novelraw Chapter 378: JoJo's Trail
Chapter 378: JoJo's Trail
The roar of the downpour was relentless.
JoJo walked at a brisk pace in the direction the carriage had gone, one hand carefully shielding a paper bag of food under her cloak.
She was protecting the bag and its contents from the deluge.
A cold steak was a terrible steak.
“Twenty-three, twenty-five, twenty-seven...”
In the glow of the streetlamps, JoJo scanned the house numbers.
The street was utterly deserted. The only sounds were the drone of the rain and the howl of the wind. Droplets drummed a steady rhythm on her cloak.
“Thirty-one, thirty-three, thir—”
A streetlamp suddenly flickered, and JoJo couldn't make out the number on the house.
JoJo hazarded a guess at the number and continued on her way, only to stop dead a few seconds later.About fifty yards ahead, a row of streetlamps winked out, like candles snuffed by an unseen breath.
JoJo froze, staring ahead in alarm.
This was no coincidence or malfunction. The next row of lamps went out, and then the next, and the next...
It was as if something was steadily advancing on her.
Without a second thought, JoJo turned and ran back the way she came.
The darkness surged forward, spreading faster than she could run, swallowing the streetlamps one by one.
Glancing back, JoJo saw how quickly the darkness was closing in. She wouldn't make it back to the restaurant.
Something seemed to be moving within the deepening gloom. JoJo bit her lip, pulled a newspaper from her pocket, and threw it behind her.
She knew Lu Li would notice her absence and come for her.
A final glance over her shoulder showed another row of lamps extinguish, the darkness devouring the street behind her.
Gritting her teeth, JoJo sped up, straining to reach the next patch of light.
A footstep.
She had almost reached the light, but the darkness overtook her. JoJo vanished into the gloom.
The street fell quiet again. The lamps flickered back to life, as if nothing had ever happened.
...
Splash.
A boot landed in a puddle, sending up a spray of water.
A dim light glinted off the water's surface. A newspaper lay on the wet pavement.
Lu Li picked up the newspaper. It was soaked through and tore in his hands. He tossed it back into the puddle, keeping only a small scrap.
“A newspaper?”
“JoJo left it.”
Lu Li recognized the blurred letters on the damp scrap. It was the Allen Peninsula True News.
In this weather, a wet newspaper would quickly turn to pulp. That meant it had been dropped very recently.
Lu Li looked around. There was nothing on the ground but puddles and the ripples on their surfaces. There was no sign of the food.
JoJo had left the newspaper on purpose. Did she not throw the food because the situation wasn't critical, or did she simply not have time?
Lu Li dropped the scrap of paper into the puddle and headed for "Huntly's Delicious Steaks."
The restaurant was about to close. Half of the display window was dark. Seeing Lu Li, the owner thought he was a customer and hesitated, wondering if he should cook another portion.
When Lu Li asked about JoJo, the owner, whom Mary's Aunt called "little Huntly," looked at him warily. “Are you a friend of hers?”
“Mary mentioned you're quick with your orders, but JoJo's been gone for a while now.”
Huntly’s expression immediately softened. “So you’re friends of Madam Mary! You should have said so right away, I’d have given you a discount. Madam Mary is a wonderful woman... Ah, yes, you were asking about the girl. She left just a moment ago, maybe two minutes. Didn't you see her?”
Perhaps it wasn't too late.
JoJo was smart. People who grew up in the slums knew how to survive.
Leaving the restaurant, Lu Li returned to the spot where he'd found the newspaper and scanned the dark alleys.
“Sense for any spirits nearby. JoJo has to be somewhere close,” he murmured to Anna.
Anna materialized beside him. The rain passed right through her spectral form. She closed her eyes.
Anna’s presence radiated outward like invisible tendrils, stretching farther and farther... until it brushed against something at the mouth of an alley.
Something concealed, but Anna could feel it.
“There,” Anna said, opening her eyes, her red pupils flaring with light.
It was a dark, foreboding alley.
...
Engulfed by darkness, JoJo froze.
Impenetrable blackness surrounded her. Only the oil lamp in her hand illuminated a small patch of ground.
JoJo tried to calm her breathing and looked around, but she heard nothing besides the drumming of the rain and the howl of the wind.
Suddenly, JoJo’s head snapped toward an alleyway where a new sound had emerged.
“Please, no! Help! Somebody, help me!” a desperate scream rang out.
Frantic footsteps and choked cries erupted from the alley.
JoJo stood frozen, her eyes locked on the scene unfolding before her.
The desperate cry grew closer. The next moment, a woman's face appeared at the mouth of the alley, only to be seized by hands that shot out of the darkness and grabbed her by the hair.
JoJo saw the pain and despair on the woman's face, saw more hands emerge from the darkness and drag her back into the depths of the alley.
Was the woman just being robbed? It was unlikely to be that simple, but...
Hearing the woman's screams, JoJo clenched her fists.
She couldn't just stand by and do nothing...
JoJo approached the alley. Suddenly, a tall figure materialized at the edge of the lamplight and asked in a threatening voice:
“Thinking of getting involved?”
“Uh... I...” JoJo stammered. For a moment, she might have mistaken the figure for a human, but the scene she’d just witnessed told her otherwise.
She pulled the paper bag from under her cloak, took out a piece of bread, and held it out to the figure. “Are you hungry?”
The figure froze for a moment, its face twisting with rage, and it swatted JoJo's hand away.
The bread and the bag fell to the ground, quickly getting soaked, and the rolls tumbled across the pavement.
“Ah, the food!”
JoJo looked down at the fallen bread with regret, and suddenly saw one of the rolls bump against a black boot.
JoJo's gaze traveled upward, and she exclaimed with delight, “Lu Li!”
Lu Li looked at the soggy bread and frowned.
His dark eyes narrowed.