After his body regained some mobility, Joey got up and left.
It was already noon when he returned to the city. He went to the school building immediately, but there was no one inside.
Norm and Duke were recycling the albums that might have problems, but they didn't come back, so he had to take action on his own and left a note informing him of his whereabouts.
On a high-rise building directly opposite No. 3 Levitt Street, Joey held his hands on the railing and looked down at everything below.
"Strange? Am I not standing high enough?"
There is no black spire in sight, and the building that should have been at the head is now invisible.
This is already the tallest building in the area. Standing here, you can even see the whole of Levitt Street.
"Shouldn't it?"
He held his chin and began to doubt the authenticity of the scenery he had seen before. Could it be that those things didn't exist, or maybe it was because of the angle.
Looking up, the scorching sun was scorching, the air was filled with scorching heat, and a gust of wind blew by, leaving only a slight coolness.
Joey found a chair and sat down. As time passed, the sunset light reflected beautifully on the roof tiles.
On the horizon, the sun was setting.
He half-closed his eyes and waited for a long time, which made people feel sleepy and drowsy. It wasn't until the sun completely set that he suddenly stood up.
Looking into the distance with burning eyes, the fiery red glow slowly dissipated, leaving only a piece of rendered cloud hanging on the horizon.
Behind the red clouds, there seems to be an elusive and hazy world.
There, the outline of a black building was slowly outlined.
"Huh?" Joey soon realized something was wrong.
According to the previously judged distance, the black building should be on Levitt Street, but now, it appears far away.
"Mirage?" He couldn't help but start to wonder if he had made a mistake in his previous judgment.
The scene I saw at the bookstore owner's house was a little different.
Silently let spirituality infuse your eyes, which can expand the sensitivity of your vision.
He squinted his eyes and began to try to outline a complete topographic map in his mind and compare it with the real Levitt Street.
The picture became clearer and clearer, and Joey strengthened his inner judgment.
This is not a visual deviation, the black tower does exist.
With the sun behind it, the whole body is as black as ink. The distance when you see it here is actually the same as what you saw on the mountain before.
"interesting"
Joey raised his eyebrows with interest, and he thought of another possibility. This building might not exist in reality.
When I met Barbara in the dreamland, I got a piece of information from there.
The missing girls are imprisoned in a castle that seems to be in the spirit world. That is the kingdom of the dead and does not exist in reality.
It only appears at the moment when day and night alternate.
In the field of vision, the black house has completely appeared.
It was a church, and it was very tall, taller than all the surrounding buildings.
There is a rule when building a church, that is, there should be nothing around to block the sun. The church must be able to be illuminated by sunlight throughout the day.
The black spire is like a sharp sword, thrust into the sky.
Joey could even see the mottled paint on the wall, which seemed to have experienced countless years of baptism.
For the next time, Joey stood there and stared at it. Strangely, the distance between the black church and him seemed to be slowly getting closer.
Unlike the bustling lights around it, the church was always dark, without any light inside.
A gust of cold wind blew by, and he suddenly woke up.
The silvery cunning moonlight stretched his shadow very long.
"It turns out that it's been so long."
Taking out the watch in his pocket and checking the time, he suddenly realized that several hours had passed.
Looking up at the crescent moon hanging in the air, Joey became more and more anxious.
Originally I just planned to explore the truth, but I didn't expect it to take so long.
He stared at the church in front of him. Gradually, a faint light came on inside the dark windows. It coincides so perfectly with everything on Levitt Street, without any obtrusiveness, as if it originally existed there.
But in Joey's heart, the uneasiness became stronger and stronger.
"Want to go in?"
An idea suddenly popped into my mind.
This might be the perfect opportunity to find Barbara.
"Maybe I should wait for Norm and Duke."
Joey frowned, thought for a few seconds, and quickly rejected the idea.
Because he was not sure of the pattern of the church's appearance, and it might take a long time for the next one to appear.
Eventually, he plans to go alone.
It was obviously not too late, but there were not many people on the street. Looking at the past, they were sparse.
Da da da~
He walked with heavy steps through one street after another, gradually walking towards the church on Levitt Street.
He lowered his head, looking worried, but he was actually thinking about how to deal with danger. How to escape if Barbara is found.
These things must be planned before action is taken.
It wasn't until he sorted out all the ways to deal with emergencies that he suddenly realized that he had been gone for a long time.
According to the distance, we should have arrived at the church long ago.
However, the fact is that the distance between him and the church has not been shortened in any way.
The church is still at the farthest point of sight.
Slowly, Joey noticed that the faces of the people wandering around all had the same expression.
It felt weird, like a numb robot.
The street shops that were supposed to be bustling all closed their doors at some point.
The most incredible thing is that the clothes of those people are very different from the current popular style in Port Lia. They are very similar to the clothes of the old era in the history books when they were in school.
The weirdest thing is that the place he is in now is very strange, and it is not the Levitt Street in his impression at all.
Even if the spiritual vision state is turned on, one can only see the surrounding scene a hundred meters away, and beyond that, there is only endless darkness.
The church was less than a hundred meters away, but it was still out of reach.
Joey froze in place for a moment, twisted his neck, and slowly raised his head while breathing heavily.
Dong Dong Dong~
The strong sense of uneasiness made his heart beat rapidly, and he was relieved when he saw the moon above his head, emitting silvery white moonlight.
For a moment just now, he suspected that he had been pulled into a dreamland, fearing that the moon above his head was the scarlet eyeball.
Fortunately, this is not a dreamland.
After clenching his fists, I could clearly feel the presence of my body, not the ethereal feeling of a dream.
etc?
wrong?
This isn't Dreamland, but it's also not Levitt Street.
Joey suppressed his restlessness, acted like a normal person, and walked to a grocery store on the street. It was one of the few shops still open for business.
"Boss, is there some festival tonight? I also want to participate. I just moved here and don't know where the church is yet."
Activities or festivals are usually held in churches. Joey asked, so there was no problem.
The shop owner's hair was gray and his face was covered with the ravines of time. He shook his head expressionlessly.
It’s true that as people get older, they have bad intentions and don’t even bother to answer questions if they don’t want to sell something.
He hesitated and walked to another store, which was a clothing store.
Joey was thinking about buying some clothes. After all, the clothes he wore were a bit out of tune with everyone else.
Seeing the silver coins the previous customer took out of his wallet to pay the bill, Joey silently returned it.
Good guy, when did silver coins become a trading currency? Isn’t this thing a bank deposit and prohibited from circulation?
My eyes wandered over the pedestrians, and my memory was drawn back to the history textbook.
Before the Church of the Seven Gods was established, there was no unified currency system, and gold and silver coins circulated in large quantities in the market. It was not until the church was established and issued banknotes that gold and silver were eliminated from the currency system.
Is this a space-time mezzanine?
As an old people who left the land abandoned by God, it is not difficult to understand the emergence of such a place.
He walked towards a man who looked like a homeless man on the street.
The purpose of choosing this person is because he has more fireworks in him. To put it bluntly, he is more like a human being.
"Do you know how to get to the church?"
This time, there was no beating around the bush, just direct questions.
The homeless man was hunched over, still rummaging in the trash can, and didn't seem to hear Joey's question.
"Do you know how to get to the church?" he asked again.
This time, Joey's eyes were fixed on the homeless man's dirty face.
He was sure that the tramp had definitely heard what he said, but was just pretending not to.
Let's see how long you can keep pretending? A smile appeared on Joey's lips inadvertently.
Before he could open his mouth to continue asking, the homeless man suddenly screamed "ah" and disappeared into the dark alley.
The tramp's scream seemed to make Joey discover a new world.
He seems to be afraid of hearing the word 'church'?
Thinking of this, the sneer on the corner of his mouth became even worse, and he simply turned around and returned to the previous grocery store.
He looked at the shop owner intently with a smirk on his face.
"Boss, how about I take you to church? Everyone has gone, how can you not go? You are so unsocial."
As he spoke, he put his hand on the shop owner's shoulders and dragged him out from behind the counter.
"Look, isn't the church right there?" He pointed to the black building not far away.
The shop owner seemed to have seen something terrifying, and his body couldn't stop twitching.
The originally cloudy eyes instantly lost focus and became dim.
Joey opened him in surprise.
I saw the store owner clasping his hands into fists and kneeling on the cold floor with his head down.
Suddenly, everyone around him knelt down and prayed facing the black church.
"A bunch of lunatics!"
Joey ignored these people and turned towards the black building.
“Looks like I can get in.”
Inexplicably, this feeling suddenly appeared in my heart.
The darkness gradually enveloped him, and the surrounding lights gradually went out. Joey was indifferent to these.
He only has one thought now, which is to go in, no matter what is there.
Perhaps because he has absorbed all the memories of the original owner, he has a very complicated emotion towards Barbara and Wilson, which is the bond of family members.
As I got closer, I realized that the church was far more dilapidated than it seemed.
It looked like it had experienced a fire, and the walls were scorched black by the flames.
Only a few windows still have glass, while many others have empty frames. Some tall buildings have collapsed. The exquisite murals on the walls have a sad and incomplete beauty under the moonlight.
The bluestone slabs are submerged in the yellow weeds, and the vines wind up along one side of the wall, perfectly integrated with the building.
The only thing that is well preserved is the huge cross on the top of the spire. At the intersection of the crosses, there is a huge gem inlaid with it. The moonlight shines on it, reflecting the bright light.
The church was surrounded by an iron fence that enclosed the entire place.
The rust has eaten away at the paint on the fences and now they look like Dalmatians, two colors mixed together.
The wind passing through the glassless windows would make a weird, indescribable noise.
The door was locked, and Joey walked around the wall, trying to find another entrance.
Unfortunately, there is no other entrance.
He returned to the front door, which was an iron gate with an iron chain holding the two doors shut and a large copper lock on it.
I pushed it gently and found that the copper lock and the iron chain were stuck together due to rust spots.
"How long has it been since no one has been here?"
There are various indications that this church has been abandoned for at least ten years.
"who?"
He turned his head numbly and met a gaze head on.
The homeless man stood far away from the church, chewing his big yellow teeth and staring weirdly here.
The look of surprise on Joey's face flashed away, and he quickly chased after him.
His instinct told him that there was definitely something wrong with that homeless man.
The homeless man did not escape as expected, but stayed there. He did not leave until Joey came near.
"Do you know anything?"
He was breathing heavily. He thought the other party would run away, so he ran a little hastily.
"Hungry! Do you have anything to eat? Hehe"
The tramp opened his mouth to reveal a mouth full of yellow teeth, and an unpleasant stench suddenly came out.
Joey took two steps back and held his nose to distance himself.
He touched his body and took out half a bag of bread, which he had bought on Levitt Street before. He simply handed it over before finishing it.
The homeless man seemed to have been hungry for a long time. He reached out and grabbed it, tore open the package, grabbed two pieces of bread, and stuffed them directly into his mouth.
In less than two minutes, he had destroyed half the bag of buns.
"You've eaten. Can you answer my question now?"
"Three full, are you still hungry?" The homeless man touched his belly and chuckled.
Joey took two more steps back, and the stench of rotting flesh in the air was finally gone.
He frowned and said:
"You answer the question first, and I can buy it for you."
“I don’t dare to eat the things sold here.”
"What do you mean?" Joey asked suspiciously, his eyes casually scanning a store not far ahead. There was food on the shelves.
"Literally, kid, this is your first time coming in."
"Where is this?" Joey asked.
The tramp rubbed his fingers and stared at Joey with a smirk on his face, with a hint of schadenfreude in his eyes.
Joey frowned, looking up and down at the homeless man, always feeling a little nervous.
But the most important thing right now is to figure out what exactly this place is.
"You can't eat the food here, right?" He didn't bother to ask why, and said directly: "I'll go out and buy it for you."
"Boy, you came in and you still want to go out. I'm afraid you're not dreaming."
