“None of the people who answered was Gao Ming?” Luo Dong digested this statent and felt a chill run up his spine.
“That’s not the weirdest.” The man tilted his head to look at Luo Dong, “The voices on the phone sounded unfamiliar to us at first. However, every ti we made a call, the voice would beco a bit more like Gao Ming’s until it sounded perfectly like Gao Ming. However, through so minor details and habits, we could tell that it was not the real Gao Ming.”
“It beca more and more like Gao Ming?!” The feeling of one’s family being slowly replaced made Luo Dong feel so helpless.
“Indeed. It’s one of the reasons why we ca to find him.”
Luo Dong was silent. Even if they knew their son might be haunted by ghosts, they didn’t hesitate to search for him.
“I don’t know how you ended up here, but once we left our ho, we realised the world outside had beco completely different. It felt like we had entered a different dinsion. The streetlights blurred. Unknown objects crawled in the shadows. However, we didn’t care about these things because we were too worried about Gao Ming. We found this place based on the address he gave us.” The man’s cap slowly fell back to reveal traces of blood around his neck. “Are you here to look for your child too?”
“I was trapped in an anomaly. My wife and daughter’s souls are permanently banished. My only son has gone missing.” Luo Dong tried his best to ignore the blood.
“Don’t be scared. The blood… is not human…” The middle-aged man suddenly trembled. His eyes shrunk. “To hurry to Gao Ming’s rental place, we took a cab. The driver told us a lot of ghost stories along the way, including the murder cases that occurred in Han Hai over the past few years. He was so detailed that it felt like he was at the cri scene in person. We suspected he was the killer, but he told us the stories were given to him by his other passengers. Then, he wanted us to tell him a story.”
“What story did you tell him?” Luo Dong asked subconsciously.
“Through our conversation, I noticed two things. The driver was not driving us to Gao Ming’s place. Plus, the stories he told were slowly becoming true. I suspected he was behind all the murders, so…” The middle-aged man stared at Luo Dong. After confirming Luo Dong was ‘alive’, he stressed, “I told him a story about a taxi driver. The crazy taxi driver encountered a pair of married couples with serious ntal issues while he was working on a rainy night. The driver gloated about his past to the couple, but he was ultimately killed by the couple.”
Luo Dong was confused. Was the man telling a story or the truth? Or was it a mixture of both?
“Do you want sothing to drink?” The sound of breathing interspersed throughout the man’s conversation. He stared right into Luo Dong’s eyes. The sound of chopping from the kitchen beca louder.
Two water pots were placed on the table. One was white, and the other was red. The middle-aged man poured a glass of warm water for Luo Dong from the red pot.
“Don’t worry. You’re here now. You should know that the driver is not alive, and the married couple are not crazy.” The man pulled his gaze back. “After we shared that story, I continued to drive through the night. We encountered many strange passengers and finally arrived here after a long ti.”
Luo Dong tried to remain as calm as he could. He noticed that the man had beco the driver in this latest part of the story. He didn’t ask about the location of the driver or how the taxi managed to fit other passengers. He didn’t even want to know where the other passengers had gone.
The only thing that was certain was that Gao Ming’s parents had been through a lot that night to find Gao Ming. Only they knew about the actual details.
“It’s been hard on you to find Gao Ming,” Luo Dong sighed. However, the man shook his head.
“We only realised how serious the problem was when we ca here. Gao Ming was not in his room. My wife and I were drawn here by sothing, and it trapped us here.” The man’s eyes moved to the fruit knife under the table.
“So… you also don’t know where Gao Ming is?!” In Luo Dong’s heart, Gao Ming was the God among the horror ga players. If he had been there, he would have solved this problem easily.
“Gao Ming…”
There was a sudden knocking on the door that interrupted the man. He signalled Luo Dong to hide in the bathroom. After Luo Dong hid, the man splashed the water in the cup on his raincoat as if he had just returned ho from outside. He went to unlock the front door.
Gao Ming, in a school uniform and carrying his bag, stood at the door. His expression was not robotic. He was as Luo Dong rembered him.
“Dad, there are so issues with the bus carrying us on the field trip, so I ca back late.” Gao Ming held a strange present box. He entered the place like this was really his ho.
Luo Dong was surprised to see this. This Gao Ming appeared to be trapped on the night the field trip ended. He was like a child who couldn’t grow old.
The middle-aged man was used to this. He accepted the box and school bag naturally. “Your mom is cooking. You should take a bath first.”
Gao Ming shook his head and looked at the man. He smiled, “I had a dream on the bus. I dread that I was stabbed from behind when I was in the shower, and my most precious present was destroyed.”
“Is that so? What else did you dream of?”
“It was very scary. I dread that I had died in many different ways. However, all of them happened inside an apartnt building. However, I failed to see my killer every ti.” Gao Ming hugged the present tightly as if it were more important than his life.
“Dreams are always in reverse.” The man removed his raincoat to expose the dirty shirt underneath. “I just got off work. It’s not that peaceful outside recently. The news keeps reporting on murder and missing person cases. You should stay at ho.” The man picked up the white pot and poured a cup of water for Gao Ming, “Drink more warm water and less soft drinks.”
Gao Ming’s smile froze on his face. He shook his head. “I think I’ll grab so cold water.” He walked to the table and picked up the red pot to pour himself a glass of water. He finished it in one gulp. Then, he rummaged through his school bag to look for sothing.
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