My House of Horrors

Many mattresses littered the dark corridor. They were bulging like they were hiding something underneath. Chen Ge used his hammer to yank one open. Inside the decayed mattress was a fake person made from pillows and bedsheets. The workmanship was rough, but one could just about make out the shape of a person.

The scariest thing was that a human face, complete with eyes, nose and a wide mouth, had been painted on the pillow. It looked like the scribbling of a child, but it made the hairs on Chen Ge’s arms rise.

“This shouldn’t be.” Chen Ge resisted the urge to smash it with the iron hammer and started to think. “No matter what, the twenty-four mannequins at the Haunted House are scarier and more real than these fake dolls. I felt zero fear being around those mannequins, but standing beside these dolls, I feel weirdly unsettled.”

He nudged the doll, and on the back of the pillow, an unfamiliar name was written—Lee Chunyan.

“Why is there a name?”

These dolls were not unlike those used by girls when playing house. They would use dolls to act as their parents or to represent someone they knew in real life.

Chen Ge observed for about two minutes after spraying the doll’s face with a handful of salt. The doll did not react in any way. Chen Ge walked away to peel out another mattress. Similarly, there was a doll made from bedsheets and a pillow.

“Zhang Qisi?” There was another name behind the doll. Chen Ge looked at the corridor that was filled with mattresses, and a chill ran up his spine. “There’s a name behind each doll? Meaning they represent real people?”

The bloated mattresses looked like a mass grave, and Chen Ge’s hand that gripped the hammer sweated. He felt like he would be much braver after completing this Trial Mission. He finished two packs of salt after walking just twenty or thirty meters. Reality proved that salt had no use against those haunted things. The uncomfortable feeling that suffused the corridor did not decrease. If anything, it had gotten stronger.

“I’ll need to ration the last pack of salt. I can’t be so cavalier with it anymore.” Chen Ge would look over his shoulder every few steps. He was afraid of seeing a row of dolls following him as was often the case in the scary movies he had seen.

With his whole body tensed, Chen Ge made the decision that should a doll suddenly stand up, he would rush over and smash it into smithereens with the hammer and stab it with the cleaver.

“Calm down, there are many trump cards you haven’t used yet.” Chen Ge did not know whether he was saying this for the benefit of the viewers or himself. In any case, as he moved into the Third Sick Hall, the popularity of his livestream also climbed at a scary speed. In contrast, Qin Guang’s livestream had reached a bottleneck, and his viewership was slipping.

The Third Sick Hall was different from the other two because every room was a single room, but curiously enough, none of the rooms had any beds. It was like the place had never been used as a hospital before.

“Doctor Gao said that the Third Sick Hall only has ten sick rooms and nine patients on record, so what are the purposes for these empty rooms?”

None of the rooms had a number, and they had the same bland white doors. They did not seem like they were used to house the patients.

“The first sick hall was so crowded that there were beds on the corridor, but the Third Sick Hall has so many empty rooms. The hospital would rather keep them empty than use them for the patients, why is that?”

Chen Ge was very careful. When he reached the middle of the fourth-floor corridor, the stench in the air suddenly became exceedingly heavy. Other than the cold wind, there was another sound in his ears. It was hard to describe. It sounded like the heavy breathing of a roomful of people. Chen Ge shone his flashlight around as the anxiety in his heart heightened. He stuck his back to the wall and took out his phone to glance at the time. “It’s midnight!”

At that same moment, the sound of the door being opened came from one of the rooms under the fourth floor. The feeling was strange. The sound came from downstairs, but it sounded like it was just beside Chen Ge.

The blood door inside the Haunted House’s mirror will open for a minute every midnight. Is there a similar door in this hospital? The door would appear at midnight, but it would not open on its own. When the door was pushed open, it only meant that something had come out from behind the door.

“Wang Haiming’s diary said that he completed the final ritual in the bathroom; this proves that there is a large mirror in the bathroom of this hospital.”

After midnight, the entire sick hall seemed to change like a sleeping monster coming alive. Standing in the deepest corner of the fourth floor, Chen Ge looked down the stairs. There was complete darkness. No one knew what was hiding in the dark. Something might come out at him from a hidden corner.

Chen Ge’s eyes twitched. He held the hammer and stood at the mouth of the stairwell. After giving it some thought, he turned off his flashlight. Inside the Third Sick Hall, there were mental patients, lingering spirits, and the monsters from behind the blood door; there were danger at every step.

In such a situation, the light would expose himself, making him an easy target. Chen Ge closed his eyes before opening them again. He tried to make his eyes familiarize themselves with the darkness and stepped down the stairs to go to the third floor.

Even though the mission had not ended, Chen Ge had already acquired a reward. At least his relationship with the white cat had improved. Initially, the white cat did not even want to be close to him, but after they entered the corridor of the third sick hall, the cat actively jumped on his shoulder, its claws digging into his clothes and backpack. It looked like it would not let go no matter what.

“Don’t be scared, everything is still under control.” Chen Ge patted the cat on its head, and the cat strangely did not resist. Its pair of different-colored eyes look straight into the darkness.

The staircase seemed to have grown in the darkness because Chen Ge used two minutes to move from the fourth floor to the third floor. The windows were sealed, and the third floor was even darker. Chen Ge could barely see the mattresses that littered the corridor.

“The twisted face seemed to vanish after he entered the Third Sick Hall. There was not even a footprint. Where could he be hiding? Inside one of the rooms or the mattresses, preparing for an ambush?”

There was another nurse’s station at the corner of the third floor, but curiously enough, all the records and medicine were arranged neatly inside the station, and the counter was spotless, like it had recently been in use.

Jumping into the station, Chen Ge realized that there were many prescribed pills arranged on the table. The colorful pills were separated and placed inside white bags, and each bag was taped with a patient’s name.

“Lee Chunyan? Zhang Qisi? Wait, didn’t I read these two names on the dolls on the fourth floor? Someone comes here every night to give medicine to the dolls?”

A ridiculous idea popped up in Chen Ge’s mind. The Third Sick Hall was like a children’s game. The child had created the dolls to act as the patients and took on the role of the doctor to dispense them medicine.

“Who would do something so sick?” Chen Ge looked at the names on the counter, and he felt like he had missed something important.