My House of Horrors

The layout of the lab building was not as complicated as the education block; there was only one narrow corridor leading through it with various kinds of labs along both sides. At the end of the it was an elevator used to transport large equipment. The student couple had no idea why such a device existed in the lab, but they were not given much time to think. The visitors chasing after them appeared to be crazy. They had almost reached the end of the corridor, and they would need to take the elevator to leave.

“Stop right there!” Big Ghost and Small Ghost screamed, and that only shook the couple further. They had not done anything to anger the other party. In fact, they had only shared a few words, but for some reason, the other party wanted to claim their lives. The corridor was a straight path. There was nothing in the way to block the view. They would be found out if they ran into one of the labs, so the couple rushed to the end of the corridor and pressed urgently for the elevator button.

“Open the door please!” Due to the panic, the male student missed the warning sign next to the elevator—’Pathway for ‘stock’ only. Usage by visitors is strictly forbidden!’

He pressed the button repeatedly, and the gray, metallic door finally opened. “We’ll go and hide on the other floor for now. The other visitors are not in their right minds!”

There were four buttons inside the elevator. They corresponded to the first to fourth basement floors. The first three numbers were normal, but the number that represented the fourth basement floor was painted red. The male student helped his girlfriend into the elevator and pressed a random button. The elevator door slowly closed as the footsteps in the corridor approached.

“I’ve heard from the senior how scary the boss of this place is. He often has his worker act as visitors. Who knew that we would be so unlucky to run into them during our first visit?” the female student said. Her face was pale from the scare.

“Shush! Do not say anything bad about the boss. I remember the other students reminding me that the boss is a person who holds grudges.” The footsteps came closer and closer. The couple hugged together as they stared at the door, and their heads were covered in sweat. “Quick! Close! Why are you closing so slowly‽”

Pa!

The footsteps stopped, and a small man squeezed into the elevator at the last moment. “Still trying to run?”

Small Ghost looked angry. Right after he entered the elevator, the doors closed, and the elevator started to move down. When he was doing the chasing, he did not feel fear, but when he was inside the elevator, Small Ghost realized that something was not right. He was facing two actors alone.

“Humph, you guys sure can run.” Small Ghost’s presence dwindled, but he soon realized that the two students were more frightened than he was. They were tightly squeezed together, their eyes bulging with confusion and terror. They’re still acting? Trying to get my pity?

No one spoke in the elevator, and silence slowly descended. A light stench could be smelt inside the elevator. It was unclear what kind of stench it was; it was like someone had sprayed perfume onto decaying flesh. The intention was to cover up the smell of decay, but the decay was too strong. After mixing with the perfume, it created this new horrible stench.

With a ding, the elevator stopped, and they all turned to look at the screen above the elevator door. In his panic, the male student had pressed for the third floor. On the control panel, the button for the third floor was still lit up, but the screen showed that the elevator had stopped at the second floor.

“Why would the elevator stop at this floor? Someone else wishes to enter the elevator?” Other than that possibility, Small Ghost could not think of any other explanation. He was on high alert as he stared at the door that slowly opened. A light stench floated into his nostrils. Outside the door was a darkened corridor, and there was no one there.

“Is this your doing?” Small Ghost glared at the couple. Since he did not have the numerical advantage, his tone was not that brash.

“How could we have anything to do with this?” The male student felt afraid and wronged.

“I’ll be honest with you—Brother Bai has found conclusive proof that you two are actors hired by this Haunted House!” Small Ghost put on a furious expression, but he maintained a safe distance from the male student. He was concerned that the male student would turn to violence once he was exposed and do something irrational.

“We’re actors? We were about to say the same thing about you!” The couple were confused.

“You were with the male assistant when he disappeared, and he used your phone to message Liu Gang, right?” Small Ghost slowly calmed down.

“The male assistant? The man who stole our phone and blocked the two of us outside the door?” The mention of the man assistant incensed the male student. “If he’s your partner, you still owe me an apology! We were kind enough to lend him our phone, but he blocked us outside the door and used us as bait to lure the ghost away!”

“He stole your phone? Wait, that means the three of you weren’t together?” Small Ghost had no idea who was lying, but he slowly discovered that something was off. When the three were arguing, the elevator door closed on its own, and it started to move down again. Several seconds later, the elevator reached the third floor, and the door slowly opened.

“Stay here, and don’t go anywhere.” Small Ghost took out his phone. “First, I am definitely not an actor. You can google me online. I came here with Liu Gang to expose this Haunted House.”

“What are you trying to say?” The student couple still had trouble believing Small Ghost.

“We are not actors, and you’re not actors, so who is the actor?” As rash as Small Ghost was, he was not dumb. “Follow me up to the first floor, we’ll lay everything out in the open. There seems to be a misunderstanding.”

When the couple were conflicted, the fourth button on the control panel suddenly lit up on its own. The door slowly closed, and the bloody red number four was reflected in everyone’s eyes.

“Why did the elevator move on its own?”

“Did you press the button for the fourth floor?”

“No! Haven’t I been talking to you!”

“Could there be someone else in the elevator?”

The old freight elevator was covered in stains. As the elevator descended, blood seeped out from behind some of the stains. The stench thickened, and the three visitors were assaulted by anxiety.

“No, this is not right! The elevator only took several seconds to move from the second to third floor. We’ve been moving down for so long already, so why hasn’t it stopped‽”

Blood leaked out from the stains, and blood vessels crawled all over the walls. The strange stench thickened.

Ding!

Just as the three visitors were about to collapse, the number on the screen finally turned to four. The door slowly opened. There was a reinforced steel door beyond it, and through the gap, they saw something they would never forget. Beyond the locked steel door, there was a corridor that was painted red, and the paint looked like blood that would not stop dripping.

“What… what is this place?”

Terror caught their tongues. Their voices were shaking, and they could not finish a complete sentence. The three visitors were squeezed at the innermost part of the elevator, and no one dared move.

“What do we do? What do we do?” Small Ghost’s teeth were clattering. The stench inside the elevator thickened, and a rhythmic sound came from down the red corridor. It sounded like a boy slowly approaching them while bouncing a basketball.

“We have to leave! We can’t let that thing enter the elevator!” This was a matter of life or death. Small Ghost gritted his teeth and climbed up from the ground to press the button for one on the control panel. He wished for the door to close, but the elevator did not respond. He lifted his head to look at the screen above the door, and a chill rushed up Small Ghost’s mind. The screen said that the elevator was overloaded!

There were only three people inside the elevator. How could it be overloaded?

Cold sweat slid down his forehead. Small Ghost looked around the elevator, and he realized that the blood that came out from the stains had formed human faces. Left and right, up and down, there were human faces staring back at them!

At the same time, the reinforced iron door shook like there were things beyond it that wanted to get into the elevator.

The faces slowly peeled themselves out from the walls, and shadows started to fill up the spaces inside the elevator.