Deep Sea Embers

Those eyes were bloodshot, filled with uncontrollable madness and fear. Even if the gatekeeper's words calmed the woman's spirit and woke her up from the brink of collapse, it still failed to completely heal the lingering fear left in her mind. shadow.

Agatha has seen this kind of look a lot, so she just looked at him calmly, and after calming the woman down further with her eyes, she said, "The 'he' you mean is your husband, right? ?He's back home again—but you know, he died years ago."

The woman's shoulders trembled violently. She lowered her head and grabbed her hair, as if she didn't dare to look at Agatha any longer, but kept repeating: "He's back...he's back...but I know That's not him..."

"You... how did you kill 'it'?" Agatha frowned, and asked again, "Do you still remember the specific process at that time?"

While speaking, she reached out and took out a medicine bottle from her bosom. After pinching the bottle cap with one hand, the calming fragrance in the bottle quietly diffused, gradually covering the surroundings.

The gatekeeper's potion took effect, and the long-haired woman on the sofa seemed to be breathing much more calmly. She raised her head slightly, looked outside through the gaps in her hair, and said in a low voice, "I...I hit that place with a hammer from behind. The back of the thing's head, and then the thing fell down, but even though the head was so big, it didn't die, but struggled to get up again, I kicked it further inside, and then closed the bathroom door... It was beating inside, making a frightening cry, it was early in the morning, and it lasted ten minutes before it stopped..."

The woman stopped, and then calmed down for a few seconds before continuing: "Later, I secretly opened the crack in the bathroom door...the thing disappeared..."

Agatha nodded lightly, and while restoring what happened in her mind, she asked again: "Then how did 'it' appear? Do you remember the process of his 'return'?"

"I...I don't know," the woman shook her head with panic in her tone, "He...it suddenly appeared at home! The door of the house is locked, but I heard movement in the living room, coming out of the bedroom Then I saw that thing...Wearing my husband's clothes when he was buried, walking around in the living room, there was a sound like rotting mucus coming from his body..."

Agatha's expression suddenly became serious, she turned her head, and before she could speak, a guard reported from the side: "We have checked the entrance and exit of this house, and there are no signs of damage to all the doors and windows, and all the windows It's all locked from the inside."

The doors and windows are closed, the door locks have not been damaged, and "fakes" appear directly in residents' homes.

Compared with the aboveboard "invasion" and "offensive", this phenomenon that seemed to appear out of nowhere... made her more vigilant.

And today's case is worth noting more than that.

Agatha lowered her head and looked at the woman on the sofa.

She still remembers the cases she had come into contact with before today, especially the case discovered at 42 Hearth Street-the folklorist who returned from death and the female apprentice who was seriously polluted without knowing it, in such a typical case However, the surviving parties could not distinguish the "fake" in front of them at all.

But the woman in front of him could tell.

She wasn't affected by cognitive pollution?

"Ma'am," Agatha began, considering her words, "how did you tell that the 'monster' wasn't your husband?"

"Do you need to ask? My husband... He died a few years ago, and there is something wrong with that thing, how could it be my husband?" The woman became a little excited, "What's more... what's more, that thing is still walking towards me My child... my child, he pointed at that monster and called him Dad, he... he was controlled by that monster, he must have been controlled by that monster, he..."

"You think your child was controlled by a monster, so you strangled his neck?" Agatha frowned, and asked again, "You know that you..."

"I didn't choke him! I just wanted to pull him back, I didn't choke him!"

The woman was completely excited, and even jumped up from the sofa, as if she was about to pounce on the gatekeeper in front of her, and her bloodshot eyes regained the previous frightened and crazy look, so that even her rationality seemed to evaporate— —The guards standing nearby reacted immediately and wanted to hold down the poor woman who lost her mind, but Agatha's reaction was one step faster.

The gatekeeper raised his cane and tapped it gently on the woman's forehead.

The latter fell asleep instantly.

"She was terrified," the female captain with short black hair shook her head, "This kind of thing is really true for ordinary people..."

"No, it's not pure fright, it's another form of sanity pollution—she's temporarily insane, but retains the basic ability to talk," Agatha shook her head, her brows furrowed, "she didn't Affected by cognition and memory interference, although she doesn't know the specific reason, she clearly recognized the essence of the 'fake', but 'seeing through the truth' itself is a kind of damage to ordinary people."

While speaking, she raised her head and looked around the small residence.

"Where's the child?"

"Temporarily sent to a safe place - overly frightened, and experienced short-term suffocation, may not be able to accept inquiries."

"Well," Agatha ordered, "Temporarily separate the mother and child, take good care of them and provide psychological counseling, especially the child, comfort and comfort them, and report to me as soon as possible if they think of any valuable information. "

"yes."

Agatha nodded, and then walked through the living room to the small bathroom and bathroom.

On the ground near the shower head, you can also see the marks left by the guards after obtaining evidence.

The fake was once locked in this bathroom, but in the end... it left less than a "sample" of a test tube.

This is very abnormal.

Although the counterfeit itself is weird in nature and its origin is a mystery, at least one thing is clear: they are also composed of a certain amount of physical substances, and even if they disintegrate themselves, these physical substances will not disappear out of thin air.

Agatha frowned slightly, and walked around the narrow bathroom twice. Suddenly, she stopped and stared fixedly at one place.

In the corner, the rusty sewer inlet.

She came quickly to the floor drain and tapped the end of her tin cane on the cast-iron grate, looking down at the dark opening inside.

The darkness in the sewer pipe has an invisible bottom, as if all the truth is buried.

"...No way...Damn it!"

Agatha took a deep breath suddenly, realizing a possibility, and this possibility made her hands and feet feel cold.

"Evacuate this building, and move all residents to the nearby churches and public shelters," she quickly returned to the living room, and ordered very quickly, "Contact the neighborhood municipal office and close this building... No, shut down all secondary plumbing to this building, both sewer and water - send another team immediately to the nearest sewage treatment station and check the sedimentation tanks and screens!"

The squad leader was taken aback after hearing this series of orders, but she didn't ask any questions. The instinct of obeying the orders made her straighten her body immediately: "Yes! Your Excellency the gatekeeper!"

After Agatha gave the order, she came to the sleeping woman next to the sofa.

Why is this woman not affected by cognition and memory interference, but seeing through the truth of the "fake"?

Even at this time, Agatha was still very concerned about this matter.

At this moment, a guard who had been investigating clues in other rooms suddenly ran into the living room, holding something in his hand.

"Your Excellency the Gatekeeper! We found this!"

Agatha immediately followed the prestige, and saw that what the other party was holding was a small plaster statue that looked quite old.

It was a profile portrait of the Frost Queen.

"The statue of the Mad Queen?" Immediately, other guards in the room whispered, "I didn't expect there to be such a thing here."

Agatha looked serious. She stepped forward to take the bust, which was about ten centimeters high, and carefully observed the details on the statue.

"...is a genuine product from that year, with a special anti-counterfeiting mark on the bottom of the sculpture," she simply judged, and raised her head, "Where is this thing placed?"

"In a secret door deep in a closet," the guard who found the profile portrait of the Queen immediately reported, "There were also coins and souvenir books from the Queen's era. It seems...they are people who still secretly miss the Frost Queen."

Agatha didn't speak for a while, but just stared at the plaster statue in her hand.

The Frost Queen... Even half a century later, there are still citizens in the city-state secretly commemorating the Queen. This fact itself does not surprise her.

After all, it was a glorious era, after all, it was a once great queen - fifty years of time is not enough to erase all traces of the Queen's era from the city-state, some old people who have experienced that era , and their descendants, are still deeply influenced by it.

There are sporadic supporters of the Queen among the people-fifty years ago, this kind of sneaky commemoration was enough to lead to hanging, but today, fifty years later, the prohibition in this regard has actually been relaxed a lot. Agatha had heard about this more than once during her years as a gatekeeper.

In most cases, today's guards and sheriffs will not pursue excessively if it is just a spontaneous act of "collecting souvenirs" among the people, and sometimes they will even pretend not to see it, or just give verbal warnings.

The family only collected a bust of the Queen, as well as a few coins and a booklet, which is not a big deal.

But thinking of the changes that just happened in this residence, Agatha couldn't help but think about it.

The parties in this incident were not affected by cognitive interference, but saw through the truth of the "fake". Could it be... related to the Queen's souvenir here?