Lorraine swallowed hard, her eyes wide as she stared blankly across the room, the weight of what was happening sinking in.
This wasn't just about the Perron family anymore.
Bathsheba's reach was stretching—targeting her daughter now.
Somehow, the witch's hatred had latched onto Lorraine… because she was standing in her way by trying to protect Perron's Family.
"____"
But what shocked her was how Bathsheba was able to reach Judy like it was a simple matter to her.
"Sweetheart,"
she said softly, forcing calm into her voice.
"Stay with your nanny. Don't go near the basement. I'll be home soon, I promise. Everything's going to be okay."
"Mom… I was scared,"
Judy whispered, her voice cracking.
"I know, baby. I know. But you're strong. Just like your father used to say."
Lorraine's eyes welled up for a moment, but she quickly blinked it away.
As the call ended, she stood there frozen.
The receiver slowly dropped from her hand and clattered onto the table.
As Lorraine stood frozen, visibly shaken, still reeling from the call with her daughter, the mood in the Perron farmhouse shifted entirely.
Even without hearing the full conversation, the weight of her expression was enough to send a ripple of unease through the room.
Carolyn clutched her children a little tighter.
"____"
"____"
"____"
Roger furrowed his brow and looked between Jojo and Lorraine, concern deepening on his face.
The girls—
April, Nancy, Cindy, Andrea—
all exchanged worried glances, sensing the tension crackling in the air.
Something very bad had just happened.
Lorraine took a shaky step back from the phone, her lips slightly parted, eyes darting between everyone as if unsure of what to do next.
Before she could say anything, Jojo gently stepped forward, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"I'll go with you,"
he said calmly but firmly.
"Your daughter needs you. If she's involved already."
Lorraine met his eyes, and for the first time since the call, she didn't look scared—
she looked grateful.
Turning to the rest of the group, Jojo continued,
"Freya and Leah can handle things here for the time being. You're safe with them. Trust me."
Freya raised an eyebrow slightly, a question forming in her eyes,
but before she could say anything, Jojo walked up to her, arms wide, and pulled her into a warm hug.
Then, without saying a word, he leaned down and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek.
Her cheeks flushed slightly, but before she could respond, he leaned in close and whispered a single name:
"Carolyn."
Freya blinked.
"____"
Jojo stepped back, meeting her eyes with a look serious.
Freya's expression tightened immediately.
She understood.
That name wasn't just a reminder—it was a warning.
With a sharp nod, she whispered back,
Nod~
"Go. We've got this."
Leah gave a thumbs-up from across the room with a cheeky little grin.
"I'll keep this haunted ship afloat, Captain."
Jojo smirked briefly, then turned back to Lorraine, who was already gathering her tools with quiet urgency.
Together, the two stepped out of the farmhouse, the storm still rolling above them, as they made their way toward the car—
racing back to protect what mattered most.
Meanwhile, inside the Perron home, Freya's sharp eyes landed on Carolyn, who was shifting uncomfortably in her seat.
Something had changed.
Something subtle.
Freya narrowed her eyes.
"Let's keep an eye on Mama Bear,"
she murmured to Leah.
"Already on it,"
Leah replied, cracking her knuckles.
After two long, tense hours of travel, the car finally pulled up in front of Lorraine's house.
Lorraine's house...
The storm clouds still lingered in the sky, casting a gloomy hue over the home, but Jojo could already tell—
something was different.
The moment the car stopped, Lorraine jumped out and bolted toward the house, her heart pounding.
Jojo followed closely behind, his senses alert, eyes scanning the surroundings.
As his feet touched the threshold of the house, he instinctively activated his X-ray Sight, and also tried to sense any sins what he saw made his brows furrow even deeper—
there was no significant supernatural presence here anymore…
only a faint, fading trail of cursed energy, like something had been here but was now gone.
Lingering, but not active.
Not anymore.
Meanwhile, upstairs, Judy sat on her bed tightly hugging her knees.
The nanny, equally pale and rattled, sat beside her with an arm around the girl,
both of them jumping slightly at the sound of hurried footsteps and a familiar knock on the bedroom door.
Knock~ Knock~
"Judy, sweetheart—it's Mommy. Open the door, baby."
The door creaked open slowly, and Judy's teary eyes met her mother's.
"Mom!"
she cried, immediately throwing herself into Lorraine's arms.
Lorraine caught her in a tight embrace, brushing her daughter's hair back as she whispered,
"I'm here, I'm here now. You're safe."
Jojo stepped into the room quietly, giving the nanny a small nod of acknowledgement before surveying the space.
His eyes drifted toward the far corner of the room—
the chair.
Or, what remained of it?
The shattered wood and splinters scattered across the floor told him everything he needed to know.
"She… she was holding Annabelle,"
Judy sobbed into her mother's shoulder.
"Downstairs… in the room you said I should never go."
Lorraine's body stiffened slightly, her jaw clenched.
That room was blessed regularly.
There were protections in place.
'How did she get in?'
Jojo's eyes met Lorraine's from across the room, and he shook his head slightly.
"No presence now,"
he mouthed.
"Just a trace."
Lorraine hugged her daughter tighter, then looked toward the nanny.
"Did anything else happen after that?"
The nanny shook her head, still shaken.
"Just… just the chair. She screamed, and I ran. When I pulled her out, the chair slammed itself into the wall like someone was furious. Then it all just… stopped."
Jojo turned, his gaze shifting toward the hallway and down toward the basement.
That faint cursed trail—
it was coming from there.
He gave Lorraine a small nod.
"Let's check the basement. Together."
Lorraine kissed her daughter's forehead and handed her gently to the nanny.
"Stay here. Don't leave this room."
Judy clung to her mother's hand for a second before letting go.
Then Lorraine and Jojo turned and headed downstairs—
toward the room where all cursed things were locked away.
When Lorraine unlocked the heavy door to the artefact room, a deep sense of dread welled in her chest.
She hesitated for just a second before stepping in, Jojo right behind her.
Creak~
But the moment the door creaked fully open, both of them froze.
"____"
"____"
The room was empty.
Completely.
All the carefully secured, cursed and possessed items that Lorraine and her husband had collected over the years—
each sealed in protective cases, each regularly blessed and contained—
were gone.
Vanished.
As if someone had swept through and erased every trace of them.
The sanctified crucifixes still hung on the walls, but their protective aura had dulled, like the blessing had been drained or wiped away.
Holy water vials were shattered.
Salt lines disturbed.
But the most chilling sight of all was at the far end of the room.
Annabelle's glass chamber—shattered.
Empty.
The doll, infamous even among the cursed, was gone.
Lorraine stumbled back a step, one hand covering her mouth as her heart thudded loudly in her ears.
Jojo's eyes widened slightly, his usual calm shaken.
He had already expected it when he couldn't sense any sins.
'This… this didn't happen in the original timeline,'
he thought grimly.
'This is something new.'
He stepped into the room cautiously, his eyes scanning for residual energy, tracing every disturbance he could find with his senses.
There were trails—lots of trails—spiraling out from the center, as if multiple cursed objects had moved at once.
And all of them... seemed to lead out.
"They're not destroyed,"
Jojo said lowly, thinking aloud.
"They were taken."
Lorraine turned to him sharply.
"But who could've done this? These protections—they're layered in blessing after blessing. Edward and I worked on this together. We checked everything weekly."
Jojo didn't answer immediately.
His eyes locked on the far corner, where a smear of black mist barely lingered in the air, too faint to catch with normal senses.
"There's only one way this makes sense,"
he murmured.
"Someone—or something—bypassed the holy seals without breaking them from the outside. They didn't invade the room…"
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"…they were already inside."
Lorraine's face went pale.
"You think something was hiding in one of the items?"
Jojo nodded slowly.
"And now they've taken the others. Either to use them… or to unleash them."
A cold silence fell between them.
Then Jojo's expression shifted—his eyes narrowed in focus.
"This isn't just Bathsheba anymore,"
he muttered.
"Something else is in play. Something bigger."
He turned to Lorraine, his tone serious now.
"We need to figure out what's been taken, how long this has been going on… and we need to prepare. If they've released these things into the world again…"
Lorraine, recovering from the initial shock, took a breath and nodded.
Lorraine barely had time to process what Jojo meant by "prepare" before he stepped forward into the centre of the room.
He lifted his right hand and with a single deep breath—
WHOOSH.
A sudden burst of wind and heat surged through the room.
Flames erupted along his body, crawling up his arms like serpents of molten fire.
His skin blackened, cracked, and peeled away—
revealing bone underneath.
His eyes ignited with a hellish blaze as his entire head caught fire, transforming into a flaming skull.
Lorraine gasped, instinctively stepping back, her eyes wide with horror and disbelief.
"J-Jojo…?"
But Jojo was gone.
In his place stood a towering figure wreathed in fire—
the Ghost Rider.
The room trembled under the force of his presence, the remaining holy relics reacting, rattling slightly in their spots even though they weren't cursed themselves.
The Ghost Rider tilted his flaming skull toward the centre of the room, then knelt—
his fiery hand pressing against the floor.
The flames dimmed for a moment, turning a smoky blue as he tried to read the residual essence.
But… nothing.
He rose slowly, his voice a deep, echoing growl, not of this world:
"I SENSE… NOTHING."
"NO SIN… NO MALEVOLENCE… NO PRESENCE."
"ONLY SHADOWS… AS IF THEY NEVER EXISTED."
The flames around him burned more intensely, frustrated by the absence of any spiritual imprint.
"SOMETHING POWERFUL TOOK THEM. SOMETHING THAT CAN HIDE FROM HELL ITSELF."
Lorraine was frozen, torn between awe and fear.
She had seen many spirits, few demon possessions—
but never anything like this.
The monster before her was the one that overlapped with Jojo when she first looked at him.
Still, despite her shock, she slowly stepped forward.
"…Jojo?"
she whispered.
The Ghost Rider turned toward her, flames dimming slightly.
Then, with a low whoomph, the fire receded, flesh returned, and Jojo stood once more—
his jacket still smoldering slightly, but eyes calm.
"I'm here,"
he said softly, looking at her with concern.
"Sorry, I didn't warn you about that. You alright?"
Lorraine blinked hard, steadying herself with a hand against the doorframe.
"____"
"You… what was that?"
Jojo gave her a half-smile.
"Didn't I say I am the spirit of vengeance?"
Walking out of the wrecked, eerily silent room, Jojo's expression was grim, the weight of the situation pressing on him like a heavy cloak.
Lorraine followed close behind, still shaken, constantly glancing back at the empty chamber where once lay the most cursed objects she'd painstakingly sealed away.
Jojo stopped at the top of the staircase and turned to her, his tone calm but resolute.
"We're not leaving them here."
Lorraine blinked.
"What?"
Jojo motioned down the stairs, where Judy and the nanny stood quietly—
Judy clutched her stuffed toy, her eyes wide and red-rimmed from crying.
The nanny kept a protective hand on her shoulder.
"Let's not take any chances,"
Jojo said firmly.
"Bathsheba already broke once. We don't know how she reached all the way here, or who helped her. But one thing's for sure—"
He glanced toward Judy.
"She might try again. And I'm not letting a little girl be part of this witch's sick game."
Lorraine hesitated, torn.
"But what if she comes after the Perrons again?"
Jojo gave a slight nod.
Nod~
"She will. But that's what Freya and Leah are for. And I'll return with you. Right now, Judy needs to be with you."
Lorraine's grip tightened on the bannister, and then after a long pause, she nodded.
"You're right."
Without another word, Jojo headed down the stairs and gently approached Judy.
"Hey, champ,"
he said, kneeling down to her level with a soft smile.
"Wanna come on a little trip with us? Somewhere safer."
Judy nodded silently and took his hand.
As they left the house and packed into the car once more, the skies above rumbled ominously.
Perron family farmhouse...
The atmosphere inside was tense and quiet.
The storm outside hadn't let up—
heavy rain thudded against the roof, and the wind whispered through the old wooden walls like a warning from the shadows.
All members of the Perron family were gathered in the living room, seated on the ageing couch and a few chairs pulled from the dining room.
Carolyn sat in the middle, her expression pale and withdrawn, her fingers intertwined nervously in her lap.
Freya leaned casually against the wall near the fireplace, pretending to examine the old photographs lined on the mantel.
Leah sat cross-legged on a nearby stool, sketching something absently into a notebook.
But both were keeping a close, careful eye on Carolyn, watching for any sudden changes—
any signs of possession or manipulation.
Roger shifted uncomfortably and tried to start a conversation to ease the tension.
"____"
"So… uh… do you two, you know, do this often?"
Freya smiled faintly, glancing at Leah before replying,
"More than we'd like. But… someone's gotta do it."
Cindy, the second youngest of the Perron girls, snuggled close to her sister Andrea and whispered,
"Are they watching Mommy?"
Andrea gave her a small nod and whispered back,
"Just to make sure she's okay."
Leah's pencil paused on the paper.
Her eyes flicked toward Carolyn.
There it was again—
a flicker of unease.
A strange shadow passed behind her eyes.
Barely noticeable, but it didn't escape Leah.
She glanced at Freya and gave a tiny nod.
"____"
Nod~
Freya's fingers brushed the edge of the picture frame she was holding.
Her senses were alert.
Whatever Bathsheba had done, it wasn't over.
The witch might've pulled back, waiting… watching… but she hadn't given up.
And Freya was ready.
**********************************************************************************************************************************************************
(Author's POV)
(A/N):
Thanks for reading the chapter!
Please give a review and power stone!!!