Chapter 003

Chapter 3: The Locked Room

His head felt heavy and foggy. Everything in his sight looked wrapped in thick curtains. The traffic on the main road far away sounded strange, drifting near and far like a dream.

He walked through that awful haze for who knew how long before his mind finally cleared a little. Yu Sheng stopped and looked back at the way he had come.

Night had almost fallen. The streetlights had come on early. He was on a narrow street near home. The low old apartment blocks on both sides crouched in the dark like beasts. Yet the makeshift ground floor shops, hacked out by the residents themselves, cast warm light into the night, pushing a little of the cold out of his chest.

Cold?

All at once, Yu Sheng felt that stabbing cold again, the kind that cut into his lungs and bones. He could feel razor rain hitting his skin, and he could feel two cold, slick eyes on him, the gaze of a frog.

He choked for a long moment, then remembered how to breathe. He dragged in rough breaths and yanked up his shirt to look at his chest.

For one instant he had the illusion that there was still a big hole in his chest. He felt like he had no heart. His chest was a dead, cold furnace. Then, the next second, he felt his heartbeat again. He even seemed to hear a clear thump by his ear. [Right. A living person has a heartbeat.]

He was still alive. A huge, creepy frog had not eaten his heart.

But the memory fragments surged up like a tidal wave and slammed his mind again and again. No matter how he tried to ignore them, he could not push them out. He remembered the rain. He remembered the door painted on the wall, The Door. He remembered the giant frog. He tried to tell himself it was only a hallucination, but that thought quickly broke apart as the memories sharpened.

He had died once. He did not know why he was still alive. Yet he was walking home. He was almost there, only two intersections left.

Of all the weird things in this weird city, this was the weirdest.

Eyes turned toward him. Yu Sheng noticed that his strange behavior was drawing attention. Someone nearby hesitated, maybe wanting to ask if he needed help. He waved quickly, avoided talking to anyone, and hurried away.

He did not know what had happened to him. Standing in the street thinking about it would not help.

He cut through a side path, left the last street by the old housing area, and headed for his “home” in this city.

It was only two intersections, but the area felt emptier and colder. It was like walking into a forgotten corner of the city. There were fewer and fewer people until only the cool streetlights kept him company. After a bit more walking, he saw the building rising in the dark, a little apart from the others around it, the Old Manor.

It was an ordinary big manor, three stories tall, with peeling walls and a slanted roof. The old doors and windows were worn but clean and intact. It looked like the kind of self built house people added decades ago in a village inside the city, now stuck forever as a relic of a loophole in city rules.

Yu Sheng did not really know how city management worked in this Boundary City that felt so different from his memories. He had only been here two months. If he took away the time he wasted keeping the door shut at first out of caution, he had only just gotten used to life here and learned his neighborhood. But he knew one thing for sure.

This big manor was his only safe place in this dangerous, off beat city. At least when he was inside, the creepy shadows did not show up.

Even if this big manor had plenty of odd things of its own.

He took a slow breath, gripped the supermarket bag still in his hand, stepped through the streetlight’s pale glow, and unlocked the door.

The old door creaked open. He went in and turned on the light. Even though this house was nothing like the “home” he remembered, he still felt a solid sense of steadiness when the lights came on.

He closed the door behind him and left the city night outside.

He dropped the groceries on the shelf by the kitchen door to the right, hurried through the big, empty living room, and went to the bathroom mirror. He yanked open his shirt.

The images in his head were too sharp, too real. He had to check again.

There was no wound on his chest. No blood. It was as if death had never happened at all.

He frowned, checked his shirt for tears, and pressed the spot where the frog had scooped out his heart and lungs. Only then was he sure he was not a man with an open chest. “[What the heck.]”

Muttering, he left the bathroom and walked back to the living room.

Behind him, the mirror over the sink cracked silently, lines spreading across the glass, then sealed shut again without a sound.

He sank onto the couch and tried to sort out his messy thoughts. He did not know how long it took before his exhausted mind finally went quiet. Sleep wrapped him up.

The heaviness lasted a long time. Then a sudden thump exploded in his head. It sounded like someone hitting rock with a shovel on top of his skull. He jerked awake.

He opened his eyes into darkness. It took him a second to realize something. The living room light was off.

He was sure he had left it on before sleeping.

A jolt of warning shot through him. He reached for the telescopic baton beside him, a thing he had bought as soon as he arrived in this strange city. It had never actually been useful, but as a fearful upright ape, holding a stick at least gave him some comfort. He stood up slowly and listened for any movement in the dark.

In a place this deserted, a burglar at home was not impossible. In fact, right now he almost hoped it was a burglar. [Better a burglar. You can beat a burglar with a baton. You cannot beat a one meter tall frog.]

The living room was quiet. No signs of a break in. No sounds of thieves.

Good news, there were no sounds of a frog either.

By the faint light coming through the window, he crept low along the wall and felt for the switch. He flipped it on.

Light filled the room, and his eyes swept the living room like beams searching a stage.

He blinked. Something about the view felt off, but he could not say what. Still, at least it was bright. He could see now.

Bent slightly, baton in hand, he checked every place in the house.

The first floor had only the living room, kitchen, dining room, and an empty room he did not use. Everything looked normal.

He stood at the stairs to the second floor, hesitated, and went up.

There were three rooms on the second floor. One was his bedroom now, one was a storage room, and one room at the side facing The End Web was locked.

It was locked when he moved in. He had searched the big manor top to bottom and never found a key.

He checked his room first, then the storage room, and finally stopped at the locked door.

As always, it was shut tight.

He had tried to solve it with tools before, including a hammer drill and a handheld circular saw. None of it worked. The drill and the saw threw sparks against what looked like a weak wooden door. The bits and teeth wore down to nubs without leaving a scratch.

He had also tried higher level help. He called three locksmiths. The first two got lost as soon as they entered the Old City and never found 66 Wutong Road. The third got past the corner and immediately got hit by a motorcycle. He only left the hospital last week.

It felt like some hidden force was stopping Yu Sheng from opening this locked room in his own house.

Yes, even though this big manor was his only safe place in the city, it still had many things that were not right.

Yu Sheng took hold of the doorknob and turned. Nothing moved.

Nothing strange or expected happened. It was still locked.

But as he pointlessly twisted the handle, he thought he heard a small laugh.

It came from the other side of the door. It sounded like a young woman. It sounded like she was laughing at how he could not even handle a door.

Every hair on his body stood up.

Inside this house, his only safe place, the place he had lived for two months, inside this always locked room… someone was there.

[How has she not starved to death?]