"No!" Just as Howard found it impossible to accept the terrifying scene before him, Mr. James's agonized scream echoed from another room in the villa.
Hearing James's scream, Howard actually calmed down quite a bit, as if he had been doused with a bucket of cold water. Barely maintaining his composure, he snatched a thick Bible from a nearby table. With eyes wide in fury, he shouted at the "mother and son" gradually mutating on the bed, "Monsters! Who on earth are you!?"
Waaaah—
The two monsters, bearing faces identical to Howard's wife and son, suddenly had their features twist. Their mouths, eyes, and noses dilated uncontrollably, revealing blood-seeping black holes. With distorted, ghostly forms and the sound of cracking bones, they lunged toward Howard and Richard.
Howard's scalp tingled with numbness. He retreated hastily, pulling the door shut before the monsters could reach him, and then followed Richard, who had already taken a head start.
Without looking back, the two heard the door handle being twisted behind them and the relentless roars of the chasing monsters. They ran through the second-floor corridor of the villa, looking for a chance to reach Mr. James's bedroom.
After rounding two corners, Richard and Howard arrived at Mr. James's bedroom door. They saw Mr. James sitting on the floor, looking completely broken. Before him, the bedroom wall was a mess of pulp, like a shocking painting made with freshly splashed oil. It looked as if a naughty imp had used crude techniques to paint boldly and wildly on the wall, slamming poor Mrs. James's image onto it using a slurry of what looked like crushed human tissue.
Yes, Mrs. James had been squeezed against the wall like a melted, twisted pancake. Indescribable crushed matter was everywhere, and jelly-like human tissue was splattered across the entire room.
Slap!
Richard slapped Mr. James, who had fallen into a state of frantic daze, and said, "It's not over yet. You have other family members who need you."
Mr. James thought of his good-for-nothing son. As if grasping onto hope and finding courage in his heart, he scrambled up from the floor and followed Howard and Richard, fleeing before the two masses of distorted, amorphous black jelly creatures behind them could catch up.
The three men explored the bedrooms of other harrington family members while evading the monsters' relentless pursuit, only to find the rooms empty except for signs of struggle in a few. It was as if they had vanished from the face of the earth.
Finally, when Richard saw his own room, he pushed the door open without hesitation and invited the two men—whose spirits had broken and who were on the verge of collapse—into his room.
Richard locked the door and braced it with a wardrobe and other heavy objects, temporarily isolating the danger outside.
Richard turned around and saw Howard and James. These two men, who had maintained the grace and elegance of high-society gentlemen during the day, now looked as bedraggled and dejected as homeless people on the street. He couldn't help but shake his head as he pulled out his suitcase from under the bed.
Seeing Richard's actions, Howard and James barely managed to shift their attention. On their deathly still faces, only their eyeballs moved, watching as Richard carefully moved aside layers of clothing and took out a folding stool and a doll from the suitcase.
"Let's make a deal. If you protect us well this time, I promise that after we go back, I can grant you a wish that doesn't violate human ethics, morality, or the law," Richard said seriously, holding the folding stool in one hand and the doll in the other.
At this, both Howard and James stiffened, their gazes toward Richard filled with grief and pity.
Had this child gone mad even before them, two old men?
To their surprise, Richard gave the folding stool to Howard and stuffed the doll into James's hands: "These are your weapons."
"Chade... I'm sorry, I didn't expect..." Howard felt he shouldn't remain dejected. He had to show the poise and courage of an adult. He couldn't let a child the same age as his son fall apart before him; he had to protect Richard.
However, just as he was about to say something, Richard stopped him with a hand and said calmly, "Let me finish first. The abilities and motives of the anomalies we've encountered this time are still unclear. If you don't want to die, you'd better take the things I gave you for self-defense. Don't question their power. They... well, you might not believe it, but they contain the power of the Great East. They have been consecrated and are quite effective against demons and anomalies."
"Uh..." Howard and James looked down at the folding stool and the doll in their hands. No matter how they looked at them, they didn't seem to have any destructive power. Were they supposed to smash the monsters to death with this plastic stool or smother them with the doll?
Richard ignored them. He walked to the coat rack, pulled out a fruit knife, and began a flurry of carving. Amidst a blur of knife strokes, he shaved the coat rack into a staff. The two old men were deeply shocked by this scene.
Is this Kung Fu? Using a fruit knife as if it were a saw or a machete—incredible.
Richard picked up the long staff made from the coat rack and stood before Howard and James, whose minds had calmed slightly. He said seriously, "I believe many people in the villa are still alive, including your wife, Mr. James."
"Is... is that true?" James was somewhat excited. "But... but that's impossible. Wasn't what I saw in the room my wife?"
"The death was horrific, but I still saw many non-human biological features in that mass of pulp resembling your wife," Richard nodded and continued. "So, is there a possibility that it was just a monster that imitated your wife's face and was then accidentally killed by someone else?"
James was momentarily filled with doubt and uncertainty. After a long moment, he took a deep breath and said in a heavy voice, "Alright, regardless, as long as there's a slight possibility, a glimmer of hope, I will believe my beloved is still alive."
"Although I'm not sure where everyone is hiding now, I know this should be the work of Old Man Harrington. He has taken everyone to a safe place in the villa for the time being," Richard suddenly made this deduction.
The brothers Howard and James were instantly surprised. They hadn't expected their elderly, mobility-impaired father to have such capability.
"I reckon that when he first saw 'you' return from the blizzard, he already realized something. After hurriedly announcing it was time to rest, he went back to his room accompanied by Aunt Steve. In fact, it's very likely he was just preparing to lead everyone into a safe place." Richard recalled the old man's behavior at the time. Although his expression had been calm, it indeed revealed a trace of unusual tension. From beginning to end, he hadn't asked about the experiences of the 'two sons' who had returned from outside.
It was very likely the old man, like him, had noticed the absence of important items the 'two sons' should have been carrying, such as the missing guns and flashlights, which triggered extreme vigilance.
"Perhaps your old man knows the identity of that monster." Deducing further, Richard thought that since the old man could quietly protect everyone in the family, it meant he was very clear about the monster's abilities.
Hearing this, Howard and James were greatly shaken.
"Gentlemen, you can recall the time you spent with your elders growing up. Did you ever discuss ghost stories or legends about anomalies? Among them, were there any monsters that could imitate human forms and voices?" Richard inquired. To deal with this eerie creature, he had to understand its abilities, and it was urgent.
He also realized a terrifying point about the monster but didn't say it... assuming only the two anomalies imitating Howard and James entered the villa, and the two anomalies were blocked outside the door—don't forget that the deceased Mrs. James in Mr. James's bedroom also possessed anomalous characteristics. In other words, the number of anomalies had increased in a short period!
That thing seemed to be able to split and reproduce!
Beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down Howard's and James's foreheads as they thought and recalled incessantly. Suddenly, Howard shuddered as if an electric current had run through him. His eyes wide, he said in fear and excitement, "I remember now! I once heard a horror legend from my grandfather that circulated in New York City."