After Richard took Robin out for a hearty meal, he bought three models at the supermarket where Joyce worked—two large and one small—just enough to house the family of three vengeful spirits who had nowhere to stay. He also stocked up on groceries for the week while he was at it.
"I didn't realize you were so young at heart, Chade." Joyce couldn't help but chuckle as she checked Richard out and noticed the trinkets he was buying.
Richard gave a sheepish smile and scratched his head. "I don't have many other hobbies, but this is one of them."
"That's good. A boy who stays young at heart is more attractive. Have fun playing." Joyce had a motherly smile on her face. She was never stingy with her care for the lonely Richard and often invited him over for dinner.
"Thanks. I'll keep it up for the sake of my handsome looks," Richard said with a laugh.
Upon returning home, Richard caught a faint scent of blood coming from the bathroom. He went to check and found a rat that had died a gruesome death in the toilet. Clearly, the little creature that had strayed into the house had been eaten as a snack by the vengeful spirits.
It was the first time he had seen a rat die in such a pathetic state, which reinforced his belief that, at least when it came to fearing ghosts, animals were no different from humans.
Richard placed the three newly purchased model dolls on the sofa. The three vengeful spirits that had been wandering the house were already impatient; as soon as the models were set down, they dove inside.
Click, click, click—
The movable mouths and eyes of the three model dolls began to move on their own. Richard felt a sense of déjà vu, seeing shadows of various eerie doll-related media in them, like Child's Play, Annabelle, Dead Silence, and even Saw.
"Can you speak?" Richard asked the spirits as they adjusted to their "new bodies," crossing his arms.
"I can," the husband doll replied. His stiff eyes turned toward his wife and son, yet his gaze was filled with warmth.
Shortly after, the wife doll and the boy doll also made sounds, answering Richard's question.
"Can you tell me what your names were when you were alive?" Richard felt something special about these three souls. Compared to other vengeful spirits, they didn't have as much resentment, and their spiritual power wasn't that strong. Simply put, their cultivation as ghosts was quite low.
The husband doll answered in a stiff voice, "Louis, Louis Creed."
"Rachel, his wife."
"Gage. They are my daddy and mommy."
Richard fell silent upon hearing their names. Their introduction confirmed his suspicion: this dimensional overlap occurred after the events of pet sematary. The ghost doll family before him was the deceased protagonist's family of three; they still had a daughter who survived until the end of the story.
"Thank you for giving us bodies that can move," Louis thanked him stiffly. His lifelike appearance created a strong uncanny valley effect. If he were to pick up a butcher knife now, he would surely look even more terrifying.
Richard shook his head. "It's just for the sake of easier communication."
"Do you still remember what happened when you were alive?" Richard asked.
Louis and his family exchanged glances before turning their heads stiffly back to Richard. "We remember everything..."
As he listened to them recount their past experiences, Richard nodded inwardly. Their experiences were almost identical to what he had seen in the movie, with only minor differences in detail, but overall, they were much the same.
"Has your daughter come to see you?" Richard asked the doll couple. This was his biggest concern. According to the plot, if the younger brother and parents all died in the new home, it was impossible for the only sister not to return to this town.
"Yes, she came back," Louis said calmly. "Not long ago, she just buried her dead cat in the ground. Perhaps she knows something too. We really wanted to warn her not to do it, but now that she's grown up, she doesn't seem as sensitive as she was when she was a child."
Hearing this, Richard was slightly stunned, his brow twitching.
Had the story changed like this after the two dimensions overlapped?
Mrs. Henderson was actually the only daughter from Louis's family who hadn't died from the cemetery's evil power. She was a survivor, yet even after knowing the town hidden such a bizarre cemetery, she still chose to stay.
Who would have thought the gentle and virtuous Mrs. Henderson hidden such a side?
Richard looked at the dolls and asked, "Do you want to see her?"
The wife doll was tempted, but then she thought of her current status as a vengeful spirit. If they Saw their daughter now, they might not be able to restrain their negative emotions and would want to kill her to make her one of them, so the whole family could be reunited as dolls.
"We can't control ourselves, so... no thank you," Louis said regretfully.
"Then is there anything you want to say to her? If you can't say it in person, you can write a letter, and I'll deliver it to her."
"Can you?" The dolls' eyes were filled with hope and disbelief.
The corners of Richard's mouth curled up. "Of course, I'm not helping you for nothing. From now on, I need you to be my mouthpieces to communicate with the other vengeful spirits in the house. Also, help me manage the spirits here."
"Okay." Louis's family immediately agreed. Although the task Richard gave them wouldn't be easy, as Mrs. Henderson's relatives, they indeed had a lot to say to her... The next day, Richard dropped three envelopes into Mrs. Henderson's mailbox, and the deal with Louis's family was concluded.
Richard didn't know how Mrs. Henderson would feel after receiving three letters "from the underworld," but once when he passed by her house, he Saw her holding a small ragdoll cat, happily playing and sunbathing in the yard. He couldn't help but smile knowingly.
Those who step out of sorrow with grace are artists. — pet sematary
With the help of Louis's family, a bridge of communication was built between Richard and the vengeful spirits. This also helped Richard speed up the process of taming them. He had truly gone to great lengths to make his home harmless again.
Meanwhile, Henry, who was in The Upside Down, was not in a good mood. He could no longer track Richard's whereabouts. At the same time, he realized that the real world had been invaded by mysterious forces from other dimensions first, and those forces were currently revolving around Richard.
That man who had brought him two consecutive surprises was indeed very troublesome. He felt he shouldn't be so reckless lately; he needed to be more steady and practical. He should focus on The Lab and that little kid first, and stop constantly thinking about making an enemy of that freak, Richard.
As long as he was given enough time to kill, he would eventually absorb more and more fresh souls until he no longer feared the damage from Richard's fists.
He was the god! Richard, who couldn't even use Telekinesis, was just a lucky mortal—no, he should be his nourishment!