One moment, the hotel room had been filled with an oppressive supernatural atmosphere.
The next, Madison’s laughter shattered every trace of tension.
Once Charlie exposed her prank, she abandoned the frightened act completely.
Her shoulders relaxed, and a mischievous smile spread across her face as she placed both hands on her hips.
“You should have seen your expression,” Madison said between laughs.
“You were terrified.
Admit it.
My ghost performance was impressive.”
Charlie stared at her without smiling.
His fingers were still wrapped around the wooden cross, and the adrenaline from the false haunting had not yet faded.
“Don’t look so angry.”
Madison stepped closer and gave him a playful smile.
“I was helping you.
You spent the entire day looking for something supernatural and found nothing, so I gave you the experience you wanted.
A witch using magic should still count.”
“Thank you for your generosity,” Charlie replied dryly.
“I came here to deal with supernatural threats.
Are you volunteering to become my first target?”
At that moment, he deeply missed Zoe’s gentle personality.
Madison could be helpful when she wanted, but her constant need for excitement made her exhausting to deal with.
Madison’s eyes narrowed with amusement.
“You could still take me out.”
She pressed herself against him again and slid both arms around his neck.
Her warm breath touched his face while her red lips curved into a provocative smile.
“What better way to end the night than an exorcist battling a witch?”
Charlie suspected that her definition of battle had nothing to do with magic.
He turned his head before she could close the remaining distance and prepared to refuse.
A violent rattling suddenly came from the window.
Charlie glanced toward it and sighed.
“You’re doing it again.
I’m not falling for the same trick twice.”
“What?”
Madison had been concentrating entirely on him.
Her breathing remained slightly uneven, and the confusion on her face appeared genuine.
“The window.”
Charlie barely finished speaking before a deafening crash shook the room.
The hotel door tore free from its hinges and slammed onto the floor.
Splintered wood scattered across the carpet while the hallway beyond it was revealed.
Charlie frowned at Madison.
“This has gone too far.
We’ll have to pay for that door, and someone outside could see you using magic.”
“Why would I destroy the room now?”
Madison turned toward the doorway.
Her seductive expression disappeared the moment she saw the broken frame.
“Who did that?”
Charlie studied her face.
“That wasn’t you?”
“Of course not.
I was busy.”
Her answer was convincing enough that he believed her immediately.
Madison had no reason to interrupt herself when she had almost achieved what she wanted. This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
Charlie took a cautious step toward the ruined doorway, but the rattling at the window intensified.
The glass vibrated inside its frame as if something outside were striking it repeatedly.
A powerful gust of wind rushed through the open doorway.
The lamps, chairs, glasses, and loose papers inside the room were thrown into the air.
Curtains snapped violently while the travel bag containing the Golden Arm slid across the floor.
Charlie grabbed the edge of the dresser to keep his balance.
Madison caught his arm and pressed close beside him as the wind continued tearing through the room.
A faint voice emerged from the chaos.
“Who…”
Madison’s manicured fingers tightened around Charlie’s sleeve.
“Did you hear that?”
Charlie listened carefully.
The voice came again, carried by the unnatural wind.
“Who… took… my Golden Arm?”
Charlie’s eyes widened.
“Golden Arm?”
The moment he spoke those words, everything stopped.
The wind vanished.
The curtains fell still, and the objects suspended in the air crashed onto the floor.
Silence lasted for only a heartbeat.
The windows exploded inward.
Glass fragments scattered across the carpet as another gale poured into the room.
Wind also surged through the broken doorway, trapping Charlie and Madison between two violent currents.
Furniture scraped across the floor and slammed into the walls.
Charlie wrapped one arm around Madison while holding onto the dresser with the other, and their combined weight barely kept them from being thrown across the room.
The disembodied voice grew louder.
“Who took my Golden Arm?”
Its whisper became a howl that echoed through the hotel room.
“Who was it?”
“Who took it from me?”
Madison forced a tense smile despite the fear in her eyes.
“Charlie, I think we actually found a ghost.”
“There’s no question about it.”
A scarlet glow had already spread through the Book of Containment inside Charlie’s mind.
Unlike Madison’s prank, the Book recognized the presence in the hotel as a genuine containable entity.
Charlie looked toward the travel bag near the fallen table.
After searching cemeteries, restaurants, and haunted buildings all day, the supernatural threat had come from an object they picked up by accident.
The nervous man in the lobby had not abandoned the Golden Arm because it was worthless.
He had been fleeing from whatever followed it.
The ghostly voice continued moving through the wind.
Its frantic cries gradually slowed until every word became clear and cold.
“I found you.”
Charlie’s body went rigid.
“You stole my Golden Arm.”
Madison shuddered and looked toward the bag.
“Maybe we should give it back.”
Charlie stared into the dark hallway beyond the destroyed door.
Something large was forcing its way toward the room.
Heavy footsteps struck the carpet.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Each step came closer.
“It sounds like it intends to kill us before taking the arm.”
Charlie drew the Glock 17 and raised the cross in his other hand.
His fear remained, but the scarlet glow inside his mind confirmed that this was the target he had spent the entire day searching for.
A figure appeared beyond the doorway.
Madison recoiled.
“That is disgusting.”
A decaying woman stepped into the room.
Most of her flesh had rotted away, leaving dark muscle and exposed bone beneath torn burial clothes.
Insects crawled through the open wounds while a foul smell spread through the air.
Her right forearm was missing below the elbow.
Charlie did not need the Book to understand that the Golden Arm had once belonged to her.
He swallowed and kept the Glock aimed at the corpse.
“We found the arm after someone abandoned it downstairs.
We didn’t steal it.”
The corpse’s blood-red eyes fixed on him.
Its ruined mouth opened as a wet growl escaped from its throat.
“Where is my Golden Arm?”
Charlie glanced toward the bag.
“We can return it.”
“You took it.”
The creature leaned forward.
“Thieves must die.”
Charlie’s skin prickled beneath its stare.
Communication had failed, and the corpse was already preparing to attack.
He pulled the trigger.
Gunfire thundered through the hotel room as Charlie fired repeatedly.
His hands trembled from fear, but the creature stood close enough that every round struck its head or torso.
Rotten flesh burst from its body.
The corpse staggered backward before collapsing onto the floor with smoke rising from the bullet holes.
Charlie immediately ejected the empty magazine and inserted a fresh one.
He kept the pistol trained on the fallen body while taking a cautious step forward.
“Is it dead?”
“No,” Madison warned.
Her witch’s instincts still sensed supernatural power inside the corpse.
The body suddenly jerked.
It pushed itself upright without using its hands, bending at the waist like something pulled by invisible strings.
The bullets lodged inside its flesh were forced backward and dropped onto the carpet one by one.
The corpse straightened and stared at Charlie again.
“Give me my Golden Arm!”
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