This was definitely not reality!
He couldn't meet their eyes!
The instant Cripple thought that, fear seemed to turn into a cold, withered claw that gripped his eyeballs. He couldn't look away! The ceiling lights buzzed and flickered. Behind Xia Lun, the conductor's ghostly shadow hunched like an earthworm. Red paint dripped from its smiling mask, giving off the strange smell of air freshener.
The stern middle-aged man had become a short, stout ghostly shadow wearing a yellow frowning mask. The thief had turned into a slender black shadow with a black mask covering its face. Even the children who had been roughhousing were now little ghosts with white weeping masks welded to their faces!
Now every one of those humanoid ghostly shadows in their various masks stared at him in silence!!
Bizarre and grotesque!
Psychological Invisibility was completely useless!
They had been in these things' sights all along!
Cripple's heart pounded. Sharp fear grew through him like tightening vines, climbing his throat and spine into his thalamus. His amygdala screamed a warning, and his field of vision slowly narrowed...
"Don't worry. As long as we pretend we can't see them, they probably won't bother us."
Xia Lun's voice suddenly reached Cripple's ears.
Xia Lun hadn't spoken loudly, but his steady, powerful voice dispelled the terror in Cripple's heart like warm spring sunlight. After a few deep breaths, he wrested back control of his eyes.
I might be weak, but Xia Lun is a powerhouse!
As long as I stick close to him, not only will my little brother survive, I might make it out alive too!
At that thought, Cripple felt a long-forgotten trace of reassurance. Even his precarious Mental Health recovered a little.
"Cripple, your face... what happened to your face?!" Before he could catch his breath, Mavis's