My House of Horrors

The diary that was placed on the podium to scare the visitors became the guidebook for Chen Ge to explore the Haunted House. He placed the diary inside his backpack and rushed toward the second set described in the diary.

As the most famous Haunted House in Xin Hai, the size of Nightmare Academy was larger than Chen Ge had anticipated. The theme of a haunted school was maintained from beginning to end, and it covered almost all the school-themed ghost stories. “There are six floors in total. It’s going to be fun today.”

The large location, no matter from which angle, was a good thing for Chen Ge. He could explore to his heart’s content, and if there was a chance in the future, he could assimilate the whole building into his own Haunted House.

The Pen Spirit scenario was not far from the classroom where the new student welcoming ceremony was held. Looking at the paint on the wall, which was peeling, Chen Ge walked down the corridor until he came to an old, battered door. There was a sign above the door that read ‘Storage Room’.

“In the diary, the girl by the name of Die is said to play the Pen Spirit game inside the storage room.”

Pushing open the door, before Chen Ge even stepped in, he could hear the sound of a girl crying. The crying came and went quickly—it was too fast for Chen Ge to discern where it came from.

“Is anyone in here?” There was a big difference between Chen Ge’s Haunted House and Nightmare Academy. Chen Ge’s Haunted House allowed its visitors to explore it freely. There was no guide or help along the way while most of the Haunted Houses on the market had a set route that one had to follow during visitation.

Now that he had wandered onto the set for the Pen Spirit without warning, he was very worried that the actors were not ready yet, and it might influence his overall experience. After he spoke out loud, the sound of crying weakened, and Chen Ge stopped to observe his surroundings.

The walls in the storage room were purposely made to look older than they were. The racks in the room were filled with a layer of dust, and the corner was piled high with various items. The lights inside the room were dim, and occasionally, one could hear the sound of mice scurrying about.

“The diary only said that Die played the Pen Spirit game here, but it did not mention a single detail about the storage room itself. So, assuming there was some kind of accident when Die was playing the Pen Spirit game, I could run into one of the two ghosts here; one is Die, and the other will be the Pen Spirit.”

When Chen Ge walked past the first row of shelves, the squeak of a mouse came from a spot around his left leg, and he felt something running past his left ankle. When something like this happened to a normal person, they would jump or yelp in shock, but Chen Ge was unaffected. Instead, like a little boy who was curious about everything, he squatted down to take a better look.

“There is a rope placed between these two rows of racks. Once the visitor’s legs step on it, the fake mouse trap attached to the knot will slither out.” Chen Ge scratched his chin. “Indeed, some might be scared by things like this. This is quite interesting. A Haunted House might not need to rely on ghosts and monsters completely. Anything can be made into something that can bring fear and terror. This is able to fulfill the various needs of the visitors, and it matches my goal of designing a multi-faceted Haunted House.”

Chen Ge memorized these little tricks. He planned to research them in more detail when he returned and use them as the basis to come up with something exciting and fun. Standing up, Chen Ge continued to move forward, proceeding to the space between the first row and the second row.

The corridor was very narrow. Chen Ge saw that there was a glass jar on the second row that was almost falling. He extended his hand to push the jar slightly deeper to prevent an accident. When he was pushing it, he saw a pale face hiding behind the glass jar.

“Is he on the other side of the rack? No, it should be squeezed between the racks.” Chen Ge stared at the face for a while before grabbing the glass jar and placing it on the ground. He reached over. His finger poked the face’s cheeks, and he squeezed for a while. “Synthetic rubber? A mask?”

Chen Ge moved all the stuff on that row away and finally saw what it was. It was a human mask that was stuck to a basketball. “It’s a fake skull? If there was a real person hiding here, it would be that much scarier, but I can see the problem; the place is too small for a living person to squeeze inside.”

Skipping the second row, Chen Ge headed to the third row. This time, he was greeted by a falling glass jar again, but this time, instead of one, there were five of them.

“Aren’t they afraid of shattering the glass and accidentally harming the visitors? Or are they using reinforced glass, which does not break that easily?”

When Chen Ge walked past the jars, he noticed that each of them was filled with something different. The liquid inside was dark, and the objects reminded him of human organs. “Do the five jars correspond to five human organs?”

Chen Ge picked up the jars one by one to study before replacing them. When he reached the fourth one, a slender arm suddenly shot out from behind the rack and wrapped itself around his wrist!

This happened so suddenly and without warning that Chen Ge was stunned for zero point something seconds before he snapped into being. He tightened his fingers and twisted his wrist around to grab the arm instead. He pulled on the arm and refused to let it go as he leaned over to look behind the rack. A girl in Nightmare Academy’s school uniform was stuck to the rack. She was gritting her teeth in pain.

“Let—let go!” That was most likely not what the girl was supposed to say.

“I’m so sorry. I was too scared. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Chen Ge slowly let the girl go. When he looked behind the rack again, the girl had already disappeared. “Where did she go?”

The sound of crying returned. Chen Ge walked around the shelf and came to the deepest part of the storage room. Amid a mess of unused items, a slender girl was heaving with tears, collapsed on the table.

“I apologize for what happened earlier. I accidentally pulled too hard because I was too afraid.” Chen Ge squatted down next to the table. He was afraid that the girl was crying because he had injured her.

“I don’t feel good. My heart has been cut into pieces by a sharp knife.”

“I only touched your wrist a bit harder than usual. You’re not going to use that against me, are you?” Chen Ge grumbled under his breath.

The girl looked at the reddening fingerprints around her wrist. Even though this visitor’s reaction was slightly different from what she had expected, at the end of the day, she was a professional Haunted House actor, and she got back into her role easily. “I was deeply in love with a person, but after consulting the Pen Spirit, I found out that he did not care for me at all. I used the method taught to me by the Pen Spirit to make him change his mind, but I accidentally caused his death. I regret it deeply, so I came back here to consult the Pen Spirit again and see if there is a way to turn things around.”

“How are you going to turn things around when the person is already dead?”

“The Pen Spirit will definitely know a way!” The girl suddenly exclaimed loudly, and her eyes were red with tears.

“Sure, sure, but let’s be real. Among all the Specters, the Pen Spirit is definitely not the most powerful, so I suggest you don’t hold too much hope.”

“In any case, we have to give it a try.” The girl lifted her head, and the make-up on her face was thick and gaudy. It looked rather strange inside this abandoned storage room. “Can you lend me a hand? You need at least two people to complete the Pen Spirit game. Normally, people don’t come to this storage room. I need another person’s help to begin the game.”

“No problem.” After a moment’s hesitation, Chen Ge opened his lips to ask, “You said you need two people to start the Pen Spirit game, then who was the second person that you played with the first time you consulted the Pen Spirit?”

The girl chose to ignore the question, and her voice turned shriller. “Sit across from me, and the two of us will hold the body of the pen like this. Then you can leave the rest to me.”

“Okay.” Chen Ge saw himself as a gentleman, so he did not press and followed the girl’s instructions. He moved to the other side of the table and picked up the pen. It was a silvery white fountain pen. It was about twice the size of a normal ballpoint pen, and there were some decorative swirls on the casing.

“This is quite a nice-looking pen.” His thumb pressed on the top of the pen, and he left enough spaces between his other four fingers. The Pen Spirit game was a game for two, so Chen Ge left enough space for the girl to place her fingers. “Is it like this?”

Chen Ge’s action was so standardized that he did not need the guidance from the girl at all. At this point, a strange feeling surfaced in the girl’s heart. This person before her seemed to play the Pen Spirit game often, but would a normal person play the Pen Spirit game at home alone every day?

The girl nodded and took the seat across from Chen Ge. “After the game starts, you do not need to say or do anything, just sit there quietly.”

“Understood.”

“Once the game starts, the game mustn’t be stopped halfway. If you summon the Pen Spirit but don’t send her away, the consequences will be horrible,” the girl warned seriously.

“I understand all that, you can start now.” Chen Ge looked around. Playing the Pen Spirit game inside the abandoned storage room was an interesting experience. The Nightmare Academy had a very good handle over the atmosphere, combining the lighting effect and the background music. His heart was already pumping even though he was just sitting there.

After the girl sat down and reached out to grab the pen, her brows instinctively creased slightly. This is strange, how come this person’s hand is colder than mine?

“Can we start now?”

“Oh, okay.” The girl took a deep breath. She held the pen with one hand and stuck the other underneath the table. She started to recite, “Pen Spirit, Pen Spirit, can you please tell me how I can see my love again?”

After that, her eyes were glued to the pen on the table, and her bloodshot eyes looked rather scary in the dark. They waited for a long time, but the pen that they were holding did not move, standing upright above the paper.

“Pen Spirit, Pen Spirit, please tell me the answer! I have already followed all of your instructions! I did everything that you told me to do, but why did he still die? I love his person not this lifeless body!”

The girl’s mastery of her emotions gradually unraveled, and her pupils started to burn red. There was only a small table between the girl and Chen Ge. Due to their close distance, the feeling of abandonment and madness could be felt very clearly.

“Pen Spirit, Pen Spirit, I do not wish for him to die! Please answer me! Pen Spirit, answer me!” The girl started to scream like she had gone insane. Her screams echoed around the storage room. “Tell me what I need to do—I can give you everything I have in exchange! I know you’re here! Pen Spirit, I know you are still here!”

When the girl screamed the last sentence, the pen in her hand twitched slightly.

“Pen Spirit, is that you‽ Please tell me, how can I make him hear my voice again?” The girl screamed like she was asking for someone to save her life. Both of her eyes turned red like they were about to drip blood.

Under her relentless shouting, the pen dangling over the paper finally moved. Chen Ge could feel the body of the pen moving on its own, and this surprised him. He and the girl were both holding the pen, and he knew for sure that neither party was nudging the pen. The pen was indeed moving on its own.

The Pen Spirit has arrived? No, this fountain pen is unreasonably heavy, so there must be some kind of mechanism installed inside. The table is covered with this tattered tablecloth, and it hides everything underneath from view. However, from the sense of touch, the table is made from metal. Is it possible that she is using some kind magnet?

The girl’s voice grew louder, probably because she saw the shock on Chen Ge’s face. Under her continuous questioning, the pen wrote on the piece of white paper. “To gain something, you have to lose something. What have you prepared for me this time?”

Seeing the sentence on the paper, the girl became strangely excited. “What is it that you want? I will give it to you!”

“The same as before.”

The pen that they held suddenly stopped moving. The girl seemed to enter some kind of trance as she silently stared at the sentence on the piece of paper. “Same as before?”

The girl’s tone was rather seriously. It sounded like she was talking to herself, and it made her look like she was possessed. To an outsider, she appeared to be conversing with something that only existed in her mind.

She repeated this question again and again. Then she slowly lifted her head to look at Chen Ge. At that point, the pen that they were both holding started to move again. “Right, just like before. You sacrificed five organs of your best friend, and in exchange, I gave you the undying loyalty of your lover. Now, if you want your lover to return, give me another life in exchange!”

The make-up on her face was already ruined. The girl’s expression turned wicked. The hand that she had kept hidden under the table shot forward, and she was holding a sharp dagger in her palm!

“Wait a minute!” Chen Ge sat where he was and did not even shift in his posture. He studied the few sentences written on the paper, and his creased brows slowly smoothed out. He turned to the girl and said, “Don’t act so recklessly. The Pen Spirit is lying to you. Even if you kill me, she is not going to help you fulfill your wish.”

The girl maintained her pose, but her face was slightly twitching. Do you not see the dagger? Why are you telling me this now?

“The Pen Spirit’s main power is telling the future; the so-called fulfilling your wish is just a trap. I mean, think about your previous transaction.

“You gave her a human life, but she was playing word games with you. She made use of the chance to kill your lover and lied to you, saying that it was because she was helping you gain your lover’s undying loyalty.

“I believe I understand your story now. You might have encountered a fake Pen Spirit. Of course, there might be a different possibility where there is no Pen Spirit in the beginning at all and the so-called Pen Spirit is yourself.

“You were jealous of the fact that your best friend and your crush got together, and you borrowed the Pen Spirit’s name to kill both of them in cold blood!”

Chen Ge analyzed the situation calmly, and it baffled the girl. Why is this visitor expanding the story on his own?

“Girl, put down the dagger in your hand; that is not how you play the Pen Spirit game. The thing that you summoned was not the Pen Spirit but the demon living inside your heart.” Chen Ge held the girl’s wrist carefully but firmly. He took the dagger away from her and placed it next to him before taking out a ballpoint pen covered in cellophane tape from his shirt pocket.

“The real Pen Spirit will not harm the innocent. The only thing that will ask you to do that is the human heart.” Chen Ge’s voice seemed to possess a type of magical power. He held the girl’s hand and curled it around the ballpoint pen together. “Don’t be afraid. I will introduce you to the real Pen Spirit.”

Both of them moved back to opposite sides of the table. Chen Ge and the girl held the broken pen together.

“Empty your mind and voice the question that resides in the depths of your heart.” Chen Ge’s eyes were gentle, his voice soft. “Come, repeat after me. Pen Spirit, Pen Spirit, you are my spirit from my previous life, and I am your spirit in this life. Can you please tell me who the person that loves me the most is?”