Demons Beside You

Laurent came to an abandoned and remote neighborhood. There was no one here.

He took out his phone. “Pamela, I"m outside the neighborhood.”

“Okay, wait there for me.”

A moment later, an old woman came outside. Her face was extremely pale and her hair was messy. She wore a flowery dress that looked ancient. She was like a ghost from movies.

“F*ck… You…” Seeing her, Laurent wanted to turn and run.

“Laurent, come back.” The woman couldn"t catch up, so she could only yell from the back. “It"s me, Pamela.”

Hearing her voice, Laurent stopped and looked at her hesitantly.

“You"re Pamela?”

“You really are Pamela?”

“Yes.”

Laurent studied the old woman before him.

He honestly couldn"t believe that the pretty woman from 20 years ago would turn into this state.

However, she really did have traces of Pamela.

“How did you turn into this?”

Pamela was a few years younger than him. How could she look so old?

Pamela straightened and ripped off the fake mask she had on.

She instantly brightened. Even though she was a bit older, she wasn"t as scary as before.

“Why did you do that to yourself?” Laurent finally confirmed that it was Pamela.

“I can"t help it,” Pamela said helplessly. “For our field, you have to do that to make people believe you"re an experienced spiritualist.”

“So are you?”

“Of course.”

Laurent still doubted it. Pamela had said that she was a spiritualist since they first met each other, but he still didn"t really believe it.

“Come. Let"s go inside to talk.”

Laurent followed behind Pamela and looked at the barren neighborhood.

He was pretty sure that no one lived here.

Rather, Pamela lived here by herself.

“How come you live here?”

“Duh, have you ever seen a spiritualist live in a fancy apartment? Plus, the rent for here is only $300 per month.”

Laurent felt that the second was the true reason.

“And most people feel like old witches should live in places like this, right?”

Pamela pushed open the door. Laurent pressed the light switch, but no light came on.

“How come it"s not on? Is it broken?”

“No electricity.”

“No electricity? Do you get blackouts often?”

“They"ve turned off the electricity for this neighborhood long ago.”

“Then, how do you live? You can"t even cook, right?”

“Food delivery.” Pamela"s answer destroyed all of her mysteriousness.

While speaking, she pulled aside the curtains.

The living room was instantly brighter.

There were many strange items in the living room, along with some bookshelves.

“I have to stay mysterious when people visit me usually, so the room has to be dark,” Pamela said. “Oh, why did you come and find me this time?”

“You really are a spiritualist, right?”

“Of course. Are you doubting me?”

“Then, can you summon spirits?” Laurent asked.

“That"s what a deathspeaker does. I can"t do it.”

“Then, what can you do?”

“If you want to summon spirits, I can introduce you to someone, but I need to take a fee.”

Laurent was speechless. “Can you do curses?”

“Those are poison spiritualists.” Pamela looked at him. “Do you have some enemy?”

“I have a mortal enemy.”

“How bad is it?”

“He stole my daughter.”

Pamela almost flipped the table over.

After all this time, it"s your son-in-law, right?

“If you can take care of him for me, I"ll pay you $10,000.”

Hearing $10,000, Pamela was tempted.

“To what extent? Kill him?”

“That"s not necessary. Just scare him. It"s best if he can surrender to me.”

Pamela finally understood.

It was just an in-law rivalry.

She thought about it. “How about this? Bring him to my neighborhood. Oh, it has to be at midnight.”

“Why?” Laurent asked. “Are we going to have people hide here? That"s not necessary. That guy is really good at fighting. Even a dozen guys won"t be able to beat him.”

“I"m not that lowly. Plus, hiring hitters costs money.”

“Then, what do you have planned?”

Pamela lowered her head. “Do you know why this place is empty?”

Laurent thought about it.

When he came in, the infrastructure along the way were all preserved well.

Leaves covered the street because no one maintained it, but there didn"t seem to be any other problems.

“Why?”

“Twelve years ago, there was an epidemic here.”

“Epidemic? This is America. Are you sure you"re not joking?”

“Do I look like I"m joking?”

“Yes.”

“I"m serious.” Pamela looked at him seriously. “The media didn"t report it, because they didn"t want to cause panic.”

“Then what?”

“More than 100 people died in the epidemic.”

“Are you saying it"s haunted?”

“Later, developers bought the land from the government for a new project, but accidents kept happening, so the project had to stop.”

“Are there really ghosts?”

“Even I"m too scared to go out at night,” Pamela said.

“Is it really that scary?”

“Of course.”

“If I call that *sshole here, will he die here?”

“That"s why you should call him here at midnight. Usually, the evil spirits that walk around will hide after one a.m. They won"t cause trouble. Also, having him come alone is the safest. If there are two people, the evil spirits might possess or trick one to make them kill each other.”

“Are you sure it"s okay?”

“It"s okay. I"ve lived here for so long and figured everything out.”

Pamela looked confidently at Laurent. “Oh, right. Order food delivery.”

“Why?”

“Aren"t you going to eat dinner?”

“I didn"t say I"ll stay,” Laurent said.

“You don"t want to stay and see your in-law cry in fear?”

Laurent looked at Pamela. “You just want to get free food, right?”

“It"s getting late,” Pamela said. “Hurry and call for food, or else they won"t come if it"s too late.”

Laurent picked up his phone and ordered two food deliveries.

When he hung up, he saw a key hanging from Pamela"s neck.

“What"s that key for?”