Chapter 39: Sounds from the Third Floor
Time passed, and nightfall shrouded the Horror House. In the dead of night, a strange sound suddenly emerged from the quiet haunted house, as if someone was sawing something.
Inside the staff break room, Chen Ge slowly opened his eyes. He checked his phone—it was 1:10 AM. He turned over and pressed a pillow over his head, but the bizarre noise kept drilling into his ears.
"Am I not dreaming? What’s that constant sound?"
Every prop in this haunted house was either made or modified by Chen Ge himself. He knew clearly that none of them would produce a noise like this, akin to sawing wood.
After sleeping for six or seven hours, his mind was still a bit foggy. Chen Ge gave his thigh a hard pinch, put on his clothes and pants, and grabbed a hammer from the toolbox. He turned on his flashlight and pushed open the break room door.
The haunted house at night was many times more terrifying than during the day. Chen Ge leaned against the doorway, not rushing to step out.
"It can’t be a thief—only an idiot would break into a haunted house in the middle of the night. It can’t be rats either; their gnawing on wood is light and faint, not this clear." After ruling out the two options any normal person would think of, Chen Ge began to consider the abnormal direction. "Could it be that the monster from the mirror has escaped?"
Due to a shortage of fabric, Chen Ge hadn’t covered all the mirrors in the third-floor Midnight Escape scene. He stared into the pitch-black hallway, took a few steps back, and tucked the cloth doll left by his parents close to his body before daring to leave the room.
The sound was coming from above. Chen Ge climbed the stairs step by step, finally stopping outside the door of the Midnight Escape scene. "It’s definitely coming from in there. I just don’t know if it’s the lingering souls of the Ping An Apartment victims or the filth from the mirror." Pausing at the door, Chen Ge hesitated slightly. To be honest, even he didn’t want to enter a horror scene late at night.
Tormented by the cutting noise inside the room, Chen Ge tightened his grip on the hammer handle. "I have the title of ‘Ghost’s Favorite,’ and I’ve earned the goodwill of the Ping An Apartment victims. Even if I run into the filth from the mirror in the Midnight Escape scene, it shouldn’t be able to do much to me." He recalled how the mirror monster had knocked out He Shan, only to fail because Xu Wan suddenly appeared. That showed the monster wasn’t all that powerful.
"I’ll go in and take a look. Anyway, it’s a fight to the death between me and that mirror monster. The more I know about it, the better my chances of dealing with it." Chen Ge was very calm. He knew deep down that what he truly feared wasn’t the monster itself, but the feeling of facing the unknown.
He opened the door to the Midnight Escape scene, and a faint musty smell drifted through the area. It was starting to resemble the Ping An Apartment more and more. The doors on either side of the hallway were half-open and half-closed. Chen Ge raised his phone and gripped the hammer in his other hand as he stepped inside.
The cutting sound grew louder, and Chen Ge knew he was getting closer to the truth. He walked through the entire third floor, finally stopping outside a door. He was certain the eerie noise was coming from inside this room.
The door wasn’t fully shut. Chen Ge reached out and grabbed the door handle; the cold sensation jolted him wide awake. His leg muscles tensed, and he shoved the door open.
"Who’s in there!"
Hammer raised, Chen Ge charged into the room and saw a towering black figure crouching in the bathroom. Its silhouette was strikingly similar to He Feng’s! The shadow hadn’t expected anyone to come in. It dropped what it was holding, turned around, and leaped into the mirror, vanishing in an instant.
"Stop!" Chen Ge shouted, swinging the hammer, but hitting nothing.
The bathroom was empty, as if everything that had just happened was an illusion. "That figure is definitely not He Feng! But why does it have the exact same height and build?" Standing in front of the mirror, Chen Ge looked at his own reflection and felt a strange unease. "This monster is imitating He Feng? What’s its real purpose in doing this?"
The shadow’s appearance raised many questions, but it also revealed two pieces of information to Chen Ge. First, the mirror monster could leave the mirror and move around. Second, it could become identical to anyone who had looked into the mirror.
"This thing is more dangerous than I thought."
The cutting sound echoing through the haunted house finally stopped. Chen Ge crouched down and looked at the items the shadow had carelessly tossed aside. On the rough cement floor lay four crooked cloth dolls and several sharp mirror shards.
He picked up the dolls and examined them. The ones representing the mother, sister, and younger sister were just covered in dust and dirt, otherwise unharmed. Only the doll symbolizing the father had its neck half-severed, with multiple cuts and severe damage.
"Why is only the father injured?" Chen Ge quickly figured out a reason. The father doll had helped He Feng escape, foiling the mirror monster’s plan, so the monster was taking revenge.
"The lingering thoughts of the four victims can’t even stop the mirror monster; they can only let it bully them. The power gap is pretty big." Chen Ge knew nothing about the forces in that world, so he could only infer based on limited information. "The victims’ lingering thoughts can only scare people, with no offensive abilities. The mirror monster is a step above them, but it runs at the sight of people. That suggests its combat strength is weak, and its main attack is psychological—like exploiting people’s inner weaknesses to cause hallucinations and disorientation."
Combining the encounters of He Shan and He Feng with what had just happened, Chen Ge reached his conclusion. The mirror monster was extremely troublesome, but in a direct confrontation, its abilities couldn’t be used. So, if he could lure it out of the mirror, everything would be easier.
"I need to plan carefully and try to take it out tonight, so the Midnight Escape scene can be operational tomorrow." Chen Ge’s gaze was calm. The monster in the mirror was growing bolder, and if he didn’t eliminate it, he wouldn’t be able to sleep or eat in peace.
Carrying the four cloth dolls out of the Midnight Escape scene, he locked the door and entered the utility room. As he took out a needle and thread to stitch up the dolls’ wounds, he began to think of a strategy.
"That monster is highly aggressive and seems very interested in living people. If I want to lure it out of the mirror, the simplest way is to use a living person as bait." Chen Ge’s hands were nimble, and within minutes, he had sewn up most of the wounds.
"But the key issue is, once I lure it out, how do I kill it? I’ve heard ghosts are afraid of salt and garlic, but if it comes to a fight, tossing those at it would feel too ridiculous." After serious thought, Chen Ge decided to log onto the paranormal forum and ask for advice.