menfolk carry a lot of Sunny energy, which might rile up the spirit. This dirty job has to be done by Anna.”

  Even though his logic kind of made sense, I still felt like I was walking on eggshells. After a brief hesitation, I nodded,

  “I’ll go, but I need to swing by home first.”

  Anbay was all for it.

  Growing up, he always had my back, even when he didn’t get what I was doing.

  I needed to grab something, hoping it could be my guardian angel.

  All I could do was cross my fingers and pray for a safe journey.