"Xue Fei, get out of the way!"
Seeing that dull mannequin face, every hair on my body stood on end. Forgetting the camera, I swung it at the doll.
Maybe the gap between imagination and reality was too huge—Xue Fei turned pale, his legs went weak, and he froze in place.
"Run!" I shouted, smashing the camera onto the doll's head. Splashes of something—paint or blood—I couldn't tell—flew everywhere.
I turned and saw the kids were all frozen in fear. With another kick, I sent the doll flying: "Run! Back to the first floor! Retrace your steps!"
Turning around, I scooped up Yingzi without a second thought and dashed down the stairs with quick steps: "That kick felt like I hit real flesh. How can these dolls move on their own?"
Back on the first floor, I was about to head to the art room when the slightly ajar door suddenly swung open by itself—and another blank doll face peeked out!
"Shit, I forgot there's one in the art room too!" The thought of having held that doll moments ago sent chills down my spine.
Trapped with no way forward or back, I looked behind and saw the dolls from the second floor were coming after us. They moved slowly but their oppressive presence was overwhelming.
Panicking, the three kids and I scrambled and eventually hid deep inside the first-floor restroom.
"Close the door, and don't make a sound!" I pressed Yingzi and Xiumu into the last stall, while the bigger Xue Fei hid in the second to last stall.
"Silence!"
Fear permeated the cramped, dark space as I struggled to control my heartbeat.
Exhaling softly, I pressed my ear against the door.
The footsteps of the dolls echoed down the corridor. One sound drew closer to the restroom.
Tap tap tap.
"He's coming."
I furrowed my brows, lips tight, listening intently. The footsteps passed by the restroom door but didn't come in—just kept going.
"That was close." My heart raced, and my tense brows slowly relaxed.
Tap tap, tap tap, tap tap!
Before I could even catch my breath, the torturous footsteps turned back!
Quiet as a shadow, they stopped right at the restroom door!
"Don't come in, don't come in, don't come in!" Xiumu's lips trembled as if he finally understood real fear.
After a long time, just as we thought the dolls had left,
Creaaak The restroom door was pushed open.
Bang! The first stall's wooden door was forced open.
Bang! The second stall's door followed.
I clenched my teeth; sweat poured down my forehead like a condemned man waiting for the guillotine. This final moment was unbearably agonizing.
There were only six stalls in the restroom, and quickly the third and fourth doors were opened.
Then the fifth—Xue Fei's hiding spot.
The door wobbled; a hand grabbed the handle.
Bang!
"No! Don't kill me! Don't kill me!" Xue Fei screamed. At the same time, I shoved the door open, grabbed Yingzi, and sprinted out madly. There was no time to think of anything else.
In the split second I passed the doll, I saw Xue Fei's face twisted by terror—but I couldn't save him.
I ran as fast as I could, escaping!
"Keep up! Keep up!" Xiumu was behind me. We made it to the art room and jumped out the window.
When my feet finally touched the desolate campus path again, I finally exhaled.
"You all saw that, right? This place is extremely dangerous. I'll find a way to rescue Xue Fei and Shen Meng. You two don't cause me any trouble." I set Yingzi down and handed her to Xiumu. "Take her home and tell your family to call the police, understand?"
Xiumu showed no intention of watching over Yingzi. Terrified, he shook off my hand. "I'm not staying with her. You take care of her."
His tone was resolute, hinting at something deeper.
I observed quietly but said nothing. "Anyway, go home. Too many weird things happen in this school."
"Go home? My parents only care about making money. If I died out here, they probably wouldn't even know. Can that place even be called home?"
I didn't know how to respond. I glanced at the pitch-black lab building; in my ears I still heard Xue Fei's desperate screams.
"Death is far more terrifying than you think."
He refused to leave, and I couldn't force him. Checking my equipment, the camera still worked fine. The livestream chat was buzzing—viewer count had climbed past five hundred.
"Still not a single tip." I stuffed the phone in my pocket, thinking where to head next when suddenly Xiumu tugged my shirt. "Streamer, I want to go to the bathroom."
"I thought you were going to say something earth-shattering. Come on, I'll go with you. Yingzi, don't wander off!"
I led Xiumu toward the bushes a dozen meters away. As we walked, Xiumu's voice suddenly grew hoarse: "Streamer, have you noticed Yingzi is weird?"
I narrowed my eyes slightly. Many guesses ran through my mind, but I only said faintly, "What's weird about her? Besides, you two are friends. How would I know?"
"I'm not close to her. Shen Meng found her."
"Found her?" Xiumu's words piqued my curiosity.
He nodded. "Shen Meng, Xue Fei, and I all live nearby. We grew up hearing adults say there's a haunted school in the quarantine zone that no one should enter. We were curious as kids and sneaked in during the day but never came at night."
"What does that have to do with Yingzi?"
"As we got older, we nearly forgot about the place—until Yingzi showed up. She'd always sit on our way home. It's already eight or nine at night after evening study, and this little girl wanders the streets alone. Doesn't she have a family?"
There were contradictions in what Xiumu said, but I didn't point them out. "Go on."
"A few days ago, Shen Meng started talking to Yingzi. Feeling sorry for her being homeless, she decided to bring us all to take Yingzi home."
"Yingzi's home isn't inside the school, is it?"
"No, but it's close. The address she gave is just behind the school."
Xiumu and the others probably didn't know what was behind the school, but I'd looked it up online—it's a cremation pit, used for burning trash or disposing of bodies.
"So you came here?"
His voice lowered: "Yeah. Now that I think about it, Yingzi's name differs from the haunted doll 'Homeless Girl' by only one character. Do you think they might be the same person? Or maybe the same ghost?"
His eerie tone gave me chills. Yingzi's odd behavior also didn't match a normal child. Normally, a girl this young would scream or cry after what we just faced, but she was unnervingly calm.
"Why didn't you tell me all this sooner?"
"If you hadn't seen those moving dolls yourself, would you have believed me? I've been telling you stories about this school from the start, but you never took it seriously."
"Well, now Shen Meng and Xue Fei are both dead. I bet I'm next, and you probably won't escape either."
Xiumu lowered his head and silently walked for a bit before stopping.
"What's wrong?"
"We can't just wait to die. I thought of a way to end this nightmare." His childish face twisted with something sickly, his eyes bright and catlike.
Suddenly meeting his gaze, I felt a twinge of panic. "Tell me."
"We'll team up and kill Yingzi!"
It was hard to imagine such words coming from a kid. After my initial shock, I forced a weak smile.
"No matter if Yingzi's human or ghost, that's just your guess. Without a solid chain of evidence, that's murder." I patted Xiumu on the shoulder and turned away.
The school was full of dark vibes, and Yingzi sat alone by a flower bed like an abandoned doll.
"Don't be afraid. I'll take you out of here now." Gently picking up the girl, The Netherworld Live Show mission was important, but I couldn't just watch her die here.
I headed toward the school gate but hadn't gone far when Yingzi—who hadn't spoken once—leaned close to my ear and whispered, "You'd better leave. The three of them are all ghosts."