Chapter 177: Witnessing the Birth of a Witch
A woman.
Margaret White, forty-seven years old, an extremely ordinary unemployed woman.
She had a sixteen-year-old daughter studying at Evan Union High School, a private school in Chicago.
After investigating, the police were surprised to discover that this woman named Margaret had appeared at every murder scene.
Sometimes she had been among the onlookers, and other times she had appeared near the scene.
Once or twice might have been a coincidence, but when it happened more than a dozen times in a row across multiple districts, it became extremely abnormal.
This shocking discovery immediately drew the police's attention.
However, what troubled them was that the murderers were all different people from different walks of life: homeless people, doctors, bank clerks, and more. Because the killers were different, the police had not taken the matter seriously at first.
After that, the Chicago Police Department formed a joint investigation team to look into this strange case.
But when the agents from the joint homicide investigation team went to Margaret's home to locate this key person, something terrifying happened.
Margaret lived in Morgan Park, on Chicago's southwest side.
About twenty miles from downtown, the area was home to many conservative white families of Irish and German ancestry, along with numerous Evangelical churches.
The neighborhood was filled with aging single-story houses and small detached homes. Property sizes were modest, and rents were extremely low.
The residents kept to themselves, and the neighborhood's insular atmosphere made the entire area feel strangely oppressive.
Margaret's house was an old two-story detached apartment built in the 1950s, with a small yard. Around it were low old houses. The street was quiet and remote, far from any commercial district.
The five agents from the investigation team set out in the afternoon. By the time they arrived at Margaret's home, it was already seven in the evening.
The sky had already darkened.
Aside from the lights in the houses and the streetlamps, there were almost no pedestrians in the surrounding streets, making the place seem very remote.
But when the five agents, four men and one woman, drove up to the front of the house and had just gotten out of the car, they immediately sensed that something was wrong.
It was too quiet. It could not even be called quiet. It was dead silent.
There was not the slightest noise in the entire area. The usual sounds of cats, dogs, insects, televisions, and arguments were all gone.
The deathly silence made one's heart grow cold.
The only female agent had just turned her head toward her companions, ready to say something, when her pupils suddenly widened.
Because she realized her companions were staring at her with extremely cold eyes.
Those icy eyes looked as if they were staring at a dead person.
A chill ran through the female agent.
Her face tense, her right hand moved uncontrollably to her holster, ready to draw her gun at any moment. Her lips trembled slightly as she spoke.
"Robert, Stan, are you all right?"
But there was still no response.
Only those freezing gazes remained. The four male agents even turned and faintly surrounded her.
As they turned, the originally bright streetlights on the road in the distance suddenly went dark with several dull pops.
Even the lights in the houses all went out.
Only where she stood still had a little light from the two nearby streetlamps. The scene instantly became eerie and terrifying.
"Hey, guys."
The female agent swallowed, immediately sensing that something was wrong with this place. She called out, then mustered her courage, reached out, pushed away the male agent in front of her, and ran out of the encirclement.
She took out her phone and was about to make a call.
But the only response from the call was static.
"What the hell is going on?"
The female agent was confused, but she could sense danger. With all these strange things happening, she wanted to leave this place immediately.
But the four companions who had come with her were still here.
"Quick… run… I can't… hold on… much longer."
Just as the female agent stood there helplessly, a young girl's voice suddenly sounded beside her ear. It came in broken fragments, incomplete and intermittent.
The female agent spun around and scanned the area, but she saw no one.
She completely panicked.
Then she realized that the four companions who had been standing motionless and staring at her were now wearing twisted smiles.
"You can't run, Kimberly."
"You're going to die."
"We'll dig out your heart. You will witness the birth of the witch."
Their voices were hoarse and terrifying.
Kimberly's heart began pounding faster. She wanted to run, but a strange fear grew inside her, and she realized her legs were no longer under her control.
She could not move at all.
All she could do was watch in despair as those companions, who seemed to have been possessed by demons, walked toward her with horrifying smiles.
Boom!!
Just as Kimberly fell into despair, a terrifying thunderclap suddenly exploded across the night sky.
That thunder was like a bell of courage ringing out. It passed courage to Kimberly and drove away her fear.
Kimberly suddenly realized her body, which had been out of control, could move again.
She quickly retreated several steps and widened the distance.
But just as she was about to turn and run, she saw her four companions suddenly stop moving. Then they turned and looked toward the street ahead, where something seemed to be approaching from within the darkness.
What was it this time?
Kimberly drew the gun from her holster. She wanted to run, but she also wanted to know what was happening here.
Curiosity was often the reason people fell into the abyss.
Countless painful lessons throughout history had taught humanity that sometimes, people should not be too curious.
Fortunately, Kimberly was lucky today.
Goddess of Luck had favored her.
In the darkness ahead, the dim streetlights suddenly lit up brightly. A figure in a black windbreaker was slowly walking over.
He seemed to be moving slowly, yet in truth, he was very fast. In the blink of an eye, he crossed several dozen meters.
With each step he took, the dim streetlights beside him lit up one after another. The visual impact was far too shocking.
So shocking that Kimberly's mind went completely blank.
She could only stare at that figure instinctively.
In just a few blinks, Kimberly's vision blurred, and that person somehow suddenly stood before her.
He wore a black round hat. The streetlight above poured down, but the brim of his hat covered his face. She could only vaguely see that he seemed to be a very young boy.
"Agent, it seems you and your companions have run into some trouble."
"Yes… yes, sir."
Kimberly didn't know why she felt nervous, but she quickly calmed down.
Beneath the hat brim, a pair of eyes shone bright and gentle. They seemed to quietly ease the tension inside her.
"You and your companions need some rest, ma'am. Very soon, you will forget this unpleasant experience."
The boy's voice was clear and bright, very pure.
Kimberly did not yet understand why he said that, but her consciousness began to blur. A powerful wave of drowsiness surged up, and she finally closed her eyes.
Her whole body fell forward. In the final moment before losing consciousness, she saw the boy's beautiful lip shape, the corners of his mouth rising.
Was he smiling?
With that final thought, Kimberly fell completely asleep.