Demon Apartment - Chapter 22 - A Photo Album

A piercing scream suddenly echoed from above.

“Nooooooo-”

The scream shattered the silence around them, accompanied by the slow trickle of blood from Dong Xie’s face, sending chills down everyone’s spine. It was a cry that seemed to come from the deepest pits of hell.

“That… that voice, it’s Feng Yu!”

At that moment, Dong Ning and Zhao Long rushed in. When Dong Ning saw the blood on Dong Xie’s face by the light of her candle, she turned pale and hurried over to check if he was injured.

“I’m fine, Ah Ning.” Dong Xie looked up again. The bloodstain on the ceiling was rapidly expanding.

Feng Yu’s screams abruptly ceased.

A deathly silence enveloped the room once more.

The blood… it was clearly Feng Yu’s!

The four of them looked up at the ceiling, imagining what horrors Feng Yu might be experiencing upstairs. Just the thought of it was terrifying. Undoubtedly, what was more frightening than death was dying in excruciating pain. If they couldn’t find a path to survival, they would all meet the same fate as Feng Yu, one by one.

Zhao Long’s face was grim. It was now certain that Feng Yu was dead, and his fate could soon be theirs.

“Should we keep exploring? Or…” Ge Qi was visibly shaken. “If we continue, we might…”

“Search! Look for clues like the doodle!” Zhao Long steeled himself. “If we don’t, we’ll end up like Feng Yu!”

Everyone fell silent, their faces pale.

“Wait…” Dong Ning suddenly remembered something. She pointed to the doorway. “Someone needs to stay at the door!”

Dong Ning’s suggestion to enter in pairs had another purpose: to prevent the door from suddenly closing and trapping them inside. She had read in the blood letter records that such occurrences were common. Once residents entered a room, the door could shut unexpectedly, leaving them trapped. This often led to desperate situations.

“Ah! You’re right!”

Zhao Long felt ashamed. As a long-time resident, he hadn’t been as thorough as Dong Ning, a newcomer. He rushed to the door, relieved to find it still open.

Dong Ning looked at Dong Xie. “I’ll stay with you!”

“Ah Ning, you…”

But this time, Dong Ning was resolute. “There’s no safe place here!”

If things got dangerous, she wanted to be by her brother’s side. She never wanted to experience the despair and pain of losing a loved one again.

Seeing his sister’s determination, Dong Xie realized he couldn’t persuade her otherwise.

Dong Ning approached a door by the living room, cautiously opened it a crack, then stepped back and used a selfie stick to push it open.

Inside was a small bedroom, sparsely furnished.

Dong Ning looked disappointed, and Dong Xie also felt there might not be any valuable clues here.

“I’ll go in. You stay at the door in case it closes…”

But before he could finish, Dong Xie had already stepped inside. “Keep an eye on the door, Ah Ning.”

Dong Xie was determined. He couldn’t believe there were no clues to survival. If this continued, he and Ah Ning would end up like Feng Yu.

“I can’t die… Ah Ning must not die… We must survive! We survived that terrible car accident years ago; we can survive this too!”

Holding the candle, Dong Xie began to search the room.

A bed, a chair, a table, a cabinet… the furnishings were simple.

Still hopeful, he walked to the table and opened a drawer. Inside, he found a photo album.

“A photo album…”

He opened it to find a wedding photo.

He remembered seeing a photo in the living room of a man and a middle-aged woman, likely mother and son. The groom in the wedding photo was the same man.

He noted the date on the photo.

It was from 2009, ten years ago. Despite the time that had passed, the mother had kept her son’s wedding photo.

Dong Xie flipped through the album. He saw photos of the groom picking up the bride, the bridesmaids blocking the door, and the groom giving out red envelopes.

The joyous atmosphere in the photos contrasted sharply with the current dark and gloomy surroundings.

Dong Xie continued to flip through the album. He saw photos of the bride and groom serving tea to the bride’s mother, and a male relative carrying the bride.

Then, the photos showed the bride being carried to the stairwell.

Outside, Dong Xie recognized the stairwell as being in Building 3. The photos showed the bride being carried to the stairwell leading to the fourth floor, in front of the iron door.

The photos had been taken with a flash, illuminating the area beyond the iron door.

Dong Xie brought the candle closer to the photo.

He squinted and saw… a shadowy figure standing about ten meters behind the iron door! The distance made it hard to see the figure’s face.

For the photographer, the figure might not have seemed strange. Although the fourth floor was sealed off, it was accessible by elevator.

Dong Xie stared at the figure, then continued flipping through the album. The subsequent photos showed the bride being carried to the car, and the car driving to a hotel in S City for the wedding.

The crucial photo was just one!

Dong Xie took the album and searched the drawer again but found nothing else of value. He quickly went outside and told Dong Ning, “I found a clue, but I’m not sure if it’s useful.”

“A clue is good! What is it?”

Dong Xie opened the album to the photo. Dong Ning leaned in to look.

Then… Dong Xie saw, in the photo, a pale figure pressed against the iron door, its eyeless gaze fixed on him!