Chapter 21: Fear of the Unknown
Screams erupted.
Several of them immediately ran downstairs again.
Danny didn't follow them down. He observed Colin's death: his internal organs were torn out while he was alive, but his brain was perfectly intact.
He thought it might really be the Midnight Man. He'd initially believed it was a demon that enjoyed eating brains, but now it seemed he was wrong.
Previously, Mike and a few others had played several paranormal games, but nothing happened—everything was normal.
Danny's guard naturally relaxed, but he didn't expect this last game to go wrong.
He didn't know much about the Midnight Man.
Mike crouched down, his voice a little excited.
"The Midnight Man is here. Its favorite way to kill is to slowly tear out a person's heart."
Jessie's composure was already shaky, and being startled like that, she immediately shrieked, "Mike, are you crazy? Colin is dead! What Midnight Man? A murderer must have broken in!"
"I'm calling the police!"
As Jessie spoke, she grabbed her phone to call 911. The moment she looked at it, she saw zero bars of signal, and she really broke down.
"Damn it, this piece of crap phone has no signal again!"
Jessie made up her mind that she would definitely change this phone once she got home.
Danny was already used to phones having no signal. In fact, sometimes you really couldn't blame the phone.
The moment a paranormal event occurred, the phone was likely already affected and useless—it was normal for calls not to go through.
"Danny, what should we do now?" Jennifer hugged Danny's arm, her chest pressing against him, refusing to let go.
"Let's go down and check first." Danny called out to Mike as he walked ahead, "Come with us, Mike. It's not safe for you to stay here alone."
Colin died because he was alone.
Mike held his candle, his expression somewhat manic: "As long as the candle doesn't go out, I'll be fine. You guys go. I want to see the true face of the Midnight Man."
You can't save someone determined to die. Danny really didn't believe a single candle could stop the Midnight Man.
"If there's danger, remember to shout or make some noise."
Mike: "Buddy, trust me."
Danny led Jennifer and Jessie downstairs.
Chad and Brad were looking for someone, because the brunette girl was missing.
The screams had just happened, and the time since everyone ran downstairs was definitely no more than thirty seconds. For someone to suddenly disappear under such circumstances seemed highly unlikely.
Amy was clamoring to leave. She didn't want to look for the brunette anymore.
Chad had just thrown up all over the upstairs floor and now just wanted to go home, but a cold wind was blowing outside the window, and just as they were about to leave, a torrential rain began.
Even so, some still wanted to leave.
Even if it meant braving the downpour, they didn't want to stay in the same house with a psycho killer.
In Chad's opinion, the killer could only be a deranged murderer, not some Midnight Man. Mike had played so many games before without incident, so how could something suddenly go wrong now?
"Jessie, come with me. It's not safe to stay here."
Facing Chad's invitation, Jessie shook her head and refused. After what happened during Wrong Turn, she felt that even if there truly was a killer, staying by Danny's side was the safest option.
Chad didn't insist. He grabbed the keys, took Amy and the blonde girl, opened the door, and ran through the rain to the SUV parked in the yard, leaving without a moment's delay.
Brad didn't leave. He was a former bully at school, but after Danny beat him up once, he became a follower.
Danny watched the SUV disappear into the rainy night.
He didn't stop them. You can't stop people who want to leave, and trying to might even create resentment.
Outside the window, the continuous torrential rain and cold wind showed no signs of stopping.
Danny always felt that something was dividing them.
The original ten-person group was now fragmented, seemingly an attempt to pick them off one by one.
If Danny were just an ordinary person, he definitely wouldn't have let Chad and the others leave. Generally speaking, the more people, the safer it is—they could huddle together for protection.
Then they'd gather in the living room and go nowhere, even going to the bathroom all together.
Of course, that's an ordinary person's method.
Danny was no longer an ordinary person, so he naturally didn't care whether Chad and the others left or stayed. A few more or less made no difference.
Returning to the living room,
now only Danny, Jennifer, Brad, Jessie, and Mike upstairs remained—five people.
Colin was dead, and the brunette girl had vanished.
The old house had been thoroughly searched, but the brunette still couldn't be found. Although no one said it, they all knew in their hearts that she was most likely gone.
Whether it was because the house was old and poorly maintained,
when they'd turned on the light earlier, the bulb flickered once and then completely burned out, so everyone could only gather around the table in the living room, using candles for light.
Danny had just glanced out the window. The few other houses nearby were all completely dark.
There were no other traces of entities showing on the card either.
Gradually, Danny was starting to lose patience. Was it playing hide-and-seek with him?
Danny wasn't going to waste any more time. If an entity really wanted to play hide-and-seek with him, it would be very difficult to find.
He stood up and said, "Let's go see if Mike is still okay. Once we find him, we'll just leave."
"Whatever you say, boss." Brad had no objections and led the way.
After a brief discussion, the five of them went back upstairs to the second floor.
Fortunately, Mike was alive. Unfortunately, Mike was sitting alone in the empty bathtub, and when Brad pulled him out, he was completely disoriented and seemingly insane.
"Mike, what happened to you? Hey buddy, say something!" Brad grabbed Mike's collar and shook him vigorously.
Mike looked at Brad with hazy eyes and a silly grin.
Brad turned to Danny: "Boss, what should we do now? Mike seems to have lost it?"
"Carry Mike. Let's get out of here."
Just moments ago, Mike was a perfectly fine young man, and now he looked like a patient who'd escaped from a psychiatric ward.
This appearance reminded Danny of someone in Grave Encounters.
Since the boss had spoken, Brad could only carry the burden of Mike on his back.
Jessie prepared to open the bathroom door, though she distinctly remembered the door being open when they came in. But she didn't think too much about it.
Brad walked in front, carrying Mike. Danny and Jennifer were in the middle, and Jessie walked at the back.
As soon as they stepped out, the bathroom door slammed shut with tremendous force.
"BANG!"
Jessie shrieked in fright, because she distinctly remembered being the last one out.
Jennifer was better off, merely burying her face in Danny's chest like an ostrich. She was truly believing and terrified now.
Brad said, his face full of shock.
"Holy crap, did you guys see that? The door closed by itself?"
Danny frowned and said, "I saw it. Don't worry about it, let's just leave."
The group went downstairs, opened the front door, and got into the car.
Ignoring the continuing torrential rain, Brad put Mike in the back seat, started the car, and sped down the main road.
Even though Brad was a big guy, he still felt scared facing such an unknown entity.
Fortunately, the thing didn't seem to follow them. They all went home as desired, and everything seemed to return to normal life.
Danny looked out at the pitch-black window, wondering when "it" had appeared. Even now, he couldn't determine what that thing was.
He pulled out the ghost card—it was still blank... No, that's not right!
Danny suddenly jolted awake. He remembered the card had shown traces of a demon's existence. It couldn't be blank.
He broke out in a cold sweat, almost frantically selecting the Four of Diamonds in his mind.
"Fusion, Alpha Crawler!"
As power surged in,
everything before Danny's eyes began to collapse. When he opened his eyes again, he was here.
The bathroom!
They'd never left from beginning to end—or rather, from the moment they entered the bathroom, they'd already gotten lost in an illusion...
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