Pollution throughout the territory

Before he actually entered the basement, a sense of oppression came from all directions. Xia Ren's chest seemed to be blocked by a huge stone, and his breathing became a little heavier.

Naturally, the ancient house had no electricity, so it could only be illuminated by candlelight. Eliot walked down the last staircase, holding an oil lamp, and shouted: "Is there anyone there? Pickman, it's me, Eliot."

However, no one responded.

The darkness around him seemed to be thicker, and the candlelight could only barely illuminate a small area in front of him. The smell of decay filled the air, and after a few breaths, his stomach felt a little turbulent.

"It's strange. The places Pickman can go are limited. If he's not here, where else can he go?"

Elliot frowned, groped his way to the wall, and used the lamp in his hand to light several wall lamps here.

The basement was somewhat brighter, at least the outline of the room was visible.

The area here is about thirty square meters, with several wooden boxes stacked in the corner and some sundries.

The box is quite old, and the iron sheet used to fix the wooden boards is corroded by red rust. It is estimated that even if it is taken to the scrapyard outside, the boss may not accept it, and most of the debris is dirty. The cloth looked like it had been stirred a few times in a mud puddle before being taken out. I don't know what purpose it had here.

In addition, there are more than a dozen oil paintings over one meter long stacked vertically in the basement, covered with black cloth. An empty easel stands against the wall, with a chair next to it.

The surrounding walls are made of rectangular gray bricks, but I don't know if they are stained with grease or for other reasons. The texture is like granite, which reflects a faint light under the candlelight.

Xia Ren opened the black cloth and wanted to see the content of the oil painting, but was stopped in time by Eliot.

"Pickman's paintings are not suitable for ordinary people to watch. Really, if you don't want to have nightmares at night like me, you'd better put away your curiosity and don't look at them."

Xia Ren paused and said, "It doesn't matter, I have been very courageous since I was a child."

When Elliot heard this, although he didn't really want her to read it, he couldn't say anything else.

Elliot agreed with Xia Ren's statement that he was brave. After all, ordinary women would not dare to walk alone through a slum area controlled by violent gangs to find her brother-in-law.

"Let me help you."

Elliot sighed and stepped forward to help Xia Ren lift the oil painting so that he could see the contents clearly.

With the help of the flickering candlelight, Xia Ren saw the scene depicted in the painting.

He did not expect that Eliot's previous description of Pickman was without any falsehood. The first painting he saw was enough to frighten his blood to the point of coagulation.

This painting is titled "Class". The background is in a church cemetery. It uses an unusually dark tone. It can be seen that it is at night. A group of unnamed, dog-like creatures squat in the open space of the grave. circle, teaching the human child in the center to learn to eat like them.

For a moment, Xia Ren thought of a ghoul.

Wizards and witches will help ghouls replace their babies into human families so that humans can help raise them up, but what will happen to the human babies who are replaced by ghouls? Never thought about it.

When he saw the painting in front of him and the name of the painting, some terrible thoughts suddenly exploded in his mind, bringing with it indescribable fear and uneasiness.

Those human children would be raised by ghouls in such a horrific way, just like humans teaching ghoul cubs to learn classroom knowledge!

What Xia Ren couldn't accept even more was that after these human babies grew up in this environment, they would gradually degenerate and eventually become like the ugly creatures with no names around them.

If you follow the reasoning, you will get a fact that you don't want to admit.

Those dog-like things were originally humans!

For a moment, his mind was a little confused, and he couldn't tell whether this was degeneration or some kind of evolution. When he thought about the possibility of human beings turning into such disgusting creatures, he felt sick in his heart.

"Pickman is indeed not a normal person. If the creature in the painting is really a ghoul, then he, like Zhang Xiang, is the cub of a ghoul replaced by a human family."

Looking back carefully, in my memory, my brother-in-law was indeed outstanding in appearance, with an indescribable evil charm in his every move. Even after just a few contacts, Anna developed a strong liking for him.

Fortunately, their family does not live together...

Xia Ren shook his head, got rid of the distracting thoughts in his mind, and looked at the next few paintings.

Most of the backgrounds of these paintings are deserted cemeteries, seaside cliffs, or dark woods. For a horror-style painter, it seems to be a common thing, nothing to make a fuss about, but the problem lies in the appearance. on these figures in the background.

They, or rather they - Xia Ren didn't know how to describe it. The seemingly rich vocabulary of human beings became barren at this time.

In short, those figures are definitely not human. Their appearance is extremely crazy and deformed, and they are always engaging in perverted eating - gnawing and biting human corpses.

Looking at those pictures, Xia Ren felt as if he was present at the scene, and could clearly see their cursed faces, the leering expressions on their faces, and the saliva flowing from the corners of their mouths.

The air they exhaled was foul-smelling, as if it was sprayed on Xia Ren's face!

He suddenly pushed the painting away like crazy and staggered back a few steps. Unable to bear it any longer, he bent over and vomited.

"What’s wrong with you?"

Elliot hurried forward and patted his back gently, trying to make him feel better.

Xia Ren's eyes were trembling and his brain was in chaos. He had just completely forgotten what he was doing, as if he was really staying next to those monsters and watching them eat.

Elliot's shouts brought him out of the terrible nightmare. He looked around, as if there was something terrifying in the darkness that was always ready to attack him.

Although Xia Ren became more rational and knew what he was doing, he still couldn't get rid of the fear in his mind. They were like maggots burrowing into rotten flesh, entrenched in his heart and tormenting his spirit all the time.

He knew very well that he had been irreversibly contaminated, and his body's resistance to pollution was still too low after all.

Those dog-like things are actually all ghouls.

Xia Ren grabbed Eliot's arm and stood up. He still had the last painting to look at.

Eliot sensed his intention and stopped him: "You can't watch it anymore."

"Go away!"

Xia Ren didn't know where he got the strength to push him away, hit him against the wall, and then came to the painting.

It was a family portrait. In an old-style house, the family was sitting around and seemed to be chatting happily. The rest of the people behaved normally, but there was only one person, undoubtedly the youngest son of the family. His face and The faces of other family members are all different. It is an indescribable ugliness. One look at it makes people want to run away. But the scary thing is that the face is very similar to Pickman's face in the memory. , it can even be said to be carved from the same mold.

Realizing this, Xia Ren opened his eyes wide again and looked at other people.

They turned out to be Anna's husband and his family in her memory.

Pickman already knew his origins.

He is the cub that the ghoul replaced!