Chapter 353: Chapter 234: Here Is a Horror House
"I see Allen!"
At Joey’s shout, the kids all whipped their heads around to where he was pointing, but they didn’t see anything.
"This way! I saw him!"
Joey was incredibly excited. He pedaled his bike hard, veering to the right, and the others had no choice but to follow.
After the turn, the kids rode to the traffic light at the next intersection. Suddenly, the figure of a small boy appeared on the other side of the street. He was waving and jumping frantically, trying to get their attention.
"It really is Allen!" Nerdy Martin exclaimed.
Jenny and Yiwen saw him too, their faces breaking into joyful smiles. They thought they had finally found their friend, who had been missing for days.
But then Allen suddenly broke into a run, and as he passed a tree by the side of the street, he mysteriously vanished.
"Allen... vanished?" Nerdy Martin was stunned, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him.
"How could that happen..." Joey rubbed his eyes. Allen had disappeared as if he’d vanished into thin air.
"Maybe that’s a distress signal from Allen," Jenny reasoned. "He’s showing us the way. He wants us to come and save him."
A moment later, Allen’s figure reappeared, farther away this time. He waved his arms wide, trying to make sure the kids saw him, letting out a silent cry.
"Let’s follow him." The kids didn’t hesitate and chased after him.
For the next twenty minutes, they followed Allen’s figure all over Akita Town.
Eventually, they rode into a more desolate, sparsely populated area and came to a stop before an old, weed-choked mansion. Allen’s figure ran straight into the mansion and vanished.
"Allen..." Desperate to save his friend, Little Fatty Yiwen threw down his bike and rushed forward to pound on the front door.
"We should go find some adults!" Nerdy Martin said, sounding scared.
"Right, we have to find an adult. This isn’t something we can handle." Joey appeared calm. ’If Allen’s really in this house, then the person... or monster... that took him has to be in here, too.’
Suddenly, one of Yiwen’s pounds hit nothing but air. The old door had swung open by itself. The mansion looked rather run-down from the outside, but the interior decor was surprisingly elegant and cozy.
"Hello, is anyone there?" Little Fatty Yiwen called out cautiously, but got no response.
"Should we... go in and take a look? Maybe Allen is inside," Jenny said hesitantly.
"I-I don’t want to go in," Martin said, his face a mask of fear and worry. "This place is creepy. We should go get some adults."
Joey thought for a moment. "Martin, you stay out here and keep watch. We’ll go inside for a look."
As he spoke, he and Jenny dropped their bikes and walked toward the mansion’s entrance.
"O-okay, but be careful. If anything seems wrong, get out of there right away," Martin said meekly.
Joey, Yiwen, and Jenny nodded, exchanged a look, and stepped through the mansion’s main doors.
They entered the living room and found it was kept very clean. Magazines and a few potted succulents sat on a table. The sofa was a bit worn, looking like it had seen years of use, and they could even see cat scratches on it, suggesting the family must have a cat.
Little Fatty Yiwen picked up a magazine from the table: "Look, there are even magazines here, Time Magazine, Men’s Health... and Playboy?"
"Don’t look at that." Jenny snatched the magazine with the revealing cover and flipped it face down on the table.
Next, they investigated the kitchen. The owner seemed to be a vegetarian; the refrigerator was filled with vegetables and fruits.
After searching the first floor and not finding any sign of Allen, the three children decided to go up to the second floor.
In the second-floor hallway.
Jenny carefully peeked out, looking around from different angles. The bedrooms with open doors were all empty. Inside one of them was a baby carriage.
The baby carriage looked familiar to her, like one from a horror movie she’d seen. In the film, an appearance by the carriage always heralded disaster, meaning someone was about to die a violent death.
Suddenly, Joey heard a faint noise and stepped into one of the bedrooms to investigate.
On the bedroom desk sat a grotesque, bloody painting. It depicted what looked like a medieval Witch dressed as a noblewoman. Her skin was as white as a corpse’s, she had sharp Tusks, and her entire mouth was smeared with blood. In her hand, she held a severed head, its eyes wide with fury, unable to rest in peace.
Joey shuddered, too terrified to look at it any longer. He glanced around the room one more time, then turned to leave.
THUD.
A dull thud echoed through the room. Joey jumped, his heart threatening to pound out of his chest. He spun around and saw that the painting had fallen face-down on the desk.
He thought for a moment, then reached out to set it back up.
But the instant he saw the painting, Joey’s eyes widened and every hair on his body stood on end.
The Evil Witch in the painting was gone!
He was instantly consumed by an overwhelming Fear. He scrambled out of the bedroom, desperate to tell the others what he’d seen.
The other two saw Joey’s pale, frightened face and were about to ask what was wrong when they heard the sound of a Music Box start to play, coming from under the bed in one of the bedrooms.
The draping bedskirt began to bulge outward, as if something was about to crawl out from underneath the bed.
Then, the baby carriage in the bedroom started rocking on its own. A young child’s voice came from nowhere, singing a sweet nursery rhyme that blended with the ethereal Music Box tune to create a beautiful melody.
The three kids were scared out of their wits by the sudden, bizarre turn of events. They spun around and bolted down the stairs, trying to flee the mansion.
Just as they were approaching the main door—
—SLAM!
A loud slam echoed as the mansion’s main door shut on its own.
TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP... Footsteps sounded from the stairs, the wooden boards creaking like a sinister laugh.
A Witch dressed as a medieval noblewoman descended slowly, a vicious sneer on her face as she looked down at them.
The Witch looked exactly as she had in Joey’s painting. Her skin was as pale as a corpse’s, her Tusks were as sharp as a wolf’s, and her mouth was smeared with scarlet blood, giving her a savage look. She still carried the head with its eternally open eyes, from which thick, viscous blood dripped incessantly...
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
The three children shrieked in terror, frantically pounding on the door and twisting the handle. But the door was as if it had been welded shut; even when they threw themselves against it like maniacs, it wouldn’t budge a single inch.
With the Evil Witch drawing ever closer, the children scrambled desperately into the living room and dove behind the sofa, hoping to use the furniture to evade her.
"That’s the Witch from the painting! She came out of it!" Joey cried, terrified.
"Isn’t... isn’t that a character from a TV show?" Little Fatty Yiwen’s breathing grew heavy with Fear, his face drained of all color.
"I saw a baby carriage in one of the bedrooms! It looked just like one from a horror movie I saw!" Jenny gasped, panting for breath. She was starting to put the pieces together, but her thought was cut short by a terrified scream as the Evil Witch stepped into the living room, sneering.
Terror descended!
