Chapter 21: Night Assault
Luen jolted in shock, instinctively releasing the puppet in his hand.
It dropped to the floor with a dull thud.
"What the hell…?"
---
He thought back to earlier that day.
After the funeral, he and Jamie went to the inn where Jamie was temporarily staying.
They picked up the puppet, then brought some tools and headed to the cemetery.
Once they dug up the graves, they discovered that the coffins were filled—not with human remains—but with puppets.
Luen had scoffed at the sight.
He'd suspected all along that this was just the work of some cultists using Mary Shaw's legend for their rituals.
He thought they'd at least buried demonic relics or something useful for summoning a greater evil.
But no—it was just a vengeful spirit, lashing out from beyond the grave.
Luen almost laughed.
This kind of ghost? It was bottom-tier stuff in exorcism circles. A year's worth of standard holy relics would be more than enough to purify it.
Still, he remembered his father's warning:
"Never underestimate your enemy."
Clicking his tongue, Luen put the standard relics back and pulled out a three-year-grade crucifix instead.
Then he had Jamie open every coffin in the cemetery.
Once all were revealed, Luen began the standard exorcism rite—reciting sacred scripture and suppressing the spirits using his crucifix.
As the ritual progressed, the puppets inside the coffins began to spontaneously combust.
A woman's scream echoed faintly from the flames.
Jamie stood nearby, stunned. He had never witnessed anything like this before.
Thirty minutes later, the ritual was complete.
Luen kept the puppet named Billy, planning to take it back to the diocese as a trophy.
With everything seemingly resolved, the two left the graveyard.
But after they were gone…
a thick black mist rolled across the cemetery.
The flames consuming the puppets began to die out—
and then, strangely, the crucifix Luen had left behind ignited in its place.
At the same moment, deep in the woods bordering the cemetery, a charred corpse stirred.
Its clothes, though scorched, were unmistakable.
It was Mary Shaw.
And as the crucifix blazed behind her—
Mary's eyes slowly opened once more.
---
Back to the present.
Seeing the puppet's eerie behavior, Gideon immediately knew Luen had screwed up.
Without hesitation, he pulled out the protective charm Olivia had given him earlier.
He picked up Billy the puppet, pried open its mouth, and shoved the charm inside.
Billy tried to speak but could only let out a muffled "Mmmf!"
Its neck twisted at a sharp 90-degree angle, turning to glare unnaturally over its shoulder—
trying to see who had interrupted it.
But before it could react further, Gideon slammed a cloth over its head.
It was a random rag he'd grabbed from the shoe cabinet.
Henry had used it earlier that evening to clean his boots.
---
"How dare you!"
A furious voice echoed through the room.
At once, all the lightbulbs burst, plunging the house into complete darkness.
Outside the window, shadowy figures began to appear.
As the group turned to look, they saw a horrifying sight—
dozens of puppets, floating eerily in the air.
---
"What? I burned all of them!"
Luen's voice cracked with disbelief.
Gideon narrowed his eyes.
From what he remembered, Mary Shaw's puppets were never this strong.
Activating his Ethereal Sight, he noticed something unusual—
Every puppet was connected by faint, glowing spiritual threads.
Following those threads, Gideon traced them back to the dense woods.
There, partially concealed by the trees, was Mary Shaw herself.
And behind her… loomed a vast, shadowy presence.
He recalled the journal they'd found earlier that day in the church.
Could it be…?
---
Olivia, meanwhile, remained calm.
She swiftly drew her crucifix and a scroll of sacred scripture.
In two strides, she was at the window.
> "In the name of the Lord,
let the light of sanctity descend.
I cast you out, darkness of this world—"
Her voice rang clear as she recited the sacred incantation, aiming her cross toward the hovering puppets.
But halfway through, she froze.
The puppets outside…
were repeating her words.
Even when she said "Mary Shaw," they echoed it—
their twisted wooden faces warped into mocking grins.
That… shouldn't be possible.
Panic flickered in Olivia's chest.
Her instructors had taught her:
Evil spirits, by their very nature, are incompatible with holy scripture.
Exorcism verses are supposed to suppress them,
not get parroted back like some joke.
And the relic in her hand wasn't a fake.
It was a five-year-grade crucifix—blessed in Vatican City itself.
How could a mere spirit resist it?
Unless…
The entity outside wasn't just Mary Shaw.
Unless… something even darker was behind her.
As that chilling thought formed in Olivia's mind, the puppets crept closer and closer.
They were nearly at the windows now.
Everyone's hearts tightened with fear.
"Please… spare us." Henry clutched his wife tightly, his voice trembling with helplessness.
Marion had only just recovered earlier that day. He had been planning to take her on a trip after the funeral.
Luen was drenched in sweat.
Although he'd undergone formal exorcism training, theory and real-life application were two different beasts.
And with his father always protecting him, he'd never truly faced life-threatening danger.
Now, after the botched exorcism earlier, his mind went blank. He stood frozen on the spot, panic starting to take root.
Jamie, in contrast, kept a level head. He dashed around the house, trying to find any possible escape route.
But the house was completely surrounded by puppets.
Huang Ren clung tightly to Gideon's arm, his knees trembling.
"This is the end… we're doomed."
---
At that moment, the puppets began to speak again.
> "Fear… pain… despair.
What you did to me…
Now I return it all…
Let me hear your SCREAMS!"
The words began calm but grew more and more intense, until that final word—
"SCREAMS"—was screamed with such fury that the room shook.
Then, they charged.
Dozens of puppets hurled themselves at the house—
BAM!
All of them slammed into an invisible barrier.
For the first time, expressions of shock crossed their carved wooden faces.
Deep in the forest, Mary Shaw also reeled in surprise.
Her powers had grown since the night before.
If that priest from earlier dared return to the graveyard now, she was confident she could tear him to pieces with ease.
But this—this barrier was unexpected.
She immediately commanded the puppets to change direction and attack from below, attempting to burrow under the house.
Yet as they moved underground, they encountered a force—
pure, radiant, and utterly holy.
It shredded their concealment and halted their advance.
Even Mary herself felt the backlash.
Her connection to the puppets wavered, nearly severed.
---
Inside the house, the group noticed the change outside.
"Miss Olivia, your exorcism must've worked!"
Gideon was the first to speak, steering the group's thoughts toward hope.
At the same time, he handed Olivia the diary they'd found earlier.
"Try this name."
She glanced at it—
"Simon Lee" was written on the cover.
Realization dawned in her eyes. She gave a determined nod and began chanting the exorcism scripture again—this time incorporating the name.
Gideon, meanwhile, retrieved the crucifix Luen had given him, and urged Luen to join them.
Quietly, while no one was looking, Gideon also pulled out a crucifix of his own design, concealed inside a hidden pocket in his sleeve.
The three of them stood side by side, fighting together.
Olivia was stunned to find the power of her exorcism had skyrocketed.
The energy in her voice and the response from the scripture felt as strong as her teacher's own rites.
---
Minutes passed.
The puppets writhed in pain, letting out tortured groans, before retreating back into the forest.
Mary Shaw, too, was grievously wounded. Her silhouette dissolved into the black mist behind her.
At the same moment—
the oppressive aura surrounding the house vanished.
A collective sigh of relief swept through the group.
---
"Father Gideon, thank you!"
Olivia walked up to him and handed back the diary.
"If you hadn't reminded me at that critical moment, we might not have made it."
This mission had opened her eyes.
She finally understood how naïve she had been.
Real-world exorcisms were chaotic and unpredictable.
Evil spirits didn't follow clean, textbook rules—they fought back.
Without Gideon's quick thinking, they might not have survived.
---
Nearby, Luen's face flushed with embarrassment.
He had believed the exorcism was over yesterday.
Now he realized how close he'd come to dooming them all.
Gideon, drenched in sweat, gave a modest smile.
"I just got lucky. If you two hadn't been here, I don't think we would've lasted this long."
He glanced toward the corner of the room.
"Looks like I won't need either of the two escape plans I prepared."
Olivia chuckled softly at that.
Her respect for the priest had quietly grown.
But everyone knew it wasn't over yet.
"We need to burn all those puppets," someone said.
---
The next morning, they returned to the cemetery.
To their shock—
the puppets were gone.
"Did Mary Shaw not come back last night?" Jamie asked.
Olivia shook her head.
"No, that's impossible. Evil spirits can't survive in the mortal world without attaching themselves to something—something strongly tied to them."
"A personal belonging, a relative… or their own grave. Without that anchor, they'd vanish."
At that moment, Henry suddenly spoke up.
"The theater… by the lake."
Everyone immediately turned, changing direction—
Except Gideon, who calmly said:
"I'll stay here."