Métamorphes

Chapitre 12

The school currently has two vehicles, but only the principal and Duan Lin can drive. Since the vehicles have limited seating, everyone has to ride separately: the principal drives Chen Jiaming, Monkey, and Mu Zi; Duan Lin drives the rest of the group.

When he said he was going out, Duan Lin suddenly had a bad feeling. Every time he had this feeling, something bad would happen. He wanted to stop him, but he had no reason to.

Perhaps it's a good thing that I'm sitting separately from Mu Zi. With Mu Zi in that car I can't keep track of, things might not be so bad...

Driving the car carefully, Duan Lin looked into the rearview mirror at the back seat: Xi Yuan was sitting alone in the back seat. He must have been tired. The boy, who had finally closed his eyes, was now asleep against the back of the seat. Seeing that he did not have any unusual reaction in the rearview mirror, Duan Lin felt a little more at ease.

The passenger in the front seat was Xiaobai.

The boy, who usually seemed quiet and unassuming, turned out to be a very reliable person in a critical moment. After helping to put the struggling Xi Yuan into the car, and seeing that no one wanted to come over, and seeing that Tian Miao was still trembling slightly despite saying she wasn't afraid, Xiao Bai offered to ride in Duan Lin's car to help take care of Xi Yuan.

Everyone started to become reliable, whether it was the monkey who was no longer easily startled, Chen Jiaming who overcame his fear and chose to act with everyone, or Xiaobai beside him.

Mu Zi was inherently reliable. Although she was somewhat mysterious, Duan Lin had an inexplicable trust in her.

Staring intently at the beam of light from the taillights of the car ahead, Duan Lin followed closely, his brow slightly furrowed. He noticed that it seemed to be fogging up…

This is not a good sign. How can there be fog in this weather and in this place?

Instinctively, Duan Lin knew he had to stay close; falling behind would be a terrible thing.

Thinking to himself, Duan Lin glanced at the rearview mirror again, as was his habit... and his eyes widened suddenly!

Looking in the rearview mirror… besides Xi Yuan, there were two more people! They were two children, about the same age as Xi Yuan and the others; one was very chubby, and the other was quite wiry. At that moment, they were sitting on either side of Xi Yuan!

Duan Lin's hands gripped the steering wheel tightly in an instant. He closed his eyes, opened them… Duan Lin shifted his gaze back to the rearview mirror… Good, Duan Lin let out a soft breath, feeling the dampness under his hands. He lightly switched hands and wiped the sweat from his trousers. His gaze shifted for only a second, then suddenly…

With a screeching sound, Duan Lin suddenly turned the steering wheel to the left, and when he reached the end, he crashed into something hard, and Duan Lin immediately felt dizzy.

"Teacher! Teacher, are you alright?" The boy's anxious call brought Duan Lin back to his senses. Suddenly remembering what had just happened, Duan Lin abruptly opened the car door and ran out.

Nothing! There was nothing at all! The woods were silent and dark, and the hidden path ahead was nowhere to be seen.

I clearly saw it just now! I clearly saw two people standing in front of the car, their arms outstretched, blocking my way, and I couldn't dodge them in time...

Suddenly remembering the faces of those two people, Duan Lin's expression changed drastically! They were the two children he had caught a glimpse of in the car just now! His hands clenched into fists, and Duan Lin was overcome with inexplicable anxiety.

"Teacher, can we hurry up and follow them in the car?" Xiaobai's timid voice sounded from behind.

As if waking from a dream, Duan Lin hurriedly wiped the cold sweat from his palms and returned to the car. Duan Lin looked ahead, but there was no sign of the principal's car. It had only been a short while! How could it have disappeared so quickly?

"...No, your side isn't wide enough..." Suddenly, when he asked Mu Zi if she wanted to ride in his car before they set off, Mu Zi glanced at the car he was going to drive and a strange answer came to mind. The words Mu Zi had said, which had puzzled him at the time, were now so clear to him.

Those two...were they in the car the whole time? Thinking of this, Duan Lin watched coldly as the two boys in front of the car, who had been holding out their arms, slowly lowered their arms, their faint shadows gradually disappearing into the dim night...dim night...wait! Dim night?

Duan Lin suddenly looked up. Good heavens, he didn't know when it had started to glow!

Xiao Bai clearly noticed the problem as well, and looked at Duan Lin in surprise, "Teacher, this..."

"Hey! You two, aren't you going to get up here and do your morning exercises?!"

A powerful roar from afar jolted the two scattered minds back to reality. They both looked in the direction of the sound and saw a tall, thin figure walking towards them with a switched-off flashlight – clearly…

Dormitory supervisor?!

Behind the dormitory supervisor, the sun was gradually rising, and a large number of students were out for their morning run, as required by school regulations...

They stared at each other in surprise, both Duan Lin and Xiao Bai looking astonished.

So, we...

"You're back?!" In the dim light of dawn, Duan Lin and Xiao Bai stood in front of the car and said in unison.

Duan Lin's memory of yesterday ended at the blurry taillights of the principal's car not far ahead, and... the figures of the two boys who stretched out their arms to block his way. He reflexively tried to dodge them, veered off the road, and then found himself back...

The school then reported the incident to the police.

This time, there was no other way. Six people, including the principal, had disappeared at once, and Qi Lan could no longer hide it from the police. In an instant, a large number of police officers and reporters flocked to Qi Lan.

No one doubted Duan Lin and Xiao Bai, just as very few people in this world actually believe in ghosts.

This incident has blown up, and Qi Lan has once again made the newspapers, but this time not as a prestigious school, but as a mysterious school with a history of student disappearances.

The newspaper listed a long list of students who had gone missing over the years. So many names, yet the outside world knew nothing about them. This shocked the entire society. The crying faces of the parents of the missing students were magnified and featured on the front page of the newspaper that day. From the woman's sorrowful face, Duan Lin could vaguely recognize familiar features.

He was one of the two people that day, the chubby student who blocked his car.

The missing persons remain unaccounted for, and their surviving relatives weep day and night. Duan Lin doesn't know whether it's better for him to stay inside or come out; although he has escaped the nightmare, his heart cannot find peace.

What happened to them? Are they... still alive?

At this moment, Duan Lin was holding a student roster in his hands. The two unruly young faces on the roster were the faces of the people who had stopped his car that night.

They were Xi Yuan's good friends. According to the principal's testimony that day, they had run away together to play, but they didn't return together. The only one who knew the truth about what happened that day was Xi Yuan, however...

Looking at the tall boy huddled in the corner of the large white room, Duan Lin sighed softly.

The child broke down.

It's been like this ever since that day. He hasn't said a word, and every day he just stares warily at the outside world, looking at it with fear, but it seems like he sees nothing at all...

What did he see? What does he see now?

Not only him, but Duan Lin himself is also confused right now. Does physical escape mean escape?

Duan Lin knew his heart hadn't escaped; his students and superiors were still inside. He couldn't shake off that feeling; he wouldn't find peace until the matter was resolved. So, Duan Lin slowly lifted the photo album in his hand and placed it in front of Xi Yuan.

"You're good friends, right?"

Xi Yuan trembled violently.

"How are they now?... Are they... dead?" After hesitating for a moment, Duan Lin voiced the thought that he was unwilling to believe but had buried deep in his heart.

After speaking, Duan Lin carefully examined Xi Yuan's expression—Duan Lin saw tears slowly streaming down the boy's face.

"You might not believe what I'm about to say, but I saw them," Duan Lin said softly to Xi Yuan.

That night, I saw them, one on the left and one on the right, sitting next to you, watching over you.

"The two of them were standing in front of the car, arms outstretched, blocking us from passing. I jerked the steering wheel, and then... we were back. Otherwise, we'd be stuck there with the principal and the others."

"I've always thought they stopped me because they wanted to save you. Do you believe what I'm saying?" Duan Lin said, staring straight at Xi Yuan's face.

Xi Yuan slowly lowered his head.

Visiting time was approaching, and the intercom inside the room crackled to life, telling Duan Lin to leave. It seemed... he still couldn't get Xi Yuan to speak. Duan Lin stood up and slowly walked towards the door. Just as his hand touched the glass door, a dry, hoarse voice suddenly came from behind him...

"I...I believe...I...saw...ghosts..."

Without turning around, Duan Lin felt his heart racing as the boy who had been huddled in the corner slowly stood up. He knew the boy was walking towards him.

The boy's cold hand slowly touched Duan Lin's face, stroking his eyes. Duan Lin heard the boy whisper in his ear in a hoarse voice, "Caught a ghost..."

When the boy loosened his grip, Duan Lin's eyes widened in disbelief!

The glass door reflected the scene opposite, and inside, besides his own and Xi Yuan's figures, there was...

A little child! The shadowy figure of a small child, completely black, was now perched on his shoulder, the little hand that had been covering his eyes now clasped in Xi Yuan's hand.

"Hehe-"

After the barely audible laughter of the children subsided, only the shadows of himself and Xi Yuan remained on the glass!

Duan Lin turned around abruptly and caught Xi Yuan, who was about to slump down.

“It was a female ghost…it was a female ghost who called us that day…I saw Fatty sitting in a black car…Ade…that day…when we were locked in the well…I saw you…you broke free from my grasp…”

Xi Yuan's words were intermittent and unclear, but even so, the more Duan Lin listened, the more he felt something was wrong!

I have a really bad feeling... Could it be that the hand I saw reaching out from the ground on my first day at school was...?

Suddenly remembering the ring, Duan Lin looked at Xi Yuan's right hand and saw a white mark on the boy's little finger with its distinct knuckles!

That's because wearing rings for a long time causes your fingers to lack sunlight!

No longer doubting it, Duan Lin knew that his dream that night was real! He had been to that place in his dream!

Duan Lin remembered that in his dream he had turned around and seen a dark figure... He should have been able to vaguely make out the person's features back then, but... Damn it! He couldn't remember anything!

Walking back to school, Duan Lin clenched his fists tightly.

"Teacher, although it's unbelievable, I believe you. But... since it's true, can you still roughly identify where that place in the dream was?" Xiao Bai walked beside Duan Lin and suddenly spoke after Duan Lin gave a brief account. He and Duan Lin had come to visit Xi Yuan, but due to visitor limits, they were turned away at the door.

Xiao Bai's words were like a wake-up call for Duan Lin, and he suddenly stopped in his tracks!

"It's a grove of trees! I remember now! That place is the grove of trees behind the school!"

Chapter Nine: The murderer is...

An hour later, Duan Lin and Xiao Bai stood in the woods behind Qi Lan's school building. Even in the bright afternoon sun, the dense foliage of the woods was still somewhat dim and even a little chilly...

"This forest is very old, it's been there for about fifty years. The principal has been protecting it ever since he became the principal of Qilan," Xiaobai explained, looking at the tall trees.

"The land in this area was all bought by the principal for Qi Lan. Because it is school land, the government has never used it for any other purpose."

"Do you really understand...?" Duan Lin looked around as he listened to the boy's explanation.

"The students all know this. There's also a legend that this place is forbidden, and that some students have disappeared here, so basically no one dares to come here. But it's all just a rumor."

“Now we don’t know if it’s just a rumor or not,” Duan Lin suddenly stopped in his tracks after hearing the boy’s words. “It turns out that the students’ disappearance was also a rumor, but now… perhaps there really is something strange going on…”

"ah?!"

Just as Duan Lin was about to continue forward, he suddenly heard a soft cry from the boy behind him.

"Teacher, come quick! Over here! Over here..."

Duan Lin's heart clenched, and he quickly ran towards the location the boy pointed to.

Before me stood a manhole cover. Exactly the same as in my dream.

Duan Lin couldn't help but swallow.

Meeting Xiaobai's probing gaze, Duan Lin nodded slightly. "This is...this is the place."

In that dream, he was standing by the manhole cover, just like he is now, slowly bending down. Duan Lin noticed a few drops of red on the manhole cover that were not easily noticed.

Blood?

Duan Lin couldn't stop himself from thinking in that direction.

Carefully lifting the manhole cover, Duan Lin held his breath and peered inside... It was pitch black...

It was just as dark as that day. That day, I had curiously peered inside, and then… my hand was suddenly grabbed! Almost simultaneously, I suddenly sensed someone behind me! I whirled around, but it was too dark to see the person's face clearly… but I could see their figure clearly. It was… it was…

Just as a thought, like a trapped beast, was about to break free, a chill suddenly ran down his spine! Someone was behind him! The same feeling as in his dream that day, Duan Lin abruptly turned around and saw… it was the principal! The person he had seen that night was the principal!

Upon seeing the dormitory supervisor behind him, the beast within him finally found its way out of the maze. When he finally realized what was happening, Duan Lin felt a chill run through him from the inside out!