“There is no absolute security, only relative security.
This sentence really concerned me, and even the conversation pattern at that time seems to have some connection with the present. "
After Joe Butran finished speaking, everyone nodded in agreement.
“I think the name Traveler’s Home is not chosen randomly, but it amplifies the concept of home.
If the old lady is our elder, then we the residents are the children.
In this case, well-behaved children may not necessarily be rewarded, but disobedient ones will . . . "
Joe Butron frowned as he spoke of his inference.
"Is it possible that if we don't do what she says, she will...?"
Sif asked hesitantly.
“No, it wasn’t necessarily her who did it.
If her role is that of a loving mother, then the punisher should be someone else.
I don't know if you noticed, but when I knocked on the door three times, I heard very, very light footsteps fading away in the room.
That should be the first test of whether the rules are followed.
Her rules were simple: knock three times before entering, lock the door and close the windows, take a shower before 10:30, and if you need food, you can only do so by throwing paper balls into the iron pipe.
We just need to be cautious and follow these rules.”
Jobtran said slowly.
Columbia was in a rare state of deep thought at this time. It was unknown what he was thinking about. Then he took the initiative to speak.
"The footsteps you heard sounded like the steps of a very tall person, didn't they?"
Joet Brown was stunned when he heard this, then nodded slightly to confirm.
"I remembered a folk legend, Kukui.
My mom once sang a nursery rhyme when I was little, and it was so scary that I memorized it.
It's probably like this:
Children, children must be obedient. There is a passage in the nightmare,
Kukui, Kukui, Kukui in human skin,
Don't listen, don't listen, Kukui asks you if you are afraid,
If you are not afraid, if you are not afraid, Kukui opens his mouth and speaks,
Crunch, crunch, chew it until it's broken into pieces and swallow it in one gulp."
Columbia's unpleasant singing coupled with the weird lyrics gave everyone goosebumps.
“I have never heard of the name Kukui, but I have seen similar folk tales in some documents, most of which have been passed down in the form of nursery rhymes.
People generally call it the sleeping fairy.
It is specifically used to punish disobedient children, using images of terror and violence to intimidate, making fear a means for adults to make children obedient.
The usual image is a tall man with a sack on his body, with all his facial features missing from the sack, except for a big scary mouth.
Sif, who was studying ancient literature, remembered the information she had read in college, so she spoke slowly.
“I also remembered that when I was a child, our dean told me the story of the Bag Man. I believe it is a similar folk song.
Compared to the anticipated legends such as the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, the story of the Sackboy is more like a bloody folk tale.
Regardless, everyone in each room will take turns keeping watch tonight in case anything happens.
If you encounter something strange, don’t try to solve it alone. It’s safest to stay in your room.”
suggested Joe Butran.
After the other three nodded in confirmation, Professor Robert and Columbia withdrew.
"You go to sleep in the first half of the night, and I'll keep watch. Wake me up in the second half of the night."
Jobtran said to Sif who stayed and slept in the same room with him.
"Well, I'm going to take a shower first."
Sif replied with a smile.
She took out some clean clothes from her suitcase and went to the bathroom.
Jobtran first sat on the bed, then took out a folded stick from his luggage, stretched it out and used it as a crutch.
He leaned on his crutches and walked to the window, carefully checking that every window was closed.
The next step was to check the ventilation in the house. After closing the windows, there was no problem with ventilation in the house.
The room was not small, and even with the windows closed, there was still enough air for two people to survive, and they did not feel chest tightness or depression.
However, there were some marks on the wooden wall that concerned Joet Brown. They were claw marks left on the wall by the fingernails of a struggling person.
Judging from the depth of the claw marks, the person who left them should be an adult male, otherwise it would be impossible to leave such marks on a relatively hard wood material like poplar.
So the question is, what caused the man to leave marks on the wooden board
The direction of the trace was from the door to the window.
Closer to the window, there are similar scratches on the window frame.
It looked like some kind of extremely powerful being was dragging the man and pulling him out of the window in an extremely strange way.
All the windows in the room are only about one meter high and forty centimeters wide, so it is hard to imagine how an adult man could be dragged out of this window. There should be no other way except to carry him horizontally.
Jobtran looked out the window quietly. The window of this room faced the ruins of the church.
The ruined Jidu statue fell on the rubble, and the surrounding area still had the lifeless atmosphere of Arkham.
——
Professor Robert and Columbia walked to the corner of the stairs, one in front and one behind, each carrying a package.
The stairs leading down were sealed off with a rope, and on the rope was hung a small wooden sign saying "No Entry for Outsiders".
The structure of the stairs is obviously quite old, and there are already many cracks on the wooden steps, but at least there is no mold, proving that the old woman regularly maintains the stairs.
Every step made a creaking sound that made Columbia think of the experience of walking on that wooden bridge.
Their room was on the top floor, and the entire building had three floors in total, so they had to climb the stairs to the third floor to get there.
There is a label 302 on the key, and each door is marked with the room number, which saves a lot of trouble.
When passing the second floor, the two found a man dressed as a hunter standing in the corridor, taking out the key and preparing to open the door.
He had strong muscles, a crossbow on his back, and a quiver on his waist, which contained more than a dozen arrows for the crossbow.
There was a green reflection on the tip of each one, obviously they were poisoned.
Professor Robert stopped and raised his hand to signal Columbia to stop.
He wanted to see whether other travelers who chose to stay in this hotel would abide by the old woman's principles.
The hunter didn't pay attention to Professor Robert's gaze. He opened the door with the key and prepared to go in.
Everything was fine until the moment the hunter opened the door completely.
A pair of black claws reached out from behind the door and grabbed the hunter's legs.
The hunter also reacted quickly and shouted,
"What the hell is this?!"
At the same time, he took out the arrows from his waist and kept stabbing them back and forth at the attacking monster.
A reddish-brown slurry sprayed out of the room. It was the body fluid from the monster.
The monster said nothing, then used its two black claws to pull hard, tearing the hunter's two thighs off his body.
A large amount of blood spurted out from the crotch, followed by a panicked chewing sound.
The sound of teeth colliding with bones, the sound of juice dripping from the mouth, and the sound of pieces of meat rolling in the mouth.
There was no picture because the monster was always hiding behind the door.
The hunter's eyes were filled with fear and panic.
"Don't come over here! Don't!"
The next moment, the hunter's body fell to the ground. Only his upper body was left, and his legs no longer belonged to him.
His crossbow had fallen into the corridor, and he used both hands to support his body and crawl out as far as possible, but it was too late.
This is the consequence of not following the rules.
Deformed black claws extended from behind the door and grabbed the remains of his body.
The screaming ended abruptly with a long roar.
A long tongue stuck out from behind the door and licked the ground. All the blood was absorbed by the suction cup attached to the tongue, and the floor of the corridor became completely smooth and clean.
"Kaaaaaaaaaaa."
The key fell out from behind the door and lay quietly next to the crossbow.
At this time, the old woman came behind the two stunned people without anyone noticing, looked at them with a smile and said nothing.
Feeling the burning gaze from behind, Columbia turned around stiffly, only to find the old woman standing behind him.
That warm smiling face looked so scary at this moment.
The old woman narrowed her eyes and said softly,
"You two are good kids, right? Then... do you understand what should be said and what should not be said?"
Without waiting for Columbia and Professor Robert to answer, the old woman walked step by step to the door of the room with her inconvenient legs.
She bent down and picked up the crossbow and the key.
He placed the key in his palm, examined it carefully, and said to himself,
"There's one more empty room tonight, I hope a good kid comes."
After saying that, he put away the key and walked down the stairs alone.
Professor Robert recovered and hurried out of his room with Columbia.
I knocked on the door three times according to the rules, no more, no less, and then turned the key to open the door.
After entering the room, the two examined every detail in the room as if they were facing a great enemy, fearing that the monster would appear again and eat them alive.
After making sure everything was fine, the two locked the door.
Columbia lay on the bed. He was not sleepy at all. He just lay there for the sake of lying there.
Only this soft quilt can give him a little sense of security.
"Professor, are we dreaming?"
Columbia asked quietly.
Professor Robert said nothing, but came to Columbia and twisted his shoulder hard.
"Ouch, what are you doing?!"
Columbia exclaimed in pain.
"Does it hurt? Of course it hurts. Because this is reality."
Professor Robert sighed.
The two of them lay down on their beds at the same time, in silence.
After a while, Columbia asked anxiously,
"Are we going to sleep tonight?"
"Sleep, why not sleep? My body can't take it if I don't sleep."
Professor Robert asked helplessly.
"Then...you go to bed first? I'm going to take a shower and wake up.
It’s actually pretty scary.”
Columbia patted his chest and said.
“That’s what the adrenaline rush feels like.
Fear and excitement are the emotions that most stimulate adrenaline secretion, but they can also cause a lot of side effects in your body, including shaking, hunger or nausea.
There is nothing we can do about it. Just bear with it and it will pass."
Professor Robert answered rationally.
"Oh, don't talk about hunger, I feel a little hungry when I mention it.
Would you like to order something to eat
There's a menu next to the bed. Meat-filled pancakes sound good."
Columbia instinctively felt an emptiness in his stomach when he heard the word hungry.
"Meat filling? You dare to eat it?"
Professor Robert sat up and looked at Columbia with a "you are weird" look, and Columbia turned pale.
"No, no, no, I was wrong. I suddenly feel a little nauseous."
After saying that, he ran to the bathroom, knelt beside the toilet and started vomiting.
Professor Robert had no choice but to bring a glass of water, stand by Columbia, and pat him on the back gently.
Doing so would make him feel better psychologically.
"Arkham, what the hell is this place?"
Professor Robert couldn't help but say with emotion.
——
"I'm done washing, Joe Butran, do you want to go wash?"
Sif came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel.
What followed was a cold wind unique to the night.
Joet Brown's face changed and he immediately rushed to the bathroom.
Next to the bathtub, there is a small window, and the breeze comes in through this window.
Joet Brown immediately went forward to close the window, but he didn't know if it was too late.
The yellow light in the room flickered at this moment, and a black shadow appeared in the corner.
"The cords of death entangled me; the pangs of hell seized me; trouble and anguish were upon me."
Joet Brown stretched out his right hand and chanted to the shadow.
The holy light formed a vine-like thorn chain that entangled the black shadow.
Wisps of black smoke appeared on the black shadow, along with a scream that went straight to the soul. It was injured by the power of holy light and felt pain.
Joet Brown would not stop there, and continued to sing,
"I have refined you, but not as silver; I chose you in the furnace of affliction."
The power of the thorns continued to increase, and at the same time, a holy flame was ignited on the thorns.
The black shadow kept howling, struggling, and roaring, but it could not break free from the thorns of holy light.
Under the impetus of the power of Holy Light, the black shadow was eventually completely purified by the Holy Light.
But at the last moment, there seemed to be a pair of eyes in the shadows, staring at Joet Brown, as if warning him.
"You're dead."
After doing all this, Jobtran sat down on the edge of the bed, panting.
At this time, Sif was so surprised that she couldn't speak.
"You left the window open?"
Joet Brown rolled his eyes and pointed to the bathroom.
“I turned it off.”
Sif replied aggrievedly.
"Okay, I believe you.
Let’s keep the bathroom door closed. It’s okay if I don’t take a shower.”
While comforting Sif, Joet Brown was thinking in his mind.
"The window that was closed but not shut?"