A statue couldn't have been more still. That is, aside from the satin he was clothed in, which seemed to move without any stimulus. His eyes were focused on the wall in front of him, beyond it.
Only Buddha could have known what was going through his mind. He didn't see so much as feel everything around him. And what he felt, disturbed him. Or rather, what he did not feel.
They weren't here anymore.
He had always felt like he was suspended amongst the stars, their warm glows shining on him from every direction. He was never too far from their life-giving light. But now, it was dark.
Where had they all gone?
"Can you spare some change?"
When he turned his head, it was as if a stiff outline broke. He had become human again from stone. He clutched the blood red doll in his hands tighter, feeling the comforting foam beneath his fingers.
A beggar had approached him, not knowing his place. Gingerly, he extended a hand to the pale man.
"You've gotta have some cash. Don't you have the heart for a poor, old man like me?"
"Do I have the heart?" His mellow voice made even the world-weary man perk up. "Even you must know with what light-heartedness you throw around such a phrase."
"I-... I'm afraid I don't understand, sir. Come on, can I just have some cash? I'll get out of your hair."
"You ignorant lot know not what you have, and still want more. Will there be no end?"
The beggar opened his mouth in anger, but stopped when the red doll in the man's hands quivered. It squirmed in the man's hands, before emitting a horrible sound. It screamed. And not a proper scream for something of that size. It sounded like a full grown man, in horrible agony. It shook and flailed and screamed, it's cries rattling through the beggar's ears.
He looked up at the man holding the doll in confusion and horror, only to see his eyes bulging out of his skull. The man's stare was boring into him, accusingly and angrily. The tattoos around his eyes somehow seemed even darker. It was the most terrifying thing he had ever seen.
When the beggar fainted, slumping onto the ground, Houngan choked his hands around the doll's neck. The doll screeched and whined, but quickly fell silent and limp. He didn't lessen his death grip.
He had lingered here too long, he thought, burying the doll within his robes. He would have to move on.
