Chapter 62: For Science

Chapter 62: Chapter 62: For Science

Chapter 62: For Science

After everything they had witnessed that day, the younger members of the group seemed to have become partially numb to horror. Even Nikki, who had fainted repeatedly downstairs, stared at the mummified corpse inside the wardrobe without immediately screaming again. Axel Vance crouched beside the remains and swept his flashlight across the gray, shriveled flesh that had dried tightly against the bones.

"Give me a hand. Let’s get her out carefully," Axel said. They tore open an old mattress and used part of the fabric as an improvised support, then slowly tried lifting the corpse from the cramped wardrobe. Before they had moved it more than a few inches, a dry crack echoed through the room and one arm broke away at the shoulder.

Seth Brundle immediately looked heartbroken. "Careful! This could be a unique specimen." He crouched beside the detached arm with the expression of a scientist watching somebody drop an irreplaceable laboratory sample.

Axel picked up the broken limb and examined the fracture. The bone and remaining muscle were not merely dried but almost weathered away, and a light squeeze caused fine powder to crumble from the exposed surface. Even the marrow cavity inside the bone appeared completely empty.

Once they finally removed the rest of the corpse, its lack of weight surprised everyone. The entire body felt barely heavier than a loaded grocery bag, certainly no more than a little over ten pounds. Whatever had happened to the woman had taken far more from her than normal decomposition ever could.

Axel placed one hand against the body and concentrated on the spiritual perception he had developed through Holy Water, Holy Reading, and Spirit Binding. After only a few seconds, his expression darkened. "There’s nothing left inside her. Not even a trace of spiritual energy."

Seth immediately pulled on gloves and leaned closer. "You mean something extracted it?" He gently examined the dried skin before pulling out his notebook and writing rapidly. "Complete spiritual depletion causing accelerated desiccation... That is absolutely worth studying."

"Mr. Vance, what happened to my grandmother?" Heather Miller asked, her voice trembling as she stared at the remains. Axel stood and looked toward the luggage sitting open across the other side of the room. "Before we guess, find those inheritance papers and the letter you mentioned."

Heather reacted immediately and hurried toward the suitcase. She pushed aside clothes with shaking hands until she found a thick kraft-paper packet buried underneath. Inside were property documents, a lawyer’s letter, and one pale-yellow envelope sealed with old wax.

The handwriting across the front looked shaky and uneven.

To My Dearest Granddaughter, Heather.

Heather stared at the words. "This must be from Grandma Verna." Axel nodded toward the envelope and said, "Open it."

Heather broke the wax seal and unfolded several sheets of handwritten paper. Her hands trembled badly enough that she had to steady them against her knees before she could begin reading. "My dearest granddaughter, if you are reading this letter, then I am already dead."

The room became silent.

Heather continued, "I am leaving you our family’s most important responsibility. You may be confused by what you discover here, but everything we have done has been for the advancement of humanity and the true progress of science." Her voice slowed as disbelief spread across her face.

"For decades, our family followed the teachings given to us and brought lost lambs into this town. Their spiritual essence was extracted and preserved so we could fulfill the assignments given to us by the leader of our cause." Heather stopped reading and stared at the page as though the words might rearrange themselves into something less horrifying.

Axel gave a humorless nod. "Yeah, that sounds familiar." He had already heard cultists talk about murder and spiritual experimentation as though they were noble sacrifices for human advancement. "They always convince themselves they’re doing something historic."

Heather swallowed and forced herself to continue. "I know this sounds insane, but this responsibility has belonged to our bloodline for years. More than a decade ago, one of the people brought here escaped, and what followed nearly destroyed our entire family."

Everyone in the room immediately understood what the letter meant. The escaped victim had exposed the Sawyer family, leading to the armed confrontation and fire the old man at the gas station had described. What the town remembered as the destruction of a murderous family had apparently also wiped out one branch of a much larger occult operation.

Heather read on. "Most of our relatives died that night, but I survived and remained hidden here until the town forgot what truly happened. My life is almost over now, and you must not mourn me, because everything I have done has prepared for this moment."

Her voice grew weaker.

"Soon I will transfer the spiritual strength I have accumulated into your cousin, who remains protected beneath this house. Please take good care of him after I am gone."

Lionel slowly turned toward Axel.

Seth stopped writing.

Heather stared toward the floor beneath them.

"Cousin?" Ryan whispered from nearby. "She means that chainsaw guy?"

There was little doubt.

*Jed Sawyer—Leatherface—*had been the cousin Verna kept hidden beneath the estate, and the old woman had apparently poured whatever spiritual energy she had gathered into him before dying. That explained his abnormal strength, durability, blackened blood, and connection to the same cult-modification techniques Axel had encountered in Miami.

Heather forced herself to keep reading. "I leave this manor to you because I hope you will continue what our family began. Our leader has told us that after years of sacrifice and research, the great project has advanced farther than ever before."

She paused before reading the final lines. "The result we have dreamed of is close, and that is why you must return now. I trust that one day you will understand why we did all of this."

Heather’s lips trembled.

"Always loving you, Grandmother."

The letter slipped from her fingers.

Nobody spoke for several seconds.

Heather sat motionless on the floor, staring toward the corpse that had once been Verna Carson. She had come to Texas believing that a blood relative she never knew had finally left her a home and some connection to her biological family. Instead, she had inherited a mansion built over murder, human experimentation, and a cult that expected her to continue the work.

Seth was the first person to break the silence. "For the advancement of science," he murmured thoughtfully. "Completely insane justification, but they were clearly achieving genuine supernatural effects."

Axel nodded. "Every modified subject I’ve met has been different. The tall cultist could regenerate, Leatherface had abnormal strength and durability, and apparently Verna could transfer whatever spiritual energy she collected into someone else." Whatever organization connected them was barbaric, but its methods were evolving.

Axel looked toward Seth and Lionel. "Search this entire house again, especially this room and the basement. I want maps, ledgers, contact information, anything mentioning a laboratory or wherever these people report to."

Seth immediately closed his notebook and nodded. Lionel gave a small salute before looking toward the massive hole still in his chest. "Sure. Searching sounds easier than getting cut in half again."

Axel then turned toward Heather, Ryan, and Nikki. "You three go downstairs and work on dinner. We’re going to be here for a while, and once I know what we’re dealing with, I’ll answer whatever questions I can."

Ryan clearly did not understand half of what had just happened, but he understood one thing perfectly: Axel was the only person in the mansion who seemed remotely capable of handling it. He helped the emotionally shattered Heather to her feet while Nikki followed close behind. The three left the room without arguing.

Seth and Lionel immediately began searching.

They checked drawers, walls, furniture, old boxes, and every suspicious gap they could find. Lionel even knocked along sections of plaster with his knuckles while Seth inspected anything that looked capable of hiding documents.

"Axel, look at this."

Lionel had found something behind the inner panel of the wardrobe. He pulled away a loose partition and reached into the hidden space, producing a thick handwritten booklet. Axel took it and immediately recognized the same unsteady handwriting used in Verna’s letter.

The contents were far worse.

Page after page documented people who had passed through Newt over the years. Hitchhikers, backpackers, tourists, drifters, and other outsiders had been brought to the estate and used as subjects in the Sawyer family’s experiments.

Each entry contained a small photograph.

Underneath were names.

Ages.

Dates.

There was also a rough star-rating system recording the estimated amount or quality of spiritual energy obtained from each victim. Axel flipped through several pages and realized Verna had treated human souls with the same cold bookkeeping somebody might use for livestock or inventory.

Seth leaned over Axel’s shoulder. "They quantified it." His earlier excitement faded into a more serious expression as he studied the entries. "Crude measurements, but they were trying to establish repeatable results."

Other sections contained notes about the cult’s supernatural procedures. Axel did not need to study the gruesome details to understand that the methods were primitive, violent, and designed so even people with little actual spiritual talent could follow them. Compared with Paquita’s grandmother’s careful understanding of Spirit Binding, Verna’s work looked like somebody using a hammer to perform surgery.

Seth took the booklet and flipped through several pages. "This is unbelievable." He frowned as he compared different entries. "They discovered a method for converting spiritual essence into usable energy, but the way they apply it is ridiculously crude."

Lionel glanced toward him. "So they’re stupid?"

"More like primitive technicians using something far more advanced than they understand," Seth replied. "The result works, but they barely understand why."

Axel continued searching the hidden compartment, but there were no addresses, telephone numbers, names of senior cult members, or instructions for contacting the organization. Whatever connection Verna maintained with her superiors had apparently been one-way or tightly compartmentalized. The cult had survived for years partly because individual cells knew almost nothing about one another.

The deeper Axel read, the clearer Verna’s plan became. She had not merely summoned Heather back to claim the estate; she had prepared the mansion, records, Leatherface, and family knowledge so her granddaughter could become the next caretaker of the operation. Heather had been expected to walk into a role she did not even know existed.

Axel glanced toward the door through which Heather and the others had left. If his group had not stopped in Newt by coincidence, Ryan, Nikki, Kenny, and perhaps even Darryl might eventually have become new photographs inside this ledger. Heather herself might have been manipulated, threatened, or forced into carrying on Verna’s work.

They searched every page again.

Then the hidden compartment.

Then the surrounding room.

Nothing.

No map and laboratory address.

No cult leader’s name.

Seth finally closed the ledger with a frustrated sigh. "Whoever runs this organization understands compartmentalization." Axel looked at the thick book of dead strangers and nodded grimly.

The Sawyer family had left behind plenty of evidence of what they had done.

But nothing that told Axel where the people above them were hiding.

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