My House of Horrors

The visit to Yu Jian’s home was no different from how it went in the morning. The room reeked of a smell that was only recognizable to Chen Ge, and cold food was left on the table. To further convince Nurse Yu, Chen Ge brought with him some documents, including Yu Jian’s case files from the police station. “Tomorrow, the police will come, but tonight, I wish to conduct some simple treatment with Yu Jian. You can stand outside the door to observe, but please don’t interrupt.”

Chen Ge had only four nights left. He had to deal with Yu Jian that night.

“Okay.” Nurse Yu nodded with worry in her eyes. “Will the police come to take Yu Jian away tomorrow? He is too fragile. I’m afraid he won’t survive a trip to the station.”

“Don’t worry, the police will not mistreat him.” Chen Ge glanced toward the bedroom. The food on the tray was still untouched. It meant that Yu Jian had not left his room. “The treatment will start at midnight after he goes to sleep.”

“Why must it start so late?” Nurse Yu had met Chen Ge less than twenty-four hours ago. Even though she did not think that Chen Ge would scam her, asking her to place her complete trust in a stranger was asking for too much.

“Because the treatment can only be done after he is asleep.” To ensure that Yu Jian would sleep soundly, Chen Ge had even prepared a bottle of sleeping pills. They chatted until 11:30 pm. Chen Ge got the key from Nurse Yu and stopped when he was at the door.

“Aren’t you going in?”

“Please stay quiet.” Chen Ge silently summoned Men Nan and had him check the room first. After getting the green light from Men Nan, he sighed. Yu Jian was asleep. Now, they only needed to wait for midnight. Yu Jian was most compatible with the ghost fetus personality-wise and was so far the only child who had voluntarily interacted with the ghost fetus. Thus, he should be the best candidate. However, the one thing that troubled Chen Ge was their falling out.

Fang Yu had lost her memory. The other children lost their sense of smell, hearing, or sight. The deficiencies that they had were observable, but Yu Jian was different. The boy did not seem to be lacking in anything. What had been taken from him by the ghost fetus should be something very important to a human being. It could be an emotion like humanity or love.

At midnight, Chen Ge opened the bedroom door and saw Yu Jian leaning against the wall with the covers wrapped around him. His head was lowered, and a blood red door stood next to his bed. The door was completely dominated by blood vessels. They pulsed violently on the door like they were alive. The door looked much scarier than an actual door.

“What is that‽” Nurse Yu let slip a gasp. Even though it was not loud, it still disturbed Yu Jian. Chen Ge did not hesitate; he knew that the door would disappear if Yu Jian woke up so he rushed toward it. Carrying the backpack, he pushed open the door with the aid from the Red Specters. The thick layer of blood enveloped him like he was stepping into a blood pool. Chen Ge was deprived of his breath, and he struggled with both hands as he started to fall.

His eyes failed to see, and the sound of a book flipping echoed in his ears. It felt like many creatures were crawling all over him. He could not see what they were. They appeared to be congealed blood droplets, and they were congregating behind him.

“Why did you come to find me?” A strange voice rang beside his ear. Chen Ge felt a pair of hands on his shoulders. The falling sensation was slowly disappearing, and he flipped open his eyes.

“Who are you?” he shouted. The surroundings were quiet, and the atmosphere was strange. His eyes slowly focused. He looked around and realized that he was standing inside a school’s equipment room. Behind him was a pure black iron door, and there were many students giving him a strange look.

“Another school?” Chen Ge frowned. He reached into his backpack and looked at the students alertly. If anyone dared come for him, they would be rewarded with a hammer to the head.

“Chen Ge, what are you doing?” There was a fatty with a round face in the corridor carrying a stack of exercise books. He looked at Chen Ge with a sigh. “People are normally late by a few minutes, but you missed an entire class. That’s quite an achievement.”

“You know my name?” Chen Ge slowly realized that something was wrong. He was familiar with his surroundings. This was where he had gone to school, and the fatty was their monitor for math class. “Yu Jian might have gone to the same school as me, but how could he have the same classmates? Or is this not Yu Jian’s memory but my own?”

Of the passing students, the majority of them were unrecognizable. This was too complicated for Chen Ge to act rashly. He stood where he was and tried to call after the Red Specters. The only soft reply came from Xu Yin. For some reason, this door was much more stable than an actual door. It was resistant to the interruption of other Red Specters. They were unable to come out from their items of possession, not even to make simple communication.

“This is a big issue.”

Yu Jian’s world behind the door was too stable. In fact, it was the perfect bed for a sleeping Demon God.

“I can’t be so lucky, right? There are only nine doors, and I already found the ghost fetus by door number five?” Chen Ge’s emotions then were hard to describe. He was both happy and worried. “If I’d known this sooner, I would have gone to convince the tunnel lady’s son and the woman from the well in Coffin Village first.”

The school bell rang, and the students slowly returned to their classrooms. Only Chen Ge stood where he was.

“Aren’t you going to class? I hear we are going to get a new teacher. Are you going to give her trouble on her first day?” The round-faced kid was a chatterbox, but he was a kind person at heart. In Chen Ge’s mind, even though he was not a close friend of the kid, they had copied homework off each other before.

“I’ll be going now.” Chen Ge did not dare stand out before he found out what was happening. He carried his backpack and ran to the classroom. Stepping into the familiar scenario, Chen Ge’s memory was evoked again. “This was my classroom in the first year of high school.”

Sitting at his seat, Chen Ge looked out the window. The sky was covered with rain clouds, blocking out the sun. The school was not big, and it was surrounded by blocks of old buildings. “Wait, we’re in Li Wan City?”

His eyes kept looking out the window. Chen Ge realized the scale of this scenario, and the key problem was that all the buildings appeared to have come directly from his own memory.

“Why would something like this happen? Shouldn’t the door reflect the experience of the door pusher? Is this a trap set by the ghost fetus?” Chen Ge gripped his hands, and his brain was churning in overdrive, coming up with all kinds of possibilities.

“Teacher Lee is on maternity leave. This will be your new English teacher. Please give her a warm welcome.” A middle-aged man’s voice came from the front door of the classroom. It was followed by footsteps as a young woman wearing a black pantsuit moved to the podium. Her black hair reached her shoulders. She wore very light make up, and she was dressed casually. When she smiled, her face lit up with kindness and friendliness like a caressing wind in the summer.

“Good morning students. I am your new English teacher. My name is Zhang Ya…”

Chen Ge could not remember what the female teacher said next because his mind was blown to smithereens when he heard Zhang Ya’s name.

He slowly raised his head to look at the podium. Without realizing it, Chen Ge had jumped up from his seat.