chapter_017 : Ghostly Encounter at the Abandoned House

Orion James Miller and Jane Sophia Parker noticed two figures approaching them under the night sky. They both felt quite strange.

"It doesn't seem like they're local residents," Jane tried to make out their silhouettes in the dim moonlight and quickly realized that they were coming their way.

Needless to say, these two were Zachary Thompson and Ryan Anderson. Ryan was carrying two gas cans at this time. Looking at the approaching house in the distance, he just wanted to burn that painting as soon as possible. Who would have thought that there were two people at the door? He was immediately stunned.

"Zachary, why are those two people just standing there? What should we do? We have to burn that painting as soon as possible," Ryan said.

Zachary clenched his fists and said to Ryan, "Okay, I'll find a way to distract them... You find an opportunity to go in and take out the painting. Hide the gas cans nearby first. Otherwise, it'll be inconvenient for you to pick up the painting. Ryan, trust me. I'm going to end all of this tonight. It's all my fault, and I'll take responsibility for what I've done." At the same time, he also thought about Lily Cooper. She had also stood in front of that painting. If the rumor was true, that Neil Lawson had painted invisible transparent ghosts with the naked eye and then used the painting as a medium to curse and kill all those who had seen the painting... Then Lily wouldn't escape either. Only by burning the painting could they eliminate this medium and save their lives. For Lily, he'd do anything. And also for Ryan, Gary, and himself.

Then, he slowly walked up to Orion and Jane.

"Good evening, sir, miss. Don't you know the legend of this house? They say this house is haunted," Zachary tried to scare them away first. And it wasn't a lie that the house was haunted; there were rumors around here.

Orion frowned. He felt something was off. The person who had just been walking beside him suddenly left midway, and then he came over alone to make a strange approach. This seemed very wrong.

Orion decided to test him first, "Hearing what you said... Did you go in there?" Then, he quickly observed the other person's expression. Sure enough, a look of panic flashed across his face, and then he said, "No, how could we go into such a place? But it's better to believe in such things than not. You two should leave quickly. It'll be better this way." Jane also felt that this young man in his twenties seemed a bit odd. This made her even more determined to find out what was going on. But she thought that if she asked directly, he might not answer. Looking at his behavior, he clearly wanted to get rid of them. So, she might as well play along and see what he was up to. So she said, "Well... Maybe we should leave. It's so scary!"

While speaking, she kept winking at Orion. Orion immediately understood her meaning and nodded in agreement. Then, he walked away with Jane.

Seeing the two of them leave, Zachary let out a sigh of relief. He pushed open the door and waved to Ryan, who was hiding nearby, before running into the house. Because it was quite dark at that time, and he was only thinking about the painting, he didn't notice the bloodstains on the ground at all. Soon after, Ryan also ran in.

"I didn't expect it would be so easy to distract them. I thought it would take a lot of effort," Ryan said.

Zachary walked up the stairs step by step. Finally, he saw the painting. When he turned on his flashlight and was about to move the painting, he was extremely shocked to see that there was no female ghost in the painting!

The flashlight immediately fell to the ground.

"How could... How could this be?"

At this moment, he finally noticed the bloodstains on the picture frame. Suddenly, he had an epiphany. The female ghost had already come out of this painting, and her first target was... Gary! "Hey, what are you two doing here? Why did you enter this haunted house?"

Two beams of light shone over. Zachary and Ryan looked back and saw Orion and Jane pointing their flashlights at their faces. Orion was now almost certain that these two were among those who had entered this house. So, there was a high possibility that they could find Gary through them. He looked at his watch. It was half - past eleven, and there was still half an hour left before the death deadline. If he found Gary at this time and tried to protect him with his already activated psychic ability, maybe they could break the curse!

It was really a stroke of luck! He had already given up on saving Gary, but unexpectedly, at this critical moment, he found someone related to them. Orion knew that time was running out, so he didn't beat around the bush. He directly asked, "Do you know Gary? Maybe you don't know his name. He's a relatively short guy..."

"Who are you? Who exactly are you?"

Zachary had no idea who these people were. He didn't want to take any chances and decided to test them first.

"There's no time to explain to you..." Jane took a quick step forward and, with lightning speed, jumped behind Ryan. Before the two of them could react, a cold knife was already pressed against Ryan's neck.

"Tell me... Where is Gary? If you don't say, you're a dead man!" Jane had no choice but to do this. If she explained the situation to them in detail, half an hour wouldn't be enough. It was better to use this method and explain it to them later.

Orion was stunned by Jane's actions. He never thought she had such good skills. It seemed that she had made a lot of preparations in the past three years.

Zachary and Ryan were just ordinary college students. They had never seen such a scene before and were extremely shocked. They thought they had encountered some gangsters. Seeing the knife on Ryan, Zachary had no choice but to say, "We do know Gary. But what did he do to offend you? Why do you want to find him?"

"Don't worry, we have no intention of hurting him. But if you don't tell me where Gary is, don't blame me for being ruthless..."

Jane really did look a bit like a gangster at the moment. Even though she had never killed anyone, she acted like a seasoned female killer. Her eyes were full of coldness and ruthlessness, leaving Zachary with no choice or time to think.

"I... I know. He's working overtime at our internship unit. The address is..."

After giving the address, Jane nodded and said, "Well, please come with us. I can't guarantee that you're not lying to me." Then, she said to Ryan, "Come with us!"

As they walked down the stairs, Orion kept a wary eye on Zachary to prevent him from playing any tricks. After walking out of the house and reaching Orion's car parked nearby, Jane first opened the car door with her left hand and said to Ryan, "Get in. Don't even think about escaping!"

Ryan cursed silently in his heart. Not only had he failed to solve the problem of the female ghost, but now he had also gotten involved with these two mysterious people. Then, Orion and Zachary also got in. Orion started the car and kept looking at Zachary in the passenger seat, saying, "You're in charge of giving directions! Listen, if we don't get there within half an hour, you two are dead! Be mentally prepared!"

Since this was on the outskirts, law and order was, of course, not as good as in the city. There weren't many traffic police on the road, so the two of them had no way to call for help. The internship unit wasn't too far from here. They arrived there in about ten minutes. At this time, Orion finally let out a sigh of relief. After asking about the floor and the office where Gary was, he said to Zachary, "You come with me. After I find Gary, I'll call her to let your friend go. Once again, don't play any tricks!"

Orion himself was surprised that he had such good acting skills. He looked and acted just like a villain. Looking at the shiny knife in Jane's hand, Zachary sighed and nodded, then followed him up. As soon as he reached the second floor, he was thinking about how to deal with Orion. Although he didn't know the other person's identity, Zachary guessed that they were definitely not good people. Did Gary borrow money from a loan - shark? But why did they go to that house? Just then, Orion suddenly started talking to himself.

"This isn't right... It's not here..."

Orion's body, with its activated psychic ability, quickly felt something wrong. He couldn't sense Gary's presence in this building at all. Orion immediately became alert. Did they have some kind of plan? He quickly grabbed Zachary's collar and pushed him against the wall, saying, "Where is he! Tell me quickly! Time is running out!"

"Time?"

"He's going to be killed! Killed by the ghost in that painting! Don't you understand? After midnight tonight, it'll be his death date!"

Orion didn't care about anything else and told him everything. Zachary was completely confused. It took him a long time to ask, "Who exactly are you? How do you know all this?"

"Midnight is approaching! If you don't want him to die, tell me right away where he is! I can feel that he's not in this place!"

"That can't be right... He should be working overtime here..." Zachary was completely bewildered.

At the same time, his phone rang. At this time, Gary had just woken up. When he saw those pale pupils through the peephole, he immediately called Zachary. Zachary took out his phone and saw that it was Gary's number. He cursed in his heart. Why did Gary call at this time?

"Who's calling?"

"A... A friend," Zachary tried to look as natural as possible, but Orion immediately saw something was wrong. He snatched the phone, saw that it said "Gary calling," and immediately pressed the call button and put it to his ear.

"Zachary, save me... I don't know why I'm back at my home. The ghost is right at the door... Come and save me quickly... Save me...

Since Orion had pressed the speakerphone, Zachary also heard it. He looked at the man in front of him in disbelief. Did he really say it right?

Then, Gary's almost howling cries for help continued to come from the phone, "Ah... The door, the door is about to open!" Then, the phone automatically hung up.

"Take me to his home quickly!" Orion's roar was no less than Gary's on the phone. "If we don't go, he'll really die!"

Hearing the voice on the phone, Zachary naturally understood the seriousness of the situation. He immediately nodded, and then the two of them rushed downstairs as fast as they could. At this time, it was about fifteen minutes until midnight.

After running downstairs, Orion quickly got into the car and said to Jane in the back seat, "We have to go to Gary's home right away! Midnight is approaching!" Inside Gary's home, he was now looking at the opened door in the hallway. However, no one came in. After a few seconds, the door quickly closed! Then, blood started to seep down from the ceiling, pouring down like rain!

"100 mph, 110 mph, 120 mph..." Orion gritted his teeth as he looked at the speedometer of the car. Thankfully, there weren't many red lights nearby, and there was no traffic jam. They were moving smoothly.

"There's still time. There are five minutes left... Hey, is it really in the next block?" Orion's shouts became louder and louder. Zachary said nervously, "Y... Yes, it is!"

Gary ran into the kitchen and grabbed a kitchen knife, then returned to the living room. He knew very well that she had already come in!

"Come out! Come out, I'm not afraid of you! Come out!"

Just then, a shadow quickly flashed behind him. Sensing something, he immediately turned around, but there was nothing behind him. More and more blood seeped from the ceiling, and soon there was about ten centimeters of blood - water on the ground, and Gary's body was completely stained red.

Fear consumed his sanity. He waved the kitchen knife around the room, but there was no sign of the female ghost anywhere.

"I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you!"

Just then, a hand suddenly reached out from the blood - water on the ground and grabbed his foot! Then, a nearly blood - stained head emerged from the blood - water! After stopping the car, there was only one minute left! Orion let out a loud shout, grabbed Zachary's arm, and rushed out of the car. Then, he started running into the apartment building. He didn't even think about taking the elevator. There were more than ten steps on the stairs, and he took five steps at a time. He almost sprained his ankle several times. Zachary was stunned by his rush. Before he could react, they had reached Gary's floor.

At this time, the clock's hands had moved half a circle.

There were thirty seconds left!

Running to the door, Orion started crashing into the door and shouting, "Gary? I'm here to save you. Open the door quickly!"

At this time, he looked at his watch again. There were less than ten seconds left until midnight! After that, it would be the most dangerous moment!

"Get out of the way!"

Jane pushed Orion aside, took out a key, inserted it into the lock, and immediately opened the door. At this moment, there were five seconds left! However, unexpectedly, as soon as they stepped into the room, they saw such a scene. Gary's body was curled up in the corner of the living room. His face was extremely distorted; his facial muscles were even deformed, and his whole face was flattened. His mouth was wide open, even split. His right hand tightly grasped his chest, and the nails of his left hand left deep marks on the floor. And the most terrifying part was his eyes; half of his eyeballs had protruded from their sockets and looked like they were about to fall out at any moment.

Orion took a quick step forward and felt Gary's breath. He was almost gasping for air. Just then, he noticed Gary's fingers tremble slightly. And when the clock pointed to midnight, the trembling immediately stopped. Gary was completely dead.

"We still... We still didn't make it..."

At this moment, Zachary suddenly let out a scream because he saw a figure sitting by the wall in the other corner of the living room. It looked like a woman!

"Look, look..." He shifted his gaze to Orion for a moment and then looked back in that direction. But that place was now empty.