We Are Watching You

"Is... is it a ghost?"

The frenzied rain battered the cold windows. Their hearts flickered unsteadily like flames in a lamp.

"I... I don't know." The woman swallowed. "Should we notify the Enforcers?"

"Are you crazy?!"

At the mention of the Enforcers, the terrified man finally regained a bit of his senses.

"Once the Enforcers get involved, what we did will definitely be exposed... Absolutely not!"

"Then... what about him?"

The woman paused for a moment. "Do you think... could some Calamity have possessed A-Ling's corpse?"

The two looked at the tightly shut bedroom door at the same time and fell silent once more.

After a long while, the man seemed to make up his mind. He took a black raincoat from beside the door and pushed it open to leave.

"Where are you going?"

"To where we buried the body!"

"Now? What for?"

"To confirm it." Rainwater ran down the man's pale face as he spoke hoarsely. "Whatever is in that room right now... it can't possibly be A-Ling! I need to see his corpse with my own eyes."

"I'm coming with you!"

No one wanted to go out in a thunderstorm like this, but compared to being alone with that sleeping, unknown thing in the bedroom, the woman would rather choose the former.

Amid the downpour, two raincoat-clad figures hurried away.

Bedroom.

Chen Ling, already deep asleep, suddenly had his eyelashes tremble slightly, as if he were having a nightmare.

In his dream, his consciousness kept sinking, as though he were falling into a bottomless cavern. After an unknown amount of time, it felt as if he landed on some hard ground and finally steadied himself.

Thump—thump—thump—thump—

A dull mechanical sound rang out. Then, beams of light pierced the darkness like swords, converging on a figure in red.

Chen Ling instinctively raised a hand to shield his eyes.

"Where is this...?"

Chen Ling's muddled consciousness gradually cleared. Once his eyes adapted to the intense light, he looked around in confusion.

Within the range of the light, he could see only the vermilion opera costume on his body, the aged wooden floor beneath his feet, and a corner of the black curtain behind him illuminated by the beams... Beyond the light lay endless darkness and the unknown.

At the sight of this scene, Chen Ling suddenly froze.

As if realizing something, he narrowed his eyes and looked up. The beams illuminating him came from spotlights fixed to steel frames.

"A stage?"

As an active director and screenwriter at a theater, Chen Ling was intimately familiar with stages. In his previous life, right up until he was crushed to death by a falling light, he had been pondering blocking onstage. His understanding of the stage even surpassed that of many actors.

So his first reaction was that he had somehow returned to his previous world.

No...

The lighting effects on the theater stage from his previous life had been better than this. The curtains had not been black, and the floor had not been such old wooden planks.

Then was he dreaming?

Chen Ling tentatively took a step. The old floor gave a piercing creak. As he was about to leave the circle of light, another beam followed his footsteps into the darkness.

"A followspot?" Chen Ling's heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively shouted,

"Who's there?!"

These lights could follow him, which meant they were most likely being controlled by someone. Unless this place also used a fully automated followspot system—but judging from how old this stage was, that possibility was practically zero.

"Who's there..."

"Who's there..."

"There..."

Chen Ling's voice echoed through the darkness, growing increasingly eerie and sinister.

At the same time, an electronic screen at the edge of the stage suddenly lit up.

In stage design, this spot was generally used for a teleprompter to prevent actors or hosts from forgetting their lines midway through. But the screen now displayed a string of red characters—

[Audience Expectation: 29%]

In the lower-left corner of the screen, there were several smaller words.

"Please do not allow the Audience Expectation to fall below 20%, or the Theater cannot guarantee the actors' personal safety."

Chen Ling stared blankly at the screen...

Audience? Where was there an audience?

Thump—thump—thump—

The familiar sound of lights switching on rang out again!

The darkness before the stage receded like a tide. Hundreds upon thousands of wooden chairs stretched into the distance in tiers, densely packed around the front of the stage.

Audience seating.

Those words surfaced in Chen Ling's mind.

It was only natural for a stage to have audience seating. What truly made Chen Ling's scalp tingle was that, at some unknown point...

Those seats had already been filled with "Audience."

They were humanoid creatures shrouded in shadow. Even with enough light, Chen Ling still could not make out their appearances, as though they were incarnations of the abyss.

The only exception was their eyes.

Countless crimson pupils opened in the dimness. They sat in their respective wooden chairs, watching Chen Ling onstage like a pack of cats cornering a mouse, their gazes mocking and greedy.

Under their stares, Chen Ling felt the back of his neck turn cold. He had no idea what these "Audience" were, but they were certainly not human!

Chen Ling forced himself to stop looking at those horrifying eyes and turned to run wildly toward the other end of the stage.

Normally, stage exits were located on both sides. As long as he got off the stage, he should be able to temporarily escape those ghostly things!

The followspot locked onto the red-clad figure as he ran straight to the edge of the stage—only to be met by a bare wall.

Chen Ling froze.

Refusing to believe it, he ran to the other side of the stage. It was the same there.

This stage... had no exits at all.

In the dim audience seating, the densely packed crimson pupils followed his flight, constantly shifting like an Audience engrossed in a marvelous performance, utterly focused.

And the protagonist of this performance was Chen Ling in red on the stage.

At the same time, the characters on the display at the center of the stage flickered... Audience Expectation rose from 29% to 30%.

Damn it, what kind of fucked-up nightmare was this?!

Chen Ling pinched himself hard, trying to wake himself from the dream. But aside from the familiar pain, there was no sign that he was about to awaken.

[Intermission over. Please continue performing.]

Another line appeared on the screen. Immediately afterward, a crisp bell suddenly rang from above the stage!

Ding-ling-ling—

Before Chen Ling could react, the scene before his eyes shattered inch by inch, and his consciousness rapidly blurred...

Before losing consciousness, he vaguely saw the enormous, mysterious black curtain behind him slowly being drawn open!

Bang!

Chen Ling suddenly sat bolt upright in bed!

The sheets were already soaked through with cold sweat. His chest heaved violently, and his eyes were filled with terror.

He swallowed and slowly scanned his surroundings. Once he confirmed that he was in his own room rather than that damned stage, he finally relaxed.

"Was it a dream... That dream was way too bizarre."

After calming himself, he got up and walked into the living room.

The rain outside had mostly stopped, though the sky was still dim. Chen Ling called for his parents several times, but no one answered. The entire house was silent.

"Did they go to work this early?" Chen Ling muttered to himself.

Chen Ling rubbed his empty stomach. Last night's nightmare seemed to have drained too much of his strength; even his steps felt unsteady. Left with no choice, he went into the kitchen to find something to eat first.

The moment he stepped inside, something tripped him. Looking down, he saw—

The remains of a bucket that looked as though it had been gnawed apart by a wild beast.

What happened to this bucket? Did it freeze and crack in the cold?

Chen Ling could not remember what had happened last night at all. He muttered suspiciously to himself, then set the bucket upright and tossed it into a corner before grabbing a rag to wipe up the water spilled across the floor.

The moment he crouched down, he froze.

The puddle on the floor began to move on its own, as though an invisible figure were crouching across from him, dipping a fingertip into the water and writing something on the floor.

The next moment, the transparent water visibly turned blood-red, forming a line of twisted, eerie words before Chen Ling.

[We are watching you.]