Chapter 51: It's snowing
The next day.
The entire town was covered in white.
The world outside the window had turned into a winter wonderland, with large snowflakes falling intermittently, having already blanketed the entire yard at some unknown time.
It was one of the most favorite times of winter for most children.
The first thing Danny saw when he woke up was the snow-covered world, but he only glanced at it before burrowing back into Jennifer's warmth to continue sleeping in.
At eleven o'clock, the two finally woke up.
If one had to use a word to describe last night, it would be 'incredible'.
Danny had never felt so refreshed, especially when he opened the window and a cold breeze hit him, accompanied by the falling snow, making the whole world pristine white.
Snowflakes danced in the air, finally landing lightly on Danny's palm.
Jennifer poked her head out from under the covers and said with pleasant surprise,
"Did it snow last night?"
Danny hummed in affirmation.
"Must have been during the night."
Danny quite liked snowy days; the vast whiteness felt much more beautiful than usual, and he could even build snowmen for fun.
Jennifer propped herself up with one hand, the sheet slipping down to reveal her bare shoulder as she lazily said to Danny,
"Aren't you cold, baby? Come back to bed and sleep a bit more; this weather is perfect for staying in."
Danny leaned down and kissed Jennifer.
"You sleep, I still need to go to campus."
"Mm," Jennifer hummed sweetly, but sleeping alone was ultimately not as comfortable as sleeping with her man.
Downstairs.
Danny went to the corner and picked up Chucky; this little bastard actually tried to sneak around yesterday, thankfully he had Diana keep watch over him.
Seeing him still pretending to be an inanimate doll, he asked a question.
"Tell me, how did you do it? A serial killer who can transfer souls isn't an ordinary killer."
This question caught him off guard.
Chucky's eyes moved; as soon as Danny spoke, he knew there was no point in keeping up the act.
The doll's mouth moved as it began to speak in a raspy voice.
"Who the hell are you? How do you know about me? Are you a cop or some kind of priest?"
"I'm registered with the Church as a demonologist."
"Then do you know there's a friggin' demon right under your nose?"
"Are you talking about Diana?"
Danny walked into the shadows and gestured; a dark figure emerged and crawled in front of him. He reached out and stroked Diana's head, and she, like an obedient pet, rubbed her face against Danny's palm in an attempt to please him.
What the hell did you do to that thing!
If Chucky wasn't trapped in a doll's body, his jaw would have dropped in shock.
He had spent a night with this entity yesterday and knew how terrifying it was; how the hell did this guy turn it into an obedient lapdog?
Danny focused his supernatural senses.
"Since you're unwilling to talk, then forget it. I was just curious; whether you used voodoo or black magic, it's all the same to me."
With his soul restricted within the doll's body, Danny didn't even need other methods; he could simply take the doll and contain it.
This was probably the easiest entity he had encountered so far to contain.
As the containment began.
Chucky struggled continuously and finally disappeared with a loud scream.
"Son of a bitch!"
The contained image showed Chucky's horrified expression frozen in that instant, with a toy box in the background.
He always felt something was missing; this face was still relatively clean, without scars and not holding a weapon.
It really didn't fit the killer doll's reputation.
So Danny took a kitchen knife and mentally equipped Chucky with it in the containment; now it felt right.
Chucky's abilities were only two: one was soul transfer through voodoo, and the other was body manipulation.
The latter allowed for quick control of the doll body after soul transfer, but both skills were relatively useless to Danny.
Diana was better.
Danny had acquired 'Shadow Movement' when he was in the basement, but he preferred to call this ability 'Shadow Step'.
As the name suggests, it allows temporary submersion into shadows and darkness.
Chucky was the doll's name, which was quite infamous back in the day.
After confirming that Chucky could still speak after being contained, Danny put on his winter coat and headed to campus.
Opening the door.
Danny's boots crunched in the snow, making a satisfying sound. There were more children than adults around.
A snowball flew directly towards Danny.
He tilted his head, and the snowball brushed past his hair, tsk, slightly hitting his coat.
Just as he was about to see which mischievous kid it was.
Emma from next door had already rushed over, giving the naughty child a shove that instantly made him cry.
"Good work, Emma," Danny praised.
Emma, pleased with the praise, skipped two steps to Danny and gleefully said,
"I'll protect you like Jennifer does, so can you take me with you today?"
"No, I can't. I'm going to campus because a professor needs to see me, but you can come to my house to play anytime if you want."
"Then I'll wait for you to come back."
...
School was starting tomorrow, and Danny truly didn't know why the campus suddenly called him in.
He entered the office.
A news report was playing on the television.
A truck carrying hazardous chemicals overturned near town, causing all the chemicals in the cargo container to spill and leak.
FBI agents were investigating.
Danny saw that the FBI was even involved; could this be a simple chemical spill?
It wouldn't cause something to mutate, would it?
Sometimes he really wanted to know what kind of dangerous substances were being transported through here that could cause biological mutations.
The professor turned around after watching the news and saw Danny, expressing his apology for being distracted.
Then the professor carefully said,
"Many students have gone missing this holiday, and some of them are friends with you, Danny. Could you try to contact them?"
"Uh, I'll try my best." Danny had anticipated this would happen. He only hoped that the number of students in his class would exceed ten when school started tomorrow.
They could have gone anywhere; what else could he say?
The professor nodded and thanked him.
"If you get any news about other classmates, call my number immediately."
Danny said no problem, it was just a phone call.
But everyone knew there wasn't much hope; if the police couldn't find them, how could they expect friends to have better luck?
Leaving campus.
With nothing to do, Danny decided to go check out the area near town; the news just mentioned a chemical spill.
Going to see if there might be anything supernatural developing would be worthwhile.
The chemical spill was not in his town.
It was in the mining town of Prosperity, which was indeed prosperous, backed by an active mine.
This place was not very far away.
It was only a short drive. When Danny arrived, he found the scene had already been cordoned off.
However, after presenting his credentials as a Church demonologist, they immediately let him through.
The small badge the Warrens had sent over was quite effective.
Danny came to the accident scene and observed for a while, finding that these chemicals, after the truck overturned, seemed to have flowed into a drainage system.
Not a large sewer system.
But a small drainage pipe flowing towards Prosperity.
He only learned after asking the relevant personnel.
The end of the pipeline led to an exotic spider farm on the edge of town.
Chemical waste, spiders, mine—connecting these three elements, this had to be Arachnophobia territory.
Danny originally didn't remember this creature feature clearly, but then he recalled there was a character named Ashley in it.
A spider expert or something similar.
...
PS: Successfully identified potential "Eight Legged Freaks" scenario
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