My House of Horrors

At this most dangerous moment, Liu Xianxian found the statue they were looking for. This should have been a happy occasion, but Ma Yin found it so difficult to smile. She was certain that there was a third person hiding in the storeroom—maybe he was hiding in a corner, watching them at that very moment. Should they leave or take a risk?

“No, I still think it’s too dangerous. Since we know where the statue is now, we can come back tomorrow. There’s no need to rush this.” Ma Yin tried to convince her best friend. “Listen to me, we need to leave.”

“Two questions won’t take that much time.” Liu Xianxian was stubborn. The man that she loved had become a thorn in her heart. Releasing her grasp on Ma Yin, Liu Xianxian walked deeper into the storeroom alone. “It’ll end soon. In a few minutes, I’ll know the real answer.”

She sounded like she was possessed.

“Liu Xianxian!” Ma Yin was agitated. She wanted to leave, but she could not abandon Liu Xianxian. Her two hands holding the chair, she gave chase after Liu Xianxian.

The two girls reached the last rack that was on the left side of the storeroom. Liu Xianxian pointed at the gap between the rack and the wall. “The wall behind that rack is hollowed out, and the statue is just behind it.”

Ma Yin leaned on the rack and shone the light into the gap. There was an ugly face that looked back at her. When the light hit the statue, the eyes of the statue seemed to blink.

“There’s only one statue inside this storeroom, so this has to be it.” Liu Xianxian grabbed the edge of the rack. “What are you doing standing there? We’ve finally found the thing we’ve been looking for so long—why aren’t you helping?”

“I feel like there’s a reason someone purposely hid the statue behind the rack.” Ma Yin looked at the statue, and for some reason, it felt familiar to her. The two of them moved the rack aside, and a faint smell drifted out.

“What is that smell? It seems to come from the statue. It smells like… decomposition?”

“Why would a statue smell like decomposition?” Liu Xianxian walked to the statue with her phone, and the light hit the statue fully. It was a sculpture of a mature male. It was larger than a normal man, and it was well-built. However, the face was distorted, so ugly that people would not look at it directly. Very rarely would a sculptor do something like this, unless there was a special meaning.

“The words at the base and the face, it’s the same as the statue in your video.” Liu Xianxian looked at this statue, and her fingers shivered. She had finally found the solution to the question that had been bothering her for so long.

The hollowed-out alcove was only one meter wide, and the statue was placed at the very back. He looked like a devil with his arms open, ready to welcome the lost lambs. Standing before statue, the smell intensified, but Liu Xianxian did not seem to smell it. She put her hands together and lowered her head silently.

“In my heart…”

“Wait a minute!” Ma Yin interrupted Liu Xianxian. “You’d better think about this carefully before you ask the question. According to the legend, this statue can verify the validity of any statement. If the statement is true, it will shed blood tears, but if it’s fake, then something scary will happen.”

“I know.” Liu Xianxian was closed to any advice. She took another step and told the statue softly, “The man inside my heart, he also likes me, yes?”

Inside the darkened storeroom, the girl asked the question inside her heart, and she turned to focus on the statue’s eyes with anticipation. If the statue wept, then she was right. Liu Xianxian started to get nervous; she could even hear her own heartbeat.

One second, two second…

Half a minute went by, and nothing happened. The statue did not cry, and nothing scary happened.

“The legend’s fake?” Liu Xianxian leaned weakly against the wall like her energy had been sucked out of her body. Her hope morphed into a bubble and was popped. Ma Yin stood behind Liu Xianxian—she seemed to have expected this result. Often, people did something not to wish for any result, but it was because of that drive of hope. Ma Yin patted Liu Xianxian’s shoulder lightly, but she did not know how to best console her roommate.

“I’m fine.” The trained smile appeared on Liu Xianxian’s face. “This statue once appeared in your sister’s video. You have to go and check whether there’s any clue regarding her disappearance. I’ll be fine.”

Ma Yin nodded. She took out her phone to pause the video where the statue was on screen. “The statue in the video is completely identical to this statue. I only need to find out who this statue’s original owner is, and I’ll be able to find the killer.”

She recorded the statue on her phone, not letting go of any details. The camera moved from the statue’s chest to its cheeks. The sense of familiarity in Ma Yin’s heart increased like she had done something like this before.

“Have I forgotten something?” After recording everything, Ma Yin put her phone away. “The legend involving the statue is fake, but at least the appearance of this statue has proven something—the video that my sister sent me is real.”

She stared at the statue before her. Looking at that ugly face, an urge blossomed in her heart. She reached out to touch the statue’s icy skin, and Ma Yin asked the question that had been troubling her. “My big sister is dead, isn’t she?”

Disappeared and dead were two different things. Even after so many year, Ma Yin still had some hope in her heart.

After two seconds, Ma Yin shook her head. “The legend is fake, so why am I doing this? It’s just a story to trick children, and we’ve fallen for it.”

She was talking to herself, but when she finished, the stench in the air grew, and the light from the phone twisted. The originally silent storeroom started to echo with a pounding sound like something was knocking into the racks.

Ma Yin sensed the change in the air, and she prepared to leave when Liu Xianxian yelled, “Xiao Yin! Look at his eyes!”

“His eyes?” Ma Yin understood it immediately and turned to look at the statue’s eyes. Two lines of blood were flowing down the statue’s eyes. The blood was thick and red, forming a great contrast to the plaster-white skin.

“The statue cried‽”

Ma Yin stood where she was, and soon, she was covered by fear. “The statue will cry when it’s a truth, but when Liu Xianxian asked her question earlier, it didn’t respond.”

The light was distorted even more, and the pounding sound became more consistent.