There was a touch of fish belly white on the horizon, and the dawn tore through the deep darkness, and then the light became brighter and brighter, but the sun did not rise, and today was a rare cloudy day.

Dean rode the siblings' station wagon for hours, and the smell of sweat from the pile of dirty clothes around him in the back row repeatedly tormented his keen sense of smell.

But the chattering discussion between the two siblings eased this depression a little.

Both of them are energetic, lively, and talkative, constantly stirring up all kinds of topics, telling gossip at school, trivia and interesting things at home, betting on things that can be seen everywhere on the roadside, complaining about each other's shortcomings, and exposing troubles, which is the most important thing, and the two have to mock each other almost every half hour.

I don't mind if there's an outsider in the car.

Dean also saw that the twin siblings, who were raised by a single mother, had a good relationship, playing since childhood, attending a school, and complaining to each other became a way to express their feelings.

"Hey, buddy, honestly, do you have a girlfriend?" Daley, who was turning the steering wheel, looked at Dean in the rearview mirror and asked,

Dean's eyes swept over the expectant faces of the two siblings, and suddenly, "Bet on me?" ”

Daley pleaded, "I'm sorry, but I have to win once, we're already one point behind this shitty woman, and if we lose again, I'll have to use my pocket money next month to buy her clothes!" ”

"I guess you don't have a girlfriend." Cui Shi turned his head from the passenger seat, his chin rested on the headrest of the seat, his delicate face red lips curled slightly, revealing a charming smile, "I'm going to guess right, I'll treat you to a meal!" ”

"Looks like I won't be able to eat this meal." Dean said seriously, "I have more than one 'good friend'. ”

"Yay! I pulled one back, two to two! Daley excitedly slapped the car horn and stuck out his tongue at his sister, "I knew this guy was very popular with girls!" ”

"Humph! Scumbag! Tsz wrinkled her nose and threw Dean a young and immature look.

……

At noon, the car officially drove into the territory of Bohao County, turned a corner at the ramp, and stopped outside a car repair shop called Bob Brothers on the side of the road.

"Dude, I'm going to send you here, and Mom is waiting for me and Tsch to go back for dinner." Daley waved out the window and warmly invited, "Call me next time you go to Pavina County and show you around interesting places." ”

Cui Shi suddenly threatened, "Dare to go to that kind of place, beware of me suing your girlfriend!" ”

"Just kidding!"

"Bye, Dean!"

In the midst of the noise, the silver station wagon disappeared at the end of the road.

Dean shook his head and smiled, walked to the boss under the chassis of the car, and suddenly slowed down, turned around with a solemn face and walked to the bulletin board in the yard of the garage.

There are actually five or six missing person notices posted in it.

Look at the avatars, both men and women, young and old.

The most striking thing is a young man, with black hair and black eyes, less than twenty years old, handsome in appearance, and a beautiful mole on the left side directly below the oblique mouth.

Dean glanced at the specific content of the notice, these people have been missing for the last half a month.

He has been a volunteer and knows very well that such a high frequency of disappearances can be a major case with a bad impact anywhere.

Now it's happening in a remote county.

He smelled something unusual, his temples jumped uncontrollably, and he turned to the boss who was covered in oil and leaned over and asked, "What's going on with these missing person notices?" ”

The owner of the repair shop raised his work cap and said,

"In the past half month, the county has been like an evil person, and there have been several disappearances in a row, have you seen them?"

Dean shook his head, "No." ”

"Then you have to be careful, it's very unsafe in the county right now, you'd better not stay too long."

"There are so many disappearances, and the county police department has not investigated?" Dean looked at the boss's face,

"We have investigated and strengthened patrols, but none of the missing people have been recovered, just like evaporating from the world." The boss propped his chin with a wrench and warned solemnly, "I heard from a buddy from the county police department that the places where they disappeared were on the side of Highway 65 across the county seat, and the time was at night, so don't go out at night." ”

Dean nodded, a look of eagerness in his eyes, and he had a hunch that an event should be triggered in the city.

But then, the faces of the cheerful and lively brother and sister flashed in front of him, the two were driving on Highway 65, and they should be able to get home before nightfall, right?

"By the way, man, are you here to fix the car? Where is your car parked? The boss looked at the empty road behind Dean.

"I don't fix cars, I buy them, and I need a sturdy car to accompany me on long journeys."

The boss shook his head regretfully, "I'm sorry, I run a garage and don't sell cars." ”

"I'll buy your best car."

"Don't you understand?" The boss looked at the fool with a look on his face, and impatiently raised his voice to emphasize, "I don't sell cars." ”

"I'll add money!"

“… Distinguished guests, please come here, you are about to see the most precious car of my life! ”

……

On the other side, on the long, flat Interstate 65.

Daley looked at his sister who was staring out the window with his feet on the front desk, and smiled sneakily, "Come back to your senses, Cuishi, are you still thinking about Dean?" ”

The girl was annoyed as if she had been poked in the heart, "Shut your dog's mouth!" ”

"You can't hide it from me, you haven't scolded me for half an hour, this is unbelievable before!"

"Well, don't you think he's a little different?"

"What's different, how many girlfriends are there at the same time?" Daley said enviously, "If I had been as muscular and cool as he was, I would have slept through the whole cheerleading squad." ”

"Seriously, he's not like the rest of the world," said Tsz, clasping his chin with his hands folded, "I have a feeling that he has something extraordinary about him, you know, my instincts have always worked!" ”

Seeing his sister's serious face, Daley nodded with a restrained smile,

"Next time we have a chance, let's ask him face to face!"

Buzz...

Suddenly, a rapid roar came from behind them, interrupting the discussion between the two siblings.

A dark brown Chevrolet truck approached the rear of their car at some point, as if it was about to crash into it.

"Oh God!" The two siblings turned around and looked at the big change in their faces, and Daley turned the steering wheel frantically, "What's wrong with this guy, is there water in his brain?" ”

"Make way for him, Daly!" Trish yelled at him.

"Are you blind, I'm letting!" Daly quickly changed lanes, but he changed lanes several times, and the big trucks followed him like bugs, as if he wouldn't stop until he hit them.

"Let him overtake you, he's crazy!" Cui Shi wields a pink fist,

"You've won, get over there!" Daley turned around and yelled and roared at the Chevrolet truck, repeating it several times in a row, just when the two siblings were so frightened that their hearts were about to jump out of their chests and they were about to faint with liver and gall.

The big truck finally changed lanes, overtook the silver station wagon, and sped up to leave them far behind.

Call... Suck...

Two long sighs of relief sounded in the wagon, and the two sisters and brothers, who were sweating profusely, looked at each other, the horror disappeared, and anger arose, and they scolded in front of them.

"Shet!"

"What's wrong with his brain?"

"This time I guessed first, this guy is a deformed freak, living in a moving iron coffin, and he can't see the road, so he will drive around!" Daley threw his head out of the window and shouted, the sounds of "deformed" and "iron coffin" echoed through the highway.

"I bet he's deliberately scaring us." Cui Shi stroked his chest to calm his restless mood,

"Why?"

"Some people are born with such a bad taste!"

"Bad taste?" Daly nodded and said fiercely, "He has a license plate that says BEATNGU (beat you), he is indeed a brain-dead!" ”

"So I won, three to two!" Cui Shi looked at his brother triumphantly, showing a victorious smile, "Your pocket money for next month is mine!" ”

"Fako!" Daley raised his middle finger forward, but the corners of his mouth showed a relieved smile.

……

Last night, he was continuously stopped in the car, and today he was rear-ended and threatened.

Both siblings were a little physically and mentally exhausted, and they sped up to get home early.

But God seems to like to play a joke on them.

At sunset.

They drove past a small forest on the side of the highway.

In the middle of the woods stood a dilapidated chapel with a pipe to the left of the church that jutted out of the ground leading to the cellar.

And next to the pipe was a dark brown Chevrolet truck.

A strange man in a thick black trench coat, a black wide-brimmed hat, and gloves that almost covered his skin and face was taking a wrapped white sheet from the cargo compartment of the truck and throwing it into the pipe, acting as if he were throwing garbage, and he was humming a song pleasantly.

Daley slowed down, "The big truck with the license plate 'Beat You'!" It's the brain-dead who rear-ended us before! ”

"What is he doing? Throwing out the trash? A hint of fear flashed in Cui Shi's bright eyes, "No! There is blood on the sheets! ”

"You see the flowers, right?"

"The feeling tells me it's blood! Hide and get out into the bushes, he's going to spot us! ”

……

The silver wagon drove into the grass, and this time the two siblings finally exchanged good luck.

The sneaky truck driver didn't seem to notice them, and after throwing away the "garbage", he drove back on the highway and away.

The siblings breathed a long sigh of relief, and Daley suddenly restrained his hippie smile, looked at Cui Shi and said seriously, "That guy threw something in the cellar just now, right, and you saw blood, do you think he lost someone?" ”

On the side of the highway, in the cellar, throwing corpses?

There was a dead silence in the air for a moment, and for a moment only the sound of the two people's heartbeats could be heard.

Daley asked excitedly and fearfully, "Could he be the psychopathic killer who killed people and threw corpses on the highway in Dean's mouth?" ”

"Don't rule out this possibility, what do you want to say, be direct?" Cui Shi pursed her lips and asked uneasily,

"In case the person who was thrown down didn't die," Daley looked into his sister's eyes, "he needs help!" ”

Cui Shi's expression struggled for a moment, and he nodded, "Of course, we will drive to the nearby city immediately, borrow a phone, and call the police!" ”

"It's too late, human lives are at stake, we have to seize every second," Daley shook his head in refusal, "and don't you wonder why he chased the tail and scared us before?" Maybe it's all in that cellar. ”

"Are you crazy? We were attacked just now, and you still want to go into his territory, isn't this looking for death? Trish looked at him like an incomprehensible psychopath, "You forgot what Dean told you that curiosity kills cats!" ”

"Dean's words are right, how about we each take a step back?" Daly said in a non-negotiable tone, "I'll just take a look out of that pipe, and if there's nothing, we'll leave at once!" Please, fulfill my curiosity, or I won't be able to sleep for three days and three nights. ”

Cui Shi's chest rose and fell, suppressing the anger and uneasiness in his heart, "You swear! ”

"I swear in the name of my dear mother that if I lie, I will never be married in my life."

……

The siblings drove back to the dilapidated church.

Only then did they realize that the roof of the church was covered with quacking crows, like a noisy dark cloud, which stirred people's hearts up.

And every window on the walls of the church is boarded up so that you can't see inside.

As for the pipe outside the church that connected to the ground, as soon as the two of them got closer, they almost fainted from a strong stench.

They covered their noses and looked into the pipe, but the light was too dim to see the bottom, and they could only see a slimy, foul-smelling liquid all around the pipe.

Daley anxiously shouted into the pipe, "Hello, is there anyone down there, does anyone need help?" ”

When no one answered, Daley ran to the side of the car to retrieve a flashlight, and shone it into the pipe, revealing a dry, yellowish ground in his eyes, but empty.

Daley was not satisfied, and directly raised his foot and stepped into the pipe,

Trish tugged at his T-shirt and twisted his pretty face with sarcasm, "Daley, you know what, there are always people in horror movies who do something extremely stupid and make people gnash their teeth, just like now!" I command you to control your overflowing curiosity in ten seconds! Leave with me! ”

"Don't speak, listen carefully, there's a voice! Grab my feet and let me slip in a bit! Daley didn't wait for his sister to agree, and climbed down the pipe with his head and feet down.

"You idiot! I want to let go! ”

Tsz let out a loud yell, then shuddered, her eyes rounded in shock, one of her brother's sneakers in her hand, but her body slid down the pipe and disappeared from view.

Bang!

"Daley!"

"Oh my God, speak! Please! ”

"Answer me, you can decide everything in the future!"

"Tsuish, remember your promise!" There was a humming sound in the pipe,

"God forbid," Tsz asked, wiping her reddened eyes, "what's going on, are you hurt?" Can you come up? ”

"The palm of my hand is a little broken, but it's safe, I can jump up, you be quiet first, I'll look for the sheets just now..."

Dirty, Daley raised his flashlight and looked around, the pipes were darker than a normal cellar, and the floors and walls he could see were unpainted or cemented, revealing rough, pristine soil.

This place is a hole dug by hand.

The air was filled with a rancid smell that was stronger than the outside, and another dizzying, pungent smell that Daley, who had taken a biochemistry class, remembered as formalin preservatives.

The flashlight shone not far away, his eyes froze, and there was a sheet wrapped around hemp rope lying on the ground, and the outline of the human figure was very clear.

He was 100% sure that there was a person lying inside, and he was instantly excited by his accurate guess!

He gritted his teeth, didn't dare to breathe, and gently moved his right foot and rubbed it over,

"Were you calling for help just now?"

"Please tell me you're okay."

Daly didn't get a response, so he gently kicked the canvas bag with his foot, and then he slowly uncovered the rope and sheets, revealing a white corpse.

A young man, with black hair and black eyes, looked to be no more than twenty years old, and was handsome, with a beautiful mole on the left side of the mouth just below the oblique slope, but his cheeks and other exposed skin were as white as if they had been drained of blood.

The most penetrating is a centipede-shaped suture that runs through his chest and abdomen, reminiscent of a critically ill patient who has undergone thoracotomy surgery.

He was greatly tortured.

His eyes widened and his mouth were half open, staring silently into the darkness, and there seemed to be residual pain and horror in his dark eyes before death.

Daley covered his trembling mouth, a strong shock, an irrepressible desire to vomit, surprise, panic, and all kinds of emotions made his eyes burst into tears and tremble.

"Speak, Daley, what have you discovered?" Concerned greetings came from above the pipe,

"A... Human... Corpse. ”

"Fack! Get out of here and go to the police right now! ”

"I haven't... Read! Daley stepped boldly over the poor pale creature and went on lightly, his flashlight shining into the depths of the cellar.

He saw a lathe, covered with cobwebs and mottled scratches, very old.

The lathes were filled with all sorts of tools, including files, chisels, rulers, cutters, hammers, nails, thread reels, spindles, and even anvils for striking iron... He didn't know any more.

There is no doubt that the owner of this lathe is very good at hand-crafting all kinds of tools and instruments.

And next to the lathe is a dusty table, with bottles and cans of various sizes soaked in unknown objects, and the table is also obviously an old object, with a simple and mysterious pattern carved on the surface - a woman tied to a wooden stake full of firewood?

Daly dusted off the table and shone his flashlight on it, wanting to confirm further.

Tick.

A drop of yellowing liquid fell from the ceiling onto his shoe.

He subconsciously raised his flashlight, and his gaze turned to the ceiling.

Call... Suck...

Corpses, remains, all of them, embalmed with formalin, densely glued to the ceiling, clinging to each other, like pieces of a puzzle that leave no gaps.

The flashlight turned sideways, and Daley's eyes were as dull, stiff, and mechanical as the lenses of a camera, fidelly recording everything.

Deep in the cellar, the side walls were also inlaid with remains, at least five or six hundred.

From a distance, these walls seem to form a vivid, evil and magnificent mural depicting hell.

A soul-freezing cold air drilled into Daley's brain from the tail vertebrae.

Wow...

He finally couldn't hold back his vomiting, and for the first time in his life, he regretted his curiosity!

"This, this is the devil's lair, escape, escape!"

He ran like crazy to the pipe at the exit of the cellar!

……

Bohao County is vast and sparsely populated, the roadside is full of lawns and green trees, and it takes several miles to see a lonely house, and there are very few pedestrians on the street, and you may not be able to see one after walking for ten minutes.

Dean drove a $10,000 new blue Ford Mercury Jaguar and spent the afternoon browsing several bars in the city according to Daly's map, and then dismissing them one by one — none of them were the clubs that Lena had been staying at.

In the evening, disappointed and hungry, Dean walked into a dinner restaurant on the side of the road.

The dozens of tables inside the store are mostly full of customers, and it is bustling with activity, which is in stark contrast to the desertion outside.

"Grilled chicken, spicy steak, grilled pork chops... Another serving of orange juice. ”

"Okay, can you just sit here?" The apron service aunt arranged him in the corner seat and left with a smile,

Dean sat down at the table and waited boredly for a few minutes before suddenly turning to look out the glass window of the dining room.

The screeching sound of brakes reached his ears through the blinds.

A silver station wagon pulled up in the parking lot in the distance, and a young man and woman rushed out of the car and ran towards the restaurant in a frenzy.

"Isn't this Daly and Tracey? What happened, so scared? ”

(End of chapter)