Bad Buns
It was an early morning, and Lu was standing on the side of an almost empty street, by a breakfast shop with a gentle old man with only a few gray hairs on his head. He was this old man’s only customer, and the owner seemed quite happy that he was here to buy his steamed buns.
“You’re not from around here.” The old man smiled as he picked two bigger ones from the steamer and put them into a small plastic bag: “What brings you here?”
“I’m a reporter.” Lu smiled as he looked at the two-storey house half hidden behind trees at the end of the street around the corner: “I’m here to do a story.”
“A story?” The old man seemed confused and slightly put off: “What story? We’re a quiet little place - ”
“It’s the missing families in that house.” Lu pointed at the house at which he could not stop staring: “Do you happen to know anything about it, sir?”
“That house? I - ” The old man hesitated for a brief moment, then sighed and shook his head: “No - not much. And I’d like to stay that way. I’d suggest you stay away as well. It’s full of bad omens. Very, very, very bad. I’d move further if I could afford to.”
“Oh, really?” Lu turned to the old man with a curious tone and a smile: “What else do you know?”
“I can’t help you with that. Like I said - don’t even go near it. Go chat with the local police or something. Everyone’s afraid of that place.” The old man let out a long and tired sigh, then he threw a small pack of hot sauce into the plastic bag with the steamed buns: “You like hot sauce? It goes very well with the buns, enjoy.”
Lu took the buns and started heading toward that house anyway. If anything, what the old man said only made him more intrigued and excited. It seemed there was indeed a fascinating story. If he could get this one done, he would finally one up that editor’s pet and department try-hard Erika, his bitter rival in the office.
The hot sauce indeed went really well with the buns, Lu would never call himself a foodie, but even he nodded at the air while chewing and swallowing. The air seemed to grow slightly colder the closer he got to the house, and the heat from the buns and the hot sauce helped quite a bit in keeping him warm.
The shops and stores close to that house seemed either terribly run-down or completely abandoned, even more so than the rest of the street. With a closer position, he could see through the untrimmed trees in the yard, the dusty windows taped shut from inside, the tightly locked front gate, the crooked branches near the windows, and a roof covered in broken tiles and some kind of black tar. For one moment he thought he saw someone standing by the window, but then he was sure it was just a shadow.
“This better be good - ” Lu raised his camera, but just as he was about to take a picture, his stomach churned and growled. “What the f - ” A sudden wave of pain and disgust radiated from his stomach to his arms and legs, his mouth opened up almost by intuition as a warm and burning flow of thick liquid gushed through his esophagus. All he could do before dropping to his knees was raise his camera above his head to protect it from the spills, but the same could not be said about his shirt and pants.
The next morning, Lu dragged his exhausted body and sore limbs into his office. What was worse than spending most of his yesterday and almost the entire night in the hospital from acute food poisoning was when he heard that Erika had taken the assignment to cover the story the moment she heard he was in the hospital. It was a low move, but not something she would refuse.
Before settling down in his seat, his phone rang.- it was none other than Erika.
“What?! You’re here to gloat?”
“Why didn’t you go?” Erika sounded like she was weeping.
“What?”
“Why didn’t you go?” Erika’s voice was trembling.
“Look, if this is some kind of new way of trolling me, you should give it a rest - ”
“WHY DIDN’T YOU GO!?” Erika screamed, her voice was breaking and her tone became desperate, but Lu just hung up without any hesitation.
“Bitch.” Lu shook his head. Maybe, since it was a slow news week, and he had done a ton of additional homework while he was in the hospital, he could still do the story and beat her to it. He just needed to convince the editor.
“Sir! I want to talk about the house story.” Lu almost bumped into the door frame when he came into the editor’s office.
“Erika already went last night. You should pick another.” The editor didn’t even look up at him.
“No! No! It’s my story!!” Lu sat in the chair in front of the editor’s desk: “She’s never gonna do as good a story as I’m gonna do - I’ve done way more research than anyone, and I have several locals willing to talk to me. Please! I can have everything at your desk before lunch!”
“She promised me she would have it this morning.” The editor sighed.
“She’s still not here, is she?” Lu raised his voice: “And you know what? She might even need my help on this, she just called me and - ”
“She - she called you?”
Before Lu could answer, the phone on the editor’s desk started ringing, along with Lu’s phone in his pocket.
“You see?” Lu showed his phone to the editor - it was Erika again.
“Why didn’t you go!?” It was Erika’s voice, coming from the editor’s desk phone, desperate and terrified just like before.