Cauchemar

Chapitre 3

After a long while, Su Yang gripped the toilet seat, struggling to sit up. He tried his best not to look at the filth in the toilet, but he couldn't help glancing at it. But that one glance almost made his soul leave his body: he saw the vomit in the toilet congeal into the shape of a human head, with the corpses of flies floating on top, just like a woman's loose hair. Then it seemed as if there was a force pulling on the woman's head from below, or as if the woman opened her mouth wide, swallowing all the filth. He saw the black and white filth swirling and falling rapidly from the toilet into the drainpipe below.

Su Yang screamed in pain. Old Chen was startled and rushed into the bathroom, grabbing Su Yang and pulling him around. "What's wrong with you?"

Su Yang's eyes bulged out, and his finger pointed stiffly at the toilet, "A head... is being eaten..."

One sentence sent a chill down the spines of all the police officers. Xiao Zhang cautiously peeked into the toilet; it was spotless, as if a giant mouth had licked away all the filth. Xiao Zhang turned to another officer and asked uneasily, "Did you find anything unusual when you checked the toilet?"

The policeman shook his head. "No, there's nothing there."

Old Chen helped the limp Su Yang out. The neighbors outside the door covered their noses and moved away. No wonder, Su Yang was covered in fly sludge, his clothes still had remnants of his vomit, and most importantly, his face was bloodless, his eyes were unfocused, and his hair was disheveled and hanging over his forehead, making him look like a demon.

Old Chen called Xiao Zhang over, "Take him home, don't let him get any more frightened."

Unexpectedly, Su Yang suddenly straightened up with a burst of strength, saying, "No, I want to stay here and wait for the results before I leave."

Old Chen was taken aback. "Why are you doing this?"

“I can’t let all this suffering go to waste. Whether someone is playing a trick on me or I’m really possessed by a ghost, I have to get to the bottom of this, or I’ll never have peace again.”

Looking at Su Yang's resolute expression, Old Chen pondered for a moment and said, "Alright then, you can stay here. Xiao Zhang, you stay with him and make sure nothing else happens to him."

Su Yang staggered back into room 602 with Lao Chen, Xiao Zhang, and the others. Although his face was still deathly pale, the fear in his eyes had faded, replaced by anger, even a burning desire. It was understandable; in his twenty-odd years, Su Yang had never encountered anything so bizarre. More importantly, he had always been quite confident in his ability to control his emotions, but today he hadn't even caught a glimpse of the other party, yet he had been scared half to death, leaving him utterly humiliated in front of Lao Chen and the others. This, however, only fueled Su Yang's fighting spirit, and he vowed to uncover the truth completely.

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment, Part 3 (3)

Several police officers searched the house almost from top to bottom, but found nothing—no body, no murder weapon, not even a trace of blood. Xiao Zhang looked at Lao Chen with suspicion, "Could it be that we made a mistake?"

Old Chen shook his head. "Impossible. With such a strong stench of corpses and so many greenbottle flies drawn to the stench, how could nothing have happened? It just means we haven't found it yet."

"But we've searched everywhere we could, and we haven't even found a rat's carcass."

Old Chen stared at the mess in the room. He had indeed searched every possible place where a body might be hidden, including cabinets of all sizes, under the bed, and in corners. He had carefully checked the toilet, the bathtub, and even the wall panels, but there were no signs of recent tampering. "Where could it possibly be hidden?" The investigation had reached a dead end. Everyone looked at Old Chen, completely at a loss.

"Let's check it again, be more careful," Old Chen said, sounding a little helpless.

The police officers remained silent, then split up to search more thoroughly. They opened every drawer, emptied every pocket of every garment, and examined every possible hiding place. They even used a wire hook to probe into the mouse hole in the corner, but still found nothing.

"It seems the killer is a seasoned pro," Xiao Zhang said bitterly. "Another unsolved case."

Old Chen sighed and waved his hand, "Alright, everyone put everything back together and let's get out of here." Then he turned to Su Yang and said, "We didn't find anything, maybe we were just being paranoid."

Su Yang listened intently to something, then a strange expression appeared on his face. He pointed to the 29-inch television in the center of the living room and said, "There's someone in there, committing murder..."

Old Chen glanced at him, a thought struck him, and he turned to his team members and said, "Take that TV apart."

The men quickly dismantled the television casing, but inside were nothing but ordinary television parts. Old Chen turned Su Yang around, staring directly into his eyes, "Tell me, what exactly did you see?"

“I didn’t see anything.” Su Yang’s eyes were glazed over. “I only heard someone crying, saying, ‘Don’t cut off her head, it hurts so much.’ It was coming from the TV.”

"But you saw it yourself, there's nothing inside. It must be another hallucination." Xiao Zhang shrugged. "So many strange things have happened today, but I think the strangest thing is you."

"This is not a hallucination!" Su Yang excitedly grabbed Xiao Zhang's shoulder. "I really heard it, a very faint crying sound. Listen carefully, it's real."

Old Chen pried Su Yang's hands off. "You've been through too much today. Go back and eat something, then get a good night's sleep. Don't think about anything else. We'll solve the case, and we'll let you know the results later."

Su Yang dejectedly withdrew his hand. "Why won't any of you believe me?" He waved his hands and shouted angrily at the air, "But why did you specifically target me?"

Old Chen winked at Xiao Zhang. Xiao Zhang understood, stepped forward, grabbed Su Yang, and dragged him outside, saying, "Let's go, let's get out of here."

“Let me go! She’s calling for help. Listen, how desperately she’s screaming: ‘Don’t cut off my head! It hurts so much!’” Su Yang struggled wildly, but was finally dragged out of 602 by Xiao Zhang.

After all the officers had left the room, Old Chen gave it one last look. When his gaze swept over the television, he suddenly felt a chill, as if a pair of cold eyes were staring intently at him from the screen—a feeling he had never experienced in his more than twenty years as a police officer. He steadied himself and looked at the television screen again. There was only a faint, flickering reflection, and the two speakers, each over a meter tall, on either side were functioning normally; everything seemed no different from a typical home theater system.

Old Chen slowly stepped out of the door, sighing inwardly, "It seems this place is really going to become a haunted house."

As soon as Lao Chen and Xiao Zhang returned to the station, a colleague handed him a document. "Lao Chen, the records for the phone number 138623536** that you asked me to check this morning are in. This number was suspended four months ago due to unpaid bills, and then it was reactivated a month ago by the deceased, Chen Lijuan. This is her recent call record. Her text message record from last night shows that she only sent one text message at 12:50. As for the previous owner's communication records, the mobile company said they can only check the records for the last three months for now. For records older than three months, it will take more time to search, but at most they can only check the records for the last six months."

"Who sent that last text message?" Xiao Zhang exclaimed. "Chen Lijuan had already been killed by then. Could it be Zhu Su's ghost? What was her relationship with Chen Lijuan?"

"Perhaps it was to lure us into investigating her wrongful conviction," Old Chen said thoughtfully.

"You mean, Zhu Su is definitely dead?"

"It should be about right. Maybe the strong smell of corpses in 602 was from her."

"That's tragic," Xiao Zhang shook his head. "I wonder who had such a deep grudge against her. If it can be confirmed that it's another murder case, then where should we start? Should we find her body first, or find relevant suspects, like her boyfriend?"

Old Chen lit a cigarette, exhaled a puff of smoke, and waved his hand to disperse the smoke. "No, I think we can monitor Su Yang. He would be a good lead, and might even lead us to Zhu Su's body and the murderer. Of course, the premise is that he can withstand the test of fear."

"What if they can't withstand the test?"

"Then he could become another innocent victim."

Xiao Zhang muttered, "Then wouldn't this become a ghost story? If we try to stop it from happening, wouldn't we become sorcerers?"

"Do you think this is a Hong Kong ghost movie? A real ghost waiting for you to use a talisman to ward it off? What we're dealing with now is the inner demon, not a real ghost. Everyone has some repressed dark side, and when these dark parts are influenced by the external environment, they can cause hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, or inexplicable behaviors, like those of a mentally ill person. Their world is far removed from our real objective world, immersed in a strange world of their own imagination. But it's actually very difficult for people to distinguish whether the world seen by a mentally ill person or by a normal person is closer to the objective reality, because your eyes and ears can deceive you, just like the illusions in Buddhism. And sometimes these illusions are very powerful, even powerful enough to surpass our humanity and control."

Apartment 602, Part 3 (4)

"So what should we do now?" Xiao Zhang asked, looking completely bewildered.

"I think you'd better get some sleep first and recharge your energy. We'll keep an eye on Su Yang tonight."

"Are you worried about his safety, or do you really think you can find clues from him?"

"Both. But to be honest, I'm afraid he might actually become that guide. While that would help unravel Zhu Su's mystery, it could also make Chen Lijuan's case even more perplexing, and he might even become the victim of another murder. Alas, some things are beyond our control."

Old Chen threw the half-burnt cigarette butt into the ashtray. His mood, like that cigarette butt, flickered and eventually turned into a wisp of smoke, drifting away and disappearing.

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment, Part 4 (1)

In the Shangling Apartment, Su Yang took a shower and sat in his room, his mind still unsettled. He carefully recalled how he had met Zhu Su the previous night, the several text messages he had exchanged in the early morning, and the strange events that had occurred in apartment 602 today. The more he thought about it, the more unbelievable it seemed, sending chills down his spine. The cold attic… on the second floor of a residential building… I was at your door… flies… a human head in the toilet… the murderous sounds on the television… A series of events connected, and he felt a chill run down his spine. He hurriedly slammed the door shut and rushed to the elevator. The moment he entered the elevator, he vaguely heard someone chuckling. Instantly, Su Yang's blood ran cold. He frantically pressed the close button, his eyes glued to the rapidly changing floor numbers, terrified of the horrific scenes from movies and television: a blood-soaked head falling from the top of the elevator, or a hand suddenly appearing inside, gently patting his shoulder, only to reveal a skeletal hand and a deathly pale face when he turned. The thought almost made him scream. He huddled against the corner of the elevator, sweating profusely, anxiously hoping it would reach the first floor. But the elevator stopped on the third floor. The doors opened, and there was no one there!

Su Yang nearly fainted. He rushed forward and frantically pressed the close button. The elevator doors slowly closed, but just before they were fully shut, they automatically reopened, and a dark figure drifted past outside. Su Yang could no longer hold back; he screamed "Ah!" and collapsed to the ground.

"Are you crazy? What are you yelling about? You almost scared me to death!" came the angry voice of a middle-aged woman.

Su Yang looked up and saw a middle-aged, plump woman rubbing her chest while glaring at him.

Su Yang really wanted to yell, "You fucking scared me to death!" But then he realized he was in the wrong, so he could only awkwardly scramble to his feet and feign composure, giving the middle-aged woman a forced "hehe" smile. "I thought it was a friend from the third floor, and I wanted to scare him. Sorry..."

"This is really crazy." The middle-aged woman was still furious.

Su Yang suppressed his anger and decided to take revenge on the middle-aged woman. When the elevator stopped on the first floor, he made a gesture of patting her on the shoulder in mid-air, "Old ghost, we've arrived at the first floor."

"Who are you talking to?" The middle-aged woman turned around, her face pale.

Su Yang grinned at her, "My friend, didn't you see him? He's been standing right behind you the whole time."

The middle-aged woman screamed "Mommy!" and squeezed out of the elevator door that had just opened, sprinting out at top speed, dragging her flabby body with her.

Su Yang staggered out of the elevator, gazing at the blue sky and white clouds above, his mood instantly brightening. Ghosts in the world are all figments of people's imaginations, used to scare themselves. "Then what do I have to be afraid of? Maybe ghosts are even afraid of me?" Thinking this, he found his own fear amusing.

"Let's grab something to eat first," he whistled casually. But as he passed the residential building around the corner from the apartment, his relaxed mood vanished instantly. To bolster his courage, Su Yang told himself beforehand that if he had nothing to hide, nothing would happen, and then deliberately glanced up at the second floor of the building a few more times. The afternoon sunlight refracted a hazy light through the glass window of the murder room, seemingly whispering the bloody story of yesterday. There are no ghosts under the sunlight, he told himself, but his mood still sank uncontrollably. Regardless, the thought of a woman dying tragically inside last night, and how he had stood downstairs shortly afterward, listening to the text message ringtone on her phone, even receiving a text message from the phone she clutched tightly, sent a chill down his spine, and sweat broke out again.

In a state of oppressive emptiness, Su Yang led himself to a small eatery, forced himself to finish a plate of fried rice, and then took himself to Shangshe Park. He had never longed for a hug, nor feared being alone as much as he did now. People always crave companionship when they are vulnerable. "Maybe I should find myself a girlfriend," he silently told himself.

Night gradually descended, eventually covering the entire sky. The park was shrouded in darkness, like a giant net that could fall at any moment, engulfing anyone and leaving them no escape. Su Yang listlessly left the park, grabbed a quick bite at a small restaurant outside his apartment, dawdled over, picked out two DVDs and two old books, and seeing the clock strike 11, reluctantly dragged his heavy steps back home. He had never longed for a home as much as he did now, yet he had never resisted returning to a home where he was alone. Perhaps for Su Yang, the apartment, which had once been a place to live, was now merely a final refuge, a shelter for his wretched body.

Su Yang was standing alone at the elevator entrance, waiting for the elevator, when he heard heavy footsteps and heavy breathing behind him. He turned around and saw the middle-aged woman he had frightened at noon. She glared at him angrily, "Young man, stop trying to scare people with your ghost stories!"

Su Yang smiled faintly, a wicked thought suddenly rising in his mind. The elevator stopped on the first floor, the doors opened, and it was empty. The middle-aged woman stepped inside, but Su Yang stood still, smiling as he said, "Why are there so many people crowding the elevator so late? Never mind, I'll wait for the next one."

A middle-aged woman let out a piercing scream from inside the elevator, which then slowly ascended. Su Yang suppressed a laugh, all his tension instantly dissipating. Another elevator arrived; he entered and pressed the button for the seventh floor. Staring at the flashing floor display, his initial joy gradually froze. He even regretted not riding the elevator with the middle-aged woman; at least he'd have company. Standing alone in the empty elevator, recalling the joke from earlier, goosebumps crawled up his back. He felt as if he were truly surrounded by people, transparent figures, breathing directly at his face and neck, their bony fingers coiled around his eyeballs and Adam's apple, grinning maliciously, grinding their teeth. Su Yang covered his face with his fingers, his whole body trembling uncontrollably, the suffocating fear making it hard to breathe. He knew he had become so fragile, seeing threats everywhere, and could only repeatedly remind himself of Old Chen's words: "There are no ghosts in this world, don't scare yourself."

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment, Part 4 (2)

The elevator finally came to a smooth stop on the seventh floor. Su Yang rushed out like a whirlwind, opened the door, turned on the lights, and then opened the door to the balcony. Standing in the center of the room, looking at the bright light filling the room and the lights of the building opposite, he felt a little more relaxed and had a sense of security as if he were back home.

But this sense of security gradually eroded with time, until it became so thin it couldn't even support the steady beating of his heart. He turned off the lights and lay down on the bed, but couldn't fall asleep. He kept feeling that the moment he closed his eyes, he would see a bloodied, headless corpse smiling at him, the bloody hole in its neck the source of its enormous smile, and then he would hear that shrill scream: "Don't cut my head, it hurts so much..." Each scream was like a saw cutting through his nerves, making him feel like his nerves were about to snap and break. He only dared to stare at the ceiling with his eyes open, not daring to close them for a moment. All around was silent; even the sound of trains passing by, which he usually found noisy, was absent tonight. He felt as if he were lying in a coffin, constantly waiting for the lid to fall and close his eyelids. In the end, he couldn't tell whether he was afraid of his eyelids closing or afraid of the coffin lid closing. In the darkness, he could only hear his own heavy breathing and feel the aching pain in his eyelids as he struggled to keep them open. Sweat seeped from his skin, soaking the sheets until they were damp and cold, as if covered in moss.

Finally, a train rumbled by, and Su Yang snapped out of his nightmarish fear. He reached for the bedside lamp, its warm glow pushing back the darkness and giving him a slight sense of security. He got up, drank a glass of cold water, thought for a moment, turned on the stereo, put in a Bandari CD, opened the balcony door, and left the light on. He lay back down, staring at the dimly lit ceiling, listening to the gentle, flowing music, waiting for weariness to gradually creep in before finally drifting off to sleep.

In the apartment's monitoring room, Xiao Zhang stared at the empty seventh-floor hallway on the closed-circuit television, yawning as he asked Lao Zhang, "Do you think our monitoring is really useful? Can you be sure he'll actually go out? If he doesn't, then even if we stay here, we won't know what's going on inside his apartment."

Old Chen pondered for a moment, then said, "You're right. You stay here, and I'll go up and check if there's anything unusual."

"Wait a minute!" Xiao Zhang said excitedly, "Look, look, he's out."

Old Chen looked closely and, sure enough, Su Yang, dressed in a suit and tie, was opening the door and coming out in the camera's view.

"That's so strange. Why does he walk so unnaturally? I've never seen him walk like that during the day." Xiao Zhang leaned closer to look at the screen.

"Zoom in on the image."

Under the camera's lens, Su Yang's eyes were vacant, his body stiff, and his gait didn't seem like walking, but rather like he was being lifted or pushed. Old Zhang frowned: "He's sleepwalking!"

"Sleepwalking?" The security guard next to him looked surprised. "We've never seen him sleepwalking before."

"Xiao Zhang, hurry up and come out, follow him." Old Chen whispered to Xiao Zhang into the walkie-talkie.

"Received," Xiao Zhang replied, and soon he appeared beside Lao Chen. The two quietly approached Su Yang along the base of the wall.

Su Yang flagged down a taxi on the street in front of the apartment.

"Xiao Zhang, hurry up and get the car." Old Chen was a little anxious. Xiao Zhang ran off quickly, and a short while later, a Santana with its lights off silently pulled up beside Old Chen. Old Chen opened the car door, but the taxi had already passed the corner in front of the apartment and was out of sight. "Hurry up and follow," Old Chen urged Xiao Zhang.

"How come I know this road so well?" Xiao Zhang was focused on driving, but couldn't help but mutter a question.

Old Chen opened his eyes, glanced at the view outside the window, and saw a huge sign flash by. He gave a soft "humph," and said, "This is the road we took this morning."

"You mean, we're on our way to Buyun Garden?" Xiao Zhang's hand trembled slightly.

"Where else could we go besides this? It seems the mystery of room 602 should be solved tonight." Old Chen noticed Xiao Zhang's nervousness and said casually.

Xiao Zhang kept his lips tightly shut and stopped talking, focusing solely on driving.

The taxi in front slowly stopped at the entrance of Buyun Garden. Xiao Zhang and Lao Chen stopped their car about ten meters apart and watched Su Yang get out of the car. He then walked to the iron gate of Building 6 in that strange posture and rang the doorbell.

"Who is he looking for so late?" Xiao Zhang asked curiously.

“It’s 602,” Old Chen said calmly, putting down his high-powered binoculars.

"602? Who opened the door for him?" Xiao Zhang exclaimed in surprise.

"You'll see when you see it."

Looking at Lao Chen's serious and calm face, Xiao Zhang's wildly beating heart calmed down a little. He felt ashamed in his heart, "He is indeed a veteran policeman. He has experienced many ups and downs. Nothing can faze him."

The iron gate clicked open, shattering the silence of the night. Xiao Zhang covered his mouth with his hand, barely managing to swallow a scream.

Old Chen watched Su Yang's figure disappear into the stairwell, then tugged at Xiao Zhang, "Hurry up, let's catch up."

Upon reaching the iron gate, Xiao Zhang took out his tools and quickly opened it. Old Chen thought for a moment and said to Xiao Zhang, "You should stay in the car and keep an eye on what's happening upstairs. If I call you, come up immediately."

Xiao Zhang nodded. "Then be careful."

Old Chen pulled out his gun, cocked it, and rushed into the stairwell. The stairwell was pitch black; all the motion-activated lights were off, making it almost impossible to see one's hand in front of one's face. Old Chen groped his way up the wall to the fifth floor, then hid at the stairwell entrance, peering inside. He vaguely saw Su Yang's figure standing in front of apartment 602, raising his finger to knock. With just a light knock, the door creaked open automatically, and Su Yang stepped inside. The iron door stood wide open, like a giant mouth, ready to devour any intruder.