126-130

Chapter 126: The Puppet

Behind the DV camera.

Jamie and the others stared at the opened gate, exchanging bewildered looks for a few seconds.

Quickly regaining his composure, Jamie resumed walking, filming the dilapidated surroundings of the cabin’s yard while analyzing the scene from behind the camera.

They moved past this unexpected little incident.

Jamie maneuvered the camera in his hands, capturing a complete view of the abandoned cabin with shaky shots. He tirelessly filmed the moss-covered wooden planks in the corners, remnants of years gone by, weaving them into the ominous story of Mary Shaw to create a chilling atmosphere.

“Jamie…”

Standing in the decrepit yard of the cabin, surrounded by darkness, even Mark—who had dismissed Mary Shaw’s creepy nursery rhyme as nonsense since they left the car—couldn’t help but feel a twinge of unease.

This desolation, this abandoned house.

It was the perfect setting for a horror movie.

Blond-haired Laura voiced her fear, her tone betraying her nerves.

“I’m a little scared. Maybe we should come back another time. What if someone still lives here? Isn’t it rude to barge in like this?”

“Come on, Laura, don’t be a buzzkill.”

Hearing Laura’s suggestion to back out, Jamie reluctantly paused his filming of the cabin’s surroundings. He swung the camera around to focus on her blonde hair and retorted, “I did my research. No one’s lived here for twenty years. It’s an abandoned property. Besides, we’re here to ghost hunt, not to sightsee. This is the perfect time for it.”

Confronted with Jamie’s sharp response, Laura opened her mouth as if to argue but ultimately stayed silent.

Glancing at the pitch-black night surrounding the cabin, she decided she didn’t have the courage to wait alone in the car.

Seeing Laura’s silence, Jamie smirked with satisfaction behind the camera, resuming his work. He aimed the lens at the cabin’s old wooden door and, taking a deep breath, lowered his voice dramatically.

“Now, let’s go inside. What horrors lie in Mary Shaw’s house from the infamous nursery rhyme? Are the walls stained with blood? Could there be a basement full of tools she used to kill…”

As a YouTuber, Jamie understood the importance of a gripping title.

Before even entering, he was setting up suspense with his vivid descriptions.

*Creak!*

“The door’s unlocked?!”

Taking another deep breath, Jamie turned to exchange a glance with Sean and the others behind him.

Raising his hand, he grasped the doorknob. The next moment, accompanied by a sharp creak—

*Screeech—*

The wooden door opened with an ear-splitting sound.

What followed was Jamie’s surprised voice from behind the camera.

In his original plan, he had considered the possibility of the door being locked, envisioning himself kicking it open or climbing through a window—an act that would both add dramatic flair to the footage and provide engaging content for the video. However, the door had swung open with just a gentle push. Jamie suppressed his disappointment and pressed on with the shoot.

“It seems like this place really hasn’t been lived in for a long time…”

Holding the camera, he was the first to step inside.

In the dim light, faint traces of an old-fashioned interior emerged. The yellowing sofa in the living room and the dusty tables and chairs hinted at the lives of the house’s former occupants.

“It looks like Mary Shaw lived here for quite some time.”

With the DV camera aimed at the dust-covered sofa, Jamie turned the lens on himself, providing a running commentary. “According to what I found online, the creepy nursery rhyme started circulating twenty years ago, around the time this house was abandoned. Judging by what’s left inside, Mary Shaw didn’t just move out. What could have made her abandon this place?”

In the dark, relying on the camera’s faint light, Jamie recorded every detail of the house.

He was determined to capture something sensational for his YouTube channel. However, the ghost hunt fell far short of expectations.

“I told you, that Mary Shaw nursery rhyme…”

After finishing their exploration of the last room, Mark looked at the house, which, apart from being old and decrepit, showed no signs of anything unusual. He scoffed, “It’s nothing but an urban legend blown out of proportion. This house is less scary than the crime rate in my neighborhood.”

Even Laura, who had initially been terrified, found her fear melting away after the uneventful investigation.

As the beam of her flashlight swept across the room, it suddenly caught a shadow in the corner, making Laura’s casual demeanor vanish in an instant. She screamed.

“Ahh!”

“What happened?!”

The sudden scream startled everyone in the room. Jamie swung the camera around, its shaky footage landing on Laura.

“I saw something move in the corner!”

Eyes tightly shut, Laura pointed in the direction of the shadow, her face pale with fear.

“A shadow?”

The group exchanged uneasy glances.

Jamie cautiously moved the camera in the indicated direction, slowly approaching the corner.

“It’s just… a puppet.”

As he got closer, the camera’s weak light revealed the “shadow” to be nothing more than a crude wind-up puppet toy.

From behind the camera, Jamie’s disappointment was evident.

“It looks like this is the puppet mentioned in the Mary Shaw nursery rhyme.”

He picked up the wind-up toy, examining its rough craftsmanship and the chipped paint on its face. Jamie’s voice was tinged with dissatisfaction.

“It’s nothing like the creepy doll described in the rhyme…”

*Click, click, click—*

As he spoke, Jamie turned the key on the back of the puppet.

With a few metallic clicks, he stared down at it expectantly.

“…”

But the puppet didn’t move, its lifeless eyes simply staring back at Jamie.

“Looks like this thing is completely broken.”

Jamie’s fleeting hope was replaced by disappointment as he realized the puppet was useless.

(End of Chapter)  

*Chapter 127: The Summoning Ritual*

"After all, it’s a toy from twenty years ago. It’s normal for it to be broken..."

Shaun glanced at the wooden puppet in Jamie's hand and offered a comforting remark.

Laura, on the other hand, relaxed slightly upon seeing that the ominous shadow was nothing more than an old toy puppet.

Still, the lifeless eyes on the puppet's face unsettled her just a bit.

"I’m just saying, if we’re done filming, can we get out of this godforsaken house already? I’ve had enough of this stench—it’s like something’s rotting in here..."

The smell of a house abandoned for twenty years was bound to be unpleasant.

Watching Jamie, who was still filming with his DV camera, Susan spoke up impatiently.

"Wait a second."

Hearing Susan’s complaint, Jamie turned his focus back to the puppet in his hand. Looking at Shaun and the others, he bit his lip and said:

"This is where Mary Shaw used to live. Her spirit might still be lingering in the house. We can summon Mary Shaw’s ghost with a ritual."

Jamie was reluctant to give up. He had gone through so much trouble tracking down leads about the haunted nursery rhyme and locating Mary Shaw’s rumored residence—not just to shoot dull footage.

He needed explosive, paranormal content to boost views and spark discussions on YouTube. Jamie was determined to become a YouTube sensation.

"A summoning ritual?!"

Laura was the first to object.

Just entering the house to investigate was already pushing her limits; participating in a summoning ritual in this eerie place was out of the question.

"This isn’t what we agreed on, Jamie."

Susan frowned, her displeasure evident.

But the disapproval from the two girls didn’t waver Jamie’s resolve.

He pointed the camera at Mark, the afro-haired Black guy in the group, and goaded him: "What’s the matter, Mark? You’ve been saying Mary Shaw’s creepy nursery rhyme is nothing but a hoax. If that’s the case, why not try the ritual and find out the truth?"

"Or are you scared?"

"Scared? Me?!"

Jamie’s taunt, though basic, proved unexpectedly effective on Mark.

Mark’s face immediately soured as he glared into the camera. "Screw you, Jamie. A summoning ritual? Fine. Let’s see how you plan to bring Mary Shaw out!"

"What about you, Shaun?"

Jamie didn’t care about Mark’s irritation. His mind was preoccupied with capturing sensational footage to make this ghost-hunting video stand out.

"I..."

Shaun glanced at the group and hesitated when his eyes lingered on Jamie’s pleading expression behind the camera. Finally, he nodded reluctantly.

"We’ve already come this far. We can’t just leave empty-handed."

Even Shaun found their ghost-hunting so far boring. A video like this wouldn’t attract any attention online.

"Jamie’s summoning ritual is probably something he found on the internet. It’s likely just made-up nonsense," Shaun reassured Laura and the others while Jamie filmed himself setting up the ritual.

"You’ve seen how determined Jamie is to make his 'paranormal' video, so..."

After some persuasion from Shaun, Laura and the others reluctantly agreed to go along with Jamie’s plan, despite their lingering unease.

"All right, everyone," Jamie said as he finished setting up the ritual. "I need you all to stay still and not do anything unnecessary during the ritual. We’re summoning Mary Shaw’s ghost from the nursery rhyme. If we provoke her, we might become her next victims."

With the camera capturing every moment, Jamie warned them with a serious tone, particularly focusing on Laura’s frightened expression.

The group gathered in the living room on the first floor.

In the camera’s view, the dim light from pale candles flickered on the old dining table. At the center of the table, the wooden puppet they had found earlier sat motionless.

"According to the ritual, summoning a spirit requires an object they were familiar with in life as a vessel. This wooden puppet, found in Mary Shaw’s room, might have been hers. Using it increases our chances of summoning her."

Shaun placed the DV camera at an ideal angle to capture the entire process.

Jamie instructed everyone to join hands around the table, his voice hushed.

The flickering candlelight cast shadows on Jamie’s face, making his expression eerily distorted.

Laura, visibly uneasy, tried to pull her hand away, but Jamie immediately tightened his grip.

"The ritual has started!" Jamie warned. "Any interruption or mistake could anger Mary Shaw."

Laura froze, her fear growing as Jamie’s words sank in.

"Hurry it up. I want to see if Mary Shaw’s ghost actually shows up," Mark said impatiently.

"All right, let’s begin..."

Jamie glanced at the camera one last time before focusing on the puppet surrounded by candles. He took a deep breath and began the ritual chant in a monotone voice:

"Mary Shaw, Mary Shaw, heed our call..."

Everyone repeated: "Mary Shaw, Mary Shaw, heed our call..."

Jamie continued: "At this moment, appear before us. Answer our summoning..."

Everyone echoed: "At this moment, appear before us. Answer our summoning..."

---

(End of Chapter)  

*Chapter 128: Editing *

“Mary Shaw, Mary Shaw, hear my call…”

The monotonous incantation for summoning echoed incessantly within the abandoned wooden cabin.

Inside the dimly lit cabin, Jamie and his companions held hands, forming a circle around the dining table. Under the flickering candlelight, they chanted to summon Mary Shaw’s spirit.

On the table, the candle’s dancing flames cast interwoven shadows across the puppet’s body.

In the unsteady glow, the lifeless, coarse face of the clockwork puppet seemed to take on a subtly eerie and inexplicable quality.

“...”

The entire summoning ritual lasted about five minutes. Yet, aside from the crackling sound of the burning candles, nothing else happened in the wooden cabin.

Jamie, still murmuring the summoning prayer, cracked open his tightly shut eyes. He scanned the impatient faces of his companions, then glanced at the camera steadily capturing the scene. Gritting his teeth, he released Sean’s hand and reached toward the puppet sitting at the center of the candle circle.

Unbeknownst to Jamie, the very moment he let go—

The coarse face of the clockwork puppet subtly shifted, as its wooden eyeballs rotated ever so slightly in their hollow sockets.

Clatter!  

Jamie pushed the clockwork puppet off the table with his hand, producing a crisp knocking sound in the empty cabin.

The next second, Jamie gasped loudly, shouting as though he had no idea what had just happened.

“The puppet—the toy puppet in the candle moved!”

Hearing Jamie’s exclamation, Laura, already tense with fear, immediately let out a terrified scream.

With Laura’s shriek, everyone participating in the summoning ritual opened their eyes. They stared at the fallen puppet in the center of the candles, locking eyes with its lifeless gaze. Even Mark, who had always dismissed Mary Shaw’s creepy nursery rhyme as a hoax, turned visibly pale.

Meanwhile, the DV camera, its red light blinking, captured everything in the room.

---

Back in the car, Sean glared at Jamie, who sat unfazed. Sean’s frustration deepened as he looked at Laura, whose reddened eyes betrayed that she had been crying out of fear.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Jamie!” Sean snapped.

During the summoning ritual in the living room, Jamie’s actions may have been subtle, but they hadn’t escaped Sean’s notice while they were holding hands.

“I was just trying to spice things up for the shoot,” Jamie replied dismissively, casually holding the rough clockwork puppet they’d found in Mary Shaw’s house.

“Otherwise, with the footage we’ve got so far—this so-called paranormal investigation—it’s useless. Mary Shaw’s haunted nursery rhyme? Her abandoned house? Maybe Mark’s right—it’s all just a hoax. And here I was, completely convinced, running around trying to film a ghost-hunting video!”

Jamie clenched his jaw, thinking of the time he’d wasted obsessively digging up information on Mary Shaw. The result? Nothing but a few dull clips of an old abandoned cabin.

“But you didn’t need to deliberately push the puppet over during the summoning,” Sean pressed, his gaze falling on the clockwork puppet in Jamie’s hand. His tone grew sterner.

“I told you, it was for the effect!”

Jamie hadn’t taken the events of the ritual seriously, but Sean’s repeated admonishments began to irritate him.

“What are you two talking about?” Susan, who had been silently listening, finally caught on.

Looking at the puppet in Jamie’s hand, she said coldly, “You pushed the puppet over during the ritual? That’s disgusting, Jamie!”

“Wait until my video goes viral on YouTube,” Jamie shot back. “Let’s see if you’re still saying that.”

The ghost-hunting shoot ended in discord due to Jamie’s selfish actions. Yet, Jamie himself seemed indifferent.

---

Late at night, back in his New York apartment.

The clockwork puppet Jamie had brought from Mary Shaw’s cabin was carelessly tossed onto his bed.

Its head was tilted, lifeless eyes staring unblinkingly at Jamie, who was engrossed in editing footage on his computer.

“Let’s add some music here… and here…”

Jamie muttered to himself as he meticulously edited the video footage from the DV camera. Despite his on-camera assurances during the shoot that there would be no editing, such claims were merely lies to fool naive viewers and rake in clicks.

Adding eerie sound effects to one of the investigation clips, Jamie frowned and trimmed some of Susan’s scenes. Satisfied with the result, he clicked play to preview the segment. The visuals themselves weren’t inherently scary, but the unsettling music created an inexplicable sense of dread.

Grinning at his handiwork, Jamie continued editing. He finally arrived at the key footage of the living room summoning ritual.

The shaky camera, flickering candlelight, and chanting figures—all seemed normal in isolation. Even Jamie couldn’t find much to criticize.

Then the footage reached the part where Jamie’s hand pushed the puppet over.

“That definitely needs to be cut,” Jamie muttered, pausing the video.

With practiced ease, he trimmed out the incriminating scene, adjusted the timestamps, and replayed the segment. After carefully reviewing it several times to ensure there were no mistakes, he exhaled in relief.

Stretching his stiff neck, his gaze drifted back to the video. Something peculiar caught his eye.

“Wait… were the puppet’s eyes always looking that way?”

Rewatching the footage, Jamie noticed the puppet’s eyes had shifted slightly upward during the scene. His heart skipped a beat.

“What the hell?”

As he replayed the clip, the puppet’s previously motionless eyes visibly moved upward in sync with Laura’s scream.

“This… this can’t be happening…”

A chill ran down Jamie’s spine as the realization sank in. His scalp prickled with unease.

Click… click…  

Behind him, the unmistakable sound of clockwork winding up broke the silence.

---

(End of Chapter)

*Chapter 129: The Video*

“Jamie, why did you call me out so late?”

Late at night, Sean received a call from Jamie, asking to meet him.

“Can’t this wait until tomorrow?”

Under the streetlight, Jamie’s figure appeared blurry, prompting Sean to voice his irritation.

“I’ve finished editing the ghost-hunting footage from before.”

Ignoring Sean’s confusion, Jamie began speaking as if to himself.

“Really...”

Sean nodded instinctively, unsure of how to respond. Remembering the argument in the car during the shoot, he said, “Maybe, Jamie, you should consider apologizing to Laura and the others. Some of the things you did during the shoot were definitely out of line.”

“The video is incredible—beyond imagination. I can’t wait for more people to see it.”

Jamie’s shadow twisted slightly under the streetlamp, his tone stiff as he continued.

“Are you even listening to me, Jamie?”

Noticing that Jamie showed no intention of paying attention, Sean frowned with displeasure and stepped closer.

“They’ll love the video I shot. I’ll become a YouTube sensation...”

As Jamie murmured in his unnatural tone, Sean moved nearer to the streetlamp.

However, as Jamie’s figure grew clearer under the light, Sean’s expression turned to horror.

Under the lamp, Jamie’s mouth moved mechanically, revealing a rigid, lifeless face.

Creak... creak...  

At the same time, the sound of winding gears came from behind him.

---

“Another low-budget, poorly made video.”

“Do these so-called content creators ever think about how something this amateurish could be called terrifying or thrilling?”

Leaving a “trash” comment below the video, George’s face remained filled with dissatisfaction as he grumbled.

In recent years, with YouTube’s rapid growth as a video platform, more and more young people like George had abandoned TV in favor of online videos.

Through YouTube, they could find a variety of content to suit their tastes.

For George, his favorite videos were in the horror and exploration genre.

However, most of the videos he came across, like the one he had just watched, turned out to be misleading and fake ghost hunts.

Still muttering complaints, George’s fingers moved swiftly on his mouse, scrolling through YouTube.

Suddenly, a chilling thumbnail caught his eye.

“*Summoning: Calling Spirits in the Haunted Home of Mary Shaw*”

Reading the title aloud instinctively, George’s interest was piqued.

Without hesitation, he clicked on the video.

“Mary Shaw, Mary Shaw, heed my call...”

“Appear before us now and respond to our summons...”

The video began with a séance chant.

George nodded approvingly as he watched the blurry footage showing figures gathered around candles.

“This is more like it.”

At least, the content seemed more authentic than the poorly made short videos he had seen earlier.

“But this filming style feels a lot like The Blair Witch Project...”

As the ritual scene continued for five or six minutes, George found his attention wandering to the filming technique.

It reminded him of the famous found-footage movie The Blair Witch Project.

It was worth mentioning that George was a firm believer in the “Witch Theory”—he rejected the studio’s claims and government marketing, believing the movie was a cover-up, and even considered the director and writer as mere decoys.

Shaking off thoughts about The Blair Witch Project, George refocused on the video.

The séance went on for minutes, and the repetitive scene began to test George’s patience. He glanced at the video’s duration bar but hesitated to skip ahead.

“A puppet! The wooden doll in the candlelight just moved!”

A minute later, shouts in the video drew George’s attention. The camera zoomed shakily toward the fallen doll in the center of the candles.

“That’s it?”

From the chanting to the doll falling over, the video had a mildly eerie vibe. But for a horror enthusiast like George, it felt far too ordinary.

Clicking his tongue, George was about to leave a comment when a specific one caught his eye.

“Terrifying! Did anyone else notice the puppet’s eyes seemed to move?”

The puppet’s eyes moved?

Surprised, George hadn’t noticed that detail.

Curious, he rewound the video, replaying the scene just before the doll fell. This time, he watched the puppet’s eyes intently.

“A puppet! The wooden doll in the candlelight just moved!”

With the video replayed, George finally saw it—the lifeless eyes of the puppet shifted upward ever so slightly.

“It’s true! The puppet’s eyes really moved.”

His initial shock gave way to excitement as he scrolled through the comments. Many viewers mentioned the same observation.

“Maybe it’s just a trick of the camera angle.”

“Could it be CGI?”

Skeptical comments filled the replies, but George wasn’t convinced.

“You know, if you keep rewatching the video, the puppet’s eyes seem to move even more.”

Suddenly, a new comment appeared, followed by another from the same user:

“Whatever you do, don’t keep staring at the puppet’s eyes in the video. Don’t!”

“Don’t stare at the puppet?”

Intrigued rather than scared, George decided to watch the video a third time.

Armed with his previous observations, George noticed something odd. This time, the puppet’s eyes seemed to shift even further, as though they were now looking directly at him through the screen.

“That’s impossible.”

Laughing off his own thoughts, George dismissed the notion. Even CGI couldn’t alter playback dynamically.

But as the video froze on the puppet’s close-up, a deep unease crept over him.

He reached out to close the video, but his arm felt heavy and unresponsive.

Creak... creak...  

A sound, like the winding of gears, echoed eerily from behind him.

---

*Chapter 130: The Agency*

"Target sighted!"

In New York, inside a small, temporarily arranged room at the corner of a street, Amanda stood in a simple yet elegant suit, silently observing the street corner through her binoculars.

Through the binoculars, she saw a blonde man in a suit vest, carrying a folded newspaper under his arm. The man arrived at the agency’s entrance, unlocked the door with ease, and flipped the hanging sign to "Open" before stepping inside. As he opened the door, he suddenly turned his head, glancing in Amanda’s direction with a knowing smile.

"Has he already noticed me?"

Seeing the man’s expression through her binoculars, Amanda muttered to herself as an absurd thought crossed her mind.

"That’s impossible. We’re observing from a concealed room, at least two to three hundred meters away from the agency," Agent Zhou responded, frowning at Amanda’s words.

"Don’t forget, this target isn’t just an ordinary person," Amanda said calmly as she lowered the binoculars.

"…"

Realizing the implication, Zhou quickly turned to another agent in the room, Angela, and asked, "Can you identify the target’s information?"

Wearing her BSI uniform, Angela compared the photo on her laptop to the man they were observing and began searching.

"According to the FBI database, the man at the agency should be our target: Jane Speck…"

A few minutes later, a file on Jane Speck appeared on Angela’s screen.

"Jane Speck. Records show he used to be a well-known medium in California with a solid financial standing. He was invited by local police on several occasions to assist in solving cases with his abilities. However, five years ago, Speck publicly denied his status as a medium during a live TV program, calling it all a hoax. After that, he disappeared from public view—until now."

Reading from the file, Angela continued, "The records also show that Speck was married and had a daughter, but both his wife and daughter were killed in an accident five years ago."

As Angela read aloud, Amanda’s expression shifted slightly, particularly when she heard about the tragic loss of Speck’s family. She glanced at the agency across the street and made a firm decision.

"Inform Phil. I’m going in to make contact with the target."

"Understood, ma’am."

Angela quickly relayed Amanda’s instructions to Phil, another BSI agent stationed nearby.

"Are you sure you don’t want me to accompany you?" Zhou asked hesitantly.

"This is just a simple contact," Amanda replied, shaking her head with a calm demeanor. She touched the necklace around her neck and added, "We need a guide to navigate the supernatural."

Originally, Father Merlin from Springwood was Amanda’s ideal guide, but…

Suppressing her complicated emotions, Amanda took a deep breath, nodded at Zhou and Angela, and walked out of the room.

"I heard the boss is the most experienced investigator in BSI when it comes to supernatural cases," Angela remarked, watching Amanda leave.

"I hope you never reach that point," Zhou said coldly.

"Why not?" Angela asked, puzzled.

"Because it would mean supernatural incidents are becoming even more frequent," Zhou replied gravely.

Having experienced such cases firsthand, Zhou understood the immense danger they posed.

---

Amanda stepped out of the temporary room and made her way to the agency. She scanned her surroundings and briefly locked eyes with Phil, who was stationed in a nearby café for surveillance.

"What’s the target’s current status?" Amanda asked quietly through her earpiece.

"Since entering the agency, he hasn’t come out," Phil replied, casually sipping his coffee to mask his conversation.

"Start a five-minute countdown from the moment I enter. If I don’t respond within that time, move in," Amanda instructed.

"Understood."

Phil’s expression turned serious. He glanced at his watch and began silently counting down as Amanda approached the agency.

Amanda retrieved an old, yellowed business card from her pocket—the one she had received from Father Merlin back in Springwood. She looked up at the agency’s sign.

*Speck Agency*

---