My House of Horrors

“There’s someone inside the cubicle!” When he saw the black leather shoes, Chen Ge was instantly reminded of Mr. Bai from the eastern campus. The latter was wearing a pair of leather shoes just like that. “Stay back.”

Chen Ge took two steps back. He took out Lin Sisi’s phone, lowered it to the gap, and snapped a quick picture.

Lowering his head to look at the phone, the thing that Chen Ge worried about did not happen. There was only a pair of shoes inside the cubicle; there was no one wearing the shoes.

Lin Sisi’s phone can capture the image of ghosts and other unique entities. Since there is nothing on the picture, this can only mean that the shoes are the only thing inside the cubicle. But if the cubicle is unoccupied, why is the door locked from inside?

The cubicle door could only be locked from the inside, and the way the black leather shoes were placed indicated that someone was standing inside and not that someone had shoved them inside through the gap.

“Teacher, perhaps you were mistaken. Who would come to the toilet alone at an hour like this? Just the thought of it is scaring me.” The memory of Zhu Long was loosening. He was reminded of something, but it was still blurry; he could not make it out clearly. However, the influence on the young man was undeniable. Some barely discernible changes were happening to him like he started to maintain his distance from the other club members and would involuntarily stick close to Chen Ge like he believed that he was closer in nature to Chen Ge.

“Guard the way here. Inform me if anyone’s coming.” Chen Ge shook the door with brute force, trying to force it open. Many skull faces were painted inside the cramped cubicle. Standing inside would make one feel like one was being stared at by many people.

“Why would there be a pair of leather shoes here?” Chen Ge did not notice any strangeness inside the first cubicle. He came to the second cubicle. With his previous experience, he took out the phone and snapped a picture through the gap. The picture showed that there was also a pair of shoes placed inside the second cubicle. However, this time, it was not a pair of black leather shoes but a pair of old blue running shoes.

“The placement is the same. Is there a purpose to this?” Chen Ge looked through the first six cubicles. There was a pair of shoes placed inside every cubicle. They were all male shoes—sneakers, hiking boots, and flats of varying sizes. They appeared to belong to different people.

“The black leather shoes in the first cubicle reminded me of Mr. Bai; they should be for an adult. The other five pairs are mostly for students. Does this mean that each pair of shoes represents one specific individual? Lin Sisi was pranked by his whole class. Could these six shoes represent the people who had the biggest grudge against him?”

The difference between a Specter and living person was that they were built by negative emotions and hatred; understanding and kindness were not part of their make-up. No matter what Lin Sisi was like in real life, the moment he turned into a Specter, his heart would be consumed by hatred. That was the nature of Specters and spirit; it was the basis to support his survival. To trap those who had pranked him inside the cubicle to be his company, based on Chen Ge’s understanding of Specters, that was something one would have done.

“Sir! Someone is coming to the education block!” Zhou Tu held Wang Yicheng and screamed at Chen Ge from the entrance. “They seem to be coming from the labs!”

“They’re chasing after us?” Chen Ge moved quickly to the last cubicle. He subconsciously took out the phone to take a picture, but he realized with a shock that the door of the seventh cubicle had been taken off its hinges.

Where is the door?

Based on Chen Ge’s prediction, the door most related to Lin Sisi would most likely appear in the toilet, but he could not find it after searching the whole toilet.

Calm down, don’t panic.

Chen Ge bit on his tongue lightly. He knew that the people would need some time to get up the stairs.

Each door corresponds to a door-pusher, so in other words, the door is the only…

His fingers touched the hinges, and Chen Ge realized how the hinges had been broken.

The door was forced open from inside!

He lowered his head to look at the interior of the cubicle. There were no shoes inside the seventh cubicle, only two bloody footprints. The footprints were placed one before the other like someone was walking out from the door.

If each shoe represents one person, does this mean that the person inside the last cubicle has escaped?

Chen Ge whipped his head around. Perhaps it was his imagination, but the skulls on the walls seemed to have come alive; their expressions had shifted.

The despair and negative emotions on the western campus have all been moved to the eastern campus, so the real blood door should be in the toilet at the top floor of the eastern campus’ education block!

Before solving this problem, another had appeared. The veins on Chen Ge’s forehead were close to bursting. He bit on his tongue to make himself more alert.

Take this step by step. At least I know that I’m getting closer to the truth.

“Sir! They’re coming up the stairs! We’d better find a place to hide!” Zhou Tu was rushing through his words. He was weirdly panicking. “It doesn’t seem like it was students or teachers who entered the block. They are walking with such strange gait!”

“They’re walking strangely?” Chen Ge instantly realized that something was off. He waved for Zhang Ju and Zhu Long to get out of the toilet. “Which set of stairs are they taking?”

“The one closer to the toilet!’

“Okay! We’ll run down the other stairs! Remember, do not let yourself be discovered by them!” Chen Ge did not plan to go against the enemy for now. They ran down the corridor, but when Chen Ge passed Wang Yicheng, he suddenly stopped.

His gaze narrowed as they fell on Wang Yicheng’s shoes.

Blue running shoes?

Wang Yicheng was wearing the same kind of shoes as the ones found inside the second cubicle!

The shoes in the cubicles are all male shoes…

Chen Ge thought back to the discovery, and he suddenly realized that the shoes in the toilet matched the shoes worn by the students inside Room 413 perfectly.

Room 413 has six students, but the toilet has seven cubicles. The six students should correspond to the six cubicles, and the last cubicle with the black leather shoes should represent the teacher; that is seven people in total. Chen Ge frowned. Why would Lin Sisi hate his own roommates so much? Didn’t he purposely return to his bedroom to warn his roommates against going to this toilet?

Chen Ge rubbed his temples. There were too many questions to answer.

The eastern campus is unregulated while western campus is like a memory capsule where time is frozen within these several days of the new students’ welcoming ceremony. To get to the truth, I’ll have to compare the two campuses more closely!

The western campus is too perfect, so perfect that it feels unreal, like a child’s dream. In comparison, the eastern campus is more realistic.

Chen Ge’s eyes moved away from Wang Yicheng’s shoes. He had already decided to take everyone to the eastern campus.

Now I have no other choice. I can only continue to search for the memory in the dream and find the truth in the reality.