Escape Filming Location - Chapter 1 - An Invitation from Hell

In the stillness of the night, Qian Cang Yi sat at his brown computer desk, his attention fixed on the screen. Tomorrow was the weekend, and as an ordinary office worker, he naturally had to stay up late to celebrate.

The next second, four blood-red words slowly appeared in the center of the screen: Game Over.

Qian Cang Yi stretched lazily and exited the game. The screen switched back to the desktop. Suddenly, a pop-up appeared in the bottom right corner. It wasn’t an ad filled with images, but a simple line of text: You have received a new email.

Qian Cang Yi ignored it, intending to shut down the computer, but then the mouse moved on its own! The cursor quickly darted to the pop-up and clicked it. A webpage with a blood-red vortex background filled the screen. The vortex rotated slowly, its black center like a devouring black hole.

Qian Cang Yi frowned, puzzled. “What’s going on? Is my computer infected with a virus? That’s impossible… I just ran a virus scan yesterday.”

He reached out with his right hand to press the power button, intending to force a shutdown, but nothing happened. He tried again, with the same result. The cursor ignored his actions, moved to the unread email option, clicked it, and the email content appeared.

The webpage background changed, the blood-red vortex vanished, replaced by the image of an old mountain village. The upper half of the background was painted with the colors of the sunset, while the lower half showed the village hidden in the shadows.

Qian Cang Yi felt things were getting out of hand. The pop-up wasn’t about money; it had a different purpose. On the screen, two blood-red characters emerged, growing larger and darker until they occupied half the screen: Death Ritual. Blood slowly dripped from the characters, pooling at the bottom of the screen.

Seeing this, Qian Cang Yi dared not breathe too loudly. He slowly extended his right hand, lightly touching the blood at the bottom of the screen. A wet sensation came from his fingertips. His eyes widened, fatigue vanished as he pulled his hand back, staring at his index finger. The blood was vivid and shocking.

Is my screen bleeding?

The thought flashed through his mind. He looked at the screen again, this time with a mix of curiosity and fear-fear of the unknown. A few seconds later, the words “Death Ritual” faded, replaced by new black text in the center of the webpage: Welcome to Hell Movie!

Qian Cang Yi thought for a moment, then reached out and unplugged the power. The desktop screen remained lit. “What… what’s going on? I unplugged it, and there’s no backup power. Could it be…”

Just as he was reeling from shock, the screen finally went dark. However, the scene he had just witnessed lingered in his mind, leaving him unable to recover. After a few minutes, he looked down at his finger. There was no blood, as if everything he had seen was an illusion. He plugged the power back in.

The boot screen appeared, and everything returned to normal. Qian Cang Yi checked the browser history, surprised to find the most recent page was his email. “Why is it my email?”

With questions in mind, he logged into his email. The strange email was quietly sitting at the top of his inbox. What was chilling was that the email had no sender.

Qian Cang Yi’s brow furrowed deeply. He now hoped the pop-up was just a result of a computer virus. “Let’s see what it is.”

He calmed himself, took a deep breath, and clicked the email. The eerie scene reappeared. The sinister words “Death Ritual” emerged again, blood dripping slowly. Qian Cang Yi wiped the screen with his right index finger, but the wet sensation didn’t return. He glanced at his finger-everything was normal, no blood.

“Was it an illusion? But why did this email appear in my inbox?”

He hesitated for a few seconds, then chose to delete the email. Each attempt to delete it redirected him to the “deleted” screen, yet when the screen returned, the eerie email remained unchanged, still in its original place.

“Can’t delete it?”

His voice trembled slightly. He wanted to sleep, but the email in his inbox was like a thorn, nagging at him. He decided to resolve it immediately. The antivirus software began a scan. The quick scan found no issues, so he started a full scan.

Searching for information about Hell Movie yielded nothing valuable, only irrelevant content. Using his phone to log into his email, he found the same email in his inbox. Every method led to no result. The blood-red vortex was like an unsolvable mystery, causing Qian Cang Yi great anxiety.

He sat dazed at his computer, turning to look out the window as dawn broke. “Forget it, I’ll sleep first.”

Dragging his weary body to bed, his mind was filled with thoughts of the mysterious email. When he awoke, the sun was high in the sky. Qian Cang Yi opened his eyes, his forehead damp with sweat. He glanced at the clock; it was already noon.

The bizarre events of the previous night flashed through his mind, but he had no immediate interest in resolving them. The truth was, even if he wanted to, he might not be able to. While washing up, he looked at himself in the mirror, his eyes bloodshot.

“Did I pull an all-nighter?”

He yawned, then shook his head to clear his mind. After washing his face, he leaned on the white sink, letting the water drip slowly. He raised his head, noticing dark circles under his eyes.

Suddenly, he saw blood-red letters appearing on the whites of his eyes, as if something was writing with a red pen on his eyeballs. [3 PM, First Movie.]

His mouth fell open, eyes filled with terror. “What the heck? How is this possible? And it’s written in mirror image…”

“Is it another illusion? Should I see a doctor?”

The strange occurrences were piling up, making Qian Cang Yi question his sanity. He thought of a way to verify it-using a photo.

Click.

The sound of a photo being taken echoed. Qian Cang Yi looked at his selfie, zooming in on his eyes, and the letters were still there.

“Let’s see what others think.”

He sent the photo to a friend, asking if they saw any letters in his eyes, and if so, what they were. To be safe, he sent the photo and message to several friends. This way, even if one friend joked, he could discern the truth.

If his friends saw the letters, it meant it wasn’t an illusion; otherwise, it was. Soon, all his friends gave the same answer: they saw nothing.