Exorcist of the American Nightmares

The sound was somewhat piercing, enough to make anyone think they had encountered some wickedness in broad daylight, making them quickly flee this haunted place.

However, Lucy's house, apparently, had decent sound insulation, and the noises were confined to her room alone.

It was a while before the noises settled down.

Lucy dared not look back, her entire body almost turned away, using only her back, with her right hand remaining firm, not changing position, firmly clutching the cross she had bought from the church, placed between the two of them.

Time passed, and the room maintained a deathly silence.

At this point, Lucy perhaps steadied the myriad fears in her heart and quietly looked back.

The white-dressed woman who had terrified her had disappeared, replaced by familiar objects.

Realizing this, Lucy's body went limp, she hugged the cross in her right hand and collapsed, her still-damp face showing an expression on the verge of tears.

She didn't know if she was abandoned by the world to end up in this state.

So, she had to seek revenge.

This thought suddenly surged in her mind, and Lucy's eyes filled with hatred as she stepped out of her earlier emotions, transforming completely.

If anyone had been present, they would have found Lucy's change somewhat frightening.

"I will definitely take action, I definitely will," Lucy murmured to herself as if speaking to the vanished woman in white, then slowly walked into the living room.

The environment changed instantly.

Unlike a normal living room, Lucy's was plastered with newspaper after newspaper.

The visible side of each paper featured a family portrait, labeled with the phrase "butterfly stroke genius."

This was what York had seen in a report about a butterfly stroke champion.

"I will definitely take action."

Lucy stood in the middle of the living room, surrounded by newspapers plastered over the windows.

She stared fixedly at a newspaper with a section circled in red ink.

Upon closer inspection, it was an address.

Her eyes reddened as she stared at this address.

She then left the spot and walked back to her room, stopping at a table laden with mechanical parts and bullets that glinted menacingly.

If York had been present, he would have recognized the parts and the main body as a very classic side-by-side shotgun, also known as a double-barreled shotgun, with horizontally aligned barrels.

This was among the earliest hunting shotguns, originally developed as riot guns. This weapon used a break-action loading mechanism, allowing only two shells to be loaded at a time.

From the shotgun shells laid out on the table, these were twelve-gauge shells, each capable of being fatally effective.

Lucy began assembling the shotgun, and when she picked it up, it was the very classic "boomstick."

"I will definitely take action," she repeated, practicing the reloading motions tirelessly.

Her loading and unloading were swift, ready for any sudden incident.

Clearly, Lucy had been preparing for this for a long time.

The dim room echoed with her murmurs and the sounds from the shotgun.

......

Ashby Abbey.

A church with only a few faithful, Erin quietly entered a room.

"Bishop, Lucy Rios has rented a car and left the apartment she was renting."

Erin reported, then looked towards the bishop standing by the window, hands clasped behind his back.

"Previously, through her friend Annagia's help, she bought a double-barreled shotgun from a farm owner."

"From the direction she headed, it is confirmed that this child is seeking revenge."

"Perhaps from that newspaper's family photo, she identified the people who had mistreated her..."

Listening to the report, York turned to look at Erin.

"What about the third party? What's their status?"

He didn't care about others' vengeance nor wanted to intervene, but he hoped that this girl tormented by fate could succeed in her revenge.

Indeed, if he wasn't wrong, this family's background harbored abyss-like dark crimes.

Upon hearing this, Erin calmly said, "According to the message from Brother Willo, those who have been lurking in the shadows and following Lucy seem to know all her moves."

York raised an eyebrow, sensing the bait was about to be taken.

"Tell Brother Willo and the others, without my command, they are not to take any action to avoid alarming the enemy. Let them spread out from Lucy or that family's address as the center. Anyone heading towards Lucy should be considered a suspect; I want to know, besides the usual surveillance, who else shows up..."

"Yes."

Erin nodded slightly, understanding the order.

York glanced at the blue sky outside the window as he passed by Erin.

"Such beautiful weather, what a pity..."

With these words from York, Erin also looked outside, seeing the blue sky and bright sunshine.

After viewing this, she pursed her lips and silently followed her bishop.

......

In a secluded small town, a peaceful suburb, a detached house

 was filled with playful noises.

"Give it back to me! Give it back to me!"

"Damn!"

"Your girlfriend's love letters are terrible."

This was the playful banter of siblings.

A kind-faced father walked past the siblings wrestling on the floor, wearing pajamas and holding a steaming cup of coffee, leaving behind a simple admonition.

"Stop playing around."

He walked through to the living room window, enjoying the warmth of the sunlight and the aroma of the coffee, while calling out to a woman busy unclogging a drain outside,

"Darling, what would you like to eat?"

The woman, while hammering a pipe to secure it, turned and smiled back.

"Whatever you make, I love."

The man smiled and turned to the kitchen connected to the living room, beginning to prepare breakfast amidst the children's playful shouts.

Meanwhile, the woman looked in a certain direction after burying a protruding hand back into the earth and then climbing out of the pit using a ladder.

This seemed like a typical, warm family of four.

They laughed and gathered around the dining table in the morning.

In this warm atmosphere, the son about to enter college shared his future plans.

The father, appearing to be a good parent, said gently,

"You know, I always respect your choices. Studying medicine would certainly be beneficial for your future."

The most lively-looking daughter glanced at her mother, who smiled warmly.

The girl shrugged indifferently.

"He just wants to be with his girlfriend."

There's always a sister to make one feel vexed, and the boy glared at her.

Unafraid, the sister made a face at her brother.

"Baaah!!!"

This caused both parents to exchange smiles.

The scene seemed utterly normal, filled with a warm atmosphere.

At this moment, the sudden ringing of the doorbell broke the warm atmosphere.

The atmosphere immediately tensed; the butterfly stroke champion daughter paused her bread-crushing motion and looked towards the front door, her shoulders twitching.

"Who the hell is ringing the bell?"

The parents exchanged glances, and the father set down his food and stood up, passing by the daughter as he headed towards the relentlessly ringing front door.

"Mind your language, Mary."

The girl appeared indifferent. "Today's Sunday, which means it's everyone's day off."

The father casually replied while walking to the door.

"Is that so? No work on Sundays?"

"Of course," the girl replied.

This conversation ended as the father reached the front door.

"Ok, ok, stop ringing. I'm coming."

As he said this, the doorbell ceased, and the father shook his head, twisted the doorknob, and opened the door.

But as he did, he was stunned.

In front of him was a girl, shorter by a head, wearing a hat and a hoodie, very ordinary-looking.

However, what terrified him was the double-barreled shotgun in the hands of this unfamiliar visitor.

At this moment, the gun was pointed at him.

"Who are you?" the man said, perhaps realizing he only had time for this one sentence.

Bang!

Lucy, who had just arrived from the car, didn't respond. She looked at the man she would never forget and pulled the trigger.

Without giving the man any chance, she was resolute to the extreme.

The gun discharged a cloud of smoke.

The burst from the twelve-gauge shell hit the man directly in the bulging stomach.

Blood mist burst forth, and the impact of the shotgun blast sent the man flying back inside.

This explosive gunshot startled the three still at the dining table. The two children froze in confusion, while the wife ran to where she kept her gun.

But Lucy had already stepped inside and aimed at the wife rushing towards her, pulling the trigger.

She had prepared for a long time to ensure accuracy.

Bang!

Before the wife could react, just at the moment of meeting, she felt severe pain in her back, and her consciousness plunged into darkness.

From Lucy's perspective, the woman was also blown away by the shot.

Lucy did not care whether the woman was dead or alive; she pressed the shotgun in her hands, ejecting the spent shells with a clack. She quickly pulled out two more shells from her pocket and loaded them.

The process was seamless, without any hesitation, her practice showing its effectiveness.

As the two children at the dining table began to scream and attempted to flee, Lucy had already stepped in front of them.

"Don't move."

At Lucy's command, the two froze in place, not daring to move.

"Sit down."

Lucy pointed to the chairs at the dining table.

The girl named Mary, trembling all over, obediently sat down, tears of fear streaking her face.

Her brother did the same.

In front of the gun, they had no chance to resist.

Looking at the two, Lucy took a deep breath, a pained expression crossing her face as she turned the gun towards the boy.

"How old are you?"

The boy's voice trembled as he replied, "Eighteen."

Upon hearing this, Lucy hesitated, her initially steady gun beginning to wobble.

"Do you know the things your parents have done?"

Tears welled in the boy's eyes, but he didn't dare make any sudden moves, obediently responding.

"I don't know."

At that moment, Lucy's gun steadied once more.

She clenched her teeth, then shifted the gun to point at Mary, who was trembling uncontrollably.

"And you, do you know what your parents have done?"

The girl instinctively glanced at her brother before answering with a tremble.

"I don't know,"

After this response, she quickly pleaded, "Please don't kill me, I don't know anything—"

But before she could finish, a gunshot cut her off. Lucy had pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Blood mist erupted from Mary's chest as the impact sent her flying back into the kitchen.

"NO!"

The boy shouted, grabbing a knife and fork from the table and leaping up.

But Lucy was quicker, swinging the gun towards him and pulling the trigger once again.

Bang!

The gunshot blasted the boy's chest open, the explosive force sending his body crashing into the rear glass door.

Silence returned to the room.

Only the blood-stained floor and motionless bodies, along with the smoke wafting from Lucy's shotgun, bore witness to the events that had just unfolded.

Lucy's body began to shake, but her eyes were fixed on the bodies of the boy and girl.

In her memory, memories she would never forget, the boy had once tortured animals in front of her and had cut her with a knife, ignoring her cries of pain.

The most vivid memory she had was of the boy, the same age as her, laughing maniacally as he cut her body with a scalpel.

The girl had been there too.

Lucy had hesitated about sparing them, but when both had claimed ignorance, she decided their fate.

And that was death.

Yet, for some reason, Lucy still felt immense pain after resolving everything, a pain that seemed to intensify.

"Damn!"

Lucy staggered to the woman's body, knelt down, and aimed the now empty shotgun at the lifeless corpse, her face contorted with a breakdown.

"Why did you do that to me? Why did you treat me that way, who am I really?

Where did you kidnap me from?"

Unfortunately, the dead could not answer her questions. Lucy's face was wracked with pain as she hugged the shotgun, curling into a ball, crying silently.

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