My House of Horrors

The cell became really repressed, and the few officers felt uncomfortable. Honestly, they had quite a good first impression of Chen Ge, but why would the personality of this polite and sunny young man suddenly change?

“Answer me, do you still remember the buyer’s face?” Chen Ge rarely used this type of tone. His face was expressionless as his eyes zeroed in on Ma Fu. Ma Fu was curled up in the corner with his body shaking. He seemed to have remembered something scarier. His fingers dug into his skin, and he banged his head against the wall like he was trying to kill himself.

“We’ve asked him the same thing before, but whenever we brought up the buyer, he would become like this.” The officer placed his palm behind Ma Fu’s head and pressed down to stop the man from hurting himself.

Seeing the condition of Ma Fu, Chen Ge thought of a possibility—the buyer had done the same thing he did to Ma Fu. However, Chen Ge was trying to take revenge on the phone spirit’s behalf, whereas the buyer simply did this to stop Ma Fu from ever selling him out.

Walking into the cell, Chen Ge squatted down next to Ma Fu. Looking at this half-mad human trafficker, he whispered into his ears, “Did you remember something scary? I can see that your life is a whole misery, and death would be a release for you, right?”

Chen Ge’s voice lowered until only Ma Fu could hear him clearly. “If you don’t come clean, those children that you killed will come back to get you. I can already hear their voices, and they’re coming from inside your body. They are watching you every second of every day. Their faces look at you from under your skin. The sin that you have committed, they will make sure that you pay for them.”

Ma Fu desperately wanted to get away from Chen Ge, but since his shoulders were being pressed down by the officer, he could not move.

“Still refuse to say anything? In that case, I can only find ways to delay your punishment and stay a lot longer in this tiny room with them. Enjoy your life, we shall meet again.”

Just as Chen Ge was about to stand up, Ma Fu raised his head. The blood vessels on his face were popping, and his eyes were bloodshot. “I remember it now.”

“You remember it now?” The few officers were caught by disbelief.

“Lee Zheng, go get the recorder.” Captain Yan was the first to recover. He entered the room with Lee Zheng, and they surrounded Ma Fu. “Start talking.”

Ma Fu was collapsed on the ground, and he spoke with his head lowered. “I once talked on the phone with the buyer. The man was very cautious, and he was likely using some kind of voice changer because he sounded like a boy around eight on the phone.”

“A boy?” Ma Fu’s first words shocked everyone present.

“Yes, I don’t know how he managed to get my number, but I was sure it was a customer.” Ma Fu stuttered through his confusion, and his face was blanched. “He sounded like a boy, but the words he said were definitely not something a child would say. I have no idea whether someone was feeding him those words or he had practiced them before.”

“You’ve not met in real life?” Chen Ge was more concerned about that.

“He’s very cautious and changed several locations before telling me to bring the children to Li Wan City. When I arrived, he made a strange request. He agreed to raise the money, but he wanted me to stay in Li Wan City for three nights.” Ma Fu did not sound like he was just telling a story.

“What happened next? Why did you kill that innocent child?” With Captain Yan there, no one dared interrupt the questioning.

“It was not easy bringing the kids to Li Wan City, and it was too big a loss to just leave. I thought about it for a long time before accepting the request.” Ma Fu’s expression was weird like it was a mixture of fear and many negative emotions. “During the first night, I had a dream where all the walls in the room were filled with children’s handprints. Something was running before they coagulated into a shadow and stood beside me.”

“Stop messing around.” The officers thought that Ma Fu had gone insane.

“Let me talk.” Captain Yan waved his hand. “The size of the shadow, height, and what it did inside the room, can you still remember?”

“The shadow…” The fear in Ma Fu’s eyes heightened. “The shadow was as tall as I was, almost the same as well. I felt like it was just me. The dream felt very real, but when I tried to look at the face closer, it vanished.

“When I woke up the next morning, everything returned to normal. I thought it was just a dream, but the next night, the same dream happened. The shadow appeared again, but the scary thing was it came out directly from behind me like it had morphed into my own shadow.

“I saw it clearly, and I tried to call for help, but my body won’t move. I could only watch as the shadow walked down from the bed to open the closet door. The kids that I had brought were locked in the closet. The shadow looked at the kids silently until I woke up.

“The morning of the third night, the buyer called again and told me to transport the kids to Eastern Jiujiang Ming Yang Residence Unit 3, Room 104. The residence was just next to Li Wan City, and it was not yet built. According to rumors, many weird things had happened since the project started, and for the sake of good luck, the residence was called Ming Yang ¹ . You know what happened later. The police suddenly stormed the city, and the kid started crying nonstop like he was cursed…”

Ma Fu was lying on the ground and looked at the people out of the corner of his eyes. His story ended there.

“Lee Zheng, contact the people at the station immediately and tell them to check the address that he gave.” Captain Yan left the cell. He was afraid that he might hurt Ma Fu if he stayed. “In ten minutes, I need the details of all the tenants.”

“You done?” The officer turned to Chen Ge. Only he remained unmoved. After hearing what Ma Fu had to say, Chen Ge was reminded of the shadow monster that he had met outside of the fresh water plant. It was a reflection of Chen Ge like it had the ability to become a person’s shadow.

“Zhang Ya is hiding inside my shadow, could the monster have fought her that night?” Chen Ge did not have a clear answer. He did not plan to summon Zhang Ya for a small question like that either. What if she refused to return after that?

After leaving the cell, they did not walk for that long before Captain Yan received the call from the station. The information had been gathered.

“Ming Yang Residence is still under construction after seven years?” Captain Yan stopped moving as he read the message on his phone. He waved at Chen Ge. “Found the tenant of Room 104, his name is Jia Ming. We will investigate this further.”

“You already got the name? The efficiency…” Chen Ge paused in shock.

Wait, Jia Ming? Isn’t that Huang Ling’s ‘ghost’ husband’s name? But that isn’t right! The thing with the phone spirit happened seven years ago, and at the time, Jia Ming hadn’t been possessed yet…