My House of Horrors

“The time that I can stay here is running out, I will tell you one last thing. The hospital has already discovered that Zhang Ya has been swapped.” Doctor Sun’s expression had never been so serious. When the name Zhang Ya was mentioned, his body was shaking uncontrollably.

“Zhang Ya has been swapped?” Chen Ge was confused by this revelation. “What do you mean by that? The Zhang Ya who has been accompanying me is someone sent by the hospital?”

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“The female boss of the Haunted House, Zhang Ya was initially planted here by the hospital, she was created out from the your own dream, the meaning of her presence is for you to sink in the fake bliss of this world and believe in the authenticity of this world. But no one anticipated this Zhang Ya who was created from your own memory managed to gain her own sentience! Not only did she not follow the hospital’s requirement for you to sink deeper into the falsehood of this world, she kept leaking the loopholes of this world! The hospital has discovered the traces of real Zhang Ya on her and the traces are getting more numerous and bigger as time goes by!” Doctor Sun said urgently.

“In other words, this Zhang Ya who is currently controlling me is the version of Zhang Ya who was once in my memory?” Chen Ge’s heart started to race. From the first time he laid his eyes on Zhang Ya, he felt there was a spiritual bond between them.

“She is slowly losing control! No one can tell what is exactly going on behind this!” The scar on Doctor Sun’s face was twisted until his face could not be recognized anymore. “Perhaps the hospital will not come after you in the short future, but now all the night doctors have shown interest in the change to Zhang Ya, they will definitely be targeting her!” There was not one night doctor at the hospital who was a good person. Chen Ge could still remember how Doctor Gao used to treat him. To force Chen Ge into madness, he even came up with the plot of switching the medicine so that Chen Ge would personally kill his roommate. What kind of crazy treatment method was that? This group of people had shown their interest in Zhang Ya. Once Chen Ge heard Doctor Sun said that, the veins on the back of Chen Ge’s arm started to pop.

“After I have interacted with the tenants from Ping An Apartment, I realize they have a very unique attitude regarding Zhang Ya. What exactly does this name represent?” Chen Ge forced himself to remain calm.

“It represents a spectre, a spectre who is very important to you. Without her resistance and sacrifice, you would not have the chance to wake up at all.” Doctor Sun’s words were direct and cruel but Chen Ge knew that the truth was always cruel. “You could say that she has used the destruction of her own soul as the leverage to fight for a chance of survival for you.” The walls around them started to twist and waver. Doctor Sun knocked on the room door. “That is the extent of the things that I can tell you, you have find a way to survive no matter what.” Doctor Sun knocked on the door seven times. On the seventh time, Doctor Sun pushed open the door and at the same time, Chen Ge was brought out of the brain maze.

Opening both of his eyes, Chen Ge saw that the window of the bathroom was open. Doctor Sun though had already disappeared without a trace, it was as if he had never paid a visit to the haunted house to begin with. Taking in a deep breath, Chen Ge looked at his own reflection in the mirror and his fists gradually tightened.

“I have just felt the taste of happiness but I was told all the happiness are fake; I have finally found bliss but I am about to lose everything.” His pupils gradually narrowed. The bottom of Chen Ge’s eyes were pooling with blood, he had been resisting the urge.

“I need to go and warn the people at the Ping An Apartment now. There has been a change to the plan.” Without wasting any time, Chen Ge carried his backpack and left the Haunted House. They originally planned to meet up at the abandoned hospital at the countryside but due to the sudden revelation by Doctor Sun, Chen Ge could not wait anymore. He hailed a cab to Ping An Apartments. Chen Ge raced all the way and thankfully he was able to reach the tenants before the hospital got to them. He told the tenants part of information give to him by Doctor Sun. After everyone ensured the mutual way of communication, they decided to split up and hide at the various corners of the city, biding their time.

Midnight was arriving and most of the tenants had already disappeared from the apartment. Tang Jun drove the mini van and led Chen Ge, Zuo Han, Men Nan and Ol’ Zhou towards the abandoned hospital at the countryside.

“Hospitals appear to have a very special symbolism in this city. Xin Hai is a very big state but the only hospital in operation is Xin Hai Central Hospital, don’t you guys think that it is something weird?” Zuo Han was always able to discern details that would have escaped the attention of a normal citizen. He had a heart that was always in suspicion of the things around him. Seen from a different perspective, the young man indeed suffered from symptoms of paranoia.

“These scariest spectres still retain part of their instinct. There has to be a reason why Single Eye chose an abandoned and Scarlet chose Li Wan Street as their hiding spot. If we work from the same hypothesis, the Cursed Lady might be related to the hospital, perhaps she was a patient who has escaped from the hospital.”

“You have a point there.” Without taking the front door, the few of them leaped over the walls and made their way through the hospital corridors.

“How come this place feels so familiar to me?” Men Nan walked at the front of the group. He looked at the pillows that littered the corridors and the human faces that were painted on them, his expression slowly started to change. “It feels like I have been to this mental asylum before.”

“You have been to this place before?”

“Yes.” Men Nan nodded. He did not stop to explore the first two building but made a beeline directly towards the third sick hall. The third sick hall that was situated at the deepest part of the hospital compound was very strange. The interior walls were written with many different kind of curses and cages welded from iron bars were placed inside the room. This place did not look like a hospital at all, it was more like a prison that was used to detain criminals.

“Doors, windows…” Through his fragmented memory, Men Nan came to the third floor of the third sick hall. There was no trace of light at all inside the darkened corridor, the chill appeared to crawl right into their bones. It was like they were travelling down the stomach of a deep sea creature.

“Why am I leading the way again?! I am just a child! How could you do this to me?!” Men Nan who had been walking at the front of the group suddenly stopped moving. He gripped Chen Ge and Ol’ Zhou’s hands and an innocent expression that did not appear that often on his face turned up towards them. “Let us go in together.”

Chen Ge did not reject him, every nerve in his body was already pulled taut. Walking down the corridor, it seemed like the passage of time had slowed down. Endless wailing and screams leaked out through the wall. The sense of apprehension this place gave Chen Ge was deeper than when he was at the abandoned school and Li Wan City. After who knew how long they had journeyed, Men Nan stopped in front of a door that was covered in curses. As if feeling something resonating in his heart, he raised his hand to push on the door lightly.

But just as his finger touched the door, the black letters on the door appeared to come alive all at once and they surged towards Men Nan. The boy who appeared weak and vulnerable responded with surprising fast reflex and determination, he directly used his own blood vessel to sever off his fingers. Before the broken finger even reached the ground, they were swallowed up by the dark letters. Men Nan observed all these with a pale expression. He waved his hands and the blood vessels gathered to form a new set of fingers.

“She is slightly stronger than I am.” Holding his own hand, Men Nan retreated to hide behind Chen Ge and Ol’ Zhou.

The door had already been pushed open slightly by Men Nan. With the example of his predecessor, Chen Ge picked up the pillow with the human face from the ground and used it as a cushion to push open the door. As the door was slowly pushed open, the cursed letters in the corridor all started to boil, they dissolved into black threads and like a web weaved by a giant spider, they wrapped themselves around the third sick hall, keeping it on lockdown.

The doors and windows were sealed, in other words, they had no way to escape anymore. Just as the few were panicking about their fate, all the wails and screams in the building disappeared all at once. In the death like stillness, suddenly a very distinctive sound appeared. It was the sound of high heels stepping on the ground. The slender tip of the high heels stepped on the tiles that were splattered with blood. It trampled on many faces that were made twisted from curses and appeared before the group.

“Cursed Lady?” Looking at the red high heels before them, no one dared to move. The scary presence that radiated off the woman was much more suffocating than the Single Eye and Scarlet. “Aren’t they on the same level? Why is the Cursed Lady so scary in person?”

Chen Ge dared to move freely before the Single Eye and he could even communicate with Scarlet but before the Cursed Lady, he did not dare to even breathe too loudly. It was an indescribable pressure. As long as she was willing, she was more than capable of killing all the human and spectres in the room in the blink of an eye. It felt like the corridors were closing in on them. Chen Ge felt like his own body was about to be crushed. Just as everyone felt like they were about to crumble under pressure, Men Nan who had been hiding at the back walked out to the front.

Men Nan who was the smallest and youngest stood before the rest of the adults. The way he reacted now had given Chen Ge a real surprise. Chen Ge had a new appreciation of the young man. No wonder he was the strongest spectre at Ping An Apartment!

Ol’ Zhou wanted to stop him but he was unfortunately already too late. Men Nan appeared to have made a firm decision. The blood fluttered behind him. Resisting the anxiety in his heart, he came to stand before the red high highs. His pair of brilliant eyes looked at the pair of shoes that were pulsing with blood. Men Nan used every ounce of energy in his body and opened his mouth to ask. “Are you my mother?”

The third sick hall gave Men Nan the feeling of home. Even though the greater part of his memory had already been taken away, he could still remember he had spent his time here with his own mother. With anticipation clear on his face, Men Nan was desperate for the red high heels’ reply but the next second, he was flung to the side by the threads bound together by the curses.

The letters that carried a dangerous presence with them worked their way onto Ol’ Zhou, Tang Jun and Zuo Han’s bodies. They crumpled weakly to the ground, only Chen Ge was still standing where he was. Taking one after another step forward, the pair of red high heels only seemed to care about Chen Ge. The chilling and piercing hands touched Chen Ge’s heart, his heart seemed to have stopped beating in that moment.

The red high heels appeared to be confirming something. After she had a feel of Chen Ge’s heart, the cursed lines inside the building all came alive, she seemed to have finally found the thing that she was looking for. Unable to resist, when Chen Ge regained his consciousness, he was greeted with the sight of a woman in red standing before her. The woman’s shirt was filled with human names that were carved out by curses. The stark white skin that was exposed was wrapped in black and red bandages. Her feet was wrapped in a pair of high heels shoes that had a special kind of imprint on them.

“Cursed Lady…” Chen Ge could not help himself from uttering this scariest name, but the next moment, the blood capillaries on his arm started to twist. The tiny and slender black lines moved to form one after another ghastly characters on the surface of his skin. “That is not my name.”

The words that the Cursed Lady wanted to say was like a curse that he could not shake off. They surfaced on Chen Ge’s body, the latter had no idea how the woman managed to do something like this. He tried his best to maintain his chill. Chen Ge looked at the black thread on his arm and suffered the extreme pain. “I have lost my past memory but I have a feeling that we should have known each other in the past.”

“I too have lost part of my memory, for example my name.” The black threads crawled on Chen Ge’s skin and flesh as they moved to form new characters. The whole incident just looked and felt absurd. “By placing curses on myself, I found out that my memory was lost inside the hospital. I have looked through all the abandoned hospitals in the city, captured several patients and workers but I am still unable to find my lost memory.”

“The place that made you lost your memory is Xin Hai Central Hospital. All of our memory is lost there, they are our common enemy!” Chen Ge had slowly gotten used to the pain. He was now able to keep the tone of his voice even. “To regain back your memory, then you will have to enter deep into the hospital.”

“Other than the method that you say, there is another method that I have that can help me regain my memory.” The Cursed Lady was standing before Chen Ge. The bandage on her feel slowly peeled off layer by layer and the black scary threads were practically growing out of every inch of her body. “Do you know what is a curse?” The black and red threads were covered in screaming human faces. The spectre before him probably had the blood of who knew how many lives on her hands. Her power was amplified in this city until a stage that was truly unbelievable.

“Using pain as sacrifice to reap a blood reward, that is a curse and that is also the only power that I have.” The Cursed Lady’s pale hands gripped around Chen Ge’s heart. “There is a memory about me hidden inside your heart. Using your heart as a sacrifice, I will be able to regain the memory that I have lost.”

Even at that moment Chen Ge was able to maintain his shocking calmness. “I would bet that you would not do something like that. A curse is something that is extremely hard to reverse. Since there is a memory of you in my heart, that can only mean that I am someone important to you too.” Even though Chen Ge appeared unfazed on the surface, in his heart, he was still slightly panicking. Other than Scarlet, all the other specters he had met so far had reasons to make him feel fearful. Single Eye wanted Chen Ge’s left eye and now the Cursed Lady wanted Chen Ge’s heart.

“using my own life as sacrifice, after you have found the memory that you have lost, you will realize the important person in your memory has died, is that truly the goal that you are trying to achieve?” Chen Ge spoke faster and faster, he refused to give the Cursed Lady any chance to think.

“Even if I pluck away your heart, you might not necessarily die. Even if I do not do that now, in the future, you will beg me to do so.” The words that the Cursed Lady left on Chen Ge’s arm contained complicated emotion in them. She seemed to know certain things but she was reluctant to share them.

“I will beg you to kill me in the future?” Chen Ge did not quite understand it. Everything that he was doing now was for the purpose of survival, why would he ever actively ask for death?

“All the spectres in this city, including myself, everyone not only had their memory taken away, they had most of their power taken away as well. To regain all of these things, one will have to go to that hospital but the contradiction lies in the fact that everyone who has lost their memory and power would not have mounted a large enough power to fight the hospital.” The Cursed Lady had no reason to lie to Chen Ge. If she was willing, she could directly gouge out Chen Ge’s heart now and not waste time trying to communicate with him.

“Even with the cooperation of everyone inside the city, we will not be enough to fight the hospital?” Chen Ge felt a shred of despair winding around his heart.

“Unless they have found their lost memory and power, or else there is no chance of that happening at all.” The Cursed Lady looked at Chen Ge with her bloody eyes. “There are not only my memory hidden inside your heart, there are other people’s memory as well. Let me put a curse on everything that you are, it will be able to grant everyone other than yourself, their lost memory and power.”

The Cursed Lady did not force Chen Ge, she only gave Chen Ge a choice.

“Just now you said that, even if I have lost my heart, I might not necessarily die?” Chen Ge was seriously considering the option that was given to him.

“In this false reality, as long as you still retain the memory of the truth, you will not die.”

“Give me some time to think about this.”

“Tragedy has already arrived, I will be waiting for your answer here.” The black and red threads retreated like the tides. The Cursed Lady pulled away from Chen Ge.