The young man’s eyebrows go up. Then he gives a rueful smile. “Awake, are you? She’ll be happy about that.”
Who is she? But Ren already knows. This is the other half of his girl in blue. The two of them a matched pair, like Yi and him. And Ren recalls that tall lean shape in the doorway of the pathology room, the one that he thought was Dr. Rawlings but wasn’t.
“You must be xin,” he says, excited.
Surprise, or is it a flicker of discomfort? “Yes, I’m Shin. Did Ji Lin tell you?”
Ren shakes his head hurriedly, “I’ve met the other ones. There’s you, and me, and her, and my brother, Yi. And my master, William Acton. That’s five of us.”
Shin looks as though he’s about to say something, but merely tousles Ren’s head. “I came by yesterday but you were sleeping. We’ll talk more when you feel better.”
Urgently, Ren says, “No, you must find her—she’s in danger!”
“Who?” But Shin already knows, his sharp eyes searching Ren’s face.
“She’s in the hospital. Someone’s hurting her!”
“Where is she?” On his feet now.
“Beyond that building. On the roof.” Ren points from the window to the spot that draws him like a tightening line. Is it his imagination, or can he feel a thin, soundless shriek? “Hurry! It will be too late!”
48
Batu Gajah
Monday, June 29th
Koh Beng marched me across the flat roof, the tip of a scalpel shoved into the soft spot under my jaw. I opened my mouth to scream, but even if I did, no one would see us all the way out here, facing the jungle trees. They’d just hear my shriek cut off as I fell off the roof. Instead I went limp as if I’d fainted.
Koh Beng bent over instinctively to grab me, and as he did so, I yanked viciously at his knees, pulling him off balance. He fell, cracking his shoulder on the cement. Slammed into me. Rolling. Elbow in my face as I struggled to get up. “Bitch!” he hissed, grabbing my hair, but I scratched and bit and then we were twisting, struggling. As he dragged me towards the edge, the roof door burst open behind us. Koh Beng’s head swiveled in surprise, but he’d no time to react before someone hit him in a low tackle. The breath was knocked from my body.
“Shin!” I screamed, but no sound came out. He fell on me as Koh Beng slashed wildly. I felt Shin gasp, jerk back as we rolled into the sickening emptiness at the edge of the roof. There was a dizzying instant when I saw the ground far below. Then my head smacked the gutter as we went over.
* * *
I must have hit my head hard enough to black out, for this time I fell into the world of the unconscious with a terrific bang. I knew exactly where I was, right down to the polished wood of the deserted ticket counter. The waiting room for the dead. There was a hushed expectation in the sunlight glinting off the train tracks.
“Yi,” I said.
He stood up. He’d been kneeling behind the counter, a child playing hide-and-seek, but he didn’t look happy to be found. In his sad stare, I could already find the answer to my question.
“Why didn’t you run away?” he said.
I should have, even at the risk of being stabbed. It was my curiosity, that foolish thirst for knowledge that had delayed me, wanting to hear the answers from Koh Beng. And now it was too late. “Am I dead?”
“Not yet.” Yi’s eyes squinted past me, as though he was looking at something far away. “But any moment now—you’re dangling off the roof.”
“Is Koh Beng going to kill me?” That would be like Pei Ling, shoved down the stairs. Or Y. K. Wong, crushed by a falling tile. Simple is best, Koh Beng had said in his frighteningly efficient way. “What about Shin?”
“He’s grabbed you, but the other one is trying to kick him over.”
“Please, not Shin!” Bitterly, I sank to my knees, pressing my forehead against the cool wood of the ticket counter. You’ll regret it, Shin had said that morning, lying in the hotel bed. And I did. A vast, furious ocean of regret. I should have given myself to him while I could. Tears ran down my face.
“Get up!” said Yi. “It’s not over yet!”
“What do you mean?”
“Choose!” he said. “Who will it be, you or Shin?”
“You mean which one of us will die now?”
“Yes. I told you, from this side, I can shift things. Just a little bit.” He screwed up his small face with effort. “Like the accidents that happened to Ren.”
“But that’s wrong!” If Yi had any kind of immortal soul, I was certain this was absolutely forbidden.
“It doesn’t matter!” he shouted. “I’ve already been left here so long. Right now, you’re going to die. But you can choose him instead.”
“You mustn’t do this!” I said desperately. “It’s meddling—like the fifth one you said was rearranging things.”
“Li?” he said. “Li has nothing to do with this!”
“Then who’s the fifth one of us? Is it Koh Beng?”
“Why are you so blind?” Yi’s face was red, as though he was about to cry. “Of course it isn’t him; the other one is still dangerous. Hurry—time is running out! Choose or I’ll do it myself!”
The station shook. There was a deep rumbling, a tremor that jolted me to the core, and I had the sudden, terrified sense that time was moving in this place again. A train was arriving, or was it departing? Whichever it was, the narrow gap of opportunity was closing.
“I’ll stay with you, Yi!” I screamed. “Let Shin live!”
“Do you mean it?” Yi’s face broke into a strange little smile. “You’d really stay with me?”
“Yes!”
“Don’t forget me.”
* * *
Bright. It was too bright and my head ached. Voices. People talking. I struggled, thrashing my arms. Why was I still alive? Yi had tricked me.
Hands steadied me, examining my body. “She’s lucky to have survived that fall. The other chap didn’t make it.”
“Shin,” I said thickly. My throat was painfully dry, but that was nothing compared to the panic I felt. I forced myself to sit up.
“Don’t move.” They were checking my arms and legs, asking if I could move my neck, but I didn’t care about myself. Terror filled me.
“Where’s Shin?”
“He’s right here.”
And he was. I stumbled up, off the gurney, for that was what I’d been lying on, despite their cries of alarm. Shin lay on the other bed in the room. His face was pale, with a chalky shocked look, and there was blood on his arms and shirt. When I came over, he opened his eyes.
“Why can’t you listen to what the doctor says?” he said, ruefully.
Sobbing and laughing, I held on to him.
* * *
It turned out that all three of us had fallen off the roof. It was a miracle, they said, but I was uninjured except where Koh Beng had sliced me in the side and neck. Shin had a fractured arm and cuts on his forearms—defensive wounds, as the local doctor pointed out with interest. And Koh Beng had broken his neck.
Bystanders, drawn by the shouts, had seen us struggling. By all accounts, I should have fallen first, then Shin, for Koh Beng had clearly been in a better position. But he’d suddenly and strangely plummeted past us in a tangle of limbs, breaking our fall. There was no explanation for it, other than missed footing. Or perhaps he’d intended to kill himself, as some were already whispering.
A chill of wonder and unease seeped through me. From the other side of the river of death, had Yi swapped Koh Beng and me around like pawns in some game, bringing me back from the dead by stealing a life? If so, what had happened to Yi—and was this, then, his dark gift to me? I began to tremble uncontrollably.
49
Batu Gajah
Thursday, July 2nd
In the airy bungalow, where the sunlit leaves outside dapple the whitewashed rooms a pale and luminous green, Ren sits in the kitchen with Ah Long, stringing beans. Ah Long is pleased that he’s back and has made clear chicken soup especially for Ren to drink, though he pretends gruffly that it’s for William. It’s been three days since Ren’s sudden recovery and discharge from the hospital. Three days of stillness and rest, and wondering what happened to his girl in blue.
She’s alive; he knows that. There’s been much talk, even scandal, about what happened at the hospital on Monday. Rumors about ghostly curses and stolen body parts. The neighboring servants buzz with gossip, asking Ren if he heard anything while he was in hospital. He tells them truthfully that he didn’t see anything, though that doesn’t stop him from worrying. The person who knows the most is William, but he won’t say much other than that Louise is perfectly fine and there’s no need to worry.