Facing fear

"Hide in here?"

"Yeah, in the wardrobe. There's plenty of room." The boy struggled to push aside the clothes weighing him down. His skin had broken out in a red rash from being smothered beneath them. "I won't hurt you. Lots of people can hide in this wardrobe."

Strange sounds drifted faintly from the wardrobe behind the boy, like muffled cries for help. Zhu Miaomiao was terrified that if she opened the other door, she would find her colleagues' bodies folded up inside.

"My dad and mom will be here soon. They have really bad tempers. You'd better come over quickly." The boy's voice was soft, as though he had never dared to speak loudly. "If my dad and mom find you, they'll chop you into pieces."

It was hard to imagine words like "chop you into pieces" coming from a child. Zhu Miaomiao tightened her grip on the Fire Axe. Right now, the axe in her hands was the only thing that made her feel safe.

"My dad and mom are really mean. They destroy everything. They want to kill everything in the cruelest way possible." The boy waved his hands, gesturing to Zhu Miaomiao. "They're three meters tall. Dad is really strong, and Mom often picks up sharp things. They hate each other, but their bodies are fused together, so they can't get away from each other."

As the boy described them, Zhu Miaomiao involuntarily pictured a monster.

A brutal, three-meter-tall man and a woman holding a sharp weapon were twisted together, swaying down the hallway as they hunted down her colleagues.

The moment those thoughts entered her mind, Zhu Miaomiao heard heavy footsteps suddenly sound in the hallway.

"Don't talk! My dad and mom are coming!"

The boy covered his mouth. Zhu Miaomiao was so tense that she barely dared to breathe.

As the footsteps drew closer, the sounds of a man and woman arguing and hurling insults drifted into the room.

"You fucking bitch! I'll strangle you!"

"Am I wrong? You're a useless coward who only acts tough at home. Thank goodness our son isn't yours."

"***, I'll kill you!"

Even Zhu Miaomiao, an adult, could hardly bear their filthy language. It was difficult to imagine how their child felt whenever he heard those words.

Shoes crunched over broken glass, and the woman's nails scraped across the plaster. As those noises reached Zhu Miaomiao's door, they suddenly all stopped.

Her palms were drenched in sweat. Zhu Miaomiao felt that the monster was right outside the door, and she looked up.

Something forced open the decorative window above the doorframe. Strands of hair fell into the room. Zhu Miaomiao went pale with fright. Just as her legs were about to give way, she suddenly heard a door being unlocked out in the hallway.

The black hair that had almost entered the room slowly withdrew. The monster seemed to have left.

Zhu Miaomiao didn't dare open the door. She carefully laid the Fire Axe flat and took her phone from her pocket. Holding it at the very corner of the small window above the doorframe, she poked the camera outside.

Standing on tiptoe, Zhu Miaomiao stared at the phone screen. One glance was enough to send her heart pounding uncontrollably.

The image on the screen wasn't very clear, but she could just make out a deformed man three meters tall, pressed against the wall beside the door of the apartment opposite hers.

His arms were several times thicker than an ordinary person's, and a woman was wrapped around his body. The two had grown together. All four eyes were fixed on the lock that had just made a noise, their vicious, venomous gazes inspiring utter terror!

A monster! The terrifying creature was almost identical to the horror Zhu Miaomiao had imagined. It was as though the monster had taken shape according to her imagination.

Only by biting down on her lip did Zhu Miaomiao keep herself from making a sound. Cold sweat ran from her forehead to her chin. Before joining the Investigation Bureau, she had known she might encounter monsters, but she had never expected that day to arrive so soon!

Veins bulged along her neck. Zhu Miaomiao didn't dare make a sound. Her arms had gone rigid, and she didn't dare move a muscle.

The hallway remained silent for a while. The people hiding in the room opposite hers might have thought the monster had left and wanted to check outside.

The handle slowly turned, and the old apartment door opened a crack.

The people inside still had no idea that the monster was lurking right beside them. Zhu Miaomiao's heart was in her throat.

"It looks safe."

A familiar voice came from inside. It belonged to another rookie.

The door slowly swung farther open, and her colleague's face appeared in the gap. The terrifying monster shifted with it. The deformed man clenched his fists, while the deformed woman gripped a sharp knife.

A piercing chill filled the air. The gleaming tip of the knife hovered above that face.

"Look out!"

Zhu Miaomiao couldn't stand by and do nothing. At the last moment, she pushed open her door, raised the Fire Axe, and shouted a warning. "The ghost is right outside your door!"

The deformed man and woman turned their heads at the same time. Zhu Miaomiao's legs went weak with terror. She didn't dare fight back, and no other thought could form in her mind. Fear sent her instinctively fleeing.

The investigator hiding in the opposite room reacted too, but by the time he tried to close the door, it was already too late.

The deformed man yanked the door open. Swaying as though drunk, he charged brutally into the room.

The man seemed to have done this often in the child's life. Some of his habits still lingered from the past.

"I'll hold it off! You go first!" The burly driver's voice echoed through the rented room, followed by the crash of breaking glass and the thud of something heavy hitting the ground. The dependable, burly investigator seemed to have been shoved out and fallen to the floor below.

But while he drew the monster's attention, the other rookie investigators and Bai Qiao ran out.

"Split up and find rooms to hide in! Look for clues and rules! The way out of an Anomaly Event is often hidden in the place where it happens!" Bai Qiao tried to calm everyone down, but the rookies, overwhelmed by fear, ignored her completely. Everything they had learned during their Investigation Bureau training had been forgotten. They swarmed downstairs.

"Don't leave the site of the Anomaly Event! If you enter the fog outside, you'll lose yourselves! You'll never be able to come back!"

Bai Qiao's warnings were useless. The rookie investigators only wanted to get away as quickly as possible. Fear had already taken root in their minds and destroyed their reason.

The stairwell was filled with cries and footsteps. Everyone was running out of the building. The child who had been hiding in the wardrobe was among them, but the rookie investigators, thinking only of escape, never noticed the extra person at their side.

"Come back! Don't let fear control you!"

Bai Qiao chased after them toward the exit. Zhu Miaomiao seemed to be the only person left inside.

What should I do?

The very first page of the Investigation Bureau Training Handbook stated that anyone caught up in an Anomaly Event must never run around blindly. Once they lost their way, they would never find their way home again.

The handbook made that clear, but if she couldn't run, where could she hide?

Zhu Miaomiao stared desperately into the room opposite hers. The huge, terrifying monster overturned the table and wardrobe like a violent madman. Anything intact that fell into its hands would be destroyed.

Treading through the blood on the floor, the deformed man slowly turned. Carrying the deformed woman on his back, he fixed his gaze on Zhu Miaomiao.

It seemed she was the only person left in the entire building. The instant the monster saw her, every nerve in Zhu Miaomiao's body trembled with fear.

The monster grew larger and larger in her sight. Its twisted, hideous body seemed to keep growing because of her fear.

Zhu Miaomiao felt as though she had returned to many years ago, when she had been a child surrounded by a raging fire. Everything in her home had burned. Thick smoke, flames, and scorching heat seared her cheeks as her skin dried and cracked.

"Help me. Is anyone still there..."

Her callused hands could barely hold on to the Fire Axe anymore, but Zhu Miaomiao still hadn't fallen. She used every last bit of strength to point its blade at the monster.

It's over. There's nothing I can do.

The monster filled Zhu Miaomiao's entire field of vision. Indescribable despair flooded her mind. The Fire Axe felt heavier and heavier in her hands. Just as it was about to slip from her grip, the sound of a chain striking a metal railing suddenly rang out from the far end of the hallway.

The deformed man's head was already right before her eyes, but that crisp sound seemed to hold a strange magic. It cleared Zhu Miaomiao's mind a little, and she looked toward its source.

In the pitch-black hallway, a young man who wasn't wearing an Investigation Bureau uniform was sprinting toward her.

A black chain was wrapped around his left hand. There wasn't a trace of fear in his eyes.

Planting one foot against the peeling wall, the young man slammed into the monster's back. Gripping the chain with both hands, he pulled it tight around the deformed creature's neck!

"Don't be afraid!"

Hearing the young man's voice, Zhu Miaomiao felt, for a hazy instant, as though she had returned to the year she turned six. Just as the fire was about to swallow her, a firefighter had broken down the door and charged into the blaze.

(End of chapter)