Witchcraft

  My heart skipped a beat, and I was about to withdraw my hand when the fluffy, wet thing slipped out of my grasp. My first reaction was that I had touched a cat, but upon further reflection, I knew this was impossible. Standing in the darkness, my outstretched arm was level with my shoulder; even if it were a tiger, my hand shouldn't have reached it unless it was a cat as big as a person - which was highly unlikely.

  I almost reflexively jumped back a step, involuntarily letting out an "ah" of surprise, the sound echoing in the dark corridor before returning to my ears.

  Since I was young, when have I ever encountered such a scene? At that moment, I was so frightened that my legs went soft and almost knelt down on the ground. So I hurriedly went to lean against the wall beside me, letting myself stand firmly.

  But as soon as I touched it, a slippery feeling suddenly spread from my fingertips to my spine. I quickly withdrew my arm, bent down and smelled it, and it was a strong fishy smell. After rubbing it with my fingers again, it felt like blood from the tactile sensation.

  I couldn't bear the darkness around me anymore, so I quickly took out the phone from my pocket and used the flashlight app to light up.

  In the thick darkness, the white cold light of the mobile phone was like a sharp sword, piercing through the dense fog and shining on the wall beside me. After my eyes gradually adapted to the sudden light, I began to hastily examine the things around me.

  The white light shone on the wall, and the wall was pitch black. Some of the wall gray had fallen off, giving a very dirty feeling, but I didn't see the bloody scene I imagined, not even a single trace on the wall. When I looked at my hands again, they were also clean, except for some cold sweat, there was nothing else.

  I couldn't help but wonder if I was just too tense and had scared myself, creating an illusion. To verify my own point of view, I stretched out my hand to touch the wall again, this time it felt rough and dry.

  I also let out a sigh of relief and secretly comforted myself: "Fan Peixi, Fan Peixi, usually you're dull and brainless, wasting half your life with an empty mind, why did you suddenly use your imagination in this broken place?"

  I steadied my emotions and took a few more photos with my phone, but the light from the phone was limited, at most illuminating only two or three meters in front of me. Further ahead, due to the contrast of the light, it seemed even darker. However, no matter how hard I tried to control my emotions now, it was futile, because under the illumination of the cold white light, the dark corridor seemed even more eerie and terrifying, which is also the biggest difference between cold light and warm light in the dark.

  But anyway, having a light in hand is better than walking in the dark. Originally I wanted to find Liu Zhen again, but thinking about it, this old apartment is really eerie, so I'd rather get out first. So, with my phone in one hand, I cautiously walked towards the stairs.

  This time, I didn't encounter that strange phenomenon of not being able to reach the end, but when I reached the end, I found out that I had walked in the wrong direction. This was the end of the corridor, but it wasn't the direction of the stairs. I thought to myself, could it be that I got dizzy from turning around earlier and lost my sense of direction?

  However, since I've come all the way here, I might as well knock on the door and see if that long-faced young man or Duan Yiweng is inside. I knocked for a very long time, but no one came to answer the door. I had no choice but to turn around and head back down the stairs.

  Something strange happened when my phone's light found the other end of the corridor, there was still no staircase, and it was still those two houses that seemed to be inhabited.

  My heart suddenly cooled down by half, and the emotions that had just gradually eased up became extremely tense again.

  What the hell is going on? Where's the staircase? I cursed to myself. I couldn't believe it, and I walked back and forth several times, but still couldn't see the stairs. At this time, I had a growing sense of foreboding, could it be... a haunted wall?

  As the old saying goes, people write words, ghosts draw symbols, people walk roads, and ghosts hit walls. When I was young, I often heard older people say that there is a kind of vengeful ghost that cannot take revenge on its own but cannot be reincarnated due to excessive resentment. Over time, they find ways to tease the living by trapping them in certain places. It sounds like a child's prank, but if someone really encounters such a thing, even with a big heart, it's hard to laugh.

  I thought of the woman who hanged herself in the restaurant, and at this moment, I couldn't care about theism or atheism. Hurriedly, I muttered to myself: "Ghost sister, I don't know what your name is, but I'm just a passerby, I came here just to find someone, don't play tricks on me, show some mercy and let me go."

  Now that I think about it, at the time I was actually able to say something like that, and I find it quite ridiculous. But back then, I didn't have any such feeling - I was almost sincerely begging.

  What really surprised me was that just as I finished speaking, a strange and eerie laughter suddenly echoed in the corridor. The voice sounded very weird, like a young girl's triumphant laugh, but upon closer listening, it seemed not to be human laughter at all, but rather a croaking sound similar to that of a frog.

  I no longer dare to speak, holding my breath and concentrating all my energy to try to figure out where the voice is coming from. I took a few steps forward, and it seemed that the sound was coming from one of the rooms, so I looked at the door number, 302, and then I let out a sigh of relief, fortunately, it wasn't that crazy woman's room.

  However, now that I think about it, since I moved into this old apartment building, I've always thought that these strange things were all the doing of that crazy woman. But now that I hear the voice isn't coming from her room, my courage suddenly increased a lot, and I walked right up to the door.

  The door was ajar, and I quietly pushed it open to reveal a gap about the width of my palm. Suddenly, I heard a faint meowing sound from below, and a fluffy sensation brushed against my calf. I shone my phone light down and saw that it was a fat old black cat with eyes glowing eerily green in the dark. My heart skipped a beat as I thought to myself, "Another black cat."

  But the appearance of this black cat did not make me feel scared, on the contrary, it made me feel a little more at ease, because there were originally many stray cats in this old apartment building, and it was strange that they all suddenly disappeared in the middle of the night. Now that one cat has appeared, I mistakenly thought that everything seemed to be returning to normal.

  The "heh heh" sound had stopped, and I waited for the black cat to walk away from my feet before pushing open the door. I thought to myself, as long as it's not that crazy ghost woman, I won't be afraid.

  As soon as I pushed the door open, I walked in, but as my head poked into the room, that familiar wet and fluffy thing suddenly stuck to my face. I was startled, hastily took a step back, but that thing wrapped around my neck, leaving me unable to move.

  I immediately took out my phone to take a picture of the thing, and under the white light, I suddenly gasped in shock. To my horror, I found that the thing wrapped around my neck was actually a bunch of long hair. Holding my phone, I shone it at the door frame again and discovered that the hair was hanging down from the top of the room inside.

  Although I couldn't see my face at the time, I can be sure that my complexion was not good-looking, to say nothing of being deathly pale. I hastily reached out to grab those hairs, wanting to struggle free from them. But those hairs were like they had gained spiritual awareness, like a python, the more I wanted to break free, the tighter they constricted me. Moreover, those hairs were wet and slippery, making it impossible to grasp them.

  Before long, I was pulled back to the doorway. Next, on top of the doorframe, a dark green forehead slowly appeared upside down. In my heart, I cursed silently, curiosity killed the cat, if I hadn't come to push this door, I wouldn't have ended up in this situation now.

  I'm so anxious that I've used up all my energy, even the strength to drink milk, but the power of that hair seems to be unaffected. The iron-green forehead on the door frame slowly sinks down, not fast or slow. I wanted to close my eyes and not look at that face, but strong curiosity made me see that terrible face anyway. I steeled myself and thought, I'll take a good look at how ugly you are, even if I die, I'll die with my eyes open!

  The face that sank down was a woman's, her complexion was ashen, seemingly strangled by something around her neck, her eyes were very hollow, the most eerie thing was that it had no white of the eye, the entire eye socket was filled with an inky black pupil. No, rather than saying it was a pupil, it would be better to say that the woman simply didn't have any eyes, yet I could distinctly feel that it was staring at me. It was probably the hanged woman, but now I can only refer to her as "it".

  I knew I was going to die soon, but somehow I found the courage to say: "Damn it, you're really ugly, no wonder your husband doesn't want you."

  It was clear that it could understand me, because I distinctly felt the hair around my neck tighten a bit, causing my mouth to involuntarily open wide, and strands of sticky hair actually crawled into my mouth. Suddenly, I had a feeling like I wanted to vomit, just like when you're having your stomach washed, it was so uncomfortable that tears almost fell from my eyes.

  At this moment, the woman's face finally appeared completely in front of me (although it was upside down).

  To my surprise, the woman was stunned for a moment, and then in the blink of an eye, she withdrew her head, and the hair that was stuffed into my mouth and wrapped around my neck also retreated instantly, accompanied by a sharp wail from the woman.

  I don't know why this happened, I just knew it was best to leave quickly. I ran a few steps and heard my phone "ding" once, looked down and saw that the battery was almost dead.

  I cursed inwardly, at the critical moment, nothing could be relied on, only myself. Not running for long, I came to the end of the corridor again, and I also turned off my phone by the way.

  After all, humans are still a kind of animal. When animals encounter danger, they have two basic reactions: one is to run away and the other is to hide themselves. In this dark corridor, turning on the phone's light would undoubtedly expose my position. So I held my breath, trying not to make any more noise, shrinking into the corner of the wall, without knowing if this method was useful or not.

  After a while, the door in the middle of the corridor was pushed open by someone. The door hinge let out a sharp "creak" sound, and a faint candlelight came out from the room.

  I was delighted in my heart and finally someone came, so I stood up and walked a few steps forward.

  However, my joy soon turned into horror. From the pushed-open door came a hoarse and familiar voice that echoed eerily in the corridor, saying: "Those who should come don't come, those who should leave don't leave."

  As I looked at the shadow cast on the ground by the candlelight, that hunched figure must be that crazy old woman.

  I was stunned, when suddenly another door beside me swung open and a strong hand dragged me into the room, covering my mouth tightly with its palm. I glanced sideways to find it was that long-faced young man. He whispered in my ear, "Don't move, I can help you find Duan Yuwen."