America: The Cremator

Chapter 124 The Sole Witness!

The severed human finger, mixed in with dark reddish-black flesh and gastric juices, emitted an extremely pungent, fishy stench.

"vomit!"

After Jesse's wife saw what was in the filth, she immediately turned around, clung tightly to the wooden fence of the yard, bent over, and vomited violently.

Mayor Dale's face turned deathly pale instantly, and he staggered back two steps. Hannah was also horrified and instinctively raised her hand to cover her mouth and nose.

Dania's reaction was rather indifferent. She stood there staring at the severed finger on the ground, expressionless. Perhaps there were many more impactful scenes in Yuri's household.

Deputy Sheriff Jesse of the town looked grim, his gaze shifting back and forth between the vomit and his beloved dog.

Su Long frowned, stepped forward, squatted down next to the filth, took out a tissue from the pocket of his jacket, and through the tissue, pinched the severed finger out of the minced meat.

He held the severed finger up to his eyes, concentrated, and used his spiritual vision to scan the area.

The severed finger was covered with a very faint layer of grayish-black mist, indicating that the owner of the finger had indeed suffered a strange attack.

Su Long withdrew his spiritual vision and carefully examined the wound on the severed finger. The edges of the wound were jagged, and the exposed bone fragments were completely shattered. He handed the severed finger to Jesse and calmly analyzed, "It was crushed directly by some extremely powerful teeth. Dogs don't have such a strong bite force, not even an adult wolf. It must have been done by some larger creature with a more terrifying bite force."

Jesse stared at the severed finger in Surong's hand, took a deep breath, and forced himself to calm down: "Buddy escaped from that abandoned mine. It stayed in there for three days, and it was probably too hungry, so it ate the corpses in the mine to fill its stomach."

Su Long stood up, threw the severed finger back next to the metal basin, and clapped his hands: "It seems there must be a lot of mangled corpses piled up deep in the mine."

Seeing Buddy bring his nose close to smell again, Jesse's wife immediately kicked him to the edge of the grass with a look of disgust.

Jesse, completely oblivious to the situation at hand, carefully pieced together various clues in his mind, casting an approving glance at Surong: "Mr. Surong, you're right, our previous speculation was correct. That abandoned mine is very likely its lair."

Surong turned to Jesse and got straight to the point: "Do you have any specific descriptions of this anomaly? Or are there any living witnesses in town?"

Jesse sighed, rubbed his temples, and said in a heavy tone, "There is indeed one living eyewitness, but her condition—is very bad."

"Who is it?" Su Long asked.

Jesse explained truthfully, "There's a nine-year-old girl in town named Eleanor Baldwin."

"A week ago, Eleanor and her sister were picking blueberries in a blueberry field on the edge of town when she witnessed the monster abduct her sister. Ever since then, she has had serious mental problems."

Su Long glanced at everyone present and said, "We need to see her. Only by understanding as much as possible about that strange physical characteristics and behavior patterns can we develop an effective countermeasure."

Dania and Hannah nodded in agreement with Surong's decision. After all, no matter what, they would be the ones fighting that strange creature, and understanding its habits and characteristics would be of great help in the battle.

Dale and Jesse were eager to resolve the anomaly as soon as possible, restore the town to normal, and minimize the losses of the townspeople, so they naturally didn't obstruct the process too much.

Jesse then turned to his wife, whispered a few words of comfort, and then led Suron and his group out of the yard, walking along the street to the other side of the town.

Ten minutes later, the group stopped in front of a gray two-story wooden house.

Jesse stepped forward and knocked heavily on the heavy oak door.

A slight noise came from inside the door, followed by a man's wary voice asking, "Who's out there?"

"Arthur, it's me, Jesse."

The sound of metal chains sliding came from behind the door, and the door was pulled open a narrow crack.

A white man with sunken eyes and a haggard face appeared behind the door.

Arthur looked somewhat tired, but when he saw that Jesse was followed by several strangers, his eyes immediately showed obvious vigilance.

He gripped the doorknob, poised to slam the door shut at any moment: "Jesse, what are you doing bringing so many people to my house?"

Jesse placed his hand on the doorframe to stop him from closing the door, and reassured him, "Arthur, calm down. We are also very sorry about what happened to your daughter, but we hope to resolve the town's problems once and for all."

"They are our helpers from Seattle, all professional exorcists. We just need to ask Eleanor about the situation at the time."

Arthur's face darkened further. He gripped the edge of the door tightly and growled, "I don't care who they are, even if they're exorcists, it doesn't matter. How strong can these exorcists be? Even the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs couldn't catch that monster!"

Just then, a woman wearing a dark knit sweater appeared behind Arthur. Her hair was messily tied back, and her eyes were red and swollen.

She glanced at Su Long and the others, and politely declined, saying, "Please go back. Eleanor can't take any more torment. She has nightmares every night and wakes up screaming. Making her recall those things now will drive her crazy."

Upon hearing this, Surong stepped forward and pointed to Hannah, saying, "Mr. Arthur, we are accompanied by a nun from St. John's Cathedral. She might be able to help your daughter."

Upon hearing this, the couple looked at Hannah standing to the side. When Mary saw the Bible in Hannah's hand, she hesitated. After struggling for a long time, she gently tugged at Arthur's arm.

The two exchanged a few words in hushed tones behind the door. During this time, Arthur's expression alternated between struggle and helplessness. Finally, he sighed, unlocked the metal chain on the door, and stepped aside to make way.

"Alright, for Jesus' sake."

Arthur's living room was not large, and the furnishings were somewhat old. The large fabric sofa was covered with wrinkles, and several expired newspapers and unwashed ceramic coffee cups were piled on the coffee table.

After everyone was seated, Surong looked at Arthur and Mary and asked, "Could you tell us about the specifics of what happened that day?"

Arthur scratched his messy hair, annoyed. "It's always the same! Every single time! You come in waves, asking the same questions and making us say the same things, but it's completely useless."

Mary reached out and placed her hand on Arthur's shoulder, patted him, and whispered, "Go and rest for a bit, I'll talk to them."

Arthur rubbed his face in frustration, walked to the old sofa in the corner and sat down heavily. He covered his face with his hands, rested his elbows on his knees, and stopped making a sound.

Mary took a deep breath and slowly began to recount: "At that time, because the monster had been appearing for some time, the blueberry jam at home had run out. Arthur wanted to buy some jam, but the supermarket in town was already out of jam, so he started complaining about it."

"Eleanor and her sister Martha heard these complaints and decided to go to the field to pick some blueberries."

"They knew that monsters were roaming around the town recently, so they deliberately chose the midday sun when they left home without telling us. Because they didn't want to pick crops from other people's farms, they walked along the road all the way to the edge of the forest to pick the crops that belonged to our family."

She paused, her breathing becoming rapid, and continued in a somber tone, "Just as they were picking, the monster suddenly appeared. It grabbed Martha and dragged her into the forest. When Eleanor saw this, she chased after it, crying and screaming. But the monster actually put Martha down and turned to charge at her."

"Eleanor was terrified and immediately turned and ran back. Fortunately, their screams alerted the town militia patrolling nearby. However, by the time the militia arrived, the monster had already dragged Martha into the dense forest."

Mary looked up, her eyes red-rimmed, and said, "The militia could only fire their guns at the monster. But the distance was too far, and the forest was too dense, so they couldn't confirm whether they had hit it or not. They didn't dare to go into the dense forest to check, and could only retreat with Eleanor."

After hearing this account, Surong leaned forward slightly: "So, Eleanor is the only person who has seen what the monster looks like?"

Mary wiped away her tears, nodded, and said, "Yes. But she was severely frightened."

"Ever since my sister was taken away, she suddenly lost the ability to speak and became mentally unstable. We took her to clinics, but the doctors couldn't cure her."

Su Long sighed and asked, "Do you have any blank paper and crayons at home? Perhaps we can guide her to draw the monster she saw."

Mary stood up, walked to the drawer next to the TV cabinet, rummaged through it and found a piece of white paper, a wooden drawing board and a box of half-used colored crayons, which she handed to Surong.

"This is Eleanor's. She used to love drawing and was very talented at it, but she hasn't picked up a paintbrush in a long time since this happened."

Surong took the drawing board and crayons, turned to look at the group behind him, and said, "Since she's been so frightened, it's best not to have too many people go in together. Hannah and I will go in and ask her. You all wait in the living room."

Dania closed her notebook and nodded in agreement: "Okay, you can go ahead. Just call us if you need any help."

Suron and Hannah followed Mary up the narrow wooden stairs to the second floor. Mary walked to the door of a room at the end of the corridor, grasped the metal doorknob, turned it gently, and slowly pushed the door open.

The room was dimly lit, with the windows sealed shut by thick wooden planks, allowing only a few rays of light to filter through the gaps and fall onto the floor.

In the center of the room was a single bed. A girl in pink pajamas sat quietly on the bed with her back to the door. Around her were a large pile of dolls of all kinds, some missing arms and some missing eyes, piled up haphazardly around the girl.

Mary stood outside the door, her eyes red-rimmed, not daring to make a sound to disturb them.

Su Long stepped into the dimly lit room, stopped beside the bed, and asked in a calm tone, "How are you?"

Eleanor simply sat on the bed, her eyes fixed on the opposite wall, seemingly oblivious to Suron's words.

Surong turned his head and winked at Hannah.

Hannah understood immediately. She stepped forward, took out the Bible, took a deep breath, held the heavy book in both hands, and began to hum a melodious hymn softly.

As Hannah hummed, the cross pattern on the Bible cover, recast with mithril, began to emit a soft glow.

The pure and warm silvery-white holy light gradually intensified, flowing out from between the pages of the book and gathering into tiny specks of starlight in mid-air, enveloping Eleanor, who was sitting on the bed.

Soothed by the holy light, the girl, who had been tense and dazed, trembled slightly. Her empty eyes gradually focused, and she slowly turned her head to look at the two people standing by the bed.