Le retour de l'âme

Chapitre 26

PART 6.

I didn't leave the hospital until Mengna fell asleep.

It was already 11 o'clock when I got back to school.

Reiko Maeda was standing at the clock tower entrance, looking like she had been waiting for me for a long time. But she didn't scold me for being late.

"I'll take you to the 'clock tower' switch now," she said as she walked into the "clock tower."

Once again, I stepped onto the creaking wooden stairs in the darkness, my flashlight casting a dim circle of light upon them. For some reason, Lin Duyu's figure kept appearing before me, alternating with Maeda Reiko's.

The Fourth Campus: Nangong Xiaoxue's Diary (4)

The "Clock Tower" switch is located at a corner deep in the reading room corridor, a full twenty meters away from the reading room. There are no windows in the corridor, and all the doors are tightly closed.

"Do you understand now?" Maeda Reiko asked.

I nodded silently.

"The thunder was very loud in the reading room, but it's hard to hear in the corridor. So, if that person wanted to escape, I would have heard her footsteps. But she didn't! She hid in the building after she did the trick! Besides, how long would it take her to run downstairs? I chased her out of the reading room in no more than fifteen seconds. Is it possible for her to run to the first floor in fifteen seconds, especially in the dark?"

I had to shake my head.

"She probably hid in the second-floor hallway after she turned off the power," Maeda Reiko said. "She only quietly went downstairs after we both left, and then..."

"And then you suspect Mengna!"

"She's the prime suspect! What would a girl be doing at the clock tower in such heavy rain and so late at night?"

"If it was her, why didn't we see her come out of the building?"

"Don't you ever think about this? Since there's a secret passage in the clock tower leading to the 'forbidden area,' why can't there be another secret passage leading to the campus?"

Her words truly surprised me. "You mean to say that Mengna is in cahoots with the people who orchestrated these events?"

Reiko Maeda looked into my eyes without saying a word.

"Impossible," I said. "Her sister was the victim, how could she be an accomplice! Besides, in 1995, she was just a high school student. Your deduction makes absolutely no sense!"

Just then, a strange creaking sound came from the old, worn-out wooden stairs.

PART 7.

The creaking sound grew closer, indicating that someone was slowly going upstairs. Maeda Reiko alertly turned off her flashlight, plunging us into complete darkness.

"Lizi, run!" In the darkness, I recalled the scene in the corridor of the Youth League Committee office.

"Shh," Reiko Maeda covered my mouth and whispered, "Don't speak. Do you want to lure him over here?"

The eerie creaking sound suddenly stopped.

Silence, a terrifying silence. My heart began to race, and despite it being the dead of winter, I was sweating profusely.

"Want to go out and take a look?" I asked softly.

"No." Reiko Maeda grabbed my hand. Her palms were cold and damp; I knew she was nervous too.

"Am I just supposed to wait here like this?" I felt like I was suffocating.

"Let's wait a little longer and see," Maeda Reiko said softly.

As soon as she finished speaking, that terrifying "creaking" sound rang out again, and I could tell that the sound was approaching us.

As we got closer, it seemed we were at the corner where the power switch was located. My heart was pounding, and Maeda Reiko's breathing became rapid.

The sound paused for a few seconds, then resumed. I seemed to see a dark figure approaching me and Reiko Maeda. Suddenly, everything fell silent again.

I held my breath, too afraid to move, and Reiko Maeda's hand, which was holding mine, was trembling uncontrollably. A strong sense of fear rose from the bottom of my heart; I could feel something standing in front of Reiko Maeda and me.

Darkness, silence.

A tomb-like silence. The entire "clock tower" was shrouded in an aura of death.

Eyes! I remember many times in the dark I always felt that a pair of eyes were watching me, and now, those eyes seem to be right in front of me.

Reiko Maeda and I stood motionless for a long time. I finally couldn't stand it anymore, so I snatched her flashlight, turned it on, and shone it forward.

The dim beam of light shot out like a swift arrow, then turned back in an instant, swaying aimlessly in the air before being extinguished with a crash.

In that instant, Maeda Reiko screamed and threw herself into my arms, and I collapsed to the ground.

In that instant, we saw a face, an old and terrifying face.

Less than twenty centimeters away from us, a pair of terrifying eyes stared intently at us.

I swear, I will never forget those eyes in my life! Grayish-white pupils, indistinguishable between the whites and the irises!

"Quick...quick...run!" Luckily, I still had the strength to pull Maeda Reiko up.

We had just stood up when suddenly a hand grabbed my shoulder. After a brief commotion, silence returned. That hand drained all my strength. Maeda Reiko and I were like two quails, helplessly tossed about in the darkness.

cloth.

"You...you...are you a human or a ghost?" I used the last of my strength to say these words.

There was no sound, only silence. The pitch-black darkness prevented me from seeing what was either human or ghost, but I could feel that the hand trembled when I asked that question.

"You...you..." Reiko Maeda trembled, "What exactly do you want to do?"

An aged voice came from in front of me:

"れこさんですか(Reiko)?"

I was completely baffled. How could this thing know Reiko Maeda? And speak Japanese? Could she be...?

"Who are you?" Maeda Reiko asked.

No, it can't be Nami Ikeda. Her face is too old, her voice is too old.

"Tapukete (Help me), tapukete," the old voice said, and then the hand slowly left my shoulder.

"Riko, hurry!" I yelled, pulling her towards the outside of the "clock tower." The aged voice called after us:

"たすけて,たすけて.れこさん(Save me, save me, Reiko)".

PART 8.

I pulled Reiko Maeda along and ran a long way until we were sure we were far away from the "clock tower" before we stopped. I was bent over, panting heavily, while Reiko Maeda slumped down.

"Who...who is she? How did she...know you?" I asked, still in shock.

The Fourth Campus: Nangong Xiaoxue's Diary (5)

"N-no... I don't know." Maeda Reiko was also exhausted.

"If you don't know her... why would she... call your name?"

Reiko Maeda shook her head with her eyes closed. "I really haven't... I've never seen her."

"It's absolutely terrifying," I said, calming down a bit. "I've never seen anything so horrifying." I slowly walked over and sat down beside her. "That time in the reading room, the instant the lights suddenly went out, I had a feeling that a pair of eyes were watching me in the darkness. It happened several times afterward in the clock tower, and now I can finally see those eyes! What does she want? Why is she calling for help?"

"I don't understand why, how did she know who I am?"

I suddenly turned to stare at Reiko Maeda. "Are you sure there aren't any Japanese women that old on campus?"

She glanced at me helplessly. "Why would I lie to you? If I knew this person, would I be so scared?"

"Oh, right, there's something else I've been wanting to ask you."

"What?"

"Why did you never tell me that Nami Ikeda suffered from severe paranoia before her death?"

This question made Reiko Maeda jump to her feet. She suddenly became very agitated, grabbing my collar and asking, "How did you know? Who told you?"

This behavior displeased me greatly. I pulled her hand away, stood up, and said coldly, "I only ask you why you never told me, why you concealed the true reason for the establishment of the Séance?"

Reiko Maeda paused, then suddenly sighed, "Actually, Nami Ikeda didn't originally have this illness; it was forced upon her."

"Forced?"

"Yes, I'm asking you, if you saw a dead person, what would you do?"

"That's impossible."

"Impossible? Yes, no one will believe it, but how do you explain everything that happened at our school? You've seen that female ghost several times; if you tell others, will they believe you?"

"Didn't you tell me that ghosts don't have shadows? Someone must be faking it. That old woman earlier, that was someone else pretending to scare us too."

Reiko Maeda glanced at me dismissively. "Yes, I told you, it wasn't a ghost, but I can assure you that what you saw in the Youth League office was someone who died on campus. It could be Nami Ikeda, it could be Xueyao Zhang, it could even be Meng Li! If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do. Let's stop here for today."

She hadn't taken more than a few steps when she turned back. "Lin Yuan, I didn't lie to you. Ikeda Nami really did see the dead, because I saw them once too! There was a story circulating on campus about a cursed diary, and Ikeda Nami read it! I've never told you any of this, but I know you're very curious. If you knew, you'd definitely go find that diary, and anyone who read it would only have one outcome—death! Go find it. Once you see that diary, you'll know if what I said is true."

"Stop right there!" I yelled. "Have you read that diary?"

"I haven't seen it," she said sincerely, "but I have seen the dead girl, and I don't think she was sick. You all treat her like she's crazy!" With that, she turned and walked toward her apartment.

"Wait..." No matter how I called out, she never turned around.

PART 9.

Lying in bed, I kept stroking the diary under my pillow, and the words left by Maeda Reiko kept echoing in my mind, making it difficult for me to fall asleep.

To be honest, I hope what Maeda Reiko said is true, and I hope Ikeda Nami doesn't have mental problems. Lately, for some reason, I've been feeling uneasy about the "other me" I saw during that hypnosis session—the one wearing a long wig and a white robe. If Ikeda Nami isn't ill, it at least proves one thing: she did see dead people, and what I saw was also dead. In that case, Lin Duyu might have been killed by those three "female corpses."

I don't know why I started to doubt myself. I increasingly felt that everything that happened that night was just a dream.

"Once you see that diary, you'll know whether what I said is true or not."

Reiko Maeda's voice, like a ghostly chant, made me sit up abruptly in bed. I put on my clothes, picked up Nangong Xiaoxue's diary and flashlight, and headed out of the dormitory.

I can't let Xu Zhifei and Zhao Jun find out that I've obtained such a diary. I don't want Xu Zhifei to suffer any harm—"And for those who have read that diary, there is only one outcome—death!" This was the advice Maeda Reiko left me. And indeed, it was true. Li Xiaofei, Zhang Xueyao, Liu Li… all of them have read the cursed diary. As for Zhao Jun, I don't want him to know even more. Now I have no trust in him whatsoever, only disgust.

I remember shortly after I entered the university, Lin Duyu and I went up to the roof of the dormitory building. There was no parapet, no flower beds, just a large cement water tank. I thought it was a nice place.

I climbed onto the roof, sat down against the large water tank, turned on my flashlight, and continued reading Nangong Xiaoxue's diary.

Thursday, March 18, 1993 Weather: Cloudy

It's been over three months since I last received a letter from Ouyang Jun. In those three months, I wrote him fifteen letters, but each one has vanished without a trace. I'm really worried; I don't know how he's doing over there. I asked a classmate, and learned that several professors who went with him have also been out of contact for three months.

I'm very worried; I don't know what happened to him. Maybe I shouldn't overthink it. Perhaps his experiment has entered a crucial stage, and he hasn't had time to reply to me. He should return with honors in just over a month; I should wait patiently.

Saturday, May 1, 1993 Weather: Cloudy

Today was supposed to be the day Ouyang Jun returned, and I waited at the school gate early in the morning, but from sunrise to sunset, and from sunset to late at night, I didn't see him. I had a bad feeling.

Like me, there was another girl waiting at the school gate. Perhaps out of a sense of shared hardship, I struck up a conversation with her for a while. She was a Japanese exchange student named Nami Ikeda, and like me, she was waiting for her boyfriend. Her boyfriend had gone abroad with Ouyang Jun and his group, and we hadn't heard from him for over four months.