My House of Horrors

To conclude what the senior had said, the world behind the door was just a nightmare formed by Men Nan’s main persona. When the boy woke up, the door connecting the real world and the dream would close, and they would be trapped in the dream forever.

Chen Ge would have believed the old man if not for the ‘door’ that also appeared at the Haunted House. The appearance of the ‘door’ at two different places was not something that can be explained by a boy’s nightmare. Chen Ge did not reveal that fact. He looked at the senior and asked another question. “You said that this is the boy’s nightmare and everything here is a reflection of the boy’s subconscious. Then can you tell me, what role do you play in this nightmare? Or rather, what does you being in his nightmare represent?”

The expression froze on the old man’s face, but he did not evade the question. “Similar to you, I came from outside the nightmare. We are outsiders, so even in the nightmare, we are playing ourselves.”

“Playing ourselves?” Chen Ge came from the outside world, and there was no visible change to his body. The old man did not have a trace of liveliness to him, and Chen Ge could not move his focus away from the blindingly red coat. A thought flashed across Chen Ge’s mind. Is it possible that the old man was already wearing this coat when he entered this world? What has he done to dye a white coat completely red?

When Chen Ge saw the old man for the first time, Chen Ge had a speculation in his mind. Three years ago, the Third Sick Hall’s director had mysteriously disappeared, and his location had been a mystery ever since. There was no body and no news.

This old man before him, be it from looks or age, fitted the director perfectly, so Chen Ge suspected that the old director did not disappear years ago but stepped into the door. He had read the few letters written by the old director, and in the last letter, the director did show traces of interest toward the world behind the door.

But it was also because he had read those letters that Chen Ge had a good impression of the man. Therefore, he had a hard time overlapping the kind director in the letter with this Red Specter before him.

Chen Ge shook his head to calm down. His knowledge of the director was based wholly on those few letters. No one would willingly slander themselves in their own writing, so the director in the letters might not perfectly represent the actual director.

The thought of the electroshock therapy room, the crowded and dirty first sick hall, as well as the empty and deserted second sick hall made Chen Ge suck in a light breath, and he became more alert.

“Now do you understand what I mean? Do not wake the boy up. Put him down, and I’ll bring you out of this nightmare.” The old man’s voice was soothing, and it would make others forget about the danger that he presented.

Chen Ge slowly moved toward the door. “I will not hurt the boy, but you have to tell me how to leave this place first. Show me your sincerity.”

“Leaving is easy; you just need to step back over the door…”

BANG!

The old man was interrupted by a loud boom. It sounded like a room had exploded somewhere in the Third Sick Hall. Hearing this, the old man’s face fell. His pale face twisted, and the forced kindness disappeared.

“What’s going on?” Chen Ge had a feeling that this was related to Zhang Ya. When the old man first entered the room, he had noticed how twisted his fingers were, and his arms had been crooked in an unnatural way. They were probably injured when they were blocking a powerful force.

“It’s nothing, a small problem,” the old man said darkly. He stood in the middle of the room and raised his head to look at Chen Ge. “Give me the boy, and I’ll bring you out.”

There was no extra expression on the white face. It freaked Chen Ge out. The old man had finally dropped his pretense.

“Send me out first or no deal.” Chen Ge stood fast. His hand that held the cleaver was shaking because this was the first time he dealt directly with a Red Specter.

“You want to leave? Fine, come with me.” The old man turned around, suddenly so helpful. This caused Chen Ge to grow suspicious. He followed slowly behind the old man, maintaining a distance of three meters between them. He was certain that with this three-meter distance, no matter what the old man was up to, he would be able to react timely. However, he only took two steps when he realized that he had underestimated the Red Specter’s cunning and cruelty.

Technically, he only took one step because before he could take the second step, his foot that hung in mid-air froze. He could control it no longer. He lowered his head. When he was conversing with the old man, blood vessels that had seen earlier had crawled to his feet. Now the blood streaks were drilling into his skin like viruses.

“Don’t you want to leave? Come with me.” The old man turned around and rewarded Chen Ge with a wrinkly and creepy smile. Of course, Chen Ge did not dare follow him. He held the cleaver and wanted to take a step back, but the leg that hung in mid-air slowly moved forward!

“It’s because of these blood vessels?” Chen Ge’s mind was numb from fear. He had no idea how many blood vessels had seeped into his left leg, and the scariest thing was, as the old man spoke, more blood vessels started to bleed out from the cracked walls and floor. Like little snakes, they slithered to Chen Ge.

A normal person would have lost their cool and waved the cleaver about, but Chen Ge had something that was different to most—the ability to stay calm no matter how dangerous the situation was.

As the blood vessels climbed up his body, Chen Ge’s cleaver continued to press downward. The old man had purposely turned around earlier to trick Chen Ge, but he had turned around again to taunt him.

If the old man had full confidence, he could have controlled Chen Ge directly. He still seemed worried about the boy. Chen Ge could not understand why the old man was so afraid of the boy waking up, but in those circumstances, since the old man was more afraid of it, Chen Ge had more reason to do it.

The blade touched the skin, but there was no blood that trickled out from the wound. Weirdly enough, the blood vessels that the old man controlled seemed to go berserk whenever they were near to the boy, and they eventually returned to the boy’s body through the open wound.

The blood seems to belong the boy to begin with. Could it be that the old man has merely stolen his power?

Chen Ge had discovered the old man’s secret. He became braver—the cleaver created a larger wound, and the old man’s scream drifted into Chen Ge’s ears.

The wound was created around the boy’s collarbone, and the boy, whose eyelids had been twitching, suddenly gripped his fists, and his eyes flew open!

The blood vessels in the room immediately split in two. A part of them continued to struggle as they retreated while the remaining ones were absorbed by the boy into his body.

“You madman! You’ve awoken the devil!”

The old man’s face turned paler. He turned to run, but he only took several steps before a large wave of black hair swamped through the corridor from the other side.