Chapter 16: The Corpse in the Dorm Hallway

  John didn’t push back. Instead, he walked William through the proper way to use the rooster blood.

  But the second William heard he’d have to actively confront ghosts with it, he immediately handed over most of his share to John. This was not a gig for the faint of heart…

  That night,

  John hauled seven or eight sealed bags of rooster blood back to his place.

  He’d asked the villagers to repackage it specifically for easy transport—no leaks, no mess.

  “At least I’m a little better prepared now. Still, I need to find a real chance to test if this stuff actually works.”

  John stuffed two bags into his backpack, then climbed into bed and drifted off to a sound, dreamless sleep.

  The next morning,

  John yawned so wide his jaw cracked, forcing his eyes open against his will.

  Now that his body had fully adjusted to its enhanced state, that initial rush of boundless energy had faded to a dull hum. He’d slipped right back into his old, lazy self.

  Besides, let’s be real—for anyone stuck with school or a 9-to-5, Monday was nothing short of a special kind of nightmare.

  “Gotta love waking up at the crack of dawn—it’s got that soul-crushing kind of euphoria, y’know?”

  He threw together a quick wash-up, still half-asleep, and dragged his feet out the door.

  As soon as John stepped into the classroom, James and the rest of the guys swarmed him like bees to honey.

  “John! Have you seen the chaos online?”

  “Was swamped all weekend.” John shook his head, deadpan. “What now? The embroidered shoes are back for a sequel?”

  “Worse. Way worse.”

  James and the others launched into a rapid-fire recap of the bizarre incidents that had blown up online over the past few days.

  “A family in Bai City was butchered. No fingerprints, no signs of forced entry—just a trail of bloody handprints leading nowhere…”

  “Three households in a Yun City housing estate all hanged themselves within 48 hours. No notes, no motive—nothing.”

  “An entire class vanished off the face of the earth from an elementary school in Ming City. They’re still missing, and the cops have zip.”

  The stories spread like wildfire online. Even though every post got taken down within hours, the panic had already seeped into everyone’s bones.

  “John—what do you make of all this?”

  “Just here for the show.” John shrugged, flipping open his textbook like nothing was wrong. “It’s all internet garbage. None of it’s happened within a hundred miles of us.”

  Internally, though, he was more certain than ever that the world was teetering on the edge of a supernatural apocalypse. But he didn’t let his concern show—not even a little. After all, these were just stories, right?

  “You’ve got the chillest poker face ever…”

  James and the others sighed, seeing John’s total indifference, and turned to dissect the news with other classmates.

  “The supernatural’s breaking loose faster than we can keep up…”

  John stared down at his textbook, but his mind was miles away.

  The flood of paranormal incidents online meant the veil between worlds was fraying fast—so fast, even the authorities couldn’t sweep it all under the rug anymore.

  John had a sinking feeling in his gut.

  Sooner or later, these ghostly horrors would stop being “internet noise.” They’d become everyone’s problem.

  He wondered silently to himself:

  Would the government roll out some kind of countermeasure? Would legendary ghost hunters crawl out of the woodwork to save the day? Or was humanity just doomed to become ghost chow?

  That evening,

  “Guys! Another thread’s blowing up! You gotta see this!”

  Tom was lying in bed scrolling his phone when he suddenly shot upright, his eyes blazing with a mix of thrill and terror.

  The others exchanged wary glances. Even though they were scared out of their minds, curiosity won out every single time.

  Within seconds, all eight dormmates were huddled shoulder to shoulder, craning their necks to look at Tom’s screen.

  “BREAKING: ANOTHER BIZARRE MURDER—GRAPHIC CONTENT AHEAD!”

  “Fellas, my neighbor was just slaughtered. The scene was straight out of a horror flick. The world’s gone completely off the rails.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Attached to the post was a photo—no blur, no censorship, nothing to soften the blow.

  Police tape cordoned off the entrance to an apartment, where officers bustled about, their faces grim as they collected evidence.

  The front door had been smashed open and hung ajar, giving anyone passing by an unobstructed view of the living room.

  The most gut-wrenching detail in the photo was the ceiling light.

  Hanging from it were three bloody, severed heads.

  One of them stared directly out the door, its eyes bulging wide, frozen forever in the terror of its final breath.

  The image was crystal clear. It made everyone’s scalps prickle with cold dread, their stomachs churning.

  “Holy fuck… they didn’t even censor this?”

  James slammed his phone shut so hard the screen flickered, muttering a string of curses under his breath.

  Over the past week, they’d seen dozens of posts like this—incidents that defied every law of science, every shred of logic.

  Slowly but surely, their stubborn skepticism was starting to crack.

  Just then,

  A blinding flashlight beam cut through the dorm room’s small window, making everyone jump a foot in the air and scream.

  “What the hell are you little shits doing up this late?!”

  The dorm supervisor’s gruff voice boomed from outside, full of irritation.

  “This is Class 1, Grade 12’s dorm, right? If you don’t hit the hay now, I’m hauling your asses to the homeroom teacher tomorrow.”

  At that threat, the room went dead silent. Everyone scrambled back to their beds, yanking the covers over their heads like scared kids.

  “Kids these days are getting more unruly by the minute.”

  Supervisor Zhang shook his head, shining his flashlight as he trundled off to check the next dorm.

  He rarely touched a computer, let alone scrolled social media, so he had no clue the wave of paranormal panic sweeping the internet had left the students on edge—jittery, paranoid, and ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble.

  As Supervisor Zhang made his rounds, the entire floor gradually quieted down, the only sound left the distant hum of the AC unit.

  “Finally—time to head back and crash.”

  He stifled a yawn, his eyes heavy with fatigue.

  Senior year students weren’t supposed to turn off their lights until 11 PM, which meant his nightly rounds never ended before midnight. It was a tough grind for an older guy, but hey—beats flipping burgers for a living.

  Supervisor Zhang was yawning so hard he could barely walk, trundling toward his tiny on-campus quarters when—

  The hallway lights ahead suddenly started to flicker, strobing on and off so fast it made his head hurt, casting long, twisted shadows that danced across the walls.

  “Must be a loose wire somewhere,” he frowned.

  Instead of feeling scared, he muttered to himself, “Gotta tell maintenance to fix this tomorrow. Can’t have a fire hazard in the dorms.”

  He shone his flashlight, its beam cutting through the darkness, and kept walking forward.

  Just as the lights flickered again, a dark, fleeting shape darted across his field of vision—here one second, gone the next.

  “Huh? Did I just see that?”

  Supervisor Zhang raised his flashlight, sweeping it back and forth across the empty hallway—but there was nothing there. No one, nothing, just cold, empty linoleum.

  He shrugged it off as a trick of the light, a hallucination brought on by too little sleep, and continued down the darkening corridor.

  Then, the lights flickered once more—

  And a scene straight out of a nightmare unfolded before his eyes.

  A naked corpse was hanging from the ceiling, its skin pale as a sheet, its bloodshot eyes bulging wide, staring directly down at him like it was waiting.

  “AAAAH!!!”

  The old man froze in terror, his blood turning to ice. His legs gave out from under him, and he collapsed to the floor, screaming at the top of his lungs, “D-DEAD! THERE’S A FUCKING DEAD BODY HERE!!!”

  In an instant, the dorm building—just moments ago quiet as a tomb—erupted into chaos.

  Dozens of students threw open their doors in their pajamas and slippers, and when they saw the sight in the hallway, they let out bloodcurdling screams that echoed down the corridors.

  In the strobing hallway lights, the corpse swayed gently, its lifeless gaze seeming to lock onto every single person who dared to look up.

  Panic spread like wildfire. Some students didn’t even stop to grab their shoes—they just bolted for the stairs, shoving and tripping over each other in their mad dash to escape.

  “John! Wake up! Quick! There’s a real dead body hanging in the hallway!”

  William had seen the horrific sight and scrambled back to the dorm, shaking John awake so hard his teeth rattled.

  John threw on his clothes in record time and stepped out into the hallway.

  Unlike the terrified crowd around him, his face was calm—almost bored—as he stared up at the hanging corpse.

  “Well, I’ll be damned. Didn’t think I’d actually run into one of these things on campus…”

  He studied the body intently, his mind racing.

  He’d figured living on campus would be safer. Turns out he was dead wrong. And judging by how the body was suspended there—no rope, no hook, nothing—this ghost was no weakling.

  “Bro—shouldn’t we run?! Like, now?!”

  The stairwell was already a chaotic mess of screaming students, all fighting to escape the building. Only a handful of the bravest (or dumbest) souls remained, staring at the corpse in morbid, horrified fascination.

  “No need.” John shook his head, never taking his eyes off the body. “The ghost isn’t here right now. Running off somewhere else would probably be more dangerous.”

  He was standing mere feet from the corpse, but there was no familiar warmth on his chest. That meant this was just a body—no ghostly presence lingered nearby.

  The rest of the dorm was huddled downstairs, making them a far bigger target if the ghost did decide to come back.

  “Bro—how can you be so sure it’s a ghost? What if it’s just a regular murder?”

  “Highly unlikely.”

  John nodded up at the corpse, his voice flat. “Look. There’s no hook, no rope, nothing attached to the ceiling. How else do you explain a body hanging there like that without falling?”

  To prove his point, John even reached up, grabbed the corpse’s cold, stiff calf, and gave it a sharp yank. The body didn’t budge an inch.

  Still not satisfied, he hoisted himself up and hung onto the corpse’s leg, swinging back and forth like he was on a playground swing. The body remained completely motionless.

  “…”

  William took an instinctive step back, his face draining of all color.

  Is he swinging on a dead body right now?!

  “Bro—okay, okay! I get it! You’ve made your point!” William quickly stepped forward, yanking John down to the ground. “What do we do now?!”

  “Call the police. And notify the school. That’s it.”

  “Aren’t we gonna fight the ghost?!”

  “Fight it? Are you kidding me?!” John shook his head, like the idea was ridiculous. “Our top priority right now is not getting killed.”

  “…”

  William nodded frantically, then snatched the still-trembling Supervisor Zhang’s phone from his limp hand.

  Minutes later,

  The wail of police sirens cut through the night, growing louder and louder until they drowned out everything else.

  Officers arrived at the scene in record time, cordoning off the hallway with yellow police tape and herding the remaining students away from the body.

  Meanwhile, the school administrators hovered nervously downstairs, their faces pale as they tried to calm the hysterical students.

  Just hearing the students’ descriptions of the hanging corpse had made their scalps go numb—none of them dared to go up and see it for themselves.

  “Lee, you and the team help the school evacuate everyone from the building. We’ll handle the rest.”

  “Got it, Captain!”

  Brian led a team of ten officers up to the second floor—the crime scene.

  The hallway lights had stopped flickering by now, bathing the area in a steady, harsh glow that made the scene look even more surreal. He immediately spotted the gruesome sight of the hanging corpse.

  But what really made his jaw drop was the two students sitting calmly on the floor directly beneath it, like they were waiting for a bus.

  “What the actual hell?!”

  He stared at them in disbelief. What kind of absolute lunatics had nerves of steel like that?!