The light behind them was fading slowly, as though the taxi had been pushed into the depths of the sea.
When the last sliver of light vanished, the passengers inside were completely swallowed by the dark.
"Is— is anyone there?" After the sound of someone banging on the car finally died down, the driver slowly raised his head. His hands groped around the interior, searching for his phone.
"Don't move. Get down." The voice was stern. The driver didn't resist and obediently lowered himself.
The person telling the driver not to move was Chen Ge. Though the sounds of someone slapping the door and windows had stopped, those foul things were still clustered around the car. They hadn't left.
"What the hell do they want?" Chen Ge, who possessed the Yin Sight, could see things the driver couldn't. Their situation was far from optimistic.
The surface of the taxi was covered in bloody handprints, and the ones who had left them were standing around the vehicle at this very moment.
All of them wore bizarre expressions, their bodies facing the same direction, their lips moving up and down like fish gills, siphoning some unseen gas from the tunnel.
Roughly ten minutes later, a strange sound drifted from deep within the tunnel. It was hard to describe—like dozens of centipedes skittering across the tunnel walls, or like something drawing enormous, labored breaths, its exhalations scraping against the rough stone surface.
Once the sound appeared, the foul things surrounding the taxi began to stir. They shuffled toward the source of the noise.
The sound of footsteps echoed in the driver's ears, yet not a single person was visible. He cowered inside the car, clutching his head, genuinely terrified out of his mind.
Pitch black—nothing to see—but his ears caught all manner of bizarre noises. They flooded into his brain in a swarm, and the driver felt like his skull was about to burst.
*Bam!*
A soft thud came from somewhere inside the car. It sounded like a door being pushed open.
No light. No one knew what had happened inside. A full half-hour passed before the sounds finally ceased and the tunnel returned to its eerie calm. Only then did the driver tremblingly pull out his phone and, using the faint glow of the screen, inspect the vehicle.
The rear door had been opened at some point. There wasn't a single passenger left inside—completely empty. Only the driver himself sat in the driver's seat.
"Where did everyone go?"
With someone beside him, it hadn't been quite so scary. Now that he was alone, the driver was on the verge of panic.
He pressed the button on the car's two-way radio, but all that came back was the hiss of static—no one spoke. He then opened his phone and dialed every number he could think of, but nobody picked up.
His movements grew more frantic, his voice cracking with tears: "Is anyone there? Anyone at all— please, is there anyone?!"
"Stop wailing. Keep your voice down." A beam of light shone onto the front of the taxi. The driver looked toward the source and saw a man standing beside the car, a backpack slung over his shoulder.
The driver recognized that silhouette—it was the very first fare he had picked up in the city tonight.
"No time for talk. Do exactly as I say. First, see if the car will start." Chen Ge held the bag in one hand, his expression grim.
The driver understood the urgency and didn't ask questions. He tried several times in succession, but the engine simply wouldn't turn over.
"Get out. Check the engine. Hurry—don't waste time." At Chen Ge's urging, the driver climbed out. He stared at the car plastered with bloody handprints, his scalp tingling.
He popped the hood and leaned in to look. Inside, everything was bound tight by clumps of black hair—impossible to untangle without tools.