"What the - this is so - " Malcolm frowned as he frantically looked around: "What the fuck!"
Before anyone could respond, heavy rain poured down on this old house. Relentless drumming echoed in the house, as if hundreds if not thousands of people were punching or launching marbles at the house at the same time.
And almost at the same time, a droplet of water fell from above onto the salt ring they just did.
"Motherf - " Jake looked up, and saw a wet mark on the ceiling: "It's leaking right now?"
"If it keeps doing that we can't stay here. Let's check out other rooms." Wu Xiaoming frowned: "Jake, Malcolm, can you sweep the salt together? Don't mix them - clean salt in one pile and mixed salt in another pile, we may need to move again."
"What are you going to do?" Jake asked Wu Xiaoming, with a worried frown.
"I am going to check and see if it is leaking in other places." Wu Xiaoming sighed, then spoke into the radio: "Tim? Timothy? You're there? It's raining up here, and the room might not be a good place to stay right now. I think you should come and pick us up, for safety's sake. Can you guys try and see if you can contact him through the satellite connection?"
No answer. So Wu Xiaoming just walked to the next door bedroom with a broken window - there were two wet spots on the ceiling, both were dripping water. The floor was already wet, and rain was pouring in from the broken window as well. Water was also dropping onto the hallway floor - old house, old roof.
He went down to the first floor - it seemed the roof over the first door living room area was in better shape. He opened the door to the guest room slightly to take a look - it seemed the loose window was not helping in keeping the room dry.
Staying in the first door living room for the night seemed like the only option for them, and not a good one. Unless they could get something to hold the water for the night.
An idea popped into his head, then he went into the storage room by the kitchen. Inside, he found a few containers, and one plastic stool - which had enough room for the salt line to go through.
"Alright folks - I think these can work." Wu Xiaoming went back to the room with the stool and containers: "To catch the rain."
"Which room though?" Malcolm asked.
"I guess - the first floor living room seems okay, it's not leaking, but it's kinda - still dirty and it's still the first floor. " Wu Xiaoming put down everything and shrugged.
Malcolm exchanged looks with Jake, they then both turned to Matthew, who shook his head and sighed: "Either's fine with me, fuck."
"I think we should stay here and catch the rain for now - if some animals come we can at least have some buffer room." Malcolm nodded and turned to Jake: "What do you think?"
"I'm fine here. Everything here is better except for the leak." Jake nodded.
So they redid the salt lines, while having the stool sat across the salt line with a container on top to catch the rain. Judging from the rate of the drops, it wouldn't fill anytime soon.
"I also found something in the storage room." Wu Xiaoming sighed: "I think it's a hidden basement. I want to go in there and take a look, and I think I can have at most one more person with me. We've gotta keep each other company in all cases, I don't feel right leaving anyone alone."
"I'll go with you. Since it's the storage room, I figured the mic on the camera would be good enough, right?" Malcolm raised his hand, then looked at Jake: "Can you stay here with Matthew?"
"Hey, I'm a grown man." Matthew raised his voice slightly, but deflated a second later: "But thanks - it's good to have someone to keep an eye out with me."
"I'm fine. And - but let me know everything!" Jake hesitated for a moment, then nodded and agreed.
"Alrighty." Wu Xiaoming grabbed a flashlight and raised his radio: "Call us if you need anything, alright?"
Wu Xiaoming led the way down, as Malcolm followed him with the camera on. Without any delay, Wu Xiaoming rushed into the storage room. After feigning an attempt to check the corner, he pushed the shelf aside and knocked on the foot of the wall with his knuckles - it made a hollow sound.
"Yeah - I thought I heard and smelled something." Wu Xiaoming looked around: "I need something to pry this open - maybe a pry bar or - "
He scanned the shelf he pushed aside, and located the pry bar he had found in the ethereal realm earlier - visibly dustier, more rusted, but covered in more paint. With it, he opened the hidden trap door.
A smell of rot gushed from the secret basement underneath, both Wu Xiaoming and Malcolm had to cover their noses.
"Shit - it looks like - stairs." Wu Xiaoming frowned and coughed a few times, gesturing at Malcolm to point the camera at the entrance.
"Yes, stairs." Wu Xiaoming nodded, then as Malcolm shifted the camera to point at him, he nodded and took a deep breath and turned on the radio, speaking both to the camera and to the other two crew members above: "Alright, I'm going in."
"What? Where're you going?" Jake asked.
"We just found a secret basement underneath the floorboard of the storage room. I will be going in. " Wu Xiaoming responded as he descended the stairs: "Stay where you are, Jake. Also, Tim, if you're hearing this, you better arrange for our pickup or evacuation. If it keeps raining like this, this house will not be a place to stay."
"Okay, be careful, man." Jake responded. No response from the director at all. Wu Xiaoming went down, with his flashlight pointing forward, then Malcolm followed.
Structurally, the basement was just as Wu Xiaoming remembered - rectangular floorplan, the walls on the sides of the door were narrower than those faced by and behind the staircase. Different from what he had seen in the ethereal realm, however, was that the floor was covered in splashes of dark red marks, and at the center of the floor, was a broken circle - a ritualistic circle with arcane symbols written inside, most of which already faded or were scratched off or were covered by the dark red marks.
"Blood marks." Wu Xiaoming groaned, just loudly enough so that Malcolm's camera would catch it, and looked around: "Holy fucking shit, someone tried to perform a ritual here? What the - "
"Uh - do you think we should be here?" Malcolm asked.
"No. But - let me take a look first." Wu Xiaoming frowned at the camera, then raised his hand at Malcolm: "Stay by the stairs and keep your camera on me, if anything is wrong, call the others."
"Okay." Malcolm took a deep breath and leaned on the wall to his right to get a better angle.
Wu Xiaoming leaned by the broken circle - he could not tell what it was. Maybe it was from a ritual where some people tried to summon demons, or maybe it was meant for warding off evils. Either way, judging by the blood splatters, and the fact that this place was haunted right now, the ritual ended badly.
Black smoke, clouding all four corners of the room. He did not have to push his vision abilities very hard to see it. And as he scanned the rest of the basement with his vision activated, he caught two more things: the first was a small tool-like shadow reeking of supernatural energy from under a piece of cracked cement, and the other, was the human-shaped shadow that was actually "flashing" in his vision, also buried under the ground, above which was heavily cracked cement blocks.
"What do you see?" Malcolm asked, his voice shaking: "You've been staring around quite silently - it's a bit creepy, man."
"I think - I might have found something bad." Wu Xiaoming frowned and took a few deep breaths: "Stay where you are, man. I - and keep recording."
"Okay. But - be careful."
Wu Xiaoming nodded, and knelt by the position of a tool first, he lifted up some broken cement, and then retracted his hand into his coat sleeve and used it as a glove, dug into the loose dirt and debris underneath and pulled the object up - it was a mini hand shovel, whose blade was covered in red.
A "notification" of some kind popped into his mind. But he did not have the time or heart to check it out right now, he obviously had more pressing concerns.
"What's that?" Malcolm asked.
"A shovel - small gardening shovel, I think. I don't know." Wu Xiaoming let out a long exhale.
Wearing his sleeve like a glove again, he lifted the broken cement off the human-shape shadow. And before long, a long object piece of slightly dark beige surfaced - a human's forearm bone.
He lifted up a few more pieces and a full skeleton hand appeared. He stood up and took a step back, turning his face at Malcolm: "Tell me you got that, and, uh - we need to leave."
"Yes - that - that's a human hand right?" Malcolm nodded, swallowed and then wiped the sweat off his left cheek.
"I'm afraid so." Wu Xiaoming walked to the bottom of the stairs: "And - uh - it could be a crime scene right now."
"Shit." Malcolm wiped his face again.