151-155

*Chapter 151: The Game*

"What exactly are you trying to do?"

Under the gaze of the crowd’s hollow eyes, Amanda took a deep breath.

Biting her lip, she turned her head to look at Spike, who appeared indifferent. She lowered her voice and questioned him softly.

"To confirm a suspicion," Spike replied calmly.

Faced with Amanda’s question, Spike’s smile remained unchanged. He exchanged a glance with Jamie on the stage before turning back to Amanda with a smirk.

"To catch a big enough fish, you can’t be stingy with the bait," he said.

Amanda’s expression darkened. "So, I’m the bait you’re talking about?"

"To be precise, it’s the two of us," Spike corrected.

"This isn’t fishing, Spike. All of us could die because of this," Amanda retorted.

Unlike Spike’s calm demeanor, Amanda clearly couldn’t stay composed.

"I’m fully aware of that," Spike said. "But I need evidence to support my theory. Trust me—I don’t plan to sacrifice myself just yet. There are still more important things I need to accomplish."

Amanda looked into his piercing blue eyes and saw a flicker of determination.

After a moment of hesitation, she gritted her teeth and said, "I’ll trust you this one time, Spike."

"Don’t worry. I won’t disappoint you," he replied with a reassuring tone.

Amanda’s words carried more trust than warning, though her expression was still wary.

Turning to glance at the hollow-eyed crowd, Spike raised an eyebrow and said, "Be ready to shoot at any moment."

Watching Amanda and Spike’s retreating figures, Agent Zhou pulled out his gun. Without expression, he reminded Agent Phil beside him, "Be prepared. I’ve got a bad feeling about what’s going to happen next."

Phil’s face turned more serious after hearing Zhou’s words.

---

"Now that we have new guests joining the party game…"

Jamie twisted his stiff neck, producing unsettling creaking sounds. Looking at Amanda and Spike as they stepped onto the stage, he opened his mouth in an exaggerated welcome, though his lifeless expression remained unchanged.

The clockwork mechanism on Jamie’s back began to spin. He shuffled forward with rigid movements, raising his wooden arm to pick a few “players” from the crowd to participate in the “game.”

"It’s an FBI agent!"

Among the participants, Amanda recognized one of them as the missing FBI agent.

Under Jamie’s command, these missing persons moved stiffly into their designated positions, lifeless and mechanical.

Scanning the participants, Jamie’s head suddenly spun 180 degrees to face Amanda. His expressionless face asked in a hollow voice, "So, guests, what nursery rhyme do you like?"

"Nursery rhyme?"

Startled by Jamie’s sudden and grotesque neck twist, Amanda instinctively averted her gaze, avoiding his eerie appearance.

"Actually, we’re not familiar with the ‘game’ yet. Perhaps you could demonstrate it for us first," Spike said calmly, meeting Jamie’s gaze with a composed smile.

"..."

Jamie’s wooden eyes, represented by dark, hollow sockets, stared at Spike’s blue eyes for a few moments before he slowly nodded his stiff neck.

"Fine. Let us demonstrate the rules of the ‘game’ for our guests," Jamie said.

As his voice fell, the missing persons on the stage raised their hands. With stiff, mechanical movements, they began clapping rhythmically.

**"Jack and Jill

Went up the hill

To fetch a pail of water.

Jack fell down

And broke his crown,

And Jill came tumbling after…"**

Accompanying the clapping, the participants opened their mouths and sang the nursery rhyme in monotonous, lifeless voices.

Listening to the song, Agent Phil unconsciously hummed a few lines under his breath.

"What’s this?" Zhou asked.

"It’s Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill," Phil replied, realization dawning on him.

"You’ve never heard of this nursery rhyme?" Zhou asked, his face expressionless.

"Is it famous?"

"Famous? It’s practically universal," Zhou replied flatly.

Over time, Jack and Jill evolved into generic terms for a boy and a girl in English. However, its original meaning might have alluded to King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette, who were guillotined during the French Revolution. The lyrics, "Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after," may refer to their fates.

While the nursery rhyme’s origin wasn’t the focus for the agents, the sheer absurdity of the "game"—singing a nursery rhyme—left both Phil and Amanda puzzled.

Even Amanda, who had resolved to take the risk, couldn’t hide her surprise.

The monotonous song continued, the stiff movements of the participants adding to the eerie atmosphere.

However, watching the FBI agent clap and sing felt strangely absurd to Amanda.

Just as her tension eased slightly, the unexpected happened.

As the rhyme repeated, one participant’s clockwork mechanism faltered. Their hand movements paused briefly before the person collapsed onto the stage without warning. Their head detached from their body, rolling to a stop at Amanda’s feet.

Amanda lowered her gaze to the severed head. Even without a body, the head continued to open and close its mouth, singing the rhyme.

Looking up at the headless body, Amanda noticed no blood flowing from the neck, only a jagged, wooden break. Like Jamie, the participant had been completely transformed into a puppet.

Yet, this bloodless, unnatural scene felt far more chilling than any crime scene Amanda had encountered.

(End of Chapter)

*Chapter 152: Playing the Game*

"So, this nursery rhyme is about losing your head?"

Agent Zhou raised his gun, aiming at the people on the stage.

He didn’t immediately pull the trigger because Amanda and the others were still up there.

Instead, he kept the gun trained in Jamie’s direction, maintaining a ready-to-fire posture in case of any unexpected movement. Meanwhile, he silently addressed Agent Phil beside him.

“No, of course not…”

Hearing Agent Zhou’s question, Agent Phil shook his head to deny it. While raising his gun as well, the certainty in his expression faded into hesitation as he spoke: “It might have lyrics about losing crowns—heads—but it’s just a reference to a historical past. No one would think it’d actually lead to losing heads now.”

On stage, the sight of heads rolling off with a single mistake was shocking, even to someone like Agent Phil.

“Damn it, they ruined my fond memories of ‘Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill.’ I actually used to like that nursery rhyme.”

…

“Now, do you understand how to play the 'game,' guests?”

Jamie’s wooden eyeballs rolled as he glanced at the headless body on the floor. He turned his stiff neck toward Amanda, his wooden jaw moving as he spoke.

“It seems the rules of this ‘game’ are a bit complicated. We’re planning to watch another round,” Spike responded, offering an excuse in reply to Jamie’s question.

Hearing Spike’s response, Jamie’s wooden eyeballs spun wildly in their sockets. Just as Amanda thought he might refuse, he turned his head back and began the next round of the 'game.'

“Hey diddle diddle,

The cat and the fiddle,

The cow jumped over the moon,

The little dog laughed to see such sport,

And the dish ran away with the spoon…”

Once again, a nursery rhyme echoed on the stage, sung monotonously by the performers, their voices devoid of emotion.

However, this time, no humor came from the words.

The severed head of the previous loser lay at Amanda’s feet, repeating the lyrics of the previous rhyme.

“Do we really have to play this 'game' with them?”

The nursery rhyme lyrics rang in Amanda’s ears. Looking at the grim expressions around her, a crushing sense of dread swelled in her chest, compelling her to question Spike.

“Didn’t you notice?”

Spike’s gaze remained fixed on Jamie, who was orchestrating the 'game.' He leaned toward Amanda and whispered in her ear, “From the moment we entered the cabin, everyone here has been repeating their actions, except for one person.”

Amanda, being the BSI team leader, was naturally quick-witted. Hearing Spike’s observation, she immediately caught on and turned her focus to Jamie.

Indeed, just as Spike said, Jamie was the only one who had been speaking with the BSI team since the beginning.

He was also the only person who had gone upstairs.

“You think Jamie is the anomaly?”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

Spike didn’t give Amanda a definitive answer to her speculation.

He looked up at Jamie and the others continuing the 'game' on stage, then lowered his voice again to say to Amanda, “Soon, we’ll join the game. When we do…”

“Are you sure?”

Hearing Spike’s plan, Amanda couldn’t help but question him.

“Trust me, I have more experience dealing with anomalies than you do.”

Spike’s confident response silenced Amanda. She glanced at his calm smile, lingering on the subtle droop at the corners of his eyes before nodding in agreement.

“Alright, thank you all for the demonstration.”

Seeing Amanda’s approval, Spike turned back and clapped his hands, interrupting the ongoing 'game.'

Locking eyes with Jamie’s wooden gaze, Spike’s expression didn’t waver as he said, “We’ve understood the rules of the 'game' and can’t wait to join in.”

Jamie’s wooden eyeballs shifted back and forth between Spike and Amanda before he twisted his stiff neck slightly backward. On stage, the others stopped singing and stepped aside, making room for the newcomers.

Since the current round hadn’t determined a loser yet, only one person from their group needed to join.

Under the empty stares of the others, Spike stepped forward without hesitation to join the game.

As the participants turned their heads and prepared to resume singing the unfinished rhyme, Spike interrupted again: “Actually, since we have a new player, it doesn’t feel right to repeat the old rhyme. Perhaps we should choose a new one to start fresh—fairer for everyone, don’t you think?”

The frequent interruptions caused Jamie and the others on stage to fix their gazes intensely on Spike.

Sensing the tension, Amanda instinctively reached for her weapon.

“You’re right, guest.”

Fortunately, the worst-case scenario didn’t unfold.

After a few seconds of tense eye contact, Jamie averted his gaze, and the others followed suit.

“Alright, let’s begin. I’ll sing the first line.”

Hearing Jamie’s response, Spike’s previously calm expression relaxed slightly. Even he hadn’t been entirely confident in handling that moment.

Once Jamie confirmed the change in rhyme, Spike took the lead, singing: “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe…”

Eeny Meeny Miny Moe—a well-known children’s rhyme often used in games.

The rules were simple: each person took turns continuing the rhyme until someone failed to keep up.

As Spike sang, he casually pointed his finger at the participants one by one, circling them as if choosing his next target. But his gaze briefly flicked toward Amanda.

Receiving his signal, Amanda took a deep breath.

The moment Spike stopped and pointed his finger at her, she turned and bolted off the stage without hesitation.

*Chapter 153: Distraction*

Creak, creak—

The wooden eyeballs in Jamie's sockets spun frantically, his neck twisting toward Amanda's direction.

Watching her fleeing figure, the wind-up key on Jamie’s back began to whirl uncontrollably. His limbs and joints emitted constant creaking noises as he moved.

He took stiff steps, trying to catch up.

"If he..."

On the other side, Spike, who had been singing a nursery rhyme, suddenly extended a finger and pointed at Jamie.

Once "chosen" by the "game," Jamie's head began to swivel from side to side. His mouth opened and closed with a series of clicking sounds, his eyes moving erratically, while his entire body, down to his fingers, twisted violently.

"...hollers..."

But even so, he still followed the "rules" of the game, singing the next line of the nursery rhyme. At the same time, he extended his severely twisted finger and pointed at Spike.

In Jamie’s lifeless face, a deep resentment and unwillingness flickered in his eyes.

And it wasn’t just Jamie. Everyone around Spike wore the same expression, staring at him intensely.

It was clear that if Spike made any mistake in the "game," these controlled missing persons—and Jamie—would pounce on him without hesitation.

However, despite the suffocating tension, Spike’s face remained calm, carrying a faint smile as he sang the next line of the nursery rhyme: "...let him..."

---

"Quick, get out of the cabin!"

Spike was using the "game" to distract Jamie.

Meanwhile, Amanda ran toward the wooden door of the cabin, just as Spike had instructed.

Although the audience onstage couldn't hear the conversation between Spike and Amanda, they noticed her sudden escape from the "game." Agent Zhou immediately reacted, raising his gun to aim at the crowd around him.

Although Jamie, due to Spike's actions, couldn’t directly attack Amanda, the crowd below wasn’t bound by such restrictions. They twisted their bodies and moved toward Amanda with stiff steps, reaching out with jerking motions.

Bang! Bang!

As the situation grew increasingly dire, Agent Zhou didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.

With the sound of gunshots, a figure closest to Amanda fell to the ground, their thigh struck by a bullet. Blood flowed from the wound, but there was no sign of pain on their face. They continued crawling toward Amanda, determined to grab her.

"Shoot their limbs!"

Seeing this, Agent Zhou gritted his teeth and ran toward Amanda, shouting at Agent Phil beside him.

Bang! Bang!

Bullets fired from Agent Phil's gun hit the advancing crowd. Some struck their arms or legs, leaving crimson wounds, while others hit bodies that splintered into fragments of wood instead of blood.

With the two BSI agents covering her, Amanda dodged a figure lunging at her from behind.

The figure missed and fell heavily to the ground, struggling to rise.

At that moment, Agent Zhou rushed over and unhesitatingly pinned the figure down. He aimed at their thigh and pulled the trigger. Splinters of wood burst from the wound, some grazing Zhou's cheek.

Pushing the struggling figure toward the oncoming crowd to stall them, Zhou, panting slightly, turned to Amanda.

"What exactly is going on?"

"Spike believes the grotesque entity has possessed Jamie. He’s using the 'game' to buy time so we can find the object anchoring the entity in the real world."

Bang! Bang—

Phil continued firing, forcing back the stiff-moving crowd. Hearing Amanda’s explanation, he raised an eyebrow and glanced at the cabin’s second floor.

"But we can’t even get to the second floor right now."

Following an earlier FBI tip, Zhou and Phil had assumed the anchor object was on the cabin's second floor.

"The anchor isn’t on the second floor."

Amanda shook her head, glancing at Spike still playing the "game" with Jamie.

"Not on the second floor?!"

Zhou and Phil exchanged puzzled looks.

But Amanda had no time to explain further. She turned to the wooden door behind her and kicked at the handle.

Bang! Bang!

However, the door’s sturdiness exceeded her expectations.

"Let me handle it."

Phil stepped forward, took a deep breath, and slammed his large frame into the door.

Thud!

The collision sent a heavy thud echoing, but the door didn’t budge.

"It seems the cabin’s owner doesn’t plan to let us out so easily!"

Zhou immediately realized that the unbelievably sturdy door was the work of the grotesque entity.

"If the door’s not an option, we’ll find another way!"

Amanda frequently glanced at Spike, noting the wooden textures appearing on his hand—just like Jamie's body.

It was evident that prolonging the "game" came at a cost. If Spike turned into a puppet like the others, the BSI agents’ fate would be sealed.

Feeling the urgency rise, Amanda scanned the cabin and quickly focused on a window.

"Zhou, I need your help."

Her gaze shifted back, and she called out to Zhou.

"No problem."

Still holding back the controlled crowd, Zhou answered without turning.

Bang! Bang—

He aimed at the chandelier above and shot, breaking its chain. The heavy fixture fell onto the crowd below.

This act of destruction provoked a violent response. Jamie’s wind-up key spun even faster, and the controlled crowd abandoned their pursuit of Amanda, turning instead to charge at Zhou.

Zhou hadn’t anticipated such an intense reaction but didn’t hesitate to sprint in the opposite direction of Amanda, drawing the crowd away.

---

Chapter 154: Beneath the Tree

*Bang! Bang!*

*Crack! Crack!*

Agent Zhou dashed to the corner of the wall, turned around, and fired several shots at the stiff-moving missing persons.

Amidst the sound of clicking, he looked down at his now-empty handgun. His previously stoic expression shifted slightly.

"Damn it!"

With a low curse, he didn't hesitate. As one of the missing persons lunged at him, he raised his fist and swung.

---

On the other side, with Agent Zhou providing cover, Amanda finally reached the cabin window. She glanced back toward Spike, clenched her teeth, and charged at the glass.

The moment Amanda hit the window, up on the stage, Jamie—who had been singing nursery rhymes back and forth with Spike—twisted her neck 180 degrees to look behind her. Fixating on Amanda's direction, her body contorted as her arms and legs twisted together unnaturally, trembling violently.

"…Meeny…"

At that exact moment, Spike pointed his finger at Jamie again.

Spike's entire arm had taken on a wooden texture, and his finger joints now resembled spherical hinges. Yet his face remained adorned with that confident smile, urging Jamie to continue the "game" that was not yet over.

---

*Crash!*

The cabin window shattered with a burst of sound.

*Thud!*

Amanda broke through the window and landed heavily on the grass outside the cabin. Sharp shards of glass tore through her clothes, leaving cuts and gashes all over her body.

As she pushed herself up amidst the glass shards, Amanda swayed, her head spinning from the intense impact.

Looking back at the broken cabin window, she caught a fleeting glimpse of a black shadow darting past. It extended an arm toward her as if to grab her.

At that moment, the silver necklace around her neck began to glow faintly.

---

"Mom, where are you?"

"Mom?"

Late at night, a young girl opened her eyes and noticed the empty spot beside her bed. She couldn't help but call out.

Rubbing her eyes, she stepped out of the bedroom, calling for her mother as she walked.

When she reached the living room, she found her mother sitting there, trembling as she hung up the phone.

"Mom?"

"Why are you crying?"

Seeing the tears streaming down her mother’s face, the girl asked, bewildered.

Hearing her daughter’s voice, the mother quickly wiped her tears and rushed to hug her tightly.

"Amanda…"

---

*Ring! Ring!*

The sharp sound of a ringing phone snapped Amanda back to reality.

She opened her eyes and looked at the broken cabin window. It was empty, as if what she had just seen was nothing more than a hallucination.

Pulling her phone from her pocket, Amanda glanced at the caller ID and answered.

"Chief…"

Angela's familiar voice came through the line.

"Before the Spike operation, I looked into Mary Shaw's background. The nursery rhyme circulating online isn’t true. In reality, Mary Shaw didn’t die. She was hospitalized twenty years ago due to a gas poisoning incident and later transferred to a care facility. Recent records show she was hospitalized earlier this year for a cold. These details are clearly documented in the care facility's archives. This means the spirit summoned during the séance in the video isn’t Mary Shaw’s ghost at all..."

The information Angela provided was unexpected for Amanda.

As she listened, Amanda glanced back at the cabin, where gunfire echoed intermittently.

If Angela’s findings were accurate, then who—or what—was the BSI currently facing?

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on the question.

After hanging up the phone, Amanda steadied her injured body and scanned the eerie, decrepit yard.

Her gaze quickly landed on the withered tree in the center.

"Something beneath the tree," she murmured, repeating Spike’s words to herself.

Staggering to the tree, Amanda ignored her injuries and began digging furiously beneath it.

Blood dripped from her hands as she clawed at the soil, but her efforts yielded little progress. Realizing the futility of using her hands, she grabbed a nearby rotten wooden plank and started digging.

*Crack!*

The plank snapped under the force of her efforts.

Time was running out. Every second wasted could plunge BSI and Spike into further danger.

Amanda felt a surge of frustration. She knew this wasn’t working, but her thoughts were too scrambled to devise a better plan.

"Ma'am?"

A voice called out from behind her.

Turning, Amanda saw members of the NYPD, who had been assisting the BSI, hesitantly stepping forward.

"Can we help?"

Following Amanda’s earlier orders, they had been waiting outside since arriving at the cabin. But the relentless gunfire from inside and Amanda’s frantic digging finally drove them to intervene.

Seeing them, Amanda’s muddled thoughts suddenly cleared.

Shaking her head, she regained her commanding composure. Clutching her wounds, she replied, "Of course. You’ve come at the perfect time."

With the officers’ help, Amanda’s previously fruitless efforts began to show results.

Under their coordinated digging, a series of pits emerged around the tree.

When one pit reached about three feet deep, a police officer struck something hard with a dismantled iron rod, producing a loud *thud*.

At first, the officer thought it was another rock.

But after probing the area, the texture and feel revealed it was something else entirely.

"Found something!"

At his shout, the others gathered around. Under Amanda’s watchful gaze, they cleared the surrounding soil, revealing a black fabric bag.

Although its contents were unclear, the officers dug with renewed vigor until the bag was fully unearthed.

Sharing a glance, they stepped aside as Amanda approached to open it.

Pulling the bag open, a putrid stench filled the air.

Inside lay a grotesquely deformed, rotting corpse. Beside it rested a crude, damaged puppet.

*(End of Chapter)*

Chapter 155: The Truth Behind the Incident

"...According to the records, Mary Shaw once cared for a child. However, after she was hospitalized due to carbon monoxide poisoning, the child disappeared. Since no one knew what the child looked like, the case eventually went unresolved..."

*Washington, BSI Headquarters*

Angela, standing before the BSI team, examined reports from federal and local tabloids documenting the incident.

"Perhaps that carbon monoxide poisoning was no accident," she remarked.

Agent Zhou, his arm immobilized in a sling, responded immediately to Angela's report.

"Mary Shaw intended to kill her child and then take her own life, but she was rescued."

"Maybe it wasn’t guilt," Spike corrected, sipping tea from his cup.

"Mary Shaw planned to die with her child from the very beginning after taking the child's life."

"But why?"

Agent Phil, sporting minor injuries and wearing a few bandages, looked puzzled.

"Perhaps it was despair..."

Spike pulled out an old, crumpled photograph from his pocket and showed it to the group.

In the photo, a woman stood in front of a large, circus-like tent, holding a deformed boy clutching a crudely made wooden puppet.

"In that era, society wasn’t kind to children with deformities. Mary Shaw moved to the suburbs with her child, but as the child grew, the weight of her despair only deepened," Spike explained, recalling the fragmented visions he had seen beneath the tree.

"Eventually, overwhelmed by despair, Mary Shaw decided to end her child's suffering and her own. She was saved by chance and later left the cabin. For the next twenty years, Mary Shaw's past became a children's rhyme, eventually attracting curious thrill-seekers. Their séance summoned the spirit of her deceased child..."

Angela, deeply affected as a woman herself, lowered her gaze to the photo of the deformed child. She could imagine the crushing despair Mary Shaw must have felt.

"So, in truth, Mary Shaw and her child were both victims."

"Victims?" Phil's tone was skeptical.

"If you had witnessed the horrors in that cabin, you wouldn’t think so," Phil countered.

"That was because of the séance," Angela argued. "Without their summoning, Mary Shaw's deceased child would never have returned."

"Those people have already faced their punishment," Amanda interjected, stepping out of the BSI chief's office.

"Is there no way to reverse their condition?" she asked, glancing at Spike.

"There isn’t," Spike replied, setting down his cup. "The cursed power has consumed them entirely. They’ve been irreversibly transformed into puppets."

Amanda had burned everything at the scene—the wooden dolls, corpses, and all—eliminating the spirit’s anchor.

As a result, the controlled missing persons, along with the FBI agents and NYPD officers, had returned to normal. However, those who had initiated the séance—Jamie and his group—had been so corrupted by the curse that they had fully transformed into wooden puppets.

The revelation made Amanda sigh in frustration. The sudden presence of five living puppets posed challenges: managing their families and deciding how to secure them. Since they were tied to supernatural forces, BSI couldn’t simply discard them.

"Looks like I’ll be writing more than one report," Amanda muttered, rubbing her temples.

"And not just me. All of you involved in this operation will be writing reports," she announced, earning a groan from Phil.

Phil turned to Zhou, but the latter shrugged nonchalantly. "Don’t look at me. My hand is injured."

Phil’s hope turned to Spike, who simply sipped his tea and replied, "I’m just a BSI consultant. I don’t write reports."

Angela shrugged apologetically, "I was only assisting, so I’m not officially part of this operation."

"Great. So it’s just me," Phil muttered.

"Not entirely," Amanda said with a smirk. "I’ll be writing alongside you."

Back in the team’s office, Angela stared at the photograph Spike had uncovered. Turning to Amanda, she asked, "Are we going to arrest Mary Shaw for murdering her child?"

From a legal perspective, Angela knew Mary Shaw deserved punishment. But recalling the woman’s despair and subsequent suicide attempt, she couldn’t help but feel sympathy.

The room fell silent as everyone waited for Amanda’s response. Zhou, Phil, and Spike all turned their attention to Angela.

Amanda, reflecting on the image of the child’s decayed corpse curled up in a bag with a shattered wooden puppet, finally spoke.

"Investigating murder is the jurisdiction of the FBI and NYPD. BSI focuses solely on supernatural cases."

(End of Chapter)