My House of Horrors

A rainy city, an empty street, Chen Ge and Zhang Ya stood together sharing the same umbrella. “Those dreams feel so real, it is as if the world inside the dream is the real world.”

Looking into Zhang Ya’s eyes, Chen Ge’s mouth opened slightly but in the end, he did not utter the words in his mind. He hesitated for a moment before he moved his eyes away, “I also cannot tell which is the reality and which one is the fake, but it does not matter. No matter where we are, I will be standing beside you, I will be always by your side like a shadow.”

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The rain drained into the puddles by the road. The reflections of the neon lights blurred from the ripples. Zhang Ya leaned softly against Chen Ge’s body. She did not share the pain that she had been suffering during this period with anyone else, but now that she had voiced them to another person, the anxiety and fear in her heart slowly started to lessen. Neither of them wished to shatter this temporary goodness. They strode in the rain and walked for quite a long time.

The rain continued to pour. Chen Ge hailed a cab and sent Zhang Ya home. When Zhang Ya got down from the cab, she told Chen Ge another thing. Not too long ago, there was a young man called Zhang Wenyu who came to visit the Haunted House. The visitor looked no different from the other visitors. It was after reading the name on the disclaimer notice that Zhang Ya found out his name was Zhang Wenyu. After Zhang Ya returned home, Chen Ge told the cab driver to send him back to Xin Hai Theme Park. He rushed back into the Haunted House and opened the cupboard where all the disclaimers were kept. He looked through them one by one and in the end, found 12 disclaimers that had Zhang Wenyu’s name on them.

“Looking at the dates, the appearance of this Zhang Wenyu is becoming more and more frequent. Initially he only appears once a week but ever since I started working at the Haunted House, the name practically shows up among the visitors daily.” Chen Ge was responsible to act as ghost on the third floor. It was mainly Zhang Ya who was dealing with the visitors outside. Due to the hectic schedule, no one had the time to pay attention to the disclaimers.

“Zhang Wenyu has been here before, so this probably means that he has seen me in person already.” Chen Ge took the stack of disclaimers and sat next to the wooden table. “Why are there so many people with the name Zhang Wenyu? When Zuo Han looked through the patient’s list in the night doctor’s office, why did over ten thousands of patients with the name Zhang Wenyu got registered at the hospital at the same time?” Rubbing his temple, Chen Ge’s brain did not have any memory related to Zhang Wenyu at all. His locked memory fragments had already been transferred into those glass jars, what he left were the little unlocked memory fragments from before. After putting away all the disclaimers with Zhang Wenyu’s names back into the cupboard, Chen Ge headed towards the staff breakroom. When he passed the Haunted House bathroom, he subconsciously glanced into it. The toilet cubicle door had been closed by someone in his absence. He walked into the bathroom to push the cubicle door open and then he moved to the staff breakroom. He picked up the white cat and looked at the rain that was getting heavier outside the window.

“I have found out about many things in my past but none of the things can be considered good memories.” Chen Ge raised his hand as if trying to touch the nigh sky. “Now I have everything that I have ever dreamed of but time will not stop at this moment.” Hugging the white cat, Chen Ge looked into the cat’s dual colored eye, “If you are me, what kind of choice will you make?”

Chen Ge was asking the white cat and at the same time, asking himself. The storm finally abated after midnight. Chen Ge tossed and turned in his bed before he finally fell asleep.

…

Opening his eyes, the sun hit on his face through the window. Chen Ge rubbed his head as he crawled up from bed. “A new day has begun.” He put on his clothes and picked up the white cat to head into the bathroom to go through his morning routine. When he lifted up his face to look at the mirror, he realized the cubicle door behind him had been closed again. “I remember very well I have come in here to open it before I got to bed yesterday night. Why is it closed now? Could it be the wind?”

Chen Ge pushed open the door of the cubicle again. He glanced inside it, it was just a normal toilet cubicle, there was nothing special about it. “Somehow all these feel so weird.”

After giving the place a good cleaning, Chen Ge opened the gates of the Haunted House, to start the day for business. The first person to come to work was Zhang Ya. After their date yesterday, their relationship became much closer. Zhang Ya’s parents came much later to the Haunted House as if they were trying to give the young couple as much alone time as they could.

Xin Hai Theme Park opened at 9 am, the visitors rushed through the gates and queued up obediently in front of the Haunted House. Chen Ge who was in the disguise of a crazed murderer was standing behind the curtain of one of the windows on the second floor and observed everything from the dark. Throughout the whole morning, there was no accident inside the Haunted House. During lunch break, Chen Ge who was still in the disguise started to go through the disclaimers that they had gotten in that morning. After the visitors signed the disclaimer, they would be kept in order inside the cupboard, therefore, from the placement of the disclaimer, one could correctly deduct the time the visitor came to visit the Haunted House. Chen Ge had just flipped through two pages when he stopped because at that moment he was holding the disclaimer that had Zhang Wenyu’s name on it!

“He should still be nearby!” He grabbed the disclaimer and went to find Zhang Ya. After giving it some thought, Zhang Ya told him it was a middle-aged man who signed that disclaimer. The man had a unique presence about him and a sharp gaze that dissuaded others from looking directly at him. After knowing the man’s looks, Chen Ge rushed out of the Haunted House without taking off his disguise. His clothes were dirty and covered in red paint, he looked quite scary. “Zhang Wenyu, where would he be?”

Walking through the shadowed path, Chen Ge stopped at the split right in the middle of the theme park. There were so many visitors around him. Even if he possessed very good power of sight, it was practically impossible to pick out a single person among the large crowd. “He has been coming to the Haunted House because he wants to meet me, if that is the case, why does not he leave any messages for me?”

He paused at the split for a very long time. Just as Chen Ge prepared to give up and leave, he realized there was man sitting at the theme park’s restaurant’s corner looking at him. “Is that him?” Chen Ge did not hesitate. He held the disclaimer and strode into the restaurant and sat down next to the man. After taking a closer look at the man before him, a sense of familiarity rose up in Chen Ge’s heart, he was sure that he was not wrong.

“Long time no see.” The middle-aged man took a sip of the coffee in the cup and leaned his body back against the chair.

“Long time no see? But this should be the first time we have met.” Chen Ge placed the disclaimer on the table. “You are Zhang Wenyu?”

“I am a part of Zhang Wenyu, you can call me…” With his fingers tapping on the table, the middle-aged man thought for a while before answering, “The author.”

“The author?”

“Looks like you have really forgotten everything.” The middle-aged man stood up directly. It was as if he had sensed something wrong and was prepared to leave.

“Please do not go like that. Can’t we have a good chat over this?”

“When you have made the decision, and then you come and find me.” The author was not dragging his heel. It was as if the longer he stayed here, the bigger the danger he would be in.

“What kind of decision?” Chen Ge grabbed the author’s hand.

“When the truth is so cruel that if you know about it, regret will definitely follow, in that case, will you still be willing to pursue the truth?” The author pulled his hand away from Chen Ge but not before planting something in Chen Ge’s palm. “If you do, then come to this place and find me alone.” After saying that, the author hurriedly melted into the crowd and then he disappeared.

Chen Ge lowered his head to look at the centre of his palm, there was a piece of napkin placed there. The name of a location was written on the piece of paper—Ping An Apartment. After putting the napkin paper and the disclaimer away, Chen Ge walked away from the theme park restaurant with heavy thought in his mind. He walked through the theme park with the costume of the crazed murderer from the Haunted House. When many adults who came with their children to the theme park saw Chen Ge, they quickly covered their children’s eyes. Some of the other visitors took out their phone to snap pictures of Chen Ge.

“Chen Ge!” Zhang Ya who was dressed in the red spectre disguise jogged over to him. “Why did you come over here all of a sudden?”

“Just now…” Chen Ge did not hide the truth from Zhang Ya, “I found Zhang Wenyu.”

“We can talk about that after we get back. It is not good for the visitors of the theme park to see us like this.” Zhang Ya dragged Chen Ge back to the Haunted House. After the simple lunch, they started to work for the afternoon session. They busied themselves until 6 o clock when the Haunted House closed for business. Chen Ge removed the murderer costume and started to check the props and traps inside the scenario. He was moving through the floor when he heard footsteps coming from the stairs. He turned his head to look and saw that Zhang Ya was coming up the stairs.

“How can I help you?”

“It’s nothing about me. But I am worried about you. After you have met Zhang Wenyu, your attention has been constantly distracted.” Zhang Ya walked to stand beside Chen Ge. “Is he one of your former friends? If you run into any trouble, know that you can share them with me any time.”

“I cannot remember him at all, perhaps we do used to know each other because he appears to know about my past.” Chen Ge had a bit of a headache, he pressed on his temples.

“Then you should go and ask him for more details. Be it a good or bad thing, that was once who you were, it contained your memory and the real you.” Zhang Ya had been encouraging Chen Ge.

“But what if I am a horrible person in my past or what if finding out about my past will affect my present and future?” Chen Ge leaned against the wall of the corridor. The cold walls on his back made him slowly calm down. “I am very sure that the current everything that I have now is the thing that I have been desiring all along. If I have never experienced this before, then perhaps I can give it all up easily but now I am very unwilling, I even do not have the courage to take the risk to make this decision.” Chen Ge was still talking when his cold hands felt a trace of warmth. Lowering his head to look, Chen Ge realized Zhang Ya was holding his hands softly. “Zhang Ya?”

“Haven’t we made a promise to each other yesterday night? No matter where we are, we will be by each other’s side like shadow. Therefore, do not fret too much on whether to search for your past or to maintain the current state, what you need to do is to find back your real self.” Zhang Ya pulled Chen Ge along by his hand. “Come on, don’t fuss too much over this. It is time for dinner, my mom has bought many good food.”

The business at the Haunted House was getting better and better by the day, Zhang Ya’s parents bought many drinks and food. They had a celebration with Chen Ge until late at night before they left.

At around 10 pm, Chen Ge who was staying alone in the prop room suddenly heard the sound of the window being opened. He grabbed the nearest tool inside the toolbox which was a metallic hammer and leaned his back against the wall and hid himself in the shadows. Chen Ge did not go after the man who snuck in immediately but came to the main control room first and switched off all the lights inside the Haunted House. He was very familiar with the layout of the Haunted House and with his incredible power of hearing, in that moment, he gained the upper hand almost immediately by doing the decision that he made. Holding the hammer, Chen Ge held his head. He focused his ear to listen. Following that soft pitter patter of footsteps, he came to the door of the staff breakroom.

Just outside the door of the staff breakroom there stood a dark shadow. He slowly approached and the sound of his footsteps was muffled. The shadowy figure had no idea there was another person about several metres behind him. The figure twisted the door handle, as if wondering how to open the door when he felt a giant force wrap around his neck.

“What is your name? Why have you sneaked into the Haunted House in the middle of the night?” The chilling and eerie voice demanded beside his ear. His back was drenched by cold sweat almost immediately.

“Chen Ge? I am Zuo Han! It’s me, Zuo Han! I am your friend!” The person screamed for mercy, it was clear that he was really afraid.

“Zuo Han?” Hearing the familiar voice, Chen Ge immediately let the person go and switched on the lights in the corridor. Zuo Han who was wearing a tattered brown old coat was collapsed on the ground, grasping for air.

“Oh, it was my old roommate! Why didn’t you just say so? We could have saved a lot of trouble.”

“Did you ever give the time to say anything?” Zuo Han rubbed at his neck. After he lifted his head, Chen Ge’s brows were immediately creased together. There was a wound that was about 7 cm long on Zuo Han’s left eye, his left eye appeared to have plucked away.

“What happened to your eye?” Chen Ge put down the hammer and immediately helped Zuo Han up from the ground.

“I have traded it away.” Zuo Han said matter-of-factly.

“You have used your eye in a trade?” Chen Ge was shocked by this revelation. What kind of trade was this? “Is it with one of the doctors inside the hospital?”

“No, before you were taken to the treatment room to accept the treatment, I have already escaped from the hospital.” Zuo Han thought back to the incident that happened one month ago. “That day I got the notice from Doctor Gao, telling me that I was go to the treatment room with you that night. At the time, I already felt something was off. That and another doctor had dropped me a hint. I knew that if I did not do anything then, I would be in great trouble, therefore I made the quick decision to ‘escape’ from the prison.”

Chen Ge thought back to that night. When Doctor Gao first gave him the treatment, there were in total 7 people in the treatment room, 5 of them were patients and the other 2 doctors. At the time, the explanation given by Doctor Gao was two of the patients had escaped so he and Doctor Sun were there in their placement to participate in the treatment.

“Zuo Han, the doctor that gave you the hint at the time, can you still remember his name?”

“I cannot remember who it was that dropped the hint for me but based on my deduction, the only person that could have chosen that moment to give any hint to me, it has to be one of the doctors working inside the hospital.” Zuo Han was still as strong as ever when it came to logical deduction.

Chen Ge nodded. He believed the Zuo Han was able to escape successfully from the hospital had two reasons behind it, first was because the hospital did not pay that much attention to Zuo Han, they did not know the Zuo Han had already started to suspect his own memory, secondly, there was a doctor inside the hospital who had lent him an aid, and this mysterious doctor who had helped Zuo Han from the dark was most likely Doctor Sun. After all, by helping Zuo Han leave, that the young man would have the chance to join in Chen Ge’s treatment.

“If you did not conduct the trade with the doctor, then who else in this city would use an eyeball as an item of transaction?” Chen Ge led Zuo Han into the staff breakroom and had him sit on the bed.

“The eyeball was a trade and also a sacrifice.” Zuo Han pulled open the zipper of his jacket to expose the wounds that had not yet recovered near his collarbone and chest. “These are the sacrifice needed to find the truth.” Looking at the ghastly wounds on Zuo Han’s body, Chen Ge grabbed the med kit from inside the Haunted House. “What have you been up to during this period of time?”

“I am now currently being sought by everyone in the city, therefore I have to cut the long story short.” Zuo Han stood up to pull back the curtain. After he made sure there was no one else outside the window, he only revealed, “I cannot be sure whether this world that we are currently in is the real world or not but there is one thing that I am certain of. When you start to have suspicion of this world, misfortune and horror will descend upon you.”