I'd like to take a shot. I don't know which would be more scary, my terrible writing skill, or the story itself. Now taste a Chinese flavored nightmare:)
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Wodin, the greatest legendary warrior in the world, once decided to recruit an apprentice to heritage his combat skills. The news spread faster than a lightening bolt. Boys who wanted to please girls, girls who wanted to see Wodin, and some true warriors came from the coldest glacier, the hottest desert, the moistest forest and the driest barren, hoping themselves to be the chosen one. There were so many candidates that Wodin had to set up a bunch of random tests to screen some first. The tests were not meant to be dangerous, but even Wodin cannot predict everything...
This boy, boasted his bravery, called himself Ironheart. He picked an envelop from the pool of the tests. The paper inside read, "Head east, find an exotic old lady selling dumplings 10 miles away. Buy some dumplings and take them back. It is said she uses oriental voodoo to make her dumplings delicious. Every night she will chose a customer to become the fresh meat in her dumplings. The victim became barren soul haunting around to help her get more preys“
Ironheart grinned, "It's damn easy. They don't know I'm Ironheart?"
Ironheart set off at around 9:00 pm. It was still early when he found the old lady and her vendor booth. It was a small cottage by a crossroad, far away from other people. It opened all day long, as the lady lived inside and sold dumplings outside. A big iron pot was set up with boiling water at any time. Whenever a customer approached, she picked and threw into the pot some dumplings.
It was very dark. The moon was behind the thick cloud. Only some dim light came from the fire underneath the pot. Ironheart went up to the door. The old lady was sitting behind the door, looking aimlessly into the void. Her lips were like cut on the trunk of an aged tree. Ironheart couldn’t tell if he saw her smile or wrinkle. She stepped out so slowly that Ironheart stopped his breath, being afraid of blowing her down. Ironheart asked for a dozen of dumplings. And waited with quite a long silence. The dumplings were hold in a flat wooden box with cover and handed to Ironheart.
It was a long way back. The light from the fire disappeared. The wind was howling around him. But Ironheart was not afraid at all. He was just a little bit curious about the dumplings. He tilted the cover a little and peeked into the box. But there seemed to be an empty slot int he box. He counted again to find only 11 dumplings left. All of a sudden he felt that he already sweated his shirt. He thought he heard some sound, like someone was chewing. Ironheart took a deep breath, and tilted the cover again. He almost went mad. Another dumpling disappeared. The face of the old lady seemed to hide in the darkness. With the sound of chewing, he could also hear steps towards him. Ironheart couldn’t believe what happened. He hold the box harder, and tilted the cover very slowly and carefully… to find only 4 dumplings left.
The other day, Ironheart was found dead, from heart attack, on the road. There were a dozen of dumplings scattered around him. some in a wooden box, some on the ground, and some stick to the back of a wooden cover.
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About dumplings:
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Other than the fried dumplings you may have eaten before, Chinese dumplings are steamed or boiled. When it gets cold, the flour may turn sticky.
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