horror effect

When the knock on the door sounded, Valentine Linnon was reading a collection of poems.There was a long curved table like those used in bars at the entrance to the house, and he sat behind it.The inside and walls of the house are full of bookshelves, full of books, all for rent.

The restaurant of the Cedar Hill Hotel is a social place for decent people, the Four Calendar Tavern is a place for ordinary people to comfort themselves or numb their minds, and Lin Nong's bookstore stores the spiritual food of the townspeople.

The rented bookstore was opened by old Lin Nong, but he was suffering from arthritis, and the bookstore was looked after by his son Valentine.Valentine likes this job very much, because he can read a book quietly.This evening was the same as usual, he was sitting next to the radiator, warm and comfortable.It was windy during the night, and in such weather the bookshop had few customers, so Valentine was surprised when he heard a knock at the door.

A tall man in a black coat walked in, and a cloud of air-conditioning followed him into the room.Upon seeing him, Valentine immediately put down the book, stood up excitedly, with joy in his eyes, and said, "It's you! Mr. Wernstein."

Vaughnstein, whom Valentine called, is the owner of the Cedar Hill Hotel, a handsome middle-aged German who has lived here for many years.Herbert Wernstein had just returned to town from the city, where he was going to make preparations for the inn to join the Union.Julian Lemon thought that the front office manager Balfin might have concealed Wernstein's whereabouts, but he was indeed wrong. Herbert was indeed not there at the time, and he came back one night earlier than scheduled.

He came up from the bottom of the mountain and stopped by the bookstore to return the books.In addition, in his own words, it was to visit old friends.Herbert was a merchant and a lover of books, and there were books in the inn, but he preferred to borrow them here.Over time, he became friends with Lin Nong, the owner of the bookstore, and Lin Nong's son Valentine.They often express their opinions and discuss a book.

Valentine took the returned book and began to search for the borrowing records on the computer and calculate the cost.At this time, Herbert saw the collection of poems that Valentine put down, so he picked it up, and saw the poem that Valentine just read.

"What? Are you reading Blake?" he asked.

"Yes. It's a copy of his hand-engraved collection of poems, and it's a nice one."

"Well, it's really exquisite. Why don't we hold a seminar someday and call Mr. Lin Nong together."

Valentine shook his head and said, "He's been suffering from arthritis these days, so I'm afraid he's not in the mood."

"It's a pity. But we can record our discussion and write a report, and show it to him when he is comfortable. Like last time, he will be very happy." Hearing what he said, Valentine laughed .

"Last time" refers to their discussion of gothic fiction, which took Ann Radcliffe's Udolph's Secret as an occasion, and that time with Valentine's good friend Stephen Breumontrose Te and Nicola Theoros participated, and finally wrote a paper-like summary with Stephen's help.Stephen gave the summary to his fellow students in Glasgow, and it was revised and polished for publication in the university journal.This incident made Mr. Lin Nong happy and proud.

"Okay, let's have a meeting in a few days, and call Stephen and Nicholas?"

"As long as you can invite them, there will always be more enthusiasm."

"Okay, I'll call you when it's settled."

The matter of the discussion meeting was thus decided.However, Valentine has his own ideas about whether to invite Stephen and Nicholas.After Herbert had gone, he picked up the book of poems without reading them, but kept his eyes on the door, thinking of Herbert Wernstein.For Valentine, he is a combination of Perseus, Endymion and Thetis. Although he is a bit older, this age is when the beauty on the outside matures and the beauty on the inside matures. When the beauty begins to settle, he is a fruit that has ripened just right inside and out.

Herbert Wernstein came out of Linnon's bookstore and hurried to the hotel.The purpose of his early return was not to return the books, there were more important things waiting for him.When he arrived at the hotel, he went straight to his office, where the front desk manager, Balfin, was waiting. "How's the situation these days?" He asked immediately as soon as he entered.

"Very good. Because of the heavy snowfall, the number of skiing guests has increased. But it is also because of the heavy snow that many things cannot be transported, especially fresh fruits and vegetables, but it has improved now."

"What else?" Herbert's fingers were jumping on the hardwood desk like playing a piano, looking a little impatient.

"Erina's job has been taken over by Martha since last weekend."

"Gone?"

"that's it."

Herbert looked at Balfin with a look that seemed to pluck something out of his mouth. "And what about the English guest you told me about?"

"He asked to enter room C307. I refused him because it was not in compliance with the regulations. I have already told you about it." When the whole thing is over.But now that Herbert mentioned it again, he indicated that the situation was not that simple.

"No, no," said Herbert, "you were quite right in refusing him. But I should like to know why he took an interest there, and whether he had been in that room."

Balfin's surprised expression became more obvious. "It's impossible for him to go in, Mr. Wernstein. That door has been locked all the time, and the key has not been kept by you all the time..." But the front desk manager suddenly thought of Julian Raymond's words, and hurriedly Correction: "When the gentleman mentioned the reason why he had to go in, he once said, 'If there is a murder in there...'".

"He talked about murder?!"

Herbert Wernstein yelled. He stared at Balfin with wide-open eyes, the whites of his pupils were exposed around him, his breathing seemed to have stopped, his face was flushed from holding his breath, and his shoulders heaved.He tried his best to suppress his excitement.

"Mr. Warnstein?" Balfin asked worriedly.

"... nothing, nothing..." said Herbert slowly. "You've done a good job, go back and rest. Don't tell anyone about this. You go back, I want to stay a little longer..."

Balffin looked at Herbert Wernstein and felt that his expression seemed to have gone through all stages from surprise, fear, anxiety to indifference in an instant, and after that he was extremely tired because of such a sudden and rapid change.

Balfin has been working in the hotel for five years, and he has always known that Herbert attaches great importance to room C307. This is nothing new, and anyone who has worked in the hotel for a period of time knows it.But no one had ever been in that room, and no one knew what was in it.Although there were occasional chatter among the staff in private, because Herbert Wernstein was such a good boss, even some gossip quickly dissipated.

He knew that the hotel had changed hands many times because the owner always felt that there was something mysterious in it.Moreover, it is said that a homeowner died in that room C307.This time, Herbert Wernstein's worries are probably justified, right?

"Sir." Balfin said suddenly before leaving the house, "Looking at your reaction, it seems that that room..." He didn't finish his thoughts, he knew that Herbert Wernstein would understand what he meant .

Herbert smiled and said, "It's not what you think. Thank you for your concern, Balfin, but there's really no need to worry."

This didn't make the front desk manager easy, but he nodded and walked out.

In the office, Herbert was sitting in an armchair, resting his brow with his hot hands, as if his brow alone could no longer bear the burden of his thoughts.A sigh escaped from his mouth:

"Bergs..."

Julian woke up in the middle of the night and found that the man was right in front of him.He himself is lying on the right side of the bed and 'he' is lying on the left.

'He' is sleeping.The whole body is horribly white, and the body looks like a faint blue light at night; the chest rises and falls with the breath, and Julian puts his fingers under the nostrils of 'his', but he doesn't feel the airflow caused by the breath. 'He' wasn't breathing, he was just making the appearance of breathing. 'He' is a dead man.But 'his' body is warm and soft, with delicate and elastic skin. 'He' seemed to be alive again.

Julian didn't feel scared or disturbed as he expected, on the contrary, he felt very peaceful inside.This may be the effect of night.Julian propped up his body carefully and looked at 'him' carefully.A quiet and calm demeanor came out from 'his' beautiful posture and the imperceptible smile on the corner of his lips.

"Who the hell are you?" said Julian softly.

He put his hands on 'his' hip bones, and the palms moved upwards along the curve of the body, passing through the abdomen, waist, chest, and finally stopped next to 'his' lips.He leaned down to that beautiful and strange face, and gently touched 'his' forehead, eyes and nose tip with his lips. "Who the hell are you?" Julian sighed again.

As if to answer his question, 'his' body trembled suddenly, like a cocoon about to be bitten by moths.Julian was taken aback, and felt a little scared at this moment. He wanted to back up, but he didn't complete the action.

'He' opened his eyes, dark red eyes rendered dark red by the night, looking at Julian with a smile.Julian also stared at 'him', trying to find something in those eyes, but unexpectedly found that there was nothing recognizable in those eyes, and no thoughts were revealed.Although 'his' eyes were smiling, Julian felt as though he were looking at the dark red moon of a total lunar eclipse - cold and barren.Those are simply not human eyes.

The winter night was very cold, and although he was in the room, Julian still felt the cold coming from all directions in the room.He grabbed the quilt around his body and slowly backed away from the bed. 'He' noticed Julian's intentions, smiled more clearly, raised his arms above his head, spread his body, and intertwined his legs.The movement seemed involuntary, and it seemed to seduce Julian.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Me?" 'He' got up slowly, leaning towards the direction Julian retreated. "As long as you want, I can be anyone you want. I can be an angel or a devil; I can be your master or your slave; if you want, I can be your enemy; I can even be you My dearest lover. I can be everything to you if you want it." 'He' stepped out with his right leg, planted one foot on the floor, and held out his hand to Julian.

"No," Julian shook his head, "I just want to know who you are? Why are you here?"

"You'll always know, but before—" 'he' suddenly stood in front of Julian, just like the last time in room C307, and he didn't react at all, "—we need to understand each other, we need Be part of each other..."

'He' flung his hands around Julian's face and kissed him on the lips with such ferocity as to swallow him.Startled, Julian didn't have time to fight at first, but then he pushed, punched, and kneed to push 'him' away.But after he tried many ways, Julian found that 'he' was like the air surrounding him, and he couldn't get rid of it at all.

At the same time, 'he' pushed Julian's body even more aggressively, pinching the sensitive skin on the inside of his butt with his fingers.

"Go away!" cried Julian.

"Easy, easy," said 'he', "I'm not trying to torture you, let alone kill you. I'm trying to make you feel unparalleled happiness and beauty, and that's the real purpose of life. I Isn't that right? Julian..."

"Don't call me by my name! Why did you come to me?! How do you know about me?"

"It doesn't matter. I know everything about you, even your Liddy. I even know what's growing in the deepest abyss of your heart. Don't you want to hear me? Tell me about your Liddy Dee? Talk about the little things that eat your heart and grow on it."

'He' deftly teases Julian's desires, turns him on and shames him.

"You're a devil!" he yelled hysterically.

"Everyone is a devil. Would you like to see the devil's teeth?"

Julian felt that everything in front of him was becoming more and more blurred, gradually turning white.His body was hot, the fire of desire scorching his guts, and when the passion reached its peak, he felt a sudden, sweet thrill that paralyzed him.He closed his eyes and heard a voice in his ear saying, "Come on, come on. Look at that hidden world, it's inside your body."

Julian opened his eyes, and for a moment he didn't know where he was.

The surroundings are not the blackness of night, let alone the whiteness he saw before he fell asleep, but the verdant verdant green.In fact, all around him, and even above his head, were slender willow leaves.It seemed to him that he was in a grove of willows, the trunks like beams and the drooping branches forming the walls.He reached out to push aside the leaves, trying to look outside, but all he saw were layers and layers of green.

Where is he?And how long did he sleep for?Otherwise, how can you suddenly come to the lush woods from the snow-covered town.And where did 'he' go?

With these questions, Julian pushed aside the intertwined branches and walked outside.He had walked a long way, and just when he thought he might be lost, a sweet scent of flowers gurgled down his face like a stream, and one side of the woods lit up, and the sun shone through the gaps in the leaves.He quickened his pace, walked towards the light, pushed aside the last few branches, and emerged from the woods.

In front of him was a valley.On both sides are towering mountains, the tip of which reaches straight into the sky, and layers of mist surround the silver-white snow line.In the middle of the mountains is an emerald green valley, with round hills scattered in the valley, looking from a distance, it looks like neatly stacked citrus or lemons on a French country market.The hillside is covered with green grass that is as flat and neat as man-trimmed, and big and straight dark green cypress trees are dotted on the hill. At the foot of the cypress trees are clusters of pink bushes that Julian doesn't recognize. The shrub he could not name, seemed to be a dwarfed and stained oak.

What surprised Julian most was the air.There were a few huge rocks like hills floating in the air, with nothing to support or pull them, bobbing slightly up and down with the wind in a complete mockery of the laws of physics, like seaweed floating in the sea.These stones are all in the shape of short knives with the tip pointing down. Their tops are flat, and green grass and shrubs grow on them. They wear fluffy hats on these stones with bare walls and countless cracks. .They cast huge shadows, enveloping the ground into darkness like dark clouds.

Among the snow-capped mountains, valleys, and floating boulders, a group of white birds were flying up and down, sometimes rushing to the sky near the snow line, and sometimes burrowing into the cypress trees at the bottom of the valley to circle around.

There was only the sound of the wind stirring among the rocks, and there was no other sound, and the whole scene was peaceful and distant.But Julian felt a sense of nervousness, not only the threat of the huge wedge-like stones about to be inserted into the ground, but also a sense of fear in the desert.Because there is no human breath in this obviously abnormal world, even those perfectly shaped lawns exude a cold smell of isolation.

Julian blindfolded.He thought it was another dream, set in another dream like diamonds set in gold brackets, a dream within a dream, one of countless shadows reflected in two opposing mirrors.

When he opened his eyes, the strange world did not disappear.The fluorescent green grass is still brushing against his feet, the walls of the boulders floating in the air are still reflecting sunlight, and the giant white bird is still flying with its wings outstretched to take advantage of the updraft.

Julian finally understood his situation. He staggered forward, grabbed his hair with his hands, and shouted stammeringly: "Where am I?! What is this place?! Who will answer me!"

His voice rushed out, hit the opposite stone wall, then turned back, hit the stone wall on this side, and reflected each other continuously, forming a series of echoes.If Julian had been an acoustician, he would have been interested in such precise reflections, but he was just a man dying of indifference and loneliness, buried in his own fear.

The flock of white birds seemed annoyed by these echoes, and they flew towards Julian, pecking at his head and eyes with their pointed beaks.Julian screamed and ran toward the woods, waving his hands to fend off the onslaught of birds, to protect his eyes.At last he rushed into the willow grove, and the flock of birds with nowhere to sit circled the sky several times and flew away, some of them still had Julian's hair stuck to the edge of their beaks.

He touched the painful scalp, but there was a red blood stain on the palm of his hand, which must have been pecked. "God..." He fell powerlessly to the ground, unconsciously chanting the name that he never believed in.He called God at this time not out of faith, but just a habit, a kind of comfort for the despair of his situation.

"Who is calling God's name here?"

Just above Julian's head, a voice suddenly said.