The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-53

Chapter 53: The Truth?

“Angus?” Hao Ren recognized the man ahead from his back. His dumpy figure and the slightly bald patch on the back of his head had left a deep impression on Hao Ren. “He’s the one creating all this mess?”

Angus had yet to notice what was behind him. His attention was fully focused on the dark, stone wall in front of him. The towering stone wall blocked the tunnel, turning it into a dead end. Angus was anxiously leaning on the stone wall, groping for any hidden buttons or exits but it all seemed like a waste of effort. It was unclear how long he had been struggling there.

Angus was wearing a headlamp and carrying a strange black box on his back, which looked like a self-powered stereo. He was obviously not there by accident. He was in fact, entering the place for a purpose. Angus was the first person who reported the incident of the strange sound coming from the chapel. It was so obvious that Hao Ren immediately associated him with the incident. He walked two steps forward without covering up his footsteps and finally got Angus’s attention. The tubby boss shivered furiously when he heard the movement behind his back and froze like he was just shocked by electricity. The three of them waited patiently for a few seconds. Angus finally turned around like a stiff puppet, still trembling.

When the beam of his headlamp swept across the dark tunnel, the owner saw a dark cloud of undulating fog swarming before him. He was shocked and let out a piercing shriek. “Ahh!” This was definitely not a scene a normal man could take.

The sudden screams of the lodge owner frightened Hao Ren. Now, both of them were frightened by each other. Vivian waved him quiet with her hand. She then cleared her throat, speaking in a sharp and weird tone, “What are you doing here?”

Hao Ren threw Vivian a weird look and thought, ” Such a crafty vampire. You even got an audio mixer in you.”

Angus was shivering even more when he heard the scary sound coming from the dark fog. He forgot to answer Vivian’s question but kept making the sign of the cross. He was sweating heavily while saying, “God, protect me. God, please save me… I didn’t do anything bad… I did nothing bad…”

“I’m asking you. What are you jabbering about?” Vivian spoke with her devilish voice in an uncouth manner. “Hey, can you please stop trembling? I will release the dog if you don’t cooperate!”

Hao Ren thought for a few seconds and pulled Vivian’s sleeve as he whispered, “…You can’t communicate with anyone here with that level of English.”

Vivian was silent.

“Let me ask him.” Hao Ren could not help but push the silly vampire aside. He knew that it was better to disguise his voice as well. Therefore, he communicated with the Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) in his head and asked, “Can you alter my voice? Like Vivian did hers.”

“Alter your voice? R-CH-365B plug-in installed. Now, nobody can recognize your voice.”

Hao Ren felt the air in front of him was condensed in a strange way. He quietly thanked the advanced technology of aliens and said, “What are you doing here?” His voice echoed through the tunnel like a dull thunder.

After finishing his sentence, Vivian poked his back and said, “Hey, do you have to exaggerate so much? You sound like a villain.”

Hao Ren helplessly expressed that he could not control the alien digital assistant. None of its functions actually worked well!

Even though the fake voice created by the MDT was a little too much, the coercive evil voice successfully frightened the lodge owner. Angus was pulled out of his incoherent praying right away. He sat on the floor and begged, “O honorable souls of the knights, I’m just a small businessman living nearby. I didn’t mean to disturb you… I live near Yorkford. Yes, I’m from Yorkford, under your reign. Can you please let me go by virtue of The Knight’s Code?”

Evidently, Angus took the dark fog in front of him and the horrible voices coming from it for the real ghosts. Though he was the man behind the scenes, he did not look daring at all. He lost his head easily when faced with an unusual situation.

Hao Ren thought it was all just a misunderstanding at that moment. Therefore, he did not expose himself and continued asking, “Are you playing tricks in the castle everyday? Were you the one responsible for the mess in the castle during these past two days?”

Angus was surprised that the dark fog could talk to him. Although he was still trembling, he became calmer when he found that the ‘evil ghost’ could possibly communicate with him. “It was… It was me but I did it inside the castle. I didn’t mean to alarm the souls beneath…”

“Why are you doing this?”

Angus wondered why the ‘ghost knight’ in the dark fog was curious about what he was doing. However, he dared not ask too much. He just answered whatever questions that were thrown at him. “My lodge was going out of business so I wanted to create some kind of hype… but I didn’t expect it to become so famous!”

The truth had come to light.

The uproarious case of Yorkford’s haunted castle was just a fraud. It was fake news created by a bleak business owner in order to attract tourists. Perhaps Angus did not expect things to go so far. Apparently, he underestimated the power of idle media and the strong execution of the ghost hunters. It was beyond his expectation that a small case of a haunted castle would be magnified on TV and developed to such an extent..

Hao Ren took advantage of the lodge owner’s cooperativeness and grabbed the chance to get more details on the night’s happenings. The details of his tricks were getting clearer little by little. The will-o’-the-wisp which appeared in the castle was just a light set up in the crack of a rock earlier. And the howling of the wind echoing through the castle was simply coming from the big speaker box on his back. Everything was just so ridiculous.

Angus was an old resident in the town of Brewshire. He had been living there since he was little. He was mischievous and he used to run around the town when he was a teenager. During that time, he used to explore the castle frequently. That was when he discovered the crypt under the castle which somehow had not collapsed. This was a secret that nobody knew.

The remote town rarely attracted visitors. Though the situation was not too bad many years ago, things were going downhill in recent years. It was difficult to maintain the business. When the lodge almost went out of business, Angus finally drew his attention to the old castle.

Brewshire was not a business hub or near the thoroughfare. It did not have any special products as well. The only possible way to attract visitors was the old castle. If the castle became a tourist spot, the business problem could then be easily solved.

Hence, Angus got this daring idea: the haunted castle. All that mattered was to make it famous.

The tricks were carried out according to his plans during the past few days. He was familiar with the structure of the castle and knew where to hide the props. Also, he was cautious of its surroundings. He could always pack his things up and leave the spot before the daring ghost hunters entered the ruins. The secret tunnels and doors under the castle were another advantage for him. Even when people suddenly popped up in the castle, he could always leave the spot or hide himself via the secret doors hidden in the castle. No one was aware of the secret doors or tunnels in the castle at all.

Through Angus’s hard work, every curious tourist who visited the castle would get him free publicity. As such, the rumor of Yorkford’s haunted castle was spread fast. Of course, another reason that allowed the rumor to continue developing was people’s boredom in general. People did not mind visiting fake haunted houses in the park, not to mention a ‘real’ haunted castle.

Now, there was one bizarre incident left unsolved. When Angus reported the hauntings to the police, he mentioned a case where, “…many had seen the blaze coming from the castle.” It was not one of his fabrications and he was so confident about witnessing the big fire even when facing Hao Ren. The bizarre fire was in fact, the inspiration for the idea of a haunted castle.

What happened to the fire then?

The castle was dozens of kilometers away from Brewshire. Even if there were only plains and nothing blocking the castle along the way, it was almost impossible to see a fire on the castle from the town. How big was the fire on the castle that people from town could see it from such a distance? The fire would have probably set the entire hill ablaze.

However, there was no way of knowing the details. Angus had no idea as well. They could then confirm that other than the fire, the rest was fake and Angus was the man behind them.

People were nosy. If someone claimed to see a UFO, the people around would automatically follow each others’ gazes and agree with it. Angus did not expect to have no one debunking the fraud. This allowed the story to keep going on.

Angus had no way of backing down and just kept the ball rolling.

However, was it really all just a fraud?