My House of Horrors

“After the hospital director’s demise, his office has been kept the way it was?” The people outside the doctor were filled with confusion. Other than Chen Ge, including the two doctors, no one dared to enter the room. Currently Chen Ge was in a very bad state. The memory related to the stench in his mind started to loosen, pieces of memory fragments blasted to form many different images in his mind.

“Hey, don’t stay in there alone! It is too dangerous!” Patient Number 2 was worried about Chen Ge’s safety. He slowly approached the hospital director’s office, but when he reached the door, his body refused to enter the room. It was as if every cell in his body was resisting him, like they were certain he would die if he dared to ventured into the office.

In the brief clearing of his mind, Chen Ge heard the voice of Patient Number 2, but his nervous system was already swamped by the intense pain and torment. He started to lose control of his body. Under the dual torture of pain and the stench, he toppled headfirst onto the hospital director’s desk. His hands held the surface of the table. Chen Ge’s face that was twisted by pain almost crashed into the glass jar placed on the table.

“Whose heart is this?” His breathing came rapidly as his chest rose and fell. As the pain within Chen Ge intensified, the heart that was wrapped by numerous black threads started to pump inside the glass jar. It was like Chen Ge’s own heart, every beating was pulling along Chen Ge’s nerves. “Could the heart inside the glass jar be mine?”

Chen Ge realized the frequency of the beating of his own heart and the one inside the glass jar was slowly starting to line up. He stared at the glass jar closely as if his soul was about to get sucked into the jar itself. Indescribable pain and despair poured freely into the man’s body. The world before his eyes started to swirl. The multiple character of deaths amplified before his eyes, it was as if they had all come alive. Chen Ge wanted to wave his arms to resist but his body and nerves were at the edge of a breakdown, he had difficulty to even nudge a single muscle in his body.

“Being trapped inside the room filled with the word, death, how come this experience feels so familiar to me?” A memory bubbled up in the darkest corner of Chen Ge’s memory. A mud statuette carved with Chen Ge’s name at the chest was shoved inside an altar that was filled with the character, death by someone. What Chen Ge was experiencing now was similar to the mud statuette that was carved with his own name. But he was not trapped inside any religious altar but he was instead trapped inside the dead hospital director’s office. “Someone has placed a curse on me!”

The flickering memory helped Chen Ge confirm that someone had once placed a curse on him but due to various reason, the person had failed. But now he had triggered the curse again. The man himself had no idea why he could be so familiar with these things that should not be common to a normal person at all. Both of his hands slowly moved. Chen Ge’s gum was bloody from the heavy gritting of his teeth. He reached out to hug the glass jar on the table. The initial plan was to break the glass jar to see if that would break the curse but to his surprise, when both of his hands touched the glass jar, the black threads that was stuck to the heart crawled out from the heart and they started to bang against the glass jar itself. It felt like they were trying to break through the glass to enter Chen Ge’s body.

The glass jar started to splinter and crack. The stench in the room intensified. Chen Ge’s consciousness was failing. He used the last vestige of his energy to shove the glass jar to the edge of the table. The black threads slammed against the glass. The crack kept spreading. Just as the glass jar was about to shatter, deep red striations appeared inside the heart. These red blood vessels twined together and weaved out the face of a child inside the heart.

The child screamed. As if to prevent the child to escape from the cage of the heart, the black threads immediately wrapped themselves back around the heart and stopped attacking the glass jar. Chen Ge witnessed the whole process. Be it the black thread or the child’s face that appeared inside the heart, this was definitely different from the ‘real’ world that Doctor Gao was convinced they were in. He looked at the child’s face inside the heart rather confusedly. For some reason, the face reminded of himself when he was small.

“The heart that was kept inside the glass jar belongs to the young boy?” The pain in his mind faded away by quite a lot. Chen Ge collapsed beside the desk and gasped hungrily for air. The hospital director’s office had returned to normal. Even the stench in the air had lightened greatly.

“Are you alright?” it was not until now that Doctor Sun ran into the office. He squatted down beside Chen Ge with his back to the door.

“Do I look like I am alright to you?” Just as Chen Ge tried to speak, he started to cough uncontrollably.

Doctor Sun looked at Chen Ge quietly. He pointed at Chen Ge’s finger and then said something very strange. “Before the patients are admitted into the hospital, their personal effects will be kept in the fifth sick hall. There is a wedding ring inside your cupboard.”

“Wedding ring? But I am not yet married…”

“Indeed, you are not married, so why would you have a wedding ring on you?” Doctor Sun had a big smile on his scarred face, it radiated relief. He was facing away from the door so only Chen Ge could see the expression on his face at that moment. “If you can successfully escape from the hospital, remember to put on the wedding ring, I believe it is very important to you.” Chen Ge felt like Doctor Sun was a bit different from before. He tried to think closer about it. Ever since they left the third sick hall, Doctor Gao had been holding onto his arm while Doctor Sun had an icy disposition towards him. But after the latter entered the hospital director’s office, Doctor Sun suddenly smiled at him, this was completely different from how he had been acting up until now.

[Is this because Doctor Gao is not inside the hospital director’s office with us?] Chen Ge slowly discovered the difference between Doctor Sun and Doctor Gao. At this moment, Doctor Gao was more like a walking dead body while Doctor Sun was getting more and more humanized.

“Let’s go, it is not wise to stay too long inside the hospital director’s office. This place has witnessed too many tragedies.” Doctor Sun picked Chen Ge up from the ground. He supported Chen Ge as they were leaving the room when Chen Ge suddenly stopped. “Wait a minute.” Chen Ge turned around and picked up the glass jar that was left on the desk. He hugged it in his chest.

“What are you doing?” Doctor Sun took in a cold breath and subconsciously moved away from Chen Ge who was carrying the glass jar as if the glass jar was something incredibly dangerous.

“I want to bring this thing with us.” Chen Ge knew the black threads around the heart might claim his life at any moment but he still insisted on bringing this thing with him because he felt like the face that was hidden inside the heart was very important to him.

“Do you know what is that? The stories that I have told you before, do you really think they are just mere stories?” Doctor Sun’s expression changed immediately. He knew how scary the glass jar was but due to certain reason, he was unable to divulge more information.

“I know this thing is very dangerous but just because of how dangerous it is, there is more the reason for me to carry it with me.” Chen Ge answered seriously.

“What kind of twisted logic is that?” Doctor Sun started to suspect Chen Ge’s condition had worsened again.

“Actually I did not plan to take this thing with me at the start but the stories that you have told me changed my mind.” Chen Ge hugged the glass jar and his eyes fixed directly at the heart inside it. “This hospital might really be haunted. Against ghost, we have no defensive mechanism against them but that will change if we bring this with us. If a ghost really appear, we can use this glass jar to whack them.”

“Whack them?” Doctor Sun’s brows were pleated together. He asked with uncertainty. “Are you serious?”

“of course. The thing that was left at the crime scene of the first hospital director’s death has to be cursed somehow but you have to understand one problem. Carrying this with us might cause our death but running into a ghost will certainly kill one or more of us.” Chen Ge hugged the glass jar as he headed towards the exit. “The choice between the two is clear. I personally want to see whether this glass jar is more dangerous or a ghost encounter is more dangerous.” A ghost is an immaterial thing but the glass jar was corporeal and surprisingly hefty. Chen Ge wanted to use something a actual person could touch to deal with a flitting ghost, this plan had stunned and confused Doctor Sun.

“you… might really be a madman.” Doctor Sun’s statement appeared to have a double meaning to it but Chen Ge did not appear to grasp it. Of course, in Chen Ge’s condition, even if he did understand it, he would pretend otherwise.

“I am already sick but I will try my best to cooperate with your treatment.” Chen Ge was being so kind and friendly that it was quite scary in this moment. Seeing Chen Ge carry the glass jar out of the hospital director’s office, Doctor Gao who was like a walking dead not only did not reach out to grab Chen Ge’s arm, he even voluntarily stayed away from Chen Ge and maintained a three metres distance from him. Neither of the two doctor was willing to stay close to Chen Ge. Even though Patient Number 2 had no idea what was going on and why the doctors were acting that way, he cleverly chose to stay away from Chen Ge as well.

“Why did you decide to bring that heart specimen with you?” Patient Number 2 was not averse to human organs but he was just worried that this was kind of sick hobby that Chen Ge had.

“Specimen?” Chen Ge looked at the living heart inside the glass jar. He felt like the appearance the ‘heart’ had in everyone’s eyes was different. “Doctor Sun said the hospital might be haunted. So I am bringing this glass jar that is left behind by the dead first hospital director, I suppose you can say I am trying to fight venom with venom.” Patient Number 2 could not wrap his head around Chen Ge’s reasoning at all. He very astutely stopped this conversation with Chen Ge but turned to address Doctor Sun. “Where is the storage room for the medicine that you have mentioned? We have reached the end of the corridor but we still have not encountered any such room!”

“I must have remembered wrongly. After the strange death of the first hospital director, many doctors refused to come to this floor to take the medicine anymore so the hospital has moved the medical storage room to the fourth floor of the fifth sick hall.” Doctor Sun said very casually.

“Are you sure?” Patient Number 2 sensed a big problem with Doctor Sun, then again he did not trust Doctor Sun that much from the beginning. Chen Ge also noted the strangeness Doctor Sun was acting, it appeared as if Doctor Sun did not care about the survival of the other people, the reason he said the medical storage room was on the fourth floor was probably to lure Chen Ge to the hospital director’s office. Saving the other patient was just another reason for Doctor Sun to accomplish his own goal, the only thing that the doctor cared about appeared to be Chen Ge alone.

[Is it possible that as long as I am fine, everyone else will be safe?] Chen Ge already realized the discrepancy between this place and the normal hospital. Doctor Sun had mentioned a ‘door’ earlier, in his memory, ‘doors’ were very special places. [Other than myself, the other patients will not really die even if they die here?] Chen Ge shook his head to chase this thought out of his mind. He was not willing to experiment with Zhang Jingjiu’s life to prove his suspicion. If they failed to find the medicine, Zhang Jingjiu might perish at any moment. Doctor Gao refused to say a word like he was already a dead person so Chen Ge and Patient Number 2 had no choice but to place their trust in Doctor Sun’s words.

They followed Doctor Sun’s instruction and ran from the fourth sick hall to the fifth sick hall. Along the way, Doctor Sun had told Chen Ge even more strange tales that had happened inside this hospital. When they rushing over, some incidents that could not be explained by science happened inside the hospital as well but thankfully no one was harmed. The strange things never approached Chen Ge’s group, they only flashed past somewhere very far away.

They finally arrived at the fourth floor of the fifth sick hall. This time, Doctor Sun was not lying to them, they did find the medical storage room there. But of course things did not go that smoothly. Tapes were plastered on the door of the room next to the medical storage room. Blood was still leaking out from the gap at the bottom of the door, so it was impossible to ignore it.

“This room with the tapes was the office for the second hospital director, he was once the vice director at this hospital. He had seven children. After the demise of the first hospital director, he was given the position temporarily to take over. But unfortunately, on the seventh day of his new posting he had mysteriously disappeared, he was not found until today.” Doctor Sun stood next to the door as if encouraging Chen Ge to go in to take a look.

“The second hospital director went missing on his seventh day on the job? Looks like there is a big risk to becoming the hospital director of this hospital.” Chen Ge avoided the blood stain on the ground. “I am very curious, how many hospital directors this hospital has had?”

“Including the temporary directors, there are seven hospital directors in total, the seventh hospital director is the unluckiest.” Doctor Sun answered every question that Chen Ge had.

“Why is the seventh director the unluckiest? He had the most painful death?”

“Because he is still working at the hospital until now.” Then Doctor Sun raised his finger to knock on the door. Whenever the knocking echoed around them, the ticking that came from Doctor Gao’s watch would weaken by a lot.

“Can I go in to take a look?” Chen Ge hugged the glass jar with a heart and pushed open the door of the second hospital director’s office. The room was sparsely decorated, nothing stood out about the room in first glass. But after entering it, Chen Ge was assaulted by that horrible stench again. He rummaged through the items inside the room and finally found a glass jar on top of a bookshelf. This time the jar contained the facial organs of a person. Eyes, nose, ears and other organs were suspended inside a liquid bath filled with black threads. The strange thing was when Chen Ge approached it, the pair of eyes turned to look at him.

“Why the second hospital director also has jar inside his office?” Chen Ge questioned as he reached out towards the glass jar but he was stopped by Doctor Sun.

“Do not touch anything inside the room.” Doctor Sun whispered. “you can only look with your eyes and memorize them in your head. Don’t go and take away anything that you feel like it inside the rooms.”

“Doctor Sun, do all the hospital directors have the hobby of collecting human organs?”

“You really think that is the case?” Doctor Sun scanned the door from the corner of his eyes. After he made sure Doctor Gao did not follow them into the room, he said in the fastest speed possible. It appeared like he did not want Doctor Gao to hear what he had to tell Chen Ge. “The seventh hospital director has seven glass jars in his office. The weight of the jars totalled up to the weight of a patient’s soul, that patient has the same patient number as you.”