In Hawkins Town, a compass is always the absolute holy relic for determining the existence of The Upside Down. Richard and Chief Hopper drove all the way and finally stopped outside a mental hospital.
"Why would it be here?" Hopper looked at the mental hospital, filled with suspicion and uncertainty.
Richard also found the name of the mental hospital familiar; it was exactly where Henry's father, Victor Creel, was being held. After Hopper originally learned that the mastermind behind the Mind Flayer was the youngest son of the Creel family, Henry Creel, he had visited Victor at the mental hospital, but Victor had almost completely refused to cooperate at the time.
"Let's go take a look." Richard knit his brows deeply, deciding to go inside and investigate.
Since the compass pointed to the mental hospital, it meant there was a rift to The Upside Down inside.
Soon, Hopper and Richard met the director of the mental hospital, a white male who looked quite shrewd.
"Hehehe, Chief Hopper—oh no, I should call you deputy Chief Hopper now—it's a pleasure to see you again." The hospital director said with a smile, inviting Hopper and Richard to sit. "Is there anything I can help you with, gentlemen?"
Richard didn't speak and looked at Hopper. Hopper stated his purpose directly: "I want to see Victor Creel."
Hearing that name, the hospital director's expression changed instantly—first terror, then gloom, before returning to normal. His lower lip twitched as he said in a dry voice, "I'm very sorry, Victor has been transferred. He is no longer at this mental hospital."
"Is that so? Then please tell me which mental hospital he was transferred to." Hopper naturally saw through the director's lie at a glance and pressed on nonchalantly.
The hospital director took a deep breath, looking somewhat impatient. "I don't think there's any need to tell you that. Does the Chief have a search warrant?"
"You can't even reveal a simple piece of information?" Hopper nodded slightly, his gaze sharpening.
Not daring to meet Hopper's eyes, the hospital director took another deep breath and tried his best to argue calmly, "I am a man of professional ethics. I cannot simply disclose patient information."
"How much?" Richard sighed and suddenly asked.
Hearing this, the hospital director froze and shook his head. "Sir, this is not a matter of money."
"Perhaps you don't know who I am. Allow me to introduce myself." Richard said with a smile, "I am Richard, one of the Top Ten Outstanding Young Entrepreneurs of Hawkins Town, and currently one of the top five wealthiest people in town."
"It's... I truly failed to recognize a great man, so it's Mr. Richard." The hospital director swallowed, his eyes lighting up slightly, but the light quickly faded. He stiffened his neck and continued, "But still, my apologies, Mr. Richard, I still cannot tell you."
"Are you trying to force me to buy out this entire mental hospital?" Richard gave the man a deep look and said.
"Really!?" Hearing this, the man was not angry but delighted; the hospital director's eyebrows shot up in excitement.
Seeing the director's change in expression, Richard became even more convinced that some unexpected change must have occurred in this mental hospital, and that this change was closely related to Victor Creel.
Seeing Richard squinting with a look of deeper suspicion at his abnormal behavior, the hospital director realized his lapse and quickly returned to his original state, looking down and saying, "No... I mean, it really isn't possible."
"Sigh, completely stubborn." Richard sighed again and exchanged a look with Hopper. Hopper immediately gave Richard a smile and then nodded with certainty.
Richard and Hopper stood up at the same time and walked toward the door. Seeing this, the director breathed a secret sigh of relief, but he soon realized something was wrong.
Only Richard walked out the door, while Hopper merely opened the door for Richard, then closed it again and locked it from the inside.
In this situation, the director felt a deep sense of dread. He watched in terror as the town's police chief approached him while cracking his knuckles. He shouted, "Don't come over here," "If you keep this up, I'm going to scream," "Help!"... A rhythmic sound of beating and the director's screams continuously drifted out of the office. Staff and security personnel rushed over upon hearing the noise, but Richard, standing at the door, knocked down everyone who tried to break in with a polite smile.
Sixteen minutes later... the bruised and swollen director walked ahead, sobbing, as he led Richard and Hopper toward the intensive care unit where Victor Creel was housed. Along the way, he finally explained why he had repeatedly refused their requests to visit.
It turned out that Victor Creel had suddenly died two days ago. His body was found inside, deformed into a grotesque shape. During the time of his death, the power to the ward's surveillance cameras suddenly failed, failing to record what happened at the crime scene. All they knew was that in a short span of ten-odd seconds, Victor had endured the inhuman torture of having his limbs and head snapped and his eyes gouged out.
Victor's tragic death was a mysterious event because anyone with a bit of life experience knew this wasn't something easily achieved by human strength—it would take at least several strongmen. The only person who could have laid a hand on Victor was the patrolling security guard, but there was only one person responsible for patrolling that floor. How could one person do such a thing in ten seconds? Subsequent surveillance of the floor corridors further proved the guard's alibi; it couldn't have been the guard.
This matter hung over the heads of every staff member who knew about it like a dark cloud, and they only realized later that Victor's death was just the beginning of the bizarre events.
Later, Victor's ward was vacated, so they transferred patients from other crowded rooms here. They didn't expect that the patient transferred there would be found missing from the ward the next day. Upon checking the surveillance, they discovered in horror that once the sun set at night, a crimson crack suddenly split open on the ground where Victor had died. Countless vines crawled out of the rift, prying the opening wider. Then, a snake-like tentacle reached out from the ground, grabbed the sleeping patient in the ward, and dragged him into the rift before he could even scream.
The rift didn't disappear until the next day. The entire room was empty, as if no one had ever lived there.
The director, who saw all this through the surveillance, was terrified. He believed that rift was an entrance to hell. He began to believe in unscientific things, thinking Victor was an evil sorcerer who had a sudden episode and used his own life for some evil ritual, using his body to open the entrance to hell. That room was no longer an ordinary room; as long as it was night, demons from hell would come out and use those wicked tentacles to drag humans into hell.
To prevent any more bizarre deaths, he no longer dared to use that ward, transferred patients from the surrounding wards elsewhere, and was determined to seal that ward permanently.
He just didn't expect that, by such coincidence, a town police chief and a young wealthy man who seemed to know something would insist on investigating.
He had tried his best to stop them, but now these two reckless big shots were forcing him, the director thought gloomily.