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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter Four
In the basement, the dim light flickered, and the puppets advanced step by step towards us. Their joints creaked with a nauseating "squeak," reminiscent of machinery that hadn't been lubricated for centuries, struggling to crawl in the darkness, like some kind of death knell from hell.
I gripped my sidearm tightly, cold sweat trickling down my forehead and soaking my collar. These "puppets," each one had once been a living person, their faces and voices seemingly frozen in time. Now, they had become the mad carpenter's artworks, imprisoned in this wooden cage, soulless shells of their former selves.
"Captain Li, what... what should we do?" Xiao Zhang's voice trembled, tinged with an unmistakable whimper. The flashlight in his hand shook as well, its beam dancing among the puppets and illuminating their twisted faces—some weeping, some laughing, some sorrowful, some enraged—but all wore a mask of despair like dead ashes.
At that moment, I noticed a particularly striking puppet in the corner. It was a girl dressed in a red dress, her face still bearing a hint of innocent joy, yet her eyes were filled with endless sorrow, like frozen amber preserving the fear and despair she had felt in life.
"Wait, that is..." My heart sank suddenly as if gripped by an invisible hand. "That is Li Ling, who went missing half a month ago!"
"Dinglingling—" My phone suddenly rang, displaying an unfamiliar number. In this basement, there was still signal? The unexpected ringtone felt like a death knell, sending chills down my spine.
I trembled as I answered the call, only to be met with eerie puppet music—a sound reminiscent of an old music box that echoed harshly in the silent basement. Each note struck our taut nerves like a small hammer.
"You've finally discovered my secret," came the voice of the Old Carpenter through the phone, laced with pride and madness. "These are my finest creations. How fragile human life is! But once transformed into puppets, they can preserve their most beautiful moments forever..."
"You lunatic!" I shouted back, my voice twisted by fear and anger. "How dare you take their lives away?"
"Take away? No, I am bestowing!" The Old Carpenter's voice suddenly turned fervent, like a zealot preaching his faith. "Look at this world; people live like walking corpses, devoid of beauty. Only through my transformation can they attain eternal artistic life!"
Before he finished speaking, the puppets suddenly quickened their pace. Their wooden arms reached out towards us as if to drag us into an eternal nightmare. The creaking of their joints now sounded like whispers from demons, urging us toward death.
“Bang! Bang!” I fired two shots in quick succession, the bullets striking the nearest puppets and sending wood splintering everywhere. The bullets pierced through their bodies, leaving hollow holes behind. Yet, these puppets seemed impervious to pain, their mangled forms continuing to advance towards us like relentless demons from hell.
“Captain Li, look!” Xiao Zhang suddenly pointed at the ground, his voice tinged with a glimmer of hope, as if a drowning man had grasped a last straw for salvation. “There’s a hidden passage beneath the floor!”
I crouched down and forcefully pried up the loose floorboard. Sure enough, there lay a narrow tunnel below, exuding a damp atmosphere mixed with a hint of decay.
“Let’s go!” I urged Xiao Zhang as he crawled into the passage, following closely behind him. The sound of the puppets crashing against the ground echoed behind us, like countless hands frantically clawing at the earth, or death itself knocking on the door to hell.
The tunnel was pitch black, the air thick with a musty smell and an almost imperceptible scent of blood. We had to bend low to move forward, the beam of our flashlight casting flickering shadows on the damp walls, resembling some unknown monster lurking in the darkness.
“This passage,” Xiao Zhang gasped, his voice reverberating in the confined space, “seems to lead towards the town center…”
Suddenly, a faint sobbing sound drifted from ahead, like a little girl crying. The sound was intermittent and filled with an indescribable sorrow that felt particularly chilling in this deadened tunnel.
“There’s someone!” We quickened our pace, feeling our way towards the source of the sound. The beam of our flashlight cut through the darkness like a sword, slicing through the unknown ahead.
Turning a corner, we were met with a horrifying sight: a little girl curled up in a corner. Half of her body was flesh and blood, while the other half had been transformed into wood! The wooden limbs were stained with patches of blood, remnants of some terrifying ritual.
“Help… help me…” The girl lifted her head, revealing a familiar face—it was Zhang Xiaomei, who had gone missing last week! Her eyes were filled with fear and despair, resembling two dry wells reflecting our terrified faces.
“Oh my God!” Xiao Zhang gasped in disbelief. “She’s still alive!”
At that moment, a mechanical whirring sound echoed from deep within the tunnel, followed by Old Carpenter's maniacal laughter: “Did you think you could escape? This is my territory, my artistic sanctuary! Soon you will become my latest masterpiece…” His laughter reverberated through the tunnel like death's mocking voice, sending chills down our spines.
I looked around and noticed that a pungent liquid was beginning to seep from the walls of the secret passage. It was... wood preservative! The smell wrapped around us like an invisible hand, choking our throats and making it nearly impossible to breathe.
"This is bad; he's going to turn this place into a massive preservation pool!" My voice trembled, each word squeezed out as if through clenched teeth. "Quick, we have to find an exit!"
But the walls around us began to emit a series of ominous cracking sounds, as if some mechanism had been activated or an ancient curse had been awakened. We were trapped in this underground labyrinth, which was about to become a death trap, and time was slipping away second by second, like a merciless hourglass devouring our hope...
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