Accept the commission 80: Eighty.
Accept the commission “Mike…
In the dim bedroom, Dorin propped herself up and gently shook her husband beside her, asking, “Did you hear anything?”
Half-asleep, McPherson barely opened his eyes and mumbled, “A sound…
“Why is he calling you to wake me up…” McPherson sighed helplessly, closed his eyes, turned over, and continued to sleep.
However, Dorin felt something was not quite right.
She propped herself up and listened intently.
The faint laughter of children came from the ceiling above.
“No, it’s our daughter’s voice!”
Dorin quickly shook her husband, who hadn’t fallen asleep yet.
McPherson’s eyes opened wide, and most of his sleepiness faded away.
From the ceiling above, a series of running sounds came through, but no dust fell.
“Could our daughter have sneaked upstairs to play?”
She’s sensible, why would she run around at night.”
“Maybe it’s because we moved to a new house?”
Dorin, in a quieter voice, “Come with me, I don’t dare to go outside alone…”
“I really can’t handle you…”
McPherson shook his head slightly, sat up, put on his slippers, and picked up the oil lamp from the nightstand.
The light was adjusted to be a bit brighter.
Dorin held onto her husband’s arm, snuggling against him as they walked outside.
The corridor was silent, the oil lamp only lighting up a narrow range in front and behind them.
Suddenly, Dorin screamed, diving into her husband’s arms, shouting in terror as if she had seen something.
McPherson looked at where his wife pointed, and saw a large patch of golden dog hair and bloodstains on the wooden floor, along with a snuffed-out kerosene lamp lying not far away.
“Our daughter, our daughter…” Dorin was almost crying.
McPherson had no time to comfort his wife and rushed into their daughter’s bedroom.
The door was wide open, the room empty, the blankets tossed aside, still holding a trace of warmth and the imprint of pressure.
Dorin followed to the doorway, seeing no one in the room, she despairingly leaned against the doorframe and cried out, “Beth and Jack are gone!
Mike, could it have been a burglar?”
“Shh…” McPherson was taken aback, quickly covering his wife’s mouth.
Once she calmed down a bit, he handed her the oil lamp, whispering, “Don’t panic, hold the oil lamp and call the police, I’ll check upstairs.”
It would be best if it were just a thief or robber.
He would rather believe that a thief or robber, seeing that they were new faces, had broken in to steal.
At least in that case, Beth might still be safe.
If she fell into darkness…
McPherson didn’t dare to think about it, feeling a twinge of pain in his heart.
“The oil lamp for me?
What about you?” Dorin, with tears on her face, then noticed her husband picking up the oil lamp that should have been by Beth’s bed from the hallway floor and lighting it with a match.
Dorin voiced her concern, then without turning back, she ran to the bedroom.
She dove to the bedside, grabbed the telephone receiver, and her other trembling hand kept dialing the disk.
Clickety-clickety-clickety-click—
The sound of the dial overshadowed Dorin’s rapid breathing from her pale lips.
Just as she was about to finish typing the police station’s code, Dorin suddenly froze, her eyes despairingly fixed on something behind the telephone.
The phone cord hung limply at the edge of the wardrobe.
She just remembered, this was their new house, and the phone line hadn’t been connected yet.
A sudden noise from behind made Dorin turn her head in alarm, only to see that it was just a piece of wallpaper that had fallen off, revealing a dark brown wooden wall.
Dorin relaxed slightly, put down the receiver, and prepared to run out to seek help from a neighbor.
But in the moment she turned her head, out of the corner of her eye, something seemed to emerge from the wall where the wallpaper had peeled off.
Dorin instinctively stopped, looking again at the yellowed wall.
Behind the pale wallpaper, something hidden seemed to be moving out.
A pitch-black silhouette slowly emerged, its hollow eye sockets ominously peering at Dorin.
After persuading his wife to leave, McPherson looked around, picked up the racquet from a box near the door for protection, and turned to go upstairs.
Silently reaching the second floor, McPherson followed the faint sound of running and eventually stopped behind a door at the end of the hallway.
Hearing his daughter’s laughter behind the door, McPherson breathed a sigh of relief and smiled helplessly as he pushed the door open, “It’s so late, and you and Jack—”
The sound abruptly stopped.
Marcus didn’t tell Lu Li who the other exorcist was, only that he might run into him there.
“When I received the call, the client kept crying, she asked us umm… she asked you to hurry over.”
“Yes, on Oak Street in the southern part of Belfast, very close to the oak woods.”
The oak woods are on the outskirts of Belfast; Oak Street being close to there indicates it’s a very remote street.
Lu Li asked, “What is the request about?”
“The client’s family has seen a ghost; her family member was attacked and disappeared yesterday.”
“When did she contact you?” Lu Li asked carefully for each detail.
“They disappeared yesterday and only thought to solve it today?”
From the receiver came the sound of scratching his head: “Perhaps the client first reported to the police and contacted the Detective Agency when she felt the police couldn’t solve it.
By the way, the client seemed very anxious, and you also have a competitor.”
Lu Li didn’t ask Marcus where the competitor had come from, “So that means I should head over sooner, like tonight?”
“Umm… that would be best.
But if your competitor is a bit lazy, you can also leave tomorrow morning.”
“Moving now…” Lu Li muttered, glancing out the window at the dimming sky.
It was just four in the afternoon, and there was still some time before nightfall.
But due to the overcast weather, darkness fell nearly at five these days.
Though staying in a lit place can ensure safety in the darkness, it brings significant limitations.
Vision, and mobility.
Putting it bluntly, Lu Li’s actions would be severely restricted at night, making it difficult to notice dangers lurking in the dark.
“The commission is substantial…”
Sensing Lu Li’s hesitation, Marcus’s tempting voice rang out.
“I will head over a bit later, tell the client to wait for me,” Lu Li hesitated no more and spoke into the receiver.
“Got the first part, the second umm…
I can’t do it, after contacting other exorcists I tried the client, but couldn’t reach her, oh no I let that slip!”
Lu Li said nothing more and hung up the phone.
He looked at the tidied room, just straightening up, wiping the nonexistent sweat from his forehead and asked Anna, “Tired?”
“Get ready to head out, we have work to do.”