My House of Horrors

“Of course, of course, you’re the Red Specter after all.” Chen Ge shrugged as he walked into the hall.

“Hey! What are you planning to do? I’m going to return already!” Men Nan was nervous. He had a feeling that Chen Ge had an ulterior motive for taking him home. In his mind, that was exactly the kind of person Chen Ge was.

Chen Ge stood in surprise and said matter-of-factly, “Since I’m here, aren’t you going to invite me to go behind the door to take a look?”

“You…” Men Nan also did not know what to tell Chen Ge, since he was the first living human who asked to go behind the door. “At twelve midnight, the door can only be opened for a minute, so you can only stay inside my door for a minute. If you stay longer, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to leave.”

“Only one minute?” Chen Ge did not want to trouble Men Nan too much. “Fine, after all, there’ll be plenty of chances in the future. You’d better go and fix your windows then. I won’t disturb you anymore.”

“Then I can go now?” Men Nan regarded him with caution like he was unwilling to believe that Chen Ge would be so kind.

“Go ahead, you’ve helped me many times. If you come across any problems that you cannot solve in the future, you can come and find me any time.”

“That won’t happen. As long as I don’t get entangled with you, I won’t run into any problem,” Men Nan grumbled softly.

“That might not be true. The shadow that we killed earlier is the puppet of a Greater Red Specter. If we don’t kill its true form, that Greater Red Specter will eventually come to visit.”

“Greater Red Specter?” Men Nan’s face turned paler and he widened his eyes. He thought the shadow was already the scariest monster, but he still possessed a main body.

“That monster’s true form is called ghost fetus, created from curses and resentment. It is highly vengeful, so you need to be careful.” With that, Chen Ge turned to leave. Walking out from the Third Sick Hall, Chen Ge flipped through the comic, thinking about the things that he still had not done.

“I am a man of my word. I still haven’t started on the promise that I’ve given the suicide hotline operator, Zhang Wenyu. Whenever I help him complete the death wish of the suicide victim, he will help me in return.” Chen Ge had limited manpower. Finding the ghost fetus, which could be anywhere in Jiujiang, was very difficult, but Zhang Wenyu was different. He carried the lingering spirits of all the suicide victims that he had interacted with him. He needed to help all of them before he could receive salvation. But correspondingly, those lingering spirits attached to him would provide him with their power.

Zhang Wenyu was a unique Red Specter, and even Chen Ge had no idea how powerful he was. Chen Ge merely thought that the man’s power could not have been better for a manhunt.

“I have already helped the man with the Nobita-Giant Syndrome complete his wish. Based on our agreement, I can ask for his help once.” Chen Ge took out his phone and called the number that he had memorized. After three rings, the call was picked up, but there was no voice to greet him.

“I will help you complete the victims’ wishes as fast as I can, but I have recently run into a very troublesome problem, and I hope that you can lend me a hand.” Chen Ge cut to the chase and voiced his purpose.

“What do you want me to do?” Zhang Wenyu’s throaty voice came through the phone.

“I need to find an unborn child. I’ve seen its face, and I’ll send you a sketch in a minute.” Chen Ge had Yan Danian draw the face of the baby in the shadow’s chest, which should be the ghost fetus’ appearance.

“Even if I know what it looks like, it is still not yet born. How am I supposed to know where it is?”

“You are a Red Specter; you should have your own method.”

Both parties were silent before finally Zhang Wenyu said, “Okay, I will try my best.”

“The baby’s main form is the ghost fetus. It appears to be a Greater Red Specter, and it is very dangerous, so you have to be careful during your search.” After dealing with that, Chen Ge moved to another topic. “Previously, you gave me three lingering spirits’ wishes. I’ve already completed two—the patient with Giant-Nobita Syndrome and the cancer patient who died on the rail—but the third one is a bit difficult.”

“The third wish?”

“Yes, the patient who wanted to see his work made into a movie.” Chen Ge owned a Haunted House, so he did not know heads or tails about movie-making. It was going to be hard to complete this wish. “Can you show me other lingering spirits? I will help them first.”

“That is not an issue, but the writer’s spirit is very powerful, and I have a hard time controlling him. If we cannot resolve his wish as soon as possible, I might even be consumed by him.” Zhang Wenyu sounded helpless. “You’ll have to help him fulfil his wish. That is one of the reasons I reached out to you.”

“Okay then, I’ll try to come up with a way.” After hanging up, Chen Ge wandered down the road aimlessly.

“It should be fine, leaving the search for the ghost fetus to the Zhang Wenyu, but the shooting of the movie is indeed a bit troublesome.” Chen Ge took out his own phone, and he was struck by a sudden inspiration. “A horror movie is still a movie. Even though I don’t have related talent, it doesn’t mean that the whole of Jiujiang won’t.”

He keyed in the following in the search bar—haunted film set, supernatural phenomenon during filming—and he really did come up with something.

“Known scriptwriter died from accident in the middle of the night. Is it a clever marketing scheme or something more sinister? This is the seventh accident during the shoot of Left Oculus. Is there really a supernatural element behind it?”

Clicking on it, Chen Ge realized that the article had already been removed. He changed a few key words before finding the information that he needed.

Left Oculus was the name of a horror film, but many accidents happened during its shoot. First was the accidental death of the scriptwriter who wanted to edit the script, then came the sudden madness of the female lead and the disappearance of the male lead. After changing the line-up, the filming finally finished, but on the night before the premier, the film set caught on fire, burning up all the clothes and props.

Many people said that this was just a marketing ploy until the director disappeared, and then the news went silent. In the end, the movie did not get its premier. Until now, no one had ever seen it. There were snippets online, but most of them were faked by online users.

“Even the script was burnt in the fire. This sure is interesting.” Chen Ge’s interest was piqued. He got a cab to return to the Haunted House and immediately ran into the staff breakroom. He made his notes as he searched everything that he could on Left Oculus. He busied himself until 2 am, and he finally found several pieces of useful information.

“The maddened female lead is still alive, currently residing in Jiujiang Mental Asylum.

“The crew once used Western Jiujiang’s Yong Ling Mountain as their set background.

“The original script used by the crew was not penned by the scriptwriter but was discovered by the director in an abandoned school in Western Jiujiang.

“According to legend, the director did not disappear, but he is trapped inside the movie.”