chapter_011 : The Box

However, she still comforted herself, "It's, it's okay... Anyway, I'm supposed to die in three days. I'll be fine for now..."

Still, her feet started running involuntarily. She didn't know how many streets she'd run past, and suddenly, she noticed that there were fewer and fewer passers - by around her. Eventually, she found that there wasn't a single person in sight. Although it wasn't strange for there to be few people on the street at this time, but... why were all the lights in the buildings off? The surrounding light was getting dimmer and dimmer. When she looked up, she could only see darkness, and there was no moonlight at all.

Where... exactly...

The second hand on her watch had completed half a circle, and the time was getting closer and closer to midnight.

Before she knew it, she found...

She could barely see anything around her! It was completely dark in front of her eyes. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that she couldn't even see her hand in front of her face! How was this possible? This was a modern metropolis! How could it be that she couldn't see anything at midnight?

At this moment, a heavy gasp came from behind her. She was startled, and then she heard footsteps.

"Who? Who's there?"

She tried to raise her voice to boost her courage, but the footsteps didn't stop at all. And at this moment, midnight had passed.

"No... don't come after me, please don't come!" She immediately started running with all her might. Although her legs were almost out of strength, she knew that if she was caught up, she'd be dead. How could she dare to stop? There was still no light around, and the footsteps behind her had turned into running sounds, each step as if stepping on Scarlett Elizabeth Morgan's heart.

Just then, she tripped over something. It seemed to be something hard. As Scarlett fell, her head hit the ground, and her foot was severely sprained. She had to lean on that thing to stand up. Then, she seemed to feel that the middle of that thing was hollow. Just as she was wondering, the surroundings suddenly lit up.

The hard thing, of course, revealed its true appearance.

It was... that box again! And at this moment, it was open!

Before Scarlett could escape, a pair of hands stretched out from the box, grabbed her arm tightly, and then dragged her entire body into the box.

Then, the box closed.

"Scarlett may already be dead."

Although they hadn't given up searching everywhere, both Orion James Miller and Jane Sophia Parker were feeling extremely tired. It was almost noon now, and the two of them hadn't eaten anything yet. They gathered again at the meeting point - the entrance of the magazine office. "At midnight, I even went to her apartment," Jane said, gasping for breath as she leaned against the wall. "I only slept for four hours after I got home and then came out to look for her again. Her phone is still turned off. She's probably no longer alive."

Orion also had dark circles under his eyes and kept yawning. The weather was getting colder recently, and searching for Scarlett at night made him sneeze countless times.

"In that case, let's go to the magazine office first..."

When they entered the office and asked several of Scarlett's colleagues, they got the same result. Her desk was still empty.

"The boss is already angry and said that if she doesn't show up today, she'll be fired immediately," said a colleague who seemed to have a good relationship with her, looking worried. "What on earth happened to Scarlett? Did she meet bad people? If so, we should call the police as soon as possible! By the way, isn't her boyfriend a police officer?"

Just then, the phone on her desk suddenly rang. Jane picked up the receiver without hesitation and asked, "Hello? Who are you looking for?"

"Is this Miss Scarlett Elizabeth Morgan from Kangyue Magazine?"

The voice sounded like an older man. Jane nodded and replied, "I'm not her, but this is indeed Kangyue Magazine. May I ask who you are?"

"Hurry up and let Miss Morgan answer the phone!"

"I'm sorry, she's not here. I can convey your message." "Really... I'm the landlord of the third floor of Fukang Apartment... You know, the apartment where the murder happened. She came here with a police officer a few days ago, saying she wanted to see the room where the person died. Since she came with a police officer, I gave them the key. But then they left, and the key wasn't returned to me! I went to the police station to look for that police officer later, but that person disappeared. When I asked about the reporter, they told me Miss Morgan's name, workplace, phone number, so I called. She really should return the key to me!"

So that's what happened. The two of them must have had an accident because they went to that room.

Jane was about to transfer the phone to Scarlett's colleagues to handle when suddenly a woman's angry voice came from the phone, "Hey, what are you still doing on the phone? Why don't you come and help me! The water pipe is so blocked. I have to call the property management company quickly. Look, there's water all over the floor! And there's so much garbage mixed in!"

"What are you yelling for! Really, it's been like this since this morning. When draining the water, it all overflows... Ah, miss, I'm not talking to you. Please tell Miss Morgan to return the key to me as soon as possible!"

Then, the phone hung up.

"Who was that?" Orion asked curiously beside her.

"It's nothing, just an unimportant call."

Orion felt a bit uneasy. When he sensed that Scarlett would be the fourth victim, he had a very strong sense of unease. During the process of her image emerging and gradually taking shape in his mind, he felt as if something extremely terrifying had been injected into his body. Although it was just a premonition, it was as if every hair on his body stood on end...

It definitely wasn't that simple. Scarlett wouldn't be killed as easily as the previous three people...

"Let's go eat something first. You must be hungry too. There's a nice Western restaurant nearby. Do you want to have lunch together?" After walking out of the magazine office, feeling extremely hungry, Orion made this suggestion.

Jane also felt weak all over and thought it was time to eat something to boost her spirits, so she nodded.

This Western restaurant was beautifully decorated. The tables were made of wood, there was a fountain in the center, the floor was paved with cobblestones, and many leaves were hanging from the ceiling. As soon as they entered the restaurant, they felt a strong sense of nature.

After choosing a seat and sitting down, Orion picked up the menu on the table, flipped through it, and said to Jane, "What would you like to eat? I'll treat you. I just received the royalties for my new book... You said you've read all my works, so you must have read the latest one, right?" "Anything is fine. You don't have to treat me. And of course I've read the new book. Your imagination is really rich. No wonder even Hong Kong directors come to you to make movies."

"How about steak or grilled chicken wings? Well, you're right. But I write books just to make a living. After all, because I've been moving around all the time, I haven't been in the mood to study seriously. I only have a junior college degree, and it's very difficult to find a job, so I just write some novels online."

While waiting for the food to be served, the two of them stared at each other, not knowing what to say for a moment.

"Have you ever thought about... the moment of your own death in the future?"

It was Jane who asked the question.

Although it was an unpleasant question, Orion still answered.

"I've thought about it. I've thought about it so many times that I'm numb. In the end, I decided not to think about it anymore."

As he spoke, he fiddled with the knife and fork aimlessly, knocking on the plate, as if this could slightly relieve his unease.

"I've never thought about it once. Perhaps... it's because I trust my father very much." When Jane mentioned her father, her eyes would always shine.

"Besides us, are there others?" Orion suddenly asked.

"What?" "I think, since your father is all - knowing and all - powerful, did he only have a premonition about my sister and me? Aren't there other people with supernatural constitutions? In his notebook, did he mention more people to look for?"

Jane smiled slightly.

"You're really smart."

Indeed.

"He also mentioned that I should look for a painter named Neil Lawson who can see things that ordinary people can't and paint them. But he only gave me this little information. And there's also a spiritual medium. He said this person has a strong sense of inspiration and can remove the evil spirits inhabiting the human body. This is already the maximum limit of supernatural abilities that humans can possess."

Hearing this, Orion immediately stood up and said, "Neil Lawson? I've met this person!"

"What?" Jane also stood up at the same time. People nearby thought the two of them were crazy.

"When? Where?"

"About a year ago, my writing was at a bottleneck, and I wanted to find a good place to gather materials. So my editor recommended this person to me and told me his address, saying I could go and look for him. Because he's a painter with strange quirks, very few people in the industry know him. I contacted him for a while..."

"And then?" "I remember when I first visited him, his attitude was very strange. When he saw me, he first said he wanted to drive me away, but then he seemed to sense something and welcomed me into the house. Suddenly, he became very enthusiastic. Then, he took me to his studio and pointed to his easels. Then he asked me if I saw a woman. At that time, I felt very strange. There was clearly nothing there... Now that I think about it, he should have a relatively strong supernatural constitution, right?"

"What color?"

"Huh?"

"What color were his eyes?"

"Ah, right. His pupils were deep purple..."

That's right! This was the person! Jane was immediately excited. She didn't expect to find the third person on her father's list so quickly.

"Can you take me to find him?"

"Well... of course. That visit to him gave me a lot of inspiration, so I remember his address clearly. But let's solve the current problem first."

Just then, he suddenly realized something and asked, "Wait a minute, why do you ask me the color of his eyes?" "The color of the pupils is an indication of a person with a high - level supernatural constitution. If the offspring inherit such a constitution, their eyes will definitely be purple. For such people with supernatural constitutions, their supernatural abilities are in an unprecedentedly active state. However, most people need to work hard to fully awaken their abilities. For a person with black pupils like you, if your supernatural ability can be improved in the future, your pupils will also change color."

After the ordered steak and grilled chicken wings were served, Jane put on a napkin and carefully cut the steak with a knife. She seemed very skilled, as if she often ate Western food. Just as she cut a piece and was about to put it in her mouth, the conversation of a couple at the next table caught her attention.

"Oh? Is there such a thing?"

"That lady looks so gentle. In public, she knocked over a plate of spaghetti on the ground and shouted 'There's a ghost!'. She ran out without paying the bill. When the waiter tried to stop her, she pushed him down. I think she's probably a bit crazy."

"Really? That's really troublesome." "And you know what? Yesterday, when I was eating at that restaurant, as soon as I sat near that lady, I heard several waiters around talking. So I asked one of them. Guess what? The waiter said that the lady probably entered the restaurant to eat at around five o'clock. She ate half of a plate of spaghetti, and then suddenly sat there motionless, like a fossil. She sat there until around eleven o'clock at night. The waiter asked her several times if she was feeling unwell, but she didn't respond. If it weren't for checking her breath to make sure she was still alive, everyone would have thought she was dead. Later, at around almost twelve o'clock, she woke up and immediately shouted 'There's a ghost!'. I think she herself is scarier than a ghost."

Jane put down the steak, walked to the next table, and asked the man, "Sir, the person you just mentioned might be a friend of mine. Where did you see her?"

"Oh... You know her? It was at a 24 - hour restaurant on Xiyang Road called 'Luyuan'. Well, miss, I'm not being nosy, but your friend..." He pointed to his forehead and asked, "Is there something wrong with her here?"

Jane returned to her seat and said, "Let's go... It's a pity. It's rare to come out for a Western meal..." When they arrived at the restaurant, Jane first found a waiter to ask about the details of yesterday and then described Scarlett's appearance. After comparing, they confirmed it was her. Then she asked, "Since she didn't pay the bill, you must have chased after her, right?"

"Yes, but after chasing out, we never saw her again. Later, we told the lobby manager, and the matter has been reported to the police. Since you know that lady, can you tell me who she is?"

It was close to midnight at that time... Could it be that she also met the same fate as Cassius Benjamin Reed and was killed at midnight? But this was a bustling commercial area. If she became a distorted corpse, it was impossible not to be discovered...

What kind of distorted posture was her corpse in, and where was it hidden?

Just then, she suddenly had a flash.

Could it be...

She said to Orion without thinking, "Come with me! Scarlett's corpse might be there!"

After getting in the car, Orion closed the car door and then asked, "Where to?"

"To Fukang Apartment."

When they arrived at Fukang Apartment, they found that the ground was actually flooded with about fifty centimeters of water, and there was a lot of garbage mixed in the water. The residents were all gathered together, using dustpans to drain the water into trash cans. Everyone was complaining.

"What's going on? The water pipe is blocked like this. Why hasn't the property management company sent anyone yet!" "My floor is full of water now! Are you kidding me? I hired a plumber, but until now, he hasn't unclogged the drainpipe! How are we going to sleep tonight!"

"How can the property management be so irresponsible! What on earth is blocking it!"

Jane looked at this scene, and her sense of unease grew stronger. Could it be...

At this moment, Orion also vaguely understood something. His heart began to beat wildly.

Was it really like this?

"Let's go, Orion. I don't want to hear the answer." Jane had buried her head deeply in her knees.

"Ah, I understand..."

Just as Orion was about to start the engine, a scream suddenly came from upstairs. Then a person's head stuck out of the window and shouted, "No... it's terrible! Just now, the plumber tried to get the blocked things out of the drainpipe... Do, do you know what was hooked out? A foot! It's a human foot!"

Police cars soon gathered in front of the apartment.

Unlike when Alex Daniel Green died, this time, too many people knew about this matter.

Scarlett's corpse was twenty - three meters long from head to toe and was stuffed into the sewer pipe of Fukang Apartment. Like Alex and the others, her body was stretched and distorted, but her bones and muscles had also become correspondingly longer. She was stuffed in that cold and dark sewer pipe with sewage and garbage for several hours. Moreover, the police later discovered in horror that near her extremely long hand, there were scratch marks made by fingernails on the inner side of the drainpipe.

In other words, her body had become like that, and she was still alive in the sewer pipe for a while? Knowing that her body had become like this was a thousand times more terrifying than death itself.

As for what exactly stuffed her into the sewer pipe and how it was done, there was no way to know. This became an eternal mystery.

Since then, no more distorted corpses have appeared. The first terrifying event that Orion and Jane faced since they knew each other ended in this way...