Horror Game Designer

Xuan Wen put away her smile. She radiated no warmth or kindness anymore. She stared at the screen seriously. She checked to make sure she got everything right.

Gao Ming had been to the back building of Li San Hospital half a year ago. He was there, not as a patient. He might been chosen by the shadow world back then.

“Erm…” Chen Meng looked at the paused video. He did not see himself or his doctor. It was another person. “Aren’t we here to treat me? Did you get this wrong?” As a patient, Chen Meng didn’t want to interrupt, but Xuan Wen was treating this with such severity that Chen Meng felt like he could be dead the next second.

“Every time you can’t sleep, someone around you will die, but you’ll always be fine. Therefore, you are fine.” Xuan Wen shushed Chen Meng. She took out a headphone and connected it to the old computer. Xuan Wen pressed the play button. She stared with such focus. The video continued to play. The ward door opened. Gao Ming entered the ward in his uniform. Dust danced in the light. There was no smell of disinfectant but a strange smell of decay. Gao Ming frowned slightly. He held the resit for the medicine as he looked at Chen Meng, who was receiving treatment.

“How can an outsider walk into this place so easily?” Chen Meng was panicking because he just laid his darkest secret on the table.

“I’m a doctor too. You can continue.” Gao Ming scanned the room. There were five seats in the room. There were two beside the table, two beside the window and one beside the bookshelf that was hidden in the shadow. Without much consideration, Gao Ming took the seat in the shadow. He was fully enveloped in the dark.

“Are you a doctor here too?” Chen Meng’s expression was not as natural as earlier.

“Mr. Chen, I think I got a grasp of your illness already. Please wait a moment.” The doctor opposite Chen Meng seemed to be surprised by Gao Ming’s appearance as well. He smiled, “You said you are a doctor, but only those with serious mental illness will come to me.”

“Ever since Hen Shan Penitentiary got the devices that were transferred over from Xin Lu, the emotions of the patients appeared to have settled down. However, once they were triggered, they would instantly fall into a great state of agitation. There was a prison riot last night. My superior told me to come here to get some drugs. This is the resit and proof. He said you already had everything prepared.” The hospital had its own purchasing system. Gao Ming didn’t want to get involved. He just wanted to get the drugs and leave.

“Doctor, I have an acting gig later. Can you prescribe me the pills first?” Chen Meng urged. He hated Gao Ming for cutting in. He was there first.

“Pills are not going to cure you.” Gao Ming suddenly interjected. He had heard everything when he was standing outside. “If you don’t want to be troubled by pain anymore, my solution is for you to surrender to the police and admit to your murdering crimes. You hit your best friend with your car, dismembered her and then buried her.”

“Nonsense! I wouldn’t do something like that!” Chen Meng retorted angrily, “That only happened in my dream!”

“Dream is a reflection of real life. A kernel of truth whittled down from a web of lies.” Gao Ming dealt with death penalty criminals daily, so he was familiar with people like Chen Meng, “If you really can’t remember if you have killed someone or not, you can ask the police to help you. For you, death is a release.”

“Shut up!” Chen Meng stood up. He gripped his fists.

“Don’t get all worked up. I’m just sharing my treatment idea with you.” Gao Ming still resided in the shadow. “The absurdity of the dream is always related to our emotive world.”

The doctor listened to Gao Ming and then consoled Chen Meng, “Dream is the feelings beyond our soul. Sleeping allows us to enter the passivity of our thoughts. Therefore, in our dreams, we’ll often do things we can’t control or understand.”

On the surface, Chen Meng appeared civilised. He arranged his collar and made himself calm down.

“Dreams appear after we sleep, providing us an escape from the waking world, mutating certain things in the process. However, all the mutations have a basis in logic.” Gao Ming couldn’t be clearer with his words. A person’s dream is heavily related to one’s perception of self.

“Are you sick?” Chen Meng was about to flare up again. He rolled up his sleeves and turned to Gao Ming, “I just can’t sleep. When I did say I killed someone?”

“Mr. Chen, I’ll bring you to take the medicine now.” The doctor pulled Chen Meng away. He led him into the deepest room of the counselling ward. The video became silent.

Gao Ming sat on the chair alone and held the resit. He didn’t notice that the shadow behind him appeared to have come alive. It slowly eroded his neck and silently wanted to squeeze into his body. The resit slipped to the ground. Gao Ming closed his eyes like he had fallen asleep.

About five minutes later, the doctor brought out Chen Meng, who was in a patient’s garb. Chen Meng’s eyes were dull, like something had been taken out of him.

“Mr. Chen, take your medicine and go to the seventh floor to get a hospital stay certificate.” The doctor patted Chen Meng’s back with a smile. “With our treatment method, you’ll be cured after you’ve stayed with us for three days.”

Chen Meng left the other room obediently. The doctor came to Gao Ming with a smile. “Wake up.”

Gao Ming’s eyes flew open. He pulled on his collar like he was cold, “Is the killer gone?”

“He just had some strange dreams.” The doctor picked up the resit from the ground. He studied the different pill names on it. “Have you fallen asleep? Did you dream of anything strange? Do you think you’re crazy?”

“What is your point?” Gao Ming seemed to have been in a dream.

“Isn’t a crazy person just a lucid person in a dream?” The doctor appeared to be talking to himself. “You have fallen asleep, but are you sure you are awake now?”

The doctor didn’t look at Gao Ming. When Gao Ming heard the doctor, he felt goosebumps all over. He looked around subconsciously. The world became unfamiliar to him all of a sudden.

Xuan Wen had said nothing so far. She stared closely at Gao Ming, trying to glean more information from his face.