The Ghost Mentors team was quite happy that day because they had successfully completed the first four stories of their lives and had guided a few spirits toward their final destination—the afterlife. But deep inside, Claire was still sad, for she still had no information about how and why her father had died.
"Robin, where are you planning to go from here now?" Stephnie asked as they all stepped outside.
"First of all, I'll go home, because by now Mom and Dad must have learned that I've returned to New York, and they must be worrying. Then in the morning, I'll find out about Emma's younger sister, Stella. After that, I'll complete her adoption formalities and get her treatment process started," Robin answered with a smile.
"Dude! I don't think you know much about the law. You can't adopt a little girl without being married. And now that your girlfriend has already gone with someone else, I don't think that until and unless you get married, you'll be able to adopt Stella," Lily said, bringing him face-to-face with the present situation.
Hearing that, Robin's face flushed a little. Shy and nervous, he replied, "Actually... adopting Stella was a decision made by both Amily and me."
Hearing this, Stephnie and Lily understood that in the form of Amily, Robin had found his true life partner. That's why elders always say that relationships are made in heaven, created by God himself, and whatever happens, happens for a good reason.
Anyway, Robin took his car and returned home, and the Ghost Mentors team went back to their apartment as well.
All three girls were extremely exhausted. After Cindy's case, they hadn't gotten any proper time to rest, because suddenly Emma's case had appeared in front of them. So, the moment they stepped inside the house, they fell straight onto the bed and instantly drifted into deep sleep.
The next morning, the sound of the doorbell woke them up. Stephnie went to open the door, and she was shocked because a detective was standing there—she introduced herself as Detective Sophia.
"May I come in?" Detective Sophia asked as Stephnie opened the door.
"Yes, sure, please come in. But may I know why a police detective is knocking on my door so early in the morning?" Stephnie asked while closing the door.
"Stephnie, who is it so early?" Claire asked, rubbing her eyes as she stepped out of her bedroom.
Seeing a police detective standing there, Claire was also surprised and quietly sat down on the couch beside Stephnie.
"Stephnie, it would be better if you call your third partner, Lily, as well, because I'm here to speak with all three of you," Detective Sophia said, looking at her.
But at that very moment, Lily entered the room, as the doorbell had awakened her too. She walked over and sat beside her two friends on the couch.
"Now please tell us what you want to talk about with all three of us?" Lily asked Detective Sophia as she sat down.
"Look, if you're here to question us about our channel or our content, then sorry—until our lawyer arrives, we won't answer anything. I at least know enough law to understand that you cannot force us to answer without our lawyer present," Claire said firmly, looking straight into Detective Sophia's eyes.
But Detective Sophia neither responded to Claire nor said anything to Lily. Instead, she lowered her head slowly and said, "Can you treat me for a moment not like a detective, but like an ordinary woman—Sophia—so I can speak openly about what I truly want to say?"
Hearing that, all three girls were startled for a moment. Then, settling properly on the couch, they said together, "Whatever it is, please tell us clearly, because the way you're circling around your words… we're not able to understand anything."
Listening to them, Sophia lifted her head and looked at them. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she softly asked, "Do you really believe that spirits exist?"
Her question immediately sharpened the alertness of the Ghost Mentors team. Claire quickly pulled out the diary she used to take case notes, and Lily switched on the sound recorder kept nearby. Then Stephnie looked at Sophia and said, "Detective, please feel free to tell us everything. And yes, we do believe in spirits—that's our work, to guide lost souls into the afterlife."
Saying this, Stephnie offered Sophia a glass of water, and Sophia drank all of it. She now looked more relaxed than before.
Then Sophia began, "I have been working with NYPD as a police detective for the last 20 years. But recently, in the past year, my entire life has changed. One year ago, I lost my only son in an accident… and I was a single parent. After his death, I became extremely lonely, and I took a leave from work for almost three months."
Sophia hadn't even finished speaking when Claire interrupted her, saying, "Sophia, whatever happened to you was truly terrible, and we are very sorry for your loss. But if you're thinking that we can help you talk to your dead son, then please forgive us—we don't do that. We only help lost spirits and people who are being troubled by spirits."
But it seemed Sophia did not like Claire cutting her off like that. She immediately stood up, whispering to herself, "I shouldn't have come here. I should've known no one would believe what I have to say… how can I, being a detective, talk about such things?"
Watching her reactions, Stephnie understood something was deeply disturbing Sophia from within—something that had pushed her into mental imbalance, something she desperately wanted to talk about but couldn't because of her profession. That's why Stephnie stopped her and said gently, "Sophia! Please be comfortable and tell us everything. My friend was only telling you some routine rules… which honestly, Claire shouldn't have mentioned right now."
She ended her sentence while looking at Claire, making it clear that Claire needed to stay quiet.
After that, Sophia glanced once around the entire Ghost Mentors apartment, then sat back in her place. She took another sip of water from the glass and began speaking again. "The reason I took a break after my son's death was because I was in deep depression… and confused. His words kept echoing in my ears all the time—'Mom, please save me. I played the postcard game too, and now that postcard witch will kill me just like she killed my friends Miranda and Shelly.' But when he was alive, I never believed anything he said. I thought maybe because of teenage influence he was hanging out with the wrong people, taking drugs or something, and that was why he had started hallucinating. But… I was wrong."Saying this, Sophia broke down completely, sobbing hard with overwhelming grief.
Hearing the words spoken by her son, Stephnie, Claire, and Lily were shocked. Lily quickly glanced at her two friends with a slight smile, as if saying—our new case has arrived.
"What kind of things did your son see? And what was his name?" Claire asked gently, trying to calm Sophia down.
"Aaron… Aaron Ficher," Sophia answered between sobs.
"And what kind of things did your son see? And what is this postcard game?" Claire asked her next question.
But before Sophia could reply, Lily—who had been searching something on her phone—suddenly exclaimed loudly, "Oh! Ficher the Fisher! That was your son! I know your son—he was a national swimmer, and before his death he had won many national swimming awards! That's why people used to call him 'Fisher'!"
"Lily, how do you know Sophia's son?" Stephnie asked, surprised.
"Oh please, you both know that two years ago I used to go to learn swimming from that coach, Mrs. Watson, right? Aaron Ficher was also her student. Am I right, Sophia?" Lily asked, looking at her.
Sophia nodded her head in confirmation.
"But how did your son die?" Claire asked Sophia.
But before Sophia could answer, Lily quickly blurted out, "Drowning."
"What…????"Claire and Stephnie both froze in shock. Their mouths literally fell open. A national-level swimmer—someone who had won so many awards—had died by drowning?
"What are you saying, Lily? On one hand you say Aaron was a national-level swimmer, and now you're saying he died by drowning? How is that possible?" Claire asked, bewildered.
"What Lily is saying is the truth. My son did die by drowning, and that was exactly why I became suspicious after his death. I began investigating everything, and the more I tried to uncover the mystery behind my son's death, the more I lost my ability to distinguish between imagination and reality," Sophia answered Claire, tears still filling her eyes.
"What exactly did you discover after your son's death, Sophia?" Stephnie asked her.
"When I received the news that my son had drowned, I was attending an NYPD charity event. When I heard that he had died by drowning, I couldn't believe it at first—but then the post-mortem also confirmed the same. I thought perhaps someone had held him underwater and killed him, but when I checked the footage from the swimming institute, I saw my son alone in the pool, bathing… and in the very next moment, he began drowning on his own and then died. When I checked his room after his death, he had drawn a sketch and hung it everywhere—an eerie woman's face holding a postcard in her hand. When I investigated this postcard game, my search led me to a small town called Queensland, where this game originally started."Sophia explained everything in one breath.
"But I've never played any game named 'The Postcard Game'," Lily said, looking at her two friends.
Claire and Stephnie supported Lily's statement—they too were hearing this game's name for the first time, and they had never played anything like it.
At this, Sophia took out two photographs and placed them on the table in front of the three girls. "This is the first girl who ever played this game. And the second photograph was taken when she died after accidentally eating almonds while cooking—during a charity event where she was only making snacks for her school. And she knew she was allergic to almonds."
When Stephnie, Claire, and Lily heard this, they leaned forward to examine the photographs. In one picture, there was a girl named Isabella Siemonds. The other photograph was a newspaper clipping showing the news of her death and her last picture. It clearly stated that Isabella was an excellent cook and extremely skilled in the kitchen. The three girls were shocked to see that the same pattern repeated in both deaths—the victims died exactly because of the very skills they were best at.
"How is it possible that both people died while doing the things they were experts at?" Claire muttered in confusion, stunned.
"This isn't just about two people, Claire. There are thousands of such cases. This game was first played in Australia in 1956, and after that, many similar deaths occurred there. But suddenly the deaths stopped… until 2019, when everything started again from Queensland. When I searched through the records of these kinds of deaths, I found 8,734 cases from 1956 till now."Sophia took out a pendrive and handed it to Claire.
Then Sophia continued, "Look, the more I tried to uncover the truth behind my son's death, the deeper I sank into this case. That's why after searching for a year, I stopped investigating it. But recently, I had to take a 17-year-old girl into custody in another case… and I was shocked when she told me the exact same things my son used to say before he died."
"Oh, that means this postcard game is a kind of curse—one that kills the people who play it. And as you're saying, there's another girl who might die soon because of this game… it means we need to solve this postcard game mystery quickly and save that girl," Claire said after listening to Sophia.
"And before that, we need to understand this entire case and its connected facts completely. Only then can we meet that girl and find out how she became involved in this cursed game," Stephnie said, eyes widening with focus.
"In this pendrive, you'll find information about all the similar cases so far, and also about the girl who is currently in my custody—her name is Harper. First, collect all the information and understand everything, then call me in the evening, and I'll help you meet Harper," Sophia said as she stood up, placing her card on the table for the three girls.
"Okay. But instead of evening, give us time until tomorrow morning. And no matter what happens, please do not release Harper from custody until then—because this curse takes a person's life only when they're doing their favorite activity or the activity they're highly skilled at," Claire said while walking Sophia to the door.
After that, Sophia left, and the Ghost Mentors team connected the pendrive to the laptop and began extracting all the information related to the case.
Meanwhile, our male lead Michael and his partner Mercy had just landed at the Los Angeles airport.
"Wow! Such a beautiful place," Mercy said, fixing her hat and looking around.
"Oh please, we haven't even stepped out of the airport properly yet, and you already like this place, Mercy?" Michael teased.
"Yes, Michael—because more than the living, I can feel the presence of the dead here. And the more the spirits, the more my hunts." Mercy laughed as she replied, and Michael instantly regretted his own teasing.
"Well, Michael, where do we have to go from here?" Mercy asked while stepping out of the airport.
"According to the information Gandolf sent me, we have to go to the LAPD headquarters. From there, we'll have to get access to their local prison—which is built underground—and send the soul of a police officer to hell. He escaped last time when some spirit opened a portal leading to earth," Michael said while slipping his passport back into his bag.
"But do you really think the police will let us walk into their local prison? Are you their son-in-law or something? They won't even let us step inside their headquarters," Mercy said, trying to explain the reality to him.
"It's fine. We'll go there and figure out some way," Michael said.
But Mercy didn't like doing anything the direct, simple way. She didn't want Michael to ask for help or request anything from human authorities. Instead, a wicked idea popped into her mind. She walked up to a security officer standing nearby and asked, "Are you from the LAPD?"
"Yes, ma'am. How can I help you?" the security police officer responded.
"Just now, when I was picking up my luggage from the trolley, why were you looking at my butt and why were you rubbing your penis. I know I am very beautiful, but is my butt there so that you can give pleasure to your penis." Saying this, Mercy started arguing with the policeman and then smiled looking at Michael.
Micheal could already tell what Mercy was planning. The spark in her eyes said everything, and he knew the next few seconds would be pure chaos. And just as he predicted, Mercy moved like a storm—swift, ruthless, and with zero hesitation. Within minutes, the security officer was on the floor, groaning in defeat.
Barely ten minutes later, Micheal and Mercy were no longer tourists stepping out of an airport—they were detainees being transported straight to the LAPD headquarters. Flashing lights painted the walls, and the tension inside the custody van felt heavier than the handcuffs around their wrists.
What awaited them next… no one knew.But one thing was clear—Micheal and Mercy had officially entered the territory of the Ghost Mentors.
Meanwhile, the Ghost Mentors' team had already plunged into the new case, analyzing every scrap of data they had uncovered. Games were meant to entertain, to thrill…yet this postcard game did the opposite.
It delivered death.