My House of Horrors

The mirror monster had Chen Ge in a chokehold, and the murderer was inching toward him with a sharp knife. Chen Ge had no time to hesitate. When he saw Zhang Ya’s page, he reached out to type two words—Help me!

The weird laugh in his mind grew louder. Zhang Peng’s knife came at him before Chen Ge had the time to key in anything else. He turned around and grabbed anything from the cupboard that he could get his hands on to throw at Zhang Peng.

His limbs were failing him, and the veins in Chen Ge’s neck were protruding. Even without the stab from Zhang Peng, he would be strangled by the mirror monster. Chen Ge clawed violently at his neck, but he caught no purchase—it was as if there was nothing there. Chen Ge placed his last hope on the black phone.

He turned his head to look at the phone on the ground and saw that there was a line of blood red letters on screen. “She has understood your demand, so please accept the content of the first agreement.”

It appeared like the demand went both ways. While Chen Ge asked something of Zhang Ya, she would also ask something of Chen Ge, and Chen Ge’s order would only be carried out once the agreement had been reached.

At a time like this, no matter how ridiculous the content of Zhang Ya’s agreement was, Chen Ge would agree unhesitatingly. Inching his finger forward, Chen Ge pressed the “yes” button on screen.

The moment his finger touched the screen, the temperature of the small room dropped tremendously as cold drafts blew into the room from all corners. The weird laugh in Chen Ge’s head stopped immediately. He could feel the monster on his back shiver; it could also feel fear.

The sound of dripping suddenly appeared in the room like something was leaking. The mirror monster on Chen Ge’s back released its hold on Chen Ge and escaped back into Zhang Peng’s body.

The maintenance room became eerily quiet. Even Zhang Peng knew something was wrong. This gambler who had nothing to lose did not choose to retreat at the last moment but raise the knife to charge at Chen Ge.

However, he only took the first step when the expression on his face changed. The mirror monster had forcibly taken over his body, making him leave. The man and the ghost were quarrelling, forcing them into inaction. While that was happening, Chen Ge’s shadow slowly stood up, and a bloody dress appeared behind Chen Ge.

Zhang Ya had probably left quite a heavy trauma on both the man and the ghost at Western Jiujiang’s Private Academy because when they saw the Red Specter behind Chen Ge, a consensus was made, and the man turned to run.

Without the constriction from the mirror monster, Chen Ge was released from the lock. He had almost been killed by Zhang Peng, and he was still reeling with anger, so naturally, he wouldn’t let them escape so easily.

He just stood up with the iron hammer when the Red Specter made her move. Zhang Ya seemed to have a fetish for cruel kills because even without the order from Chen Ge, needle-like black hairs shot into Zhang Peng’s body.

The murderer’s footsteps slowed. Naturally, Chen Ge would not give up on this perfect opportunity. He swung the iron hammer on Zhang Ge’s shoulder. The impact caused the man to fall forward. Making use of this opportunity, Chen Ge aimed yet another strike at Zhang Peng’s upper calf.

An ear-splitting shriek escaped from the maintenance room. The mirror monster inside Zhang Peng knew that the man was cornered, so it decided to abandon Zhang Peng and flew toward the toilet.

“Not good, there’s a mirror inside the first-floor toilet!”

Before Chen Ge realized what had happened, Zhang Ya started to chase after the mirror monster. This shadow creature seemed to be highly interesting to her.

I have to figure out a way to block the mirror.

Chen Ge looked around him and spotted the half-full vat of fake blood left in the maintenance room. The toilet’s door creaked in the wind. When Chen Ge arrived, he saw that half of the mirror body had already been punctured by Zhang Ya’s hair, but it was just inches away from the mirror.

“You’re not getting away that easily this time!”

Unsure whether it would be of use or not, Chen Ge splashed the fake blood all over the mirror. The black shadow hesitated before the mirror. Before it could react, tendrils of black hair curled around its body like snakes. Chen Ge could barely make out its humanoid shape anymore as it was caught in the hair.

The bloody dress fluttered in the wind. After Zhang Ya got bored, she tore the black shadow that was compressed into a ball into two. She swallowed half of it before tearing up the other half into pieces and gently blowing it into Chen Ge’s face.

Chen Ge felt like something had entered his eyes, and his body shivered involuntarily from the sudden cold.

“What was that?” Chen Ge wanted to get an answer from Zhang Ya, but after fulfilling her part of the agreement, this cruel Red Specter disappeared into his shadow.

The toilet door was still squeaking on its hinges, but there was nothing left inside the toilet to suggest that the crazy things that Chen Ge had just witnessed had truly happened.

Just like that, Zhang Ya ate half of the mirror monster and blew the other half into my eyes. Chen Ge looked at the mirror and a sensation that felt like he was dreaming overwhelmed him. The mirror monster has been taken care off, so there shouldn’t be a new number that surfaces on the mirror tomorrow night, right?

Until now, he could not understand what the numbers meant, but he had a feeling they pointed to a huge secret.

After closing the door, Chen Ge used his phone to contact the police. He did not trouble Inspector Lee this time. After all, the man wasn’t a machine; he had been required to deal with more than enough over the past few days already.

Leaning against the wall, Chen Ge glanced at Zhang Peng, who lay as if dead on the floor. When the mirror monster left his body, it seemed to have taken something from the man. The man’s eyes looked blankly forward, and his gaze was soulless.

I suppose this is a kind of karma.

At 6 am, the investigation team from the main city, officers from Western Jiujiang police station, and members of the park’s management all gathered at the entrance of the Haunted House. The last suspect from the Ping An Apartment case had finally been caught.

After watching Zhang Peng being hauled into the police car, Chen Ge’s taut nerves finally relaxed. He did not stay to chat but returned to the Haunted House and locked himself in the breakroom.

The case at the Ping An Apartment is finally wrapped up. The mirror monster has been eaten by Zhang Ya, so there are no more hidden threats lingering in my Haunted House, meaning I can finally open all of the scenarios up for business in the morning. Chen Ge lay in bed, thinking about his future. What I should focus on next is the expansion of the Haunted House because the new scenarios won’t be unlocked without the expansion. After I wake up, I should go talk to Uncle Xu. In any case, I have to convince him to let me rent the underground parking lot.

As he tried to fall asleep, Chen Ge felt a cold breeze caress his body. The chill did not leave even when he wrapped himself up in the covers. The chill seemed to come from his eyes.

Zhang Ya did blow part of the mirror monster into my face, could this be caused by that? Chen Ge grabbed a small piece of mirror to look at his face. Everything looked normal except perhaps his pupils turned darker like the surface of a bottomless lake.

Eventually, fatigue caught up to him. Chen Ge placed the mirror underneath his pillow and soon drifted off to sleep.

At 10.30 am, before he managed to catch several hours of sleep, Chen Ge was woken up by the call on his phone. He looked at the ID and answered it. “Xiao Wan, you can have the morning off. Come back in the afternoon.”

“Boss! There are so many people down here! There are even police and reporters, what have you done‽”