Cauchemar

Chapitre 4

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment, Part 4 (3)

Old Chen felt his palms were drenched in sweat, so damp he could barely grip his gun. He swallowed hard, crept closer to room 602, and leaned against the wall, listening intently. First, there was a loud crash, as if something large had fallen, followed by a series of thumping sounds. After a while, Old Chen heard a muffled, suppressed sobbing sound, which sent a chill down his spine. Just as he was about to rush in, the iron door slammed shut.

"Xiao Zhang, something's happened, hurry up!" Old Chen called out urgently to Xiao Zhang. An unprecedented tension gripped his heart; his hand holding the gun was almost stiff. One minute... two minutes... he had never felt time stretching so long. He pressed his ear against the iron door; the wailing sound still echoed in his ears, crashing against the darkness with an indescribable effect, as if it were rising from below, or crawling out from the depths of his heart, tearing at his soul, making it hard to breathe. Old Chen glanced at his watch, gritted his teeth: one more minute. If Xiao Zhang didn't come up, he'd have to break down the door himself.

Just when Old Chen was about to despair, heavy footsteps came from the stairwell. Xiao Zhang staggered up the stairs, his clothes disheveled.

"What's wrong?" Old Chen saw Xiao Zhang and, although he looked flustered and ridiculous, he felt much more at ease.

"Something tripped me in the third-floor hallway, and it felt like someone was grabbing me and preventing me from running. I fell, and then kicked the thing to break free," Xiao Zhang said, still looking shaken.

Old Chen's expression was uncertain. "Never mind that for now, just open the door quickly."

Seeing Old Chen's expression, Xiao Zhang's heart sank. He tucked his gun into his waistband, pulled out his tools, and began to unlock the door. Old Chen gripped his gun with both hands, the muzzle pointed inside, ready to fire at any moment, while simultaneously listening for any approaching sounds. In the darkness, only the soft clatter of Xiao Zhang unlocking the door and the incessant sobbing could be heard, a truly heart-wrenching sound.

After unlocking the door, Old Chen kicked it open and rushed inside. Xiao Zhang dropped his tools, drew his gun with one hand, and pulled a flashlight from his waist with the other, shining it inside. What he saw nearly made his soul leave his body: Su Yang was sitting on the floor in front of the television, cradling a pile of desiccated human limbs and sobbing softly. Maggots crawled all over him, and next to him were a pair of overturned and dismantled speakers, their bottom panels pried open by Su Yang, the limbs having spilled out of them!

Faced with the appearance of Xiao Zhang and Lao Chen, and the beam of the flashlight, Su Yang showed no reaction whatsoever. His eyes were glazed over as he clutched the pile of limbs, his face twitching uncontrollably, tears streaming down his face as if he had lost a loved one. He was completely oblivious to the horror around him, and was even unaware when a maggot crawled onto his face and entered his mouth.

Xiao Zhang felt a churning in his stomach and almost vomited.

"Get out of here!" In the darkness, Old Chen practically dragged Xiao Zhang out the door, then pulled out his phone and urgently called out, "Criminal Investigation Team? This is Old Chen. There's a new development in Room 602, Buyun Garden. We've found the body. You need to come over immediately." In the glow of the phone, Xiao Zhang noticed that Old Chen's forehead was covered in beads of sweat.

"What should we do now? Should we wait here for the criminal investigation team to come up?" Xiao Zhang asked in a trembling voice.

Old Chen wiped the sweat from his forehead. "No, we have to get Su Yang out. Every minute he stays inside is another minute of danger."

"Us? Pull him out?" Xiao Zhang glanced at the dark room 602 in fear, his heart trembling.

Old Chen didn't say anything more, tucked the gun into his waistband, and said, "Give me the flashlight."

Xiao Zhang hesitated for a moment, but Old Chen snatched the flashlight from his hand and then darted back into room 602. "At worst, I'll just die," Xiao Zhang gritted his teeth and forced his way in. Inside, Old Chen, with a flashlight in his mouth, swatted away the maggots and human limbs from Su Yang's body with one hand, and dragged him off the floor with the other. Xiao Zhang quickly went over, dragging and carrying Su Yang out, then closed the door. Just as the door closed, Old Chen heard another low sigh, echoing eerily in the room, sending chills down his spine.

Outside the door, Xiao Zhang was panting heavily. Su Yang had stopped crying and was sitting stiffly on the ground with empty eyes, as if the whole world did not exist.

Still catching his breath, Xiao Zhang asked Lao Chen, "What's wrong with him? Is he possessed?"

Old Chen lit a cigarette, blew out a smoke ring, and felt a little more relaxed. He stared at the closed door of 602, flicked his cigarette ash, and replied, seemingly unrelated to the question, "Anyway, we've achieved our goal for tonight, haven't we?"

Xiao Zhang opened his mouth, but didn't ask anything more.

The backup from the criminal investigation team arrived quickly; it was the same five officers from yesterday morning. With more people, they were bolder. Xiao Zhang opened the door, and everyone entered, only to be stunned by the gruesome and terrifying scene before them.

"I never imagined the body would be hidden inside a speaker," a policeman murmured.

Old Chen squatted down, picked up a piece of severed limb, and looked at it. An uncontrollable anger surged to his head: "This murderer is so cruel! Killing and dismembering people is not enough, he even roasted them over a fire!" However, some limbs seemed not to be dried enough, so after several months of decomposition, maggots grew and spread the stench of corpses throughout the room.

Old Chen's words sent a shiver down everyone's spine. He took a flashlight and went into the kitchen, carefully inspecting the gas stove. He found a few drops of dried grease on the bottom of the stove.

"By the way, where's her head? I can't find it!" Xiao Zhang exclaimed from the living room. Old Chen's heart sank. He immediately thought of Chen Lijuan's missing head. "It seems the two are indeed related."

Old Chen walked out of the kitchen and came outside the door, where Su Yang was still sitting stiffly.

"What's wrong with him?" one of the team members asked.

“Nightmare, which is what we call sleepwalking,” Old Chen replied in a low voice.

"Should we wake him up?"

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

"Absolutely not. Knowing the truth will only break him. It's best for him to remember nothing." Old Chen turned to Xiao Zhang and said, "Take him home. Remember, don't wake him. If he wakes up, absolutely do not tell him what happened tonight. Even if he has questions, just say he was sleepwalking on the street and you saw him and brought him back."

Xiao Zhang responded with an "Oh," and pulled Su Yang up. Su Yang's eyes were still glazed over, and his limbs were stiff. If Xiao Zhang hadn't seen him walking and crying earlier, he would have thought he was dragging a zombie.

Xiao Zhang couldn't help but turn to Lao Chen and ask, "Do you think all that happened tonight was really Zhu Su's ghost luring us here?"

“I still don’t believe in ghosts,” Old Chen said seriously. “If I really want a reasonable explanation, then I would rather believe that Su Yang’s subconscious summoned him back to 602.”

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment, Part 5 (1)

Su Yang woke up feeling dizzy and lightheaded, as if he hadn't slept well all night. He grabbed his alarm clock and saw it was already 8:20 AM, instantly dispelling all sleepiness. He jumped out of bed. The moment his feet touched the ground, he realized something was wrong. "When did I put on clothes to sleep, and a suit at that? Ugh, and why does it smell so bad?" Su Yang stared blankly at his cuffs, stretching out his arms. He cautiously brought the sleeves to his nose, and a familiar, rotten stench assaulted his nostrils. If his stomach hadn't been empty, he almost vomited.

"What on earth is going on?" Su Yang felt like his brain was about to explode. These past two days had really been like being possessed by a ghost. How could such a series of inexplicable and bizarre events happen one after another? But time didn't allow him to think about it any longer. He hurriedly took off all his clothes, threw them into the washing machine, quickly rinsed his body with cold water, changed into a clean set of clothes, then brushed his teeth, washed his face, grabbed his briefcase, and ran out.

Guangzhou's buses are always packed in the mornings, practically overflowing with people. But today, when Su Yang stood on the bus, he noticed that the passengers on both sides automatically moved aside, some even covering their noses with expressions of disgust. Su Yang was incredibly embarrassed, regretting that he hadn't washed himself more thoroughly. This awkwardness continued into the office. As soon as Su Yang walked past a colleague, the colleague exclaimed, "Su Yang! Did you just get pulled out of the toilet? You smell awful!"

Su Yang could only laugh it off. "Who knows? Maybe it was because my cat climbed on me and peed last night."

My colleague muttered, "When did you get this cat? And its pee doesn't smell like this." But no one said anything more, and everyone just frowned and went about their business.

All day long, everyone frowned whenever they saw Su Yang, forcing him to remain seated, afraid to move an inch. He felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, wishing he could peel off his own skin. Finally, at 6 PM, Su Yang practically fled the office, hailed a taxi, and headed straight home. As soon as he entered, he quickly stripped off all his clothes, turned on the water heater, and meticulously washed every inch of his body from head to toe, scrubbing until he felt the stench was completely gone. Only then did he stop, satisfied.

For several days in a row, no matter how clean Su Yang washed the night before, he would always smell that stench the next morning. Su Yang felt like he was going crazy. He couldn't stand everyone avoiding him as if he had contracted the plague. Even the director hinted at it in a department meeting: "Colleagues in the department should pay more attention to their personal image, so as not to affect the work of other colleagues."

Where was the stench coming from? Su Yang searched the entire house thoroughly, but found no dead rats or cockroaches. Cat urine and dog feces were out of the question; he was the only living creature in his house, and he couldn't find a single hair from any other living being, let alone cats or dogs.

Su Yang slumped onto the bed in frustration, staring at the ceiling, his mood utterly depressed. He began to regret his momentary lapse in judgment, meeting with someone he met online. His attempt at infidelity had backfired, leaving him humiliated and his life in chaos. Su Yang longed for his previous peaceful life, simple yet somewhat lonely, at least his peace of mind wasn't easily disturbed by external influences. Now, his life was truly in complete disarray, and he felt trapped, unable to break free no matter what he did.

As Su Yang was lost in thought, he suddenly felt something dripping from the ceiling and seeping into his hair. He reached out and touched it, and a stench immediately assaulted his nostrils, making him want to vomit. But Su Yang felt no disgust; instead, he was overjoyed. He jumped up and stood on the bed, carefully examining the ceiling. He saw a patch of dark yellow liquid that had eroded the ceiling into the shape of an eye, and the liquid was seeping down from the "pupil."

Su Yang got out of bed, washed his hands, and stared at the water stains on the ceiling, pondering, "What on earth is this? Why does it smell so bad?" Suddenly, a thought struck him, and Su Yang slapped his forehead and laughed: It must be the toilet upstairs that's broken, and the water in the toilet is leaking down.

Thinking of this, Su Yang felt a huge weight lifted from his heart. Although the leaking toilet made him feel slightly nauseous, the thought that the problem that had bothered him for days was finally resolved gave him a sense of relief, like being reborn. "I'll just tell the person upstairs to fix the toilet," Su Yang thought. However, the thought of his first meeting with the guy in 704 made Su Yang feel a bit annoyed; that guy wouldn't be easy to deal with.

Standing at the door of room 704, Su Yang raised his hand and knocked. About two minutes later, a head poked out from under the door. The head had disheveled hair, deep-set eyes, and dark pupils that stared coldly at Su Yang. Su Yang was startled and took two steps back.

"Who are you looking for?" the man asked expressionlessly.

Su Yang forced a smile. "I'm from apartment 604 downstairs. We met a few nights ago when you moved in. Here's the thing, there's a water stain on my ceiling, and it smells really bad. I suspect it's leaking from your toilet. Could I come in and check it out?" Su Yang said as he pushed open the door and walked in.

"What are you doing?" The man suddenly grabbed Su Yang, pulling him back as he stumbled. "Who let you in? Get out, get out of here!" The man shoved Su Yang.

"What do you mean by this?" Su Yang's face flushed red with anger. "I was just checking your bathroom, I wasn't stealing or robbing anyone, why are you pushing me?" Su Yang sniffed. "Smell it yourself, your room smells just like that too, don't you want to take care of the problem?"

"Fuck you!" the man roared, shoving Su Yang hard as he fell out the door. "Your house is the one that stinks! Besides, what business is it of yours if my house stinks? If you dare to barge in again, I'll cripple you."

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment, Part 5 (2)

Su Yang trembled with rage, yet felt a sense of helplessness, like a scholar encountering a soldier – reason was useless. He could only mutter angrily, "Crazy!" and stormed downstairs. After a few steps, he suddenly sensed something was wrong. He carefully recalled the smell from the man's room; it was very similar to the smell he had experienced when they first met. Could it be the toilet? Su Yang became suspicious. He turned back and knocked on the door again. Before he could voice his doubts, the man, seeing him, slammed the door shut without a word. Along with the lingering stench of decay, Su Yang, standing outside, seemed to hear a low, mournful sigh. Su Yang's heart skipped a beat – another strangely familiar sound! He vaguely remembered hearing a similar sigh somewhere before, but couldn't quite place it.

Su Yang turned back and was about to turn the corner when he suddenly felt a chill down his spine, as if a pair of eyes were staring straight at him. The feeling was exactly the same as his previous two experiences under the houses where murders had occurred!

Ghosts. This thought swirled in his mind, and for a moment, he felt ghostly figures all around him, a chill penetrating to his bones, as if countless ghosts existed in the entire room. While brushing his teeth, he suddenly heard the sound of furniture being moved upstairs, followed by what sounded like a ball bouncing incessantly, once, twice, making Su Yang's heart pound. "What is that strange person doing in the middle of the night?" Su Yang cursed under his breath, but then realized something was wrong: judging from the sounds coming from upstairs, there was definitely more than one person! But earlier, he had seen that apart from that thin, dark-skinned man, there was no one else in room 704, and who would be playing ball upstairs in the middle of the night? Su Yang tried his best to force himself not to answer these questions with "ghosts," but he was powerless to control the invasion of fear.

The ball fell again, bouncing. Su Yang could no longer contain himself. He threw off the covers, turned on all the lights in the room, and stared intently at the ceiling. Upstairs, there were still the sounds of thumping, footsteps, and the ball bouncing. What on earth was going on? Enraged, Su Yang grabbed a broom from the balcony and started poking at the ceiling, cursing, "Serves you right for messing around..." Suddenly, all his movements froze. A cold sensation traveled from his fingertips to his heels, and his blood seemed to freeze—the piece of cardboard he had poked had fallen, and the broom was now stuck in the "eye" formed by the water stain. A drop of blood-red liquid dripped from it, making the "eye" look furiously angry. Su Yang cried out, threw down the broom, rolled up the bedding, ran to the balcony, and locked the door.

"It's a hallucination, it must be a hallucination!" Su Yang whispered hoarsely to himself, but he couldn't stop his body from trembling. "It must be a hallucination, don't be afraid!" Su Yang gripped the edge of the balcony tightly with his hands, the sharp edge of the tiles cutting a small gash in his palm, blood staining the lines. "Don't be afraid, there's nothing there, don't be afraid..." Su Yang encouraged himself, closed his eyes, held his breath, and slowly turned around to face the balcony door and window, opening his eyes. But just one glance completely shattered his remaining courage—he clearly saw a human head, its flesh rotting and splitting open, hanging on the windowsill, its eyes empty, sneering at him, while maggots crawled out of its mouth, nose, and ears... Su Yang's piercing scream tore through the silence of the night, waking countless people from their dreams. It was a desperate wail from the depths of his heart, a choked sob of resignation, like a person with their limbs bound, watching helplessly as a sharp blade plunges into their throat in a deathly scream. "Run! Run, run!" This single thought filled Su Yang's entire mind. He clung to the balcony, trying to climb up and jump. In his eyes, the distance above was no longer a death trap; only the empty house behind him was the walled city of death. As long as he could escape it, even true death would be a relief. But the blood on his palms made the tiles slippery, and he lost his grip, falling to the ground. He frantically struggled to his feet and climbed back onto the balcony.

Just as Su Yang was about to jump, a head popped out of the window of apartment 605 next door and shouted, "Don't jump!" Startled, Su Yang slipped and fell back onto the balcony. The man from apartment 605 was holding a flashlight, shining it on Su Yang's face and behind him. "Whatever you see, just treat it as a hallucination, a hallucination, understand?" the man yelled.

Su Yang shielded his eyes from the flashlight's beam, and through his fingers, he glimpsed that it was Old Chen calling out to him. Instantly, as if seeing a savior, Su Yang excitedly rushed to the balcony, leaning his body towards Old Chen, his hands grasping blankly in the air, "Old Chen, please save me..."

Su Yang clung to Lao Chen's arm like a drowning man grasping at a straw, almost burying his head in Lao Chen's chest. Lao Chen, too preoccupied to comfort Su Yang, quickly opened the door Su Yang had just locked and pushed it open. Su Yang pressed himself against Lao Chen's back, eyes closed, his body still trembling with tension. Lao Chen shone his flashlight on the bedside table, where only an alarm clock lay silently, covered by a piece of cardboard.

Old Chen breathed a sigh of relief, "It was just an alarm clock that fell down."

Su Yang opened his tightly closed eyes a crack and glanced timidly at the head of the bed. The sight before him made him almost unable to believe his eyes. His hands trembled as he removed the cardboard, and the alarm clock's hands were stopped at 12:50 AM! He immediately withdrew his hand as if burned.

Old Chen smiled slightly. "There's still no progress in Chen Lijuan's case, but we've found Zhu Su's body—it's in the speaker in her house. As for the killer, we're still searching." Old Chen didn't intend to tell Su Yang that he had guided them to Zhu Su's body while sleepwalking, or that her head was still missing, because he worried it would add another layer of mental pressure. As for why he lived in apartment 605, one reason was to monitor Su Yang, as he suspected Su Yang possessed a particularly sensitive mental ability that could provide more clues for their investigation; another reason was that he worried this overly sensitive mental ability might be fatal to Su Yang, so it was also a form of covert protection. However, the reasons were too complex for him to explain to Su Yang.

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment, Part 5 (3)

However, Su Yang didn't ask any further questions. Perhaps it was Old Chen sitting next to him that gave him a great sense of security, coupled with Old Chen's analysis that there were no ghosts, which reassured him considerably, so his tension had largely subsided. As soon as he relaxed, weariness crept in. He felt as if his eyelids weighed an inch. "Can I sleep here with you?" he asked Old Chen.

Old Chen was quite pleased with himself for successfully relieving Su Yang's anxiety. He pulled a pillow and a blanket from the closet and tossed them to Su Yang, saying, "Get a good night's sleep and don't think about anything anymore."

Part 2 of Apartment 602

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment (Part 6, 1)

Su Yang's head hit the pillow, and soon he was snoring. He was truly exhausted; the horrific scenes of the past few days had left him physically and mentally drained.

Old Chen sat in the darkness, smoking a cigarette, and went over what had happened to Su Yang, but he couldn't make sense of it. Although he repeatedly emphasized to Su Yang that all the terrifying phenomena were caused by Su Yang's state of mind, he knew deep down that it might not be that simple. He couldn't rule out the possibility that some external force was secretly manipulating things, such as the alarm clock mysteriously stopping at 0:50, which was the time Chen Lijuan, or rather "Zhu Su," sent Su Yang the last text message that day. What did that signify, and what did it have to do with Su Yang? Old Chen was completely bewildered. Drowsiness gradually crept in, so Old Chen simply gave up speculating, lay down fully clothed next to Su Yang, and quickly fell asleep.

Old Chen didn't know how long he had slept when he vaguely felt Su Yang's phone ring once, and Su Yang got up and got out of bed. Old Chen assumed he was going to the bathroom and didn't think much of it. But after a long while, Old Chen heard complete silence in the room, and there was no sound coming from the bathroom. He opened his eyes in surprise. Little did he know that opening his eyes would save his life. He saw Su Yang with a sinister smile on his face, holding a gleaming kitchen knife, viciously slashing towards his neck! Old Chen hurriedly rolled to the side, and the knife missed its mark.

"What are you doing?" Old Chen shouted sternly. Su Yang didn't answer, but just kept slashing at Old Chen's neck.

Old Chen was terrified, but his years of experience in the police force honed his courage and skill, allowing him to subdue Su Yang within a minute. He twisted Su Yang's hands behind his back and forced him onto the bed. Su Yang struggled desperately, making strange "ooh-ooh" noises, as if something was stuck in his throat.

Su Yang stopped struggling, and Old Chen seized the opportunity to snatch the kitchen knife from his hand and pin him down. Su Yang opened his eyes in confusion, looking at Old Chen, "What happened?" But when he saw the kitchen knife in Old Chen's hand, he gasped, "What are you doing with that kitchen knife?"

"I just took this cleaver from your hand," Old Chen said casually.

"In my hand? What would I do with a kitchen knife?" Su Yang asked, his face full of surprise.

"Kill me." Old Chen stared into Su Yang's eyes, but saw only horror and confusion in them. He sighed inwardly: another nightmare.

"Why would I kill you? And where did the knife come from?" Su Yang felt as if something was stuck in his throat.

Old Chen didn't answer, but instead asked, "Did you hear any sounds or see anything while you were sleepwalking?"

Su Yang tried hard to recall, but his mind was blank, like a wiped cassette tape. He shook his head in frustration, "I don't remember anything."

"Try to recall it again." Old Chen regretted not asking Su Yang this question when he first woke up, because that's when people have the clearest memory of the remaining dream fragments, after which they gradually fade and eventually disappear.

Su Yang closed his eyes, falling into a deep state of thought. After about a minute, he let out a sigh of relief. "I remember now. I remember a voice in my ear saying, 'Cut off his head, you'll feel so much better.'"

Old Chen's expression changed. The security guards in the monitoring room exchanged bewildered glances. Su Yang looked at Old Chen with remorse, "I'm sorry, I think I can't resist the power in my dream."

"Do you remember the voice you heard in apartment 602 of Buyun Garden: 'Don't cut off my head, it hurts so much.' Compare that to what you heard today, what connection do you feel there is between the two?" Old Chen pressed.

“It should have been sent by the same person,” Su Yang said hesitantly. “But I don’t understand why she changed her tone, from a victim to a perpetrator.”

"Everyone is inherently a combination of angel and devil."

"So you mean..." Su Yang tentatively asked, "that wanting to kill you was my personal idea?"

"That's not necessarily true. Perhaps it's because you're currently in a period of mental vulnerability, making you more susceptible to being influenced and controlled by evil forces from the outside world."

"Then what is this evil force from the outside world?" Su Yang pressed on.

“In traditional terms, it’s resentment,” Old Chen sighed. “I’ve always refused to admit that this kind of resentment can be preserved and have power. But so many unbelievable things have happened to you that have forced me to reconsider.”

"So you admit that ghosts and similar entities exist?"

"It's not an object, but rather a field of spiritual energy," Old Chen said. "You could say that our body is a magnetic field, and when our brain is working, there are changes in the frequency of brainwaves, releasing bioelectricity. If there are electromagnetic waves of the same frequency in the outside world, they will interfere with our consciousness and may even manipulate our behavior."

Su Yang stared wide-eyed. "Then wouldn't we become walking corpses?"

"That's possible. That's why I said your previous state was because your brainwaves were being interfered with, which created all sorts of hallucinations."

"Then who has such power? Is it the resentment you mentioned?"

“To be honest, I don’t know either. Before today, I always denied its existence, and I preferred to explain everything that happened around us from a scientific perspective.” Old Chen looked tired. “But now I have to admit that science also has many limitations, especially when it comes to the deep soul. I think this is why science cannot replace religion.”

"Then what do you think I should do? Should I go and ask for a statue or a cross to calm it down?" Su Yang realized he was almost going crazy.