Chapter 157 - 154: Supernatural Incident
"Boss, I probably left it at the airport. I definitely didn’t give it to the cops... Otherwise, why would I have brought the rest back?"
The big man actually laughed.
"You have a point. But the goods are gone, so what are we going to do about the loss? Even if the case is still at the airport, would you dare go get it?"
The white man kneeling on the floor was speechless.
"Maki, you’ve been with me a long time and have always done good work. But this business is too strange. I can’t take any chances. So, how about this? I’ll give you two choices..."
Before the big man could finish laying out the two choices, a child’s voice suddenly echoed from the doorway.
"Did you guys lose this case? My big cousin told me to give it back to you!"
Hmm?
Every eye in the room instantly focused on the doorway, where a small child was standing, dragging a large case.
’How did this kid get in? How did the Door open? Where are the guards?’
The voice had been so sudden that they hadn’t immediately realized the speaker hadn’t been using English, yet they had understood the words perfectly.
In perfect unison, gun muzzles swiveled to point at Doudou, startling the child.
The big man rose from the sofa. His first question wasn’t about the cargo, but about his own safety.
"What about the men outside?"
No one believed a child could get in alone.
"Boss, something’s not right..."
One of the underlings—a scrawnier man who was usually full of ideas—suddenly realized something and spoke up.
"Why is it so quiet?"
His words sent a jolt through everyone.
What kind of place was this? A lively dance hall. Even in this back room, they should have been able to hear the commotion from the dance floor, especially since the Door was now open.
But now, it was deathly silent. They could even hear each other breathing.
Being held at gunpoint was not a pleasant experience for Doudou.
With a parting shot of, "I’m done playing with you guys!"
The figure vanished into thin air, causing the big men’s eyes to widen in disbelief.
The atmosphere in the room plummeted to a freezing point. Hearts pounded as everyone stared nervously at the doorway, the safeties of their pistols already clicked off.
It wasn’t that these men were cowards. If this had happened in a forest, they might have thought they’d encountered a dwarf or a Little Elf. But for it to happen in one of their own hideouts was a different story entirely.
One second, two seconds... Time ticked by. The din from the dance hall slowly returned, as if the silence had just been an illusion.
But the Door remained open, and the case was still standing in the entryway.
Just then, the men guarding outside seemed to notice that the Door was inexplicably open. Four or five of them walked over.
"Boss, did you open the Door?"
’They wouldn’t have opened the Door on their own. But they hadn’t heard a sound, nor had they seen it move. It was as if they’d blinked, and suddenly the Door was wide open. And what was with the case in the entryway?’
But when they peeked inside, they saw all the guns pointed outward, which scared them into immediately raising their hands.
"Whoa, whoa! Boss, what are you doing?"
The hearts of the men inside were still pounding. Blaise glanced at the others in the room; from their expressions, he confirmed that he hadn’t been hallucinating.
"Put your guns away."
After giving the order, he holstered his own pistol in the small of his back and questioned the men at the Door.
"Did anyone come by just now? Did you see a kid?"
The men at the Door, who had just been scared for no reason, now found the question very strange.
"No, we’ve been standing guard out here the whole time. Then we noticed the Door was suddenly open, so we came to check."
Their expressions, a mix of confusion and bafflement, didn’t look fake.
"Alright, you guys go back to guarding the Door."
He sent his men back to guard the Door, and those inside dragged the case in.
At this point, Maki, who had been kneeling, also stood up.
"Boss, I told you, I didn’t give it to the cops! That thing just now..."
"Open it first!"
Blaise cut Maki off and gestured for him to open the case.
The case was much lighter, feeling almost empty. Maki carefully opened it, revealing the contents to everyone.
The meat and seafood were gone, but a paper-like item, protected in a fine bag, was still inside.
"Boss, the goods are still here!"
Maki was a mess of relief and anxiety. ’But at least my punishment should be lighter now, right?’
"Mm."
Blaise didn’t feel happy at all.
In fact, everyone in the room, him included, felt that something was off.
"Boss, that wasn’t a hallucination just now, was it?"
One of his men finally couldn’t hold back his question. After all, Blaise was the one they all relied on.
Blaise remained silent, his gaze fixed on the case.
"Everyone head home early tonight. We’ll deliver this shipment to the client later."
Their boss’s composure helped calm his men’s nerves, but none of them saw Blaise’s hand shoved deep in his pocket, tightly clutching the Cross inside.
...
It was only 9:30 PM, and the dance hall was still roaring with revelry.
Everyone except for the men left on guard duty left early.
Blaise didn’t drive straight home. Instead, he first drove to a church near his house.
An old priest lived in the church, so it was often possible to get inside even late at night.
Tonight, the church lights were still on. The old priest was sweeping the floor by himself.
When Blaise entered, he carefully looked outside before closing the door.
Hearing the door, the priest looked up.
"Oh, Blaise. Are you here so late to help me sweep?"
The priest’s tone was teasing.
But Blaise looked terrified. He had forced himself to remain calm in front of his men, but he couldn’t keep up the act any longer.
After the bizarre child had vanished, nothing else seemed to happen to his men. But he... he kept faintly hearing laughter at the edge of his hearing.
Sometimes it was a woman’s voice, other times a man’s. Sometimes the laughter was beautiful, but at other times, it was so terrifying it made his skin crawl.
Whenever he tried to focus on it, it would disappear. But the moment he let his guard down, the sound would return, clinging to him like a vengeful spirit.
"Father! You have to help me! I think I’ve been cursed!"
Blaise closed the distance in a few quick strides, rushing toward the priest and the sacred icon behind him.
"Right now, as soon as it gets quiet, I hear laughter in my ears. I don’t know where it’s coming from, but I feel like it’s mocking me. It makes me so scared and uneasy! Father, I..."
"There, there, my child, sit down. You look terribly pale!"
The kind priest helped the panicked Blaise to a seat at the side.
Then he looked seriously at the large, burly man.
"It’s alright, you’re safe here. But, this laughter you mentioned... was it something like this..."
"HEHEHEHE~~~~~~ HAHAHAHAHAHAHA~~~~~"
A terrifying, shrill laugh suddenly burst from the old priest’s mouth. Blaise’s pupils shrank to pinpricks and his heart seized. He was frozen in terror.
"Boss? Boss?"
"Boss, did you open the Door?"
The voice in his ear was so familiar. Blaise shook his head. He was sitting in the back room of the dance hall, surrounded by his men.
His heart was pounding in his chest as if it would burst out, and cold sweat dripped down his face.
’Still here?’
At the doorway, his men were asking about the mysteriously opened Door, their hands shooting up as his own people raised their guns.
"Whoa, whoa! Boss, what are you doing?"
...
"Red Demoness, can you control his memories?"
Hidden by the Secret Realm Power, Qin Xiaoxia and Doudou had a clear view of the illusion the Red Demoness was sharing, even though the Red Demoness herself had probably never seen a priest before.
"No~ I just added fear to the illusion. The rest is his own imagination. I’m just able to see the images he creates."
"Oh, I see..."
Qin Xiaoxia was slightly disappointed, but Doudou, at his side, was thrilled!
’Big Cousin is a fucking genius! Who knew pranks could be this awesome!’
PS: This is Sunday’s third Chapter. And yes, I know it’s already Monday! o(╥﹏╥)o