We walked slowly down the steep slope towards the gravesite.

Zhao Laohei was panting in loud gasping breaths as he backed down the path. His arms continued to swing and dance in the religious rites, struggling to maintain the ritual. Wang Chunmei and I were also suffering, drained by the process.

Shang Haoming, though timid at first, wasn't nervous at all. He smiled at the ghost now, guiding it with the stone and his voice. The small spirit followed happily, swaying from side to side, whichever way the stone went so did he.

The grave was mound of sand the size of a small ottoman. It was surrounded by ash remnants of burned prayer paper and burning candles that Zhao Laohei had set out one by one.

Shang Haoming peeked over his shoulder at the grave. He went back to guiding the ghost and called out, "What should I do?"

"Don't move." Zhao Laohei said, "The ghost won't get close to you. I'll perform the rites to send it away."

A gust of wind followed his words, scattering the topsoil on the grave into our faces. Everyone covered his or her mouth and nose, squinting against the spray.

Through my mostly closed eyes, I saw Zhao Laohei raise the peach wood sword and shout, "Oh my god!"

"What?" Zhao Jie called out, fear pitching his voice unnaturally high.

The spirit stopped a few meters in front of Shang Haoming and dropped onto the ground. Its tiny red fists beat into the ground, leaving pockets of smashed dirt. It began to scream a low wailing horror of a noise.

"The candles!" Zhao Laohei yelled, pointing at the now flameless wicks. The sand had extinguished all of them. "We weren't finished! It's not under my control any more!"

The spirits scream seemed to amplify again, like a shockwave bursting from the grave. The locust trees around us shook.

Zhao Laohei began waving his hands wildly, motioning for us to run. He grabbed Shang Haoming and pulled him back towards us. "Go!" He shouted. Zhao Jie, Wang Chunmei, and I turned and began moving back up the mountain. We didn't make it ten meters before we were all out of breath.

"I can't," Wang Chunmei puffed. "Its too hard!" She was crying again, tears leaking through the dirt on her face.

Zhao Laohei stopped ahead of us and turned back. He saw us stopped and moved to help. When he reached Wang Chunmei he took her off my shoulder and said, "It's not following." His voice was flat and hard, but not scared.

We turned to look back as one. The spirit was a blood red boy, no more than two years old. He stood at the base of his own grave and stared at us, crying. Ghostly tears flowed and fell down a slightly transparent red face. Tiny red fists were balled at his sides. He looked up at us, and cried.

"He's just a baby." Wang Chunmei said. "We can't leave him."

"Are you crazy?" Zhao Laohei said, after everything it did to you?

"Not crazy," She said, "And not heartless either. I will stay and I will send it away."

She pushed off of Zhao Laohei. He fell back onto a tree and tumbled into the thistles and thorns. Zhao Jie shouted, "Hey!" and rushed to his father's aid.

Shang Haoming and I were stunned.

After several leaping steps back down the valley, Wang Chunmei was at the grave. She reached the blood red spirit and knelt before it. "My poor boy, I'm so sorry! Mommy will never leave you again, never!" She exclaimed.

Zhao Laohei had climbed out of the thorn bush. He was scratched and bleeding from both palms. He stared down at the girl and shouted, "You stupid girl, what am I supposed to tell your family?" He saw her kneeling with the ghost and paled. "It's got her again!"

"Is she enchanted?" Zhao Jie asked.

I shook my head and spoke for Zhao Laohei, "I don't think so. It's not inside of her. Maybe it's tricked her somehow."

"Is it her baby?" Zhao Jie asked, "I mean, it's only gone for her so far."

"It can't be, She's so young..." Zhao Laohei said.

Wang Chunmei was now kneeling before the ghost and weeping.

The boy's wails lessened gradually into a whimper. It began to inch towards Wang Chunmei, raising its hands as if to be held.

Wang Chunmei opened her arms for the dead child.

"No!" Zhao Laohei screamed. "Don't touch it!"

Wang Chunmei's arms dropped down. I could see her skin writhe in gooseflesh. Her head jerked back as if someone had slapped her and she stumbled back away from the red boy. She loosed a scream of horror and fell backwards.

The ghost boy's eyes rose from the girl lying on the ground and bore into Zhao Laohei. A reddish black smoke began rising from its eyes.

Zhao Laohei charged down the hill brandishing his peach wood sword. He bounded over Wang Chunmei's and held out the blade. The ghost pulled back a step, its red color seeming to deepen as it did so.

"You bastard!" Zhao Laohei said, "I'd follow orders if I were you!" He jabbed the sword again, pushing the red boy back another step. "I'll lead the way for you. I will send you away. Follow me or die."

Zhao Laohei stood with the sword pointing at the ghost's head. Though his voice was firm and powerful, I could see his legs shaking, sinking his feet into the sand.

The red boy flickered at the sword bobbing before it. The smoke billowing from its eyes began to coalesce above it. Without seeming to move, everything changed. The red boy's mouth stretched open and released a hideous shriek. One of the dead boy's eyes sank back into its head and revealed a decaying black hole. The skin on his face and neck shrunk in and rotted before our very eyes. Even its clothes seemed to fade away. In only a moment, the spirit became a corpse standing before Zhao Laohei.

Behind the red spirit, the mound of sand began to shimmer. The earth blossomed upwards as if something was climbing out.

"It can't be!" Zhao Laohei said, "A ghost can't still connect with its body! Not without a Life soul!"

The red corpse smiled a hideous grin at the man.

"Your spirit must be very strongstronger than your soul" He said to the corpse, still holding the sword between the two of them. "And maybe a part of you still lives in both forms I don't think even Master Liu has met someone like you!"

A small rotting head rose slowly from the sand pule. Two black sockets were crying piles of sand as it grew from the ground.

"The sunlight will slow it down right?" I asked Zhao Laohei.

A tiny skeletal hand breached the ground and began pulling at the grass to get out. It raised a finger and pointed at us.

Wang Chunmei saw the hand and screamed.

"What do we do?" Zhao Jie cried to his father.

"Run!" He said, calling over his shoulder as to not turn his back. "Gather the people from the base of the mountain! Their group has heavy Yang air! All together we can suppress the spirit and burn its body before it becomes a zombie!"

Zhao Laohei backed up and used his free hand to drag Wang Chunmei to her feet. Shang Haoming grabbed me and pulled me along. Zhao Jie moved ahead. All as one, we ran.

Behind us, a decayed corpse and its crimson counterpart followed. The corpse had pulled itself completely free. The skin that hadn't rotted away was now patched with a thin white fur of mold. "White zombie." I thought.

When the corpse reached the hill and began to shuffle upwards, the red spirit floated towards it. With a deafening screech, the spirit merged into its former body. With unnatural speed, the new monster began to run.

Zhao Laohei saw it first. "No, no, no, no!" He shouted, "Go!" The fear in his voice sent a shock of panic into myself and a burst of speed into my step. Eternity passed and I knew it was going to catch us, when a new voice splintered the forest.

"Keep coming you bastard, and I will end you."

An aged man stood at the top of the hill, wielding a copper sword.

"Master Ge?" I gasped.

Behind us, a red spirit peeled out of its rotting body and wailed up the mountain. Zhao Jie and I stumbled forward towards Master Ge.

"You're here!" I said, reaching him and gasping for air. "You've saved us!" I stood up and looked around, temporarily forgetting about the monster behind us.

"Don't bother looking for him." Master Ge said, not taking his eyes off the creature below. The red ghost was now hovering in circles around its body. "Liu Chunan isn't here. He heard about your latest mess and sent me in his place. You're lucky I got here in time, foolish boy."

Disappointment flooded my body, mixing with the great relief at having someone of Master Ge's status here to help.

"Are we safe now?" Zhao Jie asked.

I looked at Master Ge, who only stared at the monstrosity behind me.