My House of Horrors

The cargo lift slowly rose before finally stopping at the sixth floor. The silvery gray doors opened before Chen Ge. The air conditioning draft blew into the elevator—the temperature inside the lab was much lower than outside. A bright fluorescent light shone on the tiles. The corridor before them was very clean, devoid of any trash.

The eastern campus’ lab building is like this as well, but there was definitely no lights there. Chen Ge glanced at the glass on the door, and his reflection stared back at him.

“How come it feels like I’ve been here before even though I’m sure that has not happened.” Zhang Ju slowly raised his head. He also saw his face on the glass. The fire scorched his face, and the glance of it made people feel uncomfortable. He scratched his head like he was trying hard to remember something.

“It’s fine if you cannot remember it now. I have déjà vu feelings like that sometimes, too. I’m sure that I’ve not been to this new location before, but it feels strangely familiar like I’ve visited the place in my dreams.” Chen Ge placed his hand on Zhang Ju’s shoulder. The warmth and power from his palm dispersed the anxiety in Zhang Ju’s heart.

“Thank you, sir, but I’m fine. However, it really feels like I’ve been here before,” Zhang Ju replied. “It’s not in my dreams but in real life. There are some shreds of a memory in my mind. They are like a ball that has been charred, and I would need to pry with all my might to look into the contents.”

“That’s quite an interesting analogy.” Chen Ge noticed that Zhang Ju was different from the other students. He had retained more memories than the others. “Come, let’s get to the autopsy room.”

Chen Ge had Zhang Ju lead the way, and the group found the autopsy room at the deepest part of the corridor.

“The lights are not on; there’s no one in.” Zhu Long peered into the room by leaning on the window. With the light shining in from the corridor, he could only see a single, cold operating table. However, just from the sight of that, his body appeared to shiver from an involuntary reaction.

“Mr. Bai, do we really need to go in there?” Zhou Tu was feeling uneasy. “If we don’t return now, the bathroom is going to run out of hot water.”

“Wait a minute!” It was not Chen Ge who spoke but Zhu Long who leaned on the door. “Since we’re here, why don’t we go in to take a look?”

“The door is locked, are you suggesting we go find the manager? And tell him what? Please let us into the autopsy room because we’re investigating supernatural events at the school?” Zhou Tu regretted joining this club; none of the members appeared to be normal. He bit on his tongue hard. Actually, ever since he arrived at the school, anxiety had been following him. He kept having this recurring dream, and that was enough torture for the young man.

He pretended to be calm before others, putting on a brave front, but actually, he was already at the brink of a breakdown. “Strange school but an even stranger club.”

“There’s no need to trouble the manager; I have the key,” Chen Ge said as he pulled out a ring of keys from his pocket. “I have much greater access than you might previously have thought.”

The members did not expect Chen Ge to have so many keys. They were very surprised, so surprised that none noticed that the numbers pasted on the keys were different from the ones at western campus, and some of them were even stained with blood.

Chen Ge stood facing away from the students and used his body to block the door. The keys rattled noisily in one hand while his other hand searched for the scalpel and iron thread that he had found in the toolroom. From the beginning, he had never planned to use the keys to open the door. Due to his occupation, he had encountered many locks and been to many schools, so he had some confidence in his lockpicking skills. After one minute, Chen Ge’s forehead was sweating.

“Mr. Bai, have you forgotten which key opens this door?” Zhang Ju and Zhu Long crowded over. Chen Ge had not expected the lock to be so tough to pick. He swiftly and quietly put the scalpel and iron thread away. Before the members got too near, he pushed a large key into the keyhole.

“Someone has blocked this keyhole. I’ll force it open now, and tomorrow, I’ll get someone to come fix it.” Chen Ge signaled for the members to get back. He looked around for signs of cameras. They were still quite close to the stairs.

“Find someone to fix it later?” The members were still quite confused when they saw Chen Ge landed a powerful kick on the door.

Bang!

The lock that had been tampered with could not withstand such a heavy blow, and it swung open from the kick.

“Zhou Tu, you wait outside with Xiao Wang. If anyone comes, just tell them you’re a student here and you just came because you heard the loud noise,” Chen Ge said and then led Zhang Ju and Zhu Long into the autopsy room.

“Sir, are you sparing us the responsibility in case we’re caught?” Wang Yicheng was quite touched. The man before him did not look that special, but his little and insignificant gestures would often touch others.

“It’s more like that he wants us to be his lookouts. Is that something a teacher should do?” Zhou Tu held Wang Yicheng while looking at the broken door.

The autopsy room there was only half the size of Jiujiang Medical University’s one, but it had all the necessary equipment. In fact, it looked just like a smaller copy of the autopsy room at the university.

The underground morgue is at Jiujiang Medical University, and that university is one of the pre quests for the School of the Afterlife.

Chen Ge was considering the connection between the two quests. He was only thinking about it for a minute, but when he turned back, he noticed that his two members were acting strangely. Zhu Long stood next to the operating table, and he was caressing it like he was touching the skin of his lover. His gaze seemed distant as he glanced at the cold metallic table. Zhang Ju, though, stood next to the window. He pulled back the curtain and stared dumbly at the mirror frame hidden behind the curtain.

“Why would there be a mirror frame here?” In the maintenance room in the eastern campus’ staff dormitory, Chen Ge had encountered several mirrors dyed red with blood. He had noticed that mirrors seemed to have a special meaning at this school. “Why isn’t there a mirror in the frame?”

“Mirrors are not allowed inside the autopsy room, so the mirror has probably been taken away.” The statement slipped out of Zhang Ju’s lips.

“Then how did you know there is a mirror frame hidden here?”

“I… have no idea.” Zhang Ju scratched his head, and his voice became louder. “I really don’t know. How did I know? I just… opened the curtain, and there it was.”

“Hmm, I believe you.” Chen Ge grabbed hold of Zhang Ju lightly. “It’s going to be fine.”

Half of Zhang Ju’s face was covered with scars. When he was agitated, his expression was very scary, but Chen Ge did not let him go. He felt a different emotion from this panicking young man—guilt. Zhang Ju’s frightening expression belied a heart that was shivering in fear.

Chen Ge had no idea what had happened to the young man, but he knew that the lock to the young man’s memory was slowly crumbling due to this mirror frame that he had found.

“Based on the color and style of the frame, the owner of the mirror was probably a girl.” Many clues were slowly being stitched together in Chen Ge’s mind. He was reminded of the story that Zhang Ju had told; the young man appeared to have been the witness of a horrifying murder.