novelraw Chapter 107: The Declining Manor
Chapter 107: The Declining Manor
Julian's precise judgment opened up a new direction for the investigation.
If this truly was a series of meticulously planned perfect murders, then what role did the Banshee, who was only responsible for warning, play in this bloody drama spanning centuries?
Was she an accomplice, a bystander, or an unwilling tool being used by the real culprit?
Numerous contradictions and unsolved mysteries cast a heavy shadow over everyone's hearts.
Lin Jie's voice broke the silence. "Time is running out."
"Professor O'Donoghue, whether this is a curse or a murder behind it, we must see Mr. Kevin O'Connor immediately."
"We need first-hand information from him personally, and we also need to ensure his safety during the last twenty-four hours of his life."
"I understand." Professor O'Donoghue snapped back from his scholarly horror and contemplation.
He knew now was not the time for academic discussion;
a young life was counting down by the second towards a prophesied end.
He immediately picked up the top hat and cane on the table and said, "I'll take you there myself. O'Connor Manor is just outside the southern suburbs of Dublin.""But I must warn you, that place, and the poor young man's current state, are likely very dire."
Half an hour later, a closed private carriage arranged by Professor O'Donoghue carried the four away from the bustle of Dublin city and into the rolling hills of the countryside.
Unlike the meticulously manicured, orderly pastoral scenery of England, the Irish countryside appeared more rugged and primitive.
Vast stretches of emerald green pasture spread haphazardly across the gently undulating hills.
Scattered ancient stone walls, built from rough-hewn rocks, delineated vague boundaries between the fields.
All of this should have been a tranquil, poetic pastoral painting, but under the leaden grey sky threatening rain at any moment, this uninhabited green wilderness exuded an inescapable loneliness.
The carriage finally stopped before a large gate forged from cast iron.
The lion and harp crest reliefs representing the glory of the O'Connor family on the stone pillars flanking the gate had long been eroded by centuries of wind and rain into blurred, unrecognizable shapes, covered in patches of damp moss.
This was the entrance to O'Connor Manor.
An intense, decaying aura of finality seeped from behind the closed iron gate, carrying an intangible chill.
An elderly man dressed in old-fashioned butler's attire, with greying hair and a face full of wrinkles, had been waiting for them at the entrance for some time.
He must have received the letter Professor O'Donoghue had sent ahead.
His gaze towards the four was numb and weary, the look of someone who had witnessed too much death and tragedy, clinging only to a final, foolish loyalty.
The old butler's voice was dry. "You've come, Professor."
"The young master... he still refuses to come out."
Under the old butler's silent guidance, they entered this ancient manor that had witnessed glory and brilliance, now left with only decay and death.
The scene inside the manor was even more oppressive and heart-pounding than outside the gate.
The massive hedges lining the road stretched their tangled, sickly branches towards the sky, shredding the already dim daylight into fragments.
The main building of the manor in the distance still maintained its former skeleton, but the vibrant red bricks on the walls had become dull under damp erosion, marred by unsightly mold resembling cadaveric lividity.
William's voice suddenly rang out. "Watch your step."
Lin Jie looked down and saw that right beside their feet, on the weed-choked path, a stone angel statue, half-covered by wild grass, lay fallen on its side.
Half of the angel's face had shattered, revealing the rough stone beneath, and its wings, which should have pointed skyward, were broken and hung limply in the dirt.
Just as they were about to reach the deathly-aura main building, a burst of hysterical young man's roaring erupted from behind a tightly closed window on the second floor!
"Get away! All of you, get away!"
"Don't come near! I hear it! I hear the crying! It's right outside the wall! Right outside the window! It's waiting for me! It's waiting for me to die!"
"I won't die! I absolutely will not die a ridiculous death like my father and my brother! You liars! Doctors, police, priests! All of you are liars!!"
Accompanying the mad roar was the dull thud of a body slamming against a door.
An irrepressible grief appeared on the old butler's face. He shook his head painfully at Professor O'Donoghue.
"He's been like this since yesterday. The young master... he has been broken by fear."
After hearing this, the four fell into a long silence.
The despair of being on the verge of being consumed by death contained within that voice had a heart-piercing potency even through thick walls.
In the end, it was Professor O'Donoghue who, leveraging his family's friendship with the O'Connors over generations and with the old butler's help, managed to persuade the teetering young man, almost by pleading, to open the door and meet with them.
The meeting place was not the bedroom, but arranged in a similarly large yet chilly and lifeless drawing room on the first floor.
Lin Jie finally saw the last male heir of this ancient family, Kevin O'Connor.
He was a thin young man, appearing a year or two younger than Lin Jie himself.
He had a head of deep, unruly black curls, and a pair of deep blue eyes bloodshot from nervous exhaustion.
His skin was sickly pale, and the silk shirt he wore was crumpled from his own frantic grasping.
He resembled a piece of exquisite porcelain on the verge of shattering, covered in hairline cracks;
the slightest touch might cause him to collapse instantly.
Kevin was curled up in an armchair before the fireplace in the drawing room, as if only the long-extinguished residual warmth there could offer him a shred of negligible security.
He eyed the four uninvited guests with a wary, neurotic gaze.
His voice was hoarse and trembling. "My father's and brother's funerals ended less than a month ago."
"And now it's my turn. Have you come to laugh at me?"
"To see how the last man of the O'Connor family waits like a coward before an invisible cry for his own ridiculous, absurd accidental death?"
His words carried the self-mockery of despair.
Lin Jie spoke. "We are here to help you, Mr. O'Connor."
He used the gentlest, least provocative tone he could muster. "We are perhaps the only people you can trust right now."
A sorrowful smile appeared on Kevin's face. "Trust?"
"My father, after hearing the wail, trusted the best doctor in Dublin. The doctor told him it was just auditory hallucination from excessive stress and to rest more. The result? He died under the hooves of his beloved horse!"
"My brother, that staunch atheist who never believed in ghosts or gods, after hearing the wail, trusted the report from the Royal Irish Constabulary, believing his father's death was just a one-in-a-million accident."
"The result? He choked to death on a small piece of beef in front of everyone!"
He suddenly stood up from the armchair, his bloodshot eyes glaring fixedly at them. "And now what do you want me to trust?!"
"Trust that you few outsiders with unknown backgrounds can save a wretch like me, abandoned by God, by my family, even by Death itself?!"
His emotions spiraled out of control at that moment.
He hurled the cushion in his hand violently at the fireplace, then grabbed his own disheveled hair with both hands, letting out a pained, trapped-animal-like whimper.
His voice echoed in the drawing room. "I heard it..."
"The night before last, right here... I heard that sound... It didn't come from outside... It was as if it sounded directly in my brain, in the crevices of my bones..."
"Just one cry... only one... one long, sorrowful cry... and then it was gone."
"I know, I know it was her coming. The legendary messenger has come."
"She came to tell me my time is up."
Kevin lifted his head. "Counting today,"
His face was indistinguishable between tears and cold sweat, "I only have one day left."