My House of Horrors

“There are so many things on the bed. If the occupant of bed four comes back later, where is he going to sleep?” Chen Ge sounded like he was talking to himself. “Do you expect him to sleep in someone else’s bed?”

Ever since he walked in, the students in Room 413 had kept subconsciously and consciously catching glances at him. After all, he was wearing the staff uniform; it was little wonder that he was catching some eyeballs.

“Are you one of the teachers?” the tall, thin student who sat on the bed across from bed four asked. He wore glasses with very thick lenses, and they gave his face a distorted look. “Bed four is unoccupied. We’re merely rationally using the space by placing our stuff there.”

“The bed is made with the covers and sheets, and you’re telling me it’s unoccupied?” Chen Ge looked at the student with a smile. “Most likely, it’s just that you cannot see him. Be careful when you sleep at night. Do not sleep on your side as you might turn around to find another person sleeping behind you.”

Chen Ge stood by bed four and moved all the luggage from the bed to the ground. “This is sad. You’re taking advantage of a ghost.”

“Hey! Don’t just touch our stuff like that!” The man under the cover poked his head out again.

“I’m trying to save you; this bed has an owner, and he has been roaming about this school.” Chen Ge had seen many things in Room 413 of the eastern campus, so he had high expectations for the same room on the western campus.

“You also know about the rumor of the fourth bed in Room 413?” The bespectacled man asked with a stern face. “But that is merely an excuse we use to scare Wang Yicheng. You don’t seriously believe it, do you?”

“You’ll know the answer to that soon enough.”

After clearing away the bed, Chen Ge removed the bedsheet and pillow pillowcase to ensure that nothing was hiding there.

“You said bed four might be occupied, so why are you rummaging through his things like that?” The thin student pushed on his glasses. He did not seem to like Chen Ge, perhaps because Chen Ge took Wang Yicheng’s side and that against their ‘principle’.

“It’s doesn’t affect me. After all, I don’t live here. If he’s angered, you will be his first target.” Chen Ge’s way of speaking was different from how the students imagined how a teacher would speak. Of course, he was a fake teacher, so he did not care about the impression he was making. Pulling away the bedsheet and cover, Chen Ge turned his attention away from the students and focused on the bed frame. There were five fingerprints left on the edge of the bed that was closer to the wall.

“This wouldn’t be one of your pranks, right?” Chen Ge used his fingers to dig at the print. He then sniffed at his finger; it was definitely dried blood. Why would there be blood on bed four?

“Sir, what is that?” Since the fingerprint was well hidden, this was the first time that Wang Yicheng had seen it.

“Dried red paint. I’ve studied painting before, and I’m familiar with this scent.” Chen Ge turned to look at the other students inside the room. “This should be someone’s idea of a prank.”

He did not continue on this topic but took out Lin Sisi’s phone to look under the bed. Similar to the room on the eastern campus, there was something written under the bed. It was a small handwriting, probably carved with a small knife.

“Why won’t anyone talk to me?”

“Why do they ignore me?”

“I’m not lying to them! There really is a ghost! I truly saw a ghost inside the toilet!”

“This place is very dangerous! Why won’t anyone believe me‽”

Chen Ge read those words and thought that they feel very familiar. He read further and saw an even more familiar name.

“I, Lin Sisi, swear on my life that the toilet is really haunted! It’s real—they’ve been spying on me!”

“I know everyone hates me and wants to pull pranks on me. I don’t mind that. I understand. But the toilet is really haunted! I’m not lying this time!”

Each of the words was carved deeply, and some places were even stained with blood. The person had probably cut their finger accidentally when carving the words.

Were these left behind by Lin Sisi? But this is different from the description left in the ghost school’s diary!

Chen Ge promptly noticed the problem. The diary said that Lin Sisi was a very naughty prankster, and in the end, the other students could not stand him anymore and all ganged up to trick him to the toilet. They pranked him together but accidentally scared him to death. However, the words under the bed told a different story. Lin Sisi was not pranked to death by his classmates; he really saw something inside the toilet. Chen Ge’s eyes narrowed. He did not know what to believe.

The owner of bed four was Lin Sisi; that was undeniable. Be it the eastern campus or western campus, that was the case.

If this bedroom is a replica of everything in someone’s memory, then the words underneath the bed should be real. If Lin Sisi was scared to his death, how did he come back to carve these words?

At this point, Chen Ge was suddenly struck by a thought. He looked at everyone else in the room. In this room, only bed four was unoccupied, just like back then. Lin Sis was scared to death and so bed four became unoccupied, but it also meant there were five other students remaining in Room 413. Lin Sisi knew that the toilet was really haunted, so after he died, he came back to warn the rest, but no one heeded his warning.

No wonder he carved these words. Of course, the living wouldn’t see it because he is now a ghost.

Chen Ge had no idea whether or not the five in the bedroom were the same five that shared the bedroom with Lin Sisi, but if they were not, then their luck could not have been worse.

On the eastern campus, every living person that joined the school would be called Lin Sisi. This name represented bad luck and a curse, and they would be targeted by all the Specters. However, from another perspective, the Specters needed a scapegoat to ‘graduate’. So, from their angle, Lin Sis, this name represented hope.

This is getting more and more interesting. The curse for a living human is the only hope in the Specters’ eyes. Just what did Lin Sisi do at this school to earn a dual identity like that?

Chen Ge could confirm that Lin Sis was heavily related to this school. Even if he was not the owner, he had to be related to the owner somehow.

If only I could find Lin Sisi, or the previous ‘Lin Sisi’.

As Chen Ge continued to look, the handwriting on the bed increased in intensity like the carver was being pushed further and further into despair.

“I really see the ghost. Can you people trust me just once?”

“Hear my voice, I am here. I am right here!”

“Fine, I don’t expect any of you to give me any trust anymore. I only pray that none of you go to the toilet on the top floor of the education block! Remember! Do not go there no matter what!’

“It’s over now. They still escaped…”

The message under the bed stopped there. Chen Ge could feel the person’s despair from the carved words.

The toilet at the top of the education block? That is where Lin Sisi’s story ends?

Chen Ge stood where he was quietly as his brain spun. The School of the Afterlife was the largest, most complicated, and most difficult mission that he had attempted. The clues and questions that he had found were all tangled together, forming a thick fog that blocked his way. To clear them once and for all was an impossible task; Chen Ge could only detangle it little by little.

A door would not just appear for no reason—there has to be a door-pusher. Assuming that person is Lin Sisi, the door that he pushed open is most likely in the toilet on the top floor of the education block!