Proofreaders: Gwen, Hiro, and Red
Continuing our Halloween marathon! What's going to happen?! OAO
By the time the
four of us make it back to our dorm, we’re not trying to be careful anymore
like when we were sneaking out, instead we shoot straight for our individual
beds like arrows, waking everyone else.
“What’s goin’ on?” Chief asks groggily.
But no one answers him. He turns around
and curls back into his blankets, but I know there’ll be endless nagging and
questions in the morning.
Screw it! Too tired to care. I swear
climbing Taishan wasn’t even this taxing.
My blankets warm up and fatigue seeps into
me. My eyelids drift down and finally shut.
In that hazy moment between light and deep
sleep, my eyes crack open a tiny bit. The room is filled only with the sound of
everyone’s low breathing and the only light source comes from the ventilation
window above the dorm door. I can see a dim yellow bulb wavering outside from
the top bunk. I quickly shut my eyes against the dry air until something sounds
amid the tranquility.
Drip-drop.
Water? It’s the only thing that comes to
mind.
Perhaps it’s a loose faucet in the
washroom across the hall. But it sounds too close to be. Perhaps because it’s
too quiet at nighttime. I’ve never heard such clear dripping of water before,
as if it were right beside my ears.
Click. Creeeaaak.
The door opens.
I grumble and open my eyes. With the light
from the hallway, I can faintly make out a black figure slowly pushing the door
open. It might be my exhausted mind playing tricks on me but its movements are
extremely delayed, and along with the creak of the door the whole thing drags
out like a slow-mo scene from a movie.
Who is it? From the look of that skinny
head, it’s probably Glooms. Why the heck is he so sneaky going for a piss? What
a weirdo.
He steps in very slowly and delicately,
making no noise other than the door’s creak. I can only see a dark figure
moving slowly once the door closes again.
He’s walking so evenly…it’s almost like
floating.
I let out a yawn. Just when I want to
say something I notice he has stopped beside Kong Linglin’s bed and then he
starts climbing up the bunk bed.
You idiot, your bed is over by the
windows! Above Chief’s! Across from mine! For crying out loud.
I shrug and let fatigue take over.
Drip-drop.
Drip-drop.
The water goes lightly, drip-drop, through
the whole night.
☵
I wake up refreshed
the next day. The others also seem better after a good night’s rest, laughing
and joking around. Chief starts his lecture while preparing for his classes
today. The four of us denies all charges of going out last night in unison, our
alibi being that we went to the washroom together.
“Oh yeah, which one of you idiots slept in
the bed above Eng last night?”
I leer at Glooms quietly making his bed.
Our eyes meet and his brows scrunch together in confusion.
Wait, it wasn’t him?
“What? There was someone up there last
night?” Kong Linglin bursts out laughing. “I wonder who’d want to sleep on bare
planks.”
“It was you, idiot!”
“No! You!”
The room is bustling and hustling with our
taunts and teases.
We get tired after a while and start
heading down to the cafeteria for food when Mu Mu noticed something.
“Hey, look,” he calls out, pointing to the
wall near Kong Linglin’s bed. “Is that a leak?”
I follow in his finger’s direction and
there is indeed a huge water stain on the wall his bed is pushed up against.
The origin of the leak is behind the top bunk so it looks as if the water’s
been leaking from the bed above. But that’s impossible-there’s nothing up
there to leak.
“It’s probably a leak from next door,
then.” Cubs touches the wall curiously, his fingers becoming covered with water
droplets.
“Uh, hello? 309’s storage space. No one
lives there. There’re only old beds and stuff.” Kong Linglin tears some toilet
paper and wipes the wall-the paper is instantaneously dripping with water. “A
pipe or two broke, probably. Let’s get the caretaker to take a look in the
afternoon.”
“Calling Chief! We have an important
mission for you!” I slap Wu Fan on the back and chuckle good-heartedly.
He doesn’t say anything; it’s his
responsibility to take care of us anyway!
The morning drama wraps up soon after. We
eat breakfast and the six of us freshmen head off to our individual classrooms.
Other than Wu Fan, the rest of us are all
freshmen in the Engineering Physics Faculty but we have different majors, for
example I’m majoring in Modern Physics while Mu Mu and Kong Linglin are
majoring in Radiophysics so our classes are in different places.
I peer at Yuan Fei walking haughtily
behind me. Why does it have to be him? Xu Ping is in Modern Physics, too, but
he’s in section 2. Why do I have to be in the same class as this gorilla?
“Cubs!” I catch him before he heads
upstairs to his Pharmaceutical Engineering classes. “Wait for me later. Let’s
get lunch together.”
“Mmkay!” He answers cheerfully.
I suppose the reason why I’m so close with
Cubs, other than the fact he’s super adorable, is because he never holds a
grudge no matter how bad I treat him.
Lecture on Plasma Energy. The minutes tick
by while I yawn uncontrollably to the teacher’s flat voice reciting the
textbook for his dear life. I really try to pay attention at first for the
teacher’s sake but soon I start nodding off.
The teacher probably couldn’t stand seeing
half of the class dozing either so right when the bell rings he shoots out the
door without another word. The next moment it’s as if the whole class wakes up
and it becomes livelier than a summer carnival. Then the sound of things scattering
onto the floor from the back of the room turns everyone’s attention.
I catch a glimpse of Yuan Fei gathering
his books and stationery from the floor looking pale as a ghost before booking
it out the room as if his life depends on it.
Diarrhea. My first guess.
“Hey, Xiao Yu, maybe you should go take a
look at him. He didn’t look too well; is he sick?”
Within half a minute I’m surrounded by a
bunch of girls urging me to skip class. Peer pressure is a powerful thing. Next
thing I know, I’m walking out of the room before the bell rings again.
I stroll to our dorm, whistling a joyful
tune-like I give a damn
about him. All the ‘bros before hoes’ and other bro-code shit don’t apply to us
but since I have such a nice excuse to skip class I might as well pretend to
care a little.
The door isn’t locked when I get back and
Yuan Fei is actually sleeping away in his bed. He has the top bunk beside my
bed; Mu Mu sleeps on the bottom. I take my shoes off and step on Mu Mu’s bed to
get to him.
“You sick or somethin’?” I nudge him
really hard a couple of times.
He rips his blankets off all of a sudden
and what I see shocks me. His face is pale beyond description and his eyes are
red as if he has been crying. His forehead is coated with sweat and his breaths are
more like pants.
“Hey! Are you okay?” I’m not teasing anymore;
he looks really bad.
He just glares at me, panting, but not
saying a word. It seems as if he’s frightened, judging from his violently
quivering hands.
“How’re you feelin’? Do you wanna see the
nurse?” I swipe my hand across his forehead-holy shit, where
was he when there was a drought?
“D-d-did, d-did you…” His voice is
quivering more than his hands.
“Huh?”
He shuts his mouth and dives back into his
blankets.
I shake him, not giving up. “C’mon, what
were you saying?”
“Nothing,” a muffled voice comes through
the blankets.
“I’m gonna go if you don’t wanna tell me.”
I exclaim and jump off the bed.
I’m putting on my shoes when I hear him
toss around and pulls his blankets off but he hides once more when I stand up.
If you want me to stay that badly, just
say so, geez.
Peering at the round lump on the bed, I
heave a sigh. I guess I should stay, even if I don’t know what’s wrong, because
he’s just like a terrified child right now, and you shouldn’t leave terrified
children by themselves.
So I just jump on to Mu Mu’s bed and pop a
CD in. I turn the volume down without much thought-this way I can
still hear him if he needs something.
I glance at the bunk bed across from me.
The stain is two-thirds the way down, soon it will reach Kong Linglin’s bed. I
quickly get some paper and dab at it. The dry paper turns into a wet blob of
gunk.
How is it leaking this much?
I search around for a place where the leak
might come from, and I finally pinpoint the only possibility to be Room 309.
There can’t be this much water unless it’s coming from next door.
I stop before Room 309 and jump up a
couple of times to peek through the vents, but all I can see are wooden boards.
“Is anyone there? I’m your next door
neighbour.” I don’t know why but I start knocking on the door and ask as if I’m
expecting a reply.
Of course none came.
I chuckle at myself for being so silly
before returning to 308. I put the music back on.
Drip-drop.
When I shut our room door, I think I hear
a drop of water drop from afar.
Yuan Fei doesn’t stir for the longest time
so my eyes start getting heavier and heavier out of boredom. I close the CD
player and let the sleepiness take over me. I think the water’s still dripping
in my hazy state.
Better get that damn tap fixed soon.
And I fall asleep.
Who knows after how long, the bed suddenly
rocks violently. My eyes snap open in time to see Yuan Fei landing on the floor
from his top bunk. The space between beds is obviously not big enough for such
manoeuvres and before I know it he’s tripping hard over table legs and chair
legs.
I jump up. “What the hell? Are you outta
your mind?”
I do a double take when he looks up at me.
His eyes are bloodshot, his gaze flickering nervously like a madman. He stares
at me wildly, shakes my hand off and runs out the room without even putting
some shoes on.
“Yuan Fei!” I dash out after him.
He races towards the stairwell as if his
life depends on it. I’ve never seen him like this. All I can do is call his
name while trying to catch up to him. Bewildered, he misses a step all of a sudden
and starts falling down the staircase. I yelp and watch helplessly as he
tumbles from the third floor to the next landing.
“Yuan Fei!” I hurry down the steps and
help him up. “You okay, man? You hurt anywhere?”
It seems that the fall knocked some sense
into him. He collapses against the wall, panting harshly, his pale lips
trembling nonstop.
“Hey there,” I coax gently, “Can you tell
me what happened just now?”
He weakly shakes his head and closes his
eyes. I try to get him to stand up but I think he doesn’t even have enough
energy to do that, so I bring his arm around my neck and haul him back to our
room.
I’m not strong enough to get him into his
bed so I just leave him on Mu Mu’s for now. The caretaker comes after hearing
the racket earlier and asks me what happened. I laugh it off as an accident:
Yuan Fei rolled out of the bed and fell, nothing else. I especially emphasized
that it was not a fight.
The caretaker looks at him worriedly,
which is only normal the way he looks now, and instructs me to take care of my
roommate and remember to bring him to the infirmary when he comes to.
I take this chance to report the leak and
stain to the caretaker. He opens Room 309 to investigate and I take
a peek inside. There’s nothing inside but dust and more dust, nothing to cause
a water leakage.
So where is the water coming from?
After the caretaker leaves, I grab a chair
and plop down beside Yuan Fei, not taking any chances this time.
Drip-drop.
There it goes again.
I was just about to head across the hall
to check when Yuan Fei suddenly jerks violently and opens his eyes wide as if
he’s been electrocuted. I honestly just about jump out of my skin from him
staring wide-eyed at nothing and shaking like a leaf like that-it’s as if he’s
possessed.
“Okay, that’s it. We’re going to the
doctor’s, now.”
With that said his gaze finally slowly
fixes on to me and he stays quiet catching his breath.
“Yuan Fei,” I coax softly once more. He’s
a bundle of nerves right now; I think if I so much as coughed he might just
have a break down. “Let’s go see the doctor, okay?”
I use my sleeve and gently clean the cold
sweat off of his face. He suddenly grabs on to my wrist and words finally start
to form around those trembling lips.
“D-d-don’t g-go.”
“Okay, I won’t. You can keep holding my
hand if it helps.”
He clings on to my right hand with two
hands and I feel his trembling through the contact. I can’t help but tense up
too. Soon I can’t tell whose sweat is whose.
The bell rings several times but I have no
idea which block it is anymore. Slowly the pressure on my right hand lessens
and I can tell from his breathing that he’s finally asleep. I keep my hand
there despite my prickling numb arm and study his frowning face. It hits me
that he’s really in trouble this time.
I start hearing more people around in the
building so I guess it’s lunch break. Soon everyone arrives one by one. They
all look surprised to see Yuan Fei holding my hand and sleeping in Mu Mu’s bed.
Cubs was huffing and puffing about being ditched but when he saw Yuan Fei he
quietly inquired about his condition.
Yuan Fei wakes up a bit past one in the
afternoon and I take my arm back. The prickling sensation is so strong I can’t
help but let out a yelp. He looks kind of guilty and his lips jerk a couple of
times before muttering his thanks.
That’s it?! And to think I lent my arm for
so long.
I don’t reply and push the lunchbox Chief
got for him over. I dig into my portion even though it’s cold now out of
hunger. He picks a bit here and there, cleans up his utensils and climbs back
into his bed.
Pig.
I curse him in my mind and then jog to the
washroom to wash our lunchbox, humming.
Drip-drop.
I freeze for a moment, then reach out to
turn the tap off. I survey the empty washroom; all the faucets are dry as a
desert, not a drop of water in sight.
Drip-drop.
It’s so close but there’s nothing abnormal
with any of these faucets.
I rush to the toilets. The main hatch is
on but it’s dry everywhere else, no sign of leaking.
Drip-drop.
Whatever, not my problem. I roll my eyes.
After I finish, I huddle on Cubs’ bed and
start chatting away with him quietly; Chief is doing Advanced Math; Xu Ping is
taking a nap while Mu Mu is napping on Kong Linglin’s bed because his was being
used by Yuan Fei; and Kong Linglin is writing to his family.
I glance at Yuan Fei’s bed since I can’t
see him from the bottom bunk, but I guess he’s sleeping like a log judging from
the lack of noise.
I guess he’s all right now?
Chief wakes us up one by one a bit before
two-thirty. We freshen up and leave for afternoon classes. I purposely walk
next to Yuan Fei while thinking to myself about how kind and saintly I am, but
the damn monkey keeps his mouth shut. He doesn’t even react to my taunts. I
have to say my self-esteem feels a little dejected and undignified from that.
Screw you, monkey!
I pick the farthest seat from him when I
get to class. I don’t even know what I’m upset for, though.
Boring English lecture. The pretty English
teacher spews a string of alien tongue with her angelic voice. Bored to tears,
I start doodling on my English notebook waiting for the bell to go off.
***
After class, Yuan Fei, Cubs and I walk
back to our room together but when we get there, Mu Mu and Xu Ping are both
knocking at the door.
“What’s up? Forgot your keys?” I laugh.
“No, it’s locked from the inside.” Mu Mu
says, panicking. “We’ve been knocking forever, but nothing.”
Other than a lock that all of us have the
keys to, there’s a latch on the inside. Once it’s latched, unless the person
inside lets you, there’s no way in. We even have a name for it: 308’s privacy
insurance.
I knock a few times and put my ear against
the door. Nothing. Sounds like no one’s in but then how could it be locked? Did
the person pass out or something?
“Who is it? Wu Fan or Kong Linglin?”
“Not Chief. It should be Eng.” Mu Mu looks
like he’s on pin and needles. “He said he felt dizzy and left right after class
without even bringing his things. I rushed back after getting all his stuff but
he’s not answering no matter how much we knock. Chief already went to get security
to pry it open. I hope he didn’t faint in there.”
I pound on the door. “Kong Linglin! You in
there? Yo! Talk to me!”
Getting no response, I place my ear on the
door once again hoping to catch something, a moan, anything. I guess my
expression got everyone to hold their breath and it becomes so quiet I can hear
the sound of my own breathing.
Then, I hear the tiniest sound from behind
the door.
Drip-drop.
Water?
I perk my ears and continue to listen.
It’s really small but I’m sure it’s coming from our room. It’s the sound of a
single droplet falling into a larger pool.
Did someone tip over a glass of water?
I get down straight on my knees and try to
look through the door crack. But I can’t see anything, so I have to lie flat on
the ground.
“Goddamn, Kong Linglin. You’re doing my
laundry this week.” I curse lowly.
With my face right up against the floor, I
can finally see the room but what I see scares me stiff.
Red.
Thick, thick red. Below Kong Linglin’s
bed. Everywhere.
Red. Makes my blood curdle. Red. Like
blood.
Drip-drop.
The soft sound makes me jump in my skin as
the red on the floor quivers slightly. Then another.
Drip-drop.
I shoot up and backward but I hit the cold
wall before I can even stand up straight.
“What’s wrong, Xiao Yu? What’s going on
inside? What d’you see?”
What did I see?
Red. Ink? So thick, so red that it’s
black. So much, so much, as if someone bled out.
What was it I saw?
What was it?
“Sunny, you okay?”
Cubs is alarmingly shaking me by the shoulders
but nothing comes out of my mouth. I can only bore holes into that
tightly shut door and tremble uncontrollably.
It’s not blood. It can’t be. It’s ink. It
must be.
“Help! Someone!” Mu Mu screams.
I really scared them, huh. But I can’t
just jump back up with a smile and act as if nothing happened. I’m dumbstruck,
slumped on the floor.
Chief and two security guards come rushing
over with a long wrench. One of them rams the door a couple of times before deciding
to pry it open. By this time, the commotion here at 308 has attracted students from
other rooms and soon the hallway’s filled with people pointing and whispering.
I sincerely hope Kong Linglin would walk
out laughing when the door gets pried open. He’d slap me on my back and cackle:
‘I got you there, didn’t I?’ and then I would punch that sucker. I’d get made
fun of by the guys for a long time and all my classmates would call me a
chicken and people from other classes would point to me in the halls and say:
‘Hey, that’s the guy who got so scared he couldn’t stand! Xiao Yu!’ and then the
story of my cowardice would become a classic story at our school, and then-
The door has been opened.
I watch the guards frozen in place. Then a
terrified shriek from Mu Mu. Then screams from everyone who was curious enough
to go forth. Everyone screaming and running for their lives.
Cubs doesn’t. He just holds on to my
shoulder, shuddering. I pull him into my embrace but neither of us seems to
stop shuddering.
Why…? I already got ready to be made fun
of for the rest of my life. Why does reality have to be so harsh with me?
__________________________________ayszhang's comment: A passage has been left out due to its tense conflict with the rest of the story:
***“If someone had told me that that bell would be the prelude to this tragedy, I would have prayed for time to stop, I would be willing to listen to that boring lecture forever and doodle on my notebook, again and again.
At least then nothing would have happened.”
__________________________________
Dairytea's comment: Victim No.1!? Stay tuned tomorrow. DX
The Water Goes Drip-Drop - English Translation by ayszhang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
No No Its Ketchup.... You know the Oozy Heinz Variety....im going to keep believing its ketchup right till the next chapter releases...Leaving aside my lunatic ravings...Thanx guys for keeping the Halloween Spirit going Wooooo!!!
ReplyDelete*nods* it's ketchup. Heinz ketchup!
Delete;) thanks for reading and commenting . Hve a good evening. (dont drink too much water~)
Chocolate Icecream (Large Tub) ...: P ...Perfect excuse to raid the freezer for that..
DeleteWith strawberry syrup on top?
DeleteSwoon...Sweet combo...but i dont have it at home.. so going with Choco's Stars and Moon and M&Ms on top...weird...but really works!!!
DeleteStrawberry syrup is red ;3
DeleteYou could insert licorice bits or blueberries into marshmallows with a drizzle of some red syrup, jam or jello to look like bloody eyeballs.
DeleteThis would be a special topping, if you want a gory dessert!
Hehehehe I like you Anonymous ;D
DeleteAwwwe, you're so sweet!
DeleteNo, that's not my sweet tooth drooling.
It's raining, and the drips are dropping off the tips of my teeth.
Ha ha!
ps.
DeleteI like you too!
May I hug you?
Hahahaha XDD I have such a bad sweet tooth problem too. So many cavities D;
Deleteps. You may ;)
Hug, nuzzle, kiss, lick....
DeleteO_O I said hug!!! N-not all that other stuff!!!
DeleteBut all those years of internal sweet basting.., just so irresistible.
DeleteI can't help myself!
You're so pretty when you blush.
Nibble...
W-who said im blushing! D:< Don't nibble meh! Argh!
DeleteAlright, but you should look in a mirror.
DeleteDo I smell candy?
TAT im not blushing...
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletethanx a lot
ReplyDeleteif konlinling first. i bet after this yuan fei, sunny and then mu mu. OH NO~ not Yuan Fei and Sunny. huhu
ReplyDeleteD; im not telling u who is next.
DeleteThanks for reading and commenting! Be sure to check back tomorrow for ch 3!
yes. can't wait for chapter 3. i think second person is not Yuan Fei but Mu Mu. their position in the tagged and touched game. so scary~
DeleteChap 3 has been posted! :)
DeleteNobody will sleep in this room anymore!
ReplyDeleteOh nooo. Dun dun dun!!!
DeletePlease check back tmr for ch 3! :)
Scarryyyy but I'm still reading. :p
ReplyDeleteMwahaha >:)
DeleteThank u for reading and commenting! Stay tuned for ch 3 8D
Hmm, my comments for ch 1 never showed. Sunny dies last since he's the main character, right? Darn, I like him the least. Oh well, he'll have to witness many horrors, I'm sure. I still suspect Mu Mu at the moment.
ReplyDeleteAw maybe you didn't log into your account? But its ok XD
DeleteWell...I'm not gonna deny that he is our protagonist... :s But I'm not gonna spoil the rest of the plot. TBH I didn't really like him either =u= but it's a very good story with an important message
Hmm good guess 8)
it's scary!! but i like it...is this going to be a tragedy?i hope not TT
ReplyDelete-hong
Haha >:) thats gooood. Gotta get in the spirit for Halloween!
DeleteWell, its a tragedy in some sense ;) but my lips are sealed. Ch 3 will be up in several hours! Enjoy
Arf... I though it would be some one that do some silly prank. But it a real horror novel... Ouinnn not sure I should continue to read it until the end... And I thins that Xiao Yu saved Yuan Fei when he stayed with him... arffffffff I one hand I want to know what is next and in other hand I don't want!!!!! Anyway Thanks!!!
ReplyDeleteD: yeah its real horror alright!
DeleteIf you ask me, i think u should read it >:)
Thank u for reading and commenting as always :)
I thinks it's Cubs the bad guy!!! The killer.
ReplyDeleteMaybeeeeee ;)
DeleteIt's what I think too. Since the first chapter I had doubt on him. It's often the shy and innocent type who is the culprit in these stories. But well..we'll see...
Delete;D ch 3 has been posted! Enjoy
Delete