The Bizarre Detective Agency Chapter 41
“Ahhhhh!”
A piercing scream echoed through the sewer, fading into the distance.
Everyone flinched and turned to look at Susan, who was clutching Daisy tightly, jumping on the spot with her eyes squeezed shut.
“A rat! Ahhh!”
“It’s just a rat, don’t be scared... Rats are common in a place like this.”
Daisy patted Susan’s head with a helpless expression, then raised the oil lamp. There was still plenty of oil inside, enough to last for the rest of their “expedition.”
“When are we heading back?” she asked, worried their parents would be upset if they stayed out too late.
“I wanted to wait until we saw a ghost,” Rhys, who was leading the group, glanced back and sighed. “But that’s looking unlikely. We’ll go a little farther, then turn back.”
He swore he’d never come back here.
God knows why Daisy had suddenly decided to bring Susan and Victoria. And Susan, of all things, was wearing an expensive dress... Did she think this was a ballroom?
Just as Susan was annoyed with the boys, the boys were annoyed with the girls. Daisy, noticing the tension, was about to try and smooth things over when she suddenly froze. She tilted her head slightly, staring into the depths of the tunnel with a puzzled expression.
The walls were growing damper. From the darkness beyond the lamplight, a faint humming sound drifted toward them, muffled by the heavy, wet air.
“Shh...” She raised a hand, cutting off the chatter, and listened intently.
“Do you hear that?”
Daisy looked questioningly at the others.
The humming was quiet, but distinct.
The other four, amused by Daisy’s serious expression, tried to listen as well.
Gradually, the smiles vanished from their faces.
“Is someone... humming down there?”
...
Splash.
A pair of black rubber boots stopped in the water, silencing the splashing. The current flowed around them, continuing on its way.
Lu Li peered into the distant darkness. A moment ago, a barely audible scream had reached him from the depths.
A soft, almost imperceptible whisper was drifting through the sewer.
“Looks like those kids are in trouble.”
...
“Let’s go check it out!” Rhys suggested enthusiastically.
The excitement chased away the last of his fear. He explored paranormal hotspots precisely for moments like this.
“Don’t get your hopes up. We’ve probably only gone a hundred meters. We’re still under Sailor Street. It’s probably just noise carrying down from one of the taverns.”
Ben dampened his friend’s enthusiasm.
Some were excited, some were indifferent, and some were terrified. With a mixture of emotions, the group decided to press on and investigate.
As they moved forward, the humming, carried on the draft, grew clearer.
It had no melody and wasn’t particularly pleasant. Just a carefree, echoing hum.
“It’s too late for it to be workers...” Daisy said quietly.
The five of them pressed against the left wall of the sewer. Susan clung tightly to Daisy’s arm, while the even more timid Victoria held onto Susan’s.
No one answered, all of them focused on the humming.
The echoing hum no longer required any effort to hear; it seemed to be coming from somewhere very close, just ahead in the darkness.
And then, the humming stopped abruptly.
A dead silence fell over them.
Suddenly deprived of the sound, they all looked around in confusion, as if they’d lost their bearings. Fear began to blossom in their hearts, spreading through them.
“It knows we’re here!”
“Shh...”
“Quiet!”
A frantic flurry of voices broke out. Rhys, who had been silent until now, suddenly spun around and pointed the torch behind the others.
In situations like this, the ghost always appears from behind...
Rhys’s eyes flew wide. The torch slipped from his hand and clattered to the ground. Plunged into sudden darkness, he managed to force out two words: “Run! Now!”
Not understanding what was happening, everyone instinctively broke into a sprint. Screams and shouts erupted as the lamplight bobbed wildly from side to side, and everything descended into chaos.
Rhys ran for his life, hearing nothing but the rush of air and the pounding of feet. Someone might have fallen behind, but he didn’t dare look back for even a second.
His whole life flashed before his eyes like a kaleidoscope. He had imagined finding a ghost countless times, but the cold reality of it shattered all his fantasies.
“I can’t run anymore!”
someone shouted after they had run for several hundred meters.
Rhys stumbled to a halt. Glancing back, he saw that all four were still there, even Susan in her dress.
No one had been left behind.
Ragged breaths echoed in the empty sewer. The cool air did nothing to soothe the burning in their lungs.
Daisy held up the oil lamp, swallowed hard, and asked between gasps, “What did you see?!”
“I... ahem... I saw a face,” Rhys leaned against the cold wall, a chill seeping into his back as sweat poured down his forehead. “It rose out of the water... No body, just a face... That face... That face...”
Rhys couldn’t continue, the memory of that malevolent face making him shudder.
“Like this one?”
Just then, a strange voice spoke, one that didn’t belong to anyone in the group.
They all froze, a chilling terror seizing them from within.
“Run!” Daisy screamed.
...
Slosh!
A rubber boot stepped on a pale face. The face in the water instantly disintegrated, the ripples quickly washed away by the current.
“Is there a ghost here?” Lu Li looked up and frowned.
An extinguished torch lay on the damp floor. Lu Li pictured a group of youths, terrified by a ghostly face, fleeing in a panic deeper into the tunnel and dropping their torch.
Lu Li unfastened the holster at his belt and dimmed the light of his lamp.
...
A new wave of panicked flight began.
But they no longer had the strength to run.
“Don’t stop! It’s still behind us!” Rhys shouted through gritted teeth.
“We... we can’t... run anymore...” A hand landed on Rhys’s shoulder. Ben was breathing heavily, his glasses fogged over. “Something’s... something’s wrong... This ghost... it’s... it’s herding us forward...”
“If we stop, it’ll catch us!”
Ben shook his head with difficulty, coughing. “It’s... it’s chasing us on purpose. Maybe it wants to exhaust us, or maybe... its lair is up ahead...”
“Then what do we do?!” Daisy asked in a panic.
She was still holding it together, but Susan and Victoria were clinging to each other, already sobbing.
“Go back!” Ben took off his glasses, his face a mask of desperation. “There are five of us. It can’t get us all. If one of us makes it out and gets help, we all have a chance!”
Everyone turned to look back the way they had come.
Daisy raised the lamp. A few meters beyond the edge of the light, in the darkness, the translucent silhouette of a strange ghost began to materialize.
Everyone’s hair stood on end. No one dared to look directly at the ghostly shadow, let alone take the first step toward it.
Ben, mustering his courage, lunged forward, but suddenly froze, his eyes wide.
Behind the ghost, a tall, dark silhouette had appeared without a sound.
The figure was nearly a head taller than the ghost. A flintlock pistol was pressed silently to the back of the ghost’s head.
A quiet voice spoke:
“Who are you?”