Horror Game Designer

“I know my physique is not the best, but I don’t have any mental illnesses.” The middle-aged woman shook her head.

“Do you still remember the phone ringtone? Situ An hasn’t returned. I have looked around the apartment. It was in your imagination.” Xuan Wen’s tone became severe.

“Imagination?” The middle-aged woman was uncertain.

“It’s a very simple observation. Since your son loves you so much, why would he purposely hide from you?”

“Yes. Situ An will never not answer my call.” The middle-aged woman was in pain. “But…”

“These are some records and pictures I found at Uncle Zhang’s home. Most of them are related to you. Your condition is worsening. If this continues, you might never see your son again.” Xuan Wen took out a lot of black-and-white pictures. Everything taken inside the home was devoid of colours. The neighbours, plants and even the sun were startlingly pale. The middle-aged woman flipped through the diary. Every page had an entry related to the middle-aged woman. The words were unsettling.

“No! These cannot be real!” The middle-aged woman was shaken. Xuan Wen continued to expand the ‘cracks’. When the woman flipped through the fake diary, Xuan Wen reached her hand into her pocket and dialled Situ An’s number. The familiar ringtone rang in the corridor. The memories danced on the melody. Various words flashed in the woman’s eyes. She lifted her head in confusion.

“It’s my son! I can hear his phone ringing!” The middle-aged woman closed the diary. She wanted to rush out but was held back by Xuan Wen.

“Auntie, please be mindful! You didn’t even call Situ An. Why would his phone ring?”

The middle-aged woman paused and stood in the living room, holding the diary and pictures. “Yes. Why did it ring? Is it my imagination? Can you not hear it? It’s just outside!”

“Calm down!” Xuan Wen removed the ring from her finger. She circled her strand of hair through it. She had the woman focus on the swinging ring. The ringtone faded away slowly until it disappeared fully.

“That was very sudden. Did you remember something when you read the diary?” Xuan Wen helped the woman to the couch. She poured the woman a glass of water.

“I… was worried about Situ An.”

“Your neighbouring adults and kids are fake. You live in a fake home. At a time like this, are you still worried about Situ An?” Xuan Wen was shocked.

“I have a feeling that he has run into trouble. He hasn’t been home in a while.” Worry, anxiety and confusion would be hard to remove from one’s heart once they had taken root. They would infect every corner of one’s heart. When one received traumatic information under such a condition, this was the first step to make one go insane.

Outside the door, Gao Ming leaned against the wall and hid in the shadow. Xuan Wen’s every step was calculated, and she called the home a giant sick room. She changed every neighbour into a part of the treatment. She was purposely destroying the sense of security provided by the home. Her kindness was slowly pushing the middle-aged woman to the edge. What Xuan Wen wanted to do was to make the middle-aged woman believe that she was really sick. When the normal world became abnormal, then the abnormal world had to be normal.

“I can empathise with that. However, why won’t you leave since you’re so worried about him?” Xuan Wen watched the woman finish the glass of water.

“Situ An told me never to leave this home.”

“Is he worried about you going to find him, or is he worried that you might discover something?” Xuan Wen sat beside the woman. “Perhaps he is experiencing something very horrible. He doesn’t want to make you worry, so he doesn’t tell you anything. However, the more he acts like this, the greater the pain you’ll be in.” The woman held the glass of water, and she looked aged.

“It might be a white lie, but one thing is for certain. Situ An is lying to you. In fact, he might be doing something horrible to treat your illness.”

Xuan Wen’s voice entered her ears. The middle-aged woman didn’t say anything. Xuan Wen was merely voicing the thoughts in her heart. There were two voices arguing inside the middle-aged woman’s heart. One voice told her to leave home to find Situ An. The other voice warned her from leaving home. However, with Xuan Wen’s encouragement, the balance was broken. Xuan Wen pinpointed the weakness in the woman’s heart. She read out the entries in the diary and enlarged the fear in her heart.

The woman’s emotions were shaken. The sunlight in the room was distorted. The toys in the old box shivered. The mirror beside the closet dimmed. Even the glass of water the woman held trembled. Her reflection blurred like she was never real. The middle-aged woman’s shoulders shook. She couldn’t accept the ‘truth’, but she had to accept it. When the contradiction in her heart reached its height, Situ An’s phone rang again.

“Situ An! Situ An!” The woman pushed Xuan Wen away and ran to the door. She was determined to see the truth. She didn’t even put on her shoes and ran out the door.

The ringtone was just around the corner. Situ An’s mother chased after it. The scale in her heart had been tipped over, and she ignored Situ An’s warning. She ran out of the home and the corridor!

She entered the yard and ran through the twisting canopy. The ringtone from her memory was before her, but she couldn’t catch up to it.

She ran to the gate until she saw someone standing in the shadows.

“Situ An! Is that you? Are you finally home?”

The ringtone disappeared. The middle-aged woman ignored her wounded leg and walked into the shadow.

“Auntie, someone ran across the street earlier.” Gao Ming pointed across the street. “It happened a few seconds ago.”

Standing in the shadow where the sun couldn’t reach, behind Situ An’s mother was the complex that represented home. The four buildings made her look so small.

With heavy gasps of air, the middle-aged woman looked across the street. She took steps towards it.

When she left the shadow of the apartment building, some kind of shackles were broken. She saw the shape of the hospital beside the street. Something scary was happening inside the hospital.

The inconspicuous screams echoed everywhere. The whole world was painted a thin layer of red.

“Is this where Situ An works?”