Buried in Flames

Chapter 8: Buried in Flames

The fire erupted, savage tongues of flame spreading rapidly through the cinema.

Qin Manjiang grabbed Li Xijiu and turned, running toward the screening room's exit.

Thick smoke was already choking their mouths and noses.

"Head for the restroom."

If they soaked towels or clothing in water and covered their mouths and noses, they still had a slim chance of escaping. Otherwise, the surging heat alone would injure their airways and leave them unable to breathe.

"Okay." Li Xijiu answered at once.

When they rushed out of the screening room, smoke already filled the corridor, making it impossible to open their eyes.

They bent low, covering their mouths and noses. They had no idea where the fire had started, but tongues of flame were already licking out everywhere.

Just then, a bang rang out.

The ceiling suddenly collapsed!

Before they could reach the restroom, fallen rubble blocked their way.

Qin Manjiang looked around. Stay calm. I have to think calmly.

The fire had broken out, but that did not mean they were out of options.

But... where was the way out of this fire?

Qin Manjiang desperately racked his brains.

Suddenly...

"Watch out!"

Li Xijiu shoved him hard again!

Qin Manjiang stumbled and slammed into the wall.

He turned to look and saw a long, gaunt figure emerge from the flames!

Its gaze shifted from Qin Manjiang to Li Xijiu. Barefoot, it walked toward them through the fire.

"Run!" Qin Manjiang's heart lurched. He scrambled up and seized Li Xijiu's arm, and they immediately broke into a desperate sprint.

But Li Xijiu was in terrible shape. His sudden exertion had dislodged the blade embedded in his forearm. Now blood gushed from the wound, and his face was as white as paper, as though he might collapse at any moment.

Beneath the blazing firelight, the floor began to change as well.

The flooring cracked apart. The exquisitely laid carpet had become perfect fuel, and the stench of burning materials kept washing over them in the waves of heat.

Plastic, wood, fibers, and even burning flesh... the smell was so nauseating that it was almost unbearable.

Bent double, the two made their way through the screening room as the fire spread wildly.

"Forget the restroom! Let's go straight downstairs! If we get out of the cinema now, at least we won't burn to death!"

Li Xijiu shouted.

Qin Manjiang nodded. Yet all around them, the walls, floor, and ceiling began cracking and collapsing in great sections beneath the flames. The damage looked strangely old and decrepit, nothing like freshly scorched surfaces. It was almost as though... a glamorous skin had been peeled away, exposing the ugly face beneath.

Behind them, the Tall Wraith bent down in the flames and picked up its cleaver. Its gaze had been fixed on Li Xijiu all this time.

Something horrifying happened...

The Tall Wraith plunged the blade into its own abdomen!

Once the tip pierced its belly, it began howling and screaming madly.

At that same instant, Li Xijiu's already pale face turned almost blue, and cold sweat poured from his forehead!

He lowered his head and stared at his abdomen. Crimson blood slowly seeped out.

Qin Manjiang hurriedly supported Li Xijiu and was about to keep fleeing, but Li Xijiu struggled and said, "Leave me, Qin... on your own... you still have a chance..."

"Don't... look it in the eye. Once you do... it can hurt you... by hurting itself..."

Li Xijiu spoke haltingly, but his words were still clear.

Qin Manjiang's heart jolted. Li Xijiu had shouted a warning and pushed him away earlier, but the Tall Wraith had only just appeared then. It had still been too far away to hurt him.

Li Xijiu seemed to have foreseen the rule that meeting its gaze would leave them vulnerable.

Qin Manjiang said nothing. It was impossible to tell whether he had taken those words in. He simply helped Li Xijiu up, crouched down, and said:

"Get on. Otherwise, I'll burn to death here with you."

Li Xijiu stared blankly at the man before him, so familiar and yet so unfamiliar. Emotions churned in his eyes, and his expression shifted uncontrollably.

Silently, he climbed onto Qin Manjiang's back and said nothing more.

Just then, a pair of bare feet stepped out of the flames. It was coming again.

With Li Xijiu on his back, Qin Manjiang, whose stamina had never been particularly good, moved even more slowly.

Fortunately, the constantly collapsing cinema created plenty of obstacles for the towering Vengeful Ghost. Qin Manjiang finally forced himself onward and reached the corridor.

Just as he was about to head around to the stairs and descend to the first floor, he suddenly saw a pitch-black shadow flash past beside him!

It was Little Ghost!

Even amid the fire, Qin Manjiang felt a chill.

Little Ghost had never attacked anyone, but it was still best to be cautious and keep clear of him.

Even so, there was no time left to watch every step. Little Ghost was blocking the path ahead. They had to pass right by him!

The flames on either side grew fiercer, and the air they could breathe grew scarcer. With their injuries on top of that, how much longer could they last?

Qin Manjiang did not know either, but he refused to give up like this.

I can't die yet...

At least, not here. Not like this.

My sister hasn't woken up, my father's death is still a mystery, and my life has only just begun.

And... I promised. As long as I'm alive, I'll bring Li Xijiu back.

"...If I hadn't called you for help..."

Li Xijiu suddenly spoke.

Those words made Qin Manjiang falter.

The crackling, roaring flames scorched their skin. Oxygen dwindled in the air, and the suffocating feeling grew worse.

Behind them, the Tall Vengeful Ghost raced through scorching rubble and flames, while Qin Manjiang's body was already utterly exhausted.

Li Xijiu barely spoke anymore, nor did he crack jokes. The ghost had stabbed him through some eerie means. Though the wound was not yet fatal, it seemed to have drained much of his strength.

At this deadly juncture, Little Ghost's appearance made their situation even more hopeless.

Qin Manjiang could see no way to survive.

"Qin, put me down."

Qin Manjiang seemed to pay no attention to Li Xijiu's words.

He merely kept his head down and carried Li Xijiu forward, step after step.

"Hey! Sensible surrender or blind persistence-you've always chosen the former, haven't you? Let go of me!"

Li Xijiu began struggling.

"Neither of us will survive this!"

"Then we'll die together!"

Qin Manjiang roared, something he rarely did.

He was not that kind of person, and he never spoke so harshly.

After shouting, he fell silent again. He simply kept carrying Li Xijiu onward, gasping for breath.

Li Xijiu fell silent.

Qin Manjiang's resolve was beyond anything he could have imagined. Even with Little Ghost blocking the way, he would push past him and reach the first floor... leave this cinema. Even if they plunged into that horrifying darkness, they could find another way.

As long as they were alive.

In any case... he could not give up.

Three steps...

Two steps...

One step!

As he approached Little Ghost, Qin Manjiang suddenly felt a sense of familiarity.

He was neither frightening nor sinister. If he wanted to kill them, neither of them could put up any resistance now.

But...

Once they passed Little Ghost, a gust of wind swept past Qin Manjiang, and that sense of familiarity grew even stronger.

This was...

That wind!

The wind that had turned the driver's Safe Journey Pendant, the wind that had pushed him deeper into the cinema's ruins, the wind that had swept past him and then stopped...

The wind halted before him, preventing him from continuing toward the first floor.

It became a pitch-black shadow, sprouted limbs, and took the shape of a child.

It really was him... that child, Little Ghost, who had been trapped in the restroom!

He was not a ghost that originally belonged in this Ghost Story Game. He had followed them here from the real world!

Little Ghost watched Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu with his pitch-black eye sockets, as though he wanted to say something.

The firelight fell across his face, making his expression look especially agonized.

Right... he burned to death. Of course he would fear fire.

Bang!

A huge chunk of fallen rubble was swept aside by the Vengeful Ghost, sent flying. Fierce tongues of flame lashed out, staining the exposed night sky red.

Qin Manjiang's heart hammered. Humans undoubtedly had no means of fighting a Vengeful Ghost.

But they were certainly not lambs waiting to be slaughtered, either.

"Put me down..."

When Li Xijiu spoke again, his tone was one Qin Manjiang had never heard before.

He struggled off Qin Manjiang's back with surprising strength.

"Get to the first floor. Otherwise, you'll really lose your chance."

With his back to Qin Manjiang, Li Xijiu spoke softly.

Qin Manjiang looked at Little Ghost, who stood blocking their path and even tried to stop them from reaching the first floor. Then he looked at Li Xijiu, whose back was turned to him as he faced the Tall Wraith head-on.

His mind raced.

No...

That's not right...

There would be no point in a game with no way to survive.

There must be a way out... but where?

...Little Ghost.

He suddenly recalled a scene he had seen in Screening Room Three.

The child had left faint handprints on the city's clean mirrors...

There were little black handprints on the restroom mirror too, just like the marks the child had left while alive!

So this child... even though he died, he never changed.

Like the other dead audience members, he merely lingered in this cinema. He had never hurt or killed anyone...

He held no hatred. He simply existed.

The one who had truly never let go was the man who had not died in the fire, but had instead chosen suicide.

Rather than being unable to let go of his hatred, he had never forgiven himself.

He hated the big city for rejecting him, hated his own helplessness, and hated heaven's injustice even more!

So... the Tall Wraith was the only one who truly wanted to kill. That child had followed us from the real world, lingering between the corridor and the restroom, watching helplessly as his father went mad and descended into an evil ghost.

If that was the case, and the information in Screening Room Three indicated that the child could be trusted, then the other details there must contain a crucial clue as well.

The other details...

The fast-food restaurant and clothing store?

No...

They were completely demolished afterward.

Screening Room Three?

No...

Screening Room Three served to convey the information.

Could it be the last stall?

No, that wasn't right either.

That stall never opened, even at the end.

Wait!

The window beside the stall!

The Tall Wraith had not burned to death in the cinema. He had stayed outside the stall, intending to burn to death with his son, but at the last moment, firefighters had broken through the window and rescued him from the blaze!

That's it!

Once Qin Manjiang found that thread, every piece instantly fell into place.

The way out was there. That window was the only exit from this world, and it was also the knot in the Tall Wraith's heart!

To the Tall Wraith, it was not a path to survival, but the source of its pain and hatred!

"I know the way out! Come on!"

Qin Manjiang instinctively reached for Li Xijiu's arm. This time, however, he could not budge him.

In the blazing firelight, Li Xijiu stood perfectly straight, as though he had never been injured.

He had kept his back to Qin Manjiang all this time.

"I know... the way out..." Qin Manjiang's gaze slowly went blank. He had noticed the signs long ago, but had never dared to think them through.

Not until this moment.

The lashing flames coiled toward Li Xijiu. Though the wound on his forearm looked hideous, not a single drop of blood flowed from it anymore. The torn flesh was deathly white.

The Tall Wraith roared amid flames that towered into the sky, hacking aside every piece of rubble in the way with a cleaver as it charged toward them.

Little Ghost huddled in a corner, hugging trembling knees.

Li Xijiu turned his head, hideous black veins bulging around his eyes. He was smiling, yet tears streamed down his face as he said:

"Qin Manjiang, I can't go back."

The book's under contract now! Go ahead and invest in it with confidence-you have my word!

Thanks to Fill the Plot Holes Please, Flower, Cassia Seed, Roast Ducky, Return Together at Midnight, the two readers named Reader 2022, Little White Loves AD Calcium Milk, Old Lewd Cutie, Medicine Otherwise, Wandering Old Man, and Nangong for the tips. Thank you, everyone!

(End of chapter)