“W-Wait, was that a yes?” Bai Shen said, looking quite shocked. 

 

“En.” Xiang Chen replied, giving Bai Shen a strangely sympathetic look. 

 

Someone stifled a laugh despite their fearful circumstances, and soon, the tension relaxed a little. The atmosphere was still scary, but as long as everyone followed the rules and nothing went awry, then it should be fine. 

As the students went around asking their questions, Xiang Chen’s attention was focused on their surroundings. He didn’t know what the death flags were in this game, but he had to be careful. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and he could make out small outlines of shapes such as doors or windows. 

 

“Ahh!!!” 

 

One of the girls screamed loudly, causing the other girls to scream in succession. 

 

“W-Who is t-that!?”

 

The young girl’s finger trembled as it pointed into the darkness. They all turned to look at what she was seeing. 

 

It took awhile for their eyes to adjust to the darkness, but when they finally did, everyone collectively held their breaths and stared in fear. 

 

Someone was standing in front of the office doorway; their back was turned so everyone could only vaguely make out a silhouette. However, there was no mistaking that the dark shadowy figure was there. 

 

“L-Let’s finish the game, and g-get out of here!” Someone stammered, but everyone’s eyes were too transfixed on the shadowy figure. There was a fear that if they looked away and looked back, it would be even closer, possibly standing right next to them. 

 

“We can just finish the last incantation.” Xiang Chen said calmly despite his heart beating faster in his chest. Watching a scary movie and being in one was much more different than he had anticipated. He could feel every hair on his body stand up, the goosebumps tingling along his arms, and a cold air on his neck sending shivers down his spine. 

 

Bam!

 

A loud thudding noise caused everyone to jump in fright, and then all attention was turned towards the front entrance to the school. 

 

“W-What is it!?” 

 

Someone finally remembered that they had brought flashlights, so one was taken out and light was shone towards the front entrance. There was nothing lying on the ground from what they could see. 

 

“Didn’t the noise sort of sound like…” The speaker’s voice trailed off, afraid that if he spoke it out loud, that’d be true. 

 

Sounded like someone or something had fallen from a great height and came crashing onto the ground.

 

“T-The figure!” Someone whispered loudly. 

 

The light was quickly flashed to the area where the shadowy figure had been, but there was nothing there. There was only a simple old-looking door and a bit of dust that had been kicked up, falling in the air.

 

“Let’s d-do what Xiang Chen said and say goodnight to Jianjian!” Bai Shen quickly said.

 

Everyone agreed, and soon, a chorus of voices were bidding Jianjian goodnight. “Jianjian, jianjian, jianjian, jianjian. Goodnight!” 

 

Almost immediately afterwards, there was another big great gust of wind, blowing out all the candles. 

 

A few of the girls screamed once again, but a few of the others realized they had brought lights with them; so flashlights and phone lights were used to illuminate the immediate area. Everyone felt relieved as the freezing air had dissipated, leaving behind only the cold air of the night. 

 

“What do we do with the string?” Someone asked.

 

“We have to burn it.” Bai Shen explained as he took out a lighter from his pocket. 

 

“I’ll help you.” Xiang Chen said as he gathered up all the string and set it down on the ground for Bai Shen to set aflame. 

 

“I-It won’t burn down the building, will it?” Li Qianru asked as she stood beside Bai Shen. 

 

“The floor was originally wood, but there are patches on the ground where its been broken away to dirt. As long as we burn on the dirt and make sure there are no remaining embers, we should be good.” Xiang Chen explained as he pointed to a few spots where the rotting wood floor had broken through. 

 

Li Qianru seemed to accept this explanation and seemed less worried as Bai Shen took a lighter to the red string. Wisps of smoke rose into the air as the smell of burnt yarn tickled everyone’s noses. It wasn’t long before the red string was burned to nothing. 

 

“Okay, let’s get going then.” One of the braver male students said. 

 

Xiang Chen furrowed his brows. The night couldn’t have been that easy, right? Were they were just going to be let go like this?

 

He remained diligent as he followed the rest of the students out the door. It was a moonless night, so everything was shrouded in darkness. The flashlight rays stretched less than 4 meters out in front of them. It was as if a dark mist had settled around them, obscuring the surrounding forest. 

 

“It’s so damn hard to see ah!” Someone complained as everyone shuffled along and tried to follow the trail out. 

 

They pushed through the thicket, and finally saw a clearing up ahead. Hurriedly, everyone took quick steps to break through to the open space once again. 

 

But when everyone finally left the forest behind, they all stood frozen in place, staring at the scene before them. 

 

“W-What…?” Bai Shen stuttered as he stared at the old school building once again. 

 

Xiang Chen knew that the night wouldn’t be that easy. It seemed that for now, they were stuck in this loop. Trying to leave the old school grounds only resulted in them coming right back. 

 

“But I’m sure we were moving straight!” One of the guys in the front shouted angrily. There was a bustling of voices as everyone seemed to speak at once.

 

“What do we do know?”

 

“Check the phones! Maybe there’s a signal!”

 

“No signal…”

 

“Damnit! Then do we really just have to wait here!?”

 

Xiang Chen didn’t really know what to do, but at least, he knew that staying outside in this dark forested area was probably not the best idea. “We should go back into the school and wait for when the night passes. What time is it now?” He asked Li Qianru who had pulled out her phone. 

 

“It’s t-ten o’clock…” She replied.

 

“En, then we only have to wait seven hours until the sun starts to come up around five in the morning.” Xiang Chen reasoned. He really didn’t like to draw much attention to himself, preferring to be a passenger than a leader, but he felt a sort of responsibility towards them. Technically, Xiang Chen was already a university student while they were all still only high schoolers; he would feel a bit guilty if he didn’t at least try to help out. 

 

Everyone settled down a bit after hearing Xiang Chen’s comforting words and seeing his relaxed nature. If they thought it out like this, then it wasn’t too bad ah…

 

“We shouldn’t wait out here though,” Xiang Chen continued as he felt the cold night breeze seep into his skin. “Let’s go back and wait in the school.”

 

The rest of the students agreed, and the group walked back to the front of the school. They returned to the front entrance, sitting down in the place where they had just finished the Jianjian game. As they sat down, everyone seemed to unconsciously huddle close to one another. 

 

It wasn’t so cold now with everyone together, but as they all sat together silently in the dark, people couldn’t help but shiver every now and then. 

 

“Why is this happening ah?” One of the girls whimpered. The sound of sniffling followed after, and there was no doubt that she was crying. “I wanna go home.”

 

“Me too….”

 

Everyone froze. It was a girl’s voice they had heard, but for some reason, it had sent shivers up everyone’s spines. The hairs on the backs of their necks stood up. 

 

“W-Which one of you girls said that?” A male student’s voice stuttered angrily.

 

“Wasn’t me!” “Not me ah!” “Me neither!” All the girls replied in succession. No one admitted to having spoken just then. 

 

Xiang Chen tried to remember in which direction he heard the voice, but it was a strange feeling because he felt like he couldn’t pinpoint it. He had definitely heard it, but it was almost like he felt it too… Something was going to happen.

 

Everyone squeezed in a little tighter, warily watching the shadows and darkness for anything that could pop up and scare them. 

 

“T-There it is again!” One of the girls whispered loudly. “In f-front of the door…” 

 

They turned their attention back to the door and sure enough, the dark shadowy figure was standing still in the same spot again. However, Xiang Chen could just barely make out its silhouette; it almost looked like a tall adult man who was hunching his back with his head hanging forward.

 

“Quick, shine the light!” Someone said. 

 

A bright ray of light flashed over to the area, and again, there was nothing there. Then suddenly, the light went out. 

 

“The flashlight’s not working!” 

 

The shadowy figure was still in the same spot, as though the light had not affected it in any way. However, everyone watched in fear as it seemed to be slowly turning around. 

 

“Hurry, someone else use their flashlight ah!” 

 

Another flashlight was pointed in its direction, and again, the light illuminated nothing in front of the old office door. 

 

Xiang Chen felt his heart beating rapidly in his chest. He felt it in the air, a slightly buzzing sensation as though something wasn’t wrong; his intuition told him that something bad was definitely going to happen!

 

“Shit!” The second flashlight abruptly died just like the first one. 

 

However, the shadowy figure was no longer to be seen. There was nothing in front of the old office door. The group of students held their breaths, afraid that if they made any other noises, that something would happen. They all could feel the bone-chilling air, and their instincts told them that something was wrong. 

 

Plop!

 

Xiang Chen felt something cold and wet hit his cheek. He brushed it away with his hand. Water…?

 

He glanced up and froze. 

 

“X-Xiang Chen, what’s wrong ah?” Bai Shen whispered beside him. 

 

Xiang Chen slowly brought a finger to his lips, telling Bai Shen to be quiet; then he motioned with his eyes at the ceiling. 

 

Bai Shen looked up and muffled back a shout. 

 

On the ceiling, there was the silhouette of the shadowy man standing upside down. But this time, Xiang Chen could tell that he was facing them; although, he wasn’t able to make out the features in the dark. 

 

Then one of the girls finally seemed to catch sight of the shadowy man on the ceiling and let out an ear-piercing scream, and all hell seemed to break loose. 

 

The shadow figure went flat against the ceiling and started crawling along the walls towards them. 

 

“Run outside!” Xiang Chen shouted loudly.