My House of Horrors

The boy was sound asleep in bed. He had no idea about the door’s appearance.

“Compared to last time, the door seems to have gotten closer to the boy,” Men Nan whispered. “Take a close look at it. There is something inside the door that wishes to come out.”

“Could it be the ghost fetus?” This scenario reminded Chen Ge of the door of the School of the Afterlife, but the similarity was limited. For example, the door that appeared by the boy’s bed felt unreal, like it would shatter once touched. There were faded blood vessels moving on the door, but it did not give off an unpleasant feeling. This was what confused Chen Ge the most. He had encountered many doors before, including the door from the School of the Afterlife. Once they appeared, the surrounding atmosphere would turn eerie and dark, with the scent of blood permeating the air, but this door was an exception. It did not feel threatening. If anything, its presence felt like a warning to the boy.

“There are too few blood vessels on the door, aren’t there?” Chen Ge got closer to the door. He only took few steps when the doorknob started to jiggle. It was not that loud, at least not loud enough to wake the boy. When Chen Ge retreated, the door returned to normal.

“It stops me from approaching it, huh?” Chen Ge put down the backpack and signed something at Men Nan. He moved toward the door alone, and this time, the door did not react. “It’s due to the presence of a Red Specter?”

Standing before the door, Chen Ge did something brave. He reached out toward the door. The door was like a lingering spirit. Chen Ge’s finger phased through it directly. “I can’t even touch it… This is the first time I’ve met a door like this.”

He was not sure whether a door would appear next to all the candidates selected by the ghost fetus after they fell asleep. In any case, he did not hear Fang Yu mention anything about this, so this might be unique to Jiang Ming. If that was the case, Chen Ge should pay more attention because it meant there was a high chance ghost fetus was hiding inside Jiang Ming. His fingers wandered on the surface of the door, but he could not touch it. Just as he was about to give up, a chill came from his fingertips. Chen Ge’s fingers at that time were hanging by the doorknob.

“Most of the blood vessels are gathered around the doorknob, so this doorknob is the only thing that’s real or closest to the real thing?”

Tong Tong’s trick could only be used once, so Chen Ge did not want to waste this opportunity. However, he did not dare to push the door open alone. Even though it did not have many blood vessels on it, he was not confident that he could survive behind the door alone.

“Should I take this risk? The black phone said that I will die if I can’t locate the ghost fetus within nine nights. In other words, this period is when the ghost fetus is the least prepared or weakest.”

The chance was before his eyes, and Chen Ge was unwilling to give it up. He slowly retreated.

“Men Nan, hand me the bag. You guard outside the door.”

“You’re going in there like that? Isn’t that a bit too rash? Are you not going to think about it further?”

“The doorknob will vibrate once it senses a Red Specter, and the rattling will wake up the boy. Once the boy wakes up, the door will disappear, so I only have one chance.” Chen Ge looked at the boy in bed. “He’s deaf, but he can hear the rattling of the door. The thing that the boy lost is probably behind this door.”

Taking out the recorder, Chen Ge hugged it in his chest and then took out the broken ballpoint pen and placed it inside his pocket. After his previous lesson, he had learned not to put everything inside his backpack.

After he was ready, Chen Ge took a deep breath. He stared at the doorknob as he charged toward it. The blood door sensed the presence of a threat, and it started to rattle with agitation. The lashes of the boy in bed flickered. Just as he was about to open his eyes, Chen Ge broke through the door. Inside the dark bedroom, the boy sat up in bed. He looked around and repeated the word ‘daddy’ stutteringly into the darkness.

…

A horrible stench rushed into his nostrils. Chen Ge carried his backpack and looked around. This was a very old rental apartment. There were seven to eight families living on one floor, and they shared one bathroom and kitchen. The corridor was littered with trash, and dirty water stained the ground. Rotten vegetables floated in the brackish water.

“What is this place?” Chen Ge looked behind him. He was standing before a rusted metal door. There was a large lock on it, and he could not leave that way. “Is this the door that I pushed open?”

Chen Ge took out the ballpoint pen. After realizing that he could still communicate with his employees, and he instantly calmed down. “The scenario behind the door is made from the door pusher’s memories, so this should be where the boy has his deepest memory.”

Dirty, dilapidated, and old, the place stank. The place that Jiang Ming could not forget was a complete contrast to his current home. “Probably because they were staying at a place like this, Jiang Ming’s parents agreed for their boy to be adopted. But there is money that goes around, and the boy’s father even wrote a letter to threaten for more money. That’s disgusting behavior.”

Jiang Ming’s biological parents no longer treated Jiang Ming as their son but as a tool to earn money. They had no idea what their child was going through.

“The scenario behind the door is this apartment. What Jiang Ming can never forget should be here somewhere.” Chen Ge carried his bag and moved forward. Not too long later, he saw a wooden sign hanging on the door of the family that took the corner room. The sign read—’If you have an emergency, pull on the rope of the lamp next to this repeatedly.’

“Is this where the boy stayed? If he’s deaf, he wouldn’t hear the knocking anyway.” Chen Ge pulled on the rope. The lights in the room lit up. He pulled it repeatedly, but no one showed up to open the door.

“The boy is deaf, but his parents shouldn’t be.” Chen Ge looked at the lit room and knocked on the door. His finger touched the door lightly. Chen Ge did not use much strength, but it echoed so loudly that it even startled Chen Ge a bit.

“Why would that happen?” Chen Ge quickly stopped. He started to notice the uniqueness about this place. It was so quiet; there was no sound.

“Is this what Jiang Ming’s world feels like?”

Those who were born deaf should not have the concept of hearing, but those who lost it later would remember sound. Their mind was not silent; there was just an impenetrable layer that could not be broken between their memory and the real world. It would be a thin layer. In fact, it was probably as thin as the gap between the real world and the ghost world. Still, it was a layer that was strong enough to stop the soundwaves from travelling through.

After the echoes from the knocking stopped, the scenario changed slightly. The stench grew more intense, and it was laced with the smell of alcohol.

Without warning, a man’s face suddenly appeared at the stairwell of the second floor. He was like a blob of boneless mud. His arm was joined to the alcohol bottle as if the bottle grew from his flesh. He slid his bulbous body toward Chen Ge.