Chapter 108: The Unseen Guest (First Update)
After setting everything up, Chen Ge brought along the cloth doll left by his parents and found the Skull Cutter’s iron hammer.
“This should be fine now.”
He turned off the lights, plugged his phone into a charger, and placed it on the cabinet to record. He himself, holding the exaggeratedly shaped iron hammer, hid under the bed.
The candle flame flickered, casting the room in alternating light and shadow. As soon as Chen Ge closed his eyes, his mind uncontrollably conjured up many terrifying scenes.
He kept alert to the sounds around him, his body curled up with his head against the bed leg.
From this angle, through the half-open door, he could just see the slippers placed in the hallway.
“The slippers are still in place, the white rice around them hasn’t been touched. I don’t know why the black phone told me to prepare these things.”
The candle burned shorter and shorter, and Chen Ge’s eyelids grew heavier.
Night spread through the haunted house. Having not rested properly for several days, Chen Ge, after holding out under the bed for a while, drifted off to sleep without realizing it.
...
His calves felt a bit cold. Chen Ge groggily opened his eyes. The candle had gone out, and the room was pitch black and very quiet.
“What time is it?”
He wanted to check his watch but suddenly found his body completely immobile.
“Sleep paralysis?” Eyes wide, Chen Ge didn’t struggle violently. Instead, he adjusted his breathing rhythm. The respiratory system, influenced by internal organs like the heart and lungs, wouldn’t be paralyzed like the body’s muscles.
After doing this, he began trying to bend his fingers, focusing his will on a single point.
Throughout the process, he didn’t look around. At a time like this, even if he saw something extremely terrifying, his body couldn’t react, only amplifying his fear and making him lose his cool.
After about two or three minutes, Chen Ge’s little finger could bend slightly—a very good start.
He intended to push through and break free from the sleep paralysis, but when his gaze swept over the slippers in the hallway, a question arose in his mind.
“When I placed the slippers earlier, which direction were the toes pointing?”
Normally, walking toward the hallway, the slippers’ toes should face outward from the room. But what Chen Ge saw now was a pair of slippers with their toes pointing toward his bedroom.
“Did I put them in the wrong position?” A very bad feeling arose in him. He hurried to move his fingers.
The candle in the room had long gone out, and a rustling sound came from the darkness, as if the white rice scattered in several rooms of the haunted house was being disturbed.
Staring at the slippers in the hallway, under Chen Ge’s watch, one of them took a step forward.
A very stiff step, as if walking for the first time.
“It moved!”
Things rarely go as one wishes. The more anxious Chen Ge became, the worse the situation grew.
After that first step, the pair of slippers placed in the hallway suddenly walked forward a few steps, as if someone had put them on.
“A guest has arrived? Why can’t I see it?”
As Chen Ge pondered, the slippers had already reached the door of the surveillance room. They suddenly stopped, then the surveillance room door inexplicably opened by itself, and after a while, closed again.
The haunted house had all doors and windows tightly shut; it couldn’t possibly be the wind.
“What is it looking for?”
In the dim hallway, a pair of slippers paced back and forth. Soon, they stopped again at the door of the makeup room.
The door opened. From Chen Ge’s angle, he could just see the black cloth on the mirror in the makeup room being lifted. The mask stitched together from different faces floated up, swaying a few times in front of the mirror.
This scene made Chen Ge’s heart race. He hurried to move his fingers. But what he didn’t expect was that the swaying human-skin mask suddenly froze in front of the mirror. The hollow eyes of the mask seemed to be staring directly at the spot under the bed where Chen Ge was hiding.
“I’ve been found!”
The mask fell to the floor, the makeup room door closed, and the slippers paused at the doorway for a moment before turning their toes toward Chen Ge and quickly heading toward the staff break room!
Hiding under the bed, unable to move, Chen Ge could only watch helplessly as the slippers approached, unable to escape.
The staff break room door was pushed open, and the slippers stopped by the bed.
Chen Ge closed his eyes, pretending to be fast asleep. He could feel a cold wind blowing in his face and hear shallow breathing in his ears. It was as if a face was pressed right next to him.
“That monster is checking if I’m asleep.” Chen Ge dared not open his eyes, afraid that seeing something terrifying would make him lose control of his emotions.
At this moment, with sleep paralysis immobilizing him, playing dead and bluffing his way through was the best option.
A few minutes later, the cold breathing sound disappeared. Chen Ge opened his eyes a crack.
There was nothing in front of him. He rolled his eyes and saw the slippers placed by the bed, but the direction of the toes was different from before—they were facing away from the bed.
“Did it get onto my bed?” Chen Ge shuddered at the thought. Every time he fell asleep, there was this unknown thing wandering around the room. If it truly harbored ill intent, the consequences would be unthinkable.
The slippers remained by the bed for a long time without moving. The monster should now be lying on the bed. Chen Ge felt his chance had come.
He focused all his attention on his only movable finger, his pupils darting as he desperately tried to control more fingers.
Whether the nightmare task could be completed was secondary. The feeling of his body being uncontrollable and unable to resist was extremely uncomfortable for him.
Having completed so many haunted house tasks, Chen Ge’s willpower far exceeded that of ordinary people. Before long, his other four fingers could all move. He clenched his fist, veins bulging, and his arm slowly regained control. With his extraordinary will, he gradually broke free from the state of sleep paralysis.
“Almost there, just a little more.” Muscles in his arm tensed. Chen Ge felt he was about to wake up completely. His breathing became smoother, and his neck could turn slightly.
Now, if only his legs could recover, he would fully control his body. With the Skull Cutter’s iron hammer in hand, he wouldn’t be so passive.
His lower body had no sensation at all. He tried to twist his body and roll to one side.
His heartbeat was clear in his ears. Using all his strength, his body finally rolled over toward the wall side under the bed. It was like falling from a height in a dream, instantly breaking free from some kind of restraint.
Chen Ge regained control of his body, but the moment he looked behind him, every hair on his body stood on end.
Lying behind him was a girl.
“That monster never got on the bed! It was behind me all along!”
Cold sweat poured down. Chen Ge instinctively reached for the iron hammer beside him. The girl lying behind him seemed to have just realized that Chen Ge had woken from his sleep.
She reacted a beat too late, looked up and met Chen Ge’s eyes, then, flustered, turned into a shadow and ran out of the room.
Chen Ge grabbed the iron hammer and chased after her. When he saw the girl’s face, he felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.