horror effect

They crossed the mysterious valley, and the white giant bird flew by, bringing the whistling wind.After reaching the top of Xuefeng Mountain, they walked towards the second valley this time. This valley was surrounded by mist, like the mist sprayed by giant whales in the ocean.

The hillside is steep and the snow accumulates less and less as you go down. Soon there will be lush grasslands and shrubs in front of you, and the snow will converge into streams and fall at your feet.The temperature is gradually rising, and the fog gradually dissipates with the sunlight. Through the green trees, you can see the pointed roofs in the valley. This is a place with a human atmosphere.

Continuing down, the buildings in the valley became clear.Julian saw that the valley was run through by a small river. The houses were built on both sides of the hillside, and there was a red Byzantine church on the top of the hillside on the south side. The two sides of the river were connected by stone bridges.He knew the church and the stone bridge very well, for the past three months his footsteps had stamped on their stone slabs.

Julian turned to look at Bernus, wanting to ask him what was going on.But at this time Stephen had already spoken: "This is our town!" He said in surprise.

Bernus just smiled.It's a small town, of course, but it's not a town you're familiar with. There's no Cedar Hills Inn, no Bouy family mansion, no Theolos lumber mill; The villa, and those people...

Stephen stopped suddenly, he stared at Bernus and said, "This is the town of the past. If I guess correctly, this is the town of 63 years ago—when you died."

"Archaeologists have keen observation skills." Bernus said calmly.

"It's not observation, it's analysis." Stephen said, "You won't send us back for no reason, you must want us to see something, and what happened in this town in the past that has something to do with us only Could be your death."

He frowned.

"Is it because you suddenly decided to let us know? Or is this part of your plan?"

A smile quickly flashed across Bernus's face, and then returned to an indifferent expression. "Are you scared?"

"No." Stephen shook his head, "I'm afraid of you... It must be scary to face your own death."

Bernous shrugged.

"Only when facing death do people take off the mask they've worn all their lives. Isn't it? Death is just a thing of the past for me. Of course, it was uncomfortable and it might look disgusting now. But in my That's how I remember everything, there's no such thing as a sweet breeze or a bright light. In fact, all I remember about myself is my own impotence and unrelenting hatred."

He paused and said, "Let's keep going."

It was summer evening in the valley, and a few crows were flying among the hazel bushes, and the red forest daisies were swaying in the wind on both sides of the gravel road.There was a splash and a shrill voice from the river, like the cry of a water nymph being driven away by a fierce hunter, and three shadowy figures ran across the stone bridge, rustling their dresses.

The three of them followed and saw two little girls and a little boy walking up and down the mountain road.

The girls look the same, have the same posture, and have the same voice. They chatter and overlap each other when they speak.

Julian and Stephen recognize them as sisters Tofana.And the boy was obviously Collivan.

They could have continued to walk happily like this, but a few figures appeared in the alley not far in front of them. From this moment on, their lives changed.

The children stopped, bent over and hid in the shadow of the corner, looking at those figures as if they were looking at drunken beasts in the night.They followed.

The black figure sprinted between the alleys, like the beating figure cast by the flames at night on the wall, with no face or expression, and the whole body was dark.They were five men and two women, and they stopped outside a house on a hillside. This house, which looked dilapidated at this moment, would grow into the elegant building of the Cedar Hill Inn in the future.

The seven men were talking in low voices, and then a fat man rang the doorbell and waved a piece of paper to the servants who appeared, and they were ushered through the gate by panicked servants.

Seeing that they were shut out, the three children went around to the backyard and climbed into the yard.

Julian, Stephen and Bernus passed through the iron bars, their bodies split and closed like air.

The seven murderers were ahead. They entered the hall, pushed aside the servants who were in the way, and rushed into the corridor with a fierce face.

The seven people were looking for something in the whole house separately. Bernus led Julian and Stephen to follow the stout man. He was blocking a man who was about to run out at the door of the study on the second floor. The man was young and handsome, with a golden color Her hair was a little messy, and her panic-stricken blue eyes were shaded by golden lashes.

"Albert G!" Stephen yelled, pointing at him.

"Yes, it's him! Look carefully! Watch!" Bernus grabbed Stephen and Julian's arms.

In front of them, the burly man raised his pistol to Albert G's forehead, held a piece of paper in his other hand, and read: "...we have the right to deal with evil spies..." The young blond man was stunned , his whole face convulsively deformed.

"No!" he said, "I'm not the spy you imagine, I'm not a German spy, I'm serving the Soviets!" "But our intelligence tells us you're a Nazi spy!" shouted the stout man , reached out to grab Albert G's hair, and put the muzzle of the gun against his ear.

No one expected that they would hear a scream, the scream of a slaughtered animal from Albert G.

He knelt down on the ground, curled up into a ball, his face twitched wildly, and his trembling lips uttered intermittent words: "Forgive me! Please forgive me! I don't want to die. Don't let me die! You can ask me to do anything! Spare me!"

Julian and Stephen watched this scene in shock.

It turns out that this is the spy of the German underground resistance organization that Sister Tofana said, and this is the person who was wrongly killed—the coward who collapsed in an instant before the threat of death.

Julian glanced at Bernus, he found that he was actually smiling, the corners of his mouth were curved, his brows were stretched, only his eyes were so red that they were almost bleeding.

The stout man dragged Albert G, who kept begging for mercy, out of the room and to the third floor. From that day on, it would become Room C307 of the Cedar Hill Hotel.

Julian and Stephen looked through the open door and saw Bernus Molatov sitting in a dark brown armchair in the center of the ornate room with three pistols pointed at his head.

Julian turned to Bernus who was wearing a white robe beside him and said, "That's you."

"That's me—the real me."

In the flashback, Bernus wears a white shirt and a woolen vest even in summer.

He looked paler and thinner than Bernus the White Lion, with prominent knuckles on his wrists and fingers like spider claws.

His white hair was not long then, just reaching his shoulders, and it shone orange-red in the afterglow of the setting sun.He sat there calmly, with his back erect, as proud as an obelisk in an Egyptian temple.

But when Albert G was dragged in, the mask shattered on his face.

"You have no right to judge us!" Bernus shouted to the people around him.

"We don't try," said a tall, lanky woman in her 40s. "We just make sure you don't run away, and then we court martial you."

"Lie!" Bernous glared at her.

At this time, Albert G said to Bernus, "A military court! Bernus, this is an opportunity. We can explain in court, we can have lawyers, we..."

"I'll admit nothing!" Bernous growled at him. "Don't you see they're trying to get you to confess? Then they can shoot."

He looked at the seven murderers, "Next you will divide up the property of the Molatov family. Right? You are heroes who destroy the enemy, what a dazzling word. How long have you been planning? One year? Two years ? Or did it start when your fathers looked at the Moratov family's house with envy?"

"Don't listen to his crap!" yelled the burly man dragging Albert G. "Just kill 'em! We have every right to do it, and say these two bastards are fighting!"

"Don't kill me!" cried Albert G. "I confess everything! Hand me over to a court-martial! Hand me over to a court-martial!"

"Albert! Shut your mouth!" Bernous yelled.But the blond man kept saying, as if he didn't hear it at all, "I'm a spy, and I hold a lot of secrets, so you must hand me over to a military court..."

Bernus Moratov stood up abruptly from his chair, snatched the gun from the woman beside him, and pulled the trigger on Albert G. The bullet passed through his chest, scorching his clothes and flesh , blood began to flow from the hole.

Albert G stared at him, and made an indistinct voice: "...I knew a long time ago-I must die at the hands of the devil..." He let out a terrible laugh, and his body fell sideways.

The seven murderers were stunned for a moment, and then pointed five guns at Bernus, forcing him to throw the guns in his hand to the floor.One of them kicked Bernous, causing him to kneel on the floor.

"He started the fight himself," said the young man of medium height. "It saves us trouble. Well, Bernus Molatov, you were right, we are aiming at you." In this case, you have no need to live. And—” he pulled Bernus’s white hair, “—a deformity like you, life is nothing but pain, we kill You are helping you, helping you out of this ugly, cruel world full of killing and hate. Ah! Don't stare at me with your red eyes! He is right, you are the devil! There is only one way to deal with the devil —Kill him immediately. What court-martial, who knows if you'll buy yourself out with money. No, we're not fools to send the devil to court to confront, so we're going to kill you now. — We sentence you to death. Execute immediately."

He stepped back and shot Bernous in the head as he laughed horribly.