My House of Horrors

From the sliver of the door that was left ajar, Chen Ge saw the red shadow stop before the sixth cubicle. There was just a thin partition between them. Time seemed to have slowed down for the imminent confrontation.

Several seconds later, the red shadow leaned toward the door, and at the same time, Chen Ge raised his mallet. Chen Ge watched as the red shadow made contact with the door. As the door creaked open, every muscle in Chen Ge’s body tensed.

Before the door was completely opened, the red shadow had started to phase through the door. Facing the dangerous threat, Chen Ge’s survival instinct caused him to smash his mallet on the red shadow, and in the same motion, he aimed a strong kick at the door!

Bang!

The decrepit cubicle door understandably could not withstand his assault. It flew off its hinges and slammed into the red shadow, which did not even have the chance to evade. The red shadow did not anticipate this, and its body started to blur as it rolled on the floor. Then it ran out of the toilet.

Chen Ge gasped greedily for air. He had expected a fierce battle, but his opponent appeared to have a much weaker heart than he had anticipated. Chen Ge’s sudden appearance seemed to have spooked it.

Has the thing forgotten its ghostly identity? Chen Ge did not relax as he gripped the mallet tightly. After the red shadow made its escape, children’s crying drifted out from the fifth cubicle. The two kids, who Chen Ge assumed to be the woman’s children, were still inside the toilet.

“Stop crying!” This was a common trope in scary movies. A creepy sound of tears that came from inside the toilet, it should have been scary, but with an angry warning from Chen Ge, the children’s crying really did stop.

He blocked the entrance of the fifth cubicle angrily. The two children had their hands over their lips, their pale faces filled with fear.

“Why are you two acting like the victims‽”

Chen Ge’s emotions were a bit out of control from the intense confrontation with the red shadow. His loud voice combined with the dangerous-looking mallet scared the two kids in the cubicle. They held each other’s hands as they half-crawled, half-ran out of the toilet.

Was I being a bit too harsh there?

The two children could very well be Fan Yu’s brother and sister. Whether it was for the deep well mission or to investigate the disappearance of Fan Yu’s parents, he had to follow the two children. The two kids ran very fast while Chen Ge chased after them. They soon left the education block and entered the office building next to it.

Chen Ge followed closely behind them. When he got onto the second floor, the two kids suddenly disappeared.

Where did they go?

The interior of the office building was different from the two other buildings at Mu Yang High School; the whole building had been spared from the fire, and it was much cleaner.

Chen Ge pushed open a random door and peeked in. The room had two tables and a bookshelf. There was flower pot sitting on the window sill.

They disappeared in the blink of an eye, where could they be hiding?

After walking deeper into the room, Chen Ge noticed a faded plaque lying on the floor. It read ‘Mathematics’.

All of the mathematics classes at Mu Yang High School were held in this one small room?

Chen Ge soon realized why. After all, Mu Yang High School did not have that many students; they could easily fit into one room. Also, fewer students meant a smaller number of teachers; this room was probably the office for the Mathematics teacher as well.

He took a cursory look around the room. He discovered a rotten school bag inside the drawer of one of the tables. The bag was tiny and had cartoon prints on it.

Chen Ge placed it on the table and opened the zipper. There was a cartoon coloring book and a box of crayons inside.

Why would these things be inside the Mathematics teacher’s office?

The contents of the school bag did not seem to be for high school students. Chen Ge surmised that the school bag probably belonged to the Mathematics teacher’s child, and the bag had been left behind for some reason.

After opening the crayon box, Chen Ge realized that every color was there except red and black. Chen Ge was immediately reminded of Fan Yu. After flipping through the coloring book, Chen Ge’s suspicion was further confirmed. All of the pages had the same drawing, a black house with two red small human figures.

All of the drawings’ backgrounds were the black house, but the position of the red people changed every time. Chen Ge pulled out Fan Yu’s drawing from his pocket and placed it beside the coloring book. The comparison caused him to suck a light breath. At least the boy’s painting style has remained the same after all these years.

The drawings had given Chen Ge plenty of useful information. The rotten school bag and the spider webs that filled the drawer meant that the bag had been shoved inside the drawer way before Mu Yang High School was closed down.

This meant that the boy had started to draw ghosts from a young age. His pair of eyes had probably been like that since birth. If the black house in the painting was his home, then starting from several years ago, two ghosts had been residing in the boy’s home.

Relating it to the aunt’s testimony and what Chen Ge had seen earlier, the two ghosts were most likely the aunt’s children.

After living together for so long, the aunt must know that Fan Yu has a special vision.Chen Ge looked at the two red and black drawings. It is because she knew that she was so willing to bring Fan Yu to the Haunted House. She probably pampers Fan Yu thusly because she is channeling her love for three children into that one boy.

The appearance of Fan Yu’s school bag also told Chen Ge another thing; this room likely belonged to Fan Yu’s father. He was Mu Yang High School’s Mathematics teacher.

From the conversation with Fan Yu’s aunt, Chen Ge knew that Fan Yu’s father had been fired from another school due to drinking. However, Fan Yu’s aunt added that other schools rejected Fan Yu’s father, and he had nowhere else to turn to, which was why he had ended up at Mu Yang High School.

This made Chen Ge curious. What kind of mistake had Fan Yu’s father made after drinking that would make him blacklisted from the entire school district and be shown the door by normal schools?

At the time, Chen Ge had wanted to ask, but the topic had quickly been pushed aside by Fan Yu’s aunt when she pulled out the mysterious photo.

What kind of person was the missing father like? Chen Ge drummed the mallet on the table in thought. He continued to look through the room and finally found several paper notes inside an abandoned book on the bookshelf.

“Teacher Fan, we know what you did in the sixth cubicle of the third floor’s female toilets. We demand that you apologize to the girl immediately! And get out of this school!”

“You have two nights to come to a decision. We want an open apology!”

“This is your last night. If you insist on staying at this school, then you shall stay here forever.”