We Are Watching You

"Is... is it a ghost?"

The frenzied rain lashed against the cold window. Their hearts were like flames in a lamp, flickering unsteadily.

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

"Are you insane?!"

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

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

"Then... what do we do about him?"

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

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

After a long while, as if he had finally made up his mind, the man took a black raincoat from beside the door and pushed it open.

"Where are you going?"

"To where we buried the body!"

"Now? What for?"

"To verify it." Rain streamed 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 such a thunderstorm, but compared with being alone with that unknown thing sleeping in the bedroom, the woman would rather choose the former.

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

Bedroom.

The sleeping Chen Ling's eyelashes suddenly trembled faintly, as if he were having a nightmare.

In his dream, his consciousness kept sinking, as if he were falling into a bottomless cavern. After an unknown length of time, he seemed to land on some hard ground and finally steadied himself.

Thud—thud—thud—thud—

A dull mechanical sound rang out. Then, beams of light pierced through the darkness like swords, converging upon 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 he had adapted to the harsh light, he looked around in confusion.

Within the reach of the beams, he could see only his vermilion opera robe, the worn wooden floor beneath his feet, and a corner of the black curtain behind him, likewise illuminated... Beyond the light lay endless unknown darkness.

At the sight of this scene, Chen Ling froze.

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

"A stage?"

As an active Theater director and playwright, Chen Ling was intimately familiar with stages. In his previous life, right until he had been crushed to death by a falling light, he had been studying positions 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 stage lighting in the Theater from his previous life had been better than this. The curtains had not been black, and the floor had not been such old wooden boards.

Then was he dreaming?

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

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

"Who's there?!"

Since the lights could follow his movements, they were most likely being controlled by someone. Unless this place used a fully automated follow-spot system as well, but given how old this stage was, that possibility was nearly zero.

"Who's there..."

"Who's there..."

"There..."

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

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

In stage design, that spot was usually reserved for a teleprompter to keep actors or hosts from forgetting their lines midway through. But on the screen now was a string of red characters—

[Audience Anticipation: 29%]

In the lower-left corner of the screen was a smaller line of text.

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

Chen Ling stared at the screen in confusion...

Audience? What audience?

Thud—thud—thud—

The familiar sound of lights switching on rang out again!

The darkness before the stage receded like a tide. Hundreds, thousands of wooden seats 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 perfectly reasonable for a stage to have Audience seating. What truly made Chen Ling's scalp go numb was that, at some unknown point...

Those seats had already been filled with "Audience."

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

The sole exception was their eyes.

Countless scarlet pupils opened in the gloom. Sitting in their respective wooden chairs, they watched Chen Ling on the stage like a cluster of cats cornering a mouse, their gazes mocking and ravenous.

Under their stares, Chen Ling felt a chill crawl up the back of his neck. He had no idea what these "Audience" were, but they were definitely not human!

Chen Ling forced himself to stop looking at those horrifying eyes, spun around, and sprinted toward the other end of the stage.

Logically, stage exits should be on both sides. As long as he got off the stage, he should be able to escape those ghostly things for the moment!

The follow spot locked onto the red-clad figure as he ran straight to the edge of the stage—only to find a bare wall waiting for him.

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, countless scarlet pupils followed his flight, shifting continuously like a group of "Audience" utterly absorbed in a wonderful performance.

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

At the same time, the characters on the display at center stage flickered... Audience Anticipation 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. Then, a crisp ringing suddenly sounded from above the stage!

Ding, ding, ding—

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

Before he lost consciousness, he vaguely saw the enormous, mysterious black curtain behind him slowly opening!

Bang!

Chen Ling abruptly sat up in bed!

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

He swallowed and slowly looked around. 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 steadying himself, he got up and walked into the living room.

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

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

Chen Ling touched his empty stomach. Last night's nightmare seemed to have drained too much of his strength; he felt as if he were floating even while walking. With no other choice, he went into the kitchen to find something to eat first.

The moment he entered, 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 the cold freeze it until it cracked?

Chen Ling had no recollection whatsoever of what had happened last night. He muttered suspiciously to himself, then picked up the bucket and tossed it into a corner before finding a rag to wipe up the water on the floor.

The moment he crouched down, he froze.

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

The next moment, the transparent water stains visibly turned blood-red. A string of twisted, eerie words formed before Chen Ling.

—[We are watching you].