268 The Building Manager's Present

 

Deep Space Tech’s therapy helmet could manifest the patient’s internal world using actual objects and colors. Ming Mei had stayed for a long time in this colorful room. Her inner self was very different from her surface self, she was a very well-hidden crazy little girl. She had no idea when she became this creature, perhaps it was familial influence or it was something she had done when she was small. “She is inside the fluffy cat, fluffy dog, fluffy bear…”

The past memories surfaced in her mind. She felt fear but not a shred of guilt or regret. Curling at the corner of the room, she hid her real self deep inside her heart as she mumbled some strange sentences on her lips. This was her disguise and haven. As long as she remained uncommunicative, she could hide here forever. She wasn’t legally an adult, and she had mental problems. The main culprit was her father, she was just a child during the case, what really could a child like her do?

Leaning against the wall, Ming Mei had no idea how long she had stayed here but she did know that she was safe. The intensely vibrant colors made Ming Mei look so inconspicuous. No one would have connected this cowering little girl to that horrible murder. Hugging her knees, everything would pass if she stayed silent. Closing her eyes, Ming Mei was about to drift off to sleep in this colorful room when she felt a deep chill. It felt like a dead body had come to strangle her.

Her eyes flew open and Ming Mei realized the colorful walls had fallen away, instead she was inside a dim room. There was paper money on the floor, damaged furniture in the room and a broken ceremonial urn at the corner. ‘Where am I? The therapy helmet can construct such realistic scenes?’ Ming Mei stood up from the corner of the wall and looked around anxiously. Everything felt so real. ‘The therapy helmet can only reconstruct places from my memory but I’m sure I’ve never been to this place.’

Ming Mei still acted quite confused inside this strange room. She was very clever, she was worried that this was a new technique employed by the police. She placed her fingers on the cracked wall when she heard a crisp sound coming from behind her. She turned to look and saw that the old anti-theft door had been opened without her realizing it.

The lights in the corridor did not turn on. Shards of mirror lingered on the ground, each of them seemed to be reflecting something different. ‘There’s someone else here?’

Ming Mei backed away looking at the dark and eerie corridor. Her heart started to race as fear and anxiety expanded within her. There appeared to be someone staring at her from the dark. The fear caused chills to run all over her body. Her exposed heel suddenly chilled. Ming Mei looked down and realized she had stepped on a thick stack of yellowed paper money.

‘Did I step on some bugs?’ Summoning her courage, Ming Mei reached out to slowly peel the paper money away. A brightly painted red face appeared before her. ‘A paper doll?’

Being stared at by the doll, Ming Mei had this strange feeling that the doll was smiling at her!

Her chest dulled with suffocation. Ming Mei tried to grab hold of something to try to make herself calm down. Ming Mei moved about but she realized no matter where she went, the paper doll on the ground appeared to be following her. The papery eyes, faces and the intensely red paint on the face, they were branded into her mind. She knocked into the corner of the room and suddenly crying drifted into her ears!

Ming Mei immediately turned around but saw only a wall behind her. ‘The crying comes from the other side of this wall? There’s a child behind this?’ Ming Mei didn’t dare to leave the room. Stepping through the paper money, she nudged her way towards the bedroom. She creaked open the bedroom door slowly and Ming Mei looked into the bedroom, “Is someone here?”

There was no one inside the empty bedroom but the crying refused to stop. “Is someone here? Who’s inside the house?” Ming Mei’s body couldn’t stop trembling. There was no one in the living room and bedroom, could the crying have come from inside the wall?

Looking at the cracked wall, Ming Mei’s eyes slowly moved upwards. When she saw the ceiling, her entire person was stunned and then inexplicable terror exploded in her mind! The ceiling was covered in children’s handprints! And there were more and more of them. They were moving as if there were invisible children crawling towards her!

With a scream, Ming Mei escaped from the room. The handprints chased after her, they didn’t plan to let her go that easily. In her panic, Ming Mei stumbled her way up the stairs. Fear was like an invisible hand closing around her neck and it had started to squeeze!

“Where is this place? Why am I here?” The handprints slowly gained up on her. A giant shadow was also rapidly approaching from the dark. Ming Mei’s eyes scanned the closed doors as she ran for her life. She was unsettled by the many different sounds coming from the rooms. There was laughing, crying, chopping and munching. She pleaded weakly for help but no one came to her rescue. She stumbled and fell until her limbs were wounded and bruised. She half-crawled, half-rolled up the stairs, fear dominating every nerve ending in her body. She did not dare to stop. She knocked on every door that she passed. She wanted to find a refuge, someone to come help her. The children’s crying and laughing descended upon her and she felt an extra weight on her back. Their faces were pale. They were laughing and crying as they pulled on Ming Mei’s hair and pinched her skin. It was like they were trying to crawl into her body!

Ming Mei missed a step and she rolled down from the stairs. Her arms were wounded and her previously clean face was stained with dust and blood. It was not until she fell that she realized how bloody the stairs were. Just how long would it take to make such a thick crust of blood?

She realized she didn’t need to know the answer. Ming Mei climbed up with a scream and crawled up the stairs on all fours. “Is someone there? Help me, please…” Tears flowed down her cheeks. She reached the 8th floor and finally spotted a door which was half open. The door looked quite familiar but it was not the time to stop and think. She ran into the room. She used the fastest speed to lock the heavy anti-theft door. With her hands on the door handle, her body still shook non-stop. The strange sounds slowly faded away. Ming Mei leaned on the wall and looked through the peephole to make sure. When her eye aligned with the lens, she saw there was only whiteness staring back at her. Just when she thought that was a white stain, the whiteness suddenly moved and then a black pupil turned over!

There was a living eyeball inside the peephole!

Ming Mei fell back from the shock. She landed on the ground. Before her mind could get over that fear, her hands touched something. She turned her head to look and saw the torn toy plushies that scattered all around her. The brown fur was surprisingly pointy. These things felt very familiar to Ming Mei but she couldn’t place them at first notice. She pinched the fur and Ming Mei lifted her eyes to take in the living room.

“Wait, this place…” A terrifying familiarity overwhelmed her. Ming Mei couldn’t believe it but she was back in her ‘own’ home!

She was familiar with everything within her sight but the only question was, why were there 4 pairs of shoes at the shoe rack?

With her eyes locked on the extra pair of shoes, the name that refused to leave her memory surfaced to her lips. “Ying Yue?”

Suddenly footfalls came from inside the room. Ming Mei sprung up from the ground. She pulled at her hair like she was trying to yank them out. “Impossible!” The room looked just like how it did many years ago, the day when they killed Ying Yue!

The broken pieces of toy plushies littered everywhere, each of them was stuffed with a bloody mess. With shivering steps, Ming Mei walked towards her own bedroom. Her pink princess bedroom was dominated by dolls and right in the middle of the dolls, there was a little girl sitting among them!

The girl too looked like one of the dolls. She sat there quietly, looking at the aquarium next to the bed. Ming Mei had once poured Ying Yue’s parents’ cornea into the aquarium and then refilled the vials with the water from the aquarium. She had done all these disgusting things but that should be a secret between herself and the dead Ying Yue. So how did all of these get reconstructed so many years later?!

Ming Mei’s face was distorted from fear. Right at that moment, the little girl sitting among the dolls slowly turned her head around. Her pale face was cute and innocent but instead of eyes, she had two black holes!

“Ming Mei… I’ve been waiting for you for so long, you’re finally here to play with me…”

When the familiar voice entered her ears, Ming Mei’s heart almost stopped. She charged towards the door like crazy, but no matter what she did, the anti-theft door refused to open. The toys inside the room started to move on their own. Eyes blinked open from every corner of the room. Ying Yue materialized inside the living room. Her two hollowed eyes stared at Ming Mei. “Where is your father and mother? Remember, your family will not let me out of your sight. So where are they now?”

All the eyes inside the House of Eyes opened. Ming Mei’s heart-wrenching screams echoed inside the room!

Half an hour later, the door to Ying Yue’s house opened. Han Fei was standing quietly beside the door. Ming Mei was gone but there appeared to be a few more plushies inside the room. Ying Yue stood numbly in the living room. She only lifted her head when Han Fei entered the room.

“Were you satisfied with my present?” Han Fei knelt down before Ying Yue and looked at her with heartache. “Since I’ve given you my promise, I will get it done.”