Mingbo is in trouble
At this moment, I am standing on the street of this strange city, looking at the endless stream of vehicles and people, with uncontrollable panic and uneasiness surging in my heart, as if I am not facing a city, but a huge monster; perhaps it was it that swallowed Mingbo, so it is equally dangerous to me.
However, this journey is unavoidable. I can not mention the publishing contract we signed half a year ago, nor can I mention the part of the advance payment for which I was directly responsible, but what I cannot help but mention is that we have been friends for many years , and the extremely strange disappearance of him directly touched my nerves.
Now please allow me to give a brief introduction of our identity here.
Mingbo is a suspense novelist who has emerged in recent years, and I am a planning editor of a large-scale cultural company in China. We have worked closely together for several years and have launched many suspense novels with good sales to the market. While our company has made a lot of profits, Mingbo's reputation has also been rising. But half a year ago, Mingbo moved to this city, and then we signed a contract for his new book and paid part of the royalties in advance to show our full support for him.
A few months later, the deadline was approaching, but Mingbo had not made any progress. Out of concern, I called him to ask if he could submit the manuscript on time. But to my surprise, Mingbo hesitated and said apologetically that he had hardly written a single word since moving into this house.
His answer made me a little annoyed, but I still asked him patiently: "What's wrong, no inspiration?"
He said: "I think there is something wrong with the house I live in. I always hear a woman's weird laughter in the house, which is sharp and piercing, but I can't locate its source."
So I suggested to him, "Since you think that house is weird, why don't you live somewhere else?"
But Mingbo replied: "Yes, I admit that I am very scared, but now, my curiosity has overwhelmed the fear, and I am eager to find out the source of this weird laughter."
Two weeks later, I unexpectedly received a call from Mingbo. I thought he had made some progress in his writing, but to my surprise, the first thing he said was, "I found the source of the sound. It comes from those gaps."
I asked him, "What gap?"
He said: "All the gaps, it is floating around, everywhere…"
To be honest, I thought Mingbo was out of his mind. But I didn't say anything more, except to reiterate to him the importance of submitting the manuscript on time.
But a week ago, when I received another call from Mingbo, I was shocked this time. I heard him say only one complete sentence on the phone: "Yuelou, save me, it is eating me…" Then the rest were screams of terror. After the screams lasted for two minutes, the other end finally fell silent.
In the next few days, no one answered all my call backs, and I began to have a strong foreboding feeling: something had happened to Mingbo.
Ming Bo's Room
Near noon, I found the old house where Mingbo rented: No. 28, Soulless Street. Before entering it, I kept thinking about this extremely uncomfortable street name, feeling that it was like someone's prank full of black humor.
The landlord who received me was a middle-aged man in his forties. His pale complexion, scattered eyes and thin body made me feel like a paper doll, soulless, fragile and likely to be blown away by the wind at any time.
He spoke very little, and when he looked at me, I could not sense any of his thoughts. It was as if I was in the wilderness, facing only the empty void. In order to quickly dispel this unbearable weird feeling, I had to keep talking and explain my purpose to him in detail.
After that, he took me upstairs. When he opened the door, he talked more. He said to me, "I haven't seen your friend for many days. He seldom goes out, and it's not uncommon for him to disappear for two or three days. So I didn't pay much attention to him, but this time I haven't seen him for seven days. Out of concern, I opened the door of his room last night, but found that the room was empty. At first, I thought he had left without saying goodbye, but soon I found that his computer, books, luggage and daily necessities were still there. So I called his cell phone, and then I found that his phone was ringing in the room. After searching for a while in the room, I found his cell phone on the floor in the corner of the room. The phone was a little damaged. It seemed that he had not picked it up since it fell on the floor. When I put his phone on his desk and turned to go out, I suddenly heard a woman's weird laughter behind me. I looked back, but there was no one behind me…"
"You said you heard a woman's strange laughter?" I couldn't help but interrupt him when he said this.
"Yes, I heard a woman's weird laughter, but it's nothing strange. Living in this house and this street for a long time, you will always hear some strange voices, old people, children, men, women, or see some strange things. I am no longer surprised by their pranks."
The door opened, and we walked into the house. After looking around, the weird feeling increased. I saw that almost all the gaps in the room, such as the window gaps, the closet door gaps, and the drawer door gaps, were covered with thick layers of transparent tape. This made me confused, and I turned around to look at the landlord. He immediately understood what I meant and said, "Yes, I also found this strange thing, but I don't understand what your friend is doing at all."
So I said, "How about this, Mr. Landlord? I will stay here tonight and wait for my friend. I think maybe he is out traveling or doing something else. What do you think?"
The landlord replied, "It's no problem. Your friend's rent hasn't expired yet, so you can stay here until the rent expires. Also, my last name is Wang Liuxiang, so you can just call me Mr. Wang from now on." After saying this, the landlord walked out.
I put down my backpack, then looked around the room again, casually flipped through Mingbo's books, and turned on his computer. Occasionally, when I looked back, my eyes fell on the ubiquitous tapes, so I walked to the closet, started from there, and tore them all off and threw them into the trash can.
At this time, Mingbo's computer was already turned on. I sat down and moved the mouse to search Mingbo's documents, wanting to know where his manuscript was written. But suddenly, I felt something was wrong in the room. When I turned around, I saw a woman's distorted shadow on the closet door, just like a person's shadow under the sun or light, thin and long, and slowly swam out from the gap in the closet door and moved towards the ceiling. I turned around and looked in the opposite direction, but found that there was no light or sunlight that could reach this position, and there was no one in front of or behind me. I couldn't help but feel some hair standing on end and goose bumps all over my body.
When I looked back, the shadow of the woman moving on the wall had disappeared. At this time, the extreme tension made me feel a little difficult to breathe. I stood up and walked to the door, wanting to open it and let some fresh air in to relieve the pressure. But the moment I opened the door, a burst of women's shrill laughter drilled into my ears. The sound was unpleasant and sharp, as disgusting as a fly in the ear.
The landlord disappeared suddenly
I went back to the computer and after a while, I finally found the document with the title of the book I had signed. I double-clicked the mouse and opened it. I saw a few words typed repeatedly on the entire page: "It is there, it is everywhere, it is always watching me…" I turned to the next page of the document, and it was still the same words. I turned to the next page, and it was still the same words. I continued to turn and found that there were more than ten pages of documents with these words, but I did not see a single word of the main text of the novel.
Just as I was wondering, I heard two knocks at the door. I looked up and saw the landlord standing at the open door with a thermos in his hand. He said to me, "I brought you a thermos of hot water. If you need anything else, I'm in the reception room. If you call me upstairs, I'll hear you."
I quickly replied to him, "Thank you so much, Mr. Wang. I'm busy with something and can't greet you. You can just put the thermos on the coffee table." After saying this, I turned my attention back to the words.
Although I didn't look up at the landlord at this moment, I could still feel him walking towards the coffee table with the thermos in his hand, and I could also hear the cautious clacking sound when he walked. However, at this moment, I suddenly heard a muffled sound from where he was standing. Although it was a muffled sound, it was still loud enough to startle me. I subconsciously raised my head and saw that the thermos had fallen on the coffee table. The bottle must have exploded, and the boiling water in the bottle was steaming and flowing all over the surface of the coffee table.
But the landlord was gone.
This really scared me. I immediately stood up and walked to the coffee table, looking around. There was no place in such a small room to hide such a big living person, and it was impossible for him to walk out of the door so quickly in just one or two seconds. I had no choice but to stand in the room and called out in vain: "Mr. Wang, Mr. Wang…" Of course, no one would answer.
When I looked down again, I saw a left shoe lying with the sole facing up in a corner of the closet. It belonged to the landlord. The closet door was slightly open. I walked over and opened the closet door. There were only a few of Mingbo's clothes hanging in a mess.
The strange feeling started to surge in my heart again like a nest of restless caterpillars. So I turned around and went out, went downstairs, and went directly to the message room. I pushed the door open and saw that there was no one there. I had no choice but to stand at the edge of the building and shout to the whole building: "Mr. Wang, Mr. Wang, where are you?" I kept shouting for more than ten times, but no one answered. I had no choice but to go upstairs again and return to the house.
Weird woman
Sitting in front of Mingbo's computer, I thought for a long time and felt that it was not suitable to stay in this place for a long time, so it would be better to leave as soon as possible. But then I thought again, I didn't find Mingbo, nor did I solve the mystery of these strange events I encountered today. I was really unwilling to leave like this.
When I thought about this, I stood up and felt that I couldn't continue to be passive like this. I had to find some clues. So I opened the drawers where Mingbo kept his sundries one by one, hoping to find something. Finally, in the third drawer, I found a half-used Sony DV.
I turned around and looked around the room, and found Mingbo's shabby 14-inch color TV on a wooden bench in the corner. I walked over, plugged the DV data cable into the TV jack, turned on the TV, and after a simple adjustment, the picture appeared.
The first thing that appeared on the screen was Mingbo's face, but it was a face full of panic and fear, and it was distorted. His face was facing the camera, and he kept muttering to himself: "I know you are here, I know you are here, I know you are everywhere, I must take a picture of you…" He seemed to be adjusting the DV in his hand while talking. After about a minute, the picture stopped shaking, and it seemed that Mingbo put the DV somewhere. Then, his whole body appeared in the camera, holding a large roll of waterproof tape in his hand, and began to stick it on all the gaps in the room.
After a long while, he finally sat down on the floor, panting heavily, and looked around the room. At this time, almost all the gaps in the room were blocked. But at this moment, he suddenly stared at a certain direction with a vigilant look on his face, looking extremely nervous. I looked at the place he was staring at, but found that it happened to be a blind spot for the DV, but I still judged from the picture which direction was the door of the house.
Mingbo stood up, holding a roll of tape, and walked towards that direction, pulling the tape as he walked. When he bent down, I could only see half of his body. At this moment, a woman's weird and sharp laughter suddenly came from somewhere in the picture, and then Mingbo's figure suddenly disappeared from the picture, followed by a common sound, which sounded like he fell to the ground, and then all the sounds were the sound of struggling, which lasted for several minutes, and I finally heard him shouting: "Yuelou, save me, it's eating me…"
Seeing this, I finally understood that this was the moment when he called me.
What on earth had happened to Mingbo? Why was he so scared? Where had he gone? Was there really a man-eating monster or evil spirit hiding in this room, swallowing him alive? When I saw this, I couldn't help but be filled with questions.
Just as I couldn't help but think about it, the TV suddenly snapped and the screen went black. I looked carefully and found that the power was out. When I was about to reach out to turn on the TV again, I suddenly saw a woman in white standing behind me in the reflected screen. She was thin and skinny, with extremely pale skin, almost the same color as her clothes. I couldn't help but scream and squatted on the ground. But when I looked behind me in panic, I found that there was no one behind me. Looking back at the reflection of the movie screen, everything was normal there.
It was a false alarm, maybe I was seeing things, I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and relax. Then, I pressed the power switch of the TV again, but there was still no power, so I looked behind the TV to check if there was a problem with the line, and I was surprised to find that the TV power plug had been unplugged and thrown on the floor far away from the socket.
I couldn't help but feel nervous again. But I still mustered my courage and reached behind the TV to plug the TV back into the socket. But as soon as my hand touched the plug, I suddenly felt a cold hand grabbing my wrist. I was shocked and subconsciously pulled my hand back. But after pulling hard a few times, I still couldn't get away. Instead, I felt that the cold hand gripped my wrist even tighter.
At this time, I was almost scared to death. I had to desperately pull my hand out. After a few seconds of stalemate, I finally got out, but I sat down on the ground due to inertia. When I looked behind the TV with fear, I saw a slender and pale hand quickly retracted behind the TV.
The most fatal gap
When I calmed down a little, I was shocked to find that there were several long and thin finger marks left on my wrist. After a few minutes, my wrist began to become red and swollen.
Now I am basically sure that there is something wrong with this house, and Mingbo is most likely dead, so I should probably flee from here as soon as possible. As I started thinking this, I also started to pack my things.
A few minutes later, I walked towards the door with my backpack on my back, thinking to myself: Let’s deal with Mingbo later. Now, my first priority is to consider my own safety.
But just when I was only two steps away from the door, the door suddenly snapped and closed automatically at an extremely fast speed. This made me even more panicked. I rushed over desperately, grabbed the door handle and shook it desperately to open the door, but it seemed as if someone with great strength was holding it tightly outside the door, and it didn't move at all. Then, I heard the woman's strange laughter again, coming from behind me. I turned around, and there was still no one behind me.
I decided not to pay any more attention to it, and the most urgent thing was to open the door as soon as possible. But when I turned around again and was about to reach for the door handle, the scene I saw once again made my hair stand on end, and I almost wanted to run away – from the crack under the door, a pale and slender hand was reaching out, and then the second, third, fourth… More and more hands were reaching out from the crack, groping around, probably intending to catch me.
As a result, I no longer dared to approach the door. I could only retreat to the center of the room trembling and glance towards the window. I thought to myself, this is only the third floor. If there is really nowhere to escape, perhaps I can try to climb out of the window.
However, almost at the same time when this thought popped into my mind, I actually saw something rustling behind the curtain, and then a few pale fingers poked out…
Finally, I lost the courage to take a step toward the window.
Then, something even more terrifying happened. Suddenly, the strange woman's laughter began to sound again, sometimes in front of me, sometimes behind me, and sometimes above my head, floating around. Then, the rustling sound began to sound everywhere, and then I found that pale and slender hands began to grope out from all the gaps in the room. Countless hands came out from the gaps in drawers, wardrobes, and tables, moving around like snakes, shocking the eye.
At this moment, I suddenly remembered why Mingbo used tape to seal all the gaps in the room. In his opinion, this must be the only way to prevent these evil hands from invading his life.
At the same time, I remembered that when I was looking through Mingbo's drawers, I saw two rolls of tape left in one of them. I didn't hesitate any longer, and rushed to the drawer. After opening it, I grabbed the two rolls of tape, tore them apart, and then pasted them wherever I could. Every time I pasted a gap, the palm that came out of the gap would quickly shrink back. This showed that Mingbo's method was still effective, so I became more excited, and I didn't dare to be careless or slack. I kept tearing the tape, pasting it, tearing the tape, and pasting it… When I used up all the two rolls of tape, I was already sweating profusely. At the same time, I found that the room began to quiet down. But I was still worried, and walked around the room, searching, trying to find out if there was any gap that I missed. I checked very carefully, and fortunately, there was nothing missed, including the gap in the door of this house – the only way for me to escape, which was also pasted with thick tape.
I finally breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on a chair – at least I was safe for the time being, and now I should think about my next countermeasures.
However, at this moment, I suddenly felt an extremely bloated feeling in my throat, as if there was a thick and big snake in my stomach swimming in my throat and trying to drill out of my mouth.
This strange feeling suddenly made me panic. I quickly walked to Mingbo's dressing mirror, opened my mouth wide, and looked in the mirror, trying to figure out what was in my throat.
Then, I saw something so bizarre that I will never believe in my life. At the moment when I opened my mouth wide and looked at the mirror, a pale and slender hand suddenly and quickly came out of my mouth, grabbed my right arm, and pulled it into my mouth. Then, I watched in front of the mirror as that slender and pale arm pulled my arm, upper body, lower body, and even my legs and feet into my mouth…
It turns out that I still ignored a gap, the most fatal gap – my mouth!