Chapter 48: The Witch (6)

According to information revealed by their informant Rebecca, Wester had already discovered the secret chamber beneath the abandoned teaching building. This Saturday, he planned to remove the witch’s corpse hidden there, drive the witch’s vengeful spirit possessing Kelly back into its original body, and then burn both body and soul together in one great blaze.

“You know, the most effective way to deal with a witch is burning,” Rebecca remarked sharply. “On this matter, the medieval ancestors of these colonists were practically seasoned professionals.” After her biting comment, she dropped another bombshell on Everly. “The plan was actually made a long time ago. They were supposed to act while Kelly was in detention. But those idiots in the Kingsley family kept dragging their feet. Do you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because they possess a lucky charm—a magical item made from a witch’s tongue. The Kingsley family firmly believes that it’s under the protection of this charm that their East Ridge Electric Company has managed to survive one crisis after another and grow to its current scale. The tongue charm depends on the witch’s body to exist. If the corpse is destroyed, the charm will lose its power. That’s something the Kingsleys were unwilling to accept.”

“Then why have they agreed now?”

“Because a sorcerer from Thailand has promised to make them another ‘charm’—using that girl’s tongue.”

“That girl… you mean Kelly?!”

“Exactly. I only overheard this secret by accident. The sorcerer privately approached Mars Kingsley and promised that, as long as Mars paid him one hundred thousand U.S. dollars, he could craft a new lucky charm using Kelly’s tongue.”

Mars Kingsley was Elrond’s father and the current head of the Kingsley family.

Everly was stunned. “That’s possible?”

“Theoretically, it’s possible. Although Kelly isn’t a witch, the fact that she was chosen for possession means she must carry witch blood in her veins. That scumbag sorcerer said that as long as they cut out Kelly’s tongue while she’s still alive, then skin her and seal her inside a special coffin made from upas wood, and use Thai secret arts to refine the resentment of the living into the charm, the new talisman might not be any weaker than the previous one. But creating a charm through such cruel means would trap Kelly’s soul inside her body forever, condemning her to endless torment. Obviously, Mars wouldn’t care.” At this point, Rebecca’s voice sounded clenched with anger.

Everly had never imagined these people could be so lawless—so utterly unrestrained. For the sake of power and money, they could make a living person disappear without a second thought.

“Does Wester know about this?” she asked hopefully. Maybe that formidable exorcist could stop it if he found out?

Rebecca wasn’t optimistic. “Probably not… but I doubt he’d intervene even if he did. In his eyes, only supernatural beings matter. Aside from exorcism, he ignores all worldly affairs. Every cent he earns goes into buying exorcism equipment. Ever since his fiancée was brutally killed by a demon nineteen years ago, Wester has been like this—wandering the world full of hatred, like a ghost born for revenge.”

“What happened to his fiancée?”

“I don’t know the details. I was very young nineteen years ago… Anyway, he’s arrogant and distant—hard to deal with.”

After that exchange, silence fell on both ends of the phone.

“I’m wondering whether I should warn Kelly…” Everly said hesitantly.

“But she did kill four people and caused so many others to fall ill and be hospitalized. Some of them will never fully recover for the rest of their lives—Everly, tell me: for the crimes those people committed, did they really deserve such severe retribution?” Rebecca’s voice on the other end turned solemn.

“….”

They shouldn’t have.

“Render unto God what is God’s, and unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” When humans commit crimes, they should be judged by human law. The intervention of supernatural forces is itself a disruption of order—let alone Kelly handing down punishment based solely on her personal likes and dislikes.

Setting aside those who actively b*llied her, what about the students who turned a blind eye to her pleas for help? Perhaps they were simply afraid of becoming the next victims. Perhaps some of them had sought out teachers for her behind the scenes, only to be ignored. And those who gave false testimony—some did so willingly, but others were coerced by parents or faculty. Kelly’s indiscriminate revenge against them all was, in itself, unjust. She had wielded a power she should never have touched; paying the price for it was only natural.

But what else could Kelly have done?

Faced with relentless b*llying, she had tried to seek help from others. Every attempt had failed. She was like a piece of duckweed, like a speck of dust—no one cared, no one noticed, no one saved her. Human society does have its own order, yes—but when law and order are absent, when someone is trapped in hell with no way out, are they simply supposed to accept their fate and die?

Everly felt a heavy weight pressing on her heart.

She thought this world was utterly rotten.

…

That night, after returning, Everly tossed and turned, suffering sleeplessly in bed.

Early the next morning, she sat up, her thoughts still in turmoil. Ever since she had accidentally run into Kelly by the dormitory flowerbed, she had stopped her morning runs. But today, in such a foul mood, she decided to resume the routine.

Fortunately, she didn’t run into Kelly this time.

Everly ran alone around the dorm building, trying to exhaust her excess sympathy through uninterrupted motion and sheer physical fatigue. As she passed the flowerbed behind the building for the third time, her gaze inadvertently fell on the black lily Kelly had placed there.

It still stood alone in its original spot. The dark petals unfurled in the morning dew, blooming boldly and extravagantly. From its black-crimson stamens seeped a faint, strangely sweet fragrance.

Everly came to an abrupt stop.

She stood there, staring at the potted flower for a long time. Then, silently, she made a decision.

Let fate decide everything.

She would slip a note into the soil of the pot, leave behind a trace. If Kelly remembered the flower, noticed that the soil had been disturbed, and found her message, then it would mean Kelly’s life was not meant to end. If she failed to notice… then that, too, would be her fate.

After burying the sealed plastic bag containing the note in the soil, Everly let go of her hesitation. Her ponytail arced through the air as she turned and walked away.

From this moment on, the matter had nothing to do with her. She would not interfere in it again—not even a little.

…

Having buried the bag, Everly kept her word. She paid no further attention to anything related to Kelly.

Tomorrow was Saturday—a school holiday.

It was also the day the exorcists planned to surround and capture Kelly.

After school that afternoon, Everly softly said “goodbye” toward Kelly’s retreating figure in the distance, then returned home with her grandfather. She felt that when she came back to school on Monday, she probably wouldn’t see Kelly again. Whether Kelly had found the note or not, the outcome would be the same.

And indeed, that was what happened—

On Saturday night, Everly received a call from Rebecca. The ever-watchful informant told her that Kelly had disappeared.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous! To kill a witch, you have to destroy both body and soul. To make sure we could successfully bring her back to the school, we sent five people to capture her—including even an apprentice exorcist from the Vatican! And yet she just vanished—right out of her tiny forty-square-meter rental apartment, along with her lame father!”

“And then?”

“Then we started searching the entire city. We hired private detectives, got the police to check surveillance footage—you know how it is, as long as the money’s good enough, someone’s always willing to take the risk. We had people with clairvoyance examine clues, and the rest of us diviners ran our own readings… After an entire day of chaos, we found absolutely nothing. That girl is far too cunning. She set up misdirection in advance and ran circles around a whole group of adults.”

Everly was surprised. “Not even Wester could find her?”

At the mention of him, Rebecca sounded rather smug. “Hah, that guy? Please. He’s not even a psychic. The only reason he’s so famous in the exorcism world is because of his endless supply of gadgets—and a brain that works reasonably well. When it comes to tracking someone down, he’s not even as good as me!”

“….”

But you didn’t find her either.

Everly almost said it out loud, but decided against it. There were more important things to ask.

“Since you can’t find Kelly, what are you going to do?”

“Wester wants Elrond to leave the safe house and act as bait to lure Kelly out, but Mr. and Mrs. Kingsley refuse. So now the two sides are locked in a standoff. As for us—since the Kingsleys haven’t called it off, we’ll just keep searching. We’re paid by the day anyway. If this drags on a few more days, I’ll earn a little extra.”

“All right. Let me know if you get any new updates.”

“Sure thing. And remember to send more business my way in the future.”

After a few more casual exchanges, Everly hung up.

…

The exorcists searched for more than half a month.

During that time, Kelly neither returned to school nor appeared anywhere else. It was as if she had evaporated from the face of the earth.

Elrond did leave the safe house once in the middle of all this—not because his parents had relented, but because he had grown sick of the cramped space. Restricted by building materials, the so-called “safe house” was no more than the size of a security booth. There was nothing inside except a bed. Even using the bathroom required a disposable bedpan. It was hardly fit for anyone to live in.

Elrond had slipped out secretly. By the time his parents discovered it, he had already spent half a day outside under Wester’s protection. During that entire time, he suffered no magical attack whatsoever.

As a result, some of the exorcists began to suspect that Kelly had already left the city. Others believed that as long as Elrond was still alive, Kelly would never leave. The reason she hadn’t struck, they argued, was because the defenses around him were too tight—she was simply waiting for everyone to let their guard down.

Everly leaned toward the latter view. Based on the information she had gathered, Elrond was not only the ringleader behind a series of b*llying incidents, but also a member of the Kingsley family—the same family that, a century ago, imprisoned a witch and cut out her tongue to make a talisman. Old grudges and new hatreds intertwined. Even if Kelly were willing to give up, the witch certainly would not.

Mr. and Mrs. Kingsley thought the same way.

As time passed, they not only refused to relax their vigilance, but poured even more money into reinforcement. They hired additional exorcists and ghost hunters, turning the Kingsley estate into an impregnable fortress. More personnel were dispatched throughout the city, and even a few were planted inside the school.

Their efforts paid off.

One day, half a month later, a psychic patrolling the school unexpectedly spotted Kelly on the first floor of the abandoned teaching building.