My House of Horrors

Bai Buhui was someone with a sharp and firm determination. The experience from his childhood had turned him into someone who was selfish and aloof. Many who had worked with him in the past commented that they sensed a lack of human sociability from the man. But such a person had mist in his eyes when he saw the edge of the abandoned school’s field.

In less than ten minutes, Bai Buhui had experienced more than ten ghost stories. The nurse’s office that was filled with whispering and crying, the music room that had music floating out of it even though it was definitely unoccupied, the staircase that had an extra step, the statue that would cry, the cafeteria that was empty but somehow drifting with the delicious smell of meat, the human face that was hiding underneath the toilet cubicle, and the consistent footsteps that had been following behind him.

There were simply too many of them to count. He had been to other Haunted Houses where there were plenty of scare points, but at this Haunted House, a single ghost story alone contained multiple scare points. The scariest thing was that once he triggered one of the ghost stories, the ghosts in the story would continue to haunt him. They would not let him go until the end of the world. Bai Buhui had no idea many ‘things’ were following behind him. His brain had stopped working long ago; he had been operating on pure determination.

“The wishing well!” As the Haunted House designer from the futuristic theme park, he did not want to admit defeat. He would rather find the exit himself than accept the humiliation of being sent out by their business competition. “I’m almost there!”

Using the last ounce of energy in his body, Bai Buhui charged down the field. At that moment, his brain was even filling up with images from classic movies like The Shawshank Redemption.

Freedom is within my grasp. At this moment, I am my own hero.

He had never run so fast in his life. Crossing the field, he collapsed by the edge of the well. This was a well that was slightly slanted. There was a safety rope that was tied to the side of the well, and the end of the rope was attached to a water bucket. Bai Buhui looked down into the well, and he could see a faded red light at the bottom of the well.

“It should be… yes, this should be the place.” Putting his hands together in prayer, Bai Buhui sincerely wished, “I want to leave this haunted House.”

Then he took out a coin and tossed it into the well. Soon, he heard the coin hit the bottom of the well. The well was not as deep as he thought.

“This is it! My way to victory!” This was his bet for glory. Bai Buhui grabbed the safety rope and slowly descended into the well.

…

“Why hasn’t Bai Buhui answered any of his calls? What is that man up to?” Liu Gang’s voice came from underneath the table.

“Is it possible that they have already escaped from the Haunted House? From the first time I saw him, I knew that he cannot be relied on. He has this strange way of talking and refuses to acknowledge those who are talking to him.” The cameraman Muscle’s voice came from another table.

“I am here purposely to help the futuristic theme. If that b*stard dares to abandon me and run off alone, I’ll have many things to say to him once this is over.” Liu Gang was very mad. “But you aren’t much better than him. You have been quietly communicating with my assistant, but you did not even consider telling me about that! And as a cameraman, you lost the most important equipment, the camera.”

“But I was forced to do that! I didn’t do it on purpose!”

Creak…

The wooden door was pushed open, and hearing that, both Liu Gang and Muscle shut up at the same time.

“Brother Gang, you can come out now. That headless woman didn’t come after us.” Ah Li ran to the door. “We’d better make use of this time to get to the library.”

“Suddenly, everyone’s phone is not working. I really have no idea what they are doing.” Liu Gang took out his phone and sent a message to the group chat. “The hidden path the exit is behind the mirror on the second floor of the library. If you see this message, head over there immediately!”

“I have done everything I could. If they still refuse to come, I can’t do anything about that.” Liu Gang patted the dust away from his clothes as he crawled out from underneath the table. “We are not going to wait for him. Let’s go there now.”

The three were gathered close together, but once they pushed the door open, Muscle let out a shrill yelp.

“What’s wrong?”

“The mannequin is following us again!”

Muscle pointed outside the door. There was a child mannequin standing at the corner. His head was standing on his shoulders, and his pair of dark eyes were staring at Liu Gang’s group.

“For some reason, I feel like he’s staring at us, and his eyes have been following our movement.”

“Why is this ghost baby following us even though Lan Dong has already gone missing?” Muscle took in a cold breath.

“Just ignore it. We need to head to the library now!” Ah Li was not that afraid of the Ghost Baby. After all, as scary as it could be, at least it was something physical that everyone could see.

In his peripheral vision, there would occasionally appear a thin male student, and only he was the one who could catch glimpses of this student. Following the appearance of the ghost baby was the dog barking and fleeting crying. The actors at this Haunted House did not seem to be confined to a single scenario; they could move around freely. This was the thing that worried Liu Gang the most. After all, with the number of visitors dwindling, it meant that more actors would gather and close in around the remaining visitors.

“Why am I having this sudden headache?” Many unfamiliar images appeared in Ah Li’s memory as if he had lived at this place before. After slowly getting used to this feeling, Liu Gang and Muscle, who were next to him, turned more and more into strangers. However, neither of them pointed this out. They all believed that as long as they could escape from this place, all the problems would be solved.

They raced down the corner, and occasionally, there were shadows that floated out from the corner that would squeeze their hearts. Scarier still were the strands of hair that would fall from the ceiling, but when they lifted their heads to look, there was nothing there. The three ran for their lives, and they ignored all these details. They had planted their hope on the hidden path that was mentioned by the male assistant.

“We’re here! That’s the library in front of us!” Even though they were quite far away from the door, Muscle managed to read the sign with his exceptional eyesight. That gave them the boost to run down the last stretch with all their strength.

“Close the door! Close the door!” To help them buy some more time, Liu Gang and Muscle slammed the wooden door of the library shut after they got into it and used chairs to block the entrance. “We’ll go to the second floor together! My assistant and the two students should be waiting for us there!”

Liu Gang shouted the name of his assistant, but there was no answer. They ran to find the staircase inside the library, and when they found it, they realized that the stairs were heading down, not up.

“The second floor that my assistant mentioned was the second underground floor?” Looking at the dark staircase, Liu Gang had some hesitance, but at that moment, the sound of banging came from the library door like someone was using their head to knock against the door.

“Those things have caught up to us! Is it the ghost baby or the headless woman?” The group was thrown into a panic. They could clearly see the blood that was leaking through the gap at the bottom of the door. The banging became louder and louder. The door and the chairs that blocked the door were shaking.

“Quick! We mustn’t stay here any longer!” After saying that, Muscle was the first to charge down the stairs. In the eerie underground, there were rows of bookshelves, but there was no so-called mirror.

“Brother Gang, could it be that we have been tricked? Why would there be a mirror in the library?”

“What’s the point of saying that now‽ Go and search for it!” Liu Gang was freaking out, too. That mirror was their only hope. The three scrambled around the lower floor, and the banging that came above their heads became louder and louder.

“Has the boss of this place lost his mind? To make the scenario, he has created such a big underground library?” Muscle grabbed a random book from the bookshelf. There were blood stains left on the corner, and the inside pages were dirtied with blood and stuck together. “This is madness.”

He was about to push the book back when he suddenly saw something in the gap where the book was originally placed. Muscle bent over to take a better look and saw a red pupil flash past the back of the bookshelf.

“What the f*ck!” His body lost its balance, and he leaned backward. When his head was about knock into the bookshelf behind him, he felt something holding him, giving him support. His soul had not returned to his body. Muscle turned his head instinctively around, and he saw a pale arm reach out from the gap in the bookshelf. There were five bony fingers pressing around his neck. Chills crawled down his body. Muscle could hear the sound that cracked down his spine, like it was about to snap.

“Ah!” Muscle screamed loudly for help and tossed the book away as he crawled away from the mystery hand. He made such a loud commotion and forgot about the one rule when one was inside the library. One should always remain quiet inside the library. He violated the rule, and many gray hands reached out from the bookshelves. Some of them were wearing the uniform of Mu Yang High School.

“What’s going on?” Liu Gang abandoned his image. He collapsed onto the ground and searched for a place to hide.

Bang!

A loud boom echoed through the library. It should be the door of the library being banged open. A few seconds later, a face appeared at the stairs. It was the ghost baby, and trailing behind it was a large black dog.

“Run!” Muscle screamed, but the library was only so big; there was nowhere for them to run. The few hid behind the last row of the bookshelves. The stars seemed to have aligned for them at that moment. They managed to spot a mirror that they had missed that whole time.

“This is it!”

A miracle! That kind of joy was something that could not be described with words! It was as if they had run into the most beautiful incident when they were in the deepest despair!

“Quick!” Ah Li pushed the mirror to the side to reveal a path that led downward. At the end of the path was a heavily ruined iron door.

“The hidden path!” Excited tears overwhelmed the trio’s eyes. Only they knew what they had been through to reach this point. They raced down the stairs. As they got closer and closer to the door of hope, the sound of crying and barking faded away. Liu Gang, who ran at the front, finally had his grip around the door knob.

“It’s finally over!”

He pushed the iron door open.

A stingy smell of blood rushed into his nostrils, and a thick blood fog enveloped his body!

When Liu Gang opened his eyes, he saw a world that was completed blood red in color!

Viscous drops of blood dripped down from the ceiling, and the whole corridor was painted the brightest of red. The air was damp, and every breath appeared to soak their lungs in blood water. Liu Gang stopped moving. The stark contrast in color caused him to doubt his own eyes. Just as he was about to turn around, a giant force ran into him from behind. His knees buckled, and Liu Gang dropped to the ground. He turned to look behind him.

Muscle and Ah Li raced out from the corridor. They did not expect Liu Gang to suddenly stop. They did not have a chance to slow down, so they rammed right into Liu Gang. The three rolled into a ball, and as they collected their wits, they saw the ghost baby and the black dog also following down into the hidden path. The scary faces slowly approached, and the pale hands followed closely behind the ghost baby. However, when they were about to reach Liu Gang, something that no one expected happened.

The scary monsters did not continue to move forward. They stopped inside the hidden path. With fear and uncertainty radiating off them, they pulled back the iron door and slammed it shut. Then came the sound of iron cogs and chains moving. The rusted door seemed to have been locked.

“This… means that we’re saved, right?”

The three visitors were lying on the ground with complicated expressions. They only dared look at each other, afraid of letting their eyes wander around.

“This is the exit?” Ah Li whispered, but no one was there to give an answer.

“This may be the exit, even though it might not look like it. Perhaps the Haunted House wishes to give us a surprise before we leave?” Muscle sounded raspy. He slowly crawled up from the ground with his heart beating rapidly.