Soon after, it was the day when the rich came to the church to hold a strange sacrifice.
Usually, the dean would call 'him' to the church a day early. On that day, 'he' wouldn't go back to his normal bedroom and would instead sleep in the church.
Bai Liu held the Killing Records of the Slenderman that 'he' had given him. Finally, he got up, carefully put on his shoes, and headed to the church.
The church was locked by the dean, but Bai Liu had been to the church many times and knew some small passages that would allow him to sneak in. For example, a small broken window blocked by a curtain.
Bai Liu climbed through the window into the church. He used the moonlight to search for traces of other people and finally found 'him' behind the statue. The moment Bai Liu saw the other person, there were no emotional fluctuations on his face.
'He' was curled up in a bathtub that was slightly smaller than his body. The bathtub was full of blood, and his almost transparent face was half-soaked in it. His breathing couldn't even be felt. There was a thin layer of frost on his eyelashes, and his hands, feet, and forehead were still bleeding from the blood draws.
"Xie Ta," Bai Liu called out his name for the first time.
In the bathtub, Xie Ta woke up slowly. He opened his eyes and saw Bai Liu. He reached out his hand as if to touch Bai Liu, but something in the bathtub wriggled. Thorny vines full of mushrooms protruded from the blood and wrapped around Xie Ta's neck, wrists, and ankles. One second before Xie Ta's fingers could touch Bai Liu, he was wrapped up tightly and confined in this blood-colored baptismal pool.
"What are you doing?" Bai Liu heard himself ask calmly.
Xie Ta explained, "A baptism. This is the ritual before my blood is drawn."
"Those people are here to draw your blood, right? They need your blood to save themselves." Bai Liu continued to ask very calmly. "So much of your blood has been drawn. Won't you die?"
"No." Xie Ta looked at Bai Liu. "I am a monster, so I won't die."
Xie Ta exhaled white fog as he spoke. This was enough to show that his current body temperature was very low.
"Then aren't you cold sleeping here?" Bai Liu wondered.
Xie Ta shook his head honestly. "I don't feel it."
Bai Liu placed one foot into the blood. He knelt down and forced himself into the gap where Xie Ta was curled up. Bai Liu's warm body temperature penetrated the blood and passed to Xie Ta. Xie Ta blinked slowly, and the frost on his eyelashes melted from Bai Liu's breath.
He could feel the cold now because Bai Liu was so warm.
Then Bai Liu casually opened the book Xie Ta had given him and asked, "Do you want to look at it together?"
They slept together in the filthy, blood-filled baptismal pool. They chatted aimlessly as the statue looked down on them.
"What does baptism mean?"
"A baptism means that God bestows blessings on his beloved, newborn believers."
"You receive blessings like this?"
"...They are the ones being blessed."
"Do you believe this? Do you really think there is a god?"
"Yes."
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Bai Liu curled up in Xie Ta's cold arms and fell into a deep sleep. He woke up the next day and found himself in his own bed with no blood on his body.
In the afternoon, Xie Ta returned, and he was even paler than before.
This time, the pinpricks had spread to his face. The backs of his hands and his feet were covered in shocking bruises from the repeated blood draws.
Bai Liu silently wrapped the bandages he had stolen from the infirmary around the needle marks that were still bleeding.
Xie Ta watched him quietly before suddenly saying, "Remove these bandages. Then your Slenderman doll will have a face."
Bai Liu's lips pressed together in a straight line.
The group of wealthy people who drew blood came more and more frequently. This meant Xie Ta's appearance became less frequent. Even when he appeared occasionally, the smell of blood and mushrooms from Xie Ta's body made it hard for people to accept.
Once Xie Ta appeared, the children would stay far away from him and continue to fan the tip of their noses with disgust. It was as if they wanted to fan this strange smell away along with Xie Ta.
Xie Ta also seemed to know that the smell on his body wasn't good. He rarely appeared in front of Bai Liu and just watched from a distance. Occasionally, Bai Liu would walk over to find Xie Ta, but Xie Ta would disappear.
Once, he didn't want to come into contact with people; it was as if he didn't exist. No one could find him at all, including Bai Liu.
Bai Liu started to get into contact with adults outside, doing things not appropriate for children in the gray area. He could use this to make a lot of money.
Once he had enough money, ability, and preparedness, he would definitely take Xie Ta away from this group of investors and run out of the welfare home—albeit, it was a very immature and naive plan.
A faint sense of uneasiness and urgency made Bai Liu realize that if Xie Ta didn't leave, there was a good chance he would never be able to leave.
However, Bai Liu's matter was still exposed.
The child who exposed Bai Liu shrank back behind the dean. He was cowering and gulped several times before raising his hand in a trembling manner, pointing at the blank-faced Bai Liu. "I saw him doing... some strange deals with that adult! He helped the adults do bad things! I saw it! The adults gave him money!"
"Have you done this type of thing, Bai Liu (6)?!" The dean looked at him sternly.
Bai Liu didn't say anything to deny it. He just stared at Xie Ta in the crowd and remained silent.
He had no explanation for what he did—because it was meaningless.
These people didn't care what he had done. Even if they didn't ask him about his actions, they would still convict him of the crime.
Of course, what he did wasn't anything good.
It was just that these teachers were afraid of him, the odd child who was always mixed up with Xie Ta, becoming more eerie and terrifying. He liked to look at bloody stories and always looked at other people like they were livestock to be slaughtered.
Thus, it was natural that he was going to be punished. Bai Liu wasn't in the mood to judge these teachers' measures for punishing people. In any case, it wasn't the first time he had been punished.
Yet when the teacher came over and grabbed Bai Liu's arm, wanting to drag him away, Xie Ta placed one hand on the back of his chair and stood up shakily.
His face and tone were unchanged as usual. "I made him do it."
Now these teachers completely had their hackles raised.
Compared to Bai Liu, they were naturally more afraid of Xie Ta. They surrounded Xie Ta but vigilantly maintained a one-meter gap, forming a vacuum encirclement.
The dean cautiously, fearfully, and condescendingly asked him, "Why did you make Bai Liu (6) do such a thing?"
They never suspected that Xie Ta didn't do it, just like the previous process of convicting Bai Liu. They simply sentenced him to this crime with certainty.
It was because he was a monster, and Bai Liu (6) was a bad boy who accompanied the monster. Everything they did was taken for granted.
Xie Ta glanced sideways at Bai Liu, who was being pulled up by the teachers. The corners of his mouth raised abruptly. The moment that Xie Ta smiled, Bai Liu felt that his silver-blue eyes would surely become very gentle and beautiful. Unfortunately, they were blocked by his hair, and Bai Liu couldn't see them.
Xie Ta confessed with the same soft tone as when he gave the book to Bai Liu. "It is because I want to contact the people outside and run away with Bai Liu (6)."
"How dare you run away?!" the dean screamed hysterically. "You know what trouble you will cause us if you run away! The second round of screening has started! Those investors won't give money without your blood!"
The children dispersed in a panic. They were frightened as they discussed it in whispers, "Blood? What blood? Is it the blood flowing from his pinpricks?"
"He is a monster!"
The dean instinctively covered her mouth after realizing her mistake. The next second, she looked viciously at Xie Ta and held him by his slender wrist to drag him toward the church.
"Everything you have is given by this welfare home, yet you want to escape!" The dean's anger overcame her fear, and she cruelly sentenced Xie Ta to a punishment. "I think we have given you too many privileges. You should receive some education. Tonight, I will lock you up in the church so you can be baptized!"
Then she dragged Xie Ta by the wrist and left.
Bai Liu struggled past the noisy children and teachers. He chased laboriously through the crowd, reaching out to try and grab Xie Ta, who was being taken away from him. "Xie Ta!"
Xie Ta looked back at him. The wind blew up his curly hair, covering his forehead, revealing those silver-blue eyes that were as beautiful as a lake after the snow melted.
Bai Liu stared blankly at Xie Ta's eyes, which weren't sad at all. Instead, they were calm and seemed very satisfied as these eyes reflected Bai Liu in a wholehearted manner.
Xie Ta also reached out to him, holding the hand that Bai Liu was using to try to grab him through the crowd. Their fingers interlocked.
It was a cold and warm touch that allowed Bai Liu to feel the bulging scars on the back of the hand.
"Bai Liu (6)," Xie Ta smiled very shallowly while squeezing Bai Liu's hand. "Don't be afraid. I am a monster, and I won't die."
"Let go!" The dean pulled away their hands.
Bai Liu gritted his teeth. He didn't want to let go, but Xie Ta quietly released his hand. The tight grip disappeared in an instant.
Xie Ta shook his head at Bai Liu, telling him not to chase after him. Then he turned around and calmly walked with the dean to the church, which he was already familiar with.
—————————————————
Bai Liu had never been an obedient child. A few minutes after the dean took Xie Ta away, he secretly and carefully entered the church through the broken window covered by the curtain. Bai Liu hid behind the curtain, curling up in a small ball as he watched Xie Ta and the dean standing underneath the statue.
Xie Ta was dressed in pure white clothes and held a flickering white candle in his hand. He stood barefoot in front of the statue, his head raised and his eyes closed as he recited a prayer without hesitation.
The dean was standing next to Xie Ta, holding a whip and looking at him coldly.
After reciting the prayer, the dean stepped forward and stared at him. "Next is the baptism. However, today you had the idea of betraying God and running away. It means today's baptism must be thorough to completely cleanse your body of evil and filth!"
Xie Ta lowered his eyes. "It can't be washed clean."
"I am evil itself that can't be confronted," he said softly.
The dean froze for a moment before her expression became more serious. She snatched the candle from Xie Ta's hand and pressed him into the baptismal pool. She held the candle and smiled cruelly and proudly, as if she had finally defeated a demon she had feared for a long time. There was a sense of madness that remained in her.
The dean sighed with relief and looked at Xie Ta, who was submerged in the water. She raised the candle and placed it flat near the baptismal pool, declaring coldly, "You can only get out when the candle finishes burning, do you understand?"
The wax fell drop by drop into the clear water. They condensed into small white flowers like sacrificial offerings, suspending directly above Xie Ta, who was lying at the bottom of the pool with closed eyes.
The baptismal pool was like a coffin that was too small for him. It firmly and twistedly bound him.
The thing that no one realized was that the statue of a god facing the baptismal pool moved slightly. The expression on the face of the pure white marble statue changed to a very human-like accusation, as if accusing the child in the baptismal pool for not behaving and wanting to escape the shelter of God.
[You are an evil thing, a fallen god. You can't leave the imprisonment of the gods. You shouldn't be tempted by a child who has been bewitched by you and thinks of fleeing.]
The statue condemned in a cold tone. [Tawil, you know very well that the child is seduced by your evil. He isn't the new believer you are looking for.]
Underwater, Tawil's eyelids moved.
[No, I don't think of him as my new believer.]
The statue asked coldly: [Then what do you think of that child? He has seen your eyes, and he isn't far from madness.]
[You should kill him, or he will become an evil monster like you and destroy the world. You know, everything you have polluted will have consequences.]
Tawil's fingers, placed on top of his chest, moved slightly. [He… I want to read with him forever.]
[You know that isn't possible. Tawil, kill him, kill this child you have tainted!] God commanded.
[I can't do it.] Tawil calmly refused. [You can kill me, but I can't kill him.]
The expression on the statue became angry. [...You are exiled here, but you still dare to disobey God's order. You deserve to be punished and sleep forever!]
It opened its hand directly above Tawil. The water at the bottom of the baptismal pool became heavy, viscous, and icy, like flowing ice turning into spikes in Tawil's body. This made him frown, but he soon relaxed his expression.
Under the water, Xie Ta curled up, and the hand that had held Bai Liu's hand shook. Then his trembling eyelids stopped moving.
The temperature of Bai Liu's hand remained in his palm but gradually dissipated in the cold water as his breathing stopped.
His fingers clenched tightly, trying to keep the temperature. Then they loosened, and Xie Ta's body floated in the water.
"X-Xie Ta?" The dean stepped back in a panic. Then she checked under Xie Ta's nose for breathing. She was so shocked that she dropped the candle in her hand and stepped on it in a panic. The light of the candle was extinguished, and this also extinguished the only light in the church.
"It's over." The dean sank to the ground in a daze. She pulled at her hair madly while speaking to herself in disbelief, "Isn't he a monster? He had his blood drawn so many times, and he didn't die. He has been baptized so many times without dying. Why did he drown this time?"
"It has only been a few minutes! The candle isn't even fully burned out!" The dean's expression became even more horrified. She kept shaking her head, as if Xie Ta would come alive as long as she didn't admit it. "No, it is impossible, impossible!"
"He is dead. What am I going to do?!" The dean collapsed to her knees in front of the baptismal pool. She never imagined that the death of this child would bring her such deadly fear.
The dean looked down at Xie Ta's flawless face in the baptismal pool and murmured to herself, "...I drowned Xie Ta myself, and that group will drain my blood. I must find other children to replace him!"
Bai Liu hid behind the curtain and watched the dean roar hysterically with no emotion on his face. There was a strange firmness that made Bai Liu wait and see. Xie Ta said he was a monster and that he wouldn't die. Yes, he must be pretending to be dead to fool the idiot dean.
Once the dean was gone, Bai Liu would go over, and Xie Ta would get up from the baptismal pool, showing him a rare smile. Perhaps Bai Liu would push back the already wet hair, stare intently into those silver-blue eyes, and ask Xie Ta how he came up. Imagining these scenes made Bai Liu's heartbeat accelerate.
The dean didn't dare let the investors know that she had killed Xie Ta. She moved Xie Ta's body from the baptismal pool and surreptitiously carried him out the back door of the church. She tied rocks to Xie Ta's hands and feet and threw him into the small lake behind the church. It was the lake connected to a river outside.
After a few circulations, Xie Ta's body would flow into the river and, from the river, into the sea.
However, Bai Liu wouldn't let Xie Ta go that far.
Bai Liu silently followed as the dean got rid of the corpse and didn't make a sound. The dean looked like she had gone crazy. If he appeared now, the hysterical dean probably wouldn't mind disposing of another child.
After she fled in a hurry, Bai Liu came out. He buried his face in the small lake full of emerald-green duckweed and dived to the bottom. He reached out to Xie Ta at the bottom of the lake as he was gradually sinking into the sediment.
The lake was very deep and green. Xie Ta sank down quickly.
The black, muddy sand was like a creature that swallowed human corpses. It soon crawled over Xie Ta's body, greedily trying to drag him into hell.
Bai Liu resisted the desire to cough as the dirty lake water poured into his mouth, nose, and ears. He gritted his teeth and grasped Xie Ta, being swallowed by the sand, pulling with all his strength until he ran out of air. Bai Liu felt that his brain was going to burn up due to the lack of oxygen.
Even so, he finally pulled Xie Ta out. Bai Liu ripped off the heavy stones and rope binding Xie Ta's body and carried him upstream.
They reached the shore, and Bai Liu lay on the ground, staring up at the starry sky as he gasped for breath. There was duckweed hanging on his face, and his body was all wet. The cicadas cried in the grass around him, making it a very embarrassing scene.
Nevertheless, Bai Liu didn't know the reason, but he snorted with joy. He kicked Xie Ta, who was lying quietly on the ground with his eyes closed, not waking up. "How did you know that I was going to take you away? What if I worked for those adults to earn money to spend on myself?"
Bai Liu was a bit uncomfortable as he looked at Xie Ta with a casual smile on his face. "Aren't you a bit too presumptuous, Xie Ta?"
Xie Ta's face was covered with duckweed, and he still hadn't woken up. Bai Liu first sat up, then changed to a squatting position and looked down at the motionless Xie Ta. He reached out to touch the hair that was stuck to Xie Ta's forehead because it was wet.
This person was really beautiful.
Bai Liu's fingers slid down Xie Ta's slender eyelashes that were dripping water, across the tip of his straight nose, the incredibly white lips, and finally on the beautiful silver-blue eyes that seemed to have only been shown to him.
"Xie Ta." Bai Liu's voice was very soft. He bent down and placed his ear against Xie Ta's chest, his eyes wide open. "If you don't wake up, I will give you artificial respiration, and I'll bite you to death."
There was no heartbeat, no breathing, and no body temperature. There were no signs that Xie Ta would wake up.
"I'm serious." Bai Liu buried his face into Xie Ta's chest, his fists clenching so tightly that his fingers turned white.
Bai Liu could smell the familiar, thick scent of blood mixed with the smell of water. It was a breath that was close to death.
Bai Liu hugged Xie Ta's shoulders tighter and closed his arms tightly to hold him. The water dripping from both their bodies merged together.
"I don't think you are presumptuous," Bai Liu said softly while leaning his head against Xie Ta's shoulder. His forehead rested against Xie Ta's heart. He lowered his head and blinked slowly, drops of water falling from his eyelashes.
Xie Ta's head rested on Bai Liu's shoulder without any strength. He didn't answer Bai Liu's call, and his eyes still didn't open. Only the cold water on his hair fell onto Bai Liu's clothes, reminding Bai Liu that he did exist.
They hugged each other, and their fingers interlocked together. Bai Liu leaned against Xie Ta's shoulder, his voice calm and quiet with no fluctuations.
"Didn't you say that you are a monster? Come back to life like a monster, and I'll admit you are a monster."
"If you are like this, it makes me feel terrible, Xie Ta."
A drop of water slipped from Xie Ta's eyelashes, like a tear hitting the back of Bai Liu's hand.