48 Hours a Day

Chapter 729: Fabericotte’s Story

Fabericotte calmed down a little after that. Although his common sense and logic were destroyed after seeing those monsters from such a close distance, he did not allow his mind to fall into confusion.

He was able to describe to Zhang Heng what he saw and heard that day.

According to him, he initially wanted to transit to Arkham from here by riding the bus at 8 p.m. Usually, no one would pick this route, hence the cheap fare. For a poor traveler like him, he chose that route without much hesitation. Besides that, he was curious about this place as well.

In Newburyport, he had heard many tales about this place, such as the disgusting and hideous people who lived in this town, the gloomy, oppressed, and sneaky atmosphere, and the periodical disappearance of people. It seemed like a rather attractive prospect at that time.

That was especially the case when Fabricotte saw the golden crown in the museum. He became deeply fascinated by the evil aura beyond human imagination and its mysterious origin.

“Is the golden crown made of this material?” Zhang Heng took out the necklace he found in his bag.

“Yes! That’s it!” Farbericotte immediately yelped when he saw the necklace. However, before he could get a good look at it, he shuddered, trying to look away. It seemed the necklace stored some evil magical power. Despite that, Fabericotte could not help but be fascinated by it.

Fortunately, Zhang Heng did not take it out for too long. He just waved it in front of him and put it away again.

Farbericotte breathed a sigh of relief, “Anyway, I took the bus at ten o’clock the next morning and arrived here. Although I’ve had done a lot of research and mentally prepared myself before coming here, I must admit the strange and dead atmosphere is beyond my imagination. I mean, can you believe it? Before 1846, this town was filled with people. It was said that a great plague swept by, destroying this town, wiping out more than half its inhabitants in a short time. Perhaps this unknown disease is the cause of their strange appearance.”

Fabericotte paused for a while.

“Anyway, I had already gotten on the bus and landed here. Even if I wanted to leave, I had to take the evening bus. So I decided to spend some time walking around. I wanted to satisfy my curiosity too. I wanted to hear more tales about this place... But as you can see, the people here are not very friendly to outsiders. No one wants to talk to me. In fact, it is not that I don’t want to communicate with them. Their strange looks simply make me very uncomfortable. Then, found an employee in the grocery store. He is not a local. Not too long ago, his headquarters transferred him here.

“He told me a few things that I should be mindful of, such as not going out in the middle of the night and staying away from the church. Another mysterious order had replaced the Freemasons here, and their priests worked on some peculiar rituals. On another note, the townsfolk love water very much. They have swimming competitions from time to time. Trust me. You don’t want to know how they swim. By the way, there are four famous families in this town—the Marsh family, running the refinery, the Witt family, the Gilman family, and the Elliott family. However, the people here rarely see them around town.

“When the staff in the grocery store knew that I was curious about the tales here, he recommended an old man called Zadok Allen to me. He is a poor old drunk who lives alone and is over ninety years old. Normally, he would keep his mouth closed tight, and he is mentally unstable. But as soon as he gets drunk, he would start spilling everything kept in his mind. It is said that he created most of the fables around here.”

“Did you manage to find him?” Zhang Heng asked.

“Yes, but it was not an easy task. I had to avoid as many people as possible. In fact, the staff told me that it would be best that nobody knew that I had met Zadok Allen. I used a bottle of wine to lure him to some ruins. That was where I acquired a precious opportunity to talk to him one-on-one.”

Farbericotte suddenly displayed a look of horror and annoyance, “but I now wished I never heard those horrible stories from him.”

“What kind of stories?”

“Everything traced back to a small island in the South Pacific. At that time, a series of unfortunate events took place one after another. A ship of fishermen was killed by pirates during the War in 1812. Three of the Gilman’s ships went missing, leaving only the Marsh’s vessels still sailing. However, they didn’t manage to fish for a long. There was a man called Obed, one of the captains of the fleet. He had come to know about a small island where the indigenous wore gold-like jewelry and fishes that were so abundant their boats would creak from the haul.

“Hence, Captain Obed led his people to find the small island. At first, he just tried to trade the gold-like pieces of jewelry with the natives. Not too long after that, Obed found the source of those gold from the tribal chief. The tribal chief told him that the people on the island would hold ceremonies from time to time. These creatures would ask the tribe to give up their young people as a sacrifice, and in return, they would give them gold and fishes.”

“After that, those things attempted to persuade the island’s natives to reproduce with them. When they gave birth, their offspring look exactly like humans, but as they mature, they would take on the likeness of those creatures. Eventually, they would live underwater forever.”

“Are you referring to those half-human, half-fish, and frog creatures?” Zhang Heng frowned.

“Yes, those creatures were the ones who did business with that tribe. But not all their children grew up that way. Besides that, different people had different mutation times. Some were born like this, and some could maintain their human appearance until they were 70 or 80. Some even looked human until the day they died.”

“Hmm.”

“In short, Captain Obed figured out what happened on the island and brought back the gift the tribal chief gave him, a gadget made of lead or something and a set of corresponding rituals. According to the chief, if they managed to find a place with fishes, all they had to do was throw the gadget into the water. In conjunction with the ritual, they would be able to find those creatures living underwater.

“Captain Obed did not use it at first. He just put it aside and continued to trade with the tribal people on the island to acquire their gold. Not long after that, he opened a refinery in the town to secretly process the gold and made a lot of money. On the 8th of March, when Obed took the people to the island, he discovered that the tribe had disappeared. Folks from other islands had wiped them out, and mysterious amulets were scattered everywhere on the island. For Captain Obed, that could only mean terrible news.”