Chapter 5
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Chapter 5: Title
At the fourth-floor corridor’s edge,
"I truly believe we’ve encountered a spirit," Jiang Yao whispered hoarsely, her eyes fixed on the classroom door marked 404.
As the group faced the classroom with their backs to the railings, Xiao Bai turned to peer downward—only to witness a shadow plummeting through the air. A strangled scream tore from his throat.
"Ah—!"
"What’s all that screaming for?" Bai Ye spun around, his furrowed brow contrasting with his composed demeanor.
"S-something just… fell from above," Xiao Bai stammered, gesturing weakly behind them.
Though seasoned explorers of haunted locations, this marked their first brush with the inexplicable.
【Running Orange: Wh-what’s happening? This feels bone-chilling.
Sunflower Vendor: Show us the ghost! Tilt the camera!】
When the lens shifted toward the disturbance, another shadow streaked past. Jiang Yao—already frayed by the endless Ghost Wall illusion—finally shattered.
"It grinned at us!" she shrieked, staggering backward into Bai Ye. "That thing smiled!"
"What nonsense?" Big Black’s voice quivered despite his bravado. "I only saw falling shadows."
"Ghosts… This place crawls with them!" Jiang Yao collapsed into a trembling heap, fingers clawing at her hair. "Can’t you feel it? The filth clinging to this air?"
To her companions, this seemed mere hysteria. Unbeknownst to them, Ye Linlang’s psychic projections had singled out Jiang Yao, attuning her to invisible horrors.
"Please," she begged, skin prickling beneath unseen scrutiny. "Bai Ye, Xiao Bai—we must leave. Now." Her words spiraled into shrill urgency. "It’s coming for us!"
"Get hold of yourself." Bai Ye gripped her shoulders, but Jiang Yao heard only thunderous heartbeats and advancing footsteps.
When reasoning failed, he seized her wrist. "We’re leaving."
None noticed the camera still trained on the shadow’s descent. The live stream erupted as they argued:
【Sauerkraut Fish: *Huddles under blankets* What WAS that???
Lemon Cynic: They’ve disturbed forbidden forces.
Dark Lord: That grinning meat-puppet by the lens—CGI or Oscar-worthy acting?
Eternal Bachelor: Video doesn’t lie. RUN, FOOLS.
lk1542674: Pathetic hoax! Ghosts aren’t real—
Yaoyao’s Guardian: STFU keyboard warrior!】
Just as Bai Ye loosened his grip, Jiang Yao wrenched free. Backing toward the corridor’s gloom, she rasped: "Too late… It’s here."
Clutching her chest, she fled—a panicked comet ignoring shouted pleas—as something unspeakable ascended the stairs.
“Jiang Yao——!”
Bai Ye stared into the darkness where Jiang Yao had vanished, jaw clenched as he addressed the others. “I’m going after her. Stay here until I return.”
He’d long noticed the uncanny nature of the teaching building’s endless staircase. This exact awareness made letting Jiang Yao flee blindly unacceptable.
The remaining pair exchanged uneasy glances, shoulders trembling.
“We’re… staying put?” Big Black rasped.
“Didn’t Yaoyao seem terrified of the stairs earlier?” Xiao Bai’s throat bobbed. “Pan the camera – check if there’s anything… unnatural.”
The live stream comments flickered across their phone screens:
【Lemon Essence: Camera shifted! Why aren’t you moving?】
“Viewers, please monitor the stairwell for us,” Xiao Bai implored, dragging Big Black aside. “Yaoyao ran off. Bai Ye’s pursuing her.”
【Catnip: Nope nope nope
Trash Bin Tissues: CALL THE COPS ALREADY】
A scarlet fabric swirled into frame.
The chat froze.
Then erupted.
【Ice Cola: HOLY SHIT THERE REALLY IS A GHOST!!
Plushie Master: Red dress = hot ghost gf? Obvious actors.
Plushie Master: Since when do ghosts WALK instead of float?】
Xiao Bai and Big Black locked eyes. Hadn’t they been present for all the preparations? The answer propelled them into a sprint.
When crimson robes fully entered frame, when the unmistakably lifeless face filled the screen, the chat flatlined.
Just as viewers thought the apparition might leave, her head tilted – a glacial, calculated glance into the lens. A thousand spines iced over.
【Dark Lord: Morbidly elegant though?
Night Cultivator: Elegant?! Those LIVER SPOTS say coffin decorator’s special!】
Believers stopped breathing. Skeptics stopped blinking.
The Ghost in Red lifted a hand. Oily shadows coalesced into a mangled visage – startlingly familiar to regular viewers.
【Ice Cola: Since when does China have Hollywood-tier VFX?!】
“Hunt the runners.” The specter’s command hung rotting in the air as she dissolved into mist.
Every viewer understood: while minions chased the escapees, the main horror was coming for the streamers.
…
“Police station? I-I need help.”
Jiang Yao’s shaking fingers gripped her phone. “Trapped… fourth floor… No. 3 Middle School in Hanzhou City. A ghost wants me dead.”
The teaching building’s dual staircases had become a Möbius strip. Her circling footsteps finally triggered the obvious solution.
The dispatcher blinked. “A… ghost, miss?”
“Reporting a false police report is illegal. From your voice, you sound like a student. We’ll let it slide this time…”
“I’m telling the truth! It’s coming closer! I can hear it moving toward me!” Jiang Yao pressed herself against the wall, her trembling fingers clutching the phone.
After an eerie silence, the operator heard a metallic clatter – the sound of a device hitting the floor.
The line erupted with distorted static, pierced by fragmented words from a feminine voice: “Found… final… you… mine…”
All while the girl’s terrified screams echoed through the receiver. Ghost or not, this clearly wasn’t a prank.
The operator immediately dispatched officers. Protocol demanded response even to potential hoaxes.
＊
“Found you.”
The Ghost in Red stared at the trembling girl, her corpse-pale face frozen in a rictus grin. “The final one. You’re mine now.”
Reality twisted violently. Jiang Yao blinked – moments ago descending stairs, now standing exposed on the fifth-floor rooftop. No time for questions as the crimson specter advanced, forcing her backward step by step.
The ghostly energy hit first – an arctic wave stealing breath and movement.
“Stay back!” Jiang Yao’s bravado from her supernatural streaming days crumbled. She’d give anything to undo past recklessness. Survival meant abandoning midnight escapades forever, burying herself in textbooks if she escaped this nightmare.
“Just a fleeting moment, dear. Why tremble?” The Ghost in Red giggled with aristocratic poise, her elegant manner clashing grotesquely with decaying flesh.
Bony fingers closed around Jiang Yao’s wrist. Numbing cold flooded her veins as the spectral form dissolved into her body.
Horror petrified Jiang Yao mid-scream as her limbs moved independently – marionette-jerks carrying her toward the roof’s edge.
Nine victims across nine decades. The Ghost in Red wouldn’t fail her final liberation.
As the possessed body teetered over emptiness, the rooftop door exploded inward. Bai Ye stood framed in the doorway.
Relief turned to ice in his veins. “Jiang Yao? No – you’re not her.”
“Jiang Yao” twisted toward him, lips stretched in a puppet’s grin. “Shall I jump? Will you catch me?” The question dripped with mock playfulness as one leg swung over the abyss.
Bai Ye lunged without hesitation. His grip seared possessed flesh – jade pendant blazing emerald at his chest.
The Ghost in Red howled. Where his fingers met skin, smoke curled from spectral wounds.
Through the pendant’s glow, Bai Ye saw it clearly – Jiang Yao’s form superimposed with a crimson phantom.
