Something inside the morgue cabinet was trying to get out, nails scraping along the gaps in the iron door. It seemed to be groping slowly, searching for the location of a switch.
The piercing sound kept ringing in their ears. The thing inside the cabinet scratched for a long time, gradually growing agitated, letting out low, ragged breaths.
"Brother, did you hear that sound?"
"I did. Probably an actor hiding in the morgue cabinet, waiting for us to get close before jumping out to scare us." Fan Dade put on a brave face. "I've seen this trick a hundred times. No need to be scared."
"No, I'm thinking about something else." Fan Cong tended to overthink things. "Don't you feel like the actors in this haunted house have their emotions really dialed in? I'm talking about the acting quality."
Fan Dade remembered the faceless creature lurking in the darkness earlier, and his body hairs stood on end. "A little."
"Morgue cabinets rarely have switches installed, after all — this is a place meant for the dead." Fan Cong listened to the breathing coming from inside the cabinet, his heart hammering. "Just now, we first heard nails scratching at the door, like a dead person coming back to life. It couldn't find the switch, and its breathing grew rapid — that's a gradual progression, as if there really is a resurrected monster inside the morgue cabinet."
A bitter smile crept across Fan Cong's face as he gripped the door. "If my prediction is right, next the monster inside the cabinet will probably resort to more violent methods — like slamming against the cabinet door, making even louder noises. That will not only attract the monsters outside, but the ones already in this room will come out too, pinching us from both sides. When that happens, we'll be surrounded, and we're really done for."
"Then what do you suggest? I'll follow your lead." Fan Dade was a chef, and though his younger brother was heavyset, he was considerably sharper.
"Anyone who's played escape games knows there's an unwritten rule in those kinds of games: don't stay in one place too long. That rule exists to counter the timid players who try to hide in one spot and avoid the action." Fan Cong wiped the sweat from his forehead. "The haunted house in New Century Paradise is famous for scaring people across the entire internet. Its owner is a master of psychology, malicious in temperament and brimming with twisted amusement — he would absolutely have built a similar mechanic into his haunted house."
"So you're saying we should go back out?" Fan Dade was starting to regret it. If he'd known, he wouldn't have run so fast earlier. Now separated from the rest of the group, their situation was looking grim.
"Not 'should' — we have to. Right now." Fan Cong didn't dare stay any longer. "While the monster in the cabinet hasn't gotten out yet, and while the sound of the wheels has moved away, we need to leave immediately."
"Right now?"
"Yes. This is probably the only chance the haunted house owner is giving us. If we miss it, the next thing we face will probably be the most terrifying thing of all."
As Fan Cong spoke, the breathing inside the morgue cabinet grew more and more desperate, and the sound of nails gouging against the iron door grew louder and louder. The thing inside seemed to be suffocating — its nails cracked and split, and blood seeped through the gaps of the cabinet.
The monster inside the morgue cabinet appeared to be in tremendous pain, its emotions completely out of control. Suddenly, a tremendous bang erupted from within — as if someone had slammed their head violently against the iron cabinet door.
Both Fan Dade and Fan Cong's hearts clenched. They glanced at each other, both knowing full well that Fan Cong's prediction was slowly becoming reality.
"We leave — now!" Almost the very instant Fan Cong shouted those words, the sound of rolling wheels echoed down the hallway outside again.
"I knew it." Fan Cong had still underestimated how terrifying the haunted house owner was. The man had indeed given them a chance, but that chance lasted only a few short seconds.
"What do we do?!" The sound of wheels outside unlocked a torrent of horrific memories in Fan Dade's mind. He pressed himself against the gap in the door and peered outside, just in time to see every wall-mounted lamp extinguish at once. The corridor was plunged into total darkness — all that could be heard was the rumbling of wheels.
The carriage of some special symbolic significance was rolling closer down the corridor, and the banging from the morgue cabinet in their room grew louder and louder.
What made it even more terrifying was that, at first, only one cabinet had been making noise. Soon the sound spread, and the two adjacent cabinets began emitting their own noises.
Time slipped away in their hesitation. Fan Cong and Fan Dade still hadn't made a choice. In that most critical moment, the two brothers stared at each other, both completely panicking.
They'd only come to tour a haunted house — who could have guessed they'd end up in this kind of heart-stopping situation?
The sound of wheels drew closer and closer, its speed undiminished. Fan Cong and the chef had already given up resisting. They prayed silently in their hearts, hoping the monster outside hadn't noticed them, hoping for one more chance to start over.
Ten seconds later, both of them were deathly pale. The miracle they'd prayed for never came. As the wheels rolled past Morgue Room Number Two, the sound suddenly went silent.
The carriage had stopped — right outside their door!
Cold sweat poured down without stop. The creature that had been chasing them this whole time was finally about to reveal its true face.
Fan Cong and Fan Dade pressed against the gap in the door, not daring to breathe too loudly, their full attention fixed on whatever lay beyond.
After a few seconds, there was still nothing outside. The carriage was as though it had never existed — as though it had all been a figment of Fan Dade's imagination.
"Did it leave?" Fan Cong pressed his ear against the door, listening intently.
"Should we go out and check?" Behind them, the morgue cabinet had begun to tremble. The monster inside was slamming its head against the cabinet door again and again. Rust flakes kept falling off the battered iron cabinet, and Fan Dade genuinely feared that something would burst out of it at any moment and charge straight at the two of them.
He wrapped five fingers around the door handle and slowly pressed it down. The latch turned inside the lock cylinder — and just as it was about to spring open, something on the corridor outside slammed into the door with tremendous force!