I sighed, knowing the outcome but still had to call out to them.

　　They kept screaming "ghost" all the way, until the wooden door closed again. Strangely, despite the clear screaming, there was not a trace of sound after the door closed.

　　I walked up to the door, feeling a strange sensation. It was only then that I noticed several blood-written words on the door.

　　"Never go out in the middle of the night!!" These words, as if written in human blood, made me feel uncomfortable all over.

　　I looked up at the bright moonlight, fully aware that it was indeed the middle of the night, around one or two o'clock. My phone was still at the hospital.

　　Hesitant, I slowly pushed open the door to take a glimpse of the outside world. Nothing seemed different outside, except for the distant fading screams.

　　Finally, I breathed a sigh of relief and stepped out of the room.

　　The moment I came out, I heard the sound of the door closing automatically. Somehow, that terrifying feeling resurfaced in my heart!

　　Not daring to stay any longer, I walked quickly towards the direction of the main gate. I heard the shouts of the three of them gradually fading away in the direction of the school.

　　Throughout the journey, the blood-written words on the door kept haunting my mind, "Never go out in the middle of the night!!!"

　　Following along the tombstones, I arrived at the Skeleton Gate. The severed hands and feet on both sides of the gate, along with the skulls, were still there. Normally, they wouldn't scare me, but no matter how I looked at them, they appeared real!

　　"It's fake, it's fake," I repeated to myself in my mind.

　　I stood stiffly there, staring at those severed hands and feet, feeling a bit creeped out because no matter how I looked at them, I couldn't see any signs of them being fake.

　　I saw a severed leg still clad in a high heel, blood dripping from the fracture.

　　I cautiously approached the area, feeling my legs weaken beneath me.

　　Suddenly, my attention was drawn to a human head, not because it was ordinary, but because I recognized the earrings — they were identical to the ones our teacher, Mrs. Tang, wore. Her earrings were a beautiful blue teardrop shape.

　　Facing away from me, the back of the head was covered with hair. I hesitantly reached out to touch the hair, intending to turn the head over. To my shock, the hair felt real under my fingertips. Gripping a strand of hair at the edge, I pulled, and unnervingly, the head felt much heavier than I had anticipated. Plastic shouldn’t be this heavy, should it?

　　Gradually, as I turned the head, a chilling numbness crept up the back of my neck. It was Teacher Tang’s head! To my utter horror, the eyes suddenly moved to look at me!

　　I screamed in terror and bolted, instinctively running toward the dormitory building.

　　The silent night was pierced only by the sounds of my footsteps hitting the ground. Wearing only hospital slippers, with bare feet that occasionally got jabbed by stones causing me sharp pains, I couldn't stop.

　　But after running less than two hundred meters, fatigue overwhelmed me. My sprint slowed to a jog, then a brisk walk, and finally, to just a shuffling advance. Clutching my stomach, now smeared with blood, I was in agony and gasping for air.

　　Struggling to keep moving, I inched forward with great difficulty, but eventually, I had no choice but to come to a stop.

　　The twilight was murky, and I couldn't see how far I still was from the school. I cast a backward glance and could still see the ajar door of the haunted house.

　　Was Teacher Tang dead? No, I must've seen it wrong!

　　It must be that, it just must!

　　How could Teacher Tang, who wasn't supposed to be in the haunted house, be dead?

　　Yes, it must be so!

　　But did I really see it wrong? I wasn't sure, all I could do was numbly reassure myself over and over again.

　　And then there was Zhang Yang.

　　I brought this upon him!

　　At the thought, my chest tightened, and I clamped down on my lower lip to prevent myself from crying.

　　Forced to halt, I took a seat on the curb as the pain in my lower abdomen became unbearably sharp.

　　When I raised my head and observed the street lamps, I found that not a single one was illuminated tonight.

　　Suddenly a bad feeling washed over me, inexplicable, but it was an instinctive sense.

　　As time passed and I rested, the pain in my lower abdomen slowly started to ease. I stood up and resumed walking — I had to rush to the school to call the police. I hoped they would be okay until the officers arrived.

　　As the pain gradually faded, I quickened my steps.

　　In the pitch-black night, without a hint of a breeze, the leaves on the trees stood motionless, the entire world eerily silent!

　　I couldn't shake the feeling that something in the dark was watching me…

　　My hurried breath seemed all too clear in the night, and I feared waking something within the dark.

　　The school was a little over a kilometer from the haunted house. As I turned a bend and looked in the school's direction, I noticed that even the iconic traffic light on the main road was out, and the school itself was utterly dark, a black mass as if I were in a world inherently devoid of light.

　　I was so tired, my hands throbbing with pain, and though my side stitch was slowly getting better, I felt as if I had become a walking corpse, worn out in both body and spirit, zombie-like as I made my way toward the school.

　　I'm not sure how long I walked, but at last, I could see the school gates!

　　Just as I was about to pick up the pace to enter… a white figure darted across a second-floor window!

　　I tensed up all over, what was that?

　　I hardly had time to see clearly. After watching for a short while, everything seemed normal; perhaps, I was just hallucinating. I made my way to the side entrance.

　　There was a smaller gate next to the main entrance, left ajar, likely not closed by the trio who had entered earlier.

　　I pushed the iron gate open and stealthily made my way inside. I knew the dorm supervisor would certainly be asleep at this hour, yet I felt a persistent unease.

　　The darkness around me was terrifying, and I couldn't shake the feeling that something in the invisible night was following me!!

　　Though my footsteps were faint, on this silent night, they sounded incredibly distinct, particularly stiffening as I stepped on the fallen leaves.

　　Fortunately, the dorm building wasn't too far from the school's main gates. My heart was pounding, it took me about ten minutes of anxious walking to reach its base.

　　The doors of the building were shut tight. I pushed against the door with a little force, and it opened silently.

　　The security booth by the entrance was closed up, and peering inside, I found it empty, devoid even of basic furnishings like chairs.

　　I stood there stunned for a while, feeling like I might be in the wrong place, and yet everything was so familiar. The worn sign by the security office was there, as was the bulletin board beside it.

　　Wait, there was writing on the bulletin board!

　　I crept closer and felt a chill crawl over my scalp. It was scrawled with blood-red letters, "Those who leave in the middle of the night shall die, those who leave in the middle of the night shall die…" The blood-red script was glaring, making my head spin.

　　This wasn't my school at all!!!

　　Where on earth was this? My head buzzed, and I stumbled back several steps, unable to believe what I was seeing. Could I have been dreaming all this time? I raised my trembling hand to my wrist, throbbing pain surged from the gruesome wound, no longer bleeding though.

　　I struggled to calm myself down. Whether this was my school or not, I had to check out my dorm room!

　　I remember that there are usually weapons kept in the security office. Pushing open the door to the office, I found only a desk with drawers inside.

　　I stepped in, approached the desk, and pulled open a drawer. It held only a flashlight, nothing else—well, in a pinch, I could use the flashlight as a weapon if need be.

　　I picked up the flashlight and flicked it on. Its dim yellow light filled the room. It was an old-style flashlight, but thankfully, it still had power!