My House of Horrors

“Being chased by teachers and running over walls to escape, that is definitely not how I imagined I would spend my second day at university!” Zhou Tu patted the dirt off his body and undid the rope around his waist.

“Later, more things that you can’t imagine will appear.” Chen Ge tugged on the rope that he had left on the wall harshly a few times before hiding it. From how he positioned it, even if someone walked past, they would not notice it right away.

“This rope shall be our escape.” When Chen Ge left the eastern campus, he had been alone, but when he returned, he was responsible for a whole club.

“Sir, did you notice something strange?” Zhang Ju stood upright, and the eye that was hidden behind his scar slowly widened.

“What’s wrong?”

“Perhaps it’s just me being sensitive, but it feels like the air here is much slicker and wetter, and there is a strange smell in the air like a perfume of blood.” Zhang Ju said those strange words in the calmest voice. His lips slowly opened to lick at the scar on his upper lip. There was confusion and loss in his eyes. “Compared to the western campus, this place feels much more familiar. ”

“You have to be joking, or are you telling me you’re familiar with the scent of blood?” Zhou Tu had originally thought that Zhang Ju was just disfigured, that his mind was normal, but after hearing what he had just said, Zhou Tu gained a new understanding of Zhang Ju.

“I’m not joking; it’s real.” Zhang Ju turned to Chen Ge, who stood where he was with a smile.

“You are not wrong; this is the soil where sweet dreams are grown. In the world behind the door, only dead bodies and blood can be used as fertilizer to grow the most beautiful flowers.”

Chen Ge picked up Wang Yicheng and signaled for Zhang Ju to follow behind him. “I’ll take you to this one place first. Be careful, do not make too much noise.”

As they walked through the unkempt brush, the night became their best disguise. Along the way, they did not get into any accidents. Chen Ge took Zhang Ju to where he encountered the ghost in the tree hole.

“Does this place look familiar to you?” Chen Ge pointed at the tree hole where the female skull had originally been hidden and the trees around it.

“It feels like we’ve been here before… Right, isn’t this the crime scene where the girl was killed? We’ve been to this place on the western campus! How come there is an identical location on the eastern campus?” Zhou Tu’s eyes widened. Even the tree hole’s location and the opening’s angle were completely identical.

“The crime scene on the western campus is only an empty shell; the dead body and the dead’s spirit were hidden on the eastern campus. This place is the real crime scene.” When Chen Ge explained it, Zhang Ju appeared to be attracted by something. He stood beside the tree hole alone, his shoulders slightly shaking.

“Zhang Ju?” He did not appear to have heard Chen Ge. The young man slowly squatted down beside the tree hole and reached his shaking hands into the hole.

“Hey, are you mad? The girl’s skull was found inside the tree hole! Why are you reaching into it?” Zhou Tu wanted to go forth to frag Zhang Ju back but was stopped by Chen Ge.

“Do not disturb him. His memory is buried inside that tree hole; he has to dig out the thing that he has lost himself.”

“Dig it out? You people are crazy!” Zhou Tu was not as powerful as Chen Ge, and he could not struggle loose. He could only stand there and watch.

With both of his knees on the ground, Zhang Ju knelt next to the tree hole as his gaze stared directly into the dark enclosure. His arms gradually moved into the hole. His body kept shaking, and sweat slid down his face like tears.

“Why isn’t it here? Why? Why it’s not here? Impossible!” Zhang Ju could not find anything. He grumbled intermittently like he was so nervous that his breaths were breaking. “I saw it with my own eyes! I saw him bury the thing inside the tree hole! Why isn’t it here‽”

His fingers pulled on the tree roots and dirt until his fingernails started to drip with blood, but Zhang Ju did not seem to feel the pain. With a deranged fervor, he continued his digging.

“Zhang Ju, are you looking for this?” Chen Ge pulled out a rusty blade from his bag. This blade was the female Specter’s item of possession. Chen Ge had discovered it buried inside the tree hole after she was consumed by the shadow. Initially, Chen Ge had taken it as an item of defense; he did not think that it would have such a use. The surroundings suddenly silenced as everyone moved their gaze to the blade.

“This blade was found inside the tee hole. The dead’s maddened spirit was lingering on this blade.” Chen Ge placed the blade before Zhang Ju. “Take it, and see if it can help you remember your past.”

Zhang Ju was at this breaking point. His arms shook harder, and his pupils were darting everywhere.

“It is very familiar, isn’t it? Have you seen this blade somewhere before? Who was holding this blade, and what was the man doing with it?’ Chen Ge was like a needle piercing into Zhang Ju’s mind. His trembling fingers reached toward the blade. When his fingertips touched the handle, his face suddenly changed, his pupils narrowed, and his mouth opened wide with a voiceless scream. Before the scream could escape, Chen Ge rushed forward to clamp his hand over Zhang Ju’s mouth. “It’s alright. All that is in the past. It’s already over.”

Even though he was comforting Zhang Ju, Chen Ge kept his eyes on the blade in Zhang Ju’s hand. Once the young man attempted to attack with the blade, he would knock him over. Zhang Ju was far more powerful than Chen Ge had anticipated. As the memory returned, his strength kept growing. This child did not seem to be a normal spirit. Just as Chen Ge was about to lose control of Zhang Ju, the latter started to calm down.

Chen Ge let go of the young man, and Zhang Ju collapsed to the ground. His lips were kissing the ground, and the scar on the face appeared to become more intense.

“I… I think I just remembered something.” Zhang Ju stared at his cracked nails. “That day, it was senior’s birthday. A girl wanted to confess to him, but senior already had a girlfriend, so he asked me to go and reject her. I came to the promised spot, but I didn’t see the girl, so I kept waiting. Then I heard something moving in the forest, so I ran over quietly, and I saw someone use this knife…

“The girl was still struggling, but I didn’t dare show myself; I was stunned. I’d never seen so much blood in my life.”

His nails dug into the ground, and the scars on Zhang Ju’s face were squeezed together.

“If I’d stood up then, perhaps the girl wouldn’t have died.”

Blame and guilt tormented Zhang Ju. He gripped the knife tightly.

“When I returned to call the police, the group of people had already escaped; I have no idea whether they were captured or not. However, I remember thinking that one of them looked very familiar.

“The following night, we drank a lot and then went to the karaoke. That was when the fire happened. I was sent to the hospital and then…” Zhang Ju whacked his own head multiple times. “What happened next? Why can’t I remember anything?”

“After you were taken to the hospital from the fire, that is where your memory stopped.” Chen Ge now knew about Zhang Ju’s past.