My House of Horrors

He doesn’t seem to have followed me.

Finally getting the chance to breathe, Gao Ru Xue turned on all the lights in the room without taking off her shoes. The light banished the darkness and relaxed her nervous tension.

The outer door is still open, but opening the inner door to close it is too dangerous. What if the person is hiding in a blind spot?

Closing the blinds, Gao Ru Xue picked up the fruit knife from the table. As a medical science student, she was familiar with the fatal spots on the human body. With the steel of the knife in her hand, she did not feel that nervous anymore. Sitting in the living room, Gao Ru Xue took out her phone to call Chen Ge. This was the twenty-fifth time that she had called Chen Ge’s phone, and the line was still engaged.

Still busy? It’s already ten pm. Gao Ru Xue looked at the messages on her phone. She tried many methods to contact Chen Ge, but there was no response.

Did something happen to him? The line is busy every time. No matter who he’s calling, it wouldn’t take that long to explain something, unless… Gao Ru Xue seemed to remember something. Unless he’s on the phone with a ghost.

Gao Ru Xue understood the problem with her phone. The previous night, when her two roommates returned, they brought a ‘friend’ with them. At the time, she had used her phone to send other people SOS messages, and everyone’s reply was ‘look behind you’. Only Chen Ge’s number was replying normally.

Last night, the shadow that lay behind me didn’t seem able to change anything related to Chen Ge. It couldn’t replace the messages from Chen Ge.

A thought crossed Gao Ru Xue’s mind, and the phone slipped through her fingers and fell to the ground.

The ghost cannot change anything related to Chen Ge. It cannot mimic Chen Ge to give me a reply, so when I call Chen Ge, the number is constantly busy and cannot be connected.

In other words, during this period where I cannot contact Chen Ge, the thing is probably controlling my phone. If that is the case, when I used the phone to call my father earlier, the person who answered probably wasn’t my actual father. It was the ghost pretending to be my father.

Cold sweat slid down Gao Ru Xue’s face. She had purposely avoided her roommates and snuck home because she was afraid of an accident, but on the phone, she had told her ‘father’ that she would be staying at home for the night.

If her speculation was correct, the ghost already knew she was not at the dormitory but at her own home. Her eyes fixated on the phone on the ground; Gao Ru Xue did not dare to move. Suddenly, her body felt chilled.

Just as she was thinking, the screen of the phone lit up. Someone called her at a time like this. The phone vibrated on the cold floor. The sound unsettled her. After some hesitation, Gao Ru Xue bent down to pick it up. The caller was Doctor Gao!

Her finger danced between accepting and denying the call. Eventually, Gao Ru Xue chose to accept it.

“What’s wrong? How come it took you so long to answer the call?” The familiar voice gave Gao Ru Xue a sense of security that she desperately needed at the time.

“My phone was on silent, so I didn’t see it.” Gao Ru Xue gave the reason that she had thought of earlier. She wanted to test out the person on the other end of the phone. When she wanted to ask something that would only be known between her and her father, the Doctor Gao on the phone said, “Don’t go out now that you’re home. It’s been rather chaotic lately. I still have something to do at the hospital, so I’ll be a bit late.”

“Okay, I understand.”

The call ended. The person on the other end of the phone seemed to know what she wanted to do and didn’t give her the chance to ask any questions. It feels like something is observing my every move.

There was an urge in Gao Ru Xue’s heart to grab the fruit knife to slash the phone screen. She took several deep breaths, and in the end, rationality won out. The phone is probably controlled by the ghost, and there’s probably a murderer hiding outside the door. What should I do now?

This was the 13th floor, so it was impossible for her to escape through the window. She wanted to use the front door, but she could not be certain the murderer was not just beyond it. Even if the man had left, the corridor might not be safe.

If I use the phone to call the police, it might be the ghost that answers, and it might not be the police who come to save me. Maybe I should call out the window for help, but Xi Xia Hu has so few occupants. Never mind, this is the only method left I can try.

Gao Ru Xue walked to the window and pulled the curtain back to look out the window. It was only ten pm, but the residential area was completely dark. All the lights were off.

How could this be possible?

Only the streetlight reflecting off Xi Xia Lake gave off the little light.

Am I hallucinating?

Gao Ru Xue became more afraid. She initially wanted to cry for help, but something was obviously wrong with the residential area. The area was quiet, and a strange atmosphere was in the air.

Looking out the window, the strange feeling that Gao Ru Xue had felt inside the taxi returned. She felt as if everywhere was unsafe, like every corner was hiding some source of danger. She collected her gaze and turned to look at her neighbor’s room. In her memory, her neighboring rooms were empty. The room on the left had its windows sealed shut, and the interior was empty. The room on the right had some dead potted plants on the windowsill.

Gao Ru Xue was rather disappointed. She looked upward to the right at the family on the 14th floor. At the edge of the window, there was a human face with the eyes gouged out looking back at her.

Gao Ru Xue staggered backward, and her back knocked into the cupboard.

A dead body? There’s really a murder in this building? In the room just above me?

She grabbed the knife and used the point of the knife to lift the curtain up. She glanced at the room above her again, and the human face had disappeared. In its place was some laundry.

Did my eyes deceive me?

After some hesitation, Gao Ru Xue still picked up her phone to call the police. The police’s reply was normal, but she just felt that something was not right.

Gao Ru Xue pulled on her hair. This feeling was similar to when she faced her roommate. The person was similar to how they were normally, but she just knew they were not them.

Everything is similar to normal, including father’s voice, the police’s answer, and the taxi driver, but how come I just feel like things are wrong? But what’s wrong?

Gao Ru Xue called Chen Ge for the twenty-sixth time. The call was busy for two times before the synthetic voice replied. “I’m sorry, but the number you’re calling is currently busy. Please try again after death… ¹ ”