deformed bone

"La la la la li--"

Joyce almost fell off his bed when the harsh electronic music started.

He wasn't so much woken up by the ringing of his phone as by the horrible noise (which he would never admit to calling "music").

"Oh, damn it."

Joyce stared at his phone in disgust.

This horrible noise was secretly replaced by Han as the ringtone of his mobile phone when he was not paying attention.Such childish shenanigans could no doubt only have come from his old partner (sometimes, for God's sake, that guy's mind is probably 12 years old).

Normally, this kind of trick would only make Joyce frown slightly, but now the noise made this late-night emergency call even more disturbing.

Joyce sighed, trying to adjust his mood.

He answered the phone, and Han's voice came from the receiver.

"Hey, man, something happened," Han said. "I think you better come."

When he spoke, his voice was steady and composed, not at all the limp and inattentive tone Joyce was familiar with, but it was precisely because of this that this late-night emergency call seemed so strange.

In the dark room, Joyce's gaze sharpened instantly.

"I'll be there soon."

Joyce said.

……

Three and 10 minutes later, Joyce was already standing at the back door of the Municipal Hospital.The metal door has been swung open, revealing the corridor behind.The corridor leads to the morgue attached to the hospital.It is here that the bodies found on the beach this morning are waiting to be removed.According to the plan, that terrifying corpse should be sent to a higher-level analysis room for further dissection and analysis.

It was early in the morning, and several police cars were parked near the hospital. The police officers were busy doing routine work between the buildings and the street. The red and blue lights flashed alternately, but the atmosphere at the scene was very heavy—— As Joyce walked past the policemen, he didn't miss the look of fear on their faces. Of course, the burly men tried to hide their uneasiness, but they didn't succeed.

Joyce frowned, he didn't feel very well, the air was very fishy, ​​he knew it was the smell of sea water, but that smell was particularly distinct this night, and the corridor leading to the morgue was even more so. It looks dark and narrow, like the throat of a huge monster, ready to devour the human beings who walk into it.

Years of experience in handling cases has given Joyce a vague premonition that what awaits him will be a long and dark night.

But what he was thinking did not show on the outside at all.

For the others present, they only saw the capable and legendary detective walking into the corridor calmly with his usual expression.

After a few steps, Joyce saw Han, his sleeves rolled up to his cuffs, his back leaning against the wall.Not far from Han is the gate of the morgue.

Perhaps because of the light, Han's face was as green and white as a dead man's, and he looked a little gloomy and restless.But after saying hello, he raised his head towards Joyce. The Asian man's face was serious, but his eyes were calm.

"Do you still like the ringtone I changed for you?"

Han raised his hand, waved weakly at Joyce and asked.

"how is the situation?"

Joyce asked quietly.

Han stood up straight and motioned for Joyce to walk into the morgue by himself.

"Basically hell," he said after Joyce.

Joyce walked toward the morgue, his steps steady until now, but this time he slowed down.

A steady stream of bloody smell and stench gushed out from the open door.Joyce had to take out a handkerchief and put it over his nose before he entered the room.

Well, this time his partner is not talking nonsense—Joyce thought to himself after watching the scene in the morgue.

He saw fragments, fragments of corpses.

Blood was splattered on the floor, walls, and ceiling. Every freezer was opened, and pieces of meat were shredded and re-stacked in the freezer.

Eyeballs to eyeballs, skin to skin, bones to bones, viscera to viscera...

"No matter who that person is, the person who did all this is obviously a perverted storage maniac. I mean, even if the guy didn't think about killing people, he could reach the level of a psychopath just by purely collecting household items."

Joyce heard Han muttering in pain behind his back.

It has to be said that Joyce felt a little relieved to find that his partner still retained a certain degree of meanness and irony in this environment.

"How many victims?" Joyce asked.

He didn't take a few more steps into the room, but stood cautiously at the door and looked at everything in the room.

"I think we need to bring in more people to take care of the scene."

Joyce continued.

"I've already urged them. Huh... I don't know how many victims there are for now, you know, they are all broken like that now..." Han looked behind Joyce like a third-year elementary school student. After coming out, he pointed to the refrigerator, "But according to my observation, there are coroner Midali, assistant coroner Angel, nurse Anna, and janitor Alexander."

Following Han's fingertips, Joyce saw 4 pairs of eyeballs placed in a certain freezer.

Those eyeballs haven't even clouded their irises yet, and the direction of their pupils is facing the door.

In a daze, Joyce even felt that those four people were still standing there. Maybe those poor people in the dimension that Joyce could not see were staring at the two police officers at the door.

Joyce frowned. He found that his thoughts were a little out of control tonight.

But he still couldn't stop his wild thoughts.

The coroner, the assistant, the nurse, the janitor... it should have been an ordinary night for them, but now their lives came to an abrupt end.

Without warning or omen, they just died, their bodies chopped up and piled together as if to satisfy the wicked tastes of a psychopath.

Did they know the police would come?Did they know that they would appear in the eyes of others in this way?

Joyce couldn't help thinking.

"This guy is really psycho, he must have a serious mental illness."

Han is still muttering.

Joyce added his words: "And quite superb dissection skills..."

The dissected autopsy officer himself and the unfortunate assistant probably didn't have such superb skills.

Joyce had no proof, but his gut was telling him so.

Those victims must have been tortured before their death. The pain they suffered was rare and horrific.

And Joyce's intuition is now telling him to get out of here quickly, his muscles tense unconsciously, and goose bumps appear on his skin.

"It may be unprofessional to say this, but I always feel that this place makes me creepy." Han poked Joyce on the back, and he deliberately lowered his voice and said carefully, "I have seen many crime scenes, oh , sorry, I remembered you knew this - but I've never been so scared anywhere. I honestly doubt I've started leaking... Do you think we should get out of here first? Let the people who clean up the scene come and deal with this place first?"

Joyce regained his senses, ripped Han off his body, and exited the morgue.

He was controlling the urge to throw up in his body.

"Everyone here tonight is dead? Are there any survivors? Witnesses?"

After pausing for a moment, he looked at Han.

Han blinked at him.

"Do you want the good news or the bad news?" he asked.

Joyce ignored it, he looked at Han coldly.

His gaze made Han wryly smile.

"...The good news is that we have a valuable witness." Han said quickly, he paused suspiciously, and then continued, "The bad news is that the guy is unconscious."

……

Old poisonous John has been wandering around the hospital place for many years.He had been to many places these days, but in the end he felt that the land behind the hospital made him feel most comfortable - it was close to the morgue, and his colleagues usually would not choose this place to spend the night because it was said to be unlucky?But old John thought it wouldn't hurt to live a little closer to where he was always going to be.

But today was just a coincidence.

A very unnatural coincidence.

He was struggling with his rotten leg, trying to convince his leg that it wouldn't hurt so much, after all, he hadn't been able to get money for a long time.

Then he heard the back door to the morgue being opened.

He was very familiar with the sound, because the door shaft was old, and the friction sound when the door was opened was always particularly harsh.Old John didn't pay much attention to the voice at first, after all, people can't choose the time of their own death.He thought it was another unlucky ghost who took his own life, then lay down stiffly, and was sent to the morgue.

He didn't know what he was thinking, but somehow, he felt something was wrong.

Maybe it was because he hadn't heard the corpse wagon restart for so long after the door opened?

Or is it……

The fog.

The sudden mist flooded the street, twisting and crawling against the ground like a living thing.

Old John felt as if he had been bewitched. He staggered to his feet and followed the mist towards the back door of the hospital...

Then he saw "it".

"It's the devil, the devil has appeared."

A muffled voice came out of the old man's crooked mouth, and a drop of saliva glistened on his knotted beard.

In the police station, Joyce and Han looked at each other tacitly.

The old man in front of him was in a bad state of mind, the drugs had destroyed his brain, and what was even worse was that he was very frightened—whoever the killer who committed the dissecting room tragedy was, he was really good at scaring people.

After hearing the policeman's questioning, the old man kept repeating this sentence.

"The devil! The devil! The gates of hell are open! Open! The devil will kill everyone! He will! The devil!"

The old man was very emotional, he kept beating on the table and screaming hoarsely.

"What does the devil look like... John, look at me and tell me, what does that horrible devil look like? You saw him, didn't you? Did he see you then? Did he have anything to say?"

Han leaned forward slightly, as if he didn't smell the strong stench from the homeless man, he asked softly.

For the past few 10 minutes, he has been repeating his question.

"devil……"

But the only answer they get is always this.

"Oh fuck-"

Joyce heard Han turn sideways, and cursed in a voice that only the two of them could hear.

At this moment, someone knocked on the door, and a young police officer poked his head out from behind the door.

"Sir, the on-site investigation indicated that the body on the beach..."

The young man's face was extremely pale, his eyes were wide open, and he looked like a child who had watched a horror movie.

By the way, he has very ordinary, ordinary gray-green eyes.At this moment, neither Joyce, Han nor himself realized that there was anything wrong with the color of those eyes.

Without waiting for the young police officer to finish speaking, Old John suddenly fell into a state of madness.

"The devil... woo woo woo... so scary... it's the scariest... darkest... woo woo I'm so scared..."

The old man's eyeballs trembled rapidly, and a horrified scream spewed out of his throat.

Then he rolled over from the chair, raised his limbs high, and trembled like an electric shock.

"John!"

Han jumped up, he pressed heavily on the old man's body, trying to hold down the old man who was in convulsions.

He grabbed a pen and stuffed it into Old John's mouth. Foamy saliva overflowed from the latter's mouth, and the old man's face turned a terrifying blue within a few seconds.

"Call an ambulance—call someone over!"

Han turned his head and shouted at the dumbfounded young police officer at the door.

And at this moment, he felt that the old and thin shell under him completely relaxed.

His heart tightened suddenly, and then he heard that strange voice.

"That is shadow in light and shadow, that is evil in chaos, that is the enemy of God, the opposite of light."

Han bowed his head in disbelief, the person who spoke was really Old John.

The old man stared blankly at the ceiling. His voice sounded rather ethereal, as if it came from his lungs rather than vibrating his vocal cords.Han felt that he was trembling, and he felt very frightened—the old man's eyes were wilder than the craziest lunatic, but he was lying there motionless, with a blank expression, like a doll whose power had been removed.

"...it has no form but it is about to have, the weaker its opposite is, the stronger it will be, and eventually it will cross the boundary between reality and the nether world, it will open the door, it will open the door completely, It will bring blood and death to this corrupt and fallen world.

"It will show its loyalty to its sovereign."

"It will—"

A large amount of blood spewed out from the old man's nostrils and mouth, causing his words to stop abruptly.

Han sluggishly maintained his previous movements, he was panting, as if he was about to suffocate, the old man's blood dripped down his hair and clothes.

And old John was dead.

Joyce rushed over, he hugged Han, and then he took off his coat and desperately wiped the blood on Han's body.

For the first time, his hands trembled a little.

"Hey, how are you? Han? Han..."

"Red deer."

Han whispered blankly.

"what?"

The movement of Joyce's hands stopped.

Han raised his eyes to meet Joyce's gaze——

"What Old John said...is what the serial killer Red Deer once said..." Probably because of the mental shock before, Han's words were a little incoherent, "Do you remember? That dog named Red Deer Those crooked ways that were advertised before, what 'door', what 'chaos', damn it I can't remember... But I'm sure, this case has something to do with Red Deer..."

Han grabbed Joyce's wrist tightly, and he kept talking.

Joyce's eyes were colder and more serious than ever, and he felt very worried—Han himself might not have noticed, but Joyce knew that Han was afraid.

It wasn't the fear of the notorious serial killer Red Deer, it was the fear of the outlandish claims that the guy called Red Deer was preaching.

And in fact, Joyce himself...

He had to admit that he was growing within himself an emotion called fear.

Joyce believed that this irrational, unfounded fear was the same as that felt by his trembling partner before him...

[It will open the door. 】

……

"The next thing we'll hear is the best song of the week from the 'Joybirds'..."

Calvin slowly opened his eyes amidst the sound of motors and electronic music broadcasts.

The faint vibration of the car while driving, the golden sunlight pouring into the cabin through the window, and the slightly overabundant air from the air conditioner mixed together, making Calvin even a little unaware of what year it was and where he was.

"This is……"

He sat up straight bluntly, looking blankly at his surroundings.

The corner of his forehead ached a little, probably because he had been pressing his head against the car window before.

"you're awake?"

A voice containing surprise came from beside him, he turned his head and saw the handsome man in the driver's seat.

"V... Reed?"

Calvin felt as if his brain had been poured with paste. He felt dizzy and had difficulty thinking.

To make matters worse, his whole body was sore, as if he had played football with someone while sleepwalking the night before.

the night before...

Suddenly, all the events of the previous night flooded back into Calvin's memory.

"vomit--"

That too terrifying scene caused Calvin to retch.

And Reid looked a little panicked.

"Calvin? God, are you okay?"

The car trembled slightly, then slowly drove to the side of the road and stopped.

Ridge put on the handbrake, then he unbuckled his seat belt and leaned over to grab Calvin's shoulders.

Calvin felt the other person caressing his back and forehead.

Then he heard Reed's characteristically sweet, magnetic whisper.

"It's over, dear, it's all over—"

It took a long time for Calvin to calm down under the consolation of the other party.

"That was a nightmare, right?"

These were the first words Calvin raised his head to Reed.

Then he saw Reed froze.

"Last night was indeed a night of nightmares."

Reid said.

It was clearly daytime, the sun was shining brightly and the temperature was pleasant, but Calvin still felt chills all over his body.He grabbed Reed's hands on his body with his backhand, like a drowning man grabbing a life-saving rope.

"I... God... what happened..."

he asked tremblingly.

"You fainted. Then, I managed to get you out of there."

Reid replied.

Calvin knew that he was avoiding his own questioning, and it made him feel a tyrannical rage.

But he reacted quickly.He knew that he was still in a rather abnormal state, or it would be more appropriate to describe him as panicked.

He let go of Reed, forced himself to take a long, deep breath, and then he looked around.

Calvin found himself in a rather unfamiliar but visible expensive SUV.The body is tall enough for him to see the environment outside the car clearly.He and Reed were clearly in a bustling city, with commercial buildings and people on the side of the road.

The side window facing him was an ice cream shop, and he saw a young mother pushing out the door with her child, who was holding mint chocolate ice cream in her hand.

Everything seemed so peaceful, no dark corridors, no dark rooms, no doors behind which there were pale hands and strange voices.

Calvin shuddered.

"We... where are we..."

Reed answered him with a place name, and Calvin tried to catch it, but there was white noise in his ears.

"...It's also a great vacation spot. It's very crowded in this season. I know you don't like crowded places...but in this case...cover our tracks."

Calvin could only hear Reed's words intermittently.

Zizi...Zi...

There seemed to be some sound left in his cochlea, the subtle friction sound that "it" made last night when it was speaking, and the sound of electric current that seemed to be disturbed.

It was an auditory hallucination.

Calvin had to work really hard not to cover his ears and scream like a madman.

Then he saw Reed leaning over and kissed him lightly on the forehead.

"Your condition is very bad, Calvin, I will take you to find a place to settle down first. Then you can have a good rest and have a good meal, and then I will try to explain those things to you—in this Before, you don’t think about anything, okay? The most important thing you should do now is to let yourself go.”

Suddenly, Calvin's ear became quiet.

The auditory hallucinations disappeared.

Calvin stared blankly at Reed and nodded. He felt as if his soul had been lost somewhere, and he couldn't find the way back to his body for a long time.

It was precisely because of this that he could only obediently obey Reed's arrangement like a child - although he was already familiar with someone, Calvin still felt that there was a trace of strangeness in the man beside him.

He has an inexplicable... desire to obey and cling to the other party.

Next, Reid skillfully drove the car back to the road, shuttling through the city's intricate road network for a while.

Then the car stopped.