Long-term salvation

After he finished speaking, the two fell into silence for a few seconds. After a few seconds, Xio patted his wife's shoulder and stood up to leave. He had made an appointment with Rod to deal with the mold in the basement today and take a look at the direction of the water pipes there.

This is the last part of the renovation of Hill Villa. A special work team will come to build the remaining fountains and longhouses. He and his wife will only serve as designers to hand over the work.

After getting dressed, Xio stretched, opened the door and left the bedroom, quickly closing it to prevent the heat from escaping into the cold corridor.

In the early morning, Hill House was filled with darkness and shadows. Even in the sunlight, it seemed as if it was hiding its own grotesque features, like a smudge cast on reality by a vague and strange nightmare.

If you were walking in the corridor at this time, you would be able to feel the subtle malice of the villa even more - this is by no means a visual shock, on the contrary, the interior of this ancient building is extremely spacious, with no obvious stains or cracks. The new wallpaper and rearranged artworks have dispelled those old traces and brought the breath of life back here.

Perhaps this is what Hill Manor wants, a new living person.

These words suddenly popped up in Hugh Crane's mind, making him feel a little creepy.

An inexplicable feeling tempted him to turn around, and the head of the Crane family immediately saw a red door standing quietly in the depths of the corridor. There was a tiny gap between the door frame and the red door, and a soft light was peeking out from it.

This door... when did it come into being? Did Mr. Rhodes or I paint the door of the villa red?

Thinking so, Xio walked towards the red door with doubts, but just when he was about to get close to the red door, his shoes hit something, causing it to emit a faint, crisp echo.

The man half-knelt and reached out to pick up the shell casing on the ground - a shell casing of .357 Magnum bullet, commonly used in revolvers.

Bullets? A brand new shell! Who shot what here?!

Hugh stood up, pursing his lips tightly, his heart full of doubt and sorrow.

"Oh! Here it is!"

A familiar voice suddenly came from behind Xio, causing his body to tense up suddenly. A hand reached out and took the shell away.

"I'm a little too anxious after all," Rhodes said with an apologetic look on his face, but then it quickly turned into confusion. "What are you doing standing here, Mr. Hugh Crane?"

"...No, nothing." Xio turned his head and saw that the red door had already disappeared, as if it were just an illusion. He suppressed his worries and smiled a little more. At the same time, he made up his mind to finish the work and leave here quickly - at least leave Hill Manor. Then he continued:

"That's right, I'm going to come to you to deal with it..."

"basement?"

"Yes, we talked about that yesterday."

"That's perfect. I have something to tell you, but we can talk on the way," Rhodes patted Crane's shoulder and led him to the basement. The two of them walked slightly apart, Rhodes in front and Hugh behind. As they walked down the main staircase in the hall, Rhodes continued to ask, "Have you ever considered settling in Arkham?"

"I don't know why you would want us to settle here."

"Your five children are incredibly talented."

"talent?"

Hugh suddenly remembered that his second daughter Theodora once said that she didn't like the atmosphere of this old house and hated touching the old furniture with her bare hands... More importantly, Theodora was very afraid of the blonde girl named Abigail, as if she were a horrible monster - this was not out of disgust or jealousy, but out of instinctive fear. She had to be with another person present before she dared to stay next to Abigail.

Weird, very weird, in Hill House.

Some of the children saw angels, puppets, and ghosts. There was the occasional clapping sound on the wall, and my wife suffered from headaches every day. It seemed I was the only one who didn't notice anything. No, not necessarily. Perhaps it was just masked by the season and the weather.

Of course, even stranger than the house was the young man before him. He seemed to get along well with everyone, and his sincerity and enthusiasm came from the heart, but he was shrouded in secrets.

Hugh didn't like being around people who had secrets, good or bad.

"I'll discuss this with Olivia and the children," Hugh said vaguely, the floorboards thumping under his feet. "But even if we settle down, we'll choose a suitable place in Arkham and build a new house."

"It's the right decision. Living in Hill House is not a good thing, especially for your children."

Rhodes nodded, confirming Hugh's idea, which surprised the latter... The surprise turned into doubt lingering in the man's heart, but as mentioned just now, Hugh Crane hated secrets - but a certain premonition told him that perhaps the true face of the secret would be revealed soon.

The two then talked about some interesting trivia, such as the girls trying to play a trick on the black cat Pickman but getting played back, or how Steven was quite popular in the town, and of course, the location and style of the chapel had finally been decided, and Father Merlin from the town church would come to bless it.

A few minutes later, the two, feeling much more at peace, arrived at the basement. Hugh then saw that the brick wall at the far end had been partially demolished, and several girls were standing in front, chatting. A musty smell and a stranger... stench? Like the smell of rotting dried meat, it filled the basement, slowly but steadily filling Hugh Crane's nostrils.

"That's what we're dealing with today. Okay, girls, move aside so Mr. Crane can see better," Rod said, pointing to the darkness behind the brick wall. "A body, William Hill's body. According to the records, he disappeared in 1948 - or should I say, committed suicide?"

William Hill? Hill? Hugh Crane felt like he had grasped the thread.

"He was the former owner of Hill Manor. His father, Jacob Hill, built the house," Rhodes explained, his tone becoming more cheerful. "But don't worry. We've called the police. Now we just need to secure the scene."

"This is truly a...tragedy."

"Of course it's a tragedy," Rhodes said calmly, "but fortunately the tragedy is over."

Xio didn't know how to answer for a moment. He walked forward and suddenly noticed that there was someone he didn't recognize among the girls - a woman with long black hair, who looked like an Asian, and was holding a folding fan even in winter.

After noticing Xio's gaze, the woman opened her folding fan to cover the lower half of her face, her eyes full of smiles as she introduced herself:

"Yang, my name is Mr. Rhodes' agent. I just came back this morning."

"Oh! My name is..."

"Hugh Crane, you don't need to introduce yourself, sir. I know your whole family very well. After all, I was the one who finally paid you."

Xio shrugged. He tilted his head slightly to glance at the body hidden in the brick wall. Honestly, it was quite dark in the basement, especially behind the brick wall. After looking carefully for more than ten seconds, Xio could barely make out a human figure.

"Speaking of which, Mr. Crane," Rhodes walked forward and looked at the corpse in the brick wall. "Tonight, I plan to hold a banquet to celebrate the successful completion of the renovation of Hill Manor. By then, you will carefully consider what I said and settle down in Arkham."

Chapter 89 I Want to Tell a Story (5.5K, 2/2)

There was nothing to do that day, and everyone was busy with their own things, either working or playing. When the last worker left the villa, when the mummies in the brick walls, as well as the excess building materials and garbage were cleared away, night fell.

Hill Manor was brightly lit, but the bleak neighboring woods unhesitatingly released their darkness into the night. A long-lost howling wind rustled the branches. The cold and loneliness I had once escaped swept back again, starting from the woods, answering the evil call, crawling towards the light, and stopping fearfully outside the lamplight.

After the Cranes finished packing, they walked towards the spacious dining room - to call it spacious was a bit of an exaggeration. Rhodes and his girls had arrived early, making the place a bit crowded and lively, not to mention there was a long dining table in the center of the restaurant.

The restaurant was dark, with giant candles lit not far behind each person. Silver candlesticks were placed a few dozen centimeters apart on the long dining table. The combined light from all the candles couldn't illuminate the entire restaurant, and instead, everyone's shadows became animated, swaying constantly on the walls.

"Hurry up and take your seats, everyone from the Crane family," Rhodes said, sitting in the main seat. To his left were the assembled girls, and to his right were the Crane family, with Hugh Crane sitting closest to him. "It's cold, and even though there's a fireplace here, it's not easy to warm up such a large house."

"This looks like Halloween dinner, Mr. Rorschach," Eleanor, the youngest Crane daughter, whispered, with excitement and a little regret on the girl's face - if she had known this, she should have dressed up in Halloween clothes and sat here like a pretty little vampire.

It wasn't just Eleanor. The other Crane children were the same. They lowered their voices and talked excitedly with their brothers, sisters and mother. Only Hugh Crane remained silent, quietly waiting for Rod's next words.

"Indeed, I've been preparing this Halloween-style dinner for a long time," Rhodes said mysteriously, folding his hands on the table. "Please enjoy your meal first, and I'm going to tell you a story. Of course, it's a little scary and weird, but I can guarantee that it has a happy ending."

In this case, no one would raise any objections. However, before satisfying the curious brain, the hungry stomach must be satisfied first.

Before each person was a plate of foie gras with black truffle sauce. The texture was like a French kiss with a glass of Romanee-Conti red wine, rich and unctuous. The lingering aroma made the creamy clam pasta that followed seem a bit overshadowed, even though the noodles were a blend of the most authentic savory flavor and the rich, warm aroma of milk.

For a moment, the only sound in the entire restaurant was the crisp sound of knives and forks touching porcelain plates decorated with light golden patterns.

Seeing that everyone had almost finished eating, Rhode leaned over slightly and whispered a few words to Marian, who was sitting next to him. Marian nodded, stood up, and brought several plates of roasted quail breasts to the table. The breasts were a little cold, but they were drizzled with steaming tomato and fennel sauce. The other girls also brought over smoked North Sea salmon and lobster sausages.

"Want some wine?" Rod asked the Cranes. "Cape Gin, a gift from a friend. I thought it would be a great opportunity to share it with our friends here."

"Our pleasure, Mr. Rhodes."

After the complex flavor of the wine, mixed with the scent of flowers and herbs, spread in Rhodes' mouth, his throat moved, allowing the alcohol to go down his esophagus and wash away the wonderful flavors of all the food.

So, after clearing his throat, Rhodes put down his glass and said:

"The story begins now—I bought an ancient mansion with an eerie atmosphere. Its vast and deep corridors are buried with evil and darkness, and are adorned with death and chaos. Of course, this is not the point. The point is that, as if following a predetermined fate, my family is still connected to this mansion."

The Crane children put down their knives and forks and listened attentively to Rod's story. Only the two adults looked at each other in confusion.

"So, I decided to have a proper talk with the mansion when the time is right," Rhodes said. He snapped his fingers, and the large candles behind each person went out, startling the children slightly. "Of course, I still need to work. I renovate the mansion during the day, and test the gift from the great being at night... a device that can detect energy activity in the other world."

The Ozodek detector instantly appeared in front of Rhodes. The five-blade device slowly opened and closed regularly, and the blades were emitting a bright blue light - which was much brighter than the candlelight - this scene made the children exclaim. They looked at Rhodes excitedly, hoping that he could perform another magic trick. Only the Cranes were shocked and felt a little retreat and fear in their hearts.

Darkness had completely engulfed the area outside the restaurant, even inside the restaurant, beyond the light of the candlesticks. The cold wind howled, passing through the thick windows and curtains, so low that it sounded like the whispers of ghosts.

"I and others carry this device every night, both as an experiment and to protect the family from intruders at the mansion."

The Crane children, no, not just the children, even Ms. Olivia saw angels this time - black, white, gold, and blue halos were appearing above the girls' heads, and even Hugh Crane, who had no "talent", could vaguely see some of them.

The five blades of the Ozodek detector opened and closed faster and faster, as if something was approaching.

"The mansion is very unhappy with me. Of course it is! I tried to burn it down, but after realizing that using just a few barrels of gasoline was completely inadequate, I had no choice but to head to the mansion's 'heart/stomach' and deal with it from there. Or rather, to negotiate a deal with it."

"The door connecting the mansion to reality is painted bright red. It will appear somewhere in the corridor, like the sweet liquid secreted by a carnivorous plant, attracting those ignorant little flies to enter."

Hugh Crane pursed his lips tightly, and a little cold sweat broke out on his back. Seeing him like this, Rhodes just smiled slightly and continued:

"The Red Door is the mansion's gateway to reality. Entering through it leads to another world. That world is filled with horror and abomination, with monsters roaming rampant, thirsting for human blood... Oh my! If that's the case, the mansion's 'heart/stomach' doesn't seem so bad after all."

After saying that, Rhode looked at the Crane children and asked gently:

"I trust nothing strange happened last night? No nightmares, no pounding on the walls, no giant ghosts?"

“No.” / “I slept well.” / “I don’t know anything.” / “I don’t feel as cold anymore.” / “I clearly saw an angel, but none of you believed me. Yet, it clearly existed.”

Only Eleanor whispered, her eyes falling on Noah across from her, who blew her a playful and cute kiss in return.

"Ahem, everyone, enough of the prelude. The real story begins behind the red door..."

Rhodes knocked on the table to attract everyone's attention. He lit a cigarette with the candlelight in front of him, took a puff, and showed a satisfied expression. Then he continued:

I walked through the red door armed, but when I opened it, I saw another identical mansion corridor. It was eerie and cold, like being in a dark cemetery. Every window in the corridor was a tombstone, covered with the names of those who died there.

Fear? No! I'm not afraid of this mansion! Drawing my revolver, I stepped into the corridor and was greeted with a grand welcome—hideous ghosts rose from the floor, walked out of the walls, and hung down from the ceiling. They were so dense that they looked like the tentacles of anemones surging towards me along the invisible sea water.

I raised my pistol and fired the first bullet. The bullet pierced the ghost's face, causing him to sway for a few seconds, his face filled with pain. At that moment, I knew—ha! My weapon was useful!

I have to say, this gave me a lot of confidence, so I walked deeper into the mansion, shooting as I walked, eliminating every guy who dared to stand in my way until I encountered a new enemy.

"Mr. Rhodes, have you encountered an Ouk?" Luke, the youngest boy in the Crane family, raised his hand and asked with curiosity on his face. "Or a demon? You encountered a demon?!"

"If we talk about nature, it's more like a demon," Rhodes smiled, lighting his cigarette and letting the ash fall to the ground. "Apart from ghosts, there are also mummies and other more terrifying things."

[Those corpses, as if drained of all their fluids, staggered towards me, their jaws stretched out, big enough to fit a whole basketball. But for me, I could fill them up with just one bullet.

The bullets spun into the mummified corpses, exploding the rigid muscles that smelled of decay, scattering bones and jelly-like organs everywhere, even splashing a lot of them on my boots. With this firepower, I cut a bloody path through the swarm of mummies. I'm not bragging, but I really am like a super soldier, like an Astartes or DOOM, moving freely among the monsters.

Suddenly, I felt that the surroundings became extremely quiet, so quiet that I could hear my own heartbeat! Before, there were some ghosts whistling and corpses screaming, but at that time, there was suddenly no sound at all. It was very strange, very strange.

Because of this, I heightened my vigilance and quickly reloaded my gun... I have to admit, it was the right decision. Just as I closed the cylinder of my revolver, I felt myself being thrown towards the corridor ceiling—the entire mansion was upside down! But the curtains, statues, and chandeliers remained upright, and the mummy's limbs and arms were pressed tightly to the floor, as if mocking my startle.

"The gravity must have changed," Steven folded his arms across his chest and nodded seriously. "It's like being on another planet, like the moon."

"How is that possible!" Shirley, the eldest daughter of the Crane family, retorted, "Didn't you hear what Mr. Rhodes said? He was the only one who fell to the ceiling! The furniture and curtains didn't move at all."

"This……"

Listening to the children's argument, Rhodes smiled, took a puff of cigarette, blew out a circular smoke ring, and continued:

At that moment, I felt a surge of anxiety, and new doubts flooded my mind—how could I make this mansion surrender? How could I make it admit its defeat?

But before I could figure out what was going on, the mansion started spinning again, and I was thrown against a smooth, vertical wall. The floor was on my left, the ceiling was on my right. Damn, I was being tossed around like a hamster on a wheel.

Rage welled up in me, and I whipped out my grenade launcher and fired down the hallway. The grenade exploded against the wall, sending bricks and wooden beams flying everywhere. This house can be destroyed! Perfect news for me.

The explosion made the mansion tremble. I seemed to hear a howling in the darkness, a voice full of anger and curses, but then what? I heard a little bit of fear from inside. It was afraid that I would turn it into a pile of ruins!

Thinking of this, I immediately fired at everything I could see, grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, grenades, or those anti-tank rocket launchers and incendiary rocket launchers. When I could see from one side of the wall to the other, the flames finally rose in the mansion.

The flames blazed fiercely, igniting curtains, furniture, and even mummified corpses. The flames, hot enough to force me back, soon filled the entire mansion. I almost cheered out loud because the scene before me was so refreshing.

What about the mansion? It wasn't willing to be defeated like this! The ghosts from the beginning emerged again, charging forward against my firepower, passing through my body. At that moment, I felt like I was thrown into a winter lake, the damp cold and pain quickly rushed into my brain from every nerve, but this was not over yet!

The familiar transformation occurred again, and this time, I was thrown directly into the flames.

"But how did you escape from the flames?" Theodora asked cautiously. She was completely absorbed in this dark and strange story and did not even notice the pride and pride on Abigail's face opposite her.

Rhode did not answer this question, but said with a hint of helplessness:

"Even I have my limitations. That's why I requested a little outside help. When I fell into the flames, they were immediately 'drawn away' and rushed through the window into the outside world... At this point, both the mansion and I have won and lost, which means the final showdown is about to begin."

[When the flames died down, I scrambled to my feet. The world before my eyes changed immediately. There were no longer any dark corridors or monsters. The only problem was that I had become one of the victims who had suffered a tragic fate in the mansion. Next, I experienced how each of them died.

I have experienced many ways of death that you can imagine, such as falling to death from a building, being hanged, being strangled to death, being poisoned to death, being locked behind a brick wall and dying of thirst and starvation.

This was the mansion's trick, it tried to make me surrender, surrender to pain, surrender to the fear of death. But it failed, because I really lived in hell, and I stayed there for three whole days.

"Speaking of which, kids, I have a question for you." Rhodes threw his cigarette to the ground and stamped out the cigarette. His eyes swept over each of the Crane children. Then, he asked seriously, "If you were faced with this situation, with something terrible and painful, what would you do?"

The children fell silent for a moment, but soon Luke spoke up, holding up his Ultramarines chess piece and speaking firmly:

"I have the courage to face it. Even if I might fail, I will set this mansion on fire!"

"As long as my family is with me," Eleanor said, with a little longing in her big eyes, "I have nothing to fear if we are all here."

"Just stop arguing," Theodora looked at her elder sister with empty eyes. The elder sister frowned and picked up a piece of buttered bread on the table and stuffed it into her younger sister's mouth. "I won't argue with you about this kind of thing!"

Steven, the eldest son of the Crane family, did not say anything. He just glanced at his parents, who responded with an expression that said "I'm proud of you."

"Remember my words, children," Rhodes said, his face flickering in the dancing flames. "The body is humanity's carrier of reality, the soul is the driving force that drives reality, and the spirit (reason) is the bridge connecting the body and soul, and it is also humanity's greatest weapon and shield when facing horrors."

"The ending of the story is simple. I didn't give in, broke free from the dream, and continued my previous job - being a demolition worker, using bombs and flamethrowers. Soon, the one that gave in became the house itself."

"Then I made it an offer I couldn't refuse."

Rhode stood up as he spoke. The blades of the Ozodek scanner on the table opened and closed faster and faster, even turning a striking orange. In an instant, the blades suddenly stopped in one direction.