Le retour de l'âme

Chapitre 20

Lin Duyu walked ahead with a flashlight, and I followed closely behind, descending the spiral staircase step by step. The staircase had no handrail, was steep and narrow, and below lay a bottomless darkness. After descending just over ten steps, there was a sudden "whoosh" as the bookshelf above us closed automatically.

"Damn it, the entrance is blocked." Lin Duyu turned around and shone his flashlight around the ceiling, but he didn't find any mechanisms.

"There must be a mechanism involved. How did that woman get out?" Lin Duyu persisted, continuing her search.

"Perhaps the exit is another way, and this is just the way we came in," I said.

How can you be sure there's only one exit?

"Since the basement entrance is located on the top floor, why does the way in have to be the way out?"

"That makes sense. Let's not worry about that anymore and keep going."

The dim beam of light illuminated the dark stairwell. We wandered around for who knows how many times before finally reaching the last step.

"The 'Clock Tower' only has three floors, but it feels like we've gone down to the sixth floor," Lin Duyu said, looking up at the screen.

I looked up and saw that the winding staircase now looked like a spider web.

A cold, dark space of about six square meters, reeking of mildew, like a cage.

"Have you found the passage?" I wrinkled my nose; I couldn't stand the smell.

Lin Duyu and I started searching, but it seemed like there was no way out of this space.

"Looks like we're going to be stuck here." I wasn't in a hurry.

"If there really is no way out, we should have run into that woman by now." Lin Duyu started searching on the ground. After a while, he shouted:

"Lin Yuan, look!"

Sure enough, there was blood on the ground.

"There must be a way out! There must be another organization!" he said with great certainty.

"But where is the mechanism? The floor and walls are all made of bluestone; there's nothing special about it."

Lin Duyu thought for a while, then suddenly pulled me to the stairs and turned off the flashlight.

"Why did you turn off the flashlight?" I asked, extremely uneasy.

"I suddenly have two questions. First, the woman didn't bring any light. How did she get down? The stairs are narrow, and even with flashlights, we were moving very slowly; one wrong step and we would have fallen. How did she get down in the dark? Second, even if she felt her way down, how did she orient herself and accurately activate the mechanisms in the dark?"

"Yes, it's pitch black here. You'll get lost if you go around in circles. To find even a small mechanism, unless..."

"Unless the mechanism is right on the wall opposite!" Lin Duyu pulled me forward.

Sure enough, a blue stone on the wall could be moved. I pushed it aside, and a loud "boom" came from above.

Lin Duyu turned on his flashlight and said to me, "Looks like I'm lucky; I guessed right again."

But I don't think so. "Wait, the sound came from upstairs, but the bloodstains are here. Also, I suddenly remember, we didn't see any bloodstains when we came down the stairs!"

PART 10.

Lin Duyu examined the bloodstains on the ground carefully once more, then climbed the stairs. I followed closely behind him, counting the steps as we went.

"One, two, three..." After climbing about thirty steps, we found a black hole in the wall next to the stairs.

"So this is it! It's really well-designed. If we hadn't seen that pool of blood, we wouldn't have been able to get out." Lin Duyu raised his flashlight and shone it into the cave.

"Du Yu, there wasn't a trace of blood on the stairs when we came down. Have you thought about where the bloodstains on the ground came from? It couldn't have been that she just jumped down, could it?" I was a little puzzled by the bloodstains on the ground.

Lin Duyu seemed not to hear what I was saying; the hole in the wall had greatly intrigued him. "Look, Lin Yuan, it really is a secret passage! Where do you think it leads?"

I shook my head. The passage, shrouded in darkness, was constantly emanating a chilling aura, like the entrance to hell leading to the ferry crossing of the icy Agrom River.

"Let's go, we have no choice, the exit is blocked." Lin Duyu stepped inside.

After walking about six or seven meters, the passage suddenly turned ninety degrees, and the road surface descended to form a slope, stretching into the darkness.

"Guess where we are in the 'Clock Tower'?" Lin Duyu didn't seem afraid. No, maybe he was just as scared as I was, so he kept talking to ease his fear. It was indeed a good method, and I started talking to him too.

The Secret Passage of the Clock Tower in the Fourth Campus (6)

"When we came down, we climbed about sixty steps. Now, we've climbed another thirty steps. I think we should be on the first floor."

Lin Duyu said, "Yes, but that's no longer the case; we're going downhill."

"Where do you think it will lead?"

What do you think? Maybe we're thinking the same thing?

"That forbidden area on campus!" Lin Duyu and I said this almost in unison.

The Fourth Campus: Three Female Corpses (1)

PART 1.

Saying those words gave me goosebumps all over.

"Are you nervous?" Lin Duyu asked.

"Nervous? No," I said.

"Don't lie to me. I'm nervous too, but also very excited. We're finally going to enter that mysterious place, and all the secrets will be revealed. Aren't you excited?"

"Yes, the truth may soon come out, but I have a bad feeling." I lowered my voice very much.

Lin Duyu seemed surprised by my sudden change and stopped in her tracks. "Don't overthink it. There are no ghosts in this world."

"Quiet down, I feel like we're being watched."

"That's your illusion. You're scared, so you'll have this illusion," Lin Duyu said softly.

Perhaps it's just my imagination, but I do have a strange feeling—that there are eyes watching our every move in the darkness. Yes, this feeling is familiar. I first had this feeling when the power suddenly went out while I was waiting for Maeda Reiko in the reading room. Later, I had this feeling again in the hallway of the Youth League office. After that feeling, the long-haired female ghost appeared. Now, it's happening again.

Apart from the faint light of the flashlight, everything around me was pitch black. I grabbed the flashlight and shone it behind me.

Wherever the light passed, there was nothing but a thick bluestone wall.

"Don't be so nervous," Lin Duyu said. "That's just your imagination. That terrifying image has corrupted you too much."

I understand how you feel.

I handed the flashlight back to Lin Duyu. "No, you wouldn't understand."

Lin Duyu continued walking, "I understand. I've been through it too, and I was tormented by that image for a time. Were I behaving strangely recently? I think you must have noticed."

"You saw that image too?" I didn't understand why that thing would still target him when he had already stopped investigating. My ominous premonition grew stronger.

"Lin Yuan, let me ask you, do ghosts bleed?" Lin Duyu suddenly asked.

You mean…

"I ran into her in the reading room today. She was that terrifying image. I was terrified, so I overturned tables and chairs and hit her with a flashlight. And what happened? She got injured and bled! If it weren't for her blood, how would we have found this place? What does the blood mean? She's not a ghost, she's a person!"

"But..." I wanted to say something, but suddenly I couldn't. Inadvertently, I noticed a black shadow on the ceiling. It flickered and disappeared into the darkness.

It looks like hair!

"Du Yu, I...I..." I stopped in my tracks.

He turned around. "What's wrong?"

I didn't dare to speak, nor did I dare to look up again; I just pointed to the top of my head.

Lin Duyu followed my hand and shone the flashlight over.

"What did you see? There's nothing. I told you not to be so nervous."

I looked up again, and indeed, there was nothing there.

Could it really be an illusion? No, it can't be an illusion. I believe my eyes; I really saw a clump of black hair swaying there!

Lin Duyu patted my shoulder, "Let's go quickly. I know how you feel, but there's nothing I can do to help you get out of this mess. So hurry up and get out of here, and you won't scare yourself like this anymore."

...

This dark passage seemed endless, and as we descended, the ground grew increasingly slippery. Water seeped from the surrounding bluestone, dripping onto the ground, its sound, along with Lin Duyu's and my footsteps, like a requiem. A foul odor, the smell of decay, wafted through the cold, damp air, adding to the eerie atmosphere of the darkness. The ceiling of the passage lowered further and lower, almost touching our heads. It also narrowed, until it could barely accommodate one person at a time. My unease grew heavier and heavier.

I had a feeling that something was following us. I was about to tell Lin Duyu, who was ahead of us, when he stopped.

"Lin Yuan, look, there's a fork in the road ahead."

I leaned my head on his shoulder and looked in the direction he was pointing. There was a three-way intersection ahead of the narrow passage.

"Which way should we go?" I asked.

"I don't know either. Which path do you think we should take?"

"Hmm, let me think about it."

As soon as I finished speaking, that strange feeling from before returned—it seemed like someone was behind me.

"Du Yu, I feel something's not right." I didn't dare turn around.

Lin Duyu clearly didn't understand what I meant. "Oh? You think there's something wrong with this fork in the road?"

"No..." Before I could finish speaking, I suddenly heard a strange "caw" sound in my ear. It seemed to be right behind my head. Then, my neck felt itchy, like something was scratching it. Then, that thing reached into my neck, a hairy thing!

Lin Duyu had obviously heard the strange noise as well, and turned around almost at the same time as me. In an instant, the beam of the flashlight illuminated a terrifying scene!

PART 2.

Looking back, one could see a clump of long, black hair slowly hanging down from the hole in the top of the passage, followed by the appearance of a forehead.

"Crossing...crossing the rain, could this...this really be an illusion?"

Lin Duyu didn't say anything, but grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back.

"You filthy bitch, still playing tricks! Come down here if you dare!" He shone his flashlight on half of her forehead.

With a "whoosh," two hands fell from her hair, stiff and pale, their long, thin nails painted with bright red nail polish, like blood. Lin Duyu instinctively took a few steps back; he was also frightened.

The "gag" sound started again, and a head slowly emerged from the cave. It was the face of a woman, ashen and lifeless, with wide-open eyes staring straight at us, and a terrifying "gag" sound coming from her gaping mouth.

Lin Duyu grabbed a flashlight and threw it, but the head suddenly dropped, and most of the body fell down with it, swinging back and forth like a swing, knocking Lin Duyu to the ground.

The Fourth Campus: Three Female Corpses (2)

"Du...Du Yu." I called out Lin Du Yu's name, at a loss.

Lin Duyu sat on the ground, terrified.

The body hung upside down in the air, swaying back and forth, its two eyes staring straight at us. We remained frozen like that for a minute.

"Du...Duyu, what do we do?" I looked back at the three-way intersection, wanting to run, but I couldn't stand up.