My House of Horrors

Why is this person wearing the uniform of another school? Chui Ming was stunned. Mu Yang High School? Haven’t heard of that before. Is it some other visitor who wandered in here? But how come I never heard the leader say anything about this?

When Chui Ming stood there thinking about it, the footsteps echoed in the dark again, and the blurry shadow slowly approached him. The temperature around him seemed to drop lower. The cold draft from the air-conditioner crawled into his collar and caused the hair on Chui Ming’s back to stand.

“Brother Gou, is that you?” No one answered Chui Ming. He took in a deep breath. A kind of indescribable pressure grew on the young man’s shoulders, and his body felt like turning and running.

What is going on?

He was inside the Haunted House, and he was one of the employed workers, but at that moment, he felt like he was one of the visitors.

His eyes bulged widely. The more he assessed the situation, the more flustered he felt. The person that was following behind him was definitely not Xiao Gou. After all, she was wearing the school uniform of a different school!

The unknown was the scariest, and that was exactly the situation that Chui Ming found himself in. He knew that someone was following behind him, but he had absolutely no idea who that someone was. He was playing out a familiar scene, but due to the stranger behind him, everything turned that much creepier.

Darkness swallowed Chui Ming like a wave. His chest rose and fell unevenly, and his breathing came up short. It felt like he was the only one left inside the classroom. The other visitors and colleagues fell away, and all he could see and sense around him was an endless stretch of darkness.

After a person had gotten used to a colorful world, when they were placed back into complete darkness, there would be a temporarily panic like they had been forcibly yanked away from their original world. Chui Ming, who had scared many other visitors in this scenario, was given the bitter taste of his own medicine.

The phone in his palm vibrated again, a sign that someone had sent Chui Ming another message. Suppressing the fear in his heart, Chui Ming used his body to block the light from the screen, and he sneaked a glance at the message. “Put on the earpiece!”

It was still Xiao Gou who had sent the message, and the message was very short, only four words long.

If you have something to tell me, why don’t you just come out and say it‽ This is only making me even more panicked! Chui Ming grumbled internally. As he held his phone in one hand, his other hand reached into his pocket to search for his earpiece. Just as his fingers closed over the device and were about to place it inside his ear, there came a cold draft blowing on his neck.

He whipped his body around and the light from the phone screen lit up the space behind him. Chui Ming did not lower his head. At his eye level, Chui Ming did not see any person behind him. What he saw was instead a pair of old female shoes, and the thing that touched his neck earlier was one of the shoelaces.

Why is this pair of shoes floating behind me?

With his eyes following the shoes, Chui Ming’s neck slowly lifted to find the shoes’ owner. He saw a black shadow almost standing on his shoulders! When he lifted his head to look at the person, said person was also looking back at him!

His heart appeared to have skipped a beat, and his entire person petrified. He held the wall, and his brain tried to use the last of its rationality to explain the whole situation. However, even as his brain turned and turned, he failed to come up with any valid explanation.

The abandoned classroom, darkness so thick that he could not see his fingers, a person standing on his shoulders, any two of those could scare a person witless, and Chui Ming was lucky enough to experience all three of them at once.

His neck that was titled upward was frozen. Chui Ming opened his mouth to scream for help, but due to extreme fear, the words that came out from his lips sounded jumbled and mangled. No one around him understood what he was trying to express, and they were about to ask him to clarify when they saw Chui Ming blast forward like a rocket.

The script, the actor, the Haunted House—everything was tossed out of Chui Ming’s mind. There was only thought in his brain then. I need to get out as soon as possible!

There was no destination, no route in mind. As long as it was not inside that classroom, it would have to do.

“Chui Ming!” Xiao Gou screamed the young man’s name. He wanted to get Chui Ming to calm down, and all he got in return was the sound of the tables and chairs being knocked out of place. There was no light in the classroom, so Chui Ming could not see his way, but that did not stop the young man from tearing the place apart as he tried to make his escape through the classroom’s front door.

Xiao Gou knew that it was a ghost who was following Chui Ming. Seeing Chui Ming’s reaction then, he immediately realized how scary that ‘thing’ was.

“Where are you going? Chui Ming!” Xiao Gou asked in a loud voice, but Chui Ming disappeared in a trail of dust without once looking back.

“What happened to him? Why did he suddenly start to run outside? Will something bad occur to him?” There was a heavy hint of concern in Chen Ge’s voice. He asked three consecutive questions, and the others still in the room could hear how worried he was on Chui Ming’s behalf.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think that we should continue this game anymore. I need to go and find Chui Ming.” Xiao Gou started to get afraid himself. The environment around him was too dark for him to tell for sure whether the ghost had left with Chui Ming or not.

“No way!” This reply came from the last row of the classroom and Xiao Gou’s earpiece at the same time. Both Chen Ge and the boss of Nightmare Academy had the same reaction. “What are you guys doing? Follow the damn script that I gave you! Don’t you dare mess this up and make me a joke in front of this guy!”

Xiao Gou’s boss breathed angrily into the earpiece. Before Xiao Gou could reply to his own boss, he heard Chen Ge say from the last row of the classroom, “You are never supposed to stop a supernatural game halfway, or the spirit that you’ve summoned will follow you for the rest of your life! Whether this is a plot by the Haunted House or the real thing, if you do not want to be woken up by ghosts in the middle of the night, we’d better finish this game!”

Hearing Chen Ge and his boss yelling in his ears at the same time was about to push Xiao Gou over the edge of sanity. What kind of people had he run into this time?

How is there a visitor who is actively requesting that we finish a supernatural game inside a Haunted House? This has never ever happened before.

Chen Ge was the visitor, and the person in his earpiece was the boss. Since both of them insisted on continuing this game that had strayed very far from the designed script, Xiao Gou could only force himself to continue.

“Okay, then… we will continue.” He gritted his teeth and prayed that the ghost had already left with Chui Ming.

“Now that we are down a participant and a corner is empty, we will need to change up the game rules.” Chen Ge was probably the first person who would go to another person’s Haunted House and edit their rules. He did not think that he was being particularly bullish about it. “The basic rules of the game shall remain unchanged. We will continue to move in a clockwise circle. When you reach an unoccupied corner, cough audibly, and then we will leave the corner empty and move on to the next corner.”

“Sure, we will do it your way.” Xiao Gou was no longer that focused on the game, and he handed the decision-making part all over to Chen Ge.

“Then I think we should start with me as well.” Chen Ge counted down to three and took out the comic from his backpack. Then, he touched the wall and moved toward the corner in front of him. He did not try to hide his footsteps, and in the darkness, one could see a figure walking alongside the wall.

Xiao Gou kept his eyes on Chen Ge. The corner that Chen Ge was heading toward was very close to the place where Chui Ming encountered the ‘accident’. His nerves were pulled taut, and his focus was sharp. Soon, Chen Ge reached the next corner. He did not cough and stopped where he was.

He didn’t cough at all! This can only mean that there is still someone occupying that corner! Xiao Gou’s body was shaking lightly, and he was incredibly anxious. Chen Ge stopped at the corner, but the sound of footsteps did not stop. A figure swayed gracefully as it moved from the last row of the classroom toward Lee Bo.

Of everyone there, only the little fatty—Lee Bo, who still had not caught up to the truth—played the role he had been assigned honestly. Feeling a light pat on his shoulder, Lee Bo touched the wall as he moved toward Xiao Gou. That was a code between the Haunted House’s workers. When Lee Bo reached Xiao Gou’s corner, he patted the latter on his left shoulder once and then on his right shoulder once.

“Brother Gou, what happened to Chui Ming?” Lee Bo asked in a whisper.

Xiao Gou did not want to scare Lee Bo, so he did not reveal the whole truth. “Just ignore him. Remember, if there’s anything that doesn’t feel right, leave this classroom as fast as you can.”

After saying that, Xiao Gou started to move toward the next corner.

Perhaps he was imagining it, but Xiao Gou felt like the darkness around him had thickened. It felt like there was a black hole in front of him, and it would suck everything that wandered too close into it. With his hands on the wall, Xiao Gou slowly nudged himself toward the corner that Chen Ge had occupied earlier, and there was the shadow in the shape of a person standing before him.

He walked closer and reached out his hand, but just as his finger was about to fall on the person’s shoulder, Xiao Gou was suddenly reminded of a small detail. Chen Ge was the person who had started this round, so technically speaking, the corner that Chen Ge had originally occupied should have been empty!

Chen Ge had already moved onto the next corner, so who was the person standing in that corner‽

The feeling of fear rushed at him from all corners. Xiao Gou’s hand dangled weakly in midair, and he was suddenly reminded of something even scarier. The game had already finished one whole round, but so far, no one had coughed. In other words, it could only mean that there was more than one ghost inside this classroom!

The arm that was raised could not be lowered anymore. Xiao Gou had exhausted all the courage he could summon. After a moment’s hesitation, he came to a decision. He touched the shoulder of the person before him lightly and then immediately jumped back a few meters.

It was not until the person wandered away that Xiao Gou sighed in relief. He did not stay in the corner for too long. Instead, he stealthily moved to the hidden pathway that was only known to the Haunted House workers and then decided to hide inside it.

I can’t stay here any longer!

Xiao Gou took out his phone and wanted to send a message to Lee Bo to inform him of the bad news when his boss’ voice came from the earpiece. “Gou Jun, what the hell are you doing? The visitor is still inside the classroom. I want you to go and scare him, so what are you doing running out like that?”

“Boss, listen to me, something is really different today!” Xiao Gou tried his best to explain to his boss, but the game was still continuing inside the classroom.

The footsteps echoed constantly in the classroom, and very soon, Lee Bo felt someone pat his shoulder. This honest little fatty did not think too much of it and continued to move ahead. When he reached the corner where Xiao Gou was supposed to be, he discovered that the corner was empty.

“Brother Gou?” Lee Bo stood at the corner alone. He paused and looked around for a few seconds. Then he followed the new rules set by Chen Ge and coughed once before moving to the next corner. In the dark classroom, Lee Bo felt increasingly worried. He slowly but surely reached Chen Ge’s corner. However, when he reached that corner, he realized that the corner was also empty!

Where is he? Where is the visitor?

Completely blinded by this development, there was nothing else Lee Bo could have done but continue with the game. Lee Bo coughed again and made his way to the next corner. The classroom was so quiet that he could only hear his own heartbeat and his own footsteps.

When he reached the third corner, Lee Bo finally realized that something was not right because this corner was empty as well.

“Where is everyone?” Lee Bo did not dare to move recklessly. He tried to contact Xiao Gou, but the person did not give him any reply. He thought about giving up, but whenever he felt like doing so, the warning that Chen Ge had given earlier would appear in his mind. If he stopped the supernatural game halfway, he would be pursued by the spirits for the rest of his life.

Just the thought of that caused Lee Bo to shiver. Devoid of options, he could only force himself to continue. How come it feels like I’m the only one left in the classroom?

Near the backdoor, Xiao Gou had just finished explaining the situation to his boss and was about to reply to Lee Bo’s message when he saw Lee Bo walking toward him through the window on the backdoor.

No matter what, this game cannot be continued anymore. When Lee Bo comes closer, I’ll drag him out with him. And the visitor… I’m sure he’ll have fun with the game on his own. After all, this is exactly what the boss wishes to happen to him.

With his hand on the doorknob, Xiao Gou observed Lee Bo through the window. He opened the door a fraction and was about to open his lips to call out Lee Bo’s name when a chill rushed right up to the top of his head!

Xiao Gou could very clearly see that there were three swaying figures following behind Lee Bo!

They stuck to Lee Bo closely, and their footsteps were eerily similar to Lee Bo’s, but Lee Bo did not seem to notice this at all!

There are three of them‽

His butt fell against the ground. Xiao Gou’s legs kicked on the ground as he staggered backward, and he screamed at the top of his lungs, “Lee Bo! Run!”

The sudden scream gave Lee Bo quite a fright. When he noticed that the classroom’s backdoor was open and Xiao Gou pointing crazily behind him, his natural reaction was to turn his neck around.

Three figures stuck close to him, and three different faces reflected in his eyes.

“Who summoned us to play this game? How come we haven’t seen you before?”

The reply was an ear-splitting scream. This was the first time that Chen Ge had heard such a shrill scream escape from a male’s mouth.

He watched the big body knock into the backdoor and then shoot out like a cannon. Chen Ge did not move to chase after the boy. He pulled back the Pen Spirit and Ol’ Zhou. He turned back to pick up the diary that had fallen on the ground and turned it to the third page.

On the last page of the first diary entry, the following was recorded. “Four kids played the four corners game inside an abandoned classroom. The three older kids purposely ganged up to bully the youngest child, and in their carelessness, they caused the youngest child to perish in an accident.

“Later, all three of the older children disappeared, and on the seventh day of the youngest child’s death, his family found three dolls made from paddy stalks under his bed. On the back of each of the three dolls was a different name— Chui Ming ¹ , Gou Hun ² , and Li Po ³ .

This first entry is describing the first scary scenario, which is the four corners game inside the abandoned classroom. In that case, the second diary entry should correspond to the second scenario.

Sitting inside the creepy Haunted House set, Chen Ge flipped to the second entry with curiosity. There was a pretty girl by the name of Die. She had fallen in love with a boy, and to prevent her confession from being rejected, she decided to ask the Pen Spirit for an opinion.

The Pen Spirit game? Chen Ge stopped reading then. He had an unreadable expression on his face. Even with the same theme, I hope that they can bring me a different feeling.

Without going ahead to read the other diary entries, Chen Ge walked out from the classroom’s backdoor.

Should I head directly to the Pen Spirit’s scenario, or should I go borrow some tools from the doctor first?

He looked down the dark corridor and shook his head.

Oh well, I’ll guess I’ll carry on. No matter what, I’m going to clear this Haunted House today.