My House of Horrors

Wearing the bloodied doctor’s outfit, Chen Ge opened the wooden boards wearing the skin mask. Ten minutes have passed, and there haven’t been any screams. Looks like they have gotten used to the Third Sick Hall.

Chen Ge felt like he had become too soft. Afraid that the visitors might get too spooked by initial scares, he gave them a ten-minute buffer.

They should have found the tape recorder. Things will be a little more difficult from now on.

Chen Ge moved down the darkened steps. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he turned to look down the left corridor. There was not one mannequin outside the sealed classroom. They sure are obedient today. Normally, a few of them would be out loitering.

Holding the faceless nurse’s uniform and the hammer, Chen Ge pushed the Third Sick Hall’s steel door open.

The Third Sick Hall hasn’t been completed yet, and the hidden mission has not been triggered. The scenario is only fifty percent complete at most, so it can’t be treated as a real three-star scenario. The group is also accompanied by many professionals, so they might really succeed. Chen Ge walked slowly. He was not in a rush. Gotta go find that madwoman’s mannequin and test the effects of this nurse’s outfit first.

After turning the first corner, Chen Ge suddenly stopped moving. In the middle of the corridor, over twenty mannequins blocked the road with their bodies, their heads rolling left and right. They seemed to be having quite a good time.

“Why are you all here‽” Chen Ge stood in the middle of the road, and the rolling heads stopped immediately. All of them started to play dead. “Is this your scenario? Why are you coming to the mental hospital with your school uniforms?”

Naturally, the mannequins were silent. They stopped moving like primary school students who had been caught by their teacher at the arcade.

“It’s one thing to come here, but you’re disposed of as well‽” Chen Ge sounded angry, but he felt sorry for them. He carried the heads up from the floor and returned them to their owners. “This group of visitors wouldn’t even leave the harmless mannequins be, such cruelty.”

His progress was slow because there was no light. After patching up the sixth mannequin, he stood up and announced, “When I send them out, I’ll return to help the rest of you.”

There was anger lacing his voice as Chen Ge gripped the hammer and ran down the corridor.

…

Inside the electrotherapy room, Han Qiuming leaned toward the recorder. He listened for a long time, but there was no sound.

“Could it be an empty tape?” This was the only conclusion that he could come up with.

“Would the boss do something that pointless?” Ye Xiaoxin had a feeling there was something more to this tape, but it was true—there was only faint white noise. She reached out to press the buttons on it, but no matter which button she pressed, the play button did not change, and the tape kept playing.

“The boss has probably modified this recorder; the buttons are only for appearance. The real power switch is hidden somewhere else.” Han Qiuming looked for a long time but could not find the real switch. His face was dark. Even since entering the Third Sick Hall, he had tried to make himself look useful, but the props inside this place kept going against him.

“We should leave first.” Han Qiuming looked at his phone. “We have three minutes left. If we hurry, we should be able to make it.”

He exited the room with Ye Xiaoxin. They planned to use the secret passageway in Room 3 to exit.

At the same time, at the other end of the corridor…

Guo Miao’s group rushed back into the deep ends of Third Sick Hall. They looked cursorily inside the rooms along the second and third corridors, including the director’s office, but they could not find Han Qiuming.

“Boss! We’ve looked through all the rooms, but there’s still no sign of Han Qiuming!” Song An exclaimed between hurried breaths.

“The corridors only leads one way, so we should have run into each other. Where is the guy?” Guo Miao patted himself on his face lightly. He had not been so worried in the past ten years. “Let me think about this. There are three possibilities to Han Qiuming’s disappearance. One, he has found a secret passageway and run into it; two, he was hiding in one of the rooms earlier when we were looking for him, and now, he is deeper inside the Haunted House; and three…”

At this point, the bloody scenes that one associated with mental hospitals appeared in his mind. He did not have the courage to continue. He looked at Song An and saw fear reflected in his eyes.

“This is bad!” The two guys communicated with their eyes, and it caused Su Luoluo’s scalp to go numb.

“Do you guys want to continue this tour? Because I’m leaving!”

She was getting more scared. Even her own teammates were more professional than these Haunted House workers, who kept saying things to make her scared.

“No! You can’t go alone; it’s too dangerous! We mustn’t separate from each other!” Song An commanded like something bad would happen to Su Luoluo if she left them.

“Ol’ Song is right. Being separated will give them the chance to take us down one by one. Only by staying together will the enemy not dare do anything rash.” Guo Miao forced a smile at Su Luoluo. “I’m sorry for dragging you into this mess, but don’t worry, we’ll definitely bring you out safely.”

Su Luoluo felt like crying when she heard Guo Miao’s apology. Why are you suddenly apologizing? What is happening? You told me I was lucky to have been selected to join you on this visit, but I’ve done nothing except run all over the place. Why are you doing this to me?

Su Luoluo suspected that she had been tricked and that she was the only real visitor. The rest of them were actors! The two Haunted Houses had worked together to scare her!

“We don’t have time to waste. The longer we stay here, the more dangerous it is for Han Qiuming. We need to find him now!” Guo Miao decided. “Come on! Let’s move down the other corridor!”

He and Song An walked in front while Xiao Du followed at the back. Before they moved on, he turned to tell Su Luoluo, “Brother Song and Boss are reliable people. With them around, nothing dangerous will happen to you.”

“What kind of danger will happen to me inside a Haunted House? Is that how you console someone?” Standing alone in the corridor that was covered with bloody letters, Su Luoluo followed Guo Miao’s group unwillingly. She did not dare go back to the exit alone. The group walked to the fourth corridor. They looked through all ten rooms, but they still had not found Han Qiuming.

“We’ve reached the end? Where is this Han Qiuming?” Song An leaned against the wall, physically drained.

“A live person disappeared just like that?” Guo Miao’s heart was racing. He looked around and realized that the blood letters on the wall had deepened in color.

“We must have missed something!” Guo Miao gripped Song An’s shoulder. “All Haunted Houses have pathways specialized for workers—it should be the same for the Third Sick Hall. In the few sickrooms that we checked earlier, a few of them had unique structures. I believe that the pathway is hidden in one of them.”

“Okay, we’ll go back to look together!”

Su Luoluo, who had been following them, was tried. This was the first time she had visited a Haunted House like this. “I just ran here, and you guys are running away again?”

“The worker’s pathway and Han Qiuming should be in one of those rooms.” Guo Miao looked at Su Luoluo. He had not been so serious for a long time. “Trust me, I won’t be mistaken!”

…

Holding the tape recorder, Han Qiuming and Ye Xiaoxin exited the director’s office. The white noise from the tape had gotten more pronounced.

“Where are your teammates? I seem to hear running.” Ye Xiaoxin kept her distance from Han Qiuming.

“Ignore them, let’s get out first.” Holding the tape recorder, Han Qiuming felt like something was observing him. It made the skin on his back crawl.