My House of Horrors

A weird smell suffused the cramped female bedroom. The bedsheet that was beyond the light of the flashlight fluttered lightly like something was crawling out from underneath it. Rain droplets fell on the window. A storm was brewing outside, but inside the dormitory room, it was eerily quiet.

With his arm hanging over the white paper, Chen Ge tried to make himself relax. After chanting the spell to invoke the Pen Spirit, there was an obvious pressure on the back of his palm like someone had placed their hand over his. Chen Ge could even feel the chills coming from the other person’s fingertips.

“Pen Spirit, Pen Spirit, you are my spirit from my previous life, and I am your spirit in this life. If you are with us, please draw a circle on the paper.”

Chen Ge chanted again, and the feeling of iciness on the back of his hand intensified. However, to his befuddlement, the pen in his grasp remained upright. It did not draw a circle or even do anything.

The Pen Spirit refuses to answer my call?

The atmosphere in the room turned palpable with pressure, and the chill from the back of his hand had now spread to his arm.

For some reason, I feel like a few more individuals have joined me in this room.

Chen Ge focused, and his pupils started to dilate in the dark. Probably due to the Yin Yang Vision, he could see three blurry shadows standing around him with their hands extended to grab the pen in Chen Ge’s palm.

Three of you?

Chen Ge’s heart skipped a beat, but with a blink, the image that he saw instantly disappeared. However, Chen Ge knew that it did not mean they had left. Chen Ge’s palm felt like it had been stuck inside a cold-water bath. He was certain that there were at least three other hands holding the pen in his grasp.

Three ‘individuals’ answered my call. Is this the effect of my ‘Specter’s Favored’ title?

While Chen Ge was trying to figure out an answer, the pen that hovered over the paper suddenly moved. It was slight, but Chen Ge definitely felt it.

Is it beginning?

The flashlight he placed to his side seemed to have dimmed, and under Chen Ge’s close scrutiny, the pen in his grasp started to move. The tip of the pen attached itself to the surface of the paper, and with the friction between the paper and the pen, soon a red circle was drawn.

Chen Ge knew he did not move, but there was indeed a drawing on the paper. Chen Ge stared at the circle, and he was reminded of this side mission’s name—The Pen Spirit Who Refused to Leave.

There are three taboos to the Pen Spirit game. One, you mustn’t ask about your cause of death; two, you mustn’t ask about your life expectancy; three, you have to unbind the spirit when you’re done. Violating any one of these will lead to horrible consequences.

The third was the most serious because if the spirit was not unbound, it would stay by the person who had invoked it forever until it turned malevolent and killed all the players.

“Hopefully, there is no accident,” Chen Ge murmured before shifting his focus back onto the white paper. The red circle was drawn right in the middle of the paper.

Sounds like it has heard my voice. It’s time for me to ask some questions.

Chen Ge was only there to complete the black phone’s mission. He did not want to try anything stupid lest he angered the spirit.

It is rare to have summoned the Pen Spirit. Chen Ge thought about it and voiced the question that he most wished to know the answer to. “Pen Spirit, Pen Spirit, do you know where my parents are?”

When he did the bathtub Nightmare Mission, the people Chen Ge wanted to meet the most were his parents, but his wish had not been fulfilled. However, this did tell him that at least his parents were still alive. They were merely missing.

Chen Ge did want to know the answer to this question. However, to his surprise, when he posed this question, the pen in his grasp started to quiver, and there was even a faded crack that appeared on the body of the pen.

This was different to what he expected. Is my question that difficult?

Two minutes later, Chen Ge had an uncanny feeling that the room had turned brighter. The pen in his hand started to move again to draw another circle.

What does that mean? Pass? Chen Ge looked at the two circles on the paper, and he could sense the Pen Spirit’s awkwardness. It did not know the answer to his question either.

This is weird, but it does sound like my parents’ disappearance is more complicated than it appears. Chen Ge was silent for a long time. Other than this question, he really did not have anything that he was that curious about. So be it, I’ll just ask a random question just to get this side mission over with.

The chill on his arm had spread to his shoulder. As the game continued, Chen Ge could feel about half of his body starting to get numb like it was slowly escaping his control.

“Then I shall switch to a different question. Pen Spirit, Pen Spirit, can you please tell me who my future wife will be?”

The pen quivered, and the flashlight flickered as if announcing the arrival of something. The atmosphere in the room started to get nervous again. The window rattled on its hinges, and droplets of rain seeped into the room. Lightning flashed across the sky, and in that split second, there were four shadows that were reflected on the wall.

Chen Ge felt his hand weaken as the pen in it started to move. Blood red letters appeared on the white paper, and soon, the first character was finished.

“Xu? Is it Xu Wan?” Despite it supposedly being a throwaway question, Chen Ge’s interest was piqued. The pen in his hand continued moving, but as it was starting to begin the second character, it suddenly stopped moving.

“What’s going on?”

Chen Ge was a spectator in this whole enterprise. He did not exert any force, but the pen in his grasp began to quiver violently, and more cracks started to form on its surface.

BANG!

Many forces seemed to be fighting within the darkened bedroom. The ballpoint pen finally crumbled under pressure and cracked. One of the forces seemed to have surrendered. Then Chen Ge saw something shocking.

The pen in his grasp crossed out the “Xu” that was already written and wrote down another name beside it!

“Zhang… Ya?”

The name was so perfectly and clearly written on the white paper that Chen Ge did not even know how to respond. “Pen Spirit, are you sure this is the name that you intended to write from the very beginning?”

There was no answer, and the chill on his arm also disappeared. “Pen Spirit, are you still with us? If you can hear me, please draw a circle.”

The feeling of Yin energy had dissipated completely, and the room had returned to normal. It seemed like the Pen Spirit had left without saying goodbye. However, for the sake of security, Chen Ge chanted, “Pen Spirit, Pen Spirit, you are my spirit from my previous life, and I am your spirit in this life. If you wish to go, then please go ahead.”

Chen Ge stood up from beside the chair since the game was already over. Once he relinquished his grasp, the ballpoint pen in his grasp split into several sections. The whole thing just looked sad.

My game of Pen Spirit sure is different from others’.

Chen Ge picked up his phone and realized with a start that his livestream’s popularity had surpassed 20,000 views—this was a brand-new record for him.