Hol’s Death 153: Eleven.
Hol’s Death “Where’s that guy Richard?”
It was Anna who asked; she felt that if they let Lu Li do the interrogation, they wouldn’t get anything out of it.
Hol’s body surface began to slowly change, the blurred edges of flesh and blood started to close, and the still-intact crimson eyeballs sealed shut, merging into slits and disappearing into his body.
“That guy was like a mole in the asylum; if he wanted to hide, no one could find him.
He was always the last one found in hide-and-seek, so we simply stopped playing, or we’d only let him be the seeker…
That’s also why he survived the fire, while we could only be burned to ashes in the blaze.”
Hol, stripped of his ordinary human disguise, turned into a somewhat neurotic fellow; perhaps that was his true face.
Lu Li planned to pull out his gun and shoot the guy again.
The sound of the Spirit-Calling Gun was noisy, and it wouldn’t be long before the nearby residents would come out to check—if they found out, it would be a hassle to explain.
But I know other things, I can tell you whatever you want to know!”
Hol shouted in panic, reaching out to shield his face.
After waiting without feeling any harm, a flat inquiry came: “How did you come back to life.”
“Resurrected, huh…” Hol lowered his arms, gasped for breath a few times, tried to stand but failed, and simply sat down on the damp ground with a bitter smile.
the fat one who wanted to use you as a vessel; you must’ve seen the hole he crawled out of.
After we died, we found something in a hole…
We didn’t know what it was for, but Richard came back.
He wasn’t burned to death, unlike the three of us…
He told us, now ghosts, what the thing in the hole was for…
It was something he hid inside.”
“He seduced us with the promise of rebirth…
and he succeeded; we couldn’t resist the temptation of being reborn.
Ulysses took a piece of flesh from that thing, I dug out one of its eyeballs…
O’Connor tore off one of its tentacles…
Dammit, why didn’t you go after him first!”
“Richard made us eat the flesh we tore from that thing, and we did, and then we became…
different kinds of ghosts, but at least we had bodies.
Then he helped us capture innocent people outside to use as vessels.
I first thought it was possession or taking over, but it turned out to be not so simple…
they died, but we became their likenesses, with their memories, like duplicated people…”
“What was that thing?”
Lu Li pondered, making sure knowing the shape of the object wouldn’t affect his Sanity Value and then asked.
Hol shook off his thoughts and shook his head with difficulty: “I…
I don’t know how to describe it.”
“You don’t know how to describe it?”
“Um…” Hol hesitated, contemplating: “I…
I can’t describe what it was, what shape…
the indescribable nature of it…
the only impression I have is…
it was different from us.”
“Let’s change the subject.” Lu Li moved on from this issue.
Hol’s description might not have allowed him to guess what it was, but it was sufficient.
At least it allowed Lu Li to know the properties of that thing.
“How many of you are there?”
“Including Ulysses, whom you killed, there were only four of us.
Me, Richard, O’Connor.” Hol said this with a bitter smile.
“Now only O’Connor and Richard are left.”
Lu Li fell silent, and thinking he was skeptical, Hol hurriedly said, “I’m not lying to you!
You can investigate the asylum; we were locked in the same ward, roommates.”
“Anything else you want to say?”
“I’ve told you everything I know.” Hol shook his head, his eyes filling with some hope: “Can I see my wife one last time before I die?”
“You’d frighten her,” Lu Li replied.
Hol looked disheartened, with a bitter smile: “You’re right…
Lu Li nodded and turned to Anna: “Get to it.”
The inexperienced Anna approached Hol under Lu Li’s cover, lifting her semi-transparent delicate hand to cover Hol’s forehead.
Wisps of breath seeped from Hol’s forehead into Anna’s palm, her spirit beginning to climb—as a result, Hol’s body grew increasingly transparent.
Lu Li had never seen Anna use this move; it must be a universal ability of all ghosts.
Hol neared collapse, his unconscious body falling backward, but it dispersed before it hit the ground, leaving only a voice echoing in the alley.
Besides the footprints stretching out into the alley and those beneath Lu Li’s feet, no trace was left in the alleyway.
“Do you feel anything?” Lu Li asked Anna.
“He seemed quite alright, it’s just a pity he did the wrong thing,” Anna said, somewhat melancholically, her emotional nature unable to pass judgment on right and wrong.
“…I mean your strength.”
Anna panicked for a moment, touching her chin and tilting her head, “Well…
it seems like there is.”
Lu Li snapped his gun holster shut and turned to walk towards the carriage, “You really believed him?”
You think he was lying?” Anna was stunned, finding it unlikely.
“He didn’t seem to be deceiving us…
and he even told us about his companions.”
“Would you believe a wolf that tells the hunter about his few companions, their weaknesses and locations…
knowing he has no chance of surviving?”
“If you were Hol, would you choose to set a trap to kill me or would you generously spare me, the person trying to hinder your rebirth?” Lu Li got on the carriage and said to the silent Anna.
Anna floated into the carriage, feeling the mental onslaught of the adult world, having always hid under the protection of the Ivory Tower and her mother.
“So whether the wolf is deceiving the hunter, I’m not sure,” Lu Li said as he positioned himself, leaving the alley entrance.
Some residents who had heard the gunshot were peering out on the street, but they hadn’t connected the sound to this carriage.
“But he was definitely deceiving us.”
“But he seemed so normal,” Anna weakly argued.
Lu Li left the street, lifting his index finger to lightly tap his temple, “Don’t forget, he’s a madman, a serious case confined to the underground level.
The word ‘normal’ doesn’t suit him.”
The word ‘normal’ didn’t belong to him anyway.
Anna had no response, quietly deciding to turn off her brain from that moment on.
From now on, she’d just do as Lu Li instructed; after all, he wouldn’t harm her.
The carriage rolled over the damp stone slabs, heading for the next destination.
The reason for Lu Li’s deductions was simple—Hol had concealed the most crucial information.
That thing drove sane men mad upon touch.
He was far from “uttering good words when one’s death is near.”