Global Ghost Stories: I'm Investigating Ghosts in My Nightmare!

Chapter 46 The Corridor in the Mirror
That venomous remark pierced the very depths of Bai Yu and Lu Yueqi's souls like a poisoned probe. Every syllable carried a stale, decaying malice, like a concentrated poison that had been accumulating since the very beginning of this mental hospital.

"Squeak... squeak..."

The sound of wheelchairs rolling approached slowly and steadily from afar. The sound came from all directions of the dilapidated corridor at the same time, as if countless unseen wheelchairs were uniformly surrounding them from the shadows of the walls, the darkness of the ceiling, and the cracks in the floor.

This sound constructed a sonic cage of malice, trapping them firmly in its center.

The brief joy and warmth of the reunion were crushed in an instant.

The color drained from Lu Yueqi's face at a visible speed. She subconsciously gripped Bai Yu's arm tightly. The sense of security she had regained seemed so fragile in the face of fear.

Bai Yu reacted with lightning speed. Without the slightest hesitation, he grabbed Lu Yueqi's wrist with one hand and used his other hand to forcefully press her behind him, completely shielding her with his body.

His eyes, which had just lit up with a glimmer of light upon seeing Lu Yueqi, were once again covered by a deathly stillness, like frozen ground.

"go!"

He forced out a single word through gritted teeth, grabbed Lu Yueqi, and turned to rush in the opposite direction from the source of the sound.

However, just as they took two steps, the corridor leading to the activity room began to change strangely.

The space twisted violently, like water ripped with pebbles. The dilapidated walls and peeling plaster were stretched and stretched, eventually turning into a huge mirror radiating a cold luster, completely blocking their path.

The reflection in the mirror was not of the two of them, but rather of the endless extension of the corridor, layer upon layer, as if leading to an abyss without end.

"Trying to run away?" The aged voice rang out again, with a mocking tone like a cat playing with a mouse. "There's nowhere for you to hide in this house. Every disobedient child will eventually... return to my 'treatment room'."

Bai Yu abruptly stopped, slamming one hand heavily against the wall behind him. He held Lu Yueqi tightly behind him, his eyes rapidly scanning their surroundings.

"Squeak... squeak..."

The sound of the wheelchair was getting closer.

Finally, at the corner of the corridor to their left, a figure slowly "rolled" out.

It was a "person" sitting in an old wooden wheelchair.

Or rather, they could no longer be called human.

Its body was abnormally bloated, wearing a white head nurse uniform that was stretched out of shape and stained with unidentified dirt. Its limbs were unnaturally withered, like dried-out branches, forming an extremely eerie and terrifying contrast with its bloated body.

The most terrifying thing is its head.

The disproportionately large head, resembling a tumor, had no facial features, only countless glassy eyeballs embedded beneath the skin.

The eyeballs varied in size and color; some were clear, some were cloudy, and some were bloodshot. They were not still, but moved erratically beneath that translucent skin, each eyeball reflecting the dim light of the corridor and radiating a nauseating glassy quality.

Hundreds and thousands of different eyes make up a terrifying "face" that defies description.

It's unclear whether the thing propelling the wheelchair forward is its hand.

It was a metal arm that emerged from its bulky back, made up of countless thick syringe needles welded together.

"Squeak... squeak..."

Each push of the metal arm propelled the wheelchair forward a little, bringing the face made up of countless eyeballs a little closer to them.

Lu Yueqi only glanced at it before feeling a chill, a mixture of fear and nausea, rush from the soles of her feet straight to the top of her head.

She could clearly feel hundreds of gazes, unfocused yet like countless cold needles piercing her body and locking onto her soul.

"Heh... I see. What an ingenious 'work of art'." Hei Yan's voice echoed deep within Bai Yu's consciousness. His tone was less mocking and more like the excitement of a connoisseur discovering a treasure. "It's not just a simple collection of resentment. It 'collects.' It has embroidered the eyes of the patients it 'cured' as trophies on its own body. It uses this method to declare its absolute 'ownership' of these souls. Look, Bai Yu, each eyeball still retains a trace of the last despair of its owner in life. What a magnificent, what an interesting collection."

Bai Yu had no interest in appreciating this "glory." He could sense that the mental pressure emanating from the monster before him was more than ten times stronger than that of the head nurse he had encountered in the "surface world."

This thing is very likely the highest administrator of this "inner world" and the most direct executor of Wen Maoran's will.

"You... you've messed up my ward." The monster "speaks," its voice vibrating directly from its bloated chest, accompanied by an unsettling buzzing sound. "And you've broken my favorite 'toy.' You disobedient children... you've really disappointed me!"

It seems to be referring to Bai Yu and Lu Yueqi joining forces to destroy the obsession of that "patient number twelve".

"So... now it's time for 'punishment'."

Before the words were even finished, the metal arm made of syringes suddenly rose up and aimed at them!

"call out--"

A thick, black liquid, as sticky as ink, shot out from one of the thickest syringes, heading straight for Bai Yu's face!

The liquid left a long trail in the air, emitting a strong formalin smell, and wherever it passed, even the air seemed to be corroded, making a soft "sizzling" sound.

Bai Yu's pupils suddenly contracted.

The liquid contains extremely powerful mental pollution energy; the consequences of being exposed to it would be unimaginable.

He grabbed Lu Yueqi and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack.

"laugh--"

The black liquid splashed onto the wall behind them, and the hard brick wall was instantly corroded like butter splashed with sulfuric acid, creating a large hole that emitted black smoke!
"run!"

Bai Yu let out a low growl and pulled Lu Yueqi into the only corridor that wasn't blocked.

"Giggle..."

The monster's eerie, grating laughter echoed from behind. It didn't immediately give chase, but instead slowly turned its wheelchair, like a hunter enjoying the hunt, watching its prey futilely flee through its labyrinth.

Bai Yu pulled Lu Yueqi along as they ran wildly through the maze-like corridor.

The surrounding scenery rushed past them, and behind each tightly closed, half-rotten hospital room door seemed to be a series of gaping monsters silently watching them.

“Bai Yu…your body…” Lu Yueqi could clearly feel Bai Yu’s breathing getting heavier and heavier, and his steps began to falter slightly. The effects of those two pills were still relentlessly eroding his body.

"I'm fine." Bai Yu's voice was a little heavy, but his grip on Lu Yueqi's hand remained firm and strong. "Don't look back, keep running forward!"

The corridor seemed to have no end. How long had they been running? A minute? Or ten minutes?

The sense of time has become blurred here.

Suddenly, a fork in the road appeared ahead.

Just as they were about to choose a path to continue their escape, the walls of the two corridors on the left and right began to change. The moldy plaster on the walls suddenly began to writhe violently as if it had come to life!
They rose from the wall like living muscle tissue, and finally, to their horrified gaze, they transformed into two enormous and distorted human faces!

The two faces had no specific features; two dark eye sockets and a huge mouth stretched to the ears replaced the original features.

"Roar--"

They simultaneously let out a deafening roar, and a gust of wind carrying a heavy, putrid stench erupted from their massive mouths, nearly knocking the two of them to the ground.

The road ahead is blocked!

"Squeak... squeak..."

The slow, steady sound of a wheelchair behind them was getting closer and closer.

They were driven into a desperate situation.

Bai Yu's chest heaved violently as the dizziness and weakness brought on by the drugs assaulted his nearly collapsing nerves wave after wave.

He stared at the two roaring giant faces formed by the walls before him, and listened to the increasingly close death symphony behind him. A desperate madness ignited in his eyes.

"Lu Yueqi," he suddenly spoke, his voice unusually calm.

"Ok?"

"Close your eyes."

Although Lu Yueqi didn't know what he was going to do, she closed her eyes without hesitation because she trusted him.

The next second, she felt an ancient aura, terrifying to the point of being suffocating, suddenly erupt from Bai Yu's body!

It was neither the coldness of the "Deep Freeze" power, nor the malice of any of the nightmares she had encountered.

That is an "existence" that transcends good and evil, order and chaos.

"This is really... such a downer."

A sigh of displeasure, as if disturbed from a peaceful dream, echoed in the deepest part of Bai Yu's consciousness.

"I was hoping to savor a little longer the beauty of your struggle on this shoddy stage. But it seems this third-rate 'director' has run out of patience to build up the plot any further. In that case..."

Hei Yan's voice gradually took on a chilling, icy laugh.

"Then I'll put a slightly... more elegant end to this boring chase scene."

Behind Lu Yueqi's tightly closed eyelids, she could clearly feel the darkness, which seemed to devour all light, spreading outwards like a black emperor's cloak suddenly unfurled, centered on Bai Yu!

Where darkness passes, time seems to be paused.

The two roaring giant faces formed by the walls seemed to be stunned as well. Their ferocious expressions froze instantly, and then, like sand sculptures being weathered, they gradually disintegrated from the outermost layer, eventually returning to the dilapidated walls.

The creaking sound that was getting closer and closer behind them suddenly stopped.

The entire world seemed to fall into absolute submission to that darkness the moment the power of the Black Words erupted.

"puff--"

Bai Yu suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, his body could no longer support him, and he knelt on one knee, his hands firmly supporting him on the ground.

Forcibly borrowing Hei Yan's powerful energy once again placed a huge burden on his soul, which had only recently been repaired.

"Bai Yu!" Lu Yueqi suddenly opened her eyes, saw the bloodstains at the corner of his mouth, and exclaimed in surprise. She quickly stepped forward to support his swaying body.

"I'm fine..." Bai Yu wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, her voice weak but urgent, "Hurry! I can only... suppress it for a very short time!"

Lu Yueqi dared not delay any longer. She put Bai Yu's arm on her shoulder and used almost all her strength to support his body, which was much heavier than she had imagined, and staggered towards one of the corridors that had been restored to its original state.

They ran for an unknown amount of time, continuing forward without daring to look back, until the oppressive feeling behind them completely disappeared, at which point Bai Yu signaled her to stop.

They were now in a corridor they had never been to before.

The walls here are no longer made of brick and stone, but covered with white ceramic tiles that gleam with a metallic sheen. The smell of formaldehyde and disinfectant still lingers in the air.

One side of the corridor was a row of rooms with heavy iron doors. On one of the doors hung a metal plaque with three alarming words painted in red: "Operating Room".

On the other side of the wall hung a row of photo frames. The frames no longer contained Wen Maoran's fake smile, but rather black-and-white group photos of outstanding employees from different periods of the hospital.

Lu Yueqi supported Bai Yu, and the two leaned against the wall, panting heavily.

Bai Yu's gaze was completely drawn to one of the group photos.

It was a group photo of an "outstanding nursing team" taken forty years ago. The dozen or so young nurses in the photo were all wearing the nurses' uniforms that were typical of that era, and their faces were beaming with youthful smiles.

In the last row of the photo, there is a young girl standing in the corner. She is plain-looking, but her smile seems somewhat forced and unnatural.

What exactly is the problem?
Bai Yu carefully observed the girl.

Suddenly, his pupils contracted sharply.

Because the girl had a name tag pinned to her chest. Although it was somewhat blurred due to its age, the delicate handwriting on it was still legible—"Yao."

The "guide" who appeared in Lu Yueqi's dream and lured her to the "Tower of Ten Thousand Heads"!
She used to be a nurse at this mental hospital!
Just then, the sound of a woman crying, seemingly from another time and space, suddenly drifted out from behind the tightly closed operating room door beside them.

The cries were filled with despair, pain, and...deep-seated regret.

(End of this chapter)