613 Happy Birthday!
A-Lin had seen children run around the second-floor corridor before, so she was averse to coming to this floor. However, she was too afraid and was dragged here by the others before she knew what was happening. When she realized it, it was too late to stop everyone. “This is not good! Why are we here?” A-Lin screamed as she retreated. She bumped into Xiao Chen behind her.
“Don’t stop!” Xiao Chen was scared witless. The moving sacrificial table and the giant faceless death portrait were scars on his heart.
“There are ghosts on this floor! Really!” A-Lin wanted to stop the people around her, but something scary happened. The sacrificial table at the landing suddenly appeared outside the safety door of the second floor. The faceless death portrait stuck to the window like it was staring at them.
“It is still chasing after us!” Xiao Chen flung A-Lin away and continued to run ahead. Several seconds later, the five actors reached the middle of the second-floor corridor where the heavy surgical table was.
No one knew who moved the table out, and no one knew why a bloody cake was placed on the table.
“Perhaps we can use this to block the door.” Before Li Feng could finish, Bai Cha flew past her. The man who was more courageous than everyone ran the fastest when there was danger. Bai Cha climbed over the table and rushed towards the right door that was not part of the set. Following behind Bai Cha was Wu Li. Since both male actors didn’t stop, Li Feng had no choice but to follow them. At least she was kind enough to wait for A-Lin.
While Li Feng waited for A-Lin, Xiao Chen also climbed on the surgical table. In his panic, he stepped on the red cake. The red paint splattered everywhere.
“Fuck!” Xiao Chen cursed as he crawled down from the surgical table.
“Get over now!” Wu Li pulled Xiao Chen over. He turned to look at Li Feng and A-Lin on the other side. He reached his hands over to help the two female actors. “Quick!”
Wu Li’s face changed when he glanced at the safety door behind A-Lin. The door had opened on its own without anyone there!
Beyond the door was the black sacrificial table. The giant death portrait of the faceless woman was still following them!
“She, she is here!” Wu Li pulled back his arms, but before he could do that, he felt something grab his hands. He lowered his head to look, and a boy with holes on his face was kneeling under the surgical table. His hands covered in the red cake were grabbing Wu Li!
“There’s a ghost!” Wu Li had never been so frightened before. He swung his arms as hard as he could. He was about to cut off his arms just to get away from the ghost. “Their hands are sticky with the red paint! They are responsible for the handprints on A-Lin’s back!” Wu Li stumbled to the ground, and his phone fell out.
“Run!” Wu Li shouted to remind his teammates. However, he had woken up more than his teammates. The phone glowed weakly. The cloth over the surgical table slid down to reveal the many children’s faces underneath!
Wu Li’s body trembled. He almost fainted. He always played the villain in horror movies to scare others, and now he got his payback. The children without faces curled under the surgical table. Their hands were dirty with the ‘cake’.
While Wu Li was trembling on the ground, Li Feng helped A-Lin over the surgical table. The two actors ran towards the right door too. “The door is locked!” Bai Cha, who first reached the door, saw the rusted lock, and he was nervous. He shook the lock desperately.
“Kick it down like Han Fei!” Xiao Chen said and then launched a kick at the door. The sound was loud, but the lock was unaffected. “This shouldn’t be. Han Fei kicked down the lock so easily!”
Xiao Chen and Bai Cha tried it again, but they couldn’t get the door to open. The strange scratching sound of the table came closer. Under great pressure, the five actors felt despair. They finally understood how hard it was for normal people to survive. A locked door had ended their path. The door shook. If they had one or two minutes, they would destroy the lock, but things were approaching from the dark. The darkness flooded towards them.
“Let’s hide first!” Since the door refused to open, they had to hide. All five of them ran into the old room next to the safety door. The room was completely dark, so they had no idea what it was for.
“This place is so stinky.”
“Just shut the door first!”
To save themselves, Bai Cha and Xiao Chen worked for the first time. They pushed the cupboards to block the door. “This is not enough! We need more stuff!” This was the first time the actors were working together since they entered the hospital. They used the fastest speed to move everything behind the door!
“This should be good enough.”
“I can’t do this anymore. I’ve never been so tired.”
“My manicures are ruined. I’ve sacrificed so much for this show.”
Xiao Chen held his hands and sat on the ground. His heart was still pounding. Before he could say something else, he felt something wet under his butt. He shone his phone on the ground.
“Ah! Look at the ground!” Xiao Chen sprung up like he was burnt. Then, he pointed at the ground. The others lowered their heads to look. The unlocked room appeared to be a children's entertainment room. The walls were painted with windows that looked outside, but the ground was covered in red messages filled with hatred and resentment.
“Mother doesn’t want me, but I don’t hate her. I know I am a monster. That is what the other kids call me. I shouldn’t live in the same place as they do. It’s fine that everyone hates me because I am a monster. I am an ugly, scary, unwanted monster.”
“Many people asked me why I bit him to death. They questioned my humanity.”
“It’s funny. You called me a monster, but you wanted to judge me for my humanity? How crazy are you?”
“Haha. I’ve made my birthday wish today, but I will not tell you what it is. But I will keep on watching you to see if my birthday wish will come true or not.
“The doctors are collecting many broken children like it is their hobby. They will open our brains to see how our brains differ from others.”
“The doctor is kind. He would feed us Love before he opened our brains. Love is most precious at this place. A long time ago, Mother also said she regretted not loving me more.”
“I forgot how I bit the doctor to death. Perhaps I had too much Love and couldn’t control myself anymore.”
“I met an interesting person today. He was an artist who came to teach us how to paint windows. The madman painted windows that looked outside in the enclosed room. He said he had stored the world inside the windows. He told us to look at the windows when we were hungry for Love.”
“What is so good about the outside world? Everyone called me a monster. For them, I am a moving maggot, or even worse than that! So disgusting!”
“The big artist is back, carrying his buckets of paint. I don’t like him at all, but on my birthday, he snuck me a candy. If I have to describe the sweetness with a color, it should be like the sun. Hmm, how long has it been since I saw the sun?”
“The days were repetitious. My life is having my head cracked open. They are trying to change me, but it’s pointless. Monsters will always be monsters.”
“The artist finished his 31st window. He said he had to leave and he won’t have the chance to return. He apologized to us because he couldn’t save us.”
“I have no idea his job was also a clown. Why would someone save a group of monsters? I was laughing very hard. As a thank you, I bit his painting hand and dug out a number on his arm.”
“I forgot my name. The doctors told me No. 4 is my everything, so I left that number on his arm. Does that mean he has my everything?”
“A candy in exchange for a monster’s everything. Is it worth it?”
“The artist left and never came back.”
“Actually, I miss him. After all, he is the only one who has ever wished me happy birthday.”
The red messages covered this unlocked room. The messages looked fresh. They were horrifying.
“What are these messages? They are so creepy!” The five actors were scared frozen. At that moment, something slammed against the door. The dull thud echoed through the room and slammed into the actors’ hearts. The cupboards blocking the door shuddered. Then, another slam came. The door was squeezed open a gap. Children's faces could be seen through the gap. Their hands were stuck with red cake. Their faces had holes and no facial features.
“Quick, block the door!” Wu Li was the first to recover. The five actors moved to block the door. While everyone was doing that, A-Lin, Wu Li, and Xiao Chen discovered there was another person inside the room! “Look over there!” The phone shone at the corner. A thin man in a painter’s uniform was writing something on the wall, carrying a red paint bucket.
“Where? Are you three crazy? Can you please not act up at a time like this?” Bai Cha glanced at the corner. He only saw the fresh messages and nothing else.
“Is someone there?” Li Feng didn’t see anything either. She pondered. “Xiao Chen stepped on the red cake, and the cake splattered on Wu Li. A-Lin had the children’s handprints on her back. Only those who were smudged with the red paint can see the ghost? The red cake corresponds to one of the messages. Is the cake for the ghosts?”
“But there is someone there! He’s standing over there!” A-Lin could barely speak. She used her trembling finger to point at the sixth person in the room.
“Are you brain-damaged?” Bai Cha didn’t see anything.
“No, there should be something there!” Li Feng saw the new footprints on the ground.
“He is coming!” Wu Li gritted his teeth. Then, something scarier happened!
A-Lin felt something itchy on her back. She turned around to look. The children's handprints had reappeared on her back. And a pale arm was reaching out of her clothes. A-Lin screamed and ran forward. She knocked over Wu Li. Without the two’s help, the door widened further. Seeing this, Bai Cha was the first to escape. Li Feng saw this and quickly followed Bai Cha. Xiao Chen wanted to run too, but it was too lazy. Children's handprints appeared on his back, and the bloody cake slathered all over his body.
The door was knocked down. The cupboard fell and crushed Xiao Chen. “Help me!” Xiao Chen screamed in the dark, but no one moved. Bai Cha saw the opportunity. He stepped on the cupboard and escaped. Wu Li followed him. Li Feng dragged A-Lin and also chose to escape.
“Don’t leave me behind!” The footsteps echoed down the corridor. Like Han Fei, Xiao Chen was abandoned. “Come back!” Xiao Chen, who was the nation’s boyfriend, cried and screamed. His face was twisted from fear. Tears and snots covered his face. The other four lost their minds. The supernatural events broke down their mental fortitude. Since the right door was locked, they used the left door.
Once the door opened, the four saw the large death portrait and sacrificial table. The strange thing was the faceless portrait started to leak in blood, and a familiar face was surfacing.
“Run downstairs!” They didn’t stop on the first floor where the murderer was but rushed all the way to the basement. They ran past the first and second-floor basement. When they reached the third-floor basement, Bai Cha had to wonder how deep this hospital went.
“Why does the plastic surgery hospital have a children’s playground underground? And why are all the signs on the wall wiped away?” The four actors looked around and didn’t dare to move any further.
But the moment they stopped, children’s laughter came from the stairwell. It sounded like someone was repeatedly saying—happy birthday.
