My House of Horrors

The toilet was dark and the world was so silent that Chen Ge could hear his own heartbeat. He stared unblinkingly at the mirror before him. When the clock struck 12, the mirror turned blurry like it was starting to mist. Then, a number appeared in the middle of the mirror—0.

The changing number surprised Chen Ge. He had thought this number was something left behind by the mirror monster. Since the monster had been consumed by Zhang Ya already, the number should have disappeared along with it.

The number has nothing to do with the mirror monster? He took out his phone to snap a picture of the number, but as he raised his arms, his whole body froze. The reflection in the mirror shifted from reality, and the door to one of the cubicles turned red!

It was a red that was unmistakable; it was as if the cubicle was filled with blood, and fresh blood was still leaking out from the cervices.

Why would this change happen to the cubicle with the squatting toilet?

Using his phone to record this curious phenomenon, he slowly turned around to slowly push open the cubicle’s door.

As the door in reality was pushed open, so was the door in the mirror. There was nothing inside the cubicle in reality, but in the mirror, everything inside the cubicle was dyed red, including the toilet paper holder, the toilet paper, the flush, and even the small advertisements pasted on the wall.

In the darkened room, the blood red cubicle was exceptionally eye-grabbing.

Chen Ge did not understand what was happening. He took a cautious step forward, and when half of his upper body reached into the cubicle, a strange sensation overwhelmed him. Something sticky covered his skin like he was being swallowed and compressed.

He immediately retreated, and one minute later, the cubicle in the mirror returned to normal. When Chen Ge walked into the cubicle again, the strange sensation was no longer there. The red door in the mirror only appeared for one minute after midnight, and everything returned to normal after that.

Why would the cubicle door in the mirror turn red? And beyond that, even the walls and paraphernalia behind it were all blood red. Chen Ge switched on the light. He leaned against the window and started to think. Could that be the mirror world? The mirror monster escaped from this blood red world?

To confirm his suspicion, he searched for the details of his first Nightmare Mission on the black phone.

“It requires plenty of courage, incredible luck, and a bit of luck to see the hidden world.”

Then, there’s a high chance that the hidden world mentioned in the phone refers to the blood red world inside the cubicle.

Chen Ge tried to think back to the situation that night. Even though he did not open his eyes, he did pay plenty of attention to his surroundings with his ears.

Thinking back, I do remember hearing the cubicle door creak! It was also after that noise that weird things started to happen.

At the time, Chen Ge had assumed it was the wind, but now he revised his theory. Perhaps the cause of the creaking was the mirror monster escaping the blood red world.

The mirror is most likely the buffer space between the two worlds. The cubicle in the mirror was opened, and the monster escaped from the blood red world. However, due to the disruption from the doll, it was trapped inside the mirror. Chen Ge looked at the wooden door of the cubicle in question, and a weird thought cropped up his mind. What if I enter the cubicle in the real world when the door turns red in the mirror? Will that transport me to the other world?

Shaking that crazy thought out of his mind, Chen Ge returned to stand before the mirror. The blood red cubicle appeared in the mirror after the number dropped to zero. Looks like all my previous speculation was wrong—the number has nothing to do with killing. It is probably a countdown, perhaps representing how many more days the mirror monster could exist in the real world.

The door in the mirror had returned to normal, but Chen Ge did not dare assume that it would not appear again. There was a possibility that it would continue to appear every night at midnight as long as the mirror monster did not return to it.

If it continues to appear tomorrow night, I’ll need to remove the mirror; that’s the only thing I can do now. Chen Ge found a heavy black cloth to cover the mirror and left the toilet. After returning to the staff breakroom, Chen Ge pulled out the black phone to check the newly refreshed Daily Missions.

Easy Mission: A normal Haunted House experience should not create permanent trauma to its visitors; I hope you understand this simple theory. Please improve the Haunted House’s security by inspecting the security threats hidden around the Haunted House.

Normal Mission: A single hand cannot clap. A good Haunted House needs a good management team. Recruit more talents; they will definitely help when the situation demands it.

Nightmare Mission: There has always been a second occupant inside your room, wouldn’t you like to meet said person?

Chen Ge was familiar with these three missions. He was conflicted. Nightmare Mission was the best choice if he wanted to expand his Haunted House faster, but after the incident with the mirror monster, he was wary of choosing Nightmare Missions.

I’ll think about it tomorrow; I deserve a good sleep tonight.

Ever since he received the black phone, Chen Ge had not had a good night’s sleep. If this continued, his physical body might not be able to withstand it.

Pulling the sheet around him, Chen Ge soon fell asleep.

The next morning at 8 am, Chen Ge, who was fully recovered, rushed out of his room. The first place he visited was the entrance to the Night of the Living Dead scenario. The space that he had selected last night had experienced some changes—there was now an additional path leading downward.

The black phone sure is effective.

A tunnel had been dug through the ground. He walked down the stairs and soon reached the abandoned underground parking lot. The space was empty and destitute, and there was barely a working light.

That’s it? The expansion is only adding a set of stairs? Chen Ge was rather disappointed, but reminding himself that the large space was his to toy with relit his passion and desire. There are three more months until Eastern Jiujiang’s Virtual Reality Futuristic Carnival is completed. I’ll need to unlock as many scenarios as I can within these three months to upgrade the Haunted House to build a theme park that is no less interesting than the opposing park.

Returning to the first floor, Chen Ge walked to the Haunted House’s front door with the black phone. Between the gates and the Haunted House’s entrance corridor stood a new semi-transparent wooden construct that was painted black. It looked like two dressers that had been sewn together.

This is the Midnight Ticket Counter? It looks so damn crude.

Chen Ge opened the door and took a seat within. The interior of the place was so cramped that he felt like he was lying inside an uncomfortable coffin.