horror effect

In the middle of the night, Julian and Stephen walked towards the churchyard in the snowstorm. The wind was howling, as if it was going to tear the sky apart and sprinkle it down again. , it will never rise again.

In the darkness they passed house after house, and the houses, which had been shelters for men, were now so gloomy in the perilous storm that they resembled the graves of the dead.

They entered the cemetery, and the silence of the place reminded one of death.And the dull, bluish light, the snow-covered piles of rock, the howling wind in the dark purple sky that speaks of death.Everything speaks of death.

Julian shuddered.He didn't know if it was because the weather was too cold or because he was afraid.He approached Stephen and said softly: “Are we…really going to do it?”

"Are you afraid?" Stephen said.

"No." Julian replied calmly: "You're right, we have only one way now. We have to know the secret of the white lion and what he's up to, but Burgess is dead, and his world is like a It shattered like a plate, and now we're going to dig through the pieces, trying to piece together a lost world. It's kind of like archeology you like."

So we dig people's graves.Stephen thought coldly, then shuddered at how cold he was.

They stooped and bowed their heads and walked to the tombstone with the big cross painted on it.The inscription was still there, unchanged, as if it had been inscribed for decades, but both Julian and Stephen knew that the inscription would disappear one day—not tonight, but tomorrow, or any day after that ——The shattering melts in the air, like the shattering of human flesh in the soil melts in the earth.

Stephen observed carefully.Relying on the highlighter alone is not safe. He compared the location of the tombstone and the surrounding environment with his memory.After confirming that everything was normal, Julian took out the pickaxe from his backpack, inserted the tip into the gap between the tombstone and the ground, and pressed all his strength on the handle. The soil accumulated over the years shook a few times and shattered one after another.

They went on like this a few more times, showing a crack between the tombstone and the ground.This made Julian very happy.The wind became louder and louder, and large flakes of snow immediately filled the cracks and gradually covered their footprints.They were not easy to spot in this weather, and hard to hear if they made a little noise.

The crack was gradually widened into a long, narrow rectangle, and the snowflakes disappeared into the dark blue cavern.Stephen lit the inside with a flashlight, took a look, and found that the coffin was still well preserved.They all thought it was good news.

The grave digging continues.Most of the physical work was done by Julian, and Stephen just used a flashlight to illuminate him. He tried to help several times, but Julian refused. "Leave me alone for such a dirty job," he replied.

Stephen didn't know what to say.He didn't want to leave Julian alone with the consequences in case he was found out, it was true.Now he was squatting in the snow, holding a pocket flashlight in his hand, staring at the black hole that was expanding inch by inch.There was an unpleasant creaking sound from the friction between the pickaxe and the stone.

He stared at the black hole, feeling mysterious, as if something big and terrifying was about to jump out of it suddenly.He looked at Julian who was digging hard again, and felt that he was like a cave-digging goblin who lived in the bottom of the earth and never saw the sun. They were busy, living and dying in the dark, knowing nothing about the world under the sun, and full of knowledge. Think you are everything.

"Almost." Julian's words interrupted his reverie.Stephen looked again at the cave—it was big enough to see the entire coffin.He felt a little uneasy, this feeling floated from a very far and very close place, which made it difficult for him to explain.

Julian pushed the end of the pick into the gap between the coffin lid and the four side boards, and pulled it aside.At this time, Stephen suddenly remembered something and shouted: "Wait!"

But it's too late.With the sound of planks cracking, the coffin cover was twisted, revealing the contents inside.Julian and Stephen had predicted what might appear before: the bones of Bergs, or a mass of rotting clothes in place of the corpse, a bunch of small animals that made their homes in the coffin, driven by phantoms and rushed out. ghost.But none of them expected that what appeared in the coffin was the pale and terrifying dead face of Yosif Theoros.

"It's fake!" Stephen snapped.

This cannot be the grave of the logging factory owner who was buried just this morning. His grave is clearly more than ten meters away.

The appearance of Theoros' body was just another hallucinatory trick.In order to prove his rightness, Stephen reached into the coffin, but when his fingers touched the corpse, his whole body was like a spark being stomped out, and the calmness on his face disappeared in an instant Without a trace, his face immediately turned pale, and his lips began to tremble.

From his frightened expression, Julian felt something terrible.He put his fist against his throat and whispered, "That's Theoros?" Stephen retracted his hand and nodded.The two of them fell down in the snow at the same time, staring at each other with eyes of pain and fear.

"What the hell did we do..." Julian murmured, touching his cheek.

If they had the comfort of "we are digging up the secrets of demons for the safety of the living" when they dug up the tomb of Bogus, then now, when they dug up the tomb of Theoros, they did not even have the last trace of morality. The defenses are broken.They froze on the spot, not knowing what to do like fools.

After a while, Julian got up and tried to close the coffin with trembling hands.Stephen was also touched by his movement, and suddenly came to his senses, ready to help him.But just as his consciousness flew into the air and returned to his brain, he noticed a more urgent thing - the sound of footsteps in the distance, stumbling, not very neat footsteps, and the sound of belonging to The drunken, inarticulate grunt of the cemetery warden Klodkov.

They froze, unable to move for a moment, fear flooded the whole body along the blood, and the pain in the blood vessels was like a needle prick.Then, driven by the panic, they ran.Stephen's mind went blank, he didn't know what he was doing, but was dragged by Julian and tried his best to escape.

They ran out of the cemetery, into the woods, and kept on running, until Stephen slowly came to his senses, but he immediately thought that the footprints they left on the snow would give away the direction of escape, and then they identity of. "Julian!" he gasped. "No! We put the tools there!"

"I've got them all," said Julian without looking back.

"But we didn't cover the coffin! We didn't cover the tombstone!"

"No time!"

"People will follow in our footsteps until they find us!"

"I said we didn't have time!"

Julian growled, and he tugged on Stephen's arm even harder, causing a pain in his wrist.They ran through the woods, turning left and right to throw off their pursuers.But none of them noticed that there was no sound of chasing footsteps amidst the roar of the wind and the whipping of the trees.

They had almost run to the edge of the woods, and if they went out from here, they could go back to the town along the river bank, but they were afraid that they would be arrested if they went back, and they hesitated whether to go that way.But then an unexpected circumstance occurred, making their escape hopeless and without options.

Julian had been running ahead, but just as he reached the edge of the woods, he suddenly yelled, jumped up, and then fell hard again.

He hugged his right foot with both hands, rolled all over the floor, and cried out in pain.

Stephen was taken aback.He rushed over and said loudly, "What's wrong with you?!."

"My feet! My feet!" cried Julian, his face contorted in pain.

Stephen turned on the flashlight to take a photo, and yelled at what he saw.

A sharp icicle passed through the sole of Julian's right foot, passed through the sole of the foot, and protruded from the upper of the shoe.

It was like a transparent awl, piercing the sole of Julian's foot.No one could understand how the icicle had come to be here, how the icicle, which hung from the eaves and treetops, had suddenly stood upright on the ground, exactly where Julian had passed.

Nobody understands.

Julian should be grateful for Stephen's first-aid training at school in England, at least he didn't have to panic to pull the icicles out.However, the ice melts easily at body temperature and is sure to fall off by itself before long.

There was only one way for them now—even escape was a second priority—to go to Dr. Hostatova's infirmary immediately.

Stephen immediately took off the backpacks on himself and Julian, threw them on the ground to reduce the weight, and then fixed the pocket flashlight on his forehead to shine on the road to avoid further accidents.

Finally, he hoists Julian on his back so that he wraps his arms around his neck while he supports Julian's legs with his hands.

Stephen was a little overwhelmed by Julian's weight, but he kept going, running along the bank.

The wind was still blowing snowflakes through the dark night like a herd of howling animals.Stephen ran forward without thinking, not looking around or looking at things around him, just going straight on.The lungs in his chest were like burning gorse, and the metallic blood tasted in his throat.On his back, Julian hugged him tightly, like a twin brother born with his arms wrapped around him.

They embraced each other without letting go, their bodies shaking strangely, they intertwined into one person in the snowy wilderness, never to be separated by wind or lightning.

Dr. Hostatova heard a rapid doorbell ringing in the middle of the night, and when she got up from the warm bed, the names of several patients flashed through her mind: Mrs. Barnin with diabetes, and Papa Collivan with liver disease. , or Mr. Lin Nong suffering from arthritis?Or did something happen suddenly?

She dressed quickly, ran down the stairs and opened the door.

She was startled when she saw that it was Julian Raymond and Stephen who entered.

"What happened?"

The doctor noticed that the flakes of snow on Julian's right foot were all bright red, and that the melted pink snow dripped onto the floor.

"His foot was poked by a branch," Stephen answered.

He told a little lie.

"Help me into the treatment room and take off his shoes and socks. Then you call Nicola Theoros, I need his assistance," the female doctor ordered.

He did this as Hostatova instructed, while still worrying about Julian's injury.The female doctor's movements were careful, but Julian grinned in pain as he took off his boots and cut off his socks.

Soon, Nikolai arrived, and he and Hostatova carried out initial disinfection and inspection of the wound.

"How?" Stephen asked anxiously.

"You are lucky." The doctor said to Julian. "Although a hole was made, it did not break important blood vessels or bones. There is no risk of massive blood loss or fracture, but it is likely to cause serious infection."

Julian nodded. "That is to say, I can't die for a while."

"Yes, but the wound will fester and the recovery will be painful."

"People can't demand perfection in everything. I'm satisfied that I didn't have to be sent to the ambulance, put on an oxygen tube, or forced to have my limb amputated." He smiled deliberately, then turned to Stephen and said, "Thank you for carrying me. Now can you go to the hotel and get the phone book I put in the travel backpack? I can't remember the number of the magazine. I want to tell them that I can't go back until my foot is healed. The backpack is on the desk. Open your mouth, you can see."

These words made the doctor and Nicholas a little confused.

In their eyes, the phone call can be done tomorrow, and there is no need for Stephen to go on a trip in the snowy night for this.And Stephen was also surprised at first, but then, when Julian said "you can go" for the second time, he suddenly understood the hidden meaning of this sentence.

"Ah! It's okay! I'll go, but you have to wait for a while." With that, he left the medical center.But Stephen didn't walk towards the hotel on the hillside. As soon as he was out of the sight of the medical center, he started to run back along the route he and Julian escaped just now.

He had to pack up the backpacks they left behind as soon as possible before anyone found out, obliterate the traces they left in the cemetery, and cover up the countless footprints they stepped on along the way.