“Are you scared? Didn’t you say you love to chew on fear and enjoy the high it brings?” The voice in the dark urged Gao Ming to answer. It felt like the fourth question was the real question it wanted to ask.
“I’m not scared. I’m just wondering why you’re asking these questions.” Gao Ming’s eyes wandered around the four booths to confirm where the voice came from. “How shall I refer to you?”
“You can call me Doctor Ce.” The voice was scary. It sounded like he needed someone to answer his question to leave the toilet. “Don’t think about it. Rely on your instinct. Give me your most authentic answer, and guess what is behind the door!”
The door was a blockage and a protection. Gao Ming wondered if the door was just a door. Gao Ming studied the drawings on the door. He remembered a detail from his nightmare. For him, the one side of the door was the nightmare, and the other side was reality.
“I’ve forgotten many things. I think there’s another city or a mass grave on the other side of the door. I remember many people living there. Or are they ghosts?”
Gao Ming spoke clearly, but when his words stung together, they became unfathomable. “Are you still there?”
The toilet was quiet for a long time before Gao Ming got a reply.
“Have you been behind the door?” The voice was filled with confusion and shock. “Who told you to come here?”
“A female patient who likes to crawl on the ground,” Gao Ming answered honestly.
Gao Ming didn’t answer immediately, but the voice seemed to know the answer. “Damn it. You finally remember me. You need to find the medicine to enter the dream quickly. I have stumbled across an important discovery!”
“Why can’t you tell me now? Why wait until I’m in the dream?” Gao Ming confirmed that the voice came from the third booth.
“Because I’m trapped in the dream!” When the voice roared, Gao Ming pushed open the booth door. There was a quick static. A lot of trash was stored in the booth. There were a lot of old newspapers, shoes and a broken radio.
Gao Ming just picked up the things when the toilet door opened. Dong Guo crawled on the ground. She asked with concern, “I heard noises. Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” Gao Ming nodded.
“There’s a sudden change. The kind doctor who is supposed to send us messages in the toilet has been murdered. I need to head to the director’s office now!” Since the actor was still on the first floor, the control centre had Dong Guo skip the mission for Gao Ming.
“The doctor is killed?!” Gao Ming didn’t know that it was an excuse. “Do you have a doctor by the surname Ce here?”
“No.” Dong Guo was new, so she didn’t know all the ‘ghosts’. “The patients who entered the hospital with you have been tricked by the nurses. They also want to enter the office. We mustn’t let them get close to the black box!”
After combining all the clues, Gao Ming had a rudimentary grasp of how hard his plotline was. He played an orphan adopted by the director so many years ago. They grew up based on the director’s script. Everyone was caught in despair. After they grew up, they returned to this mental hospital to sacrifice themselves to open the black box.
The mental hospital was split into different camps: The guests who were caught by the monstrous doctors and the guests who chose to trust the nurses. Gao Ming was left with the unreliable Dong Guo. The monsters would kill him, and the staff would harm him because he knew the truth. He could only rely on himself.
“Quick! We’re running out of time! Your friends are nearing the director’s office. We need to figure a way to scare them off!” Dong Guo led Gao Ming to the first floor. This place was livelier than the second floor. Footsteps and screams were everywhere.
The director’s office was hidden at the deepest part of the first floor. It was at the intersection of three paths. Zhe Zhi used his experience and was almost to the office.
“Your friend is making the last choice. It’s a fork in the road. The left path leads to the office, and the right leads to a monster’s room. No matter what method you use, you mustn’t let them pick the correct path.” Dong Guo repeated what she heard in the earpiece. “There are disguises for doctors in the cupboard. Only by scaring the guests away will you have the chance to discover the director’s secrets!”
Gao Ming instantly grasped Dong Guo’s intention. The monsters were waiting in the right path. He needed to scare the visitors away from the left path.
“What an interesting design.” Gao Ming studied the realistic props in the cupboard. For a quick moment, he felt a deep sense of familiarity with the torture devices. It was like they were waving at him. He saw himself sitting on a chair surrounded by knives. There were more than eight types of blades to remove flesh.
“Torture room?” The term came out naturally. He reached in to touch the props inside the cupboard. When he touched the props, he revealed a trace of loneliness.
He picked up a white coat and put it on. Be it his appearance or presence, Gao Ming matched someone’s idea of a doctor at a mental hospital. “Compared to a patient, I’m more suitable to be a doctor. I have medicine to heal one’s body and soul.”
“You know the lines better than I do.” Dong Guo grumbled softly. She studied Gao Ming’s appearance, and her eyes lit up. The man cleaned up quite nicely.
Gao Ming closed his eyes as he touched the props made from styrofoam. He seemed to find the senses in his mind.
“I do not wish for the nightmare to return, but there are too many things that I care about in the dream…”
“Okay. They’re coming over now.” Dong Guo heard the update from her earpiece. The hidden door in the corridor opened. The music changed. The ghost howls and sirens exploded at the same time. Hands and heads poked out of the gaps in the walls.
Zhe Zhi and An Yuan led the visitors down the two corridors. They couldn’t tell the directions in their panic.