Wraith

By Linda Peters

Half of July, the ghost festival arrives. A few young people were invited to go out for fun when they witnessed a car accident on the road. They don't care about it, but they don't realize that this unintentional act will lead to a fatal retaliation. A sudden fog strands them at a deserted service station, where a series of strange and bizarre e

• Language: English
• Publisher: Manuel Lopez
• Release date: Feb 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869325853

Book preview

D:\桌面\未发表\恐怖悬疑\怨灵\Wraith.jpg

Wraith

Copyright © 2024 by Linda Peters

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Disclaimer

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Ebook ISBN: 979-8-8693-2585-3

Cover designed by Linda Peters

Edited by Linda Peters

Wraith

I. Car accident

At six in the afternoon, a black Mercedes-Benz business car sped down the highway, the setting sunlight tilting and spilling over the car, shaking the light in front of his eyes.

As the highway stretched forward, there was a clear demarcation line in the distant sky, and the clouds outside the line were dark, constantly changing shape, exuding an oppressive and breathless feeling. And below that demarcation line were two large undulating mountains, like two thick door panels, blocking everything - inside and outside the door seemed to be two worlds. With the approach of the car, it was as if that gate was slowly pushed open by a pair of big invisible hands, revealing a gap in the center to welcome the stranger.

In the cab, Shen Ao glanced at the distant sky and said, Look at this day, it should be raining soon, and so on down this main road will have to drive a little further to Wu Village, I don't know if the road is good to go after the rain. If it's not good, we don't want to go to Wu Village today. He said, looked around, usually at this time, this road should have a lot of vehicles to and from, but strangely enough, at this moment there is only him this one car lonely forward.

Should make it in time. The one who spoke was Qiqi, who was sitting in the passenger side. Don't look at her age, she was the youngest among the seven people in the car, but her dress was the most daring. A head of dyeing big wave long hair, peach blossom eyes, high nose, cone face, a black sexy deep V dress, well set off her convex body and white skin, so that people can't help but think of special thing two words.

Qiqi sidestepped and continued, We are already thankful that Shen Ao can drive out his family's Mercedes Benz to pick us up and save us the trouble of booking our own tickets to Wu Village. Even if we sleep in the wilderness, it's nothing, don't you all think so?

After she said this, she glanced with her eyes at the three men and two women sitting in the carriage, and one of them, a sharp-tongued man, immediately picked up, That's natural, Shen Shao drove hard, drive slowly, there's no need to rush.

Horse's ass! The remaining four people in the compartment all gave this guy called Wang Renjie a look of contempt, but their mouths echoed Qi Qi's words. Although Shen Ao was as arrogant as his name suggested, he was still quite generous, and he had paid for all the food, lodging, and transportation along the way, so there was no need for everyone to get on the wrong side of the gold master.

Qiqi had a smug look on her face, and her body leaned towards Shen Ao's side with ulterior motives - such a posture was favorable for Shen Ao to easily see her alluring physique.

Shen Ao glanced at Qiqi's cleavage, the corner of his mouth pulled up a smile, This is what I should do. It's fate that we can meet in the same forum and travel to Wu Village together. If not for some delay on the road, we would have arrived long ago.

As soon as these words were said, everyone in the carriage fell silent, even Fatty Wang Qian, who had been stuffing food into his mouth, stopped moving his hands and his face became odd.

Shen Ao secretly sighed, he was really a pot calling the kettle black. But today this thing is also too unlucky, just more than an hour ago, the seven people in this car, witnessed a car accident.

It was really a bit creepy to think about the situation. Shen Ao seven people originally agreed to go to Wu Village to play, at first the atmosphere is quite good, except Qi Qi and the United States back to Charlotte seems to be quite wrong, all the way in the fight. Although these two women are a bit noisy, but they often pop up some wonderful paragraphs when they fight sarcasm, which makes the crowd quite fun to listen to down the road.

Shen Ao still remembers that at that time, I don't know who said that today is the Ghost Festival on the half of July, Charcoal's interest was immediately hooked up, and pursued, What Ghost Festival, come to explain?

Qiqi immediately said sarcastically, What, pretending to be a foreigner and not understanding this?

Charlotte laughed and said, It's not pretending to be a foreigner, I grew up in the United States and just came back, it's normal that I don't understand.

Oh, so there are leftover women in America.

That is, the United States also has Miss ...... Charlotte words in the meaning of everyone understands, but do not wait for Qiqi rebuttal, only to hear the front came bang a loud bang, Shen Ao eyes wide open! Shen Ao watched a hundred meters away from a red car, was another blue van overturned the whole.

Squeak-- Shen Ao subconsciously slammed on the brakes, the tires and the ground friction out of the ear-splitting sound, the remaining six people in the car under the inertia of a hard lean forward in unison screamed in shock--good thing there is the The protection of the seat belt, no one was injured.

When the car finally braked, a few people were so shocked that they all held their breath, their eyes glued to the scene of the crash in the distance.

In the distance, the big blue truck that caused the accident moved, and then slowly backed up for some distance, and then sped over in the direction where Shen Ao and the others were with one hit of the steering wheel. In that instant, Shen Ao clearly saw the panicked and fierce face of the truck driver through the car window, which immediately scared him and made his cold hairs stand on end.

The two cars staggered past, rolling up a cloud of smoke and dust. Shen Ao looked at the rearview mirror gradually disappeared in the big truck, relieved, palpitating, scared me to death, I thought this guy was going to kill to kill!

This ...... is considered a hit and run, right? Qiqi looked back in the direction the big truck had disappeared.

It should be. Fatty Wang Qian said, fished out a chicken leg and shook it over his mouth, leaving only the bones in the air.

Charoco put her hands together in a prayer, Hit and run! God, it's unbelievable that this would happen in America!

Qiqi is most displeased with Charcoal's appearance of being not accustomed to the soil after returning from overseas, and sneered back, What, there are no car accidents in the United States? There is no escape?

There was a car accident, but there was no hit-and-run, and that's the quality of the nation ......

Enough! Is it still finished? Not waiting for Charcoal to finish her words, another man in the carriage, Mo Ke Liang, finally spoke up. Before he has been drumming his favorite camera, did not participate in the conversation, but Shen Ao that a sharp braking, so that the camera fell to the ground, due to the fear of the camera was broken, Mo Keliang conscience is not good, these two women quarrel, so that the short-tempered him on the spot on the fire.

Because Mo Keliang's fire was venting more towards Xia Luo Ke, Qi Qi just rolled her eyes and didn't say anything else. As for Xia Luo Ke, after glancing at Mo Ke Liang's body full of muscles, she swallowed and closed her mouth.

Mo Keliang carefully checked and saw that the camera was not a problem, and then let go. Raising his head to see the crowd staring at him, thinking that the roar just now might have shocked everyone, he smiled apologetically and patted the back of Shen Ao's seat, Shen Shao, should we go over and take a look? Maybe the people are still saved.

When Shen Ao saw Mo Ke Liang return the team's dominance back to him, a trace of anger in his heart dissolved and he nodded, started the car and drove slowly towards the accident site.

The sky seems to be much darker, a dark cloud over the roof of the car, as if a big hand to the top of people's heads, everything is permeated with a dead atmosphere. That was knocked over the red car has been completely disfigured, the ground scattered all over the goods on the truck, and the obvious brake marks, revealing the thrill of the time.

In the driver's cab of the little red car was a man wearing a white shirt, but now, it had been stained with blood and had become tattered; the man's hair was twisted into strands by the blood, and his face was bloody and disfigured. In the passenger seat beside him, a piece of red dress flashed in front of people's eyes, the chest clothing has been clothed, revealing the beautiful breasts; snow-white face of a pair of dead eyes look at the people who are peeping at her big eyes, look so horrible and terrible.

In the back seat, is an old woman holding a three or four-year-old child fell in a pool of blood. The child's small hands upward holding a teddy bear, perhaps because of the collision, the teddy bear lost an eye, only a one-eyed indifference to look at everything outside the car, just as the crowd approached, the eye, it seems to turn a little.

Shen Ao several people silently watched this appalling scene, the atmosphere was somewhat silent.

Gee, that's tragic. That kid should still be saved, right? A voice came from behind the crowd, and everyone subconsciously turned back. Only to see a woman in a white dress, leaning against the car door, half squinting her eyes, constantly glancing back and forth between the crowd and the scene of the crash, like a lazy and elegant cat.

Fatty Wang Qian nibbled on an apple and said, Qin Jin, you finally woke up from your nap?

That big commotion must have woken up, but it's you, I'm really convinced that you can still eat in such an environment.

It's just dead people, I have hundreds of dead pigs frozen in my kitchen freezer, as well as chickens, ducks, fish, and so on, if you want to be serious, they are all corpses, and I'm still cutting, chopping, frying, and deep-frying these corpses every day, right? So these have no effect on my appetite.

Do you want me to eat meat or not in the future? Qin Jin glared at Fatty and slowly got out of the car, there was a wind that blew, lifting up the hem of her skirt, revealing a pair of long legs that made even Qiqi envious, making the hearts of all the men present as if they were being gently scratched by furry claws, with infinite reverie.

Of course, this all men except the fat Wang Qian, this guy threw the apple core, and then concentrate on dealing with a big bag of potato chips in his hand - I have to say, what can attract this foodie is always the food, not the beauty.

It was also because of this reaction of the fat Wang Qian who was not tempted by the beautiful woman that he became the best performer among the men. A hint of mockery flashed in Qin Jin's eyes as she walked over to Wang Qian's side, her slender jade hand casually resting on his shoulder, snatching a chip from his hand, frowning, and stuffing it back, Fatty don't eat it, go and see if they're still saved.

Don't! I'm just a cook, I'm not good at saving people's lives. Fatty Wang Qian shook his head and refused.

Qin Jin sighed and put her eyes on the remaining three men. Shen Ao and Mo Keliang pretended not to see, but it was Wang Renjie who acted enthusiastically, waving his hand and saying, I'll I'll I'll I'll I learned some on-site first aid when I was in college. After saying that, not waiting for others to speak, rolled up his sleeves and bent down to check up.

His reaction like this made everyone look at each other, when did this profitless guy become so enthusiastic?

Although there are some doubts, but someone stood out to do the work that others are not willing to do, we naturally have no complaints, perhaps people Wang Renjie conscience, Nightingale possessed may also say. So everyone very tacit understanding backed away a few steps, let Wang Renjie drumming, but none of them found that Wang Renjie in the body under the cover, quietly hand to the car a left in the corner of the men's wallet ......

When touching the wallet at that moment, Wang Renjie immediately judged from the thickness of the approximate amount of money inside, and a burst of joy in his heart: These fools, really think I'm so kind? Then without a trace to hide the wallet, and fussed in the car drumming for a while, only to get up, heavy-faced shook his head to the crowd - in fact, the heart is happy.

The crowd sighed, although we do not know each other, but after all, it is a living four lives, just like this is gone, think about the heart is also quite heavy. After a few seconds of silence, Wang Renjie found that Qiqi came to the front of the car and picked up a cell phone to take pictures, and immediately made a thief's voice to stop: Qiqi, what are you doing?

Send a tweet, first hand, it must be sensational, there must be many reprints. Qiqi said without looking back.

At this time, Qin Jin also chimed in, Send it, send it @ me, I want to retweet it. Ghost festival car accident, it's so powerful to think about.

Don't shoot the corpse, don't disturb them. Wang Renjie still wanted to stop it, but realized that no one was paying attention to him at all, and Fatty Wang Qian was still teasing him while eating potato chips, Alright, coward, weren't you quite brave before? How come you're not now?

It's not the same, I just saved a life, they're blaspheming. And today is the half of July, that woman is wearing red clothes again, this thing is evil! Wang Renjie didn't care what blasphemy was in his heart, he was just afraid that others would find out about him taking the wallet, so he talked about the half of July to scare them.

Wicked? That's something you and Charoke go say, she's already going to get together. Fatty Wang Qian said a finger in the direction of Charoke, only to see this woman put her face in the red sedan close, while looking at it, said, Oh my God, how can this kind of car safety be so bad, it's unbelievable, in the U.S. can't happen this kind of thing ...... is not right, the brakes of the prints like to avoid something.

Fatty Wang Qian laughed, Charoco, you still know to watch this kind of scene, very knowledgeable.

Read a little more and you won't be uneducated. Charoco was very proud.

Qiqi gave her a blank look, It's not a murder case, what's the point of pretending to be a sleuth.

Among the seven people, besides Shen Ao, Fatty Wang Qian and Qin Jin who were farther away, there was also Mo Keliang who also came up to take his professional camera and kept taking pictures without saying anything.

Wang Renjie see can not stop the crowd, the heart is a little anxious, but on second thought, this photo shot, it has become the first hand evidence, proving that there is no wallet of the deceased inside the car, then before the wallet can logically be his black down. Even after the investigation, the big deal is to say that he picked up on the side of the road, the car has been knocked over like this, a small wallet flying out of the car dozens of hundreds of meters is also very likely, other people can't say that he is in the side of the deceased to take.

Thinking of this, Wang Renjie no longer had the intention to stop, borrowed the slope and said, Really can't do anything about you guys, shoot it shoot it, but I want to remind you that this kind of unjust death is very heavy with Yin Qi. Especially that woman's eyes are surprisingly not even closed, the old man said not to look at the dead at the scene of a car accident, because their eyes were open when they died, and it is easy to be haunted after looking at them.

Shen Ao heard this, but said with interest: Is it? I would like to think that the chick's chest ...... Before the words were finished, suddenly a pair of bloody eyes flashed in his mind, scaring him in a cold sweat, and hurriedly cut off the thoughts that shouldn't be there and closed his mouth.

After a while, Shen Ao then snapped, Have you all played enough? Let's go when you've had enough! The pair of bloody eyes that suddenly flashed in his mind just now caused Shen Ao's heart to palpitate and his tone to become impatient.

When everyone saw that the team leader had given the word, they each collected their things and prepared to get into the car, and it was at this moment that Charoco suddenly screamed, pointing at the child in the backseat and saying, The child! That kid seemed to have moved just now!

What! The crowd immediately stopped in their tracks, then the first thing they did was to focus their eyes on Wang Renjie.

Wang Renjie, didn't you just say none of them were saved?

I didn't say ah, just shook my head. Wang Renjie retorted in his heart, but on his mouth he bravadoly said, I've checked it carefully several times, and it's true that none of them are breathing. It could be that Charoco was mistaken.

There's no way I could be wrong, the boy did move!

That could be a spinal reflex, who told you to get that close just now. Dissected frogs move just as well after they've been electrocuted, so maybe you're the one who touched the kid, and there's static electricity on people that causes a spinal nerve reflex. You've read so many books you wouldn't not know, right?

I didn't ...... Charoco still wanted to retort, but stopped halfway through, she felt that there was something wrong in Wang Renjie's words, but couldn't tell why. In terms of her knowledge, it was more than enough to pretend to be a seafaring literati, but when it came to biology, she was blind. Besides, in that situation just now, maybe she had really touched that kid and really caused that spinal reflex? In order not to expose his shortcomings, Charlotte closed her mouth.

At this time, Fatty Wang Qian interjected, Yes, yes, just like when we cook fish, sometimes the whole fish that has died will still jump up after it has been put into the frying pan, so before we put it into the pan we will all use a chopper to slap it on the head a few times to destroy the spinal nerves, and then the fish won't jump up.

Oh, so that's how it is. Qiqi came to a realization, But I still think the fish should be eaten in soup, it's more nutritious.

Then when we get to Wu Village, we'll catch a few fish to make fish soup for dinner.

It's best to add some sauerkraut to the fish soup.

Can you put some bean sprouts underneath ......

Crowd of people talking, the topic is all of a sudden crooked do not know where to go. Wang Renjie heart secretly happy, this time there is no one to pursue him in the end there is no serious examination, the heart of a small admired himself a little. In fact, he does not know what the spinal nerve reflex, just vaguely remember a small experiment in middle school, casually connect the two together, which thought that actually put Charlotte can be bluffed, the heart secretly sighed good luck. Immediately after, he reminded everyone with ulterior motives: Let's hurry up and get on the road, it's still so far from Wu Village, if we're late, not to mention eating fish, there's no water for brushing pots.

After this reminder from him, everyone was ready to continue on their way. At this time, Qin Jin suddenly snapped, This is leaving? Don't you make a call to the traffic police?

The crowd felt that Qin Jin's words were reasonable, and they were about to pull out their cell phones, but who knew that Shen Ao opened his mouth and said, Whoever of you wants to fight. But let me remind you first, for such a big traffic accident, the traffic police will definitely want to leave the witnesses to go back and make statements, whoever of you wants to stay and be a good citizen can, but I won't accompany you.

After Shen Ao finished speaking, he opened the car door and sat in the driver's seat by himself, lit a cigarette and took a deep breath, then rubbed his temples hard. Just now when everyone spoke, Shen Ao has not opened his mouth, at that time, his mind is full of that pair of bloody eyes, no matter how he thinks of other things to distract his attention, but as long as he closes his eyes, that pair of eyes will appear, staring at him at a very close position, causing him to be distracted, and he just wants to leave here earlier. As for whether the kid in the car was still saved, whether he should notify the traffic police or not, it was not in his consideration.

In Shen Ao's view, all the things that happened to other people besides himself had nothing to do with him, and there was even no reason to run around for other people.

"As soon as this ...... Shen Ao left, the remaining six people looked at me and I looked at you, none of them seemed to be willing to stay here. Imagine, a person stayed alone in this car accident scene, accompanied by four corpses, and this sky is also slowly gloomy, think about it is creepy.

Wang Renjie actually thought of leaving early, so he leapt into the carriage without saying a word. With him as an example, like a chain reaction, the remaining few people also silently got into the car.

The door was slammed heavily shut, and with a slight vibration, the black business car slid forward for a while, then an accelerated away from the scene, leaving behind only a field of wreckage, and four cold corpses.

And just as Shen Ao drove by, there was a ray of sunlight reflecting off the bodywork, hitting the red-skirted woman's face. Immediately afterward, in her cloudy eyes, there seemed to be a flash of red light, fleeting ......

II. Mists

The sky is getting more and more gloomy, the black Mercedes Benz commercial car is still driving on the highway. Because of Shen Ao's words, the crowd was induced to fall into silence, after a long time, Fatty Wang Qian muttered, I should have known to change the day, I knew it's no good to go out on the 'Ghost Festival'.

Wang Renjie looked at the fat man with a mocking expression on his face, Can't see that you're quite superstitious.

This is not a superstition, it is a cultural inheritance ...... Fatty had not finished his words, but was interrupted by Charcoal: Stop! Don't just talk about it, no one has explained to me what a 'ghost festival' is yet.

Wanna know, huh? This is for you. Mo Keliang, who was idling by the side, held up his cell phone and came over, See for yourself, just Baidu's, to popularize the traditional culture of the motherland for you, the American student.

Charlotte took the cell phone and read with a frown, Zhongyuan Festival, a traditional Chinese festival, commonly known as the 'Ghost Festival' in folklore and the 'Bon Festival' in Buddhism, falls on the 14th or 15th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar. On this day, families worship their ancestors, and in some cases, they hold family feasts, and perform rituals when making offerings. Three rounds of libations are poured to show the ancestors that the feast is over, and then the family sits down together for a festive dinner. After the break of dark, carrying firecrackers, paper money, incense and candles, to find a secluded piece of flat land along the river or pond, with lime to sprinkle a circle, indicating a restricted area. Then splash some water and rice in the circle, burn some paper money, firecrackers, send ancestors on their way, back to the netherworld. In the past, the folk in the seventh day of the seventh month through certain rituals to pick up the ghosts of the ancestors to go home, daily morning, afternoon and evening, for three times the tea and rice, until the 15th of July to send back until. Now, the superstitious colors are gradually eliminated, and only the form of sacrifice is retained as a remembrance and commemoration of deceased relatives.

Skimming her lips, Charoco said, It's quite common, it's just a festival of sacrifice, what's so mysterious about it?

Mo Keliang coldly said, Look at the back again.

Charlotte then read on: "About the origin of the 'Ghost Festival', there is another saying. Legend has it that Jizang Bodhisattva, or Yama, as he is often called, came to the underworld after his mother's death, and was locked up in a cell, where she had to suffer the tortures of the eighteen layers of hell. Earth Tibetan Bodhisattva is a filial son, see his mother suffer heart intolerance, in the July 15 this day even favoritism, let the guard cell ghosts secretly open the door, let his mother out. Who knows that this open the door does not matter, the cell in the small ghosts swarmed out, ran to the earth for the people, so there is a 'half of July, ghosts run amok' said. Those ghosts who ran back to their hometowns asked for money from their