My House of Horrors

“Is there a problem?” Chen Ge took out two hundred RMB and placed it on the counter. The ticket seller quickly recovered from a shock and said, “Sorry, I just thought your name was very familiar. It sounds the same as one of my friends’.”

“Is it?” Chen Ge smiled lightly and did not push for more details. The worker moved conspicuously faster and only took several seconds to finish the registration. The ticket for Nightmare Academy was quite interesting—it was an offer letter, and Chen Ge’s name was written on it.

“Hold onto your offer letter and document, and please wait in line. When the visitor number reaches five, we can start the tour.” After helping Chen Ge with his registration, the worker did not appear too well. With her hands over her stomach, she left the ticket booth in a hurry. Chen Ge carried his bag and lined up behind the other two visitors; he looked very much at ease like he had returned to his own home.

“Brother, did you come alone?” Standing before him was a couple. Their hands were laced together, and they appeared rather nervous.

“Yes, I was rather bored, so I came in for a stroll.”

“You sure are brave to have come here alone. This place is very scary. I was just discussing with my girlfriend that if there were not enough people, then we would surrender directly.” The man was about 1.7 meters tall and wore a black outfit with wide-rimmed glasses. He looked rather kind and friendly.

“But doesn’t that mean you’re going to waste your ticket money?” Chen Ge did not quite understand it.

“That is better compared to running out in tears after being scared!” The man thought that Chen Ge’s question was rather strange. “My colleague visited this Haunted House before, and it is very scary. Later, we’d better stick together.”

“Okay.” Chen Ge operated a Haunted House himself, so he would not underestimate his enemy. There had to be a reason for Nightmare Academy’s past success. The man appeared to be quite a coward; he kept telling his girlfriend how scary this Haunted House was. His girlfriend cooperated fully—just from his description, her face was already white.

They waited for another minute before a woman about twenty years old and three students walked in. They did not appear to know each other. The three students kept chatting among themselves and sounded quite excited. One of them said that he had attempted this Haunted House before but had given up halfway because it was too scary.

The female visitor looked normal, and there was nothing particularly unique about her—she was the kind who would easily disappear in a crowd. She did not speak much and stood in the corner alone.

“There are enough visitors now. Everyone, please come with me.” The worker who needed to use the toilet earlier came out from the staff passage. She carried an old red school bag and several blue storage boxes. “Please do not use your phones when you are inside the Haunted House. We will provide you with the necessary lighting equipment. Do not run or try to instigate a fight inside the Haunted House. Do not touch the actors, and of course, the actors will not touch you.”

The worker rattled off the rules of the Haunted House before reaching her hand into the bag and taking out a small flashlight. “Now, please line up and retrieve your flashlight from me.”

When the couple in front walked through, the worker handed them the flashlight immediately, but when it was Chen Ge’s turn, the worker raised her hand to stop him. “Sir, do you mind leaving your backpack here with us? We will return it to you after the tour is completed.”

Chen Ge shook his head. There were four Red Specters inside his backpack. He was worried the whole building would suffer if some kind of accident happened.

“I’m sorry, but those are the rules. I hope you can cooperate with us.” The worker stood her ground.

“You are worried that I might carry illegal items with me? That’s fine, I can open my backpack for you to check.” Compared to the worker of Nightmare Academy, Chen Ge appeared to be more reasonable. He opened his backpack before the crowd. “I’ve read through your rules. I am not allowed to bring any flammable objects, sharp blades, and video recording devices into your Haunted House. As you can see, there are no such things.”

Everyone looked into Chen Ge’s backpack, and their expressions slowly turned curious.

“What are all these?” Bright red high heels and cute cartoon doll could be understood as the man’s strange hobby, but what about the recorder? To study English? But he was visiting a Haunted House, why would he take such things with him?

The way that the other visitors looked at Chen Ge became weird, and the mind of the worker was filled with question marks.

“Indeed, there are no dangerous objects in here, but…” The worker picked up the recorder. She suspected there might be a small camera installed inside this thing. The worker pressed the play button. The tape turned, and it elicited a static sound. It really did appear to be a normal recorder.

“What do you mean? I can’t even bring a recorder when I visit your Haunted House? There were no such rules when I visited other Haunted House!” Chen Ge argued firmly.

“But the point is that no one would have considered carrying such things when visiting a Haunted House.” After a moment’s hesitation, the worker placed the recorder back into the bag and looked through the other items. In an inside slit of the bag, the worker found a hand-drawn horror comic and a ballpoint pen wrapped in cellophane tape.

“Are you a comic book artist?”

“Do I not look like one?” Chen Ge did not deny it or admit it; he just looked at the worker silently.

The worker did not know how to answer. She put everything back into the backpack and returned it to Chen Ge. “Take your offer letter and flashlight. Go in.”

She searched inside the schoolbag for a long time before she found a red flashlight and handed it to Chen Ge. This flashlight looked similar to the other flashlights, but the casing for Chen Ge’s was red in color while the others were all green.

After walking through the security door, the few visitors filed into the elevator.

“In ten seconds, your journey of nightmares will become. If you cannot carry on and wish to surrender, you just need to scream at the camera.” The worker watched the visitors walk into the elevator and then pointed at the offer letters that every member of the group was holding. With a strange smile on her face, she said, “This time, the visiting number is quite small. To balance out the difficulty, I shall give you an additional hint—think about it, what exactly is the definition of a nightmare?”

The worker pressed the elevator button. The doors closed, and the elevator started to move up.

“Chui Ming, you’ve been here before, do you know what other secret might be hidden in the offer letter?” one of the students asked the boy next to him.

“Don’t read it. Just keep your eyes on your feet after the tour starts.” Chui Ming looked just shy of eighteen, and he was very timid.

“Is it that scary?” The other student had a hard time believing it. He tried to open the offer letter, but he was only halfway through when the lights in the elevator went off!

The darkness arrived suddenly, and the elevator was instantly filled with screams. Then, an eerie green light appeared from the four walls of the elevator.