Lakeside Ghost Story 13

Dawn was just beginning to break. Birdsong ushered in a new sunrise, and the pall hanging over Springwater Town gradually began to lift.

In stark contrast to the charged atmosphere at Golden Lake, the mayor had returned home to find the place ransacked, his desk turned upside down, and Mrs. Allie unconscious on the bed.

"So it's finally here?"

Mayor Marcus heaved a deep sigh. "Fifty years, and the moment you come back, you leave me a present like this."

He put the bedroom back in order, even setting the fallen bedside lamp upright, then applied a cold compress to the swelling on the back of the woman's head. Methodically, he restored the house to its original state.

A sudden burst of frantic knocking sounded at the front door. The mayor strode toward it.

He had assumed it would be a firefighter coming to report the blaze, but the person standing outside took him completely by surprise.

"Jack?!" For once, the mayor lost his composure. He had never expected Jack to make it back.

Supporting Mu Ying, Zhou Wu stumbled into the villa as though fleeing for his life.

"Uncle! The rumors about Golden Lake are true. There really is a monster in there!" Zhou Wu panted. He clutched Mayor Marcus's sleeve, grief and fear surging through him. "That monster's been hunting me this whole time. Uncle, call the police. Get the military to deal with those things!"

"Easy, son. Take your time and tell me what happened." Mayor Marcus settled him into a chair, then examined his vacant, witless daughter Nina.

Her skin was ice-cold, her eyes unfocused, and her heartbeat was also...

Mayor Marcus reached for the holster at the small of his back.

Zhou Wu was still babbling on. After the danger he had faced at Golden Lake, the best plan he could come up with was to seek refuge at the mayor's house and have the mayor deal with the monsters.

That damned Crocodile Man. You're not getting away this time!

Zhou Wu cursed viciously to himself, but before he could collect his thoughts, he heard the click of a safety being disengaged.

Mayor Marcus held a handgun in one hand and glanced casually at the two of them.

Cold sweat instantly soaked Zhou Wu's back. He had sensed it already. He knew something was wrong with Mu Ying, but he had never imagined the mayor could be this ruthless. Was he really going to kill his own daughter?

Zhou Wu raised his hands instinctively. He could drag Mu Ying along and try to escape, but faced with an immediate threat to his own life, he would choose to let her go.

He had no intention of taking a bullet for Mu Ying.

The mayor suddenly laughed, his voice thick with mockery and contempt. Ignoring Mu Ying entirely, he turned the gun on Zhou Wu instead.

Zhou Wu went perfectly still. "Uncle, what are you doing?" he blurted.

"I never thought you'd actually make it back. Doesn't that mean all my careful planning went to waste?" Every trace of a smile vanished from Mayor Marcus's face. His features twisted with venom as he ground out, "I'll give you two choices. One: take Nina and get back to Golden Lake, and I'll pretend none of this ever happened. Two: die by my hand right now."

Zhou Wu had far too many questions, but circumstances left him no room to ask them. Gritting his teeth, he chose the first option without the slightest hesitation.

After all, once he was out of Springwater Town and clear of the present danger, how could the mayor possibly know whether he had gone back to Golden Lake?

But his shallow scheme was seen through at once.

"I know what you're thinking, you foolish boy with nothing but muscle between your ears," Marcus said coldly. "Of course I'm not going to let you go back alone."

"What?"

"Have you ever seen The Exorcist? It came out more than a decade ago," the mayor asked.

Zhou Wu had no idea why Mayor Marcus had suddenly started talking about a movie, but with his life on the line, he could only play along. He shook his head.

"It was based on a true story. In Maryland, a boy named Roland Doe was possessed by a demon, and his parents asked the Catholic Church to send priests to perform an exorcism." Absolute confidence shone in Marcus's eyes. "And I am far wealthier than that family ever was."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I've arranged for four exorcists from the church to accompany you to Golden Lake."

The System chose that moment to chime in.

[Prerequisite Quest: Survive until dawn. Completed.]

[Main Quest updated: Reach Golden Lake with the four exorcists.]

Zhou Wu sank into despair. He had no choice at all!

Seeing Zhou Wu's ashen face and apparent resignation, Marcus lowered the gun.

His original plan had been to use the four children to sound out the crocodile monster. They were meant to serve as scouts for the exorcists. But from the looks of things, two of them were probably already dead, Nina had become a drowned revenant, and only Jack had escaped.

In the past, that monster would never have left anyone alive. Had it been injured? Or had something unexpected happened?

That would be a stroke of providence indeed.

"What are you waiting for? Come with me." Marcus led Zhou Wu toward the villa's basement.

The audience members on the other side of the screen felt as though their minds were being torn in two.

The Studios was no ordinary movie, after all. It offered multiple viewing angles. On one screen, the boss was about to reveal his true face; on another, the mayor was hatching a conspiracy. The audience hardly knew where to look.

[Oh my God!! Zhuo Yu is whispering sweet nothings, isn't he? He's flirting with the boss again!]

[That takes some serious skill and nerve.]

[What are you thinking? This is a horror movie. Didn't you see the mayor is about to make another move?]

[Hahaha, enjoy the peace while it lasts. I heard through the grapevine that the Soul Hunters are coming.]

[The Soul Hunters? That Actors' Guild that specializes in hunting bosses?!]

[Wait, newbie question: actors can hunt bosses? Bosses are so powerful. How could any human possibly beat one?]

[You're obviously new. Actors earn Flame Points by completing films, and they can trade those points for upgrades. Killing a boss earns even more Flame Points. People will risk their lives for money. Some actors specialize in clearing detective and puzzle scenarios, while others specifically target bosses and risk everything to take them down.]

[Exactly, though actors that powerful are pretty rare.]

[Do none of you actually know? Among actors who specialize in high-difficulty scenarios, this crocodile-headed boss has a triple-S difficulty rating. I heard the Soul Hunters have had their eyes on him for ages. As soon as this film premiered, they pulled strings with a debugger and got themselves added to the actor candidate roster for Terror by the Lake!]

[No way. The Soul Hunters may be strong, but I think they're courting death this time. The Crocodile Man can't be killed!]

[Hey, explaining things to a newbie is one thing, but what's with the spoiler? Reported!]

After locking Zhou Wu and Mu Ying in the basement, Marcus walked slowly upstairs and returned to the ransacked bedroom.

Between that troublesome boy Jack and the stolen files, even the mayor, who had always handled everything with effortless composure, could not help growing irritated.

He looked at the unconscious woman on the bed.

"Allie. My useless Allie. Even if you'd screamed a few more times, I still wouldn't have let him take those documents." Marcus stared with disgust at the woman who was the same age as him. "Those who serve no purpose do not deserve to live."

Slowly, almost reverently, he picked up a pillow and pressed it over Allie's face.

The unconscious woman could not resist. As the oxygen was gradually cut off, her body began to convulse instinctively even in sleep. Perhaps that faint movement was what finally made Marcus stop.

"Never mind. You are my own daughter, after all."

Mayor Marcus tossed the pillow aside and quietly stroked her aged cheek. "Oh, my useless Allie. If you hadn't refused to join the church, you would be even lovelier than Nina is now. Your youth would have been preserved at the height of its beauty. That is the gift the Fountain of Youth has bestowed upon us. One day, Springwater Town will become like that tribe of old, and everyone will live in eternal happiness."

"...You're wrong." Allie slowly came to. A faint murmur escaped her lips. Nearly fifty, her voice was as aged as her face. "How could you send Nina there too? Nina... Nina is still so young!"

"Silence!" Marcus's placid face contorted without warning. "That bastard you had with some man from outside has already polluted our family bloodline!" he roared. "If I hadn't needed to conceal my identity, I would never have entered her into the family register at all."

Tears slowly spilled down Allie's cheeks.

Nina was not Mayor Marcus's daughter at all, but his granddaughter. To make his apparent age seem plausible, Marcus had faked his own death, murdered his son, and assumed the dead man's identity. He had then taken Nina in and forbidden Allie from ever telling her the truth.

Whenever Allie went out with Marcus and heard townspeople remark on how much Marcus resembled his father, terror would well up from the bottom of her heart and send uncontrollable shudders through her.

Allie's father had kept his identity hidden from her since she was a child. Now that her beauty had faded with age, she had no choice but to play the mayor's wife.

At times, she could not help feeling that the Fountain of Youth had brought her family not a blessing, but a curse.

Marcus let out a cold laugh. "Besides, do you truly think I would give Nina the chance to live forever? That spoiled bastard, so stupid she barely has two thoughts to rub together? One of my drowned revenant ‘friends' is there. Nina will be the first person he seeks out to take revenge on me. By now, she is no longer human."

"You... You!" Allie's face went deathly pale. Unable to catch her breath and still badly dizzy from the blow to her head, she fainted again in shock and panic.

Marcus snorted disdainfully.

Since the Age of Exploration, his family had carried on de León's final wish, swearing to find the Fountain of Youth in Florida. In pursuit of that goal, their forebears had founded a secret church that endured for centuries. It was only in the current century that they discovered the treasure that was Golden Lake.

But the incompetent could never pass the Fountain of Youth's test. In his day, Marcus had endured seven bitter days, escaped peril six times, and even killed his beloved son on the final day before he was granted its blessing.

He was strong. He had passed the trial. How could that bastard, her head filled with nothing but youthful romance, a witless, crawling worm, ever inherit such glory?

The same went for Allie. She had chosen a man outside the organization and started a family with him, openly defying Marcus.

These useless descendants did not deserve the blessing. He, the strong one, was the only person who truly had the right to rule Golden Lake! The monster was the only thing standing in his way. That monster left over from fifty years ago!

Through the organization, he had sent countless people to their deaths, even sacrificing members' children, all to determine the monster's present condition. Yet fifty years later, it still occupied Golden Lake, baring its claws and fangs indiscriminately at every intruder and preventing Marcus from advancing another step.

Even that cripple from back then had returned. Marcus had already found a priest to perform an exorcism on him, yet the evil spirit's resentment ran so deep that it had actually managed to come back.

Marcus rubbed his temples, restored his perfectly dignified bearing, and strode out of the villa with his head held high.

He needed to notify the other members. The situation was now urgent. They could delay no longer.

Perhaps the four exorcists would arrive in town that very afternoon.

On another screen, inside the cabin at Golden Lake in the early morning, Zhuo Yu had one arm wrapped around Asha and was gently stroking his tousled red hair again and again.

"See? I told you that you couldn't scare me."

The man in his arms was trembling, seemingly from nervous anxiety or perhaps because he felt wronged enough to cry. He lowered his head and found that Asha's expression had barely changed. Only his eyes were different. They were like the deep waters of a lake finally touched by sunlight, impossibly clear and, to Zhuo Yu's surprise, so vividly alive.

Asha really had grown a great deal. His face had become much more terrifying as well.

The deformed half had been shut beneath the mask for so long that it had severely ulcerated. In places, the flesh had rotted away entirely, exposing stark white bone, and Asha had torn off the loose, burdensome skin himself.

No wonder the boss had not wanted Zhuo Yu to see his face. Fifty years ago, the deformed half of Asha's face had still looked vaguely human. Now it had become half a skull, mangled and raw, the sort of sight guaranteed to draw screams in a horror movie.

Aside from his right cheek, the undamaged half of his face had also changed considerably.

His youthful air had been worn away by the killing, day after day, year after year. Only the maturity deposited by the passage of time remained, suffusing the left side of his face. His features had grown sharper and more defined, with a chiseled jawline other men would envy and a straight, prominent nose.

The classic face of a handsome, perfectly formed American man.

"Baby, it's a shame you're a redhead instead of a blond. You're not quite stereotypical enough. Otherwise, you could play Captain Florida or something, and I could be your agent." Zhuo Yu teased him, patting the big puppy on the head. "All right. Time to talk about something serious."

His tone abruptly grew somber.

"What exactly happened fifty years ago?"