Chapter 61: Chapter 61: The Mysterious Church
The pitch-black room, curtains tightly closed.
"No, don’t come closer, don’t... run, run!"
A girl lying asleep on the bed suddenly sat up abruptly, gasping for air with a face full of cold sweat, eyes filled with terror as she looked at her hands. Her fingers were cramping from the intense fear, slightly twitching now.
Seeing that she was still in her familiar room, the girl’s emotions slowly calmed down, and she gradually regained her composure. She wiped the sweat off her forehead in hindsight and couldn’t help but hold her head with her hands, growling irritably, "That dream again, why, what have I forgotten."
"Lisa! Are you up? There are two people downstairs claiming to be friends of Bellea looking for you."
At this moment, her mother’s voice came from outside the room.
The girl came back to her senses, got up, and walked out of the room. As she got downstairs, she saw Sun Yan and Sosia waiting in the living room.
Seeing the girl in pajamas with a tired face, Sun Yan smiled and enthusiastically greeted, "Hello Lisa, I’m Jackson, a friend of Bellea. Can we have a word?"
"Bellea..."
Hearing the name of her deceased friend, a hint of sadness appeared on Lisa’s face. She nodded as if agreeing.
Both being children from Yellow Rock Town, Lisa had known Bellea since childhood, and they were very close. They had planned to camp in the mountains because, although they had grown up in Yellow Rock Town, they had never ventured into the nearby mountains. So they invited a few college friends to explore together. Unexpectedly, such a big incident occurred. For Lisa, who survived, thinking of Bellea brings great discomfort.
Under Lisa’s lead, Sun Yan and Sosia went to the yard outside, found a spot, and sat down.
"What do you want to ask? I’ve forgotten everything that happened after we went into the mountains. Not only me, but the other companions too. Don’t think I’m lying. Really, my mind has no memory of camping after entering the mountain; it feels like we went back down immediately after going up." Sitting on the wooden chair in the yard, Lisa said sincerely.
Before coming to Lisa’s house, Curry had already mentioned this to Sun Yan.
Seeing that Lisa wasn’t lying, Sun Yan scanned her whole body with the Celestial Eye. This revealed something wrong.
The soul within Lisa was incomplete!
In the West, the soul is considered a whole.
In the East, it’s divided into three souls and seven spirits.
Regardless, the soul represents the source of human spirit. Losing it results in a lost spirit, and the body ages and decays.
An incomplete soul can significantly impact a person, causing intelligence decline, character shift, and even amnesia.
Lisa was clearly in this situation. Unlike Betty’s soul emergence, Lisa’s previously complete soul had a missing part, causing memory loss.
Sun Yan saw this situation wasn’t simple. Lisa, Bellea, and their group encountered something in the mountain, resulting in soul loss.
"Look at these drawings. Do the patterns mean anything to you?" Sun Yan took out Betty’s drawing and handed it to Lisa.
If Betty’s lost soul was related to Bellea’s death, then Betty’s strange soul’s drawings might link to Lisa and her friends’ amnesia.
At first glance, Lisa showed a clear reaction as if she recalled something. Her eyes widened, and she murmured, shocked, "A church... there’s a church!"
Sun Yan quickly asked, "What kind of church? Where is it?"
Lisa trembled uncontrollably, biting her lip as her eyes locked onto the drawing painfully. "In the mountains, there’s a church in the mountains. Dangerous, very dangerous. I remember... Bellea was captured by a monster, but then somehow she escaped back."
Just as Sun Yan wanted to ask more, Lisa’s eyes rolled back, and she fainted, falling unconsciously to the ground.
Fortunately, Sosia reacted quickly, caught her, and began emergency treatment.
"A church?" Sun Yan looked closely at the drawing.
This was the drawing he saw Betty create in the Curry house when she woke up.
Among the brown color blocks symbolizing the mountain, there was a white cube surrounded by a multitude of black crosses. From Lisa’s reaction, this white cube represented the church she mentioned.
Why would there be a church in the deep forest?
"That unfamiliar soul in Betty is truly connected to Bellea’s death. To find Betty’s missing soul, I have to start with this church," Sun Yan thought to himself.
With Sosia’s help, the unconscious Lisa soon woke up, holding her aching head, apologizing with embarrassment, "Did I fall asleep? Sorry, please continue. What were we talking about?"
Sun Yan set the drawing down and asked, "Lisa, do you remember the location of the church you found after entering the mountains?"
"Church? What church."
At this moment, Lisa looked confused, as if she was unaware. If Sun Yan hadn’t heard it himself, he would doubt if the church’s information truly came from Lisa.
"You have no impression at all?" Sun Yan frowned, realizing Lisa’s soul loss was more severe than expected.
It seemed something didn’t want those who went to the church to share any encounter with the outside world.
Thus, Lisa forgot everything just after recalling it.
Lisa clutched her head wearily, "I can’t remember. My head hurts."
"Alright, go get some rest. We won’t disturb you. Thank you for the clues, Lisa." Sun Yan stood up, thanking Lisa.
He indeed got useful information from her.
Leaving Lisa’s, Sun Yan planned to return to the Curry family to inquire about any mountain church near Yellow Rock Town. Suddenly, his phone rang. It surprisingly turned out to be from Curry, a timely coincidence as Sun Yan was just about to find him.
Upon answering, before Sun Yan could speak, he heard Curry’s anxious voice.
"Mr. Jack, something’s wrong. After you left, Betty fainted again. Can you come back and check?"
...
As on Sun Yan’s first visit, Betty was moved to the bed. The unconscious girl clutched a crayon tightly, while the Curry couple stood by the bed anxiously, hoping Sun Yan could provide an explanation.
Using the Celestial Eye, Sun Yan could see Betty’s soul was once again absent.
The unfamiliar little girl he summoned had disappeared again, and Sun Yan had a growing sense of unease.
Approaching the table by the bed, he picked up an unfinished drawing. It depicted a woman’s shadow, she was back facing Sun Yan, dressed in a black veil, bent over within a medieval-style doorframe.
Although it was a child’s crayon drawing, gazing at it filled Sun Yan with inexplicable unease.
Suddenly, the figure in the drawing turned swiftly, revealing a ghastly long face. She opened her blood-red lips, silently laughing at Sun Yan.
Inside her mouth grew an even more grotesque face, a creature not from this world, coming towards Sun Yan.
Just then, the Celestial Eye Golden Light flashed between Sun Yan’s brows, and his vision returned to normal. The woman in the drawing was still back-facing him, everything seemingly an illusion.
"Shit, this is definitely a demon’s trick, and this demon’s power shouldn’t be underestimated," Sun Yan breathed a sigh of relief, feeling complicated.
Should he decide to help Curry find Betty’s soul, he’d likely confront this demon, which would be his toughest exorcism task yet.
Contemplating this, Sun Yan looked seriously at Curry, asking, "Mr. Curry, do you know of a church in the mountains near Yellow Rock Town? I need this information; it’s crucial for retrieving Betty’s soul."
"A church..." Curry pondered for a while before recalling, expression complex and strange, "There used to be one long ago, but it was abandoned decades ago after the priest there mysteriously died."