American Horror Story, Starting from Falls Town

Chapter 294 Tragedy
Roy felt the entire bedroom begin to shake violently, as if something was trying to crawl out.

At the same time, a large amount of seawater appeared beneath her feet, quickly submerging Francesca's spirit and completely waking her up.

"Oh no! Antonia Grassa has awakened!"

Hearing this, Roy was a little surprised.

“You mean Antonia Grassa? Isn’t that the name of the cruise ship? How could it possibly ‘awaken’?”

Francesca looked at Roy with a complicated expression.

Before asking that question, could you please untangle my hair?

Now that Francesca is Roy's person, or rather, Roy's ghost, he naturally no longer needs to use the Curse Hair to restrict her movements.

So Roy casually tugged at the cursed hair and put it back into his inventory, allowing Francesca to stand up.

Francesca snapped her fingers, and the red dress she had taken off automatically returned to her body.

For spirits, as long as they have that thought, they can control the clothes they wear at will. These clothes are actually just a reflection of their memories from their previous life; they are not real.

Francesca's act of taking off her clothes earlier was merely to seduce Roy.

"Now can you tell me about Antonia Grassa?"

Francesca nodded as she looked at the violently shaking room.

"Okay, but this isn't the place to talk. Let's leave first!"

As she spoke, Francesca grabbed Roy's hand, and Roy quickly grabbed Sadako and Kayako as well. The three ghosts vanished instantly in the shaking bedroom.

The next second, Roy and the others appeared in another bedroom.

The structure of this bedroom is similar to the previous one, but it doesn't have that decaying feel, and there's no seawater on the floor.

It was similar to what Roy had seen when he first entered the Antonia Graza's cabin: messy and dilapidated, but not too dusty.

Roy put Sadako and Kayako back on the cursed daggers; for now, they'll have to wait until next time to have the two helpful female ghosts do the cleaning.

"Tell me, what's the deal with this ship?"

Roy's branding of Francesca wasn't just about lust; more importantly, he wanted to catch a ghost to learn the true situation of the Antonia Graza.

This motivation accounts for at least 8 points, while the motivation of lust at first sight accounts for 92 points!

Yes, Roy is just that pure.

Francesca gritted her teeth and began to recount what had happened more than a decade ago.

"That night, the Antonia Grassa was sailing on the Pacific Ocean, and the cruise ship was filled with singing and dancing, hosting a jewelry exhibition party. The guests were dancing, and I was performing on stage."

Roy looked into Francesca's beautiful eyes, which seemed to have traveled through time back to that night more than a decade ago.

Just like the scene Roy saw when he entered another space in the banquet hall, it was originally just an ordinary high society dinner.

But no one expected that a group of ruthless jewel thieves had already been lurking inside this luxury cruise ship.

These jewel thieves disguised themselves as chefs, setting traps while waiting for the Antonia Graza to enter international waters, which was the night of the banquet, before launching their operation.

At the banquet, the jewel thief poisoned the food, killing half the people on the ship. The remaining half were easily cut in half at the waist by a special wire trap, like cutting leeks.

(This part is actually quite absurd, because there's no way such a powerful wire trap could exist unless the speed is extremely high, but it's still a memorable scene! PS: I can't post images that are too gory.)
The surviving passengers were driven to the other side of the swimming pool and executed by the jewel thieves at gunpoint. Only one girl in a white dress survived.

But death might have been a better outcome for the girl in the white dress; the jewel thieves dragged her into a room and subjected her to inhumane torture.

The girl in the white dress ultimately committed suicide in an unclean manner.

After listening to Francesca's account, Roy astutely noticed the key points.

"And what about you? What role did you play in this incident?"

Roy noticed that Francesca hadn't explained her situation, and that if a girl in a white dress like that could be tormented by jewel thieves, how could those jewel thieves possibly let such a beautiful Latina woman, who was practically the most stunning of them all, go ahead?
Surely a group of jewel thieves can't all be philanderers, right?
Francesca remained silent for a long time before answering Roy's question.

"I was also a member of that group of jewel thieves, and the leader's woman at that. My job was to gather intelligence and provide cover for their operations. Not only that, I was actually working for someone else, the real mastermind. After I instigated the jewel thieves' leader to kill his team members, I personally killed the leader. But I never expected that man would kill me after achieving his goal!"
So, now that you know all this, are you disappointed in me?

"What's with this nesting doll?" Roy was somewhat speechless.

However, there wasn't much disappointment.

On the contrary, the mastermind behind it all piqued Roy's interest. This guy really is a Sigma man; he actually went so far as to harm Francesca.

In fact, Roy had realized beforehand that Francesca was no pushover and that she probably had quite a few lives on her hands.

I never expected this guy to play such an important role in the Antonia Graza tragedy; no wonder the red glow of evil on his body is so bright.

After all, everyone on the ship died, directly or indirectly, at the hands of Francesca.

Of course, compared to Sadako and Kayako, Francesca is clearly a bit inferior.

"I've seen many people far more evil than you, like those two Japanese female ghosts you just saw. They must have killed more people than you. Now, under my tutelage, aren't they good ghosts too?"

After killing a large number of bad people, Sadako and Kayako's sins have been completely purified, reaching the standard of "becoming a Buddha" in the Little Days culture.

In other words, if Roy lets Sadako and Kayako go, the two female ghosts can immediately ascend to heaven, but Sadako and Kayako prefer to stay with Roy.

Upon hearing the word "discipline," Francesca's face visibly flushed.

"You're even more evil than that person! No wonder I've been controlled by you!"

Roy glared at Francesca with displeasure. He was a great philanthropist, and the merits he had accumulated would make him a strong contender for the new God even if he went to heaven. How dare anyone say he was evil?

“Tell me who that person is, and what this Antonia Grassa you’re talking about is.”

Francesca exhaled, a look of hatred appearing on her face.

"The man called himself Jack, but I knew that was just a pseudonym, so I preferred to call him Hook Man."

"The Hook Man?"

Francesca nodded, then showed Roy her palm, where there was a mark of an iron hook.

Roy took Francesca's hand and transferred the mark to his own.

“Continue.” “The Iron Hook Man orchestrated everything, wanting to monopolize all the wealth on the Antonia Graza, but he didn’t expect that among the jewels displayed on the cruise ship that night was a cursed diamond called ‘Eye of the Dead’.”

Eye of the Dead, doesn't that sound like it's part of the same group as Eye of Death?

"Legend has it that anyone who possesses this cursed diamond will die a tragic and unexpected death! That very night, the owner of the Eye of the Dead was showing his collection to the guests at the banquet. As a result, he was cut in two by the Iron Hook Man's trap. After the Eye of the Dead fell to the ground, it was stained with a large amount of blood and absorbed a large number of vengeful spirits, forming a powerful aggregate of evil spirits."

This powerful amalgamation of evil spirits adopted Antonia Graza's name and transformed the cruise ship into a ghost ship, enslaving all the souls on board and attracting passing vessels to kill anyone who boarded.

So that's how it is. Francesca must have been enslaved by Antonia Graza after her death, which is why such a large spatial tremor occurred when Roy branded her.

It must have been Antonia Graza who discovered that his lead horse had been stolen, so he came out to investigate.

What happened to that man with the iron hook?

"That guy also possesses some occult abilities. After realizing something was wrong, he abandoned the treasure and ran away. Over the years, he's been trying to get back on the ship to retrieve the treasure. He's tried several times to persuade the salvage crew to come aboard and take the fall, but he's failed every time!"

By this point, Francesca had a pretty good grasp of the situation, but she still had one more question.

"Francesca, you should know where that Hook Man hid the jewels, right?"

Since we've come all this way, there's no reason for us to leave empty-handed.
Francesca looked at Roy expressionlessly, a faint smile playing on her lips.

"You also want to find those jewels, don't you? Of course, who can resist such a huge fortune? However, the jewels are kept with the cursed diamond, so if you want to find the jewels, you'll have to face Antonia Graza directly."

Is this for real? I might as well take care of this guy since I'm on my way.

Tell me where the jewels are!

Francesca crossed her arms and shook her head.

"I can tell you, but you have to kill Iron Hook first."

Roy couldn't help but roll his eyes. If Francesca hadn't said anything, Roy, as her master, would have helped her get revenge anyway.

But this guy actually used this as a condition to try and control him, which made Roy a little unhappy.

"You don't seem to understand your place!"

Roy grabbed Francesca's hand, and the mark on her palm and the brand on her back immediately became burning hot, causing her to scream in pain.

"Ah! I know I was wrong! I will take you to Antonia Grassa!"

Roy only released Francesca after she begged for mercy; by then, Francesca's spirit had dimmed considerably.

"You need to understand one thing: I am your master now! If I happen to encounter that hook man one day, as your master, I will definitely help you deal with him! But for now, all I need is for you to obey my orders!"

Francesca's expression was somewhat miserable, but she still nodded, indicating that she understood Roy's meaning.

Just then, a man's scream suddenly came from outside the bedroom; it sounded like Joey's voice.

Could something have happened to Joey?
Joey is Roy's only mechanic, so he can't afford to get into trouble, or it'll be a real problem.

"Get inside this revolver now, and I'll take you out!"

Francesca quickly got into the M625 revolver, and then Roy rushed out of the bedroom and ran in the direction where Joey was screaming.

Soon, Roy saw Joey running wildly while screaming, with a girl in a white dress following closely behind.

Wait, isn't that the meddlesome girl in the white dress from earlier? She turned evil after I beat her up with the Ansai waist drum?
The girl in the white dress had been keeping a straight face, but when she saw Roy approaching, she turned pale with fright and disappeared.

When Joey saw Roy, he screamed wildly as if he had seen a savior.

"Mr. Black, please help me! A ghost is chasing me!"

"Save me? Look, are there any ghosts chasing you?"

Upon hearing this, Joey turned around and looked back. Sure enough, he didn't see the girl in the white dress who had just scared him, and he was stunned.

"How could this happen? I was having a great time at the casino, winning big, when suddenly a girl in a white dress appeared and told me to stop gambling. I ignored her, and then her facial features suddenly started to distort, which scared me so much that I ran out!"

So this is what Joey saw in the alternate dimension? Looks like Joey is a gambler.

"It's alright, that female ghost probably ran away after seeing me. Joey, have you seen anyone else?"

Joey looked confused.

No, aren't they with you?

"It must have been the ghost ship that separated the five of us. We'll go find Heather and the others now. Francesca, lead the way!"

"Francisca? Who is Francesca?"

No sooner had Joey finished speaking than Francesca emerged from Roy's revolver.

The sudden appearance of a woman startled Joey, but he was immediately captivated by the beautiful Francesca and became completely dazed.

"Madam, you are so beautiful!"

Roy glanced at Joey speechlessly and patted him on the head.

"What are you doing? This is a female ghost I've subdued, not a human!"

The slap woke Joey up, and he shuddered instantly in fright.

"W-what? A female ghost? Mr. Blake, don't scare me!"

"What's the point of scaring you? Let's go! Francesca, take us back to the banquet hall first!"

The banquet hall is where Roy and the others dispersed, and Heather and the others will likely be waiting for Roy there.

Joey, who was lagging behind, began to struggle with his decision.

"If a female ghost could look like this, it doesn't seem so bad..."

When Joey looked up, he realized that Roy had already walked far away, which startled him so much that he took off after him.

"Mr. Black, wait for me!"

(End of this chapter)