Travel: Hangzhou Arc (7): Midnight Mansion Horror (Part 2)

Lynae: Strange... It's already 1:30. Principal Roccia should have sent a message in the group chat asking us to report the number of people...

Chisa: Hmm... Anyone still here, come forward and state your numbers.

Sigrika: 1

Lynae: 2

Phoebe: 3

Cartethyia: 4

"More than half of them are missing?!" Chisa's expression immediately tensed up.

The situation is dire; the mansion that originally housed more than twenty people now has only about ten left.

The members who are still active are: Lynae, Chisa, Sigrika, Cartethyia, Phoebe, Rover, Shorekeeper, Tsubaki, Encore, Liang Yu, Lupa, and Mia. All the others have disappeared without a trace.

After waiting a while longer and finding that the remaining people still hadn't replied, she had to prepare for the worst.

Chisa: Who among you is close to Miss Crimson Snow and Principal Roccia? Go check on them.

Cartethyia: Our assigned area is right next to theirs.

Chisa: Cart!

"Let's go." Having received the next instruction, Cartethyia jumped off the pool table.

"Where to?" Phoebe asked quickly.

"Go to the other side; that's the search area Miss Roccia and her team are in charge of. They've gone missing."

"Alright, I'll lead the way. Miss Cart, please stay close to me."

"This door shows signs of having been forcibly broken into."

Using the flashlight on her phone, Cartethyia immediately noticed that the lock on the door to the home theater had been kicked open.

"Such strength..." Phoebe exclaimed. "Let's go inside. Miss Cart, just stand behind me as before!"

"This is troublesome."

And so, Phoebe walked ahead, holding her staff, while Cart followed behind, flashlight in hand, as they entered the theater together.

Logically, the stronger Cartethyia should have gone first, but Phoebe, as a member of the order, couldn't allow her to hide behind others and do things.

"Miss Cart, look here!"

After searching the theater for a while, Phoebe also found Crimson Snow's lost headdress, as well as the conspicuous "Seven" next to it.

"This is... Crimson Snow's headdress... It seems she's the seventh one to be captured..." Cartethyia, her brows furrowing slightly.

"Come look here, Cart!" Phoebe beckoned Cartethyia.

Cartethyia responded and immediately noticed the camera carelessly tossed on the ground, next to which was the Roman numeral VIII.

"This... is it a Roman numeral? I saw it online before," Phoebe said after a moment's thought. "This symbol means eight, which means Miss Roccia is the eighth person to go missing."

"Hmm... I think there might be some clues in this camera... Shall we try opening it and taking a look?"

At Little Cart's suggestion, the two turned on the camera and began looking through the photos.

"I don't feel like I'm finding any clues..." Phoebe rested her chin on her hand, staring at the gym photos that Roccia had just taken.

"We didn't find any useful information..." Cartethyia shook her head. "Hey? Phoebe, look at this!"

"What's wrong? What happened?"

"A photo of Miss Roccia." Cartethyia showed Phoebe a selfie of Roccia that she had found in her camera.

"Hmm... I don't see anything here?" Phoebe stared at the photo for a long time before shaking her head, still puzzled.

"How could I not see it? The photo is right here..."

Cartethyia sensed something was wrong and quickly said to Phoebe, "Phoebe, take a picture with your phone and see."

"Oh... okay!"

After Phoebe took a picture of the camera with her phone, her beautiful eyes widened suddenly.

"No... I didn't get a picture..." Phoebe's voice trembled slightly, "Miss Roccia isn't in the photo at all!"

"Let me see?" Cartethyia took Phoebe's phone and, after confirming again that there was no picture of Roccia on the phone, suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.

Since neither Phoebe nor the phone saw Roccia in the photo, then what's in the camera's picture now...?

"That's strange... Cart and the others should have given us feedback by now, so why is there still no sign of them?" Lynae leaned against the wall, chin resting on her index finger as she pondered.

"I'll send a message and ask." Chisa took out her phone and tagged Cart and Phoebe in the group chat.

Chisa: Cartethyia Phoebe Please let me know your current status. Reply if you receive this message. (Repeated)

After waiting for about fifteen minutes, Cartethyia and Phoebe still hadn't replied, Chisa figured that the two of them were probably in grave danger.

"I'll go down and take a look," Chisa said, preparing to go to the basement herself to check the situation.

"Um... I'll go..." Sigrika volunteered, her voice trembling slightly.

"Are you sure you can handle it?" Chisa asked. "If you're scared, you don't have to force yourself."

"... It's alright... Just leave it to me."

"I'll go with you!" Lupa nudged Sigrika with her elbow. "It's too dangerous for one person. It'll be better if we go together for mutual support."

"Okay, thank you so much, Sister Lupa!" Sigrika smiled, her fear subsiding somewhat.

After finalizing the plan, Lupa and Sigrika formed a new team and went to the basement to conduct another search.

"Watch your step, Sigrika," Lupa whispered a reminder.

Sigrika nodded vigorously and walked to the basement almost touching Lupa.

As soon as she entered the basement, Lupa's keen hearing suddenly detected something unusual.

"There's a chewing sound, not far ahead of us." Lupa's wolf ears perked up quietly. "Be careful, crept over to investigate."

Sigrika responded and followed behind Lupa, keeping a low profile.

About ten minutes later, they finally arrived at the entrance of the home theater.

"The sound is coming from here," Lupa a flashlight over there and take a look."

"Okay." Sigrika immediately moved her flashlight to the cinema entrance.

Then, they witnessed a scene that would send chills down the spines of most people.

Lying on the floor inside the door were half of Cartethyia and Phoebe's bodies, which were being slowly devoured by what was inside, with chewing sounds ringing out continuously. It seemed that the creature was treating the two of them as a delicious midnight snack.

"Don't make a sound, Sigrika, and don't take any pictures. Quietly go back and meet up with Chisa and the others." Lupa's voice was extremely low.

Sigrika had almost screamed out of fright at what she had just witnessed, quickly covered her mouth and followed Lupa step by step back upstairs.

Fifteen minutes later.

"Oh my god, that's really creepy..." Lupa felt goosebumps rising on her skin. "I hate this kind of weird stuff the most."

"Ha... ha..." Sigrika's face turned deathly pale; she looked genuinely terrified. "Now we..."

"Let's go back and meet up with them first."

"Okay..." Sigrika's face had just regained some color when she was startled by what she saw next and screamed.

"Lupa! You... you're on your waist! What's that...!"

"Hmm?" Lupa looked down at her waist and noticed that a pair of pale-skinned, sharp-nailed woman's hands had appeared on her sides.

"Oh no... this is bad."

Then she was suddenly pulled back to the basement by those hands, dragged into the darkness before she could even resist. The basement door was also locked from the inside by a mysterious force, and Sigrika couldn't open it no matter how hard she tried.

"... I need to hurry back and tell everyone!"

After taking several deep breaths, Sigrika, her legs feeling a little weak, immediately ran upstairs to join the other survivors.