After hurriedly finishing in the restroom, Fang Wen rushed out of the cubicle.
Seeing no movement from Chen Xiaoxiao, she called out, “Are you done yet, Xiaoxiao?”
No one replied.
Fang Wen frowned and raised a hand to knock on the cubicle door. “Xiaoxiao?”
Still, there was no response.
The restroom was dead silent. Aside from the continuous rushing of water filling the cistern, not a single sound stirred, so quiet that an uneasy panic crept into her heart.
Countless terrifying scenes flashed through her mind in an instant. Fang Wen’s heart vaulted into her throat, which suddenly felt tight and parched.
Swallowing hard, she shakily reached out and tugged at the door latch.
The door pulled open effortlessly—there was nobody inside!
Where was Chen Xiaoxiao?
A nameless terror seized her in an instant. Not daring to stay another second, Fang Wen bolted outside.
Rushing out the restroom door, she looked down the hallway and spotted a figure standing before the stairwell at the far end.
Though the lighting was dim, the sweater, the short skirt, and those bare legs and feet could belong to no one else. Who else could it be but Chen Xiaoxiao?
Seeing this, Fang Wen flared with anger.
Some nerve Chen Xiaoxiao had! She had kindly agreed to accompany her to the restroom, yet the girl had finished and walked off on her own without waiting or even saying a word. What the hell kind of person did that?!
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became, her irritation completely eclipsing her fear.
Striding swiftly down the hallway, Fang Wen caught up and slapped a hand on the girl’s shoulder, shouting, “Chen Xiaoxiao, what’s your problem—”
Her words broke off halfway as she suddenly sensed something wrong. The squishy, sodden texture beneath her palm choked the rest of her accusations in her throat.
The figure was soaking wet from head to toe, water steadily dripping—“drip, drop, drip, drop”—from the ends of her hair and the hem of her clothes.
At the same time, Chen Xiaoxiao slowly began to turn her head.
The way she turned was profoundly unnatural. It wasn’t a normal twist of the neck, but a series of rigid, mechanical jerks.
Her head kept turning until, even with her back still facing Fang Wen, she was looking directly at her face-to-face.
With a single glance, all color drained from Fang Wen’s face, her eyes glazing over in horror.
“Aaaah!”
A piercing scream tore through her throat. What she saw struck her like a bolt of lightning, rooting her to the spot as her legs shook violently.
Chen Xiaoxiao’s pale face was completely blank—a smooth, flat sheet of skin, devoid of any facial features!
Fang Wen wanted to snatch her hand back, wanted to turn and run. Every single cell in her body screamed at her to flee, flee, flee...
Yet her hand felt as if forged from cast iron, too heavy to lift, and her feet seemed filled with lead, anchored to the floor.
Her eyes bulged as she watched that eerie head snap from the neck with a loud “crack,” toppling onto its shoulder and flopping limp against her hand.
The coarse hair, the icy skin, the chillingly vivid sensation...
“Aaaaargh!”
Under the intense shock, Fang Wen finally wrested back control of her body.
Instinctively swinging her arm, she flung the head away with all her might, then scrambled and crawled in a screaming frenzy toward the stairs leading up to the third floor.
At that exact moment, Ye Li’s group was rushing up from the first floor, only to see a dark object hurtling straight at their heads.
Running at the front, Ye Li reacted with lightning reflexes, ducking and sidestepping to dodge it.
Right behind her, Le Jun instinctively reached out and caught the object.
Looking down, he saw that the round, hairy bundle in his hands was a human head. With a terrified howl, he instantly cast it aside.
The head slammed onto the floor, rolled a couple of times with a hollow rattle, and came to a stop. Its featureless face happened to land facing upward, its pale blankness staring right at the group beneath the dim light.
Yet the horror was only beginning. Before long, their gazes fell upon the headless body standing off to the side.
Atop the hollow neck was a ragged, uneven stump, the mangled red-and-white flesh looking as though the head had been brutally twisted and torn away by sheer force.
At the gruesome sight, Le Jun’s legs went weak, cold sweat drenching him as he nearly passed out on the spot.
Even Ye Li was momentarily startled at first glance.
Yi Lin and Luo Jiajia broke down in terrified tears, spinning around to flee back downstairs.
Yet only moments later, they came rushing back, their footsteps clattering in panic.
The grotesque “minced flesh” from downstairs had already crept onto the stairs, leaving them nowhere to run.
Meanwhile, the headless corpse stood rigid before the staircase to the third floor, its presence so chilling that no one dared approach.
In that moment, an boundless terror rooted itself deep within their hearts, clinging to them like maggots to a bone, lingering and inescapable.
“W-What do we do?”
Le Jun braced his hands against the wall, asking Ye Li beside him in a trembling voice.
The small, slender girl before him was now his sole pillar of support, keeping him from being utterly consumed by fear.
Ye Li knitted her brows, equally unable to make sense of the situation.
Someone who had been right beside them just moments ago had lost her head in the blink of an eye.
What’s more, as gruesome as the wound was, no blood leaked from it. There wasn’t even a drop of blood anywhere around, as if every last drop in her body had long since been drained.
It was thoroughly bizarre.
Just as the group stood frozen in hesitation, the headless corpse suddenly moved.
“She” raised both hands to her neck and slowly unclenched her fists.
In the centers of her palms, a mouth had sprouted in one, and an ear in the other!
The mouth opened and closed, producing a chilling, hollow voice: “Where is my head... Where is my head... Who saw my head...?”
Speaking, “she” began to take steps, seemingly searching for “her” head.
Her bare, water-soaked feet slapped heavily against the floor with squelching, wet footsteps, tolling like a death knell in everyone’s ears.
Yi Lin and Luo Jiajia whimpered and wept in terror, both cowering beside Le Jun and clutching desperately at his clothes.
Le Jun was terrified out of his wits as well, but not daring to grab hold of Ye Li, he could only stick as close behind her as possible.
Watching the headless corpse intently, Ye Li noticed the ear in its palm twitching as if listening for sounds in the surroundings. She immediately hissed a low warning:
“Don’t make a sound. She can hear us!”
Terrified, the others clamped their hands tightly over their mouths, not daring to make the slightest noise.
Seeing the headless corpse draw closer and closer, Ye Li and the others could only shift their feet with utmost care, edging toward the other side of the hallway.
Suddenly, Luo Jiajia let out a sharp cry of alarm.
Focused solely on moving away, she hadn’t watched where she was stepping and accidentally stepped on the head.
The noise instantly alerted the headless corpse. “She” whipped around toward them and screamed from her palm, “Where is my head? Give me back my head!”
Outstretching her arms, “she” lunged straight toward the group.
Possessed by some sudden impulse, Ye Li abruptly lunged forward and kicked the head hard, sending it flying down the stairs.
Everyone: “...”
Headless corpse: “...”
Head: Roll, roll, roll...
In an instant, the whole world fell completely silent, save for the sound of continuous rolling echoing from down the stairs.
Rate on N.U.
