ebookland Chapter 79: Tell Me a Ghost Story
Chapter 79: Tell Me a Ghost Story
A rope bridge swayed over a dizzying chasm, serving as the only connection between the cliff and the summit. At the mountain’s top stood a Gothic villa, casting a shadow reminiscent of a foreboding castle.
The scene seemed so absurd that even the most clichéd film directors would dismiss it as too unrealistic. Who in their right mind would choose such a remote and perilous location for a holiday home? And if this location was chosen, why not build a sturdy and secure bridge instead of a weak and fragile one?
Yu Xiao felt a surge of dread as she eyed the bridge. She was sure that it would snap at any moment, sending them plummeting to their deaths.
They had to leave their sports cars behind, as they were too heavy and wide for the bridge. Yu Xiao rubbed her temples as she gazed at the villa, wondering what kind of twisted mind had dreamed it up.
Zhou Xiao Zhen leaned in and muttered with a sneer: “Who would have guessed, Dr. Qu’s dream is so retro.”
“Shh.” Zhao Lan hushed her, and added: “Retro is fine, retro means less surprises, and less trouble for us.”
Yu Xiao counted the people who had come to the villa. There were thirteen of them, seven patients who had entered the dream, and six others, four men and two women. One of them was a little girl.
The seven players, bound by their common goal, clustered together.
Tan Qiao Yin, a girl with a high ponytail, fixed her gaze on the little girl, who looked no older than eight. “Trust me, I’ve seen enough horror movies to know that that little girl is not normal.”
“Why?” Zhao Lan asked, curious.
Tan Qiao Yin grinned and said, “You’re not much of a horror fan, are you? In most horror films, the child is either the sole survivor or the mastermind behind it all.”
“Is that so?” Zhao Lan turned to Yu Xiao, who was more of an expert on the genre. She herself rarely watched anything scary.
Yu Xiao nodded. “It’s true. But there’s a catch. Films can’t show children getting killed in gruesome ways. It’s against the rules of political correctness.”
“Oh~” Zhao Lan nodded, enlightened.
Just then, a muscular man with long hair strutted over, arm in arm with a man in a floral shirt and a round hat. They stopped in front of the rope bridge and the long-haired man spread his arms wide and bellowed, “Welcome to the mountain villa!”
“We’re going to have a blast here for the next seven days!”
The thirteen guests crossed the rope bridge one after another, feeling it sway under their feet. Before stepping on it, Yu Xiao overheard Tan Qiao Yin whisper to Zhu Miao Miao, “I’ll try to test that little girl later.”
The bridge looked old and frail, as if it would snap with a strong tug. Yu Xiao wasn’t too worried, though. She knew that in horror films, nothing bad usually happened at the start.
The Gothic villa loomed over them as they crossed the bridge, a dark and foreboding presence that seemed to belong to another era. Moss clung to the roof tiles, hinting at the age and neglect of the place. It was the perfect setting for a horror film, and Yu Xiao half-expected a vampire to emerge from the shadows and greet them. She wouldn’t have been too shocked if that happened.
The man in the floral shirt, who apparently owned this monstrosity, fished out a bunch of keys from his pocket. They jangled on brass rings as he
Henry cocked his head, “If someone else volunteers to take their place, they can get out of it.”
“Oh,” Yu Xiao nodded, “then I’m good.”
“Great, now that we’ve settled that, let’s begin the game.” Henry clapped his hands, drumming his feet nervously under the table. “Who wants to go first?”
“I will.” Tan Qiao Yin seemed eager to participate in this game. She cleared her throat and started slowly, “Do you ever look at the showerhead when you shower? There was a woman who went on a business trip and stayed at a hotel near a train station. One night, as she was showering, she felt the water getting colder. She opened her eyes, and saw that the water coming out of the showerhead.. was.. Red.”
She stopped mid-sentence, letting the words hang in the air like a noose. “And then,” she continued, lowering her voice to a whisper, “she raised her head slowly…, and saw that it wasn’t a shower head at all. It was the severed head of a woman, dripping blood on her…”
Zhang Shu reacted instantly, scooping up Yue Yue in her arms and pressing her palms over her ears. She didn’t want her daughter to hear the rest of the story.
“Wonderful,” Henry clapped, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Who’s next?”
Zhou Xiao Zhen’s hand shot up in the air, her eyes sparkling with excitement. She loved these kinds of stories, the ones that made your skin crawl and your heart race. “Me, me, me!”
She cleared her throat and struck a dramatic pose, as if she were about to receive an award. “Have you ever heard the old saying, don’t look in the mirror at midnight? Especially not between one and two in the morning. If you have to pass by a mirror, just run. Don’t stop. Don’t look.”
She paused for effect, then went on. “There was a woman who didn’t believe in such things. She thought it was all nonsense, superstition, nonsense. So one night, she decided to test it out. She sat in front of the mirror at two in the morning, and combed her hair.” Zhou Xiao Zhen tried to sound spooky, but her enthusiasm betrayed her. She was having too much fun to be scared.
“She combed and combed, and nothing happened. She smiled to herself, thinking she had proven them all wrong. She got up to leave, to tell everyone what she had done. But as soon as she turned around, she felt a chill down her spine. She looked back at the mirror, and saw another her, still sitting there, still combing her hair, slowly, slowly, slowly…”