Spoiled by Eight Uncles

Jessie stroked the doll in her arms, her voice light and airy.
"I found her."
"I went all the way to the beach, but couldn't find Mindy.I had a feeling Mindy was home, and she might even be waiting for me
there."
And so Jessie rushed back home.She could feel Mindy calling for her.It was a long and grueling journey.She almost got lost.But
just then...
"I heard the sound of a drum.It was a very nice sound," Jessie said.
"It was like the drum could talk, and it sounded like Mindy talking."
Despite the fact that Mindy was mute, and had never spoken before.Jessie just had a feeling that that was Mindy.
"Mindy was telling me to come home.She was looking for me."
Following the sound of the drum, Jessie kept walking.Blisters began to grow on her feet, and she even lost a toenail.
At last, she saw a large crowd.They were all surrounding a drum, kneeling as they hit it.
"I could tell at once.That drum was Mindy..." Jessie said.
"It was a drum, made out of Mindy's skin."
The sentence made Lilly and the rest tremble, a chill running down their spines! Adrum made out of human skin?! Jessie
continued.
"Where I'm from, everyone's skin is tan as wheat.Mindy was the only one with fair skin, soft and smooth..."
The harem spirit could not help but ask, "How are you so sure that it was a drum made out of... human skin? Could it have been,
uh, other skin? Like goatskin, or something."
Jessie shook her head firmly.
"I'm certain! Because the drum sounded like Mindy's voice!" The ghosts fell silent.

Her sister was mute, but she was insisting that the drum sounded like her sister's voice.Did this mean that the sisters’ hearts
were as one? Jessie's eyes filled with tears once again.
"I saw the men that came to my house in the crowd." They hugged the drum, caressing it adoringly after the crowd had left.
"I heard their secrets.They said that the spirit drum was ‘top notch’, made by a ‘virgin girl who had never been in love before’.
That kind of drum was the purest, and it was even better that the girl was mute.
A mute person could never tell a lie, and their spirit would never be tainted."
"They said that the girl this skin belonged to checked all the boxes.She was so beautiful too, with such fine skin.The drum made
would be able to be heard from miles away. Jessie's tears fell as she spoke.
"They were talking about my Mindy." Mindy was beautiful.She was pure.She was also mute.
Jessie screamed for Mindy as she ran towards her, but was chased away with a beating.
Those people seemed to be afraid that she would spread the word, and wanted to kill her.
Jessie seemed to hear her sister calling out for her to run in the dark.
Mindy seemed to lead the way, hiding in a cave.
Jessie had escaped the abuse of those people— but they had left with Mindy.
"So I found them again, but this time I followed them in secret."
It was through that that Jessie finally realized why it was called the spirit drum.The spirit drum, or also, the Mindy drum.
Those people said that the drum could connect with the afterlife, and overcome death and reincarnation.
It was mainly used to pray to gods, to pray for the gods' protection.It had to be made out of the skin of a girl who had never been
in love before, and it was best if she had never spoken.
The best drum was yielded from skin that was cut off the girl while she was still alive.
Lilly could not help but grip her father tightly, goosebumps appearing on her skin as her hair stood up.
"Do people really do that? Making a drum out of skin? Why would the gods protect them after that?"

Wouldn't doing something so cruel to Mindy like that enrage the gods instead? Jessie let out a chuckle.
"They said otherwise.They took my Mindy away, but told everyone who came to pray to it that nothing of the sort happened."
"They said that those were just rumors spread by people intending to cause harm.Rumors that were made up just because they
saw a bone or two."
"They said that nothing like that existed, but Mindy's drum was right in front of them."
Those people made a trip around the island, and finally returned to where they had started— where they lived.
Jessie was small and agile.
Through hiding in alleys and bushes, she had come across Mindy's hair and eyes.
"I put Mindy's hair and eyes in the doll."
Jessie clutched the doll tightly, her eyes flashing with yearning.
"I wanted to get Mindy back, but they had their sticks and weapons.So I set a lot of their houses on fire."
"They caught me.But there were other people around, so they said they would take pity on me as I was a little kid who could still
turn over anew leaf."
"So they sent me back to my Ma."
Ma had been furious, locking Jessie up.
Jessie sobbed and screamed, asking Ma if she had known all along and if it was her who handed Mindy over to those guys in
the first place.Ma told her to shut her mouth.Ma would never admit to the truth.She threatened to stitch Jessie's mouth shut if she
said another word.
Jessie lowered her head.
"I hugged the doll, and asked her if she wanted a Ma.I could give half of Ma to her."
Lilly was stunned.
"Why would your Ma be in half..." Jessie giggled.

"Because Ma was not a good Ma."
One stormy night, Jessie crept up on Ma while she was asleep, and bashed her to death with a big rock.
The mirror in her house lit up as a bolt of lightning struck, and Jessie saw her reflection in the mirror.Her face was covered in
blood.She looked terrifying.She even saw the doll sit up behind her, as if it was cheering her on.So she split her mother in half.
Then she went to where the people who took Mindy away lived, and set a huge fire.She even burned herself to death.
There were a lot of people there.
Hundreds of them.
The ghosts fell silent.
The ghost lord sure earned her name.She was quite ruthless.She killed Ma, she killed the monsters who took her Mindy away
from her, and set herself on fire.
No wonder she became a ghost lord.She definitely earned it.
Jessie giggled.
"I'm done telling my story.Don't you think I did the right thing? Wasn't I so brave?"
"I found Mindy in the end.I put Mindy’s eyes in here, and Mindy’s hair too."
"But I couldn't get Mindy's skin back."
That place seemed to glow golden, as if it was really protected by gods.Jessie's eyes flashed with confusion.
"But why? They're all bad, all of them.Why would the gods want to protect them?"
That was why she ran away with the doll, all the way here.This had started out as an abandoned island.
There was nothing, and not a single person.She seemed to be trapped upon entering, unable to leave.
As time passed, she began to feel lonely and bored...

Up until a handsome uncle came to the island and built an amusement park on it.She suddenly realized that she could move,
and she could play.She wanted to play with that uncle, but found that she could not get close to him no matter what.
As long as he was around, she would be repelled away.
Until she had summoned all the strength in her body, until she had broken free of everything holding her down...
Jessie did not continue telling her story anymore.
All she did was stare at Lilly stubbornly.
"Tell me.Did I do the right thing?"
"Are they the bad guys?"
"Why would the gods want to protect the bad guys?"
Lilly opened and closed her mouth, unable to say a word.How many of the people who had prayed to the spirit drum had known
what it was made of? Had every single person Jessie set on fire deserved to die? So, who was right and who was wrong?