My House of Horrors

“That’s not impossible. We have procedures to follow.” Captain Yan picked up the record that Lee Zheng had made. “On the way here, I logged into the case file on the server, and the case you mentioned did have many loopholes.”

“There are many things hinging on this case, and I fear it is related to a large child kidnapping ring. That is why I’m so worried.” Chen Ge rushed through his words, but he did not reveal everything that he knew.

“It is because this case is so big that we have to be careful.” Captain Yan looked at the record, and his fingers tapped the table absent-mindedly. “The situation in the case is similar to what you described, but there is something that confuses me. When the killer was dropped at the door of the station, he was fully unconscious, and the doctor said that he suffered from great mental trauma…”

Chen Ge realized what Captain Yan was getting at, and he stressed firmly, “Perhaps that came from all the times he has kidnapped children, and the guilt has been eating at him.”

“Sounds like he was already half-mad when you caught him,” Captain Yan added this observation to the record.

“No matter who asks, that is my answer because that is the truth.” Chen Ge’s reaction was fact, and he knew what Captain Yan meant.

Nodding, Captain Yan put away Chen Ge’s written record and passed it to Lee Zheng. “Bring this along. I’ll go make a few more calls.”

Taking out his phone, Captain Yan left the office to make some calls.

“The old ginger is the spiciest.” Chen Ge looked at Captain Yan, and he realized something. When he was dealing with other officers like Lee Sanbao or Lee Zheng, when they came into a problem that they were not certain with, they would say that they had to wait for orders from above, but Captain Yan had never said something like that.

Three minutes later, Captain Yan pushed the door open. “Lee Zheng, go and get the car. We’ll go with Chen Ge.”

“Okay.” Things went smoother than Chen Ge expected. At 8:30pm, they reached Eastern Jiujiang’s prison. After showing the necessary documents, they were led by an officer to a prison cell.

“Ma Fu is temporarily in isolated quarantine. He’s half dumb and half mad, probably knowing he is going to get the chair.” The officer also knew why Ma Fu had been sent there, so he had no pity for freaks like that. “Be careful of your safety during interrogation. People on death row have nothing to lose.”

The few shared some words outside the cell. Ma Fu probably heard them because there were footsteps from the room and then loud banging sound on the door. “Help me! Let me out! They have returned! Ghosts! There are ghosts in this room!”

It was a middle-aged man’s voice, and the parts of his sentence did not add up.

“You’ll get used to it. When the man was first sent here, he did not even dare to use the covers and wear the clothes. Every night, he would lean against the wall and fall asleep buck naked.” The officer frowned at the memory.

“Didn’t dare to use the covers, afraid of wearing clothes?” This was the first time that Lee Zheng had heard something like that, and he turned to Chen Ge subconsciously. Chen Ge shook his head silently even though he knew what had really happened to Ma Fu. That night, after Chen Ge found Ma Fu, the phone spirit had used his power on Ma Fu to amplify the deepest fear in Ma Fu’s heart.

At midnight, Ma Fu, who was asleep in bed, had felt something moved under the cover. In his half-asleep state, he had looked under the cover seen an ashy child staring at him. He had woken up immediately and pulled the cover back. His bed had been surrounded by children, all of them his previous victims.

The many faces and many hands had reached toward him and crawled under his skin. Soon, his whole body had been covered in children faces. The screams had echoed through the night. Those whom he had once hurt would eventually return.

“Stop making so much noise! Stand back!” the officer yelled into the room. “You might want to stand aside first. We’ll apprehend him for you.”

Three officers stood next to the door to prevent a possible accident.

“Please let me out! I beg you! Let me out! There are ghosts! There are ghosts in this room!” The middle-aged man kept using his head and his hands to knock against the wall. His mind was completely broken.

“What’s the point of knowing fear now? Why didn’t you think of this when you did the crime?” The officer held his fists, considering there were outsiders present. “Why don’t you wait outside? I’ll have people send him to the interrogation room in a bit.”

“You have an interrogation room here?” This was the first time that Chen Ge had spoken since he entered the prison.

“This is?” The officer did not have any memory of Chen Ge. The order that he had received was to aid the city police the best they could.

“My name is Chen Ge.” Ignoring the officer, Chen Ge walked to the door and looked inside through the steel window on the door. His pupils narrowed, and in a voice that was barely audible to the people around him, he said, “So, your name is Ma Fu.”

The middle-aged man suddenly stopped moving when he heard Chen Ge’s voice. He slowly raised his head, and when his eyes caught Chen Ge, he screamed like he was shocked and staggered back several steps.

“Ghost! Ghost!” His eyes filled with terror. His lips quivered, and he repeated the same word.

This shocked everyone present. Just one glance managed to scare the man so badly. Just who was this young man?

“Please open the door, I wish to have a chat with him.” Chen Ge stood at the door. The officer hesitated; he was afraid that something bad might happen. He worried that Ma Fu might die from fear inside the prison before the sentence arrived. The door open, and the three officers rushed into the room to apprehend Ma Fu.

“Ask your question. You only have twenty minutes.” One of the officers stood between Chen Ge and Ma Fu. “Make some distance. Here is good enough.”

“Okay.” Chen Ge knew more information from Fan Chong—Ma Fu probably had seen the mastermind at Eastern Jiujiang before. “Have you abducted a boy called Tong Tong a few years ago?”

“I can’t remember.” Ma Fu shook all over. He did not look like he was lying.

“Then, can you remember killing a boy and shoving him inside a water tank? You then used a large boulder to block the lid, right?” Chen Ge spoke slowly. His words were like a sharp saw, cutting through Ma Fu’s thread of sanity.

“I remember…” Ma Fu’s expression was conflicted.

“Tell me, who bought this boy from you? Tell me everything you know about this person!”