My House of Horrors

“Squat down and stay where you are! Don’t move!” When all the lights went off and darkness fell, Yang Chen’s voice echoed down the corridor. At the time, the three editors were still inside the warehouse. Ah Nan and Hu Ya were in the middle of the racks. They were walking ahead and did not realize that Tails was no longer behind them.

The warehouse sunk into darkness, and the only source of light was the ray from the computer screen. Tails moved her face to the screen. As she leaned closer, the face in the screen became clearer. The dark frame leaned forward like a body soaked underwater slowly surfacing. She stared at the face on the screen—it was bald, and due to the long soaking in certain liquid, its face was pale and white.

“These features…” Removing the paper from her pocket, Tails opened the paper before the screen. The clean, fair fingers fell on the paper, and Tails’ eyes widened. She realized that the face on the paper was similar to the one that was showing on the computer screen!

“It was a human face?” She turned back to look, and all the lights outside in the corridor had been extinguished. In the darkness, she clearly saw the power light for the printer come back on. A piece of paper fell down next to her. This time, there was no face on the paper; instead, there was something written on it—Look behind you!

Holding the paper with both her hands, Tails was enveloped by the fear of the unknown. Her body chilled as she squatted alone in the dark, unable to find her friends. Her neck froze, and she forced herself to not turn around. The cold light from the screen fell on her body, and her slight frame was shivering. Her pupils quivered in the dark, and try as she might, her eyes kept wandering to the corner.

The dark screen started to ripple like water, and something underneath it was swimming to the surface. Tails did not dare to move, and she stared at the screen from the corner of her eyes. The ripple expanded, and inside the screen that no one else was paying attention to, a bloated face that was blue from asphyxiation crawled outward!

It happened so fast that Tails could not react in time. She could only see the face charge at her. She wanted to scream, but there was no sound. Her eyes widened like they were about to pop out from their sockets. The face was still closing in on her—the neck, the arm, the upper body.

The wet arms grabbed the helpless girl like it was trying to pull Tails into the computer with it!

The lights in the corridor finally came back on. Ah Nan turned toward the door and shouted, “What just happened‽”

He and Hu Ya quickly ran out. The faces of all the visitors were bad. Ol’ Zhou was still gasping for air. It appeared like he too had been given quite a shock.

“Tell me, what happened‽” There was a bad feeling in Ah Nan’s heart. He scanned the group and frowned. “The chef and his little brother are missing?”

“They ran away on their own.” Bai Qiulin massaged his shoulder. When he was shoved by Ol’ Zhou earlier, he had been knocked into the wall.

“All of you were outside then, why did the two of them suddenly go crazy?” Ah Nan kept his eyes on Bai Qiulin.

“Just now, the lights in the corridor went off one by one. The little brother saw something approaching in the dark, so the chef went back to the junction to check. Then, he suddenly went insane, grabbed his brother, and started running.” Bai Qiulin told him everything that he had seen, not hiding anything.

“Things in the dark?” The frown deepened. “This means that the monster in the darkness has collapsed the chef’s mind, but only the chef has seen the actual monster.”

When Ah Nan said that, everyone’s heart shuddered—the unknown was the most terrifying. Just how scary must something be to be able to scare a 1.9-meter-tall man to such an extent? The scarier thing was that the monster was still hiding in the dark, and any one of them could be next.

“Did any one of you trigger any traps while you were outside?” Ah Nan hugged one of his arms, and his other held his chin.

“No, we were shocked by things that happened as well,” Bai Qiulin said firmly. “I’ve already told you that the junction is the most dangerous place and that we should not stay here any longer, but you all refused to listen to me.”

He sighed. “We must be under the boss’ constant surveillance. He is looking for opening to get us, and when he saw one, he tore at our mental health like piranhas finding food.”

With the truth before them, none of them could retort. The three editors and three medical students were their own cliques. Even if they agreed with Bai Qiulin, they would not have stated so. However, Xiao Lee was different—he was an isolated visitor like Bai Qiulin who had entered the Haunted House alone to challenge a three-star scenario. His impression of Bai Qiulin improved greatly. Be it in terms of logic or physical power, he was much greater than normal. Therefore, he was thinking of forming a group with Bai Qiulin so that they could look out for one another.

“I think we should listen to everyone’s opinion before we make a decision.” Xiao Lee did not openly support Bai Qiulin, but he was on the man’s side. Plus, he was facing Yang Chen and Ah Nan when he said those things, so that was clear enough.

“It was my idea to explore the warehouse. That was my mistake.” Ah Nan apologized, and he turned serious. “Next time, before I make any decision, I will communicate more with everyone else.”

“It’s fine.” Bai Qiulin pointed toward the corridor that Fan Dade and Fan Chong had disappeared down. “What shall we do next?”

“We should go look for them, right?” Ol’ Zhou was kind. “If we can be scared when all twelve of us are around, it’ll be worse for the two of them when they’re stranded.”

“You’re right.” Bai Qiulin and Ah Nan agreed. They turned to look at Yang Chen, who stood in the middle of the corridor. “What do the three of you think?”

“I agree that we should go find the chef and his brother, but before that, I hope you all understand something.” Yang Chen scanned everyone there. “We now have the power of agency because we can choose whatever path that we want. Once we start to go look for the two of them, we’ll lose that power and become toys in the boss’ hands, falling into the traps that he set up.”

“What do you mean by that?” Ol’ Zhou was not satisfied.

“I was being very clear. If we want to clear this game, we have to try our best to go the furthest.” Yang Chen turned away from the corridor that the chef took to the opposite corridor and said, “I suggest we move forward to find our own way.”