My House of Horrors

Chen Ge did not expect the old man to use this type of method to jot down the recording. When the blood vessels were crawling all over his system, when he was in the deepest depths of pain, he could still do something like this. It went to show how strong the old man’s will was—much stronger than a normal man.

“Sir, you dug out these scars yourself. You can compare them to your own nails. I saw with my own eyes earlier that you used your other hand’s middle and first fingers to scratch them out.”

“This is my own doing? How come I have no recollection of this?”

While the two were speaking, heavy breathing came from outside the door. The monster with the empty face had arrived. The creepy face leaned on the window of the door to Morgue No. 4. Its gaze was blocked by the racks filled with samples. When it could not look into the back of the room, it sounded like it was going to barge its way in. The door shook and trembled—the monster was incredibly strong.

“Stay here, and don’t move.” The old man pulled down his sleeves and walked out from behind the racks. He walked to the door and pulled it open. The large monster that was sewn together from various dead bodies poked its head into the room. It had no face, and the skull was clean and shaven. It was anyone’s guess how it sensed the surroundings.

“Who let you in here?” the old man demanded in a stern voice. In terms of size and frame, the old man was just half of the creature, but in terms of presence and aura, they were not even on the same level. The old man’s gaze was sharp and penetrating. When he realized the monster was not moving, he raised his arm to block the monster. “This is not a place that you can enter. Get out!”

Hiding behind the racks, Chen Ge also thought this scene was quite amazing. The power level behind the two was night and day but their presence was the complete opposite. “The world in the old gentleman’s eyes is probably different from mine. Perhaps in his eyes, the monster is just a normal dude with malicious intent.”

The monster was blocked at the door by the old man. It seemed to have sensed Chen Ge. A large crevice appeared on its stomach and its large palm pulled out a rope filled with blood stain from behind him. The stench of blood and something else filled up the room. The monster gnashed its teeth, but the old man did not retreat. In fact, he took a step forward. He yelled at the monster, his voice rising. The two were at a standstill at the door. The stomach of the monster peeled open, and it created a sound that was similar to breathing. It was angered beyond belief, but there was nothing it could do. In the end, it left unwillingly.

When the monster disappeared down the corridor, the old man closed the door. He returned to the racks and pulled up the sleeve of his shirt. “Let’s continue our earlier conversation. You said that you saw me leave this wound on my arm, but how come I have no memory of it at all?”

“Sir, do you have any memory of wounds, blood vessels, and death in your mind?”

“Now that you mention it, I have been suffering from this recurring nightmare. When I close my eyes, I can see many blood lines curling around my body. I try my best to struggle, but I cannot resist being pulled into the darkness by them. After that, I wake up.” The man touched the scars on his arm. “When did I leave these wounds? I cannot remember them at all.”

Chen Ge told the old man what had happened earlier. However, he was only halfway through it when the organs in the wall started to react violently and the heavy breathing outside the corridor returned. With no other choice, Chen Ge had to stop.

“We’ll need to wait a little longer. Now we have no means to protect ourselves, so it’s pointless to reveal these things to you.” Chen Ge finally understood something. If the old man remembered something important, the blood world behind the door would forcibly control him, and the monsters that were patrolling the corridor would congregate. The old man had been able to save him this time, but Chen Ge did not want to test his luck. Compared to recovering the old man’s memory, removing the blood membrane was more important.

“Sir, do you have anything else that you need my help with?” Chen Ge’s sudden offer confused the old gentleman. He thought about it for a long time, and his eyes eventually focused on Chen Ge. “I want you to bring me to Morgue No. 8.”

“Morgue No. 8?” Chen Ge was surprised the old gentleman would make such a request. “The morgue was sealed shut by someone—why would you want to go there?”

“I can’t really tell, but I have a feeling something dear to me is locked inside there. Perhaps I’ve been there before and left something important there.”

“Do we have to enter Morgue No. 8?” Breaking the lock would require plenty of time, and that process might attract more than one monsters. In that case, they would put themselves in grave danger.

“Yes.” The man nodded. He could be quite stubborn, but he was certain this was the only and last favor that he needed from Chen Ge. Entering Morgue No. 8 would be dangerous, but since Chen Ge could not find a second ‘person’ to help in a short amount time, he would have to do it. He knew the blood world was onto him, and if he dragged this out, it would be dangerous to him.

“Staying in this place will continue to thicken the membrane on the skin surface. There are two more unfortunate souls in the room at the central hub. If I drag this any longer, the two of them might just die from asphyxiation.” Chen Ge finally nodded. “Okay, I will bring you to Morgue No. 8.”

After getting the confirmation from Chen Ge, the old man’s expression softened. His eyes that landed on Chen Ge filled with admiration. For some reason that he could not understand, he felt the young man was quite friendly and nice. Actually, the reason the old man felt that way was because Chen Ge was an outsider. Different from the people inside the door, there was humanity in Chen Ge. If it was Ma Wei or Li Jiu who came over, the old man might have felt even closer to them.

“The key to Morgue No. 8 should be in the headmaster’s room, but it is not going to be easy to go there. I know many ways that lead there. The closest route has the most security, and the other route is more deserted, but…”

“There’s no need to go through so much trouble; there is more than one way to open a door.” Chen Ge assumed he only needed to complete the old man’s wish to clear the blood membrane, so he did not want to make things too complicated. “You can just follow me to Morgue No. 8.”

Chen Ge walked to the door and the old man reminded him with uncertainty, “Whenever I leave this room, a bad feeling forms in my heart. I don’t know why, but you’d better be careful. Also, there’s one other thing—we mustn’t be spotted by others.”

The old man seemed to have the experience of running away before. However, he could not remember what had happened then—his memory was blurry.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be there.” Chen Ge’s body only had a thin layer of blood membrane left. After completing the old man’s wish, he should be able to get the full approval, and after that, he would not need to run and hide anymore.

Opening the door, Chen Ge walked out of the room. Nothing happened. However, when the old man left the room, the whole corridor shook slightly, and the organs on the wall pulsed faster.

“Let’s not waste time, we’ll go there directly! Quick!” The underground morgue’s outer perimeter had a complicated layout because it was connected to many buildings. Chen Ge was glad that he had taken a picture of the map and memorized it in his head before he started the journey. Holding the hammer, Chen Ge weaved through the corridors to head to Morgue No. 8. The old man followed closely behind him with conviction shining in his eyes.

After the old man left the room, the blood world started to change. If before it was the calm before the storm, now, the storm was arriving. With no return route and no other choice, Chen Ge led the old man quickly through the corridors. He had done all the preparation; no matter who blocked his way, he would force his way through!

There was a strange smell in the air. The blood that flowed above their heads started to speed up. The freezers in the morgues on both sides echoed with the slamming sounds as if the cobra-like blood vessels felt hungry again. After turning another few corners, Chen Ge heard footsteps coming from the other end. He gripped the hammer tightly but did not slow down. In fact, he ran even faster.

The person at the other end of the corridor heard his running footsteps. They were more cowardly and stopped immediately. Turning the corner, Chen Ge saw two general staff that looked like a pile of decaying mud fixing the corridor. They were pushing a trolley that was filled with broken carcasses. They placed the body parts into the gaps of the walls and then used a red thread to sew them back together. The two monsters worked seriously. They did not give Chen Ge much heed, but when they saw the old man behind him, they started to worry.

“We’ve been discovered.” Chen Ge raised the hammer to plan to silence the witnesses but was stopped by the old man. “Ignore them, these people are too cowardly to report us. If you harm them, the security will rush over immediately.”

The old man then stared at the two monsters. The two creatures very tactfully turned their heads away to continue working like they could not see Chen Ge and the old man. “I have interacted with them a fair bit, so I know them well.”

Chen Ge already knew these ‘monsters’ were quite afraid of the old man. “Sir, you must have been quite a vicious character.”

“You flatter me. We should get to Morgue No. 8 first; we can continue the conversation there.”

It was not looking great in the corridors. The organs in the wall started to leak blood, and the situation was quickly turning south. After a few more corridors, Chen Ge and the old man finally arrived at the entrance to Morgue No. 8. By then, the walls, floor and the blood vessels on the ceiling had started to leak blood, and the surrounding blood mist had gotten a lot thicker.

“The door is locked. How are we going to open it without a key?” The old man stood in the mist. Ever since he left the room, a headache had been following him. It felt like there was something that was trying to crawl its way out of his head.

“Leave it to me.” With no other option, Chen Ge focused on the lock on the door and raised his hammer high!

BANG!

The door shook, and the shockwave caused the walls next to it to bleed. “Sure is tough.”

Gritting his teeth, he smashed at the thing like his life depended on it. He aimed at the place where the door was joined to the wall. When he passed the door for the first time, he had planned to smash through the door already.

No matter how tough the door was, Chen Ge was not afraid. At most, he would knock a hole through the adjacent wall. If there was a way in, he would find it.

As Chen Ge continued to demolish the place, more blood vessels continued to pour out from the grooves on the hammer, and they made the weapon look scarier. After about ten more hits, Chen Ge realized that the blood was not just a decoration—it seemed to have a special effect. It was as if due to these blood vessels that it increased the damage effect of the hammer against anything inside the blood world.

Chen Ge had no idea how many strikes he had made. The place was chaotic, and this was different from the old man’s plan. He wanted to have Chen Ge steal the key and then come over to silently open the door and retrieve the important thing that he had lost. However, Chen Ge’s action was so beyond the normal realm of human actions that perhaps even the ‘headmaster’, who was hidden at the deepest part of the underground morgue, did not expect someone to be so crazy.

The door shook, and the lock rattled noisily. The lock was coming loose, and the scariest thing was the adjacent wall was coming loose as well. Chen Ge almost smashed his way through. Heavy breathing came from both sides of the corridors; ‘security’ was on their way.

“Are you done?” The old man was in a shocked state, seeing this from the back. His admiration toward Chen Ge earlier had now changed into something else.

“Soon!” Chen Ge bit on his teeth, took several steps back, and used the running start to swing the hammer one last time!

BANG!

The door of Morgue No. 8 slammed into the wall. The hammer landed on the edge of the wall, pulling off a huge chunk of flesh. The locked door was blasted through by Chen Ge. Now, the security from both sides were running at them. They were tall and large since they were made from multiple cadavers. With resentment and pain, a hole opened on their stomachs, and various arms reached out from them.

“Come in here!” Chen Ge entered Morgue No. 8 with the old man. The old man’s wish had been fulfilled, and the blood membrane on Chen Ge’s body started to thin. He slammed the door shut and used the hammer to block the door. “Hopefully, this can last until the blood membrane disappears…”

Chen Ge did not care much about this Morgue No. 8, but when he raised his head to look around, he was stunned. Morgue No. 8 behind the door was only slightly different from the one in the real world. There was an additional unique container made from flesh and blood in this Morgue No. 8. It was holding a man who looked around forty wearing a white coat.

“Doctor Chen‽” The man who was trapped here was Doctor Chen from Jiujiang’s Children’s Home. At the last minute of the trial at Coffin Village, it was this man who had chased away No. 10 of the ghost stories society. “Why is he here? Did he lose during that battle?”

When Chen Ge was thinking, something slammed heavily into the door behind him. Many arms covered with blood tried to force their way through the cracks. The two faceless monsters had arrived!

“Sir, have you found the thing you have lost? I cannot hold on much longer!” There was still a very thin layer of membrane on Chen Ge’s skin. He could not rub it off no matter how hard he tried. He started to call for his employees’ names, but there was still no reply.

“Don’t panic.” The old man walked before the many empty tubes. He finally stopped at the glass tube that carried his dead body in real life. His palm fell on the glass, and his eyes fell on the introduction that was before the glass tube.

“Wei Jiuqin, Western Jiujiang Medical University’s Professor, the man who built Jiujiang’s Life Science Research Center. He donated his body for the pursuit of science after he died at the age of seventy-three from lung cancer.”

Reading the letters on the tube, various memories exploded in his mind. Various images of his life and research flooded his mind before the last memory fixated on the last moment of his life.

Inside the sickroom, he prepared to donate his body to the university. At the time, his children had tried to stop him, and with the last bit of strength in his body, he had written, “I’d rather they leave millions of wrong cuts on my body than make one mistake on their patients.”