My House of Horrors

“Do not panic! Please calm down! There is no need to worry. Perhaps this is nothing more than a prank.”

“Yes, wasn’t there an article earlier about visitors purposely going to Haunted House to toy with the workers? Furthermore, there are so many of us. There is no need to be afraid.”

If there was a competition of blowing hot air, the workers at Nightmare Academy would definitely come out victorious. However, once Xu Yin approached, they all moved back in unison like it had been rehearsed many times.

“Open the door!” Chen Ge’s expression was filled with anxiety, but the door to the headmaster’s office refused to budge.

The other workers wanted to stop Chen Ge but were all forced back by the small actor. “Quick, go and get the boss! This is not a joke!”

Chen Ge was a visitor. No matter how hard he tried, he was not going to persuade the workers, but the same words coming out from the dwarf worker’s lips were far more convincing.

“Brother Zhao, what happened to you? Did something happen at your scenario?” the leading man asked. He still had not understood the severity of the situation, and the first thing that he did was push the blame onto Xiao Zhao, insinuating that everything was his fault.

“Do you still remember Pan Tian, the guy who was responsible for looking over the underground scenario with me? He asked for sick leave and didn’t come back to work, so in the end, he was fired.” The man was very afraid now. His experience that day had awakened all the fearful memories in his mind, and they all connected.

“I think I remember him. The boss said that he went back home to get married.” The leading man seemed to remember something.

“He did go back home but not to get married but to seek doctor.” The fear in Xiao Zhao’s eyes deepened. “Pan Tian has gone mad! No one knows why, but one day at work, he suddenly snapped! He kept saying that he saw something underground!”

“How come I didn’t hear the boss say anything about this‽” All the workers gathered. They had no idea that something so scary had occurred at their working place.

“If the boss told you all this, would you still have come to work? Anyway, have you never considered why there were three scenarios underground but now only one is open? Why did he wish to seal up the other two scenarios? Haven’t you wondered about that?” Xiao Zhao was very tiny, and he needed to look up when he spoke, which caused his face to turn red.

Chen Ge, who had been busy knocking on the door, perked up his ears to listen. So, there is really such a history here!

With the danger encroaching, Xiao Zhao screamed, “No one knows what Pan Tian saw, but if I am going to guess, he probably saw him!”

Xiao Zhao pointed at Xu Yin. “Just earlier, this man covered in blood suddenly appeared! He materialized out of thin air before my eyes! I am not lying to you! Run! The thing hidden underground is coming up to get us!”

Red Specters were much scarier than a normal ghost; the presence was not on the same level. Baleful Specters could make people anxious, but Red Specters could draw out the deepest fear in their heart. Xiao Zhao was already traumatized, but now that he had shared the fear in his heart, he did feel better somewhat.

The headmaster’s door was still closed shut; the boss refused to show himself. Xiao Zhao, as the only worker who knew the ‘truth’, kept making things worse, and finally, the fear within the other workers exploded.

A blood wave crashed at them. This scene out of a nightmare happened in real life, and the feeling could not be described. The corridor seemed to morph into a python about to swallow them. The lights went off again and again, and every time that it came back on, the red shadow would be that much closer. The static in the speakers grew louder, and it eventually overwhelmed the original background music. Instead, a new sound appeared. It sounded like whispers and cries for help; no one could tell what it was. All they knew was that even if they closed their ears, they could still hear the sound.

Whenever Xu Yin took one step forward, the workers took one step back. It was unclear who made the first move, but just as they reached the mouth of the staircase, someone rushed down the stairs. However, once they saw the situation downstairs, they understood the seriousness of the situation. There was a worker lying unconscious at the door of the music classroom; an actor with white foam on his lips was curled up at the corner; people littered the corridor like a war had just happened there; the place was filled with signs of struggling.

Just one hour earlier, those people had been having lunch with them, and now, they were all lying unconscious on the ground; there was no scene more impactful than that.

“The real ghost has arrived!” The demands from the boss, the code of conduct, the salary, the examination—everything was tossed out of their brains. Those employees only had one thing on their mind—get out of there. Because they knew that if they ran one step slower, it would be them who were lying on the ground with foam pouring out of their mouths.

They did not dare stay even a minute longer. They rushed to the elevator, but no matter how many times they pressed on the button, the elevator refused to come up. It parked itself on the basement floor.

The speakers placed in the corners broadcasted the screams of a stranger. The yelling pulled at the listeners’ hearts, and chills ran all over their bodies.

“Damn it! Who is hogging the elevator‽”

“But why would it stop at the basement? Shouldn’t the ghost have left the underground? Wait, does this mean that there is another ghost down there‽”

“Now the key question is, since the elevator is the only exit, how are we supposed to get out of here‽”

The remaining workers pushed at the elevator door, and the feeling of despair spread like a disease.

“You only have one exit here? What if there’s an accident? Is this how Nightmare Academy treats its visitors? You view the visitors’ safety so lightly‽”

When Chen Ge said that, it did not cross his mind that his own Haunted House did not even provide a single exit for the visitors, but there was one big difference between the two Haunted Houses. Once something happened at Chen Ge’s Haunted House, the employees would show up at the first moment to help the visitors by removing the threat.

Being questioned by Chen Ge, the workers from Nightmare Academy stammered over the answer.

“Now is not the time to discuss something like that!”

“Yes, I just remembered something; there are other passageways in our Haunted House!” The leader was struck by an inspiration. “Follow me, we’ll go up to the second floor!”

After the Red Specter appeared, everything in the building started to go wrong. The interior was encased in a thin layer of blood, and creepy noises kept coming out from the speakers. It felt like the spirits within the building had returned!

In the emergency, the group did not stop to think about it and followed the man as he rushed up to one of the scenarios on the second floor.

“This is it!” The leader pulled back the thick curtains, and a weak ray of sunlight cut into the room. Without any hesitation, he kicked away the props on the ground. He grabbed one of the sturdier props and smashed the wooden boards that sealed the window. “We can’t leave by the door, but we can use the window!”

The workers at Nightmare Academy worked surprisingly well during the crisis. Without much order, the few employees started to move and began the deconstruction!

Pa!

The wooden boards started to loosen, and by then, Xu Yin’s footsteps were coming from the corridor. The sound of feet walking on blood caused everyone to break out in cold sweat. It came closer and closer.

“Quick, work faster!” The thick stench of blood rushed in from the door. The sound of footsteps came closer and closer before finally disappearing. Just as everyone was confused, Xu Yin’s pale head peered into the room. He was blocking the doorway!

“He’s here! He’s coming to get us!” The workers gave it their all as they took down the wooden boards, and the window before them became their only hope.

…

Xin Hai Central Street was Xin Hai’s city most famous shopping avenue. No matter the time of day, the street was always bustling.

“Big cities are indeed different from small towns.”

Ol’ Wu carried the new suitcase that his son had brought him and lugged it rather tiredly on his back while walking down the road. Some of the kinder passersby told him that he could have dragged the suitcase on the ground, and that would save him some energy. To them, he explained that he was training his body, but in reality, it was because he could not bear to dirty the wheels of his son’s present.

“This is such a beautiful suitcase; I won’t allow it to get dirty.” He had been poor for his whole life and supported his own son to college using his meagre income from rearing crops. Now that his son had settled down, he had invited his old father to visit him in Xin Hai.

This was Ol’ Wu’s first time going on a long journey, and like a child, he was curious about everything. He looked at the skyscrapers that reached into the sky and could not help gasping continually at how different a big city was.

He looked around the city for a long time, and when he was about to move forward, Ol’ Wu suddenly heard an insistent banging sound that came from the second floor of one of the nearby buildings. “Is it undergoing renovation?”

Before Ol’ Wu had the chance to turn to look, he heard a loud bang coming from above!

The originally sealed window was shattered with brute force. The wood chips floated down the sky. The crowd’s attention was pulled toward it, and as they raised their heads, something even more shocking happened!

A woman covered in red paint, with half a finger still stuck in her eye, jumped out from the broken window!

“Someone is committing suicide!” Ol’ Wu was so scared that the precious suitcase slipped from his fingers. He quickly pulled out his phone and tried to call the emergency services, but the woman turned in midair and landed rather safely. Then, she climbed up from the ground and ran into the crowd, screaming.

Before the crowd could recover, another man covered in blood with half of his face ruined by scars also jumped out of the window!

“A suicide pact‽” Ol’ Wu just pressed one. He was hesitating between calling the ambulance or the police. However, before he could make a decision, a childlike figure appeared at the window!

“Be careful!” Ol’ Wu dropped his phone and rushed forward as the small figure jumped out from the second-floor window. Without thinking about it, Ol’ Wu reached out to catch the falling child.

Searing pain came from his arms. He held on and opened his lips to ask, “Child, are you alright?”

“Thank you so much!” An adult male voice came from the small body. Ol’ Wu was so surprised that his arms weakened, and the person that he was carrying crumpled to the ground. The person did not make as much as a whimper when he landed. He held his bruised head and ran as far away from the building as he could.

“What is happening? Should I call the police? What should I do?” Ol’ Wu stood where he was. Just at that moment, another figure dropped down from the second floor. The person was wearing a doctor’s coat, and the tag around his neck pinpointed him as the health teacher. However, the man had six arms, and from the back, he looked like a mutated spider.

One after another, people in various strange outfits dropped down from the second floor of the building. Like a piece of living art, they had successfully attracted the attention of everyone on that boulevard.