chapter_023 : Final Clue

In the afternoon, Zachary Thompson stepped into Neil Lawson's house once again.

If it was Neil who painted that female ghost, then was there something in this house that could lift the curse?

The painting still hung forlornly in its original place. Apart from the absence of the female ghost, there was nothing abnormal about it.

Of course, Zachary couldn't destroy this painting. After all, keeping it might give hope that the female ghost would return to the painting one day and never come out again. However, this was just a fantasy. In fact, it was almost impossible to come true.

Jane Sophia Parker had made it very clear to him that those who were foreseen had no possibility of escaping by their own power. That is to say, all he was facing was death. And it wasn't a peaceful death, but a death accompanied by great fear. Just thinking about it made him feel that suicide would be a better option.

Zachary also thought about suicide. But he didn't have the courage. Even though Joey Foster was dead, and even though he knew his days were numbered, he still didn't have the courage to end his own life.

So... what should he do? Was there any way to survive?

He was now standing on the stairway, looking at the painting. He had explored every corner of this house, but he still hadn't found anything. Then, he suddenly noticed something wrong.

The scene in the painting was the study in this house. Except for the large pool of blood on the floor, everything else seemed normal. However, this study scene seemed so familiar to Zachary. He felt like he had seen it somewhere before. Not in this house, but somewhere else.

He walked closer to the painting and examined it carefully. Suddenly, another scene popped into his mind, and the two scenes completely overlapped!

Previously, Roderick Green had also given him binoculars and asked him to look at the study in the non - existent Room 401. And that study was exactly the same as the one in the painting! But at that time, he was completely attracted by the protruding figure behind the curtain and didn't notice this at all.

Should he go to that study again?

Although fear was gnawing at his heart, he also knew that if he didn't go, he would still die... In comparison, it was better to take a risk. Maybe he could turn things around. The desire to survive burned in his heart. He immediately headed upstairs and quickly arrived at the study door.

He pushed the door open. The first thing he noticed was the curtain on the left side of the study. It was exactly the same as what he had seen through the binoculars. When he pulled the curtain open, there was a line of words on it. It seemed to be written with a paint pen, and the words were a bit blurred, but he could still make out what it said.

Then he read the line of words.

"To the last one: Don't collect red clothes."

Who wrote this? Who did "the last one" refer to?

Wait!

Suddenly, his mind started racing. He began to recall what Orion James Miller and Jane had said. He remembered they had said that purple pupils were a symbol of the natural spiritual physique, which meant that Neil might have the ability to foresee.

But... why did Neil, who had the ability to foresee, paint the painting that would result in his own death? What was his purpose?

And the words left on the wall now... could it be a warning he left behind? A warning to those he foreseen would enter here in the future? If the last one referred to someone, wasn't that himself?

By connecting all the clues, he could draw several conclusions. Neil, with his natural spiritual physique, could see transparent ghosts. Due to the continuous deaths of the people around him, he had to live in seclusion in this house and continued to paint the ghosts he saw. But why? Why did he paint the ghosts he saw?

Since Neil had the ability to foresee, he must have known that the paintings he made would kill his friends in the future. In that case, he had moved here alone to avoid harming the people around him. Then why did he still paint such pictures? Not only did it kill himself, but also their friends. Logically, it didn't make sense at all.

Then, there was only one answer that could explain everything.

Neil was coerced by "something". "That thing" kept killing the people around him to threaten him into painting. Yes... it wanted to gain a real form through those paintings. And Neil was the perfect person. He could paint those extremely realistic ghost paintings. Not because he had spiritual abilities, but because the ghosts forced him to paint.

I'm afraid Neil was targeted by the ghosts because of his spiritual physique. In order to obtain a physical form, they forced Neil, or even controlled his body to paint. Once it had a form, it could become a truly omnipotent evil spirit.

Neil finally knew that he would also be killed by the ghosts. But he still chose to continue painting because he hoped that the people around him could survive and not be killed by that female ghost.

No... maybe it couldn't be called a female ghost, because the female ghost was just an image that Neil painted for "that thing". In fact, it didn't matter what it was, as long as it had a physical form.

And Neil also foresaw that in the future, the last person who was cursed, which was Zachary Thompson, would notice the study in the painting and come to this room to open the curtain. So, he left an important clue in advance to remind himself.

When he was about to be killed by the ghosts, he tried to destroy everything, but he failed in the end. His paintbrush and palette were probably taken away by "that thing". If that ghost had really become omnipotent, then these two things were enough for it to exist.

"Mr. Neil, thank you... If I can survive in the future, I will definitely offer prayers for your peaceful rest..." Then, he quickly ran outside!

Red clothes... was it Joey's relic, that red coat? How could it be?

He rushed out of Neil's house like a bullet and took out his phone. While running, he kept muttering for someone to answer the phone. His mother was at home now. Once he got through, he would ask her to throw away all the red clothes at home. But no one answered the phone.

Was his mother...

After hanging up the phone, he ran as fast as he could towards the nearby road. There happened to be a taxi parked there. He hurriedly jumped in and requested the driver to take him home as fast as possible, promising to double the fare.

As the car started moving, he prayed silently in his heart that his mother would be safe. Looking at the scenery flashing by quickly outside the window, he still felt that the speed was not fast enough. He wished he could grow wings and fly home.

Finally, when they arrived, he took out a hundred - dollar bill from his pocket and stuffed it into the driver's hand without asking for change. Then he rushed into the apartment building. Considering Joey's death, although he was in a hurry, he still chose to take the stairs.

When he reached the floor where his home was, he was out of breath, but he still didn't dare to stop. He ran to the door and shouted, "Mom, Mom! Open the door!"

Not getting a response, he immediately used the key to open the door and rushed inside. His mother was indeed not there, but she had left a note saying that there was an urgent matter at work and she had to leave. He heaved a sigh of relief. Then he ran into the bedroom, opened the closet, and took out all the red clothes. Soon, there were five or six clothes piled up behind him. Since he liked red very much, there were quite a lot of red clothes at home. After taking out all his red clothes, he ran into his parents' room and took out all his parents' red clothes from the closet as well. In total, there were twelve red clothes stacked up.

Finally, he took out Joey's red coat as well. After hesitating for a while, he still put it in the pile of clothes. Then, he was going to get a snake - skin bag stored at home to put all the clothes in and find a place to burn them. Maybe doing this, he could survive.

I hope today is not my death date... As long as it's not today, I'll have enough time to burn all the red clothes at home.

After putting the fourth red piece of clothing into the snake - skin bag, he suddenly heard a strange, cackling laugh in the previously silent room!

This immediately sent shivers down his spine. He fell to the ground on his butt. Then, he noticed that Joey's red coat on top of the pile of red clothes was the source of the sound!

Then, the laughter became louder. And from the collar of the coat, black hair started to pour out!

At this moment, he immediately stood up, grabbed a chair beside him, and threw it at the pile of clothes! The chair hit the red coat, but the hair still kept pouring out. Then, a pair of blood - covered hands stretched out from the sleeve of the coat!

"Aaaaaah!" He couldn't stand it anymore. Just then, he saw a plate of fruits on the coffee table, and a fruit knife was lying on the fruits. He immediately picked up the fruit knife and walked towards the coat. He stabbed down hard!

Under the huge pressure of these days, he had gone crazy. Anyway, he was going to die. So, he might as well fight!

He was completely out of his mind now. When he stabbed in, he didn't feel as if he was stabbing into a physical object, but blood kept flowing out, as if he was really killing someone. At this moment, he didn't care about anything. Even though his clothes were covered with blood, he still kept stabbing.

Maybe he was too crazy to notice that the head and hands had already retracted into the coat. Now he was just stabbing an ordinary coat.

When he realized this, he finally stopped. Then, he continued to put the red clothes into the snake - skin bag.

After zipping up the snake - skin bag, he heaved a sigh of relief. Looking at his clothes full of blood, he took them off and changed into a new one. Then, he checked if he had a lighter with him. Carrying the snake - skin bag, he went out to a nearby gas station to buy gasoline. The gasoline from last time wasn't used, and since there was no car at home, it was handed over to Roderick later. He didn't know how Roderick had dealt with it.

Since this was on the outskirts of the city, it wasn't difficult to find an open and unpopulated area. There was a canal behind his apartment building, and there were usually few people there. He took the snake - skin bag to the canal, poured the bought gasoline on it, and then took out the lighter.

"Go to hell!"

As the flames rose, he felt much more at ease. In Hawaii - and - Alaska - made horror movies, zombies seemed to be afraid of fire. He didn't know if the female ghost was afraid of fire too. He even worried that the female ghost would crawl out of the snake - skin bag halfway through the burning. However, as the flames grew higher and higher, nothing abnormal happened. Maybe today wasn't his death date?

At dusk, the fire finally burned all the red clothes to ashes.

"Finally... it's over. I survived... I'm not going to die..."

He fell to the ground, his face full of tears.

Jane woke up and looked around. To her surprise, she was on that beach full of ghosts. Orion was lying not far away. She quickly ran over and woke him up, saying, "Hey, Orion, wake up. What's going on?"

Orion opened his eyes, looked at Jane, and it took him a while to come to his senses. He looked around blankly and then suddenly remembered what had happened. He said, "Right! Before, we were tied to the ceiling of Room 401 by the female ghost's hair. Why are we here now? Anyway, I wonder how the other three are doing now?"

Orion closed his eyes and sensed for a moment, then said, "I can no longer sense the presence of Roderick Green and Joey Foster... I'm afraid they're both dead. But I can still sense Zachary Thompson's presence. He's still alive! But why did we wake up here? Right, we have to contact Violet immediately to find out Zachary's death date!"

Zachary was sitting silently in front of the pile of ashes for several hours.

Although he had survived, Joey and Roderick were dead... One was the woman he loved the most, and the other was his best friend. And they were both indirectly killed by him... There was also Gary Johnson. He didn't have to die at all...

What should he do in the future? He would definitely never touch anything supernatural again. After graduation, he would find a good job and live an active life, and then wait for a girl like Joey to appear...

Finally, feeling a bit relieved, he stood up and was about to go back to the apartment. However, just then, he suddenly felt that something was wrong.

Then, that shrill laughter rang in his ears again!

The female ghost wasn't dead!

Immediately, fear ran through his body, and his hair stood on end. He quickly ran towards his apartment. But that malicious laughter always lingered in his ears, no matter how far he ran.

He reached the small garden in the apartment area. He felt that the laughter seemed to fade away a bit, and he also felt a bit tired. He ran into a small pavilion to take a little rest. At this moment, he accidentally looked down and noticed...

No, it's impossible!

He clearly remembered that the blue coat he had changed into when he went out had now turned bright red, like blood!

That terrifying laughter rang out again. Zachary quickly tried to take off this coat, but to his horror, a hand stretched out from each sleeve and tightly grabbed his hands. Then, he felt something start to stretch out from the back of his neck...

At the same time, Orion couldn't sense Zachary's presence anymore...