My House of Horrors

Chen Ge removed his shirt, and the two nurses helped him apply the audio recorder and heartrate monitor. After testing, several fluctuating lines appeared on the screen in the middle of the hall. The man stood to the side of the stage and pointed at the lines. “HR/PR represents heartrate and pulse rate. SpO2 stands for peripheral capillary oxygen saturation, an estimate of the amount of oxygen in the blood. RESP is respiratory rate. TEMP is body temperature. Based on these few lines, we can clearly and objectively see the change in your emotions.”

After putting on his clothes, Chen Ge shrugged. “Can we start now?”

“The entrance is to the left of the hall; the exit is on the right. We’ll wait for you at the exit,” the man explained briefly to Chen Ge. “There is a guide inside the Haunted House, so he’ll tell you what to do.”

“Okay.” Chen Ge walked into Tian Teng Medical School. Looking at Chen Ge’s back, the man smiled. They had organized similar activities in Xing Hai before, and the lines on the screen seemed to go through a roller coaster. Combined with the screams would be that broadcasted through the speaker, even the visitors outside could experience the fear vicariously.

“Such an interesting fella.” The man locked the door silently and took out his phone to inform the workers inside the Haunted House that their prey was coming. He told them not to hold back.

…

As the door closed, the light in the room dimmed. Chen Ge waited until his eyes had familiarized themselves with the darkness before he moved forward. The first scene was a security stop. A person in a security outfit was sitting down, facing away from Chen Ge. There was a blood-splattered screen before him, and the images kept flitting about. They seemed to show scenes inside the hospital.

This was the preparation room, mainly used to inform the visitor of the Haunted House’s background and to bring the visitors into the story.

The key to moving forward should be the security guard. This set-up is quite interesting.

Chen Ge walked to the door of the security stop, leaned against the only window, and yelled into the small room, “Boss, what are you looking at?”

Hearing Chen Ge’s voice, the man slowly turned around. His face was covered with sweat, and with his finger pointing at the screen, his lips stuttered, “There, there…”

A stutterer’s character setting? Very professional.

Chen Ge walked into the room to have a closer look at the screen. The screen was repeating several headlines about the hospital: Patients mysteriously jumping from the building; immoral doctors selling organs on the black market; confirmed dead patients returning the next day. The team had put plenty of effort into these headlines because there was even a surveillance tape attached to them.

In the darkened hospital corridor, a woman in white was staggering forward with her head lowered, her black hair covering her entire face. The video was edited so that the woman appeared to be far one second but close to the camera the next. The woman’s face appeared at the camera on the third second, and a scary face filled up the screen.

“There’s a ghost!” the security guard who sat behind Chen Ge screamed.

He had probably practiced this many times because his timing was perfect. Chen Ge sighed as he shook his head. “Great set-up, but you might be able to scary me if she’s wearing red.”

A female Red Specter had a special meaning for Chen Ge. At the end of the video, there was a layout page for the Haunted House. Basically, Chen Ge had to follow the designated path, and that would be all.

This kind of design was the most effective, but it was not as entertaining as Chen Ge’s Haunted House, which was open for you to wander about. After memorizing the map, Chen Ge prepared to leave. When he turned around and saw the security guard, his eyes narrowed, and his heartrate rose slightly.

The security had put on a thin ghost mask, and it looked rather similar to ghost face that had appeared on screen earlier. He looked at Chen Ge silently, and Chen Ge looked at him silently. “If you have nothing to say, then move on. Don’t waste time.”

“Our Haunted House is really haunted. If you stumble across anything weird, remember to holler at the camera!” the security said seriously, and it did not sound like he was lying.

“Can you be more specific? What kind of ghost?” Chen Ge scanned the room. There was a flashlight and some tools under the counter. They should have been provided to the guests, but the security did not seem like he was going to give Chen Ge any.

“You’ll understand soon enough. The way to begin is on your left-hand side. Push the wall open, and your exploration of the secret at Tian Teng Medical School will officially start,” the security guard said mysteriously before hauling Chen Ge out of the security stop.

“There’s an actual ghost? At most, it’ll be a lingering spirit.” Chen Ge mumbled something that the security guard did not understand before pushing the wall and moved on. The Haunted House was filled with many traps. The wall opened and closed on its own. Someone was controlling it from afar.

The details are on point; no wonder they’re so popular.

Just the design at the preparation room had impressed Chen Ge. He wondered if he could use that inspiration inside his own Haunted House somehow.

Behind the wall was a long corridor. Due to the limitation of geography, the corridor was half the size of a normal corridor, and the most interesting part was that there was a dried ‘female body’ hanging in the middle of the road, as if warning the visitors of incoming danger.

The corridor was most likely a buffer zone for the visitors to prepare themselves for the upcoming scare. This was quite the kind design. Chen Ge walked toward the body, and when he approached, he stopped.

At the corner of the corridor, away from the focus of the visitor, was a steel box that did not capture much attention. A normal visitor would be attracted by the female body and ignore the steel box.

There has to be someone hiding inside the box. After being scared inside the security stop, they would be tense. When they first passed through the door, their attention would be dominated by the female body, and when they tried to walk past the body, a ghost would jump out at them from the box hidden in the corner. That’s quite interesting.

A heartless design met Chen Ge, who did not know the meaning of the term ‘bottom line’. The match between shameless and cunning was officially starting.

I seem to have rediscovered the childhood joy of visiting a Haunted House. Chen Ge leaned his body against the wall. Since the actor was hiding inside the box, Chen Ge’s position was exactly inside his blind spot.

As he nudged closer, instead of watching the swinging body, Chen Ge kept his focus on the box. The fake box looked flawless, at least from the front, but from the side, one could see that the back of the box was already loosening. There was even a small gap on the corner. Probably due to the hard-to-notice angle of the gap, the team had not fixed it.

The person inside the box must be fully focused, waiting for me to walk past so that he can jump out to scare me.

Scaring people required timing, and the more professional the actor, the better their timing.

Chen Ge thought about it and took out his phone to set a one-minute alarm. He set the alarm tone as Wedding Dress, and he slowly squatted down and slid the phone into the box through the open gap.