Mysterious Hunting Ground

Chapter 159 159. Death, Funeral

25 Maple Street.

Open the door and enter the house.

A one-story house with a layout similar to that of Jonathan's house, with slate-colored walls, furniture and electrical appliances are messy and crowded.

For the past half month, Lucia has been guarding the hospital. The house is unoccupied and cleaned, and a thin layer of floating dust has formed in the space.

"Go and search the bedroom on the right, and find anything suspicious, especially bottles and jars filled with liquid, squeak."

Dean and Jonathan divided their work, walked around the hall, opened the God's perspective, and scanned quickly.

Living room and kitchen have no clue.

In the bathroom, um, a few pieces of Lucia's private clothes that had been dried were blatantly hung in mid-air, swaying with the cold wind blowing in from the window, really conspicuous.

Dean frowned even more, and turned to enter Peter's bedroom, which was blocked by a green beaded curtain.

The walls are full of eerie movie posters: Frankenstein with swollen, pale skin and seams, a vampire with a black cape and a grin showing two pale fangs, a werewolf with bristly hair and a big mouth, Candleman with rotten skin and layers of fat...

The light in the room was dim, and when Dean glanced at it, he thought he had broken into a magic cave where a bunch of deformed monsters were hidden.

Surrounding the posters are odd trinkets such as garlic, crucifixes, sharp dentures, helmets with nails, and more.

On the shelves on the four walls are novels... "Doomsday", "Fright Night", "Frankenstein", "Nocturnal Dragon", "Wolf Kiss"...more than twenty novels, all related to monsters, each There is a long post-reading review at the end of the book.

Dean took out a book and opened it.

"Farmer Louie is a lucky man. When he lost his wife and was heartbroken, he met Lestat and got redemption. He became immortal, free from disease, moved as fast as lightning, and would not be bullied. insult..."

"Staying out at night, not subject to secular moral and legal constraints, and no longer need to suffer discrimination and blind eyes, what a lucky person,"

Peter thought in his notes thus,
"When will I wait for my Lystat? Then I will leave everything behind, escape from this horrible, filthy hell, and begin to travel the world and make friends with Claudia. I will be free, I'll be happy to death!"

Dean stared blankly at this paragraph.

"Dude, I found something weird in that bedroom drawer over there, what is it?" Jonathan walked up to Dean and handed what looked like a cigarette box, but the package wasn't saying Marlboro, Camel, etc. And other brands of cigarettes.

But (JISSBON) Jissbon.

"You really don't know?" There was a little nostalgia in Dean's eyes,
Jonathan looked puzzled, "Is it pretending to be 'grass'?"

"This is a must-have item for intimacy between lovers, little umbrella."

Jonathan's gaze under the watermelon's head froze for a moment, and then his cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, I forgot that you never had a girlfriend." Dean shook his head, "But you will experience this sooner or later. When the time comes, remember to bring a small umbrella and make full safety preparations before going to the cloud together."

"Wait, man, don't you think it's weird?" Jonathan hurriedly changed the subject, "Why is there such a box of small umbrellas at Peter's house? Peter is not popular at school, and the only experience he had was at Maggie's house. It's not going well... He bought so much that he won't be able to use it."

"Lucia uses it herself." Dean blurted out,

"But does Lucia have a boyfriend who remains in a relationship?"

Dean's eyes turned quickly, and Lucia's previous confession flashed in his mind, and the other party did not provide this information.

Dean unpacked the box and checked again. Eight of the ten small umbrellas had been used.

This is definitely not Peter's handwriting.

Dean turned on the God's perspective and began to search the bed next to the wall in Peter's bedroom with all his strength. Within 2 minutes, he grabbed several locks of long hair from the bed and looked under the light. The long red hair was the same as Lucia's.

Most of the small umbrella was used, the long hair on Peter's bed was added, and what Maggie said before-Peter called out Lucia's name in fear when he was intimate with her.

Dean became more and more certain about that outrageous guess, and a frightening cold light flashed in his pupils.

How dare she? !

"What's wrong with you, buddy, your face has suddenly become so ugly."

"I thought of a question, and I'm going to ask Lucia face to face later."

For the next half hour, the two failed to find the suspected toxin container, evidence of Peter's suicide, or other clues worthy of attention.

……

As the sun rose overhead, the two rushed back to the hospital with a heavy heart, called Paqui at the door into the ward, closed the door, and looked at the expectant woman beside the bed.

"Did you find anything?" Lucia asked nervously,

"Yes, but I want to ask you a few questions first."

"Ask whatever you want, as long as it can save Peter, I will say anything!"

Dean stared into the woman's eyes,
"You and Peter have always depended on each other?"

"Yes."

"Recently, have you invited colleagues or friends to your home?"

Lucia shook his head, "I have a normal relationship with my colleagues, and I don't have any special friends, so in the past two or three years, except for me and Peter, no outsiders have entered the house."

"Why do you ask that? Could it be that I haven't been back for half a month, did my house get burglarized?"

Dean shook his head,

"Think about it again, have you brought home any man you've dated recently?"

"What do you mean?" Lucia stared at Dean as if insulted, "I spend all my time working to make money and taking care of little Peter, so I don't have the energy to find a boyfriend."

She glanced at the unconscious patient,
"As long as Peter is all right, I'm content."

Dean nodded, until now he was not sure why he felt weird.

The woman's subtle expression, rippling eyes, and even the wrinkles are filled with tenderness, clearly an expression of love.

Instead of looking at the expression of a junior.

Dean's guess became more and more certain, and he suddenly opened his hands and showed the box of Jissbon, "I found this from the drawer in your room. What do people you don't date use it for, blowing up balloons?"

Lucia opened her mouth for a moment, panic flashed across her face, and explained hesitantly, "Sorry, I didn't make it clear. I made a boyfriend two years ago, and then broke up. Yes, I bought this two years ago. Put it away when you’re not done using it.”

"Clumsy lie. Keep your eyes open and see clearly, the production date on this is May 1981, which is two months ago," Dean threw the box at the woman, "Are you still able to travel through time and space?"

Lucia was completely speechless, clutching the quilt tightly with both hands, blushing with shame, and looking around with flickering eyes, as if trying to find a crack in the ground.

"What kind of charades are you guys playing? Why can't I understand?" Paque on the other side of the bed yelled loudly, while Jonathan approached the big man with a dull expression and whispered an explanation.

"I understand why Peter has psychological problems and depression," Dean shook his head at Lucia with a look of contempt, "not only because his peers rejected him and regarded him as a freak, but also because even you This only family member is also hurting him."

"No! It's not like that!" Lucia explained, waving his hands in a panic, and looked at the patient obsessively, "I just want to be closer to him, to have a closer relationship with him, so that I can take care of him forever."

The middle-aged woman said foolishly,

"I regard him as everything in my life, and I have dedicated everything to him. How can I be willing to hurt him?"

"The spirit of the ancestors is here!" The big Indian man at the door stared with a pair of bull eyes in surprise, and his eyes repeatedly turned between Lucia and Peter.

"What is your identity?" Dean said calmly, "You are Peter's elder and guardian, but what have you done to him? You have abandoned the oath you once made to his parents and treated him as an exploiter. Toys, your personal belongings! Not only are you violating the law, you are disgraceful!"

……

"But I have no blood relationship with Peter!" Lucia tore his face completely, with red hair fluttering and tears glistening, "I'm only twenty years older than him, but age can't stop true love."

"He loves me too, yes," stammered Lucia, "otherwise it would be impossible to allow me to be close."

"He didn't want to hurt you, so he endured it silently all these years." Dean shook his head, "He kept all his thoughts in his heart and endured it alone."

"But you deliberately ignored his painful feelings and repeatedly hurt him for selfish desires." Dean paused, staring at Lucia's teary eyes, "You are the straw that crushes everything, what you did In order for Peter to give up completely, he would rather kill himself and face death than continue to live and face this cruel world!"

Dean's voice fell, the system vibrated, and the investigation progress skyrocketed to 40.00%!
"No, you're lying!" The woman threw herself on the hospital bed in panic, clutching Peter's shoulder and crying to explain, "Don't listen to his nonsense...I don't want to hurt you!"

Cries echoed in the ward.

It's like a signal.

Drop drop drop-

The ECG monitor next to the hospital bed gave out bursts of piercing alarms, and the red lines that had been jumping regularly on the screen turned into straight lines.

"Doctor! Doctor!"

"Help someone!" Jonathan yelled and rushed into the corridor,

"Woo...Peter, don't leave me...Woo...don't leave me!"

……

There was a mess in the ward.

But soon the white coat arrived, cleaned up the scene, performed external compressions, injections, and rescue.

……

Dean and the others waited anxiously outside the ward, circling silently like ants on a hot pot.

But not long after, they ushered in bad news,
"Unfortunately, we have tried our best," the doctor shook his head, and handed a death certificate to the stunned Lucia, "but Peter's condition is too serious."

The woman tremblingly took the certificate and looked at it twice, her eyes went black for a while, then she rushed into the ward, threw herself on the cold body covered in white cloth, broke down and shouted,

"You just left, leaving me alone?" The woman shrugged and wailed as she leaned over the corpse's shoulders, and a desperate scream echoed in the ward, "Why are you so cruel!"

Dean watched the scene coldly, without interruption or comfort.

This woman took care of Peter for many years, but she also hurt him because of her own desires.

Dean can't measure the wrong and right among them, but Peter has made his own choice——

The face under the dim light was morbidly pale and emaciated in a childish way, but his expression was like the surface of a calm lake, and he probably didn't suffer any pain before leaving.

Dean even faintly felt that the corners of Peter's mouth were slightly raised in celebration.

This outright weirdo is not accepted and understood by his peers, and has been "exploited" by his close relatives for a long time. As a result, his first experience with his girlfriend has turned into a nightmare. Perhaps death is another kind of relief for him.

Just pity about my incident.

Failed the first time.

Dean sank into the system.

Event - Coma

Investigate the cause and effect of Peter's coma, rescue him, and ask Lena and Guangming for clues.

Event Difficulty: Unknown → Moderate
Progress (40/100)

Duration: one week

Reward: 30 points → 120 experience points + special rewards
Failure penalty: none
……

What?
Dean rubbed his eyes, thinking he was delusional.

Peter is already dead, and the corpse is right in front of his eyes, so why is the incident not failed and still in progress?

Dean walked quickly to the hospital bed, recalling what he had learned in detective training, and opened Peter's eyelids with his fingers to check the pupils.

Both pupils have been fully dilated, meeting the criteria for death.

"Offended, man."

He lifted Peter's body so that he was in a supine position, supported Peter's knee with his forearm, and tapped his patellar tendon. After repeated several times, he failed to see the phenomenon of straightening of his calf, and he lost his knee jerk reflex.

Dean then checked, breathing, heartbeat, pulse, all disappeared.

It stands to reason that 100% dead.

"What are you doing? What do you want to do to Peter?" The woman pushed Dean hard like a lunatic, but she seemed to be pushed against an iron wall and remained motionless.

"Sorry, I just want to make sure."

"What do you mean?" There was hope in the woman's desperate eyes, "Peter is still alive?"

"Several, I understand the grief of you who have just lost a loved one." At this time, the doctor observing at the door of the ward said firmly, "But we have used the most advanced equipment for rescue and examination. Peter's bilateral pupil dilation, heart and Breathing stopped, EKG was straight, he was dead."

"I'm having a nightmare. Everything is fake. You are all fake. The corpse is also fake. Peter is still waiting for me at home. I'm going back to prepare breakfast for him." Lucia went to the ward madly crying and laughing. He rushed out the door, suddenly supported his forehead again, shook his body violently, and fell straight down.

Paqui and Jonathan hurriedly helped her sit down and handed her a tissue.

She just stared at the corpse without speaking, her eyes gradually lost their luster...

"My condolences, Lucia," Paque comforted the ashen-faced woman with a complex expression, "You are his only relative, you must take good care of yourself so that you can have the energy to prepare for Peter's death and send him off. Last leg."

At this time, Dean looked at his uncle,
"Where's the 'talisman' I gave you?"

The big man took out the plank from his arms and handed it back.

Dean couldn't wait to check it, and then fell into shock and surprise again - the inside of the board was empty, and no soul had been absorbed.

"What's the situation, Peter died nearby, why didn't the ghost board suck his soul?"

"And the event didn't fail."

The two situations appeared at the same time. Dean thought about it for a long time, and looked at the corpse under the white cloth with strange eyes.

"Could it be that Peter is currently in a state of suspended animation that cannot be detected by medical means, and he can still be saved?"

"Yes, that's the only way to explain it!"

"But how can I save it?"

……

Dean's brain was running at a high speed like never before.

Peter was overwhelmed with good reason to be exploited by those closest to him.

He took the initiative to bid farewell to Jonathan and Maggie before he fell into a coma, which also meant that he must have known in advance that something would happen to him.

But if this kind of accident is only suicide or death, he can use various normal methods such as hanging himself and swallowing a gun to make himself die quickly, instead of tossing himself into this weird coma state that even doctors are helpless.

Peter doesn't have this ability and means either!
Now, the event has become medium difficulty again, with a supernatural element.

Therefore, another supernatural force must have made some kind of deal with Peter to assist him in "suicide"!
Dean deduced so far, and the investigation progress jumped to 40.00% five!

"Who helped Peter?"

Dean recalled all the targets he investigated, and the charismatic magician Monica wearing a magic top hat immediately appeared in his mind.
"This woman whose whereabouts are unknown can trigger the progress change. The possibility is the greatest, but it may also be something else."

"Whoever it is, why did they go to such lengths to put Peter into a weird 'fake death' state?"

Dean thought about it, and then remembered Peter's weird hobby that was criticized by most of his peers - the love of monsters.

A paragraph of post-reading impressions that he saw in Peter's house flashed before his eyes-the longing and longing for freedom and a new world.

That's right.

Peter had waited for Lestat in his destiny, and there was a reasonable explanation for all of this.

"Paqui, over there with Monica..."

"What news can we get in just one day? And since Peter is dead, is it useful to find Monica?"

"No, I have to keep looking!"

"OK, you have the final say."

Paqui shook his head and sighed, and looked at Lucia, "What will we do with Peter's body later? Send it to the morgue or send it back to your home."

"go home."

The woman clasped the corpse's arm,
"I'm taking him home."

Jonathan clenched his fists with red eyes, his face full of confusion and pain.

……

During the preparations for the funeral, two days passed in a hurry. In the middle of the process, Dean sneaked into the ward where Peter died and tried the psychic ritual, but he still failed to summon Peter's soul. He became more and more confident in his deduction.

On the third day, the person in charge of the funeral at the funeral home checked Peter's body, took off his clothes, and repeatedly checked the cold body.

He had no visible injuries, so the staff applied a little make-up to his transparent white face, making his cheeks look moist.

Then a group of people moved Peter to a table covered with a white cloth at home, and it was up to the guests to say goodbye to the body.

Dean stood in the corner and looked around,

Many residents in Hawkins Town: Maggie came to say goodbye to the mustache in the movie peripheral store, the clerk in the bookstore dreaming of becoming a millionaire, some teachers and students of Hawkins Middle School.

Jonathan also came with his mother and younger brother, leaned over to him, and said sadly and unwillingly,

"Dean, we failed."

"You did your best, no need to blame yourself and be sad,"

Dean looked at Jonathan and said meaningfully,
"And death is not a bad thing for Peter, nor does it mean that everything is over."

Jonathan stood in a daze for a long time, and was about to ask a question when Joyce called him away.

At this time, Paqui leaned into Dean's ear, "There is still no news about the female magician Monica, she is wandering around like a gypsy, and her whereabouts are unknown. We probably fell down this time. Once Peter dies, your parents The clues are completely broken again."

"Don't be so pessimistic, it's not over yet."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll know when the time comes."

Dean calmly returned his attention to the farewell ceremony in front of him.

The house was full of people coming and going.

Peter was unpopular and suffered a lot of malice during his lifetime.

But after his death, people finally showed him some mercy and kindness, wishing him a wonderful life in heaven, weeping and sighing again and again.

Lucia cried very sadly, telling the original plan, waiting for Peter to be admitted to the university, and moving with him near the university. She even prepared the university tuition for Peter through crazy work.

But all good expectations come to naught.

She wailed loudly in front of the guests, and screamed out of control to wake Peter up.

But it didn't work.

The weather in the town was gloomy that day.

……

After the wake was over, the body was moved into the coffin and sent by a "Lincoln" hearse to the cemetery in the north of Hawkins Town, after the pastor's mass.

Peter was buried in the earth along with the coffin, sinking into darkness and dead silence.

Wait until the crowd in the cemetery has dispersed.

Dean checked and confirmed the weapons and equipment in the fantasy space.

Crouching in the bushes surrounded by greenery in the distance, he resembled a white-skinned young man with flexible eyes, staring at the newly erected tombstone from a distance.

Waiting like a hunter.

(End of this chapter)