"Don't panic, stay calm. This is probably just a prank."
"Right, wasn't there a news story before about visitors dressing up as ghosts to mess with staff in haunted houses? Besides, there are so many of us, there's no need to be afraid."
When it came to brave talk, the employees of Nightmare Academy were one better than the next, but the moment Xu Yin drew closer, they all retreated in unison, their movements perfectly synchronized, as if they had rehearsed it a hundred times.
"Open the door!" Chen Ge's expression was urgent, but the principal's office door simply wouldn't budge. The surrounding employees tried to intervene, only to be blocked by the short actor. "Get the boss out here! Something's really gone wrong this time!"
Chen Ge was a visitor, so no matter what he said, the haunted house actors would have a hard time believing him — but when the same words came from the mouth of the dwarf actor Xiao Zhao, the situation was entirely different.
"Brother Zhao, what exactly happened in the scene you're in charge of?" the lead man asked. He still hadn't grasped the severity of the situation; the very first thing out of his mouth was to shirk responsibility. No matter what happened, this whole thing was Xiao Zhao's fault.
"Remember Pan Tian? The guy who used to handle the underground scenes with me? He took sick leave, never came back, and eventually got fired by the boss." The short actor was terrified now. Today's ordeal had awakened every ounce of fear he had buried in his memories, linking them all together.
"I vaguely remember. The boss said he went back to his hometown to get married." The lead man seemed to recall something.
"He did go back to his hometown, but not to get married — to get treatment." The fear in Xiao Zhao's eyes deepened. "Pan Tian went mad! Nobody knows why. He just suddenly lost his mind one day at work! He kept saying there was something under the building, and he had seen it."
"How come I never heard the boss mention this?" The surrounding employees all crowded in. They had no idea that something so terrifying had happened right where they worked every day.
"If the boss had told you, would any of you still feel safe coming to work? Think about it — there used to be three scenes in the basement. Why is only one open now? Why did he permanently seal off the other two?" Xiao Zhao was very short, and as he spoke, he craned his neck upward, his face flushed red.
Nearby, Chen Ge was still pounding on the door with all his might, but he perked up his ears when he heard Xiao Zhao's words and listened carefully. "Didn't expect such a nice little bonus!"
With danger closing in, Xiao Zhao screamed hoarsely: "Nobody knows what Pan Tian saw! But I'm willing to bet what he saw was most likely that person!"
Xiao Zhao pointed at Xu Yin. "Just now, drenched in blood, this person appeared out of thin air without a sound! Yes! He materialized right in front of me! Every word I'm saying is the truth! Run! That thing under the building has gotten out!"
A Red-clothed ghost was far more terrifying than an ordinary vengeful spirit — they operated on an entirely different level.
Ordinary vengeful spirits could make people uneasy and anxious. A Red-clothed ghost could dredge up the deepest, most primal fears lurking in the human heart.
Xiao Zhao was already scared out of his wits. He had to spit out the terror he felt inside so that others would share the burden, and only then could he feel even a little better.
With the principal's office door stuck shut, the owner of Nightmare Academy nowhere to be seen, and Xiao Zhao — the only employee who supposedly "knew the truth" — continuously escalating the situation, the fear in every employee's heart finally reached its breaking point and detonated.
The crimson tide surged forward. A scene that should only occur in nightmares now materialized in reality, and the shock was indescribable. The entire corridor seemed to transform into a massive serpent winding its way toward them.
Every time the lights went out, that blood-red figure crept a step closer. The static hissing in the background music grew louder and louder, gradually drowning out the haunted house's soundtrack, until a different sound emerged.
It was like mumbling, or perhaps a helpless question. No one could make out exactly what was being said — only that the sound echoed from deep within their hearts, audible even if they clamped their hands over their ears.
With every step Xu Yin took, the Nightmare Academy employees retreated one step back. No one knew who started it, but as they backed up nearly to the stairwell, someone made a decisive dash into the corridor and fled toward the floor below.
When they saw the carnage downstairs, they finally understood how serious things were. An unconscious employee lay slumped outside a classroom door. In a corner, an actor curled up foaming at the mouth. In the middle of the hallway, a staff member lay sprawled, barely conscious. Struggle marks were everywhere along the corridor.
Colleagues who had been eating lunch with them just an hour ago now lay scattered on the ground, their fates unknown. There was no more shocking sight in the world.
"It's really haunted!"
Every demand from the boss, every employee code of conduct, every performance review — all of it was thrown to the winds. The employees wanted nothing more than to get out as fast as possible. It was as if the moment they slowed down, the next person to collapse and start foaming at the mouth would be them.
They didn't dare stop for a second. They rushed to the elevator, but no matter how many times they hammered the button, the car wouldn't come — it was stuck on the basement level.
From the audio player in the corner of the corridor came the desperate screams of a stranger. Those agonized wails were like death knells, making everyone's scalps go numb.
"Damn it! Who keeps holding the elevator!"
"Why is it stuck on the basement level? I remember that ghost came from below the building! Are there even more ghosts?!"
"The real problem right now is that the elevator is the only way out. How are we supposed to get out of here?"
The "surviving" employees crowded around the elevator doors, despair spreading through them like a wave.
"You only have this one exit? What if something goes wrong? This haunted house of yours treats visitors' lives like they're nothing!" As Chen Ge said this, he forgot that his own haunted house didn't even give visitors a single exit — though the two haunted houses weren't entirely alike. At Chen Ge's place, the moment something went wrong, countless employees would rush in to neutralize the danger.
Challenged by Chen Ge, the Nightmare Academy employees stammered and hedged.
"Now is not the time to discuss this!"
"Wait — I just remembered, we actually do have other passages in this haunted house!" The lead man seemed to suddenly recall something. "Come on! To the second floor!"
The Red-clothed ghost was right behind them, and the entire building seemed to be malfunctioning. Everything around them was shrouded in a thin crimson veil, and the audio player kept spitting out spine-chilling sounds, as if all the tormented souls who had perished inside the building had boarded the elevator and come back up!
The situation was critical. No one had time to think. They followed the lead man in a mad dash into a scene on the second floor.