Chapter 48: The Whisper of the Evil Spirit - Fear
The living room was pitch black, filled with screams.
From Rebecca's panicked words, it was clear that her boyfriend, Bret, had been dragged away while trying to protect her.
Little Martin shined a flashlight everywhere, illuminating the space.
Sophie was in the kitchen, mumbling toward the basement as if talking to thin air.
Danny rushed out and asked for the reason; it turned out that Sophie, as a mother, wanted her two children to accept Diana's existence.
She had actually turned off all the lights, hoping Diana would come out and meet them.
Bret had never seen anything so dark, such an unnatural shadow.
He immediately took out his phone, ready to call the police, but Diana directly dragged him into the darkness.
No matter how strong Rebecca was, she was now sobbing uncontrollably.
"We have to save Bret; I caused this."
Danny glanced at Art and the Wendigo, who immediately understood and rushed into the basement to rescue him.
The full Wendigo form was too large and too terrifying for such a confined space.
Art the Clown was suitable; people saw him as just a clown.
The Wendigo in its merged state was completely integrated with Danny.
Rebecca didn't ask, but she could tell that this strange clown figure was the demonologist's helper.
Danny turned the lights back on and fell into thought.
What method could he use to restrain Diana?
He had thought about using light sources to trap Diana, but she would vanish upon contact with direct light.
Danny suddenly thought of something.
A UV lamp, but where could he find such a thing in the middle of the night?
Before he could think further, the basement door burst open; Art the Clown emerged, carrying Bret in his arms.
Rebecca looked at the battered Bret, thanking Art while sobbing and calling out her boyfriend's name.
Little Martin hid beside Danny, curiously observing Art the Clown.
He seemed very interested in this silent mime-like figure; from a child's perspective, Art's ability to rescue someone from a monster was extremely impressive.
Danny was still thinking.
Diana, psychiatric hospital, friend, xeroderma pigmentosum...
All these pieces of information seemed to point to one conclusion.
If this were a psychological thriller, then Rebecca's mother would undoubtedly be experiencing hallucinations due to her mental illness, and she herself would be the one harming her son and daughter.
But this was supernatural horror.
Danny had just personally experienced that suffocating grip, those skeletal fingers.
But he felt he had to try; what if there was a connection?
"Rebecca, I won't harm your mother, but I suspect Diana's manifestation might be related to her mental state, so I'm going to talk to her; tell me quickly anything else you remember."
Rebecca said, "Mom hasn't taken her medication in a long time, it seems."
The reason she only said it now was because she thought taking medication had absolutely no relation to the entity.
Danny understood; he stepped forward and stopped Sophie, who was about to enter the basement, saying,
"Excuse me, ma'am, is Diana your friend?"
Sophie hesitated for a moment and nodded.
"Yes, Diana is my friend, it's just that her condition has always been poor; I hope you don't hurt her; let me talk to her properly."
Danny watched the mumbling old woman, a twitch appearing at the corner of his mouth.
She was already lost in delusion.
Seeing this, Danny wasted no more words and grabbed Sophie firmly by the shoulders; the previously mumbling old woman instantly froze, then seemed to sober up slightly.
She stared at Danny in shock, seemingly unable to understand why the young man, who had just been so polite, would suddenly be so forceful.
Danny pointed to the three people in the living room and said,
"Mrs. Sophie, please look carefully at how Diana is harming your daughter and son; what you are doing will also harm Diana."
"If you're sick, you need treatment, and you need to face reality!"
"Diana is sick, very sick, just like you, ma'am; you are her friend, so if she has any illness, you should tell me so it can be addressed."
Danny simply went along with Sophie's words; since you say Diana is unwell and sick, then you should tell me about her condition and find the cause so it can be addressed, right?
Sophie paused, then looked at Rebecca and Martin's crying, frightened eyes; as a mother, she finally wavered.
"You're right, young man; if you're sick, you need treatment... Diana and I met in a psychiatric hospital; she's like me, but her problems are more severe, and she also has a rare skin condition called xeroderma pigmentosum that made her extremely sensitive to light..."
As Sophie spoke.
The room suddenly plunged into darkness; the entire block seemed to have a power outage.
Danny: "?"
This isn't a joke, is it?
Classic, when the truth is about to be revealed, an accident happens, right?
The commotion in the basement grew even wilder.
The next second, the door creaked open.
A shadow instantly grabbed Sophie's foot and dragged her towards the basement; Danny, quick as a flash, directly lunged at the shadow and grappled with it; the entity struggled even more fiercely.
She could have escaped into the darkness, but she didn't want to abandon Sophie.
Danny almost got thrown off, but thankfully he held on tightly... No, the sensation was wrong.
Danny could clearly feel an odd texture beneath his grip; he instinctively adjusted his hold.
Honestly, it felt disturbingly solid for a shadow entity.
The sudden silence came unexpectedly.
Danny had expected the entity to lash out violently, but instead, there was a demonic whisper, instantly raising goosebumps all over him and making him feel a few degrees more terrified.
This whisper was a mental assault, especially in a dark environment.
Danny used to not believe that supernatural encounters could truly terrify someone to death, until one day, a demonic whisper came to his ear.
"CRACK!"
A sickening sound rang out, and the entity's whisper stopped.
Art the Clown, battered and missing parts, slammed Diana's shadowy form with his blood-stained hammer, seemingly stunning her temporarily.
Danny quickly had Art help hold Diana's manifestation down, then shook Sophie awake to make her tell the truth of the matter.
He didn't believe it could be interrupted this time.
As Sophie spoke.
The truth of that year slowly unfolded before Danny.
Diana was a mentally ill person who also suffered from xeroderma pigmentosum, but before entering the psychiatric hospital, she had been involved with a dark occult group.
They worshipped something unnatural, an entity that fed on darkness and fear.
When she died during experimental light therapy that went catastrophically wrong, her attachment to Sophie and her fear of light created something else entirely.
This entity possessed what remained of Diana's consciousness; after Diana's death, her attachment manifested as something that could only exist in darkness.
Sophie was Diana's friend at the time and often visited her, so she naturally became a focal point for the entity.
First, it drove her husband away through fear and paranoia, and finally, it prepared to consume her two children.
So, after the entity took Diana's form, it was actually bound by the rules of her condition and could only appear in shadows and darkness, which is why it only manifested after the lights were turned off.
After listening, Danny felt that Diana's attachment to Sophie and her photosensitivity were the keys to restricting the entity.
"Ma'am, have you taken your medication?"
"Not yet."
"Where is the medication?"
"I hid it; if I take the medicine, I won't see Diana anymore, but I know where it is."
"Go get the medication quickly; take your dose yourself, and we'll use it to help Diana too."
The old woman, confused, ran off to find the medication.
Danny then instructed Art to continue restraining Diana's form with the hammer; he noticed the blood on the hammer now, remembering it hadn't been there before.
It could actually cause temporary disruption to Diana's manifestation.
"Art, where did the blood on your hammer come from?"
Art the Clown looked up at Danny with his characteristic unnerving grin and gestured vaguely.
Danny realized it was a purely redundant question.
"Never mind, keep her restrained."
…
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