My House of Horrors

“Brother Wei, is the hole stuck? How come it feels like it’s sinking slower than usual this time?” Li Jiu resisted his discomfort and glanced at the cadaver pool.

“There’s probably something stuck down there.” Brother Wei frowned while holding the buckets. He was getting agitated. They needed to leave the place as soon as possible, but weird things kept happening. “Go and look for items like brooms and sticks.”

“Brother, we’re in a morgue—where am I supposed to find a broom?”

“Then, are you suggesting we just leave it like this? If the university finds out, a fine is one thing, but we’ll definitely lose our jobs. They are very particular about the cadavers.” Brother Wei was not in a good mood. He waved his hands to fling the remains stuck to his plastic gloves away. “Don’t just stand there, go!”

Brother Wei was wearing a white coat, gloves, and a mask, but he only had a pair of sneakers on. He lowered his head to take a look, and he felt like his sneakers were soaked with something—it felt uncomfortable. After he was yelled at, Li Jiu had no choice but to go look around the room with a flashlight. He eventually walked to a wooden closet that was placed in a corner. He opened the closet, and it was filled with several large rusted metal hooks that had long chains attached to them.

“What are these for?” Li Jiu did not want to venture out of the room, so he took out one of the hooks. “Brother Wei, can this work?”

Brother Wei did not want to waste time either, so he accepted the hook from Li Jiu. The hook was large, but the end was not sharp. However, it was very heavy. If he dropped it into the pool, it would probably sink immediately. “I guess it’ll have to do.”

There was a hole that was larger than a normal man’s shoulders in the pool, and Brother Wei had no idea what it was for. Brother Wei lowered the hook toward the hole, and the hook was slowly submerging into the hole. Blocked by the floating substance, Brother Wei could not see into the hole. He stood by there and gripped the chains that were attached to the end of the hook.

“Why hasn’t it reached the end yet?” The hole was much deeper than he thought. “Who would dig such a deep hole at the bottom of the pool? Could it be the dead bodies?” If he had been anywhere but standing in a cadaver pool, he would have laughed.

“Just how deep is this hole?” When they were there the previous times, they just wanted to get things done, so he had really not considered that question before. To make sure the hook could continue to sink, Brother Wei squatted down. When there was about a quarter of the chain left, the hook finally hit something. Brother Wei grabbed the chain by both hands and pulled. He was shocked to discover that the hook was stuck.

“There was nothing in the way when it was sinking though, did it get caught on something? Maybe the thing that was clogging up the hole?” He pulled harder. Brother Wei was known for one thing—at the crematorium, he was the strongest. Brother Wei pulled like his life depended on it. The chain slowly pulled back, and it felt like the thing that was stuck on the end of the hook was especially heavy.

It looked like Brother Wei was fishing, but what could he possibly catch in a cadaver pool? Brother Wei had not considered that question. Half of his face was red, and even through the thick mask, one could hear him catching his breath. The chain was pulled out slowly, and it was covered with various indeterminate substances that gave it a creepy feeling.

“Come and help!” Brother Wei had pulling halfway through it when he suddenly realized that things were off. Earlier, when the hook stuck on something, it had been hard to pull, but at least the chain was still moving upwards. However, as he pulled, he noticed a resisting force from the other end. It felt like something was hiding inside the hole pulling back!

“Brother, I’m not wearing any gloves!” Li Jiu looked at the chain that was pulling out from the hole, and his legs were weak. Brother Wei gritted his teeth and leaned backwards. He used the weight of his body to stop the chain from sinking. He tried his best, and his mind was thinking about nothing but pulling that chain up.

“I don’t believe I’m going to lose this.” With his feet firmly planted on the ground, Brother Wei slowly moved back, and the chain pulled out little by little. The top of the hole started to bubble, and just as the hook was about to surface, the force inside the hole increased as if the thing inside the hole was only getting serious.

The chain was pulled taut for about a second before the force inside the hole suddenly increased. Without warning, Brother Wei’s body was pulled toward the hole. His feet slipped, and he fell. He was yanked toward the hole!

“Ma Wei!” Li Jiu jumped into the pool and grabbed Brother Wei’s coat at the last minute. His face almost touching the surface of the water, the smell of formalin made his eyes water. The chain danced on the water, and it was pulled into the hole by the force. The water was brownish and very murky. Ma Wei could see a blurry shadow sinking into the hole.

“What was that?” Cold sweat slid down his face. Ma Yin could not imagine what would have happened if he had been pulled into the hole. With both of his hands on the edge of the hole, Ma Yin collapsed to the ground with a blanched face.

“You didn’t touch those things, right?” Li Jiu asked uncertainly. He was having a hard time just looking at the hole, much less coming in close contact with it.

“No.” Ma Yin recovered after a long time. He stared at the hole and shivered. “Li Jiu, do you know of any fish that can survive in chemical water?”

“I know catfish can survive in sewers for a long time, but these chemicals are used to soak dead bodies—they’re for dead people. No matter how strong the organism is, it would be useless!” Li Jiu got quite a scare as well. If Ma Yin had fallen into the hole, he would have needed to change partners.

“If it’s not a fish, what could it be?” Ma Yin looked at the bubbling hole, and his voice shook. “When I was pulling on the chain, it was obvious that it got stuck on something. It felt like the thing was still asleep initially, but it got woken up by me.”

Ma Yin was spooked. He looked at his hands. “The thing was powerful, at least twice as strong as me. Even with the advantage of the ground, I was still pulled away.”

“Living deep inside a pool that is filled with formalin and dead bodies, twice the strength of a normal man…” Li Jiu did not dare to think any further. “Brother Wei, let’s hustle! It’s fine if we lose the job; our lives are more important!”

Ma Wei nodded. He also did not want to stay there. “Pull me up.”

He grabbed Li Jiu’s arm and tried to stand up, but he realized that his legs were powerless. He looked down, and Ma Yin saw that his shoes were completed wet like the content of the buckets had splashed on them.