The Record Of Barton's Fantastical Events

Chapter 58: Chapter 24 If

Early in the morning, the old Hank opened the door of the Grande Funeral Home and was about to scold visitors who ignored the signs of closing! But seeing James with two dark circles under his eyes, he closed his wide open mouth and grunted heavily, complaining to the Great Dane next to Alice: “Jim! Your brother came to see you!”

James was unable to fight against Old Hank’s ridicule and moved into the Grande Funeral Home. “Where is Zach?”

“He is resting.” Cleaning the coffin in the display area with Old Hank every morning is a regular activity for Alice. Now she held a suede rag and answered James’ question.

The misty shadow gathered, and in the blink of an eye, Ryan, who was translucent, dressed in a football jacket printed with quarterback, and looked like Connor Hermann, stood in front of James, facing Alice and shouted: “Why is he here! He is a murderer! Let him go! I don’t want to see him!”

Alice flinched back, the Great Dane Jim’s lips curled up, revealing its sharp teeth snarling threateningly against the air.

“That new guy?” Old Hank looked at Alice, frowned, raised the tongs in his hand, and waved in the air! The Great Dane raised its front paws and pointed forward. Old Hank said “ohhh”, and the tongs in his hand leaned forward, and finally hit the translucent Ryan. The shadow faded and Ryan disappeared.

Alice looked at the dazed James apologetically: “Zach is in the basement.”

James bowed his head without saying thank you, and walked in quickly.

The basement of the Grande Funeral Home is much colder than the basement of ordinary people. For those who don’t know it, it may have something to do with a compartment here for storing corpses. But in fact, there is a dedicated basement on the south side of the Grande Funeral Home. The basement where the corpses are stored is not connected to the place where Zach lived, but is directly below the coffin display area.

Of course, James knew the people here. He knew that this coldness was deliberately created to relax the vampire’s senses and make it easier for him to enter a dormant state.

“Zach! “Zach! Wake up!”James kept his distance and shouted as he watched the vampire lying on the wide stone platform.

“You’re very rude.” Zach lay flat on the stone platform, his lips opened and closed: “disturbing others’ rest.”

“We need to talk.” James looked around but didn’t find a chair. He moved a stack of old newspapers, ignoring the dust on it, and sat directly on it.

Zach sighed, got up helplessly, picked up the robe beside him and put it on, “You can see Ryan because you are the one who chanted the Soul Guiding spell. If this is what you want to ask.”

“I kind of guessed that.” James drooped his head, his voice weak, obviously because he didn’t rest much last night: “I want to ask other things.”

Zach closed his eyes and adjusted his heartbeat carefully, “If you are worried about him calling you a ‘murderer,’ there is no need to worry about that. Death is a thing that will make people angry, he is just venting his anger, this stage will pass, although he is telling the truth. ”

“That’s it!” James suddenly raised his drooping head. In the dark basement, his dark blue eyes were even more conspicuous. “Why does he say that I am a murderer!”

Zach opened his eyes, and the red color in his eyes slowly faded. Vampires are most vulnerable in two moments. The first is naturally dormant. When the vampire’s heart stops beating and blood no longer flows, they are no different from a dead body. You can follow the method “How to kill a vampire” in my notes and slowly choose your favorite method…

The second is when the blood starts to flow, which is the moment when the vampire wakes up. At this time, the vampire has just recovered from the state of the corpse and is re-adapted to his body. All senses and control power has to go through from nothing to chaos and then, in the end, regain control.

Zach glanced at the agitated James, “Don’t you think you are a murderer?”

“Why do I have to think that way!” James stood up and walked to Zach who was still sitting.

Zach felt his body’s control gradually recover, and raised his hand to stop James from continuing to walk toward him. Along with the recovery of the vampire’s superb sense organs, there is also the same superb hunger. At this point, it is no different from ordinary people.

Zach looked at James again: “Then why do you look like shit.”

Uh, regarding waking up in a bad mood, the vampire is also surprisingly similar to ordinary people…

James opened his mouth, moved back to the pile of old newspapers dispiritedly, and sat down. Last night, his intermittent sleep time may not add up to an hour! The vampire said to him, ‘have a sweet dream! As if it had become a curse, he was constantly awakened by nightmares, and then tossed and turned with the images of Connor struggling in the flames, being stuffed into the trunk, and fleeing desperately but was still caught by Revenge repeatedly appearing in his mind. Until he fell asleep in a daze, then was awakened by the burning, transparent image of Connor, tossing and turning again… and then the cycle repeated.

So James hopped on the first bus to Barton South and came to the Grande Funeral Home. As for why taking the bus? Naturally, to prevent being tracked by Revenge, then Grande Funeral Home would be exposed again. Although James was tormented by something, his thoughts were very clear.

“You should feel grateful.” Zach stood up and began to move his limbs. “At least he used the third person to refer to you, otherwise you will feel more guilty.”

“You! You are deliberately confusing my thinking! “James stared at the vampire who seemed to be doing rehabilitation, “You just want to use these to draw a line between me and the hunter!” ”

“I agree with your last sentence.” Zach stopped and sat back on the stone platform. He had returned to his usual appearance. He smiled and looked at James: “But I didn’t confuse your thinking. I didn’t even know that you would be there.” Zach untied the robes he had tied at random before and began to try the fancy knotting skills, “What you should think about is why Revenge took you there. In any case, he is going to commit a murder, and you are a police detective. ”

“No!” James shook his head, but there was already a hint of doubt in his eyes. Zach’s question caught his attention, but now he wanted to refute Zach’s statement: “He didn’t commit a murder, he just wanted to…” James frowned, thinking about the term, “He just wanted to eliminate an ‘earthbound spirit’, even if it is his younger brother!”

“Oh?” Zach chuckled, “Are you moved by this kind of ‘righteousness’?”

James closed his mouth tightly. Regarding earthbound spirit, he had already asked Anthony on the phone last night. This is a process that all life will go through after death. Some exist for a long time, for several years, until the body decays and returns to the dust, while some are short and transient.

They have no ability to influence anything, that is to say, Ryan didn’t harm anyone, including the body he used afterward. The possession that happened to him, it was just his luck that he was able to meet an empty shell in the place of death where he was bound.

“Then I’ll ask you a question, Detective Rance.” Zach raised his eyebrows: “When William Hermann reported that his son who had just become a football star, Connor Hermann, disappeared, what would you, the person who knows the truth do?”

James curled up the palms on his legs and clenched into fists, the joints turning white under the force. The vampire question answered his doubts about Revenge’s purpose!

Will he conceal the truth because Connor is a nonhuman possessed by a Bound Earth Spirit, or will he report the crimes of Revenge Gale like a real detective?

“No!” James, whose thoughts were trapped in a dead end, started to repeat the same question. “He didn’t kill anyone, he just eliminated an earth-bound spirit! Connor Hermann died long ago, he just pushed the incident back to its original track! ”

“Yes.” The translucent Ryan condensed and appeared in the cold basement: “Yes, the way he did it was to kidnap me into an empty basement, nail me onto the rotting wooden board, and finally burn it.”

James’ eyes flickered at the sudden appearance of Earthbound Spirit, he was still in Connor’s appearance.

“The only thing I did was to be a quarterback!”

“No!” James stood up suddenly and stared at Ryan! “You are not a quarterback, you died three years ago! You just stole the identity of another poor man!”

“Look at me!” The shadow of Ryan’s body was shaking, like a broken TV screen, “I am Connor Hermann!”

“Okay.” The smile on Zach’s face disappeared, he realized what James really meant, “James Rance, look.” Zach walked towards James, ignoring his resistance, pulled out the police badge from his waist, and held it in front of the detective’s shit-like face.

“You are protecting Barton, so you have this.” Zach put the police badge back into James’ hands: “What I want to ask is, if one day, Benjamin, Alice, I, are attacked, will you protect us? Or, will you let us be attacked and only protect Old Hank?”

James opened his mouth and was interrupted by Zach before he made a sound.

“Perhaps, I should put it another way, if our people at the Grande Funeral Home were attacked. You will only accept the report from Old Hank. And refuse to go and arrest those who attack us?”

James opened his mouth again and was interrupted by Zach again.

“Maybe I should put it another way, if our people at the Grande Funeral Home were attacked, Will you only put those who hurt Old Hank in jail as punishment, regardless of those who hurt us?”

James’ eyes widened, his mouth opened, and he was interrupted again.

“Hmmm.” Zach shook his head, “It’s all wrong. It should be put this way, if someone hurts the people of the Grande Funeral Home, only the person who attacked Old Hank is the offender, and the others.” Zach turned his head: “They are not guilty, am I right?”

“Actually, Detective Rance, you know very well that such a thing has already happened.” There were only the vampire’s cold words in the basement. “If I were burned to dust in the flames, Benjamin would be pierced by a steel stake and become a corpse, Alice and Jim were nailed to the wall and lost their breath, and only Old Hank was still alive, will you find a reason for our murderer as you do now?”

“You will, I have heard it.” The vampire turned around with his back to James. “You would say ‘That’s just a vampire, a werewolf, a banshee, and a dog, old Hank, you should thank those people, they put your life track back on the normal path.’” The vampire turned his head and looked at James with light green eyes: “Is that right?”

The vampire took off his robe and lay back on the stone platform, “You should leave. I should remind you that I am not only angry but also hungry.”