"You can try," Hannah said.
From her expression, Gu Jun could tell that she had tried this many times already, but the results were always weird.
"Okay, I'll give it a try." Gu Jun let her alight, and he did the same. He did not turn off the engine though. He moved a rock from the roadside and pressed it on the accelerator. The Chevrolet Lenton moved on autopilot out of Arkham Town and into the hazy night.
Just when the car was about 20 meters away, it suddenly disappeared. It disappeared just like that.
Gu Jun did not know if he blinked. He could not see or remember how the car disappeared. "Special space?"
"I don't know." Hannah's face turned cold. "Just wait and see. You'll find out more in a while."
Gu Jun stood there silently, paying attention to his surroundings, paying attention to the red-haired woman that he suspected to be a witch. The night wind was cold. The old buildings, roads, grass, and everything else in the distance floated like ripples on the surface of the water.
"It's almost time," Hannah said softly.
Less than half a minute after she said that, suddenly, Gu Jun heard some noises. It was a cacophony of chatter. When it became clear to him that it was the background noise of many people talking in low voices, the scene before his eyes changed.
He was not even standing, but sitting. He sat on a chair beside the dining table, and Hannah sat opposite him.
There were also diners at other tables around. This was a high-class restaurant, and well-dressed waiters walked by with plates of dishes. Through the restaurant's floor-to-ceiling glass windows, one could see the night view of the street outside, as well as the cars parked by the roadside. The white Chevrolet was among them.
"Let's eat." Hannah was cutting a piece of steak with a knife and fork. When she was done, she put a small piece into her mouth. "We're out for dinner, aren't we?"
Gu Jun realized that his hands were also holding a knife and fork, and there was also a plate of steak in front of him.
His heart skipped a beat. He had not felt anything before and by the time he realized it, it had already happened.
If he wanted to stop it, he wouldn't be able to.
"What happened?" Gu Jun could only ask. It didn't seem like an illusion, nor did it seem like a dream … but this kind of spatial shift …
Is this the work of the witch in front of me … She doesn't even need to use spells, rituals, or graphics, yet she has such power? Because she served Nyarlathotep?
"I'm waiting for you to tell me." Hannah said, "That day, when you lost your mind, I read the King in Yellow. When I realized I had never left Arkham, I drove out. But after I drove for 100 yards, I realized I was working at the news agency. The others also said I've been working overtime there."
She shrugged. "Is there something wrong with my mind? I tried it a second time, I tried everything, but … Jem, you see, this is something you haven't tried before. "
Hannah suddenly stood up. Before Gu Jun knew what she was going to do, she raised the knife in her hand and stabbed it into the neck of the passing waiter. Instantly, blood gushed out and the waiter screamed in pain. The tray he was holding fell to the ground with a thud. The other diners around him gasped in shock.
'What the hell …' Gu Jun was shocked. He shouted reflexively, "Call an ambulance! Hold her down! Do you have a first aid kit? I'm a doctor! "
He stood up and rushed forward. Anger rose in his heart. He wanted to hold Hannah down and save the waiter.
"Don't worry." Hannah laughed self-deprecatingly. "Actually, when I realized this, the first thing I did was to rush into my boss's office and stab him several times. Then I stabbed him again. It was quite a relief. "
Just as Gu Jun was listening in bewilderment, something suddenly flickered...
He realized he was still sitting at the table and Hannah was eating her steak. The waiter had walked past with the plate. Nothing had happened.
'Rewind? Space-Time distortion? '
"Did you see that?" Hannah shoved another piece of steak into her mouth. "Jem, you've tried many methods but they all failed. That's why you went crazy. You should try this, or maybe you should hug and kiss some pretty girls. " She tilted her head to point at a young blonde woman sitting at another table. "That one."
Naturally, Gu Jun did not listen to him. He looked around the restaurant that was still peaceful and quiet.
He noticed the clock on the wall was still ticking and the steak on Hannah's plate was decreasing. The situation was different from the one at Pnakotus Library.
Back then, it was more like rewind but now, no matter what they did, they could not change the fixed course of events.
They had to leave Arkham, kill someone, sit still, and in the end … the fixed course of events would happen again.
He suddenly realized he was chewing on a small piece of steak. It was cut by himself.
"What do you think the King in Yellow is?" Hannah suddenly asked, "I mean, the King in Yellow that was mentioned in the King in Yellow."
Gu Jun thought about it. Actually, the book was very clear, it was a forbidden script. The characters in the different chapters were reading the same script.
The actual content of the script was the opening scene of the first act, scene 2, Cassilda's Song and the few dialogues in the chapter 'The Mask'. It appeared to be a conversation that took place at a party.
Camilla: We're talking about you, sir. You need to take off your mask.
Stranger: Really?
Cassilda: Really, it's time. Other than you, we've all taken off our disguises.
Stranger: I'm not wearing a mask.
Camilla: (Terrified, whispering to Cassilda): You're not wearing a mask? You're not wearing a mask!]
"Jem, you've studied this passage for a long time and I have a new understanding of it." Hannah said as she munched on her steak, "What if the 'stranger' is really not wearing a mask? He has already taken off his mask but the script says that he is wearing a mask. So what? "
Hearing all this, Gu Jun's heart chilled.
If a character in a script found out that he was actually in a script and wanted to do something else instead of following the development of the script, he would have to do something else.
Would the character's wish come true? It would still be the same as before, and nothing would change …
According to the script, Jem and Hannah had a dinner. They did not leave Arkham and they did not kill anyone.
Or, according to the script, they tried but it did not work.
"You mean …" Gu Jun understood why Hannah did all this, "We're characters from one of the chapters in the King in Yellow?"
[Jim Mazurewicz went mad after reading a book called The King in Yellow. He believed he was a character from the book, The Plague Doctor.]
This story was actually one of the chapters in the King in Yellow.
The King in Yellow that he read at Arkham Sanitarium was the King in Yellow within the King in Yellow.
However, he could not see the King in Yellow that was written by Jem, just like the characters in The Repairman, The Mask and The Yellow Talisman could not see the King in Yellow that was written about them.
Who was reading the real King in Yellow?
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