First, Mrs. Brown couldn't suppress her own pathological condition.

She could still pretend to be decent in front of outsiders and be kind to the children, but once alone with her husband, she would show abnormal control desires.

Mr. Brown is a painter and is only allowed to paint her and the children. Angel and Alex don't like Mrs. Brown doing this, so only Susan and herself are the most frequently painted on the canvas.

After that, Angel also started to fall ill.

She had always restrained herself, not wanting to become a monster and lose her humanity. During that time, she was in great pain and struggled with herself every day. Alex encouraged her and accompanied Angel to make dolls to focus her energy.

Later on, Mr. Brown couldn't bear his wife's control and accidentally killed her, but was scared crazy by his wife's ghost.

That day, everyone in the villa found that they couldn't leave the villa.

Mrs. Brown's ghost could barely reach the front door, while the others were trapped in the villa and couldn't even go to the garden.

Regardless of their personalities and positions, being imprisoned and the return of Mrs. Brown's ghost dealt a heavy blow to all of them. They cried, went hysterical, felt despair, and finally returned to calmness.

...

Alex said this with a sad look in his eyes.

"So, you didn't want to leave, but you couldn't..." Martha sighed. If her family confined her at home, cut off her internet, she would cry, make a scene, and even hang herself, then escape through the window at night.

But the Brown family didn't even have the chance to escape.

Yu Xing was tired. He had been tired all morning and just wanted to find a place to sit. So he sat on the desk and asked, "I guess the things that happened afterwards are related to the wizard who visited your house, right?"

Alex nodded and pursed his lips, as if recalling the appearance of the wizard.

"At that time, after we accepted our fate of being imprisoned, my mother started trying to attract people back home to kill them. She believed that killing enough people would lift the imprisonment. At that time, several people had already been controlled by my mother and killed with oil paintings."

"Then, one midnight, a man knocked on the door..."

That man didn't say his name, only calling himself a wizard.

It was raining that day, similar to today. The man passed by the town of Orillan and chose to stay in this gradually famous villa.

He claimed to be a wizard during the conversation and immediately pointed out the abnormalities of the Brown family. Mrs. Brown couldn't kill him. Instead of harming the Brown family, he mysteriously offered help.

At that time, Susan asked the wizard, "Are you an exorcist? The kind that can drive away my mother."

Everyone in the villa was afraid of Mrs. Brown. They believed that it was her existence that caused them to be imprisoned in the villa and unable to leave.

Whether it was Angel and Alex, Susan, or the insane Mr. Brown, they all had someone who could eliminate Mrs. Brown's ghost. However, due to Mrs. Brown's absolute control over the house, no one dared to show it.

The arrival of the wizard was a good opportunity.

...

Since this memory was described from Alex's perspective, he didn't know some details and could only tell the story carefully.

...

Angel was beautiful, kind, and patient. Under her harmless appearance, she hid dangerous jagged edges engraved in her genes. She was like a black lily tainted with poison, full of flaws yet flawlessly perfect.

The wizard fell in love with Angel, there was no doubt about that.

He stayed in the Brown family for ten days.

One day, during the day, Alex was in Angel's room making dolls with her when the wizard knocked on the door and told them that he had a method to help them escape Mrs. Brown's control, but with a condition.

Escaping from Mrs. Brown was what the siblings had been dreaming of. Although they hesitated, Angel still went to find the wizard one day later and expressed her willingness to try.

Angel knew that the wizard liked her, and she thought that the condition was her body, so she didn't tell Alex about her choice.

The wizard taught Angel an ancient witchcraft that allowed her to absorb souls using dolls. These dolls restrained Mrs. Brown's soul. As expected, Mrs. Brown no longer dared to threaten and force Angel or Alex, with whom she had a particularly good relationship.

But Angel was in great pain because she felt like an evil lunatic. She had killed people, killed many people!

After the dolls absorbed the souls of others, they would sing every night. She was afraid of this song, as if it was the singing of the dead in hell, trying to drag her down with them.

She was going crazy.

To punish herself, she moved to the attic. She no longer met anyone. Before going up, Angel called Alex and told him everything.

The condition the wizard gave her was that she had to absorb the souls of ninety-nine people, otherwise, he would kill Alex.

She loved her brother, the only companion she had supported and walked with her from childhood to adulthood.

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So she left a doll for her brother and hid two dolls in the guest room. Then she went up to the attic, making new dolls and punishing herself.

Whenever a guest came, she had to compete with Mrs. Brown for the guest's life. Whoever achieved the goal first would win!

Mrs. Brown was afraid of Angel's dolls. She was very careful. When she encountered a doll called "Mother," she let Susan destroy it. When she encountered a doll called "Sister," she destroyed it herself. Angel had never been able to directly kill them.

Alex had been waiting for an opportunity.

A few days later, the wizard left.

Before the wizard left, Alex saw him give Susan a music box. He didn't understand the reason behind the wizard's actions. Who was he really trying to help?

But he didn't find a chance to ask. On the day the wizard left, the garden was filled with black and white flowers, as if they had appeared overnight.

The wizard stood below the attic and gently said to Angel, "These flowers are for you."

Alex only knew the flower language of black roses, love and curse.

He felt scared. The wizard was as twisted as Mrs. Brown. He loved Angel but wanted to curse her and drag her into the abyss.

The wizard said that when Angel achieved her goal, he would come back again.

...Yu Xing found the story quite thrilling, he almost wished he had some popcorn. He shook his leg resting on the ground and asked, "How many are there now?"

Alexis chuckled, "Perhaps it's fate's arrangement, having you all here to end this. If we include Susan and mom, plus the three of you, that makes 43."

Martha asked curiously, "So we're still within the safety limit?"

York tapped Lolita's head lightly, "Of course not, don't forget, there's still the mad Mr. Brown in the villa."

Including Mr. Brown, that makes exactly forty-four.