At the Ziggurat, the greater the number of ‘4’ in the room number, the more dangerous the room would be. The 3 guards stared at the face down the corridor and none of them dared to move. The tension in the corridor was palpable. Before this, the horror had been mostly limited to the hearing and sight but with the appearance of the broken finger, it meant that the horror would get more visceral and fatal. With a dry cough, Brother Hwa raised the flashlight and shone it down the 14th floor corridor.
The face at the door of Room 1144 had no hair and brows. The whole head was white and pale, only the pupils were black. “It’s that madman again.” Clearly Brother Hwa had dealt with this man before. He resisted his fear and headed down the corridor, gripping the flashlight, “You’re the one who destroyed the camera and door, aren’t you?”
The face at the door didn’t answer, he just kept on staring at Brother Hwa and Xiao Fang. The black pupils reflected Brother Hwa and Xiao Fang’s images. His body shook and his face scrunched up from fear. But at that moment, he laid eyes on Han Fei. There were 3 people standing before him but there was a reflection of only 2 people in his eyes. He could see Han Fei but could not ‘see’ Han Fei. Trace of surprise laced his fear. His lips trembled before he uttered the following, “You’re human, aren’t you?”
Xiao Fang and Brother Hwa thought the man was just rambling madly but Han Fei got the actual meaning behind his words. The question was clearly meant for him. This madman who lived in Room 1144 was different from the other tenants. There were not many ‘people’ whose memory wasn’t touched at Ziggurat, this madman was unique. Han Fei who stood at the back of the group didn’t say anything because Brother Hwa had already sighed and answered for him, “Of course, we’re humans. Were you the one who trashed the corridor? Mind showing me your hands?”
“No, you’re not humans, you’re ghosts!” The man immediately hid behind the door when he saw Brother Hwa approach. “I can see ghosts since I was small, you won’t be able to trick me!”
“Fine, fine. You win. Just show me your hands, I want to see if they’re injured or not.” Brother Hwa was worried that the broken finger came from the madman, so despite his fear, he wanted to check on this man. From this detail, it showed that he was a good man.
“The two of you, go away! Let him come, I’ll only talk to him!” The madman pointed at Han Fei.
“Me?” Han Fei acted like he was stunned. He was very unwilling but his feet were already moving forward. Brother Hwa hesitated and then patted Han Fei on his shoulder embarrassingly, “Well, eventually you’ll have to graduate and deal with the tenants yourself. Go and see if his hands are injured. Try to ask if he has taken his meds for the day as well.” Xiao Fang and Brother Hwa took several steps back while Han Fei walked towards the door alone. “Brother, was it you who took down the cameras?”
The madman shook his head and then he told Han Fei seriously, “I can see ghosts, I know you are not one of them.” His dark pupils were changing. At this distance, Han Fei noticed that the man had dicoria. Currently, Han Fei’s reflection was only shown in one of the pupils. “You are human, you are the first human I’ve seen here! Like me, you’re human! You have to help me! You’ll help yourself by helping me!” The madman was being very pushy but he probably didn’t realize it.
“I am the guard of this neighbourhood so naturally I will help you. What exactly is the problem you have?” Han Fei still had no idea what was inside Room 1144 so he wouldn’t reveal his own secrets from just a few words.
“I don’t know how I ended up here! Every ghost I met said that I live here, but I know this is definitely not my home! I’ve tried escaping many times but I can’t. Every time I was almost out of this place, I would faint for no reason. When I woke up, I would be inside this room again.” The madman said helplessly as he grabbed Han Fei’s shirt. “We need to escape, only then can we survive!”
“You need to calm down first.” Han Fei tried to reason with the madman but the man suddenly pulled and dragged Han Fei into Room 1144!
The door slammed close and Han Fei felt like he had been thrown into a frozen lake. The heater was on but it was useless, the chill drilled right into his heart. Han Fei immediately reached for the door handle but the madman refused to let him go. “I’m saving you! They are all ghosts! All ghosts!” The madman practically shouted into Han Fei, his fingers dug into Han Fei’s skin.
“I’m sure we can talk this out.” Han Fei scanned the madman’s hands that held him tightly. He still had all 10 fingers, the broken finger was not his. Perhaps Han Fei’s calmness did work because the madman’s tone slowly evened out. “I am not crazy, I’m telling the truth. This whole building is like a nightmare that you can’t wake up from, we’re all trapped here.” The man who was seen as crazy was the only one who was sane. Every single thing that he said was true but the others thought he was mentally ill. Han Fei could understand the man but he didn’t dare to show that.
With his masterful acting skill, Han Fei acted out the feeling of disbelief with an undercurrent of self-doubt. The madman read the expression perfectly. He held Han Fei’s arm for comfort, “I know you’ll have a hard time accepting that in a short amount of time, you too might have forgotten many things, so I’ll share with you my own experience, maybe it can help jog your memory.”
Outside the room, Brother Hwa and Xiao Fang knocked repeatedly on the door, they were worried about Han Fei. Inside the room, the madman leaned closer to Han Fei. With wild gestures, he regaled Han Fei with his past, “Have you ever had this experience that you’ve been to a place even though you’re sure it is your first time there?”
“Yes.”
“This building is such a place for me.” The madman pulled Han Fei into the toilet, closed the door and turned all the faucet on. “When I was small, I could see strange things in my eyes, they were blurry and unclear. I always thought it was a problem with my eye sight until one day when I was much older and saw an extra person in my own home. He came closer and closer to me, every time I woke up at midnight from shock, he’d stand there beside my bed. He was just staring at me, unblinkingly!
“I didn’t dare to tell my family about it. I suspect it was not my eyes which had the problem, but my brain. One day, I used the excuse of going outstation to visit the doctor. During my therapy session, my wife and daughter both died in accidents. All the goodness in my life was taken away. Just as I sunk into despair, he disappeared from my sight too.
“I thought I had finally seen the last of him but from that day onwards, I would keep repeating the same dream. I dreamt that I woke up on the bed in Room 1144 and saw someone inside the room holding a knife. He came to carve something on my skin. It was painful but I couldn’t make any noise. Blood flowed and it soaked the bed.
“This dream continued relentlessly for a whole month. Just as my body ran out of space to carve, the man finally stopped. He instead placed something inside my heart. You wouldn’t believe how painful the experience was, I even lost consciousness because of it. When I woke up again, I opened my eyes inside this room, I somehow entered the room that I’ve had endless dreams of!” At this point, the man peeled off his shirt. His pale white skin was like the perfect canvas and a colorful giant butterfly was painted on it!
“I’ve tried killing myself to escape this place but I would faint at the most crucial moment. And when I woke up, I would be in bed again. Everything kept repeating and the wounds I left on my body would disappear but the color of this butterfly would deepen. It feels like it’s hoping for me to kill myself again and again, perhaps it can gain something through my death.” The madman’s rambling reminded Han Fei of the Manager Mission. When he was in the middle of a Manager Mission, he would spawn right at the start whenever he died.
“It was the man in your dream who carved this butterfly on your body?” Han Fei had encountered many outsiders, those with human cocoons implanted inside them. But most of their butterfly patterns were incomplete, some were even disfigured beyond recognition. Han Fei had not seen such a perfect butterfly tattoo before. This meant that this madman was most likely the Butterfly’s near-perfect ‘flower’.
