My House of Horrors

After so many twists and turns, Chen Ge had finally found the ghost school’s real owner. Even though it was just a glimpse of the person’s hand, that was already quite a big clue.

“Just now I heard someone ask, ‘Would you like to be my friend?’

“Did it come from inside the phone? But I heard it by the side of my ear so clearly.

“It probably wasn’t meant for Lin Sisi but for me.”

Chen Ge turned back to look. The blood vessels on the wall had started to peel like fallen leaves in autumn. They had lost their life.

“Did you make the promise with him?” Wang Yicheng suddenly spoke on Chen Ge’s back. He buried his head in Chen Ge’s shoulders. His voice was very soft, so one could not hear it if one did not listen carefully.

“I suppose so. He looked so lonely.” Chen Ge’s neck was pulled tight by Wang Yicheng. Their bodies were stuck together, and he could feel Wang Yicheng’s body temperature dropping.

“His friends are all dead, all dead!” The sound of dripping came from behind Chen Ge. He felt wetness on his shoulders. Turning back to see, he realized that his left shoulder was already soaked with blood. It was a wide spread of red, and it looked eye-catching.

“You…” Chen Ge shook Wang Yicheng on his back. The boy waved his arms weakly about as he grabbed at the air. Blood tears leaked from his shut eyes. “Have you remembered something?”

By retuning to this place, Wang Yicheng’s memory had awakened. He kept his eyes closed, but just from hearing that sentence from Chen Ge, he knew what had happened.

“There’s no escape. Since you have promised that person, he will come to find you. No matter where you go, he will find you!” Wang Yicheng’s voice had a big change. He had sunk into madness, completely different from the weak and cowardly boy from before.

“Even if he doesn’t come to find me, I will go to find him. I like to make friends, from all meanings of the word.” Chen Ge had many friends, but they were not by his side at the moment, so he wished to get to know some new friends.

The blood from Wang Yicheng’s eyes slid down his cheeks. His shirt was dyed red. Blood bloomed like flowers on his skin. This boy who looked so weak had the potential to become a Red Specter.

“I’m getting more interested in the owner of this school. Just how did he manage to pull all of you one by one into the door.” Chen Ge did not think that the few club members that he had randomly picked would be so special. Of course, he was lucky, but from another perspective, it explained the scary factor of the School of the Afterlife. A Half Red Specter was able to handle a normal two-star scenario, but in the School of the Afterlife, Chen Ge had already encountered several Red Specters and potential Red Specters.

“Is the constant joking a way to hide the panic in your heart?”

Hearing Wang Yicheng say that, Chen Ge confirmed further that the young man had recovered his memory. The previous Wang Yicheng was cowardly and feeble; he would never say anything remotely confrontational and would only follow orders.

“I’m not joking. To have the despair to open the door, he must have possessed hope before. Granted, the hope must have been crushed by now. I sincerely wish to help him, and becoming his friend will be the first step.” Chen Ge carried Wang Yicheng to head to the door. “Have you realized that most of the students here have a sad childhood or a physical deformity or that their personality has been made twisted by outside influence? Everyone has their own sad past.”

“What is it that you wish to say?”

“I’m curious what the owner has experienced. As the door-pusher, what has happened in his past to enable him to push open so many doors?”

“Agreeing to be his friend means that you’ll be stuck here forever. This school didn’t used to be so big. The addition of despair and pain only made it into what it is now.” After Wang Yicheng said that, his eyes stopped tearing blood, but his body continued shaking.

“Looks like you know many things.” Chen Ge felt like this school was similar to his Haunted House. However, School of Afterlife went after students with despair or was attracting students who radiated the presence of despair while Chen Ge’s Haunted House welcomed everyone. “This school’s been in existence for many years, has it?”

“All I can remember is that once I opened my eyes, I was here. I do not have the experience like Zhang Ju. I died at this school and was reborn here. I’ve already forgotten many things. I only know that this school has been growing in size.”

“Then why are you here? Is this Lin Sisi’s punishment for you?” Chen Ge asked another question he was curious about.

Wang Yicheng answered after a long pause. “I was the only person that Lin Sisi forgave. The only reason I came here is, after Lin Sisi, I became his replacement. The students’ anxiety and fear transformed into bullying, and I became their target. One night, on the brink of a breakdown, the door found me.”

“Then you entered it? Based on what Zhang Ju said, when the door showed up for the first time, it started a distance away and slowly got closer to you…” Chen Ge had not finished and he was interrupted by Wang Yicheng.

“He was passive, and I was the active party. I wanted to find a place where I could hide. Plus…” Wang Yicheng hesitated for a long time before he revealed the other secret. “The hand that reached out then was covered in paint. That was Lin Sisi’s hand. He was inviting me, and I wanted to say sorry to him in person. That day, I actually reported it to the teacher, but he didn’t come.”

“What else do you know about Lin Sisi and this door?”

“That’s all. Since entering the door, I haven’t seen Lin Sisi. Until today, I haven’t seen him.” Wang Yicheng let go off his hands. “You can put me down now.”

“Are you sure you’re not lying?” Chen Ge put down Wang Yicheng. “At the door of the western campus’ toilet, once your memory returned, the school’s administrators showed up immediately. If I didn’t knock you out, I’m afraid we would have been captured. You are treated differently from Zhang Ju and Zhu Long.”

“That’s probably because Lin Sisi is my friend, and I am Lin Sisi’s friend.”

The group walked past the seven cubicles. This place recorded what had happened to Lin Sisi, but the phone had probably only captured part of it.

“I really can’t imagine what has the door-pusher experienced.” As they were about the leave the toilet, Chen Ge turned to look at the seventh cubicle. “The only thing confirmed is that the door is in the seventh cubicle. To get to know the school’s owner, we need to investigate everything that has happened inside this toilet in this school.”

With the current cubicles, Chen Ge planned to head to three places next—the school’s data filing room, the school library, and the art room in the lab building that he had promised Zhou Tu.