Chapter 7

When they returned to the first floor, everyone had already surrounded Rachel in a circle.

The living room lights were clearly a warm yellow, but for some reason, they cast a cold and eerie feeling on everyone.

Everyone was waiting for Rachel to speak, an invisible pressure and tense atmosphere lingering in everyone's hearts.

Charles walked over, casually pulled up a chair, and sat opposite Rachel.

He lowered his voice and asked as gently as possible, "Rachel, you just said the patient spoke. What did he say?"

Hearing the word "patient," Rachel's face, which had just regained some color, turned pale again.

She twisted her blonde hair around her fingers, pulling hard as if it wasn't her own hair.

"I, I was feeding him.

"But somehow, every spoonful I fed him, he spat out. I thought it was because of his posture, so I couldn't get the food in.

"So I got up to raise his bed a bit higher, but my clothes were grabbed.

"I thought they were caught on the bed, but when I turned around, it was the patient who had opened his eyes and grabbed me!"

Rachel said all this in one breath, gasping heavily, and a strand of hair was pulled out from her fingers.

Jeffrey straightened up after hearing this.

"Are you hallucinating? It's already weird enough for a vegetable to talk, why didn't you mention he opened his eyes and grabbed you?"

Charles frowned and glanced back at Jeffrey, who shrank his neck and stopped talking.

"Then, what did he say?" Charles continued in a low voice.

Rachel took a deep breath, her eyes gradually becoming vacant as she recalled. "That's when I got so scared I dropped the bowl on the floor."

"My instinct was to run, but he was too strong, gripping my clothes tightly and not letting go."

"Then, then..."

Gerald frowned tightly and urged, "Then what? What did he say?"

Rachel looked up and stared out the window.

"He told me to get out! Get out, get out, get out!"

A flash of lightning illuminated Rachel's eerily smiling profile.

Boom!

A thunderclap exploded outside the house.

Madeline was so frightened she stood up, and the chair crashed heavily to the floor.

"Fuck, that thunder is too fitting."

The thunder drowned out Rachel's low sobs, and no one noticed her deteriorating mental state.

Charles walked to the window, where raindrops and the wind made the window rattle loudly.

He opened the window slightly, and the cold wind rushed into the room, making the curtains flutter like flags.

"The rainy season is here."

He lowered his head and started biting his nails, his expression becoming serious.

'Could it be a prophecy? But why?'

Earlier, during his conversation with everyone, Charles discovered that each person had received an invitation letter to come here.

But the light green note with a postscript was only given to him.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Charles chose to keep this secret to himself.

Looking back at the whispering crowd, he suddenly slammed the window shut and even locked it.

"Alright, someone else will take care of the patient tomorrow. Maybe he just doesn't want Rachel to feed him."

"Tomorrow morning, blend the food finer to make it easier for the patient to eat."

"Have you all decided on the room assignments?"

Charles's question stunned the group who had been discussing.

After tonight's events, no one wanted to sleep alone in a room.

Emily, trembling, shook Madeline's arm, "Madeline, can I sleep with you? I'm scared."

Everyone had seen the rooms before; although they were single beds, they were big enough for two girls to share.

But Madeline looked at Piper with some difficulty, as they had been close on the boat.

Piper glanced at Rachel, walked over, and patted Madeline's hand.

"It's okay, you stay with Emily. I'll share a room with Rachel."

But Rachel turned her back and coldly replied, "I don't want to share a bed with a stranger."

Seeing Piper's eyes redden again, everyone became even more puzzled by Rachel's behavior.

The storm outside showed no signs of stopping, and everyone simultaneously fell silent.

In the dark night and the unfamiliar house, it seemed as if something was always watching everything.