My House of Horrors

After those two simple words appeared from Chen Ge’s lips, it seemed like Pandora’s Box had opened. The cold draft that seemed ever constant in the basement stopped, the speakers suddenly malfunctioned, and there was only one sound remaining in the world.

Drip drop, drip drop…

Blood dripped from a tall spot before landing on the ground, forming blood rosettes. A thick fog of blood materialized next to Chen Ge!

The small figure hiding inside the compartment earlier lunged at Chen Ge, screaming. Before he got near, he was smacked backward by an old backpack. He landed on his limbs. He held his woozy head in his hands. Due to the attack, he did not hear what Chen Ge had said earlier. He gritted his teeth and was about to lunge forward again, but when he lifted his head, he saw a second person appear next to Chen Ge!

Fresh blood slid down the shirt, and the pair of melancholic eyes were like two blood whirlpools, swirling with curses and desperation. The man felt like his soul was about to be sucked into them.

The figure lay on the ground, and a chill spread through his body, down to his bones. His face that was smeared with red paint was frozen. It was as if time had stopped.

Who is that? There is no such character among the employee roster! His Adam’s apple shook, and fear was pouring out of his eyes.

Seeing the figure’s shaking body, Chen Ge soon discovered that he had stepped out of line. The thing hiding in the compartment was not a ghost, just a simple human worker. Actually, before Chen Ge made his move, he did consider the possibility that his assaulter was a human, but there was no Haunted House on the market that would hire a child to be an actor, so his first thought was that his attacker was a ghost.

The time that he had spent interacting with ghosts was far longer than with human beings. Combined with Ol’ Zhou’s previous analysis, the chance of ghost appearing at Nightmare Academy was higher than normal, so that had led to his quick conclusion.

However, after the figure showed himself, Chen Ge realized that the actor was actually a man with dwarfism.

I was wondering why his voice is so weird, so different from a child’s; he should be an adult pretending to sound like a child.

Nightmare Academy had spent a lot of effort trying to create a scary atmosphere. Chen Ge remembered that there was a pair of twins working there. Their Haunted House did not have real ghosts, so they relied on other methods to create horror.

This man is an actor at Nightmare Academy. Unfortunately, he has witnessed Xu Yin’s appearance. If I don’t come up with a solution, he will spread this news to the others. Nightmare Academy already suspects my Haunted House of being haunted, so if they hear about this, who knows what kind of rumors they will start?

Of course, he was not going to kill the man because of this. Chen Ge’s mind quickly turned, and he came up with a solution in few seconds. The expression on his face did not change. He bent down to give the actor a helping hand as if he had not noticed Xu Yin next to him.

“You scared me. I thought you were a real ghost. Sorry for hitting you earlier.” Chen Ge tried to help the actor get up, but the man’s eyes were not on him at all; he was fully focused on Xu Yin. Noticing the strange reaction of the actor, Chen Ge acted like he just discovered the anomaly. He slowly turned his head around. When he saw Xu Yin, his legs wobbled, and he landed on the step.

“What the f*ck! When did he appear behind me‽” Chen Ge looked like he had been given quite a scare as well, but he soon recovered. “The actors at your Haunted House are quite good! I’ve visited many Haunted Houses. Yours is the first to be able to scare me like this.”

Taking a deep breath, Chen Ge asked in a curious but shaky voice, like he was meeting Xu Yin for the first time, “Bro, how did you manage to walk without making a sound?”

Chen Ge stood up and walked toward Xu Yin. He only took a first step when he heard the shrill scream coming from behind him. “Don’t go over there! He…”

The man’s face was scrunched up in fear. The scream probably pulled on his vocal cords because his voice was unnaturally high.

“Stop acting, I am an owner of Haunted House myself. Even though you all are very professional, you’re not going to scare me with just that.” Chen Ge walked stubbornly to Xu Yin and raised his arm.

“He is not one of our actors!” Following the man’s blood-curdling scream, Chen Ge’s hand landed on Xu Yin, and then his fingers phased through Xu Yin’s body. “Hmm?”

Chen Ge acted like he was surprised by this development. He was stunned by disbelief. About two seconds later, he adopted the same expression as the man. “There are really ghosts in this world?”

When he was ‘frozen in fear’, the man finally lost it. He crawled up from the ground and raced down the corridor. Shocked into mobility by the scream, Chen Ge snapped into motion. He jumped down the stairs, grabbed his backpack, and started running!

“How long has there been a real ghost in your Haunted House‽”

“How would I know? If I knew that, do you think I will still work here‽ Basement one! Basement one! This is basement one! Please send help!” The man grabbed the phone and yelled for help. He and Chen Ge raced down the corridor, and the situation was chaotic.

Seeing the man and Chen Ge run away, Xu Yin stood on the step with a confused look on his face. Ol’ Zhou, who had been hiding, joined him soon after. “Our boss sure is a quick thinker. He’s pushing the blame, no, I mean, he is planning something big!” Ol’ Zhou did not dare to get too close to Xu Yin. He stood several steps above the young man and said, “Our boss now needs your cooperation.”

Xu Yin turned back to look at Ol’ Zhou. He seemed to slowly understand what Chen Ge was doing.

“Do your best to scare them. There is still time to salvage the situation.” Ol’ Zhou looked weirdly excited. “It is about time we do it our way.”

Hearing that, Xu Yin nodded. Droplets of blood slid down his shirt. He took one step forward, and the speakers throughout the building started to blur with static.

…

The smell of blood curled around Chen Ge and the small actor’s body like tight lasso. The red ghost trailed behind them and could not be shaken loose no matter what. The two flew down the underground corridor and went back to the surface using another set of stairs.

“Boss! Are you there? Anyone? Say something!” The man was so anxious that he was about to smash the phone. He waited for a long time before the boss who had been calling other people finally replied.

“Xiao Zhao, you were perfect! I saw everything on the monitor! You managed to scare that man until he fell!” Nightmare Academy’s boss praised the actor, but in that situation, the actor had no mood for compliments. His throat was sore from all the screaming.

“Boss, come to first floor quick! Call people to come here! I’m being chased. I can’t hold on much longer!” The actor’s small legs moved quickly; his whole body was about to collapse.

“Is the visitor chasing you? Don’t worry, I’ll get people to go help you now!” The boss still cared about his worker.

“It’s not the visitor!” the man yelled between breaths.

“Then who is it?”

“A ghost wearing a red shirt!”

“We have an actor wearing a red shirt?”

“It’s not an actor!”

“Then who is it?”

“It’s a f*cking ghost! A real ghost!”