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

Chapter 5 Restroom Rules

A strong wave of dizziness washed over him again, even more intense than before, as if the whole world was spinning, all colors and sounds were distorted, and finally, everything returned to chaos. When the dizziness subsided like a receding tide, Bai Yu found himself back in front of that dark shop door.

This time, the cloyingly sweet, robotic female voice didn't ring out again. The entire coffee shop was like a long-abandoned tomb, immersed in a suffocating silence. It was pitch black, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face; even the air seemed frozen, carrying a faint musty smell and some indescribable stench of decay. Fortunately, with Hei Yan's help—his eyes that could see even in the dark—Bai Yu was able to see the despairing scene before him.

The shop returned to its initial silence; all music had vanished completely, the eerie melody that had once lingered in the air now utterly silent. All the customers—the once stiff and unnerving diners, and the staff in their black and white uniforms—had disappeared without a trace. The entire space was empty, leaving only the blurred outlines of furniture, which, in Bai Yu's eyes, stood silently like the skeleton of some enormous creature.

Bai Yu's heart pounded erratically in his chest, not out of fear, but out of an instinctive alertness. This deathly silence was more unsettling than the previous clamor. He tried to take a step forward, attempting to probe whether anything new had happened in this space.

"Snapped."

A clear footstep came from behind him. The sound was incredibly distinct, like bare feet stepping on a damp wooden floor, with a sticky texture. Bai Yu's body tensed instantly, but he forced himself to remain facing forward.

He tried to take a few more steps forward, each one cautious, as if treading on thin ice. The footsteps behind him resumed. The sound was perfectly synchronized with his, neither too fast nor too slow, neither too close nor too far, like an invisible shadow clinging tightly to his back, always there. Bai Yu could even feel the chill spreading from the back of his neck, as if someone were silently breathing against his ear.

Shake it off?
The thought had barely crossed his mind when Bai Yu dismissed it. This was clearly something that speed couldn't shake off. It was like a curse clinging to him, or rather, a "fellow traveler" he had encountered after stepping into this strange tale.

"According to the customer rules, the child must be following closely behind, right?" Bai Yu thought to herself.

This is the little imp who asked him to help it find its eyeballs. And what about the "bathroom"?

Since this space was distorted and changed again after I agreed to the child's request and put on that red work uniform, then the "restroom" must exist in this distorted spacetime.

But where exactly is it hidden?

Bai Yu suddenly had a bold idea. Without turning around, he casually asked the eerie darkness behind him, "Hey, you little brat following me, do you even know where the bathroom is?"

"..."

As expected, he received no reply. Only the sticky footsteps continued to follow him at their unhurried pace.

Bai Yu clicked her tongue, feeling a little annoyed.

Nightmares include some intelligent beings who can even communicate with humans to a limited extent, although the content is usually quite distorted.

Bai Yu has always been confident in his ability to "negotiate" with the Nightmare, and he can always capture key information from seemingly meaningless snippets of information.

However, the materialized "ghosts" in the nightmare world created by Nightmare are different. They usually lack intelligence, or rather, their intelligence is appallingly low, and their behavior patterns are like precisely programmed routines. Even simple interactions seem like pre-scripted scenarios.

For example, the little ghost he encountered before asked Bai Yu if he could help it find its eyeballs. That was merely a "problem trigger" set up by the nightmare that created this world of ghost stories, a lure to entice its prey into a trap.

Bai Yu's question was clearly outside the "settings" of that nightmare, so naturally, it received no response.

It was merely a manipulated puppet, a tool to execute specific instructions, rather than a truly thinking being.

After wandering around almost the entire coffee shop, Bai Yu's gaze fell on the last place he had never truly set foot in before—the coffee-making counter. Even when he was involved in this strange tale a few times before, Bai Yu had only glanced at it quickly, focusing his attention on the statuesque staff, and had never really explored the counter in depth.

He went around to the back of the bar, where everything was unusually tidy, a stark contrast to the deathly chaos outside. Two neatly folded garments lay quietly on the smooth bar surface, clearly visible to Hei Yan. One was the male waiter's black uniform, and the other was the red uniform of the girl who had greeted customers at the door.

Bai Yu stood there and pondered for a moment.

According to the customer rules, when he is followed by a child, he needs to seek help from an employee in a red uniform.

Therefore, considering his current situation, the most reasonable deduction is that he should put on that red work uniform and become the "red-clad employee" mentioned in the rules.

Of course, there is another possibility—that when the child is following him closely, he needs to immediately seek help from a "real red-shirted employee".

However, in this desolate, empty space, Bai Yu clearly no longer had the means to find another "red-clad employee." He could only become that "red-clad employee" himself.

He picked up the red work uniform; the fabric was icy cold to the touch, with a slippery feel unlike any other material, as if it had just been dipped in some cold liquid. A faint, almost imperceptible smell of blood wafted into his nostrils, causing him to unconsciously frown.

Without thinking much, he silently put on the damp, cold uniform. The moment the fabric touched his skin, Bai Yu felt an indescribable chill, as if something icy was slowly seeping into his body through the fabric's texture.

"squeak--"

A piercing scraping sound, like a rusty hinge groaning in pain, abruptly shattered the deathly silence of the coffee shop. A door appeared out of nowhere on the once smooth wall at the far end of the shop. The door slowly opened, revealing a bottomless darkness within. On the door, clearly marked with male and female symbols, stood out starkly in Hei Yan's eyes.

Bai Yu walked to the door. In the darkness, a note was carefully pasted on the door panel, its edges curled up as if it had been exposed to moisture for a long time.

Restroom rules:
1. The restroom is safe.

2. There are no mirrors in the restroom.

3. At all times, please use the last stall in the women's restroom.

4. Please do not turn on the bathroom light in case of danger.

5. If you encounter any danger, please trust the restroom cleaning staff; they will protect you.

6. Please help me find my eyeballs.

The restroom rules had far fewer items than the previous customer rules, but they were covered with numerous corrections and alterations. The crossed-out and added marks resembled distorted, grotesque faces, silently howling across the paper.

Bai Yu stared at these rules and activated the power of Black Words. In his vision, the altered text began to tremble, as if being pulled by some invisible force.

He could sense a powerful, malevolent energy attempting to force these flawed rules into his mind.

But the power of Black Words was like a sharp blade, precisely cutting through these disguises. The altered, false words were peeled away bit by bit before his eyes, revealing the real, twisted rules beneath.

"First rule: The restroom is not safe." Bai Yu silently corrected himself in his mind. The crossed-out "not" seemed particularly clear to him at this moment, like a kind of warning.

"Article 3: Under no circumstances should you use the last stall in the men's restroom."

Article 4: Please turn on the bathroom light in case of danger. The word "Do not" has been added there.

“And…” Bai Yu’s gaze fell on the last rule. That sentence—“Please help me find my eyeballs”—wasn’t covered by any scratches, yet it seemed so out of place. It didn’t seem like a rule; it was more like a plea for help, or… some kind of deeper deception.

"Could the same person be the one who created and altered the rules?" Bai Yu pondered this question repeatedly in his mind. He wasn't referring to the Nightmare itself, but rather to the "I" in this final rule. Even without the power of Black Words, the abruptness of this last rule was obvious.

The phrase "Please help me find my eyeballs" doesn't seem like a rule at all. So why was this rule added? And who added it? These questions are particularly important.

He realized he had only entered this eerie space with a "restroom" after agreeing to the child's request and putting on the red work uniform. So, could the "me" who wrote "help find the eyeballs" in the rules... be it? The child who had been following him closely but had never uttered a sound? Could this child also be the "victim"? A soul trapped within the rules, genuinely seeking help?

Bai Yu was the first to push open the door to the men's restroom.

The door hinges emitted a harsh, scraping sound, like a painful groan. In his view, the rules didn't mention the women's restroom, so there shouldn't be any important clues inside, and there was no need to investigate.

He must focus entirely on the areas explicitly or implicitly indicated by the rules.

The bathroom ceiling light cast a pale, sickly glow, with the dilapidated incandescent bulb hanging there weakly. The light flickered incessantly, each flicker causing the entire bathroom to drastically shift between light and darkness, like an eerie breath, making the space unpredictable.

The bathroom tiles were all a cool-toned cyan, a color that appeared even more somber under the flickering lights, as if soaked in some ominous liquid.

The faint sound of running water—a "drip-drip" sound, like some kind of liquid dripping from a height—was faintly heard. Apart from that, the entire restroom was eerily quiet.

Above the sink, where a mirror should have been hanging, there was nothing but a cold wall. This emptiness created an indescribable sense of unease, as if something had been deliberately erased.

Bai Yu noticed that in the deepest corner of the bathroom, a mop was standing upright in a dirty bucket. The wooden handle of the mop was rotten, and the cloth strip on the mop head was covered with grime, but upon closer inspection, he could see an ominous dark red color faintly showing through the grime.

He was about to step forward to investigate when suddenly, a clear and heavy footstep sounded behind him. This sound was completely different from the sticky, light footsteps of the child he had heard before. It was clearly something else, a heavier, slower presence approaching.

"Young man, what are you doing here?" A hoarse, aged voice, as if squeezed from rotten wood, rang out from behind Bai Yu.

Bai Yu slowly turned around.

The child who had been following him closely was gone. In his place stood an old man with a full head of white hair, wearing a loose-fitting blue cleaning uniform, emanating a faint, strange smell of disinfectant mixed with the stench of rotting corpses.

The old man's face was covered with deep and shallow wrinkles, like a crumpled piece of waste paper. His deeply sunken eye sockets held cloudy eyes that looked like two dusty glass beads, staring indifferently at him. Judging from his aged appearance, he was clearly very old, yet he possessed an eerie aura that seemed otherworldly.

Seeing Bai Yu turn around, the old man made no special move, but his cloudy eyes remained fixed on Bai Yu's face, unmoving. He then said to Bai Yu in his hoarse voice, "Alas, no living person has come here for a long time since it was abandoned. I didn't expect to run into someone again today. Young man, I advise you to leave as soon as possible. This place, it is not clean."

As the old man spoke, he walked past Bai Yu, his movements slow and stiff. He went to the bucket in the corner and picked up the mop from inside.

The mop handle creaked softly, as if protesting being picked up. The old man ignored it, simply gripping the mop tighter, ready to begin cleaning the bathroom.

Bai Yu's gaze remained fixed on the old man's every move. He seemed harmless, simply mopping the restroom floor like an ordinary cleaning worker. He stood out starkly from the restroom's eerie atmosphere, as if he didn't belong to this distorted space, or perhaps, he was the space itself. Upon closer inspection, even the mop in his hand seemed subtly unusual.

Bai Yu clearly saw that crimson liquid was dripping from the mop head, trickling down the cloth and onto the blue tiles. Even more bizarrely, the blood vanished the moment it touched the ground, leaving no trace, not even a drop of water. The ground remained a cold, blue color, as if it had never been contaminated by anything.

The old man remained oblivious to all the abnormalities; his cloudy eyes were devoid of any emotion as he mechanically continued with his work. His mopping movements were slow and rhythmic, each drag seeming to rub against something invisible, producing a hissing sound.

Bai Yu patiently stood still, not disturbing the old man, but simply watching him work. In this eerie restroom, the two people, one mopping the floor and the other observing, both appeared remarkably calm, as if this scene were merely a part of everyday life. However, beneath this calmness lay extreme tension and an eeriness.

"Excuse me, could you move aside?" The old man mopped the floor until he reached Bai Yu's feet. His voice was still hoarse and decaying as he looked up at Bai Yu and said.

This was the first time Bai Yu had seen the old man's face so closely. His sunken eye sockets, filled with cloudy eyeballs, looked even more distressed under the flickering lights, as if they might fall out at any moment. Two deep nasolabial folds, as if carved by a knife, sculpted the skin of his face into stiff, blocky shapes. His face was also covered with spots of varying sizes, resembling a rotting corpse eroded by time and disease. An indescribable stench, mixed with the smell of disinfectant, wafted towards Bai Yu.

The two remained locked in eye contact for a brief moment, those few seconds feeling infinitely long to Bai Yu. The old man's eyes held neither malice nor kindness, only a deathly emptiness, as if capable of sucking one's soul into them.

Bai Yu felt his heart pounding. He forced himself to calm down before saying, "Okay."

"Thank you," the old man replied mechanically, then continued mopping the floor.

Bai Yu took two steps forward, moving away from the area the old man was mopping. He looked at the old man, whose head turned slightly backward, his cloudy eyes sweeping over where Bai Yu was standing. The old man thanked him, then turned back to continue mopping the floor.

The two people in the bathroom remained silent, with only the hissing of the mopping and the dripping of water echoing in the dim space.

The old man had dragged the mop to the door when he put it away and stood stiffly still. His cloudy eyes looked at Bai Yu again, and he asked in a hoarse voice, "Aren't you leaving, young man?"

He waited at the door for a long time, and time seemed to stand still at that moment.

Bai Yu didn't move, she just looked at him quietly, and finally shook her head.

The old man did not insist. A faint glimmer of light seemed to flash in his empty eyes, but it quickly returned to deathly stillness.

He complied with Bai Yu's choice, and his body began to dissipate little by little at the doorway. His outline became blurred, like sand blown away by the wind, or ink dissolved by water, spreading upwards from his toes until he completely disappeared into the air.

"Snapped!"

After the old man completely disappeared, the mop he had been gripping suddenly slammed heavily to the ground with a thud that sent chills down one's spine.

The crimson blood on the mop head no longer disappeared mysteriously, but gushed out instantly like a burst dam, staining the cold blue ceramic tile floor a dazzling blood red at a visible speed.

The stench of blood instantly filled the air, strong and foul, making one want to vomit.

The ability of black words to impart meaning to white words seemed to be severely disrupted at this moment.

The once clear night vision was now blurred, as if covered by a thick black fog.

He felt a sticky, round object suddenly roll across his face. It felt cold and slippery.

Darkness descended completely.

Having lost the night vision granted by Hei Yan, Bai Yu had to adapt to the sudden darkness on his own. He raised his hand and touched the spot on his face where the round ball had rolled; it was sticky and had a nauseating, fishy smell.

"Is it blood?" He put his finger to his nose and sniffed it, his fingers trembling. It wasn't ordinary blood; it was more like a mixture with a rusty smell and some kind of unknown slime, sending an indescribable wave of nausea straight to his head.

He felt everything around him begin to distort. Above the sink, a huge mirror, which had been empty on the wall, suddenly appeared, reflecting a deep, eerie light in the absolute darkness, as if leading to another dimension. The door to the last stall at the far end of the restroom, which had been tightly closed, suddenly swung open, the gaping darkness like a gaping maw, silently inviting him deeper. A cold wind, carrying the stench of decay, blew out from the depths of that stall.

Bai Yu wondered if he had stepped into a deeper trap.
He is now completely trapped in the darkness woven by these strange tales, having lost his most relied-upon ability of black words and his ability to discern directions.

The last compartment, whose rule had been amended to "do not use," now resembled a bottomless abyss, its jaws wide open, waiting to devour him completely.

Something was silently approaching him in the darkness. He could feel that cold malice enveloping him little by little, pulling him into an endless abyss.

(End of this chapter)