The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 620: Ashes to Ashes

Perhaps in some house, tucked away in a basement or a cellar, a few residents of Flarand still remained. They had stayed for various reasons—some were unwilling to abandon their hometown, hoping the dandelions would eventually disperse, while others were simply oblivious to the events unfolding on the surface.

But as darkness fell, they, along with the dead city itself, were enveloped in silence. The power plant workers had long since departed, cutting the flow of electricity. The streetlights, once a familiar sight, remained dark.

Lu Li carried an oil lamp, walking with Anna through the deserted, dark streets.

The wandering Blood Dandelions recoiled from Anna's aura, keeping their distance beyond the circle of lamplight. After rounding a corner onto a street littered with newspapers and discarded clothing, they saw the Flarand sanatorium.

Of course, the place was now known as the Guvasman Shelter.

Two days had passed. Sarah and Adam should have moved far away from Flarand by now.

Entering the shelter's grounds and passing through a garden of withered shrubs and dry trees, Lu Li found a cluster of stunted, dying trees near the back wall. Beside them stood a tombstone.

He held the oil lamp closer, but the engraved letters were blurred and indistinct.

Lu Li, already knowing the full story, recognized the name on the headstone.

[The Resting Place of Sarah and Adam]So Sarah had truly done it.

Lu Li stepped back a few paces. The names on the tombstone blurred again, swallowed by the gloom. "Let's begin," he said.

Invisible hands, working like shovels, cast aside layer after layer of soil. Soon, two skeletons came into view, locked in an embrace.

Lu Li didn't know if the Spirit Gun would work on them.

He unfastened his holster, intending to test The Atonement.

"What... are you doing..."

A chilling whisper echoed from the darkness. Beyond the lamplight, a figure began to slowly take shape.

Lu Li calmly watched the shape forming at the edge of the darkness. "How do I destroy your bones?" he asked.

"Pull the trigger," Adam answered, much to the surprise of his beautiful partner.

"Why... are you doing this to me..." Sarah's voice was filled with despair. She made no move to stop Lu Li. It seemed she could see her beloved, right there beside her, yet the space between their faces felt as vast as a mountain.

A ghostly palm gently caressed her face.

"It's... time for us to stop..."

BOOM!

A thunderous roar shattered the oppressive darkness, echoing across the night sky.

Bulging veins marred Sarah's face, destroying her beauty. She let out a scream of agony, and Adam's hand froze, as if he could feel his beloved's pain.

"Nothing... can take you from me... not even... death!"

A sinister, nebulous aura erupted from the grievously wounded Sarah, and Adam was powerless to stop it. Anna turned to Lu Li, who was already reloading, and stepped in front of him, unleashing the full power of the In-Between.

The two vastly different auras clashed. But there was no contest. From the start, Anna was overwhelmed by Sarah's sinister power, losing control of her own.

Ignoring all resistance, Sarah closed in on Lu Li. She reached out, her hand aiming for his head, but then she abruptly froze.

A black, condensed, distorted shadow snaked out from Anna's feet, entering the spectral forms of Sarah and Adam. Unperturbed, Lu Li calmly finished reloading, ignoring the frantic clicking of his detector and the hand hovering inches from his face. He snapped the chamber shut and, aiming at the skeletons, pulled the trigger once more.

BOOM!

The few townsfolk who had remained in their homes, unwilling to leave, crept to their windows and stared up in confusion at the dark sky.

Thunder again? Is it going to rain?

Crack~

Cracks spiderwebbed across the two skeletons locked in their embrace.

Sarah let out one last scream and collapsed backward. As Adam's form wavered, an old parchment scroll fell from within his spectral clothes.

Their auras were fading fast, like a dying flame, but Sarah's gaze was fixed on the scroll lying nearby, her expression distant.

"When...?" she whispered. She never knew Adam had found that letter... their very first.

"Always."

Sensing Adam beside her, Sarah seemed to finally let go of something. A look of peace crossed her face as she closed her eyes.

"May you rest together..."

Crack... crackle~

The two skeletons, covered in a web of countless fractures, finally crumbled into dust.

The dark cloud that had hung over Wayne-Fort County for more than a century finally dissipated.

But it wasn't over yet...

A cold aura raged around Anna, creating invisible dark whirlpools that collided and imploded.

Anna had used her ritual on Sarah, and now two centuries of Sarah's memories were flooding into her mind like a tidal wave.

She watched the fading forms of Sarah and Adam, her own being filled with their pain and reluctance to let go. When she turned to face Lu Li, those feelings twisted into pure hatred.

"Don't let her memories take control of your consciousness."

Before he could even process the Humanity he had absorbed from Sarah and Adam through The Atonement, Lu Li holstered the Spirit Gun and walked over to Anna. "Treat it like a book," he said, "like a story. You're just an observer, not a character in it."

Lu Li didn't know exactly what Anna was experiencing, but he could guess. He stepped directly into her aura. The cold, grim energy of the In-Between immediately pulled and crushed him from all sides, as if trying to twist him into a mangled piece of flesh.

But the damage quickly subsided to a tolerable level of pain. Anna raised her gaze to Lu Li. The hatred was gone, replaced by a strange emotion... something like desire.

Complex emotions flickered in her eyes. When a flash of avarice appeared among them, Anna lunged at Lu Li.

Lu Li raised his arms, catching the light, almost weightless form of Anna.

"Get back to the house... before I pass out," Anna whispered faintly in Lu Li's ear.

Carrying Anna, Lu Li made his way to a house across from the shelter. He took her to a bedroom on the second floor, laid her on the bed, and lit a fire in the hearth to drive away the night's chill and malevolent aura.

The invisible ward around them gradually faded, but the fire in the hearth rekindled it.

Lu Li took out a torch and swept the house for any stray dandelions. He stuffed rags into the cracks around the door and windows before returning to Anna's side.

Throughout the night, Anna's form on the bed flickered between solid and illusory. It wasn't until dawn that she finally began to stabilize.

At some point during the night, Lu Li briefly left the house. He lit the Beacon to drive back the surrounding Blood Dandelions, then reburied the ashes of Sarah and Adam, setting a new headstone over their grave.

The next morning, Anna finally, slowly, awoke. Her eyes met Lu Li's, and they were filled with a hatred that was not her own—it was Sarah's.

"Sarah," Lu Li said calmly, addressing the presence within his friend. "The real Sarah is gone, with Adam. You are nothing but a memory. Leave Anna now."

At his words, the chaotic memories seemed to fall into place. The hatred receded like an ebbing tide, and once again, it was Lu Li's reflection that looked back from her eyes.

"I want to go to the graveyard and see them," said Anna.

On a blood-red, misty morning, Lu Li and Anna returned to the stunted, withered trees behind the shelter.

Anna saw the new headstone. Carved clearly upon it were the words: "The Resting Place of Sarah and Adam."

This time, they didn't have to use someone else's grave marker for their own.

"Let's go."

Anna gazed at the headstone for a long moment before looking away. She turned to Lu Li and gave him a soft, beautiful smile.