It looked at Wafaa and said, "Your sister's intestines were very delicious. Hahaha!"
The blood froze in Wafaa's veins. She wanted to speak but couldn't.
The ghoul approached her, grabbed her neck with its clawed hands, and began strangling her forcefully.
Wafaa tried to escape, but it held her tightly. She screamed, but her voice couldn't escape beyond her throat.
Wafaa died, but suddenly she woke from bed terrified, covered in cold sweat soaking her body.
She realized it was just a dream, breathed a sigh of relief, then burst into tears, looking left and right for her mother.
When she looked around, she found her sisters Layla, Caroline, and Lian awake, crying bitterly and terrified too.
"Wafaa, you won't believe what I dreamed! There was a terrifying man without features who pierced my forehead with a giant sword, then the ghoul I saw that day came and said he ate our sister Salma."
When Lian said this, the blood froze in Wafaa's and her remaining sisters' veins. They had all dreamed the same dream... Wait a minute, where are Mom and Dad?
Layla screamed in terror, "We're on the ground floor??"
"Who brought us here?"
Unfortunately, the ghoul appeared before their eyes.
The girls began screaming.
"Ankatrom, ankatrom!" As soon as the ghoul said this loudly, the girls couldn't scream, and their mouths closed as if sewn shut tightly.
"I must tie you up, or another animal will escape. Hehe. I'm a clever ghoul. How did I think of cooperating with Lilith's followers by giving them these humans' souls in exchange for facilitating my hunting? Haha. I'm truly a very clever ghoul."
The ghoul tied the girls, grabbed Caroline's neck, and quickly sank all its teeth into her neck, which exploded with spraying blood... She died instantly. It was a horrifying scene no little girls should witness happening to their sister, but unfortunately, they watched without the ability to make a sound.
The ghoul placed Caroline's body on the ground, drew a dagger, slit her abdomen, and began pulling out her intestines and internal organs with its filthy hands, placing what interested it in a bag seemingly made of human skin, then cut off the head and put it in another bag.
Then it looked at Wafaa, whose face froze. She tried desperately to untie the ropes.
The ghoul approached her and said with a wicked smile, "It'll end quickly." It grabbed her legs, lifted her upside down with her head near the ground and legs up, drew the dagger, strangled her neck, then slit it until the head severed. It had placed a dish beneath to collect the dripping blood from the corpse, then did the same with the intestines, placing what interested it in the bags.
It threw her body with Caroline's to bury later.
...
Upstairs, Richard woke to relieve himself. Sleepiness overwhelmed him, but he was surprised by the absence of his daughters beside him. He hurried downstairs to search for them.
He tried forcefully to open the room door but couldn't. He said aloud to himself, "I'm tired of this door farce."
He gathered all his strength and kicked the door, making a loud noise as it opened. He found a horrifying and disgusting scene: Caroline, Wafaa, and Layla headless with hollowed abdomens thrown in a corner, while a ghoul dragged Lian by her legs toward the other corner of the blood-filled room.
"Damn, my deed is exposed!"
As soon as the ghoul saw it was exposed by a full-grown human with a large beard and massive build, it grabbed its bags and fled through the window at the speed of sound.
Richard the wise, strong, and responsible was struck by the greatest shock and harshest reality possible.
Then he collapsed to the ground and completely lost consciousness.
Fortunately, up to this moment, Lian was still alive.
Richard woke late; it was an hour past midnight after a coma lasting two full days. Despite the late hour, he found neighboring farmers and some acquaintances gathered around him, the most important being his brother who everyone said had come from a distant kingdom, crossing thousands of kilometers to visit his brother upon hearing the news.
No one had yet asked how he covered that distance in such short time.
Richard, lying in bed, exchanged glances for seconds with everyone whose faces were pale from pity and fear.
(What if a neighboring farm was the next victim?)
That's what the farmers were thinking.
Richard regained consciousness after a while and began screaming in terror.
"Where's Lian? Where's Lian???"
His wife Karen, who had been crying the whole time—showing she was shattered into thousands of pieces—calmed him.
"Don't worry, husband. She's with the sorcerer who came to check the situation."
"Sorcerer?"
A young man about 23 years old entered the room. He was tall, with black hair and eyes, wearing a loose black robe emanating an aura of authority.
He stepped forward, approached the bed, and said,
"Hello, Mr. Richard. I'm Arkan, a Babylonian sorcerer sent to protect you from ghouls."
Richard's miserable features didn't change, but a flash of anger, resentment, and hatred appeared. He breathed heavily and said,
"Arkan... I want you to promise me."
The young man wasn't surprised. "Go ahead."
"Capture this creature that killed my daughters and destroyed my heart. I want revenge.
I want severe revenge. My whole life collapsed."
As he said this, Richard's face was red, filled with features of anger.
Arkan was silent for a while, then said calmly, "Mr. Richard... I've captured it."
Everyone in the hall was shocked.
Except Richard, whose anger more than doubled.
"Really? Really? Let me kill it. I want to show it true torment."
Arkan wasn't affected by this either. "You must rest first, then you'll have your way."
Arkan turned and calmly walked out of the room. Everyone was silent, watching him. All that could be heard was Richard's heavy angry breathing and Arkan's calm, balanced footsteps.
The latter went down to the room where everything happened on the ground floor, stood in the middle, drew three red candles from his bag, lit them—their flames white. The sight of red candles with white flames was far more comforting than black candles with green flames, and I still don't recall the purpose of candle colors.
The candles were arranged in an equilateral triangle, then a empty copper cup about thirty centimeters tall was placed in the triangle's center. He faced west, then using a jewel-encrusted dagger, cut his palm and let blood drip into the copper cup. After it filled, he stepped back while maintaining his westward facing and said:
"O neighboring spirits, I call you in the name of Lord Cthulhu. Come here where I have set my rituals. Obey my commands in the name of the revered Lord Cthulhu the honored. Bring me the perpetrator of killing these human souls that rested in this place."
Seconds later, Arkan began hearing faint whispers. Others couldn't understand them, but Arkan heard clearly. In fact, this faint sound resembled screaming in Arkan's ears.
Arkan stepped forward again to the copper cup and cut his other hand. Clearly, the previous blood had been consumed by the spirits he summoned, and now they demanded more—and indeed.
Arkan stepped forward without hesitation to offer more sacrifice to these spirits he used.
Clearly, Arkan hadn't captured the ghoul yet; he said that only to calm Richard.
After offering blood to the spirits, he waited half an hour, and the ghoul finally appeared.
Karen, who was spying on Arkan (who pretended not to notice her), saw this and felt some terror mixed with joy, anger, and depression.
She couldn't contain herself and said, "You really captured this vile monster... strange... let it return my daughters to me."
Karen hadn't accepted the truth yet; she didn't want to believe. She clung to any possibility that comforted her that her daughters would return someday, but this is the real world: who dies, dies—no one returns to life.