Horror Game Designer

Xuan Wen and the woman turned around at the same time. Sunlight filtered into the room. Gao Ming, who stood beside the dresser earlier, had disappeared.

“My son is back. He’s outside!” The woman hung up the phone, put on her slippers and ran to the door. Xuan Wen followed her. Only the little fatty remained, eating the ribs at the table. The woman opened the door and came to the corridor. The sun was blinding. She looked around, but there was no one in the corridor.

“I heard the music just now.” The middle-aged woman was confused. She grabbed Xuan Wen’s hand. “Girl, did you hear the music too? That was my son’s phone ringtone. He has always used the same one.”

“Phone ringtone?” Xuan Wen’s brain spun. Her confusion became more obvious, “I heard no such thing.”

“There was!” The middle-aged woman shouted at the little fatty who was eating, “Xiao Wei! You heard the ringtone too, right?”

The little fatty had just shoved a piece of meat into his mouth. He froze beside the table silently as if afraid of being captured.

“I really heard it!” The middle-aged woman ran towards the stairwell. Xuan Wen tailed her closely. There was shock in her eyes. She had been at the apartment for a long time already. The middle-aged woman had never left her home. If she needed anything, she would ask her neighbours to help her. This was her first time leaving her home. Just as the woman stepped out of her home, the light distorted. A chill invaded the apartment.

“Auntie, slow down.” Xuan Wen and the woman ran down the stairs. They couldn’t find the person they were looking for. The anticipation on the woman’s face slowly turned into anxiousness. The greatest cruelty in the world was to show someone hope and then take it away.

“My child will never not answer my calls.” The middle-aged woman was sure she heard her son’s ringtone. Her son was right outside their home, but he was evading her. Why? “He was so close to me…”

“But none of us heard that sound.” Xuan Wen consoled the lady. She looked at the exit a few steps away. “Shall we look for him around the building?”

The woman hesitated. She glanced at the yard outside the door. She moved her feet but ultimately pulled back. “I’ve promised Situ An to wait for him at home.”

“Isn’t it normal to leave home to go look for him since he hasn’t come home?” Xuan Wen carefully observed the woman’s emotions.

The woman shook her head. “I know he has his difficulty. Let’s go back home and wait for him.”

“Do you want me to help you find him?” Xuan Wen still had some of the black-and-white pictures. “Auntie, do you have anything you want to tell him? When I find him, I will tell him.”

“Tell him not to skip meals and don’t just focus on his work. Everything is perfect at home. He doesn’t need to rush home if he’s busy… Actually, tell him to give me a call when he’s free, and that’s enough.” The middle-aged woman didn’t leave the stairwell. She turned to walk back up the stairs. She mumbled, “That was Situ An’s ringtone. He was just outside. Why didn’t he stay to meet me? Did I really imagine it?”

Xuan Wen kindly accompanied the woman home. After that, she left the room. Xuan Wen walked through the conspicuous yard. Soon, she saw the person she wanted to see.

“Situ An’s mother might still be watching from above. Don’t come close. Walk forward. We’ll meet at the corner of the apartment building.”

Gao Ming nodded slightly. He walked through the shadow and met up with Xuan Wen a few minutes later.

“I’m surprised you care so much about me.” Xuan Wen leaned against the wall and looked tired. She didn’t need to put up a disguise around him.

“How did you get here?” No one was willing to have a heart-to-heart with a killer. However, Gao Ming trusted Xuan Wen unconditionally. This was the truth he verified after many deaths.

“The security teams from the investigation centre have arrived at the hospital. I wanted to use their hands to kill others. However, I found myself here instead.” Xuan Wen took out a pocket mirror to fix her make-up. “This place is very special. It’s a venue Situ An created for his mother. Everything looks so nice, but it is an illusion. To trick his mother, he turned all the scary items into cute and common everyday items.”

“Is that middle-aged woman really his mother?” Gao Ming didn’t get it. “Why would someone trap their beloved family deep inside their nightmare?”

“This place is very important to Situ An. He needs someone he can trust implicitly to guard it. But…” Xuan Wen pressed her lips together to smooth out the lipstick. “I feel like Situ An’s mother is long dead. This woman is probably someone whom he imagined to be his mother.”

“Everyone chosen by the shadow world is a parent. This is Situ An’s home. We need to escape this place and take over as its new parents.” Gao Ming approached Xuan Wen. “Do you have a plan?”

“A home is only a home when the family is there. The key is Situ An’s mother.” Xuan Wen shared her discovery. “The middle-aged woman can’t leave her apartment. Once she steps out of the door, this warm world will start to crumble. Other than that, I also notice something else. When she is emotionally fraught, this world will be affected too.”

“So?” Gao Ming moved his hand to his heart. “Do you want to deliver her a mental breakdown?”

“We will share the things he has done with her.” Xuan Wen put away her lipstick. “As his mother, she has the right to know the kind of demon her son has become.”

“Do you think his mother will help us?”

“Impossible.” Xuan Wen could read the human hearts really well. “I suspect his mother already knows the truth, but she has been lying to herself. In this place, there is no innocent victim, including you and me.”

Xuan Wen showed her pocket mirror to Gao Ming. The reflection in the mirror was different from what they saw. The apartment building, the old furniture and the plants were all made from flesh and guts.

“This mirror is my eyes. The reflection is the truth. I can see more things when Situ An’s mother is mentally unstable.” Xuan Wen only wanted to show Gao Ming the reflection, but they noticed with shock that there was a blind man with an injured ear following Gao Ming.

The man only appeared in the mirror. He was thin and weak. He held onto Gao Ming tightly while he was almost crushed by the twisting intestines.