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Chapter 149 - Chapter 143: TELL ME... WHAT WAS THE NAME...

(A/N): Hi Guys, today is my birthday!!!

I hope the coming days will be happy days in my life.

And god bless me with good luck. So I could get a good job.

Which I have been tirelessly searching for.

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Suddenly, Carolyn—no,

Bathsheba—

threw her head back and let out a deafening, unholy scream.

It wasn't just loud—

It was bone-shaking.

Everyone in the room—

Roger, the girls, Freya, Leah—

clutched their ears, wincing in pain as the very air seemed to vibrate with rage and hatred.

The entire Perron farmhouse trembled, dust falling from the ceiling.

Furniture creaked, windows rattled, and one of the ceiling bulbs burst in a shower of sparks.

Then the unnatural happened.

Everything in the room—

chairs, books, trinkets, even a lamp—

began to rise slowly into the air, as though gravity had simply stopped working.

The girls gasped, eyes wide with fear, and Roger instinctively shielded them.

Bathsheba's possessed voice thundered through Carolyn's mouth:

"I'LL TEAR YOU ALL APART!"

With a savage roar, she lunged forward, attempting to break through the salt barrier—

A crack of force lit up the invisible shield as she slammed into it.

Her body jerked back like she'd been electrocuted,

and she let out a scream of pure agony, smoke rising from her arms and neck as if her skin was burning.

Carolyn's possessed form snarled, then lifted her arms, commanding the now-floating objects in the room like weapons.

"IF I CAN'T COME TO YOU… THEN YOU'LL ALL BLEED FOR HER!"

With a violent wave of her hand, she launched everything at the group inside the salt circle like a storm of shrapnel.

But Freya was ready.

With a fluid flick of her wand, she chanted:

"Inertia Fractura!"

A golden shimmer flared out in a wide arc from her hands.

As the projectiles entered the range of her spell, their speed slowed dramatically, until they drifted mid-air like they were underwater, losing all momentum before clattering harmlessly to the floor.

Thud.

Clink. Crash.

One by one, the airborne objects dropped—

No one was hurt.

Freya wiped a bit of sweat from her brow, her voice steady but grim:

"She's testing us now. Seeing how far she can push. But she's not getting in."

Leah was ready at any moment to turn into her wolf form.

If the situation gets more serious.

Roger looked at the woman, holding his daughters tightly.

"How long can this barrier hold?"

He asked.

Freya met his eyes.

"As long as we need it to. Until Jojo gets back… or until we force her out ourselves."

Carolyn's—no, Bathsheba's—eyes twisted in fury as the salt barrier continued to hold firm, glowing faintly with every desperate slam of her body against it.

Her face, once warm and kind, was now warped into something monstrous—

eyes wide and pale, lips stretched unnaturally into a manic, jagged grin.

She stood outside the barrier, panting, twitching, and then suddenly stilled.

An eerie calm washed over her face as she tilted her head and stared at Roger and the girls, her voice dropping to a chilling, mocking tone.

"You won't come to me?"

She whispered, her voice echoing unnaturally.

Then, with that same unsettling smile, she added darkly:

"Maybe... you'll come running when I start breaking her."

Snap~ Snap~ 

She slowly raised one hand and, with a sharp crack, snapped her own pinky finger backwards, bone and joint twisting unnaturally.

AHHHHHH~

HAHAHAHAH~ 

A horrible mixture of laughter and screams spilt from her mouth—

not just hers, but as if a chorus of voices cried out in torment.

Her body trembled, half in pain, half in perverse pleasure.

CRACK.

She snapped her ring finger next.

Roger lunged forward instinctively—

But Freya threw out her arm, stopping him.

"Don't. That's what she wants."

She said firmly, eyes locked on Bathsheba's face.

Inside the salt circle, the girls whimpered, clutching onto Roger,

who looked torn—

His eyes were wide with horror, fists clenched at his sides.

Cindy buried her face in his chest.

April clung to Nancy.

Bathsheba's laughter grew louder, more distorted.

She held up her middle finger next, blood dripping now from her broken fingers.

"How many more before you beg me to stop, Roger?"

She hissed.

"I'll make her bleed. I'll make her scream until she dies in this body. Step out—and maybe I'll let her go…"

She extended her foot just shy of the salt line, the skin of her heel sizzling when it came close.

But she didn't move further.

Freya turned to Leah, her voice low but intense.

"If she keeps hurting Carolyn, we may have to risk drawing the spirit out early. We can't let her destroy this body any more."

Leah nodded, jaw clenched.

Roger looked between them.

"There has to be something—anything we can do!"

Freya looked at the trembling girls, then back at him.

"We hold her here, we keep the family safe—and we wait for Jojo."

Just then, the farmhouse's front door creaked open.

BOOM.

The moment the Perron family farmhouse doors were shattered into splinters,

A violent gust of wind and debris burst in like a tempest of ash and flame, hurling chunks of wood across the room and sending a cloud of dust swirling into the air.

The salt barrier, glowing faintly moments ago, suddenly ignited with a hiss, erupting into red flames that traced the entire circle.

The fire cracked and roared like it had a life of its own, licking at the air as a low rumble echoed through the farmhouse.

Everyone inside flinched in shock, shielding their eyes—

April screamed, Roger pulled the girls close, and even Nancy held her breath in terror.

"What is happening?"

Andrea, who was terrified, asked Freya, whose expression was unreadable.

And outside the ring of flames stood Bathsheba in Carolyn's body—

who at first paused in disbelief, then suddenly threw her head back and laughed, a guttural, triumphant howl.

HAHAHA~ 

"LOOK AT THIS! THE FLAMES ARE IN MY FAVOUR! YOU'VE LOST YOUR SANCTUARY!"

But before her cackling could go any further, two soft, mocking chuckles echoed behind her laughter, cutting clean through the tension.

Freya and Leah, both standing tall inside the flickering barrier, were smirking with an eerily calm confidence.

"____"

Smirk~ 

"____"

Smirk~ 

Freya's voice dripped with sarcasm as she tilted her head, looking Bathsheba straight in the eye.

"You're happy the salt's burning? Oh, honey..."

"You should be terrified,"

Leah added with a cold grin.

Grin~ 

"Because this means your end starts now."

Bathsheba's laughter faltered slightly, her possessed eyes narrowing.

Freya stepped forward, her magic circle already glowing beneath her feet,

the flames strangely parting for her like they knew her command.

"That fire's not yours, Bathsheba. That's the judgment fire. It burns only when the time has come."

Leah, eyes locked onto Carolyn's twisted form.

"You just triggered the last stage."

BOOM!

The house shook again as footsteps approached from the smoke-filled entrance, heavy and deliberate.

A figure began to emerge through the settling dust—

Jojo.

Eyes blazing, coat fluttering in the wind, his body radiating an unnatural power.

Bathsheba froze, a flicker of uncertainty in her now-glowing pupils.

"____"

Bathsheba's smirk faltered.

Freya and Leah's words echoed in her ears—

But something else had now gripped her completely.

An ancient, primal fear.

Her body stiffened, unnaturally so.

Every bone locked, her stolen muscles trembling.

She felt it.

A gaze.

A stare that didn't just see her… it unravelled her.

Slowly, with mounting dread, she turned her head toward the broken doorway—

where the dust still hadn't fully cleared.

It was then she saw them.

Two glowing red dots, hovering in the swirling haze like twin coals in a pitch-black furnace.

They weren't eyes made for empathy or emotion.

They were predatory.

Hungry.

Bathsheba's breath caught in Carolyn's throat.

The malice behind that stare cut deeper than holy water or silver—

It was the kind of presence that hunts monsters.

Her mind screamed:

'Not human.'

'Not holy.'

'Not something I can control.'

The glowing dots stepped forward.

THUD. THUD.

Boots thudded on the wooden floor.

The flames around the salt barrier seemed to bend toward the figure, as if drawn in awe—or fear.

And through the last veil of dust emerged Jojo, but no longer in his normal form.

Half-consumed in hellfire, leather scorched, his skeletal face flickering between flesh and bone.

The Ghost Rider.

He raised his head slowly.

"BATHSHEBA..."

"YOUR TIME IS UP."

The walls creaked.

The ceiling groaned.

And for the first time since she had possessed Carolyn...

Bathsheba took a step back.

As Jojo fully stepped inside the farmhouse, the flames from the salt ignited brighter, and the tension in the room snapped tight like a wire ready to break.

His body fully transformed, now nothing but scorched leather, rattling chains which he took just a moment ago before blasting the door, and a blazing skull.

The Ghost Rider had arrived.

Bathsheba's eyes—

Carolyn's eyes—

widened in pure panic.

Her voice cracked, layered in distortion, as if several beings were speaking at once:

"W-What are you…?"

The Ghost Rider tilted his burning skull slightly, the fire from his head licking the ceiling.

He let out a low, dark laugh—

one that didn't echo but seemed to rattle through the bones of everyone in the room.

GAGAGA~ 

Then, he stepped forward.

Each footstep shook the wooden floorboards, like death itself approaching.

Leaving behind a trail of burning footsteps.

"I AM THE END OF SINNER'S."

"I AM VENGEANCE FOR THE INNOCENT YOU DESTROYED."

Bathsheba stumbled back involuntarily, her grip on Carolyn's body starting to twitch under the pressure of fear.

GROWL~ 

"TELL ME,"

The Ghost Rider growled, his voice a demonic thunder that rolled through the walls,

"WHY DID YOU KILL YOUR OWN CHILDREN?"

Bathsheba's mouth trembled, her stolen lips quivering, but before she could utter a sound—

"WHY THE PERRONS? WHY THESE GIRLS?"

The flames around Ghost Rider flared with intensity, casting twisted shadows along the walls.

The ceiling lamps shattered from the sheer supernatural pressure.

"WHAT WAS THE NAME..."

He took another step. His chain uncoiled at his side, glowing hot.

"...OF THE DEMON YOU WORSHIP?"

Bathsheba let out a shriek—

Scream~ 

a piercing wail of pain and resistance, fighting back the interrogation as smoke began to rise from Carolyn's skin, as though something deep inside her was being scorched.

The Perron girls huddled closer to Roger.

Freya and Leah didn't interfere.

They knew…

This wasn't an exorcism.

This was judgment.

Seeing Roger's panic written all over his face as the scene unfolded,

Leah gently placed a hand on his shoulder, which was trembling.

"Don't worry, Mr. Perron,"

She said softly but firmly, eyes locked on the flaming figure ahead.

"That's Jojo… in his true form. He's got this."

Before Roger could respond, Andrea gasped in realisation, her voice loud and trembling:

"That's—That's Jojo?! The Jojo who helped us before?!"

Leah gave her a single, steady nod.

Nod~ 

"Yes. And what you're seeing right now… is why no evil ever wants to cross him."

Meanwhile, in the middle of the room, Bathsheba froze.

Her unnatural eyes, wide and terrified, stared at the Ghost Rider's flaming skull as the questions echoed like thunder in her mind.

She turned, desperate to flee—

a streak of black mist dragging Carolyn's feet behind her like a puppet on broken strings.

But it was too late.

With a swift motion, Ghost Rider reached out, his burning hand grabbing a fistful of her hair.

The flames didn't burn Carolyn's body—

But they saw Bathsheba's essence.

She screamed.

Then, he pulled her backwards and spun her around to face him.

His bony, burning hand clamped down on her shoulder.

"LOOK INTO MY EYES,"

He roared.

Bathsheba thrashed—

But she couldn't resist.

The moment her gaze met his, it was like the room froze.

"____"

The flames flickered into an eerie stillness, the very air turned to static.

Then—

His voice, booming and final:

"LEAVE. HER. BODY."

Ahhhhhhh~ 

With a piercing shriek, black smoke burst from Carolyn's mouth and eyes, spiralling violently out of her body.

Carolyn dropped to her knees, gasping for breath.

The smoke shot like a spear across the room, heading straight for the basement door—

which Roger had accidentally left open earlier when they brought everyone inside.

It vanished into the darkness below.

Silence returned—

But the tension hung in the air like a storm waiting to break.

Ghost Rider turned his head slowly toward the open basement door.

"RUNNING AWAY FROM ME IS IMPOSSIBLE."

From the depths of the dark basement, Bathsheba's voice erupted, deep and thunderous, laced with a venomous snarl that made the very walls tremble:

"DO NOT COME DOWN HERE, VENGEANCE. YOU KNOW NOT WHAT DWELLS BENEATH."

But Ghost Rider didn't stop.

He didn't even flinch.

Clink~ Clink~ 

His boots thudded down each wooden step, the flaming chains rattling behind him like a warning bell from hell itself.

Without a word, he descended straight into the shadows.

Not far behind, Freya's expression hardened.

She gave one look toward Leah and nodded.

"We're going."

Leah understood instantly, drawing her wand as she sprinted to catch up.

The two women disappeared into the darkness behind the Ghost Rider.

Upstairs, Roger stood frozen for a second, torn.

He glanced toward the basement stairwell, then back to his wife, who had just collapsed against the wall, breathing heavily, eyes wild and confused.

"Carolyn…"

He rushed to her side, dropping to his knees, his arms gently supporting her.

Her lips trembled.

"Roger… What happened?"

She asked, her voice barely above a whisper, still dazed.

He cupped her face and whispered,

"You were possessed… It wasn't your fault. It was Bathsheba. She tried to take you—tried to use you to harm the girls. But you're okay now. Jojo forced her out."

Carolyn's eyes widened, her face going pale.

"No… No, I didn't—"

She stopped midsentence, looking down.

She noticed her right hand.

Her fingers were bent unnaturally.

Twisted. Broken.

She let out a piercing scream.

Ahhhh~ 

"Oh my God—my fingers… What—what did I do?! What did she make me do?!"

Tears streamed down her cheeks as Roger pulled her into a hug, holding her tightly.

"It's over, Carolyn. You're safe. I promise."

Downstairs, the flicker of flames illuminated the walls of the basement… and a showdown was just beginning.

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(Author's POV)

(A/N): 

 

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