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"Whoosh—"
The howling gale raged through the abandoned town, whistling sharply, sweeping up layers of dust and old debris from the ground, sending them flying everywhere.
Sheriff Frank Castle struggled against the wind, pressing deeper into the town, each step sinking into thick dust, his boots making a dull sound as they scuffed against the ground.
Soon, he arrived at the location where the cell phone signal originated.
The surroundings were dead silent, with only the wind roaring in his ears; the abandoned houses swayed precariously in the gale, as if they could collapse at any moment.
In front of a dilapidated, abandoned church, a makeshift cross stood abruptly, clearly erected recently.
And on the cross, a naked Pirate female was bound.
Her hair was blown wildly by the wind, covering most of her face, and her body trembled slightly in the wind.
Sheriff Frank Castle recognized at a glance that this was precisely his target for this trip—Agent Misty Knight.
"Oh, my God… Misty, hold on, I'll get you down right now!!"
Upon seeing this, Sheriff Frank Castle's eyes widened, filled with shock and worry, his pupils slightly constricted from fear, and even the muscles in his face tensed up.
What kind of lunatic would dare to lay hands on a police officer?
After regaining his composure, he immediately rushed forward, struggling to untie the wires binding Misty Knight's hands and feet. The wires had deeply embedded into her skin, leaving bloody, mangled marks, and blood slowly dripped down her arms and calves, already forming a small pool of dark red blood beneath the cross.
Sheriff Frank Castle carefully lifted Misty Knight down, placing her on a relatively flat surface. His movements were as gentle as if he were handling a fragile treasure, every action taken with fear of causing her further injury.
Then, he leaned down, first gently placing his fingers on her carotid artery, and soon felt a faint, almost imperceptible pulse. He then pressed his ear close to her nose and successfully heard a faint, almost nonexistent breath.
After confirming that she was still alive and had no other obvious external injuries apart from the ligature marks and abrasions on her wrists and ankles caused by the wire bindings, Sheriff Frank Castle's previously anxious heart finally eased a little.
Thankfully, for him, at least it wasn't the worst possible outcome!
He quickly took off his police uniform jacket and gently draped it over Misty Knight's bare body, covering her exposed form and shielding her from the biting cold wind.
Then, he jogged back to his car, retrieved the first-aid kit, and hurried back to disinfect and bandage the wounds on Misty Knight's hands and feet.
His movements were skilled and swift, but after all that work, his forehead was already covered in fine beads of sweat.
Finally, he forcefully pinched the philtrum of the unconscious Misty Knight, attempting to forcibly revive her!
"Cough, cough…"
A few minutes later, Misty Knight slowly opened her eyes. Her face was bloodless, ashen white, her brows tightly furrowed, and her slightly unfocused gaze was filled with confusion and fear, as if she was still deeply trapped in the terrifying memories from before, not having fully recovered from the horrific experience.
"Misty, don't worry, I'll take you to the hospital right away."
Seeing this, Sheriff Frank Castle quickly asked, "But before that, I hope you can tell me why you're here, and what exactly happened?"
His voice was gentle and concerned, his face showing a comforting expression, trying to calm Misty Knight's panicked emotions.
"The divine is coming… The divine is—ugh!"
Misty Knight muttered subconsciously, as if she had been brainwashed, but then she clutched her head in pain, her hands tightly gripping it, and her body began to tremble slightly, as if resisting something terrifying, and large beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.
Sheriff Frank Castle quickly covered her with her clothes and gently comforted her, "Misty, clear your head, it's alright, you've been rescued."
His hand gently patted Misty Knight's shoulder, again and again, trying to give her strength and comfort, but the worry in his eyes grew even deeper.
"Sheriff Frank, get out of here quickly… We have to leave here right away!"
A moment later, when Misty Knight had fully regained her senses, she clutched the police uniform draped over her, her fingers white from the force, and said in a panicked voice:
"Those lunatics are too terrifying… Oh no, they're all cultists! They killed my informant… They killed Eric in front of me and sacrificed his brain and spine to that monster!!"
Her voice was tearful, filled with fear and anger, and tears swirled in her scarlet eyes, on the verge of overflowing at any moment.
"What exactly is going on?!"
Upon hearing this, Sheriff Frank Castle's face immediately showed a look of astonishment, and he gently comforted her, "Misty, don't worry, I've just reported the situation here to the bureau. I believe reinforcements will arrive soon."
He tried to calm Misty Knight down, while also trying to process this startling news.
"What did you mean by 'the divine is coming'?"
"And what is that monster?"
It seemed that hearing about the imminent arrival of reinforcements slightly eased Misty Knight's panic, so she recounted her experiences of the past two days to Sheriff Frank Castle in meticulous detail.
…
It turned out that two days ago, Agent Misty Knight, based on the clues she had, went directly to Paterson City to meet with her informant, Eric, who had provided her with information…
Misty Knight parked her car at the back entrance of a hospital. The hospital building looked somewhat old, with mottled walls and peeling paint, and an air of decay permeated the surroundings.
She vigilantly looked at a middle-aged man leaning against the hood of a car by the roadside, and asked with some uncertainty:
"Are you Eric, the 'Sheriff' here?"
However, as she spoke, her hand unconsciously rested on the pistol at her waist, her fingers gently on the grip, a hint of wariness in her eyes, ready for any potential danger.
"That's right, but to be precise, it should be the former 'Sheriff'…"
The middle-aged man shrugged, and asked calmly in return, "Then, you must be Agent Misty, who I spoke with on the phone earlier, right?"
"That's me," Misty Knight replied.
The two then shook hands politely, and then the man named Eric glanced into Misty Knight's car, finding no one else accompanying her, and couldn't help but complain with some disappointment:
"I remember I warned you, unless you think you're Spider-Woman, you'd better not come here alone…"
"Haha, even if you want to find Spider-Woman, you at least need her phone number first, my friend!"
Misty Knight joked nonchalantly, but with a confident smile on her face, trying to ease the tense atmosphere, "But you can rest assured, I'm only here to find out the truth about this murder case and bring the suspect to justice!"
"Alright, now can you tell me what exactly happened here?"
"Alright then."
Eric sighed helplessly, "No matter if it's you or Spider-Woman who comes… as long as someone comes to deal with the strange things happening here, I don't care."
Then he pulled out a key and opened the back door of the hospital; the door hinges creaked, sounding particularly harsh in the quiet environment.
As he led Misty Knight towards the morgue, he introduced, "Honestly, I'm not sure if the criminal you were investigating earlier died at the hands of those shoe cultists."
"Hmm? Shoe cult?"
Misty Knight keenly caught a previously unknown keyword from the other party's words.
She frowned slightly but did not interrupt, instead continuing to follow behind him, listening carefully.
"But my friend… who is the cleaner at this private hospital, discovered some unusual circumstances while cleaning the morgue and told me about them."
"It's a shame I'm no longer the 'Sheriff' now, otherwise, I wouldn't even need to contact you; I could handle these things myself."
Misty Knight frowned slightly, disliking the other party's deliberate way of building suspense, so she couldn't help but press on:
"What exactly happened? And what did you mean by the shoe cult you mentioned earlier?"
She quickened her pace, walking beside Eric, her eyes fixed on him, trying to discern something from his expression.
However, Eric did not directly answer her question. He paused briefly in front of the morgue, then placed a hand on the doorknob and turned to Misty Knight, asking:
"So… are you ready to know why I said it's best not to come here alone if you're not Spider-Woman?"
Misty Knight suppressed the urge to "bang bang" him with two punches and nodded slightly.
Seeing this, he pushed open the morgue door, and a pungent smell of decay immediately assailed them. Misty Knight instinctively wrinkled her nose.
Eric, familiar with the routine, successively pulled out several bodies from the morgue cabinets and lifted the White sheets covering them.
Bodies of various ages, genders, and builds… but all headless, were laid out before Misty Knight's eyes.
Misty Knight's eyes instantly widened, a hint of panic flashing in them, and the expression on her face froze for a moment.
"What does this mean?"
Although Misty Knight was somewhat startled by the sight, she still suppressed the churning in her stomach and asked, her voice slightly trembling:
"Are all these people recent deaths? But what does this have to do with the case I'm investigating?"
She swallowed hard, trying to compose herself, and forced her gaze back to the bodies.
Eric did not rush to answer her question. Instead, he pulled a pair of gloves from his pocket, put them on, and then flipped one of the bodies over, revealing a large skull tattoo on its back, as well as a mangled, exposed spine that was largely missing.
The flesh at the wound was bloody and already beginning to decompose, emitting a foul odor.
"Ah, this… why would someone do this?"
When Misty Knight saw the condition of the body's back, she couldn't help but gasp, her body trembling slightly. She quickly pulled out her phone, found a picture of the suspect, and carefully compared it with the skull tattoo on the body's back.
Her fingers trembled as she scrolled back and forth on the phone screen, her eyes fixed on the tattoo pattern.
Soon, she confirmed the true identity of the body: it was precisely the suspect she had been tracking.
No wonder the person had vanished without a trace shortly after committing the crime, as if they had evaporated into thin air. It turned out they had already died in this town?
But… what exactly happened?
Misty Knight couldn't help but cast a questioning look at Eric again, her eyes filled with confusion and shock.
"It's not just the person you're looking for…"
Eric still didn't rush to explain this time. Instead, he flipped over all the other bodies as well, and pointing to the almost identical wounds on their backs, where a large portion of the spine was missing, he said:
"Although I still don't know who did it, these people almost all have one thing in common: their heads and spines disappeared together!"
Misty Knight had now realized the seriousness of the situation, so she quickly put on gloves and approached the wounds of the headless bodies to inspect them carefully.
"Damn it… these people's spines weren't removed by surgical methods or anything like that."
Her gaze was focused, her brows furrowed, carefully observing every detail of the wounds. Then, pointing to the jagged edges of the flesh on one of the bodies, she explained with a hint of anger in her voice:
"This is clearly a mark that could only be caused by immense external force tearing it off… Eric, have the police investigated the identities of these people?"
Eric nodded slightly, "These people all died unexpectedly recently. Some of them were homeless people wandering the streets, some were beggars roaming around, and there were also street workers who came out at night… In short, they were all garbage that no one would ever remember, even if they disappeared or died."
A hint of helplessness appeared on his face, and his eyes revealed sympathy for these vulnerable groups.
"So even though I had reported it to the police before, they were still unwilling to waste police resources and time on such useless garbage."
"This is also why I voluntarily resigned as Sheriff in the first place, because I really couldn't continue doing it against my conscience!"