692 Old Friend

 

The male student looked at the human face under the umbrella. The man’s blood slid down his eyes and dropped on the student’s head. The eyeballs also loosened.

“The man’s face… is under my umbrella?” The male student screamed as he tossed the umbrella to the ground. The rain drenched his hair, but the rain felt weirdly sticky. He touched his hair and realized something terrifying, “What’s happening? Why is the rain red?” The abandoned umbrella twirled in the wind. The student looked under the umbrella, and the human face was gone. “No, where is it?”

The panicked student looked around. The man in the red umbrella was across the street. The monster still hadn’t left!

“His face is no longer with me. Why is it still following me?” Blood slid down his head. It felt very uncomfortable. The student’s hair felt like it had been encased in solidifying gel. It was both painful and itchy. He kept scratching his head. The more he scratched, the itchier it was.

“No way…” His scalp became uneven. There appeared to be a human face that had grown there.

“Ah!” The student looked at his hands which were covered in blood and hair. He rushed forward like crazy. The sky was raining, but the student’s sight was dominated by blood. He kept screaming, and more people like him appeared on the street!

The student charged into a small shop by the roadside. The first floor was a store for stationery and snacks, while the boss lived on the second floor. “Is anyone here? I need help!”

The student wanted to tear his scalp off. He couldn’t stand it anymore. He grabbed the scissors from the counter and leaned close to a mirror. He used sharp scissors to cut at his bloody hair. The more he cut, the crazier his expression.

“Get out! Get out of my head!” The scissors cut through the skin. The torment of pain and itchiness made him lose his mind. He yelled and screamed as he stabbed at his scalp. “Die! Die! Die!”

Hearing the screams, the boss came down from the second floor. “Who’s there?”

Near the corner, the boss saw the student kneeling behind the shelf. His clothes were bloody, and a pair of scissors was stuck in his head. This shocked the boss. “Young man, your head…”

“My head? Where’s my head? I can’t feel it. It is so itchy and painful! The face wants to crawl into my body!” The student turned around. His face was bleeding, and his facial features were ruined. He reached his trembling hands toward the boss. He climbed up from the ground. “Have you seen my head? Is there something on it? Is there? Take it off! Use the knife to cut it off!”

The boss retreated and took out his phone to call the police, but the line was busy. He didn’t dare to get too close to the boy. “Wait, wait a minute! I’ll go get help!”

The boss ran to the door. As he got close, he saw a man with a red umbrella at the door. “There’s something wrong with the child. Can you…” Then, the boss noticed something was wrong. The man under the red umbrella appeared to have no face!

With shaking legs, the boss returned to the second floor. He locked the door. “What’s going on today? Why is there screaming everywhere?” The boss’ phone screen was a picture of his wife. She was a few months pregnant. Compelled by worry, the boss called his wife.

The wife picked up after 10 seconds. The boss said worriedly, “Xiao Yun, go and lock all the windows and doors. Something is very wrong with the city today. You’re pregnant. You should stay put!”

“Okay. I understand. You have to be careful too.” The wife’s gentle voice came from the phone. The boss sighed in relief. “I’ll figure out a way to go back home. Wait for me!”

“You’ve been working hard looking after the store.” The wife said, “Right, I have a piece of good news to tell you.”

“What is it?”

“Haven’t you been asking for a boy? I helped you look this morning. It is indeed a boy.” The wife’s gentle voice turned hoarse. Even her laughter turned creepy. The boss hung up. His brain buzzed. He didn’t dare to process what his wife said.

Footsteps echoed outside the second floor’s locked door. Fresh blood leaked into the room.

“I can’t stay here anymore! The man in the umbrella will get here soon!” The boss needed to go home to check on his pregnant wife. He ran to the window. When he opened the window, he saw his neighbor who lived across the alley. The man hurriedly grabbed the stuff in his room.

“It’s not safe here! We need to leave!” The boss shouted at his neighbor. His neighbor looked at him strangely.

“I know. I saw it.”

“What do you mean? How did you see it?” The boss looked outside the window, trying to find a way to escape.

“I used my eyes.” The neighbor’s head reached out of the window. His neck extended, and soon, his head was close to the boss’ window. “Unfortunately, your window was locked yesterday night.”

The boss didn’t dare to delay. He jumped out of the second-floor window. The sound of bone dislocation came from one of his legs. He dragged his limping leg and walked out of the alley. His neighbor called from behind him, but the boss didn’t dare to stop.

“Help! Help!” The boss moved as fast as he could. The young couple, who owned the cellphone store close by, walked into the alley.

“Ah Mei! Xiao Cheng! Help me! This alley is haunted!” When the boss saw the young couple, he shouted. But when the couple got close, he noticed they were acting very weird. The boyfriend, Xiao Cheng, hugged his wife’s waist tightly. The muscles on his face twitched uncontrollably. The girlfriend, Ah Mei, kept her head lowered, but she had on a very thick and ugly makeup.

“Ah Mei, what’s wrong with your makeup?” The boss stopped nervously, “Did someone do your makeup for you?”

Veins popped on Xiao Cheng’s face. “I did her makeup. I didn’t expect the death spots would appear on her face so soon!” The hand hidden behind slowly appeared. Xiao Cheng laughed harder as he held a knife stuck with flesh. “It’s okay. I’ll do a better job on your face this time!” Xiao Cheng charged forward. The boss wanted to run, but his injury slowed him down greatly. His mouth was covered, and blood flowed. He kicked at Xiao Cheng and used the last of his energy to push the trash can beside him over. The trash was scattered about. A cola can fell out and rolled out of the alley before hitting a pair of sneakers. The owner of the sneakers had blond hair. He wore a pair of headphones, and he was revising the English vocabulary repeated on the phone. The yellow-haired student glanced at the can and then turned his head to look down the alley. There appeared to be people fighting there.

“I used to brawl in alleys too… until I met that demon.” The student shivered. He remembered his experience. His classmate’s father used him as bait to lure out the bad guys in the city. He purposely pretended to be a ghost to frighten him and use various methods to threaten him. “I need to get into a good university. Even if I have to retake the exam 10 times, I need to complete my promise with Fu Sheng’s father! Damn it. I’ll make something of myself and leave this city!”

He raised the volume and practiced his English through the phone. The young man never had any interest in studying in the past. But to get into a good university, he ignored his family’s persuasion and studied until dawn every night. Honestly, his family was worried about him. To preserve his dignity, they hired a psychologist to act as his tutor.

“I can do this!” After giving himself a cheer, he walked forward. He studied whenever he was free. He was fully submerged in the sea of knowledge. The streetlight turned red, and the student stopped. He was working on his pronunciation when he heard children crying.

“Why is someone crying?” He looked around. He realized there were very few people on the street that day. It was already 7 am, but the sky was still dark. “Did I get the time wrong?”

The crying became clearer. The young man listened closer and realized the sound came from his earphone. He picked off his earphone, and the screams, cries, and pleas came from all sides. The young-haired student was stunned. Slowly, the children’s crying escaped from the earphones and appeared behind the back of his head. The young man turned his head around. He looked at the reflection in the window of the shop next to him. There was a strange child sitting on his shoulders, his hands playing with his earphones.

“Have I been carrying it all this way?” The child knew that he had been discovered. He let go of the earphones and then raised his hands. His sharp fingers stabbed at the young man’s ears.

“Be careful!” A bloody face appeared. The young man was toppled over. The small ghost on his back was consumed by a middle-aged woman.

The blond student had no idea what was happening when his arm was dragged by a girl holding a phone. “Come with me!”

“No! You have to be a ghost too! You’ll drag me to a deserted location and then…” At that moment, the middle-aged woman pounced at him. He was so scared that he scurried up from the ground and followed the young woman.

10 minutes later, the scared young man found himself hiding inside a convenience store’s warehouse. The woman who saved him was beside him.

“Thank you!” The blond student took deep breaths. He didn’t even dare to speak too loudly then. “What is going on outside? It’s like everyone has gone crazy.”

“You need to learn to get used to it. Today might be the most normal day of your life from now on.” Xiao Yu took down the bloody phone from her neck. Her mother shielded beside her. “My name is Yu Yi. This is my mom. Someone told me to come to find you to ask you some questions.”

“Ask me?” The young man was confused.

“The man says that he’s Fu Sheng’s father. He wants to know info about Fu Sheng. Did Fu Sheng do anything unusual in the past year?” Xiao Yu called a number and handed her phone to the young man.

The young man’s legs weakened as he stared at the bloody phone. When he heard, ‘Fu Sheng’s father’, his body couldn’t help shaking. The fear returned!