Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 3 2018 | Page 242

In The House of The White Bone Demon
St Margarets Co-Educational Secondary and Primary School, Tsang, Julia - 13
“I
’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again!” Chun-kit half whispered, half screamed at his three friends.
“ Miss Bai is a demon! ”
The four children - Chun-kit, Xiaolan, Connor, and Kashiko - were of different nationalities,
but they
had one thing in common: bad luck seemed to follow them everywhere. It wasn’t until a month ago
that they had been added to a mysterious chat group by an unknown person who informed them that
they were the reincarnations of the four main characters of the famous novel, Journey to the West - the
Monkey King, Tang Xuanzang, Pigsy, and Friar Sand - and to undo the karma that had caused their
bad luck, they would have to reach a mysterious place in western China - the “West Mountain”. Of
course, none of them believed a thing they were told, but they were so desperate to shake off their bad
luck that they had met up one day and began their journey to the west.
They had passed by many places on their way and met many people, but Miss Bai - who had offered
them food and lodging for some time up until now - had been the nicest. At least, that was what
everyone thought, except Chun-kit, who insisted that she was a demon in disguise.
“She’s a shapeshifter , for God’s sake!” Chun-kit replied angrily as Xiaolan argued for the fifth time
that day that what he had claimed was impossible. “I don’t know why you can’t see it. She’s fooling
all of you with her disguise - and she wants to eat you, Xiaolan!”
“Someone who makes such great food can’t be a demon,” Connor said through a mouthful of chicken
that Miss Bai had prepared for them.
Kashiko, who hadn’t said a word up until now, suddenly spoke. “Chun-kit, I think you might just be
tired. We’ve been walking for days before we reached this place.”
“Tiredness does make the brain think strange thoughts,” Xiaolan agreed. She didn’t know it, but she
was the cleverest of the group - and her friends secretly admired her for her ability to keep a cool head
and a logical mindset even in the face of danger. “It’s getting late. What we should do is go to bed a
while later - get plenty of rest - and set off for West Mountain first thing in the morning. We shouldn’t
worry about Miss Bai that much - ”
“She’ll get us in our sleep!” Chun-kit yelled indignantly, having trouble keeping his voice down. “I
bet she’s just waiting now for the perfect moment to - ”
The door to the room creaked softly and a rather tall woman dressed in white from head to toe
entered. Seeing the surprised expressions on the children’s faces, she smiled and said, “I’m sorry if I
scared you, children, I was just in the other room preparing some food and thought I heard someone
shouting. Is everything alright?”
Chun-kit opened his mouth, but Connor cut him off. “Of course, everything’s fine, but Chun-kit
here’s gone mad. He thinks you’re going to eat us or something, but of course, anyone knows a lady
as kind as you wouldn’t so much as kill a fly, right?”
But to everyone’s horror, a disturbingly sinister smile started to spread on Miss Bai’s face.
“Your friend does have quite an imagination,” she said, eyeing Chun-kit. “But, unfortunately, he’s not
wrong.”
The last thing everyone heard before the lights dimmed and an overwhelming dizziness overcame
them was Xiaolan’s high-pitched scream.
When they finally came to, they were in the same place they had been before it happened - Miss Bai’s
cozy, tidy living room. But now that they knew what she really was and Xiaolan was missing, nobody
felt like lounging around anymore. The first one to spring into action was Chun-kit. “I told you!
Thanks a lot for not listening to me - now Xiaolan could be dead !” He picked up a cushion from the
couch and threw it across the room in frustration. “Seriously, ‘there’s no way she isn’t a
demon’...what a load of nonsense…”
“THAT’S IT!” Kashiko shot up, her voice seemingly too loud for her usual, quiet self. “I know you
don’t believe all that stuff about us being the reincarnations of the Journey to the West characters - but
think about it. If we are their reborn selves, Miss Bai must be the White Bone Demon (everyone
shuddered at the name) - and Chun-kit must be the reincarnation of the Monkey King, because in the