Chapter 2First People's Hospital of City X (2)
1472 Words
A dead silence.
Qi Leren stared at the ghost, and the ghost stared back at him, expressionless.
It should have been an elderly woman. In the dim white light, her face was hazy, but the cold, eerie feeling emanating from her semi-transparent body was unmistakable. Her hollow, pupil-less white eyes "looked" at him, sending a chill down his spine.
She didn't move.
Qi Leren took a step back, and she still didn't move.
In the stillness, only the sound of his accelerating heartbeat echoed in his ears, thumping loudly.
Qi Leren began to move slowly to the side, trying to avoid the ghost’s gaze. The ghost remained seated on the iron chair. Then, as Qi Leren moved, it slowly, very slowly, turned its head. When it reached a ninety-degree angle, it stopped and no longer turned.
Qi Leren quickened his pace, moving around to the ghost's back, then let out a sigh of relief.
The next second, the ghost suddenly twisted its neck sharply, silently looking behind itself, a full one hundred and eighty degrees! Without any warning, it turned its whole face around, staring at Qi Leren, watching his every move!
Qi Leren gasped, taking a step back. The ghost slowly stood up, facing him, and with its twisted posture, it began walking toward him, one step at a time.
What should I do? What should I do? The infusion hall is locked up tight, unless...
Qi Leren's eyes darted around, looking for something to break the glass door. At that moment, a scream suddenly came from the corridor outside, followed by hurried footsteps: “Don’t kill me, don’t... who are you?! I don’t even know you! We have no grudge, why are you killing me?!”
The glass door was violently slammed, as though someone had thrown themselves against it. Qi Leren quickly ran to the service desk and hid under the space beneath it.
The confined space gave him a sense of safety, but it couldn't block out the brutal killing not far away. The man outside, crying and begging for mercy, was not spared by the killer. The sound of a chainsaw screeching filled the air, the dull, b****y sound of chainsaw cutting through flesh, and then the screams grew more shrill. After a final, hoarse shout, something heavy hit the ground. The glass door was rattling as if someone was desperately trying to crawl inside. The chainsaw's sound stopped, and the space became silent, save for a faint, quiet sound of breathing that gradually faded.
Someone was using a chainsaw to kill outside.
This realization was even more terrifying than the ghost not far from him. Qi Leren could almost picture the chainsaw cutting into a body, dismembering it, blood splattering as the killer coldly watched it all, witnessing the victim take their last breath on the ground.
"Useless thing."
A low male voice came from outside. Someone tried to push the door of the infusion hall, but finding it locked, footsteps receded.
Qi Leren was trembling all over, but his heartbeat gradually slowed down. The killer had left, and he was safe...
Crash! The glass door was suddenly shattered, and Qi Leren jolted— the killer hadn’t left! He had just gone to find something to break the glass door!
The glass shattered all over the floor, and the killer entered the infusion hall.
At that moment, Qi Leren held his breath. Every sound in the air seemed to be calling death, and he froze completely, crouching motionless in the space beneath the service desk. The killer, holding the chainsaw, walked closer, and they were barely three meters apart. The only thing separating them was a thin wooden partition, and then the footsteps stopped.
Whirr — the chainsaw roared to life.
Impossible! He can't have found me! There's no way he knows I'm here!
Qi Leren almost fainted. How could he, with no weapons, possibly face off against a cold-blooded killer?! The deafening sound of the chainsaw spun above him, and with just one cut, he could be dead!
Should he run, or should he wait here to die? Qi Leren forced his paralyzed mind into action, trying to think. The door was less than three meters away, and it had already been smashed open. If he ran now, what were the chances of escaping?
"Die, old woman, get out of the way!"
The man muttered, the chainsaw whirring in the air. A high-pitched, inhuman scream came from somewhere, and blood splattered from the chainsaw, a few drops hitting the inside of the service desk wall, leaving dark red streaks, exactly where Qi Leren could see them. They were likely the blood of the man who had died outside the door.
Should he run? Qi Leren's mind was in turmoil. The ghost didn’t seem to be a match for the killer, and the scream was growing fainter. If he ran now, it would be the best chance. But if he ran, the killer would definitely know someone was hiding here, and then...
No, no need to run. The killer had stopped because he saw the ghost. Once he killed the ghost, he'd likely leave. Qi Leren reasoned with himself, clinging to the hope that the killer would soon depart, and he wouldn’t risk coming out to be chased.
With this hope, Qi Leren continued to crouch under the service desk, his heartbeat thundering in his chest as he waited for the killer to leave.
The chainsaw's sound stopped once more. It seemed the killer had killed the ghost as well. Qi Leren thought to himself, so it seemed that people with a strong murderous aura could even kill ghosts? The chainsaw was switched off, and the killer likely had no idea that there was still a living person here.
Just as the relief from surviving began to spread through Qi Leren, the footsteps started again. The killer was walking toward the service desk!
Qi Leren’s mind was completely overwhelmed by the threat of death.
Click—the first drawer on the left of the service desk was pulled open. Someone was rudely rummaging inside, then closed it, pulling open the second...
After a brief moment of dazed panic, Qi Leren forced himself to think clearly. The service desk was large. He remembered there were six drawers in total, each separated by wooden partitions. Instinctively, he had hidden under the furthest drawer from the door. Whoever opened the drawers wouldn’t be able to see the space beneath them!
The killer had already opened the fourth drawer, and there was only one left between them. Qi Leren could even smell the strong stench of blood from the chainsaw.
The fifth drawer was pulled open, and Qi Leren saw the killer's shoes. They were dark blue, old-fashioned, and had a strange logo, with small text below it:
Produced by the Prison Administration.
These were prison-issued shoes!
Qi Leren looked up at the killer’s pants and faintly saw the corner of the opened drawer. That one glance sealed his fate— the drawer was made of transparent plastic!
Qi Leren froze, looking up at the drawer above him. The transparent plastic bottom exposed everything inside the drawer— pens, a notepad, and a box of paperclips.
If the killer took one more step forward and opened this drawer, he would be able to see Qi Leren hiding beneath the service desk, waiting helplessly for death to arrive.
In the face of death, time stretched infinitely. The sound of the rummaging became muffled and distant, and countless emotions— fear, regret, resentment— surged in Qi Leren's chest. It was the first time he had hated his weakness and indecision so much. If he had run while the killer and the ghost were fighting, maybe he would have escaped by now.
The sound of a packaging bag being torn reached him. It took Qi Leren a few seconds to process it. The killer had found the little cake the nurse left in the drawer, ripped open the packaging, and started eating it. He also picked up the still-warm cup of water and drank it, humming a tune that didn’t even seem like a song. He seemed to be completely at ease, enjoying himself, with no sense of unease after the m******e.
This brief moment of eating gave Qi Leren the time he needed to think: he had to escape. His only advantage now was that the killer didn’t know he was here. No matter how much of a psychopath the killer was, he would surely hesitate for a moment if he suddenly found someone hiding. That moment could be his only chance.
He couldn’t miss it! Absolutely not!
The packaging bag was thrown onto the floor, and the killer took a step forward, standing right in front of the last drawer...
- Writer
