Chapter 8: Nightmare World
It should be the landlady according to the time; she had promised to bring him hot water. However, Yang Xiao was on high alert now. He didn't rashly open the door after walking over but instead asked, "Who is it?"
"It's me."
A familiar voice came from outside the door. Yang Xiao relaxed slightly, just about to open the door, when his gaze inadvertently swept over the wooden floor, and he suddenly jolted, which reminded him of something.
The guesthouse had an overall antique style, and the craftsmanship and materials used were not very particular, which caused the wooden floorboards to creak whenever someone walked on them.
The corridor outside the door also had wooden floorboards. The nights here were very quiet, so why hadn't he heard the landlady's footsteps as she approached?
"Bang! Bang Bang!"
"It's me, open the door."
After the voice outside sounded again, Yang Xiao couldn't help but shiver. The voice was indeed familiar, but it wasn't the landlady. He rapidly went through all of his acquaintances in his mind, and there wasn't a single one who matched.
It was a very familiar, yet strange voice.
Yang Xiao didn't dare to speak again, but the knocking from outside became increasingly aggressive, "Bang! Bang! Bang!" The entire door was trembling. Oddly enough, such a loud noise did not attract the landlady, especially since he was the only guest in the entire guesthouse that night.
Yang Xiao slowly backed away, trying not to make any noise. He retreated to the wall and turned off the lights in the room. As darkness descended, what he saw made his pupils contract.
The room had double wooden doors in the style of antique, and the upper part of the doors were grids covered with a thick layer of paper. At that moment, the room's lights were out, but the corridor lights were still on. However, there was no shadow cast on the papered door.
"Snap!"
"Snap!"
...
The sound of knocking also changed at that moment, becoming like the sound of a wet towel soaked with water slapping the door. Yang Xiao immediately understood that the person standing outside the door was that woman, that soaking wet ghost!
Why don't you go after someone else, why just me?
Yang Xiao wanted to cry but had no tears, and then the lights in the corridor suddenly went out, plunging the surroundings into complete darkness.
Trapped in the room, Yang Xiao didn't know what to do. Although there was a window that should lead to the alley behind, he wasn't prepared to jump out unless absolutely necessary. The dark and gloomy unfamiliar alley sounded like an easy place to die.
Moreover, Yang Xiao was more worried that if he opened the window, he'd find the rotten head of a woman hanging upside down outside.
What to do?
What should he do now?
Although he didn't quite believe in these things, would boy's urine affect the female ghost?
Forgot, I don't have boy's urine.
Even though Yang Xiao was anxious, he did nothing foolish. He simply leaned against the wall, thinking rapidly.
Five minutes, or perhaps even less, the noises from outside slowing down, eventually stopped.
Swallowing, Yang Xiao lifted his hand and wiped the cold sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. Yes, he was a bit scared.
Although he was a writer of supernatural stories, sometimes he would brag in groups and with drama friends, claiming that when he lacked inspiration, he would just catch a ghost and interrogate it. But who could withstand a ghost visiting night after night?
After a long while, still worried that the ghost was squatting outside his door, Yang Xiao didn't dare to move, staying still until it was completely quiet outside.
Rustle rustle...
Yang Xiao slowly moved his left hand, feeling the wall, and quickly found the light switch by memory. But when he pressed it, Yang Xiao was bewildered; the light did not come on.
"Click."
"Click."
He tried twice more, but still no light.
Yang Xiao realized something was amiss. It couldn't just be a coincidence. The darkness around him had become even more terrifying, but thankfully, he didn't hear the sound of the door opening.
He couldn't just sit there waiting for death. If the electric lights were unreliable, he still had his phone. He groped in the dark, moving little by little toward the bed, where his phone lay charging – until his toes kicked something.
He clearly remembered there shouldn't have been anything in his path; the table was on the other side.
As his hand moved downward, a cold, slimy touch made Yang Xiao's heart stop.
He knew what it was.
It was a person, crouched on the ground.
...
Cold.
Chilling.
It seemed... it seemed there were also voices arguing.
Agitating.
After an indeterminate amount of time, Yang Xiao slowly began to see light. He could sense someone moving his arms, and he wanted to wake up, but it was as though a strange force was resisting him.
Unable to open his eyes, his body numb, unable to control his own body, the sensation was just... just like sleep paralysis.
Could that female ghost be doing something bad to me?
Forget it, it's already like this, let her be.
For a moment, all sorts of bizarre thoughts popped into Yang Xiao's barely-conscious mind, uncontrollable, but he could feel something soft beneath him, it must be a bed, or a soft cushion.
After a good while longer, his vision gradually cleared. The first thing he saw was a woman, and then he abruptly sat up, "Don't kill me!"
This sudden movement startled the few people nearby, and only then did Yang Xiao realize he was lying on a wooden bed.
This was an antique-looking room with several people either standing or sitting around it. They were all staring at him. Yang Xiao immediately recognized one of the men, broad and muscular; it was the fake security guard from before.
"Awake?"
The young woman sitting at the edge of the bed let out a sigh of relief, then stretched out her hand to remove the wet handkerchief from the bed, which had previously been on Yang Xiao's forehead. That cold sensation had come from there.
As his thoughts became clearer, Yang Xiao found there were a total of 7 people in the room, including him, 5 men and 2 women. Apart from the fake security guard, he had never seen the other 5 people before.
Moreover, this was not the hostel he remembered. This was a strange room.
Even though it had the same antique style, this room was much more refined. Behind the door, there was a rack for washing, with a copper basin and a face towel hanging on it.
"What is this place?" After a brief calm, Yang Xiao got right to the point.
As soon as these words were spoken, a young man sitting slouched on a long bench, wearing earrings, impatiently grimaced, "Fuck, another newbie!"
"I don't feel like giving a newbie the lowdown. You guys tell him," the young man turned his head away, no longer paying attention to Yang Xiao.
Yang Xiao vaguely remembered this voice. He had heard it while he was half-asleep, when there seemed to have been an intense argument going on around him.
Yang Xiao's gaze swept across the people present, and after a moment of silence, he said, "It seems you are the other 6 people."
"Right, all of us received that script. We're teammates in this scenario, supposed to help each other, striving to survive this damn script together."
The young woman who had been sitting at the edge of the bed stood up, looking to be in her early 20s, but her face wore an indifference that belied her age.
"Although it's not quite appropriate to say, welcome to Nightmare World."