Chapter 199 – American Horror–Style Reckless Teenagers
After setting up the standard protective measures, Sister Irene took out a key and unlocked the cellar.
She jumped down first and lit a kerosene lamp. But when she turned back, she realized that the two envoys from the parish were still standing above.
"Sister Irene, could you hold the lamp a little closer?" Gideon said calmly. "Otherwise Sister Faya won't be able to see clearly."
At that moment, Gideon was lying flat beside the cellar entrance, holding a monocular scope.
"I—I can see just fine!" Faya protested, her cheeks flushing.
Since being certified as a holy official, she had never felt this embarrassed before.
As an instructor at the parish theological academy, she was now too afraid to go down herself—leaving a novice nun to scout ahead instead.
It was mortifying.
"Father Gideon, I… I'll go down."
Faya walked to the cellar edge and climbed down the ladder.
Because Gideon was positioned beside it, she was forced to meet his gaze briefly as she descended. Afraid her embarrassment would be obvious, she quickly turned her head away.
At least she still has a sense of shame—and conscience, Gideon thought quietly.
---
Below, Faya took the lamp from Irene and raised the light closer to the faces of the unconscious patients.
Thus, Gideon rather brazenly enjoyed the "service" of two nuns working together.
The cellar was dry, with citronella grass, mint, and other plants arranged around the walls to repel insects.
Six unconscious people lay inside. Small formation arrays had been set up on each of them to maintain their basic life functions.
But this was only a temporary measure.
According to the original plan, the church had already ruled out the presence of latent evil within these individuals. They were supposed to be transferred to the hospital that very day.
No one had expected a sudden wraith invasion instead.
From Gideon's perspective, it was clear that their souls were not nearby.
Yet he noticed something else.
Using Ethereal Sight, he vaguely saw translucent chains extending from their chests, leading off to some unknown destination.
Gideon narrowed his eyes and spoke down to them.
"Can they be transferred to the hospital now?"
Irene hesitated. "They can, but…"
She was worried about another wraith attack along the way. Moreover, something major had happened at the church—someone had to stay behind to deal with it.
Seeing her dilemma, Gideon said immediately, "Leave this to us. You can come later."
"…All right."
---
The three of them carried the unconscious patients out of the cellar and loaded them into a hearse.
The vehicle belonged to a funeral service company that worked with St. Carlo Church, which was why it had been parked there.
Beep. Beep.
Gideon honked the horn and drove away.
"Queen Valley Hospital is two blocks ahead. Turn left at the next intersection," Faya said, following the map.
But soon she realized something odd.
Before she could even finish checking the route, Gideon had already taken the correct turns.
Didn't he say he used to live around here…? Faya wondered.
In truth, Gideon didn't know the roads at all.
He was simply following the translucent chains extending from the patients' chests.
---
About ten minutes later, the car stopped in front of a hospital.
"Well, I'll be damned—now even priests are taking side gigs," the security guard joked when he saw Gideon behind the wheel.
Gideon smiled and nodded, and they were quickly waved through.
There was a brief misunderstanding while unloading the patients—the hospital staff thought corpses had been delivered again.
Thankfully, prior coordination with the church smoothed things over, and the six unconscious patients were soon transferred into wards.
Finally, Gideon had the chance to investigate further.
Those transparent chains stretched all the way toward the west wing of the inpatient building.
Holding his cross, he walked slowly in that direction.
---
At the same time, inside a hospital room in the west wing…
Three teenagers were gathered together, faces tense, surrounding a boy lying in bed.
A breathing tube was fitted to his nose, and his face was badly swollen.
"Mia, my mom will be back in half an hour," said a brown-haired girl anxiously. She wore a gray sweater and stared at the boy on the bed.
The girl called Mia had dark skin and short, light-blond hair.
"I'm sorry, Jade," Mia said painfully. "I never thought things would turn out like this."
The boy lying in the hospital bed was Jade's younger brother, Riley.
A few days earlier, the three of them had taken part in that séance game together.
The ritual was supposedly restricted to "adults," but after Riley begged repeatedly, Mia finally agreed to let him try.
That decision led directly to the disaster.
Mia had never imagined that the spirit they summoned would turn out to be her own deceased mother.
Mother and daughter had once been extremely close. But her mother had taken her own life by overdosing on sleeping pills. Her father didn't discover it until the next day, causing her mother to miss the critical window for rescue.
After that, Mia's relationship with her father collapsed entirely.
She began to indulge herself, chasing intense sensations to numb the pain.
The séance game was one of them.
That night, Mia volunteered to go first, earning cheers from everyone present. She basked in the attention.
The experience was intoxicating.
But when her mother's voice came out of Riley's mouth, Mia froze.
Overwhelmed by longing, she made a fatal mistake—she failed to wake Riley within the prescribed time.
That lapse almost certainly allowed a spirit to seize control of his body.
Yet Mia only wanted a little more time to talk to her mother.
What followed was chaos.
Riley slammed his head against the table in a frenzy, blood splattering everywhere.
Everyone rushed to restrain him.
Mia panicked completely, shrinking into a corner in shock, trying to escape the reality unfolding before her eyes.
She thought it would all end there.
It didn't.
Riley's condition continued to deteriorate.
Whenever he regained consciousness, he showed clear suicidal tendencies.
Jade's family dared not leave his side for a moment.
And their resentment toward Mia steadily grew.
Desperate to make amends, Mia sought out the brother of the previous owner of the Apostle's Hand.
He told her that to escape being haunted, every ritual must be properly concluded after summoning.
Only then did Mia remember something crucial.
When they woke Riley, they never blew out the ritual candles.
So Mia, Jade, and their mutual boyfriend Daniel returned to the hospital room, determined to finish the ritual once and for all.
---
Back to the present.
After setting up the ritual items, Mia pulled a porcelain hand from her backpack.
The object was gray-white, covered in strange, meaningless symbols.
Their first attempt failed.
Mia tried to make Riley hold the porcelain hand, but he was no longer able to speak.
Left with no choice, she tried another approach.
She would summon a spirit herself and ask where Riley's soul had gone.
Mia sat on the bed.
"Hu…"
She took a deep breath, grasped the porcelain hand, and spoke the incantation:
"Talk to me."
In the next instant, a young girl appeared on the bed.
Mia hurriedly questioned her, and the girl led her to the place where Riley was trapped.
Blood, devouring mouths, tearing pain, rot and darkness.
Mia saw countless dead spirits in that space.
They were tormenting Riley's soul without mercy.
His despairing screams shattered her mind.
At the critical moment, Jade yanked the porcelain hand away from Mia.
She snapped back to reality.
Daniel rushed over in concern—but Mia slapped his hand away.
"Don't touch me!" she screamed, tears streaming down her face.
Faced with her friends' attempts to comfort her, she only shook her head in agony.
"They're torturing him," she whispered.
"And they'll never stop."
While Jade and Daniel stood there, stunned, Mia grabbed the Apostle's Hand and fled.
She staggered down the corridor, murmuring over and over:
"He's… beyond saving."
"So now… what do we do?"
Jade was still replaying Mia's words in her mind.
Daniel swallowed. "We—"
Bang!
The hospital room door was suddenly kicked open.
"Holy hell!" Jade and Daniel jumped in shock.
They looked up to see a young man in clerical clothing—
A priest.
"Please," he said flatly, "don't tell me you were just playing a séance game."
Gideon stared at them with an expression that screamed Are you kidding me?
---
Several minutes later, Sister Faya arrived, along with Jade's mother, Sue.
Gideon had already heard the entire story and recalled the origin of the Apostle's Hand.
It was the cursed object from the horror film Talk to Me.
And judging from the situation, it had clearly been taken away by Mia—the infuriatingly reckless heroine of the original story.
"Evil spirits… possession?" Sue said incredulously.
"What are you talking about? You're not on drugs too, are you?"
Jade and Daniel exchanged uneasy looks. This kind of reaction wasn't new to them.
"Mrs. Sue," Gideon interjected calmly, "whether you believe us isn't important. What matters is how we save Riley."
His words cut off the pointless argument.
Then he turned to the two young men.
"Before we talk business, I have a question."
Jade and Daniel looked up.
The next second—
"May the Lord forgive me for saying this."
Gideon crossed himself.
"Are you two… out of your damn minds?"
Everyone froze.
Jade's family never imagined a priest would say something so crude.
Faya opened her mouth to protest—then remembered that Gideon currently worked at the exorcists' workshop.
"Why would you ever think summoning the dead is safe?"
"If you'd been possessed, those demons could've gone after your families!"
"If you had that much spare energy, you should've stayed in a goddamn classroom, studying like your life depended on it—
and experienced the true despair of an exam with three minutes left and half the paper still blank!"
"That's the real thrill!"
Jade and Daniel swallowed hard.
For some reason, their first thought wasn't anger—but what kind of suffering this priest himself must have endured.
Only then did they fully realize how reckless their actions had been.
"You… you really believe we saw evil spirits?" Jade asked hesitantly.
"Obviously. I do this for a living."
"Cough!" Faya tugged at Gideon's sleeve, whispering, "You said only one swear."
He froze, then immediately switched expressions.
"Of course," he said, smiling benevolently.
"I believe you would never lie to the Lord—and I am the one He sent to save you…"
Watching the priest's gentle smile, Jade and Daniel instinctively shuffled backward.
For some reason, he felt even more terrifying than the demons themselves.