Chapter 6: “Mother's Skeleton Sings on the Basket”

It was only when Layne's modified chainsaw roared through the tundra that Lucas saw the so-called "new training ground" as the ruins of his mother's deserted lab. Buried in a pile of broken test tubes was a charred basketball hoop with strings of human knucklebones wrapped around it, making an ethereal sound as the wind hit the iron frame.

"Catch this and your mom will rest in peace." Rayne flung out an oil-stained Spalding basketball with a miniature detonator welded to it at twelve o'clock.

The moment the sphere grazed his ear, Lucas saw the 2011 Child Protective Services file flash back in front of his eyes-the closure report that year read 'accidental fire,' but right now the basketball was clearly embedded in a half-scorched wedding photo, with his mother wearing the same eagle's head ring as Layne's on her ring finger.

As the blast of air toppled him, the freezer door suddenly popped open. Twenty frozen models of Holt High School uniforms poured out, each with faded scoreboards stuck in their chests: 2001/3/15 Layne Holt Bet $150,000

"Your father took my debt," Rayne's mechanical prosthetic suddenly clamped down on his throat, "so your mom had to marry trash." Iron Finger pointed to the incinerator deep in the ruins, the mouth of the furnace stuck with a half model of a charred corpse, the wristwatch showing the time stopped forever at one minute before the explosion.

The phone suddenly vibrated. The anonymous account sends a video of Elena trembling and unbuttoning her shirt, and Marcus's voice like a viper spitting, "Either take it off or the headlines tomorrow will be a live stream of your dad's severed finger."

The basketball blows up for the 17th time. Rayne shoved the shard of his pocket watch into his festering palm, "I pushed your mom into the fire with my own hands back then, now it's your turn."

Lucas frantically rummages through the metal wreckage, finally peeling out half a page of the lab log - his mother's handwriting scrawled like a mantra: "Evidence of Rayne's gambling is hidden in..." The second half was engulfed in bloodstains.