Kaleidoscope of Death

The familiar queen bed, the familiar decorations. Everything about the apartment was exactly as Lin Qiushi remembered. Lin Qiushi took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. He tried going to the living room first.

“Mrow…”

A faint catcall suddenly came from the living room. Lin Qiushi looked up and saw Chestnut perching on the corner of a sofa, looking exceptionally sweet. Chestnut tilted its head, watching Lin Qiushi with emerald eyes, and chirping out a litany of meows like it was urging Lin Qiushi to do something.

Lin Qiushi was more than familiar with this call; he looked at Chestnut’s food bowl and sure enough, it was completely empty of dry food. The cat wanted Lin Qiushi to quickly refill its bowl.

If this were reality, the first thing Lin Qiushi did would surely be feeding Chestnut, but he was quite clear on the fact that he had entered a door. As a result, he did not take immediate action, instead looked around the apartment first.

The interior of the apartment was exactly the same as when he’d moved out. There were even some freshly washed shirts drying on the balcony and fresh fruit in the refrigerator. The entire house was filled with the breath of life.

Lin Qiushi took a large lap around the apartment and slowly approached the door. He took the doorknob and twisted it lightly open.

A crack appeared in the door, enough for Lin Qiushi to see what was beyond.

The sight that met Lin Qiushi’s eyes was a long corridor, with door number plates hanging on both sides. It was no different from Lin Qiushi’s memory.

Chestnut began to meow again. It hopped down from the couch and came over to Lin Qiushi’s feet, rubbing and bumping its body against Lin Qiushi’s ankles. Lin Qiushi looked down and stared at Chestnut for a long while, before slowly bending down to pet the cat in front of him.

Soft fur and warm skin. It had to be said that the moment he embraced Chestnut, Lin Qiushi let out a huge sigh of relief. He took Chestnut in his arms, scratched under its chin, and called out Chestnut’s name.

A satisfied rumbling came from Chestnut’s mouth, and the creature looked to be in perfect bliss. Still holding it, Lin Qiushi went to the kitchen and fetched the cat food, filling up the entire bowl.

Chestnut hopped down from Lin Qiushi’s arms, stood in front of the cat bowl, and began eating with vigor.

Lin Qiushi watched it eating and remembered something. He fished his phone out of his pocket and called a number, but as it went through, the display showed that the number that Lin Qiushi called was not connected. When he heard this spoken through the phone, sweat began to dot Lin Qiushi’s palms. He looked through his call log with a number of awful possibilities surfacing in his mind—most of the numbers in the log, Lin Qiushi still had some impression of. Many key people were missing though…every member of Obsidian had disappeared, and Ruan Nanzhu was naturally included.

And when Lin Qiushi called Ruan Nanzhu’s number just now, it showed that this number didn’t even exist.

A feeling like suffocation churned in Lin Qiushi’s chest, and he was forming all sorts of bad conjectures. In the end Lin Qiushi changed out of his pajamas and left the apartment. He took the elevator all the way down and came to the entrance of his residential complex.

The time was mid-summer, and it just hit 6PM. Everybody was leaving work, and the busy sight of people come and going was everywhere he turned.

Lin Qiushi stood at the entrance, called for a ride, and headed straight for a location outside the city.

The taxi cab driver was a chatty middle-aged man who kept saying this or that, here and there. Under normal circumstances, Lin Qiushi would most likely offer him a reply or two, but today his mind was a mess. From start to finish he didn’t say a single world, lips pressed tightly into a thin line.

An hour later, the cab arrived at the location Lin Qiushi gave him.

Lin Qiushi paid and got out of the car. He saw the mansion standing grandly before him, looking the same as it did in his memories. Orange lights spilled out from the windows, indicating there were people moving about inside, but this didn’t bring Lin Qiushi any relief. In fact, the sense of dread in his heart just got worse and worse.

Lin Qiushi took the few steps forward to get to the doorway. He rang the mansion doorbell.

“Who is it?” Moments later, from the other side of the door came the voice of an unfamiliar man.

“I…” Lin Qiushi said. “It’s me, Lin Qiushi. I’m looking for Ruan Nanzhu.”

It went quiet on the other side, before the person said, “you’ve got the wrong place. There’s nobody named Ruan Nanzhu here.”

The moment he heard this Lin Qiushi felt his mind explode with a ringing buzz. With the last of his willpower he forced himself to calm down, saying, “I’m sorry, would you mind opening the door? There’s something important I have to…”

The door was opened, and a tall man he did not know appeared before Lin Qiushi. He looked at Lin Qiushi and asked, “what can I do for you?”

“I…I have friends who used to live here…” Lin Qiushi said, wondering about the best wording. “They’re named Ruan Nanzhu, and Chen Fei, Yi Manman…”

“I’m sorry,” the man said. “You’ve got the wrong place. There’s nobody you’ve mentioned here.”

Behind the man, Lin Qiushi could see the inside of the mansion through the open door. What was most shocking to him was that everything inside looked exactly as he remembered—even the color of the carpets were the same as his memories.

But despite the identical scenery, the people Lin Qiushi was looking for were gone.

“Are you alright?” Lin Qiushi’s expression was probably too distressed, so the man asked him that question.

Lin Qiushi forced himself to smile.

“I’m fine…Sorry, for bothering you.”

He turned around and left this place. The man watched him go with a light furrow in his brow, clearly wondering what the heck Lin Qiushi came for.

After leaving the mansion, Lin Qiushi called another car and returned to the city. His manner sitting inside was dazed; he was having hard time accepting everything that was happening here.

Ruan Nanzhu, who had gone into the door with Lin Qiushi, had disappeared.

No matter how normal this entire world seemed, this single fact was enough to trip Lin Qiushi into the most indescribable sense of terror.

Back at his residential district, he stood in his doorway watching people come and go. Lin Qiushi had a feeling like he’d been abandoned by the world. What was supposed to be a rich and active city scene only made him feel utterly incompatible with his surroundings.

Lin Qiushi stuck a hand in his pocket and discovered, to his surprise, a pack of half-smoked cigarettes. He stared at the cigarettes in his hand for a while, before lighting one and tucking it between his lips.

The taste of tobacco tendriled into his mouth. It was different from the drying sweetness of candy, and was actually a bit grating. Lin Qiushi only took one inhale before stopping, extinguishing the cigarette in annoyance and tossing it into a trashcan nearby.

It was at this moment that Lin Qiushi’s cell phone suddenly rang. He pulled it out and, when he saw the number displayed onscreen, fell into a deep silence.

There was a name above the number, a name that should not be appearing now—Wu Qi.

Lin Qiushi stared at the name on the screen, and very slowly pressed the call button.

“Oi, Qiushi, where are you?” came Wu Qi’s loud and carefree voice.

Lin Qiushi’s throat bobbed. “I’m at home. You…”

For a moment he didn’t know what to say.

“Why are you still at home? Didn’t you say we’re going to get dinner? Get down here,” Wu Qi said in a strange tone.

Lin Qiushi, “I said we’re going to get dinner?”

Wu Qi, “yeah, didn’t you say we’re getting skewers tonight! Damn, you haven’t forgotten have you?”

Lin Qiushi, “…where are you now?”

“I’m in front of your neighborhood,” Wu Qi said. “What is it? Are you not feeling well?”

“I’m fine. I'll…be right there,” Lin Qiushi said. He hung up the phone, looked outside into the district, and sure enough saw Wu Qi standing casual as anything at the residential entrance, head down and playing on his phone.

Lin Qiushi stuck the phone in his pocket and quickly ran over to Wu Qi.

“That was quick,” Wu Qi said after seeing Lin Qiushi. “You didn’t have to run. It’s so hot, look how you’re sweating.”

Lin Qiushi made a noise of agreement, gaze falling on Wu Qi’s face. The same appearance, the same mannerisms, and even the same tone of voice. The person in front of him was definitely Wu Qi. Wu Qi walked in front, telling Lin Qiushi everything that was happening in the office, and even reminded Lin Qiushi a few times to go get a check-up.

A fine sheen of sweat had once again appeared on Lin Qiushi’s forehead—it was just that he felt cold all over, and even his perspiration was cold.

They came to the grilled skewers place in front of the micro-district. After taking a seat, Wu Qi ordered the food.

Lin Qiushi hardly said anything the entire way. Wu Qi noticed his odd state, and asked dubiously, “Qiushi, are you okay?”

Lin Qiushi, “I'm…fine.”

“Is it too hot? Or are you not feeling well?” Wu Qi turned to the store owner and ordered a few additional bottles of beer. Popping one open with familiar motions, he poured Lin Qiushi a full cup. “Drink some, and cool down a bit.”

“Wu Qi,” Lin Qiushi said, “what’s the date today?”

“The 16th,” Wu Qi said. “Why?”

Lin Qiushi blew out a breath.

“Nothing.”

The dishes they ordered came quickly. Wu Qi could tell that Lin Qiushi wasn’t in a good state, but he could also see that Lin Qiushi didn’t want to answer any of his questions, and so could only let it go.

Lin Qiushi didn’t have much of an appetite. All his attention was on the street beside them, but by the time they finished eating and left, something that was supposed to have happened still had not.

The year that Lin Qiushi first entered the doors, he came out the door and ate at this grilled skewers place with Wu Qi. At the same date, at the same time. But the car accident that was supposed to happen in the street did not happen. Everything was just so peaceful. It almost seemed like there had been an illusion in Lin Qiushi’s memories, and he’d become a strange sort of dreamer, making up things that didn’t exist at all.

“Wu Qi,” Lin Qiushi suddenly spoke up on their way back. “How’s your girlfriend been recently?”

“Her? Why are you suddenly bringing her up?” Wu Qi was a bit bewildered, but still answered Lin Qiushi’s question faithfully. “She’s doing pretty well. What’s up?”

Lin Qiushi, “…nothing.”

“Hey, you’ve really been weird tonight. What the heck’s going on?” He looked at Lin Qiushi with furrowed brows, eyes filled with concern. “Are you really not feeling well? If anything’s happened you gotta tell me.”

Lin Qiushi nodded yes.

Wu Qi walked Lin Qiushi to the first floor, and only left after seeing Lin Qiushi upstairs. Lin Qiushi got back to his front door, got out his key, and opened it—but his expression just looked lost.

It was all too absurd. Wu Qi was still here, and his girlfriend was fine. So why was Ruan Nanzhu gone? Lin Qiushi changed shoes and went inside, spotting the backpack on his sofa. Thinking of something, he dashed over to the backpack and pulled out everything inside.

When he saw those things, Lin Qiushi let out a violent breath of relief—there were, objects for daily use aside, three very special items inside. The first was a plain old notebook, the second was a baby’s skeleton, and the third was a silver gun. Only after seeing these three items did Lin Qiushi feel a sense of reality again—he was definitely inside a door. Everything around him was on the inside, only that the inside of this door seemed perfectly identical to the environment he lived in.

It was truly too terrifying, Lin Qiushi thought. But if this was the inside of a door, why was it that Ruan Nanzhu and the people from Obsidian were gone? Where had they gone…and why was he all by himself inside this door? And given the givens, didn’t that indicate that the rule of the doors was no longer applicable?

Even if one person remained, they won’t enter a state of invincibility. If they committed any mistakes, they faced death as a finale.

Chestnut slowly prowled up to Lin Qiushi and hopped into his arms. Petting Chestnut’s soft fur, Lin Qiushi observed how sweet Chestnut’s behavior was, feeling momentarily discombobulated.

Ding dong, ding dong. The hour hand pointed to ten, and the clock on the wall rang out its crisp melody. The sky outside was already dark, leaving behind sparse lights that gave off a sense of life.

Lin Qiushi picked up the remote control and turned on the television, getting ready to choose a channel. As he flipped through them, he spotted a familiar face…Tan Zaozao.

In the advertisement, Tan Zaozao wore a long red dress—elegant and beautiful, just like a blooming flower. She looked exactly as she did when Lin Qiushi had first met her.

Wu Qi was still alive, and Tan Zaozao was still alive. Every dead person had now returned. Lin Qiushi didn’t know what this meant.

Everything that seemed unremarkable and ordinary was actually filled with a weird sense of disharmony. As if the calm before the storm, the tiny stirrings on the ocean surface seemed to foreshadow some oncoming terrible truth.

The TV noises were monotonous as it cast its light over Lin Qiushi’s face. It had been a long time since Lin Qiushi spent a night all alone like this.

Ever since he and Ruan Nanzhu made their relationship official, they’d spent practically every night together; all they had to do was open their eyes to see each other’s faces.

Now, however, silent solitude had returned.

Lin Qiushi’s only company was a cat named Chestnut.

The night deepened. The lights outside the apartment extinguished one by one. Lin Qiushi sat on the sofa and, unknowingly, fell asleep.

Ding dong, ding dong. The hour hand met the minute hand; twelve AM came.

The program on the television suddenly flashed with white static. The snapping, sizzling sounds it made woke Lin Qiushi from his dreams, and when he opened his eyes, he discovered the TV had changed to another channel. Only, there weren’t any channel logos. It looked to be playing some sort of historical program, stopping on a set of very old-looking stairs.

The scene felt slightly familiar; Lin Qiushi had a faint recollection of seeing it somewhere before, though he couldn’t place it at the moment. Then it changed, and a man wielding an axe appeared right before Lin Qiushi’s eyes.

With a malicious grin on his face, he followed the stairs up, footsteps finally stopping in front of a particular room. Arm outstretched, he began to bang on the wooden door.

“Wang Xiaoyi, open up. Wang Xiaoyi, open up—”

“Help me, help me—” came a woman’s terrified pleas for help from inside.

When the man heard this voice, his expression only grew more savage. Guffawing loudly, he hauled the axe in his hands up into the air and brought it crashing down on the wood of the door. What was already a flimsy door splintered open, and on the other side of the crack was a woman’s face, covered in tears.

“Help me, help me—”

The man made to swing the axe again, but it got stuck inside that hole. Seeing this, Wang Xiaoyi quickly shoved open the door and dashed outside. The man’s attention was so fixated on that axe that he didn’t notice for a whole moment that Wang Xiaoyi had gone.

Wang Xiaoyi stumbled down the hallway, crying desperately for help as she ran along. And just when the tension ratcheted up to breaking point, a door suddenly opened, saving Wang Xiaoyi by pulling her inside. And inside the door…appeared Lin Qiushi’s own face. Standing beside Lin Qiushi was clearly the first version of Ruan Nanzhu he’d met.

Indeed, what was happening on the television was everything that had happened in his very first door.

A man in their group had gone crazy, and it was Lin Qiushi who’d saved the girl being pursued.

But when the scene in the TV cut again, in the very next moment, the girl that Lin Qiushi had saved was being split in half by a shovel. Red and white formed liquid splatters on the snow. She stared with huge eyes colored with resentment, so vivid that it was spine-chilling even through the screen.

Lin Qiushi tried to change the channel, but found that the remote control had stopped working. He even pulled out the power cord of the television, but the scenes continued.

The screen was frozen on the moment of Wang Xiaoyi’s death when, all of a sudden, a knock came at the door. Lin Qiushi sat on the couch, not moving, but the knocking continued. It got gradually more violent, until it seemed keen on smashing the door apart.

It was very loud; logically speaking, even if Lin Qiushi didn’t open the door, it would be enough to disturb other people. However, the knocking continued on for minutes without anybody reacting in anyway. Lin Qiushi looked out the window and saw that all the lights in the residential district had been extinguished. As if, once twelve AM hit, this had become a whole other world.

The person knocking was growing increasingly impatient. Lin Qiushi slowly approached the door, and through the peephole, saw the person outside…It was a man holding an axe, exactly like what Lin Qiushi had just seen on the television.

He seemed to know that Lin Qiushi was watching him from the other end, and so increased his efforts to bang down the door. Through the hole, Lin Qiushi could even see the fresh blood dripping from his axe.

Lin Qiushi stepped back, taking a deep breath. He went to the kitchen and took up a knife hanging on the wall for self-defense. When he got back to the living room, however, he found that the floorboards were already soaked in a pool of dark red blood. Lin Qiushi searched around, and found that not only was the television still on, but it was also pouring out fresh blood by the liters. And Wang Xiaoyi, who had been dead inside, was starting to twitch. Her skull, split in half on the ground, lifted up, and with pale dead eyes stared out of the television right at Lin Qiushi. Her mouth split at an odd angle, and her hand came reaching.

At such a sight, Lin Qiushi couldn’t help but curse. The worst didn’t stop there, because Wang Xiaoyi’s bloody hands were able to burst right through the television screen and extend outside.

At precisely the same time, the man with the axe began to swing it at Lin Qiushi’s door. He broke open a huge hole in what should’ve been a solid metal security door, eyes peeking inside. When he spotted Lin Qiushi standing in the living room, a strange, spine-chilling cackle left his mouth.

Truth was, any normal person who saw such a sight would probably have already gone crazy with fright; they might’ve been so scared that they’d jump off the building without the ghouls needing to do anything.

But how many such terrifying scenes had Lin Qiushi seen? He remained calm, and stood in a spot slightly farther from the TV. As he stared at the almost-broken door, an idea popped into his mind, though he didn’t know whether or not it was an idea that would work.

The murdered Wang Xiaoyi had almost made it out of the TV, and outside, the man once again swung his axe down. When he did so, however, the axe seemed to get stuck inside the door, and as soon as Lin Qiushi saw this, he pulled open the door, dashed through the threshold, and began sprinting like mad for the elevator.

Because his axe had gotten stuck, the man’s motions were stalled. Lin Qiushi threw himself into the elevator and pressed the first floor. Right before the elevator doors closed, the man appeared on the other side—Lin Qiushi even spotted his twisted expression through the crack.

“Fuck.”

Lin Qiushi held the kitchen knife and wiped at his face with his free hand. Then he grabbed his phone, once again hitting Ruan Nanzhu’s number. This time, what had been an unconnected number managed to connect, and Ruan Nanzhu’s voice came from the other side in a rush.

“Qiushi? Is it Qiushi?”

“Nanzhu—Nanzhu—” Lin Qiushi was covered from head to toe with sweat, and he asked quickly, “where are you? Where are you?”

“I’m inside the door,” Ruan Nanzhu said. His voice sounded a bit distorted. “Qiushi, how are things on your end? Are you alright?!”

Though he wasn’t saying anything about his own situation, Lin Qiushi could very faintly hear a woman’s grief-struck sobbing on the other end—so he knew that Ruan Nanzhu likely wasn’t in a good situation either. He hurried to say, “I’m great, don’t worry about me. I’m hanging up first, take care of yourself!”

He was scared that Ruan Nanzhu would be distracted by being on a call with him, and so made the decision to hang up.

Ding dong, the elevator reached the first floor. Holding his breath, Lin Qiushi watched as the elevator doors before him slowly opened.