Tales of Aegiceras: Cave in

16. The Fire (4)

Translator: Superbomb

When it was almost 11:30, Ma Yu couldn’t wait anymore. Saying that she wanted to go to the 4th floor to take a look, she pulled us upstairs.

Looking at the dark corridor, I started trembling. However, as I couldn’t find an excuse to stay, I grabbed Sister Qunfang by the arm and followed them to the staircase.

As soon as I reached the staircase, I was flustered with an uncomfortable feeling surging up.

“Let’s go back,” I said to Ma Yu.

“We have been waiting for so long! Why are you still hesitating?” Ma Yu started to tug at me. “Come on, you’re an adult!”

Sister Qunfang glared at her and said, “All because of you!” She then turned around and patted me on my shoulder.

I knew that Ma Yu was curious and gossipy. If I turned her down, she would definitely spread the rumors about my cowardice all over the hospital, so though reluctantly, I follow them up the stairs.

The hospital was dead silent at midnight. As soon as we went up the stairs, darkness fell all around us.

Ma Yu turned on the torch in her hand and shone it everywhere. Perhaps it was because I was too nervous, I would feel a thrill of terror even at the sight of the corner or the stair rail in the torchlight.

Ma Yu couldn’t help but laugh whenever she saw I was in a panic.

As we reached the foot of the staircase on the 4th floor, she purposely flashed the torch upwards. Watching the beam of light dance about on the staircase, I felt that we might see something terrible at any moment!

“Hey, Sister Qunfang, did you hear the baby in here last time?” Ma Yu asked mysteriously while blinking at me.

When I heard the word “baby”, I grabbed Sister Qunfang’s arm tightly in tension.

However, Sister Qunfang denied it with a serious look, “No! I heard it the moment I was about to reach the 4th floor.”

The way they spoke as if that story was real!

Trembling with fear, I continued to follow them upstairs. The sound of our high heels sounded particularly loud, echoing down the empty corridor, which made me feel as if there were more than three of us walking upstairs. Perhaps it was because I had seen too many horror movies, I got scared easily.

When we were about to reach the 4th floor, Ma Yu suddenly stopped.

“Shh!” She gestured us to be quiet.

I didn’t know what she was doing, but after waiting for a while, she said, “See, there’s nothing to be afraid of! No baby is crying or laughing.”

With that, she lifted the torch and shone it in the direction of the lady’s room. In the dim light, I vaguely saw the wall covered with white tiles and the door of the restroom.

She flashed the torch again along the door.

“Huh?” I grabbed Ma Yu’s hand.

The two of them looked back at me simultaneously and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Did someone walk in just now?” I asked them tentatively.

Sister Qunfang turned pale in an instant. She patted me and complained, “Is this some kind of a sick joke?”

I did think that the torch shone on someone just now. “Maybe there’s still someone else on the 4th floor at this hour…” I added, though I felt that my assumption was ridiculous.

Ma Yu patted me as well. She withdrew the torch and was about to shone it on me. I immediately grabbed her by the hand and pointed at the lady’s room behind her. “Look! You flashed at it again!”

She shivered and the torch almost slipped to the floor from her hand!

To relieve her tension, I added, “No worries! I think it’s the middle-aged woman I saw this morning. And she was holding a baby just now.”

Hearing that, she seemed to be even more frightened and her face even turned pale.

Looking back at Sister Qunfang, who was as pale as Ma Yu, I suddenly grew tense. “Relax! I saw nothing! I was just joking.” I tried to comfort her.

With that, I forced a smile.

Then I lowered my head uneasily. Actually, I did see someone just now!

In the beginning, when the torch shone on the dark entrance of the lady’s room, I saw a blurry figure, like a shadow. As Ma Yu turned the torch to the white ceramic tile in the blink of an eye, I thought I might be dazzled and there was indeed nobody there.

Next, when she swung her arm and shone the torch from the door to me, I seemed to have seen a figure standing at the door with something in its arms. Though I didn’t saw that figure clearly, I unconsciously felt that it was the middle-aged woman who was holding the baby at the entrance.

When I looked up again, I saw Ma Yu had aimed the torch at the door of the restroom.

It seemed to be infinite darkness behind the door!

The blurry figure appeared in my mind again. I wondered if the middle-aged woman was staring at us by the door with a baby in her arms.

“I, I want to go back now.” In a panic, I grabbed Sister Qunfang by the hand. The torchlight flashing at the entrance of the lady’s room made me felt very uncomfortable.

As the torchlight could only hit a small area, the surrounding darkness seemed even more terrifying.

However, as if she hadn’t heard me, Ma Yu took several steps up the stairs.

Sister Qunfang comforted me while pulling me up.

When I reached the 4th floor, I almost collapsed onto the ground.

“I’m going back…” I said in a low voice, feeling as if I was about to cry.

Ma Yu smiled at me and said, “I want to pee!”

Sister Qunfang immediately pulled her back. “Don’t mess around anymore.”

Ma Yu pouted and said discontentedly, “Why are you so serious? Isn’t it the hospital we work in every day? Haven’t you ever been to the lady’s room on the 4th floor? Besides, I really need to answer the call of nature. If you are really afraid, can you just wait for me at the door?”

She was always bragging about how bold she was, so she must be eager to show off her courage in front of us!

I guessed she must have bet with many male doctors in the hospital.

But how could she get me involved?!

Sister Qunfang seemed convinced by her and thought I was overreacting. “Go ahead! We’ll wait for you by the door.”

Ma Yu grinned and walked towards the lady’s room a few steps away.

As the head nurse had only given us one torch before we left the nurse station, Sister Qunfang and I snuggled with each other and leaned against the wall while waiting for Ma Yu in the darkness.

We watched the torchlight fade away into the lady’s room.

“Nothing will happen, right?” I poked Sister Qunfang beside me.

Sister Qunfang didn’t say anything.

Not long after Ma Yu entered the restroom, we heard a crash of water. Feeling something wrong, I turned to Sister Qunfang. She had completely merged into the darkness and I couldn’t see her expression. However, from the way she grabbed my hand, I could tell that she was still very calm.

The sound of water rang from time to time as if someone was pouring it on the floor.

It… didn’t sound like someone was peeing. It sounded like someone was… taking a shower!

Many people used to live in that kind of dormitory, with more than a dozen families on the same floor. There were a lady’s room and a man’s room at the end of the corridor. Every week, they would take a basin of warm water to the restroom and take a shower there.

“Sister Qunfang?” I couldn’t help but call out.

This was too strange! What the hell was Ma Yu doing in the restroom?

The noise went on for a while before it faded away.

It was so dark all around that we felt as if we were in a giant black cavern.

We could only hear the sound of the ticktack.

 

Tick, tick…

 

The sound of the water became rhythmic and louder as it slowly approached us.

I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t help but complain that Ma Yu had brought the torch with her, but she didn’t turn it on when she had come out.

 

Tick, tick…

 

It was as if someone whose hair was still dripping was walking towards us.

What the hell was Ma Yu doing! Was she playing a prank on us again?

I could even sense the water come down to my feet as quietly as she walked.

Sister Qunfang grabbed my hand tightly as well.

The sound of ticking drifted past us like a misty mist.

We were so scared that we couldn’t move at all. Was it human who had just walked past us in the darkness? How come we didn’t even hear its breathing?

Neither of us dared to speak, with our hair standing on end.

Ma Yu? Was it Ma Yu?

I really wanted to ask, but next, I was nearly scared to death when an even odder sound suddenly rang.

Though it was faint, I was certain that it came from a baby!

I felt like I was about to cry. How come there was a baby in the lady’s room on the 4th floor?

The story Sister Qunfang had told us turned out to be true!

I clutched tightly at Sister Qunfang beside me. She was trembling as well and her hand was freezing cold.

The baby was laughing.

In the darkness, there was not only the sound of water ticking but also the sound of a baby’s laughter.

This was just too scary!

Ma Yu! ! Was Ma Yu deliberately trying to frighten us?

It seemed that the baby was overjoyed, and its laughter echoed incessantly in our ears.

I had heard this kind of laughter countless times in the hospital. Those babies would suddenly burst into laughter when they were lying there quietly. They looked at somewhere and chuckled as if they had seen something amusement. Seeing that, the adults around them would laugh as well. It was the most heartwarming moment.

However, it was an agonizing moment for me, as if time stood still.

The baby was laughing. Was someone amusing it? I had thought in this way before.

Now I was even more afraid of the laughter.

After a while, the laugher gradually trailed off and the ticking sound seemed to fade away in the depths of the corridor.

“Bang!” It sounded as if a door was pushed open!

My gut told me that it was the door of our TCM Department!

“That’s… the sound I heard last time!” After quite a long time, I heard Sister Qunfang’s trembling voice ring out.

When I heard her, I seemed to regain my strength. I felt cool on my face and wiped it with my hand. Only then did I realize that I had actually cried in fear!