My House of Horrors

Something was trying to get out of the freezer. The nails scratched at the edges of the door like the thing inside was slowly searching for the mechanism that would unlock the door. The spine-tingling sound echoed in their ears. The thing inside the freezer scratched for a long time until it became agitated, and the brothers could hear the sound of low breathing like it was getting frustrated.

“Bro, did you hear that sound?”

“I did. It should be the worker that is hiding inside the freezer. He’s waiting for us to go closer the freezer, and then he’ll jump out to scare us.” Fan Dade tried his best to remain calm. “This is a used and worn trope—there is no need for us to get panicked over this.”

“No, I was more focused on something else.” Fan Chong was clearly the thinker in the family. “Have you noticed just how good the actors of this Haunted house really are? It’s like they’re really living the character they’re given.”

Fan Dade was reminded of the faceless monster that was hiding in the dark, and the hair on the back of his arms stood. “Now that you mention it, yes.”

“There is often not device installed on the inside of the freezer to unlock the door. After all, this is a storage room designed for the dead.” Fan Chong listened to the breathing sound that came from inside the freezer, and his heart pumped very fast. “The sound of nails scratching against the door earlier sounded like the dead coming back to life. It failed to find the device to open the door, and because of that frustration, its breathing became heavier. This is a valid and understandable process to make it feel like there is a really a monster that has come back to life currently trapped inside the freezer.”

With a bitter smile on his face, Fan Chong reached out to grab the door handle. “If my speculation is not wrong, the monster inside the freezer will adopt a more stringent method to try to escape. For example, ramming into the door to create a louder noise. Then, it will not only attract the other monsters roaming the corridors to come attack us, it will also tip off the other monsters that might be residing in this room. In that case, if we are surrounded on both sides, it really will be over for us.”

“Then what good suggestion do you have? I will listen to you, little brother.” Fan Dade was a chef. Even though his little brother was not that physically strong, Fan Chong was much brighter than him.

“Those familiar with escape and survival games will know there is a hidden rule to this sort of game, and that is to not stay at a fixed location for too long. This rule is particularly written to target those cowards who try to hide in one place for the entirety of the game. It will ruin the fun.” Fan Chong rubbed the sweat away from his forehead. “New Century Park’s House of Horrors is famed on the internet for their scares. The Haunted House’s boss is also said to be familiar with psychology and has a sadistic streak about him. I am one hundred percent certain that he will have similar rules set up inside his Haunted House.”

“In other words, you suggest we leave this place soon?” Fan Dade was feeling regretful. If he had known this would be the situation that they found themselves in, he would not have run so fast earlier. Now that they had been separated from the rest of the group, things were not looking so good for them.

“Not soon but now.” Fan Chong did not dare to stay there any longer. “We have to leave now since the monster inside the freezer is still stuck inside, and the sound of the trolley has wandered away.”

“We should leave now?”

“Yes, this should be the only chance that the Haunted House’s boss is going to give us. If we miss this, we’ll come head to head with a scarier existence.”

When Fan Chong said those things, the breathing inside the freezer picked up, as did the sound of scratching. The thing inside the freezer fought with desperation like it was going to die from a lack of oxygen. The nails snapped, and blood leaked out from the edges of the door. The monster inside the freezer seemed like it was in great pain, and its emotions were fraying. There was a sudden loud bang against the door—it sounded like someone had used their head to slam into the steel door.

Fan Dade and Fan Chong’s hearts both squeezed with that loud bang. The brothers looked at one another, and they both realized that what Fan Chong had predicted earlier was slowly becoming reality.

“We have to leave now!” Almost at the same time as Fan Chong said that, the sound of the trolley returned to the corridor.

“I knew it.” Fan Chong ultimately had underestimated the terror of the Haunted House’s boss. The man had indeed given them the chance, but the chance was only several seconds long.

“What should we do now‽” The sound of the trolley wheels coming from the corridor triggered the scary memories in Fan Dade’s mind. He leaned against the door and peered out. He was just in time to see the lights in the corridor going out one by one until the whole corridor fell into darkness, and only the sound of the wheels could be heard.

This symbolic cart inside the corridor was slowly moving forward, and the freezer inside the morgue kept making sounds. The scariest thing was, initially, it was only the first freezer that made the sound. However, it seemed as if the activity had started to spread, and the two freezers next to it started to come alive with activity.

Their hesitation was dragging on; Fan Dade and Fan Chong still had not come to a decision. At this crucial moment, the two looked at one another, and they saw panic reflected in each other’s eyes. They were only there for a Haunted House visit—who would have thought they would need to make a decision as scary as this?

The sound of the wheels came closer and closer, and the speed did not slow down. Fan Chong and his brother had already given up on resistance. They prayed silently in their hearts, hoping that the monster outside the door would not notice them and give them a second chance to try again.

Ten seconds later, the two brothers’ faces paled considerably. The miracle that they had hoped for did not appear. The sound of the wheels suddenly disappeared when it passed Morgue No. 2. This meant that the trolley had probably stopped outside the door!

Cold droplets of sweat slid down their faces. The monster that had been chasing after them was finally going to reveal its real identity. Fan Chong and Fan Dade leaned against the door. The two did not even dare to breathe too loudly as they focused on the situation outside the door.

Several seconds later, there was still no sound coming from the corridor. The trolley seemed to have disappeared into thin air, and everything was in Fan Dade and Fan Chong’s imagination.

“The thing has left?” Fan Chong pressed his ear to the door and listened intently.

“Shall we go out to take a look?” The freezers behind him started to shake. The monsters kept using their heads to knock into the doors. Flakes of rust on the old freezers continued to fall. Fan Dade was really worried that something might crawl out from the freezers and charge at the both of them. He curled his five fingers around the door handle and slowly pushed down. The spring turned in the lock, and just as it was about to spring open, something from the corridor slammed heavily into the morgue door!

Bang!

The heavy collision caused Fan Dade to loosen his grasp on the door immediately, and he jumped back several steps. “That thing is still outside!”

The IQ of the monster outside the door was not lower than a normal human. After the ambush failed, it had given up on stealth and started to ram against the door like its life depended on it. The door rattled endlessly, and the freezers behind them shook. Fan Dade stood in the middle of the room, and the veins on his neck popped due to the rush of blood all over his body. He did not know where to hide, and his body started to get weakened. He subconsciously teetered backward.

“Bro, don’t go there!” However, Fan Chong’s warning was too late.

The blood flowed down the wall from the edges of the door. When Fan Dade was several meters away from the freezer, the old freezer door burst open, and a bloody face rushed out. It had both of its arms open like it was trying to hug Fan Dade and then drag him into the freezer.

His whole body was swallowed by the sense of chilliness. The cold rushed to his mind. Before he could figure out a solution, his body already carried him forward. All the freezers in the room started to move, and the blood continued to leak. The whole room looked like it was going to be dyed red.

“Go! Go now!” If they were trapped there, then it would be over. Fan Dade and Fan Chong ran toward the only exit. They pulled on the door handle and pushed the steel door open. Before the two managed to run out, several shadows rushed at them from the dark. Each of them had weird expressions like they were wearing faces that did not belong to them.

“Go, run!” Fan Dade screamed. He tightened his fist, and the man who was about 1.9 meters tall decided to fight it out with these monsters!

His mouth issuing some weird noises and voices that he could understand, Fan Dade charged at the monsters. However, before his fist landed on them, something that he would remember for the rest of his life occurred. The human faces slowly started peeling! This was the first time in his life that he had seen something like this. He did not even know that human faces could peel and fall!

“What the f*ck is this‽” This was beyond his expectations and his threshold for terror. The courage that he summoned earlier dissipated completely. He wanted to run back into the room, but when he turned to look, he had a renewed understanding of the term ‘despair’.

The freezers inside Morgue No. 2 had all been forced open, and the monsters with the shape of humans had crawled out from their containers. The smell of formalin crawled into his nostrils and refused to leave. His sight was slowly swallowed by the color red. Surrounded by the monsters, Fan Dade and Fan Chong lost consciousness and crumbled to the ground.

Half a minute later, all the monsters returned to their hiding spots like the nightmare earlier was just an illusion. If not for Fan Dade and Fan Chong, who were foaming at the mouth, lying unconscious on the ground, no one would have realized that something so terrifying had happened there minutes ago.

Time slowly ticked by. At the end of the corridor, several ‘people’ wearing white coats slowly walked over. “I kinda pity them.”

“Me too. We are not used to seeing these things, much less them, and we’re ghosts.”

“It’s not a good idea to dump them here. We should try to resuscitate them.” One of the doctors moved his ear close to Fan Dade and Fan Chong’s nose to listen for their breathing. Then, he checked both of the men’s pulses. “The physical condition is not bad, and there is no sign of heart issues. Still rescuable.”

….

Five minutes later, Fan Chong slowly opened his eyes, and the sight of his world gradually cleared. “Where the hell am I?”

There were no monsters or dead bodies around them. He wobbled up to a standing position, and everything that had happened earlier rushed back to his mind.

“Haven’t I already fainted?” He held the wall and looked around him. He realized that he was still locked inside Morgue No. 2.

The sound of nails scratching the doors came from the freezers, and the sound of wheels returned. The show looked like it was going to restart.

“Wait, this isn’t right! Did I forget something? Haven’t I already experienced this‽”