American Horror Story, Starting from Falls Town

Chapter 327 Dead Silence
It seems this guy really is from Ravensfield!
Roy and Jennifer exchanged a glance, and then Jennifer continued to ask questions.

“Mr. Ashin, we have a mission and must go to Ravensfield. Please cooperate with us.”

Jamie Ashen wasn't too difficult to deal with, and he quickly relented.

“Okay, do you have a map? I can draw out the exact location of Ravensfield for you.”

Roy handed the map he was carrying to Jamie Ashton, who then drew a circle on the map with a pen.

"It's roughly around this location."

Then Roy asked another question.

"Mr. Ashton, thank you very much for your cooperation. Have you ever heard of Mary Shaw?"

Jamie Ashin's expression changed, and he began to recite a poem.

Beware of Mary Shaw's gaze;
She had no children, only dolls;

If you see her, don't scream;
Otherwise, she'll tear your mouth open and rip your tongue off.

After listening to the poem, a memory surfaced in Roy's mind.

Holy crap! Isn't this James Wan's worst flop, Dead Silence?

Dead Silence is a film that marks James Wan's departure from Lionsgate and his reunion with screenwriter Leigh Whannell. It is also the first film in which Wan began to explore psychological horror.

The film wasn't very successful at the box office, probably because its style was too different from James Wan's previous Saw movies.

After all, while Saw played some narrative tricks, it is still a typical American gore movie, whereas Dead Silence has very few bloody scenes and focuses mainly on psychological horror.

However, this failed film laid the foundation for James Wan's later works, Insidious and The Conjuring, and the film actually received quite high praise on Chinese online platforms.

By the way, this Leigh Whannell is the director of "Darkness".

No wonder Roy found the name Mary Shaw somewhat familiar, but it's quite common in America to have the same name, especially since Mary is such a common name.

If you call out "Mary" on the street, more than a dozen people will turn around and look at you.

Roy recalled the plot of "Dead Silence." In the movie, Mary Shaw seemed to be a ventriloquist who was skilled at making puppets and would usually perform with the puppets she made.

Around the 1940s, he was killed by angry residents of the town of Ravensfield after being accused of kidnapping and murdering a young boy.

At that time, the residents of Ravensfield constantly tormented Mary Shaw, forcing her to scream and even pulling out her tongue.

Later, to prevent Mary Shaw from returning to seek revenge after her death, the residents of Ravensfield buried her along with all the dolls they had made.

Ravensfield enjoyed decades of peace until shortly before the film's plot began, when Mary Shaw somehow returned in the form of an evil spirit.

This is the plot of the original movie; it would definitely be different in this world.

Since Mary Shaw is a recorded witch of the Covenant, unless her witchcraft was as terrible as Zoe's, she wouldn't have been captured and tortured by a group of ordinary townspeople.

It's estimated that there were some capable people among the townspeople of Ravensfall at the time, and after discovering Mary Shaw's identity, they may have asked the Church's Witcher for help.

In those days, American society was generally conservative, and some remote conservative areas still condemned witches.

"You know Mary Shaw?"

Jennifer looked at Jamie with some surprise, but Jamie shook his head.

“I don’t know anything about Mary Shaw. I just heard the name and it reminded me of the poem my mother used to sing to me when I was a child.”

Jamie became even more emotional when she talked about her mother.

Looking at Jamie's expression, Jennifer felt that he didn't seem to be lying; he genuinely didn't seem to know Mary Shaw.

Roy patted Jennifer on the shoulder.

"What he said is probably true. I guess that Mary Shaw is already dead."

Jennifer looked at Roy in shock; judging from her expression, Lilith inside her seemed about to burst out.

"Dead? How could this be? Then we came all this way for nothing?"

Roy patted Jennifer's head to comfort her, mainly Lilith's emotions.

Lilith is now counting on Mary Shaw's doll, so it's understandable that she's having some trouble controlling her emotions.

"Jennifer, don't be nervous! Dead people can still help us solve problems."

Roy recalled that in the movie "Dead Silence," Mary Shaw successfully created a perfect doll that looked exactly like a human and was able to behave and express itself so realistically.

Lilith quickly regained her composure; for a wizard, death was only the beginning.

"You mean, Mary Shaw has become an evil spirit?"

"I think so, but I still need to confirm it."

Hoffman and Jamie stared blankly at Roy and Jennifer's conversation.

Jamie seemed particularly excited.

"Detective, did you just mention an evil spirit?"

Roy nodded.

“I suspect that an evil spirit named Mary Shaw murdered your wife, and that is the very spirit I’m looking for.”

"How could this happen? Why would someone kill my wife for no reason?"

Jamie looked pained. He and his wife had a very good relationship and were planning to have a child.

“Mr. Ashton, you don’t need to feel bad. I will help you catch that evil spirit. But I would like to go to your house. Didn’t you say that someone sent a strange doll to your house?”

Jamie's eyes widened.

"Was my wife's death related to that doll?"

Roy nodded.

"I suspect that the doll might be a medium."

The constant stream of messages overwhelmed Jamie's mind, and he nodded numbly.

"I just want to know the truth; nothing else matters."

Roy looked at Sheriff Hoffman. Theoretically, Jamie's house was now a crime scene and was cordoned off by the police. If he wanted to go to the crime scene, he would need Hoffman's permission.

Hoffman hesitated because he had already submitted the case, and the Seattle FEA had given its approval and would send agents to investigate.

While Roy is also a FEA agent, he is not the one in charge of this case. When the FEA agents from Seattle arrive, some disputes may arise.

For a sheriff in a small city, stability is the most important thing, and Hoffman doesn't want to lose his pension because of these things.

"This isn't a good idea. Should we wait for the FEA agents from Seattle to arrive?"

Roy didn't care; a little time wouldn't make a difference. After all, Mary Shaw was waiting for Jamie Ashen, the male protagonist, to return in Ravensfield so she could kill him and complete her final revenge. She definitely wouldn't be able to escape anytime soon.

However, Jennifer, or rather Lilith, was somewhat anxious, perhaps worried that this long-awaited operation would fall through.

Roy glanced at Lilith.

"It'll be alright, Jennifer."

Lilith nodded, but her expression was still not very pleasant.

Then, Roy stood up and shook hands with Hoffman. "Sheriff Hoffman, let's wait inside the police station for the Seattle FEA agents to arrive."

"No problem, I'll have someone arrange a lounge for you. I'll let you know as soon as the FEA agents in Seattle arrive."

They waited until the middle of the night.

The FEA agents from the Seattle field office arrived late and looked rather disheveled.

"Sorry, there was a car accident on the road due to the heavy rain, so we are late."

At that moment, Hoffman was chatting with Roy in the locker room. He was a true Roy fan and had actually watched all of Roy's game tapes, including the Cowboy Cup final and the Santa Monica Cup final.

Roy answered Hoffman's questions half-heartedly, and then he saw a middle-aged black woman with a young white man, a typical mentor-mentee duo.

The young white man was quite handsome, which made the somewhat lecherous Madison take a second look.

However, after a slight comparison, Madison still felt that his own Roy was more handsome.

Sure enough, no man can beat Roy in terms of looks.

"Hello, hello, this is Sheriff Hoffman, the FEA Seattle office I contacted."

Hoffman stood up and shook hands with the middle-aged Black woman.

“Saga Anderson, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

"Jack Schmidt".

The two FEA agents introduced themselves, and the young white agent was also named Jack.

Roy felt like he'd met a lot more Jacks lately.

Saga noticed the other people in the room.

Are they involved in the case?

Roy and his group clearly didn't look like police officers; they were all too young, resembling students, and even younger than Jack.

"Oh no, actually this Mr. Roy Black is also an FEA agent. He's here for something else that happens to be related to your case. To avoid any unnecessary trouble, he wants to wait until you arrive before we investigate together."

"Roy Black? I don't recall having an agent like that in Seattle. Could I see your badge?"

Saga looked at Roy strangely. FEA agents who could conduct investigations independently were at least senior agents, but she knew almost all of them.

Furthermore, if Roy were to be a senior detective at that age, it would be unless he started working on cases before he was an adult.

Roy handed over his identification.

"Actually, I'm a FEA agent from the Los Angeles bureau, not Seattle, so it's normal that you haven't seen me before."

Saga checked Roy's documents and confirmed they were not counterfeit.

But Roy was still too young, and his credentials showed that he was just a regular agent, so he shouldn't have been qualified to enforce the law across state lines.

However, because Roy was very handsome and followed the rules by not conducting his own investigation, Saja had a very good impression of him and decided to give Roy some face.

"The documents are valid, they're genuine. Mr. Blake, could you tell me what you'd like to investigate?"

"The suspect mentioned that there was a doll at the crime scene, and I wanted to see that doll."

Saga nodded.

"Alright, let's go to the crime scene now."

Hoffman paused for a moment.

“Ms. Anderson, it’s already 1 a.m., aren’t you going to get some rest after all this travel?”

Actually, Hoffman wanted to leave work. He had been working overtime at the police station until now just to wait for Saga and Jack, and he had no intention of continuing to work overtime.

Saga understood Hoffmann's meaning.

“Sheriff Hoffman, you don’t need to come with us. Just call the officers who are staying at the crime scene and let them know.”

"I'm so sorry!"

While he said he was sorry, Hoffman's expression didn't reflect that at all. He quickly pulled out his phone to make a call, clearly wanting to leave work a long time ago.

"Roy, what do we do now?"

With so many people following the crime scene, there's a high chance the scene will be disturbed.

“Jennifer and I will go. You guys find a hotel and study this map to find the best route to Ravensfield.”

Although it's enough to just bring Jennifer, it would be best to find something for Madison and the others to do, otherwise who knows what kind of trouble those four from the Apocalypse Society might cause.

Madison rolled his eyes, then patted Xiao's chest and agreed.

"Leave it to us!"

Upon hearing the name Ravensfar, Saga's henchman Jack visibly blinked, but no one present noticed his expression.

Madison drove off in his Bumblebee, while Roy and Jennifer rode on Claudia's back.

Just as he was about to leave, the Smith & Wesson M629 Ivory Edition revolver hanging on his body suddenly vibrated, as if something was happening to Francesca inside the revolver.

Roy looked around the police station and saw that there was no one around in the middle of the night, and that Saga and Jack had already driven away, so he released Francesca.

"Francesca, is there something you need?"

"When I hid inside your gun just now, I sensed a familiar presence."

"What familiar scent?"

Francesca's brow was furrowed, and she looked somewhat pained.

"I can't remember it, but it feels so familiar!"

When a soul lingers in the human world, it gradually loses its humanity and memories. Therefore, some souls with strong attachments often forget why they are so determined to stay in the human world.

Francesca has been dead for over a decade, so it's normal for her to have lost some of her memories.

"Francesca, don't rush, you can think about it slowly."

The Latina returned to the M629 revolver, and then Roy started it. Claudia followed Saga and Jack.

The rain had stopped by then, but the ground was still a bit damp.

Roy quickly arrived at the apartment that had been sealed off by the police and went upstairs with Saga and Jack.

The police officers guarding the scene had already received a call from Hoffman, so they did not prevent the four from entering the crime scene.

As Hoffman said, there was a lot of water stains at the entrance of Jamie's apartment, and it has long been trampled by the police and is now unrecognizable.

There were no other traces in the apartment except for some bloodstains at the bedroom door and a bloodstain on the floor.

It appears that after Jamie's wife was stabbed, she was forcibly dragged into the bedroom, had her tongue pulled out and died, and then placed on the bed in a sitting position and covered with a sheet.

But that's not the strangest part of the case.

(The manner of Jamie's wife's death)

(End of this chapter)