My House of Horrors

As the wooden boards fell off one by one, the boy who stood next to Chen Ge slowly transformed. The large head slowly turned, and the small eyes that were squeezed behind the folds of fat stared straight down the corridor. The corridor sealed by the wooden boards was different from the other corridors in the School of the Afterlife. There was no blood fog, and the walls and cement floor looked no different from a normal corridor in real life.

Yin Hong saw the shift in Chen Ge’s eyes and whispered to explain, “All the students here know that this place is forbidden, so they do not come here. Therefore, it’s only natural for this corridor to have retained its previous state.”

“The world behind the door is all red, so how could there be somewhere that is similar to real life? The only explanation is the school meant to keep it this way.” Removing the last board, the fog dispersed. Chen Ge and the others rushed in, but only the boy with the smell stood where he was.

“Have you been reminded of something?” Chen Ge wanted to tap the boy’s shoulder, but his hand phased through his body. The honest fatty was just a ball of smelly air, unlike other Specters. The boy did not answer. His round body slowly moved down the corridor. He walked very slowly like he was afraid.

Why would he be afraid? Does he not wish to see his real self, or is he unwilling to face the memory in his heart?

Chen Ge did not know how to console the boy. He did not urge him. If the boy showed any clear sign of resistance, he would take him out of there immediately. There was no light in the corridor, and all the windows were sealed. This place was completely isolated from the rest of the school. The school did not seem like it liked other people going there—this was his private place.

“I’ve only heard of this place from the teachers. I didn’t expect things here to appear so normal.” Yin Hong was curious and walked at the front. After a small jog, she stopped. “This room is the dormitory that I mentioned earlier. The students who stayed here all said that they would see something standing next to their bed at midnight. His feet stepped on the ground, but there was a noose around his neck. His face was green as he stared at one of the beds. If you met his gaze, you would disappear.”

“Is the door locked?” Chen Ge reached out to push at the door.

“Hey! Did you not hear me? Can you give me some reaction? I’m telling you something scary!” Yin Hong was not satisfied with Chen Ge’s attitude. “I know you are brave, but these few forbidden zones are the places where the teachers forbade the students from coming. For all newcomers, the first day of class is for getting to know where they can go and where they can’t go.”

“The door isn’t locked. Xu Yin, come with me.” Chen Ge completely ignored Yin Hong. While the girl was speaking, he had pushed the door open a sliver.

“You really want to die, don’t you! Listen to me, there are things more painful than death in this world, so don’t think that…” Yin Hong was the coagulation of negative emotions in Yin Bai. She had to face all the negative emotions and cruel memories. Therefore, she had slowly turned into a monster, but due to what had happened earlier, she had stopped hiding herself before Chen Ge. She probably felt close to Chen Ge, believing they were the same type of person.

Chen Ge noticed the change in Yin Hong, too, but he did not pay it any attention. Yin Hong was the negative memory of Lee Xueyin. He thought that he would be closer to Yin Bai unless the ghost fetus was the carrier of the good memories and he was the one who shouldered all the pain. But that was clearly impossible. He did not think much of it and attributed Yin Hong’s change to his sparkling personality.

With Xu Yin’s agreement, Chen Ge pushed the bedroom door open. A faded smell of mildew drifted out. Having gotten used to the smell of blood, this smell of mildew felt strangely familiar.

“This place is so messy.” Dirty clothes and trash littered the room. The luggage and blankets were strewn everywhere like a tornado had just hit the place.

“Did you discover anything?” The headmaster had been following behind Chen Ge like he was worried Chen Ge might do something crazy. “Shall we leave? This is the school’s forbidden zone; we’d better not stay here for too long.”

“Wait a minute.” Chen Ge stood in the middle of the room and lifted his head to look at the roof. There were nails pinned to the ceiling painted white. From each nail, a tattered cloth was dangling. The cloths of many colors dangled downward. The ceiling was like a white sea, and the red cloths were like corals living on the sea floor. Reaching out to pull at one of them, Chen Ge tugged at it lightly. “This cloth is unable to support a person’s weight. They can’t be used to hang a person.”

“I feel more like they are used to fix mosquito nets. How come your mind goes straight to hanging?” The old headmaster stood at the door. “This room is not big; there probably aren’t any secrets here. The school’s consciousness has preserved this place probably because this place is meaningful to it.”

“Boss, look at this.” Bai Qiulin held the mirror with one hand, and his other pointed at the edge of the iron bedframe. The bed had a rope tied to it, and at the other end of the rope was a doll with black hair and a name.

“This looks like the doll that Zhang Ya once gifted me. Has Zhang Ya been here to help the hanging student before?” Looking at the items in the room, Chen Ge could not find the answer. Chen Ge opened the comic and summoned the hanging student. Normally, in the haunted house, the hanging man would hide in the mannequin that Chen Ge had specially made for him. He was a normal Specter, not even as unique as the stench.

The pages turned, and a thin boy appeared in the room. There was an obvious rope mark around his neck, and his neck was dislocated from his shoulders, giving him a strange look.

“You remember this room, yes?” Chen Ge asked softly. The confusion in the student’s eyes slowly disappeared—he was like a spooked kitten. He rushed toward one of the beds and tossed all the trash away. He found a black envelope under the mattress, and on it, a sentence was written.

‘Who will be next?’

The envelope was puffy like it was stuffed with something. The boy held the envelope tightly with both hands. Fear rose in his heart; he was still very afraid.

“Can I talk a look at that letter?” Chen Ge wondered what the hanging man had experienced, why their dormitory room was filled with dolls crafted by Zhang Ya.

The boy shook his head with determination. He put the black envelope away and rushed back into the comic.

“The envelope looks like a curse, but there is nothing that scares me.” Since his worker refused to share, Chen Ge would not force it. He inspected the room again and then replaced everything before leading everyone deeper into the male dormitory.