Nightmare Assault

Tsk…

“Madam, do you mind repeating what you said?”

Tsk…

Tsk…

“...Yes, but please… Don’t tell anyone about this. Especially my husband and my daughter!”

“I understand. Then… Can we start now?”

“It all started with a phone call.

“It was a call from my little sister. The call was made at night three days ago. Her condition was strange. Her teeth chattered, and it sounded like she forced the words out of her throat. I asked if she was sick, but she didn’t answer me. She only kept repeating that she had been having this same dream over and over.”

“Dream?”

“She said that she often dreamed about waking up in the middle of the night, leaving her bed, walking down the stairs and stopping before the basement door of her building. It was very special and real. It was so real that… It didn’t feel like a dream.”

“But your sister still described it as a dream. Why?”

“Because… her building doesn’t even have a basement!

“The scariest thing is when she stood before the strange door, she had the urge to open it.”

“And?”

“She disappeared. On the night she called me.”

“So… You came to me today because…”

“Doctor Jiang!”

“Yes… Please continue.”

“I dreamed of the door too. Yesterday night.”

…

The recording ended, and the room fell into silence. Jiang Cheng sat before his office table and lowered his eyelids. The night newspaper of Rong City of that day sat on the table.

“Missing People Report: Hu Yan, Female 47. 160 cm tall. She has a square face and fair skin. Due to recent mental issues, she left home and disappeared at midnight on the 13th. She was last seen wearing a pink silk nightgown. If seen, please contact…”

His eyes skipped the contact info. On the left of the missing person report was a picture of a middle-aged woman. It was this woman who made the recording with him yesterday. Jiang Cheng didn’t have the habit of reading the papers. The police dropped off the newspaper about an hour ago. The police followed the clues and discovered that Hu Yan had come to him one day before she disappeared.

He told him honestly about Hu Yan’s mental status and even told them the story she told him. He even gave them his files and the recording as evidence.

After finishing the interview, the pair of officers, one male and one female, left. The female officer with the ponytail turned to take a few more glances at Jiang Cheng. This man who was about her age was too calm, no matter when he was interviewed or when he was telling the absurd story.

Jiang Cheng stood up to send them out politely. Then, he retook his head. Fingers tapped against the keyboard. Everyone resumed like normal.

Night approached, and neons lit up the city. Jiang Cheng glanced at the time at the corner of his desktop. He stood up and walked to his office door. He closed the outer glass door and then locked the inner door from the inside. After that, he took the time to brew some coffee. He walked to the sofa with his cup of coffee and sat down.

He bought the sofa for his clients. Madam Hu Yan from yesterday and the two officers from an hour ago both sat on the sofa.

The lustre of the leather had lost its sheen. The armrests were cracked. Jiang Cheng reached into the gap between the seats and fished out a recording pen. The blinking light showed that the pen was still recording. He fiddled with the device using his fingers, and the officer’s voice drifted out. Then, his voice followed.

Jiang Cheng sipped on the coffee as he listened to the recording.

Once the cup was empty, his conversation with the officers was also over. When he stood up from the sofa, his expression didn’t change. He cleaned the coffee cup and dried it on the rack. He dried his hands and walked back to his table. When he passed the couch, he picked up the recorder.

Business was slow recently, so Jiang Cheng had a deep impression of Hu Yan. Even though her story was strange, for Jiang Cheng, who had interacted with a number of patients with mild to medium paranoia, the structure of her story was more important. From his perspective, a normal patient would emphasise certain details, thus confusing them to grab other people’s attention.

Hu Yan’s descriptions were complete, and the details were on point. She even remembered she accidentally stepped on her daughter’s fuzzy slippers in her dream. The police also brought Jiang Cheng some new info. During their conversation, Jiang Cheng managed to surmise that Hu Yan’s disappearance had to do with one of her family members. In Hu Yan’s story, her little sister disappeared before she did. These two details confirmed the authenticity of Hu Yan’s sister’s disappearance. On top of that was the missing person report given out by Hu Yan’s family. It said that Hu Yan had left her house in her thin nightgown. It was deep autumn. Based on Jiang Cheng’s understanding of the madam, she was not someone who’d do something so stupid. This made Jiang Cheng believe that things were not so simple.

Therefore…

Therefore…

To preserve his brain cells for tomorrow and to protect his handsome face, Jiang Cheng put on a beauty down and went to sleep. His office was split into two floors. The first floor was for business, and the second floor was his living space. The space around 30 cubic metres was somehow split into two rooms.

As one went up the narrow stairs, one would enter Jiang Cheng’s living room. Beyond it was the bedroom. There was no bed in the bedroom, only a thin mattress on the ground.

Jiang Cheng lay on the mattress. The comforter was pulled to his chin as he slept soundly.

After some time, Jiang Cheng’s eyes flipped open. He stared at the ceiling as his pupils wavered. Moments later, his eyes narrowed into slits. He slowly sat up in bed.

What was going on..?

His mind was awake, and he could feel every part of his body, but he couldn’t control his body.

Strange palpitations surged from his heart like… something had been opened.

First, his left leg left his bed, and then his right left. He stood up robotically. While his brain was going into overdrive, his body moved on its own.

Forward.

Left, right, left right.

He walked to the bedroom door like a zombie.

Then the living room.

His legs carried him down the wooden stairs. The old wooden steps made no creaking sound. Not only the stairs were silent. Jiang Cheng could not hear anything. The night was deadly silent.

His eyes took in everything within his limited vision. The situation was dangerous and absurd.

In the night, the familiar space looked unfamiliar.

As his body took the last step, he saw a door standing before him.

The door was pure black.

The door was embedded in the wall.