Hearing the name Marry Thomas from Tom's mouth, the three girls were utterly shocked. None of them could understand how Tom was connected to Marry Thomas. Moreover, Tom belonged to a very rich family — and if Marry was truly his sister, why hadn't his influential family used their power to find her?
Seeing the confusion on their faces, Tom took a deep breath and began his story.
"You heard it right," he said quietly. "Marry was my sister — not by blood, but she was still like an elder sister to me. Actually, I grew up in an orphanage, and Marry was the only one there who always took care of me like a big sister. After two years, a very wealthy couple adopted me and took me to New York, but Marry stayed behind. No one ever came to adopt her."
"After being adopted, I started living with that rich couple and grew up in their luxurious home, but I could never forget Marry. When I completed college, I went back to the orphanage to meet her, but I found out that she had become a journalist and was living in her own apartment in New York. When I went to her apartment, I learned that she had already left the city a while ago to investigate a case — the St. Victor Memorial Hospital case.
"When I went there to inquire about her, I was told that Marry had run away after taking money from Murphy. But I knew Marry could never betray anyone. After a few more days of investigation, I found out that Marry and Murphy were actually in love with each other. But one day, Marry suddenly disappeared.
"And then… one day, I heard a scream coming from the hospital's third floor. Later, I realized that I was the only one who could hear it. That scream… it was Marry's. Her soul had been trapped inside that room, and her cries could only be heard by those who shared a deep connection with her. Since you three came here to solve Marry's mystery, that's why, on the very first day, all of you heard her screams."
"But then why," Claire asked, confused, "did only I hear it the next day? Why not Stephnie and Lily?"
"Because after hearing Fedrick's false story, Lily and Stephnie began to believe, deep inside, that Marry was a deceitful woman," Tom explained calmly. "But you, Claire — you never saw her as guilty."
Lily frowned. "But how did you even know our location?" she asked, astonished.
Tom smiled faintly. "Madam, perhaps you forgot — you came here in my car. And my car has a GPS tracker installed, for safety," he said, showing the car's location on his smartwatch.
Stephnie's tone was filled with suspicion. "But why did you give this case to us? And how did you know we would even take it?"
Tom chuckled softly. "Because you girls wanted a new case… and you love mysteries. So, after leaving the parcel, I hid outside the window and watched. The moment you decided to take on this case, I couldn't help but feel overjoyed."
As they continued talking, half the day passed. Soon after, the doctor discharged Claire from the hospital. The three girls left a thank-you note for Murphy at the reception and then headed home with Tom.
Claire was happy for Marry — finally, she felt peace for her spirit — but deep down, she was still disappointed that she hadn't found anything about her father. When she had asked Tom about it, he'd told her that he only knew George worked in the Pennsylvania Police Department. Since Claire had mentioned her father many times before, Tom had assumed that perhaps George might know something about him.
Anyway, the three girls had finally reached home, and Tom had already dropped them off and returned to his own place.
"This case was even more dangerous than the last one. For a moment, I actually thought we were all going to die," Lily said, picking up her bag and letting out a long sigh.
"You're absolutely right," Claire replied. "This case nearly broke us apart. Every turn brought a new mystery, but there was never a clear conclusion. And just when we thought we'd found the culprit, it turned out the real victim was standing right in front of us."
Lily smirked mischievously. "Say whatever you want, but you have to admit — Murphy Peterson was seriously hot. I swear, I was this close to giving myself to him. Just looking at him made me…" she paused with a teasing grin, "…lose control."
"Oh, please, Lily," Stephnie said, rolling her eyes. "Of course you liked him — he was just as much of a horny as you are. Always ready for… you know what."
Hearing that, all three girls burst into laughter. Still giggling, they unlocked the door and went inside. Each of them headed straight to their rooms to change clothes; they were exhausted, and it was already ten at night. There was nothing to cook — the day they were supposed to visit the supermarket, they had ended up diving into the St. Victor Memorial Hospital case instead.
That night, while watching TV, the girls ordered dinner from a nearby restaurant. As they ate, Lily sat cross-legged on the couch, editing and uploading the case footage to her channel, while Stephnie and Claire picked a horror movie to watch.
Meanwhile, far away in another corner of New York, a family had been living through nights without sleep and days without peace.
"I can't stay in this house any longer!" Olivia shouted at her husband, Walter. "Do you really want your stubbornness to cost us our lives — or our children's lives?"
"What do you expect me to do, Olivia?" Walter shot back, frustrated, rubbing his temples as he sat on the couch. "You know I spent my entire life's savings on this house. We've only been living here for three months, and now you're asking me to move out just because you think there's a ghost here?"
Walter and Olivia had previously lived in Mexico, where Walter worked as a junior engineer operating heavy machinery at a construction site. They had two children — their fifteen-year-old daughter, Cindy, and their eleven-year-old son, Alex. The family had recently moved from Mexico to New York, buying this house at a surprisingly low price with Walter's ten years of savings.
But ever since they moved in, strange things had been happening. Whenever Walter left for work and the children were at school, Olivia would hear the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs — yet when she checked, no one was there. Sometimes, while the children slept, their beds would start shaking violently as if an earthquake had struck. Someone in the house was always ill, and ever since they'd moved in, tension had crept into Walter and Olivia's marriage. Walter had even started drinking heavily.
One Sunday, while Walter was at home, he heard a strange sound coming from the basement — something that resembled the noise of a wood-cutting machine. When Walter went downstairs to check, he saw a horrifying man standing there. The man had long hair and stood about six feet four inches tall. Blood was dripping from his face as if someone had smashed it with a rock. He was wearing an old tracksuit, completely soaked in blood. In his hand, he held an electric wood cutter, which he kept turning on and off — the same sound Walter had heard earlier.
When that man noticed Walter there, he growled in a terrifying, guttural way, as though Walter's presence enraged him. The very next moment, he charged toward Walter with his electric wood cutter. Walter somehow escaped with his life and ran upstairs from the basement.
He didn't tell anyone about what had happened, fearing his family would be terrified, but he warned everyone never to go down to the basement again. Later, a priest from the local church came to their house and purified it with holy water. After that, the situation at home seemed to improve considerably.
However, earlier today morning, when Cindy and Alex were playing hide and seek, Cindy had gone to hide in the basement — and that same wood-cutter man had attacked her there. Somehow, Cindy managed to escape, but she had injured her leg. When they returned home, Olivia told Walter everything that had happened, and Walter, in turn, revealed to her what he had experienced in the basement that day. Now, Olivia no longer wanted to spend even a single moment in that house with her children, which led to a heated argument between her and Walter.
Meanwhile, the three girls had finished their dinner and were sleeping peacefully. They were overjoyed — their first two cases had been solved successfully without any harm coming to anyone.
The next morning, after taking a shower, the three girls headed to college. Once they arrived, they were met with mixed reactions from other students. Some saw them as heroes because of their channel "The Ghost Mentors," while others called them liars and frauds, claiming that the footage they uploaded was fake. Some students even started avoiding them altogether.
But Lily was thoroughly enjoying all of it. At that moment, she felt like a celebrity — after all, their channel "The Ghost Mentors" had become extremely popular, and with only two case videos, they had already gained millions of subscribers.
"You look so happy, Lily. What's the matter? Tell us," Stephnie teased as they sat in class.
"Stephnie, we're stars now! Not just in college — the entire city knows who we are. It won't be long before some big Hollywood film producer comes to offer us roles in his movie," Lily said, her excitement glowing through her words.
"But Lily," Claire interrupted, showing her phone, "a lot of people have started hating us because of what we do. Just look at these comments — people are calling us witches, frauds, and money-hungry scammers."
"Claire! Just ignore them. Whether people hate us or love us, our popularity will only keep growing. The more people comment, the more viral our content becomes — that's the power of social media! And soon, we'll start earning from our channel too. Then we can buy new equipment, and maybe even a brand-new car for our work," Lily said, her eyes sparkling with dreams.
For the three girls, this felt like a fairy tale coming true — everywhere they went, people were talking about them.
But elsewhere, at Olivia's house, another priest had arrived that day. After carefully inspecting the house, he turned to Walter and said gravely, "There's a powerful negative energy inside your home. It doesn't just want to take your lives — it first wants to make a physical relation with your wife, Olivia, so that it can drag her into its world."
"So, is there absolutely no way to get rid of that spirit?" Walter asked the priest fearfully.
Then the priest, giving them some strict instructions, said, "Look, I will have to perform an exorcism ritual here, but first, I must take permission for this from the church. Until I return with that permission, all of you must live in this house with great caution. Be careful that none of you ever stay alone in this house. You and your wife must refrain from making physical relations for these few days, because seeing the two of you having sex, that spirit can become enraged and harm your family."
Then the priest went to Olivia and, giving her a cross and a Bible, said, "Always keep this Bible beneath your pillow and this cross around your neck. Never, even by mistake, stay without clothes in this house. The day that spirit succeeds in making physical relations with you, on that day, it will kill your entire family along with you."
"Father, can we not leave this house and shift to another one?" Olivia asked the priest, her eyes filled with tears.
"Doing that will be of no use, because before you shifted into this house, that spirit was tied to this house, but now it has become tied to your family, and until it takes all your lives, it will not stop chasing you all." The Father said, giving a warning to Walter and his family.
Then the Father left for the church so that he could get permission and perform the exorcism ritual here. Olivia and Walter, holding each other close, were watching the Father leave and were praying to Jesus in their hearts that the Father would return quickly with permission from the church and free them from this spirit. Following the Father's warning, Walter's entire family now slept together in the hall, and the children had also stopped going to school. Walter's family was a poor family, which is why their neighbors also kept a distance from them. Moreover, the neighbors knew about the house being haunted, due to which no one ever came to Walter's house.
Slowly, the days were passing, and a week had now gone by, but the Father had not yet returned. The spirit, which previously only came and frightened Walter and his family at night, now tried to harm Walter and his family even during the day.
Meanwhile, one day, while both children were sitting in the hall watching TV and Olivia was cooking in the kitchen, Walter called out to her, "Olivia, the water is not running in the bathroom. Please bring a bucket of water from the kitchen."
Olivia immediately filled a bucket of water from the kitchen and moved toward the bathroom to give it to Walter, but just as she reached the bathroom, she remembered that Walter was not at home at all. He had gone out of the city for company work the previous day and was supposed to return only that evening. The moment she realized this, the bucket of water slipped from her hand and fell. Hearing the sound of the bucket falling, both children also came near their mother and asked what happened. But Olivia, who was trembling from fear and tension at that moment, couldn't utter a single word. With shaking hands, Olivia shoved the bathroom door open forcefully, and what she saw inside caused the eyes of Olivia and her two children to freeze for a moment, and their blood ran cold.
Inside the bathroom, that same demonic spirit was standing stark naked and was smiling dreadfully upon seeing Olivia. Olivia immediately grabbed the cross hanging around her neck, but in the very next moment, the spirit vanished from the bathroom. Olivia was just about to regain composure from this situation when suddenly Cindy started screaming loudly and simultaneously began tearing off all her clothes. In the next moment, Cindy had ripped off all her clothes and, standing stark naked, was vigorously fingering her pussy. The entire house was echoing with Cindy's moaning. In reality, that spirit had possessed Cindy's body so that it could scare Olivia and establish a connection with her. Olivia stood helplessly, watching her daughter's pathetic state, and with her hands, she covered her son's eyes so that he would not have to see his older sister in this condition.