Nightmare Assault

The middle-aged man turned to look at the muscular back but was glared back. The encounter ended awkwardly. The muscular man stood up and offered to start the watch. He urged the rest to sleep early.

The muscular man’s vigil would go from 10 pm to 12 midnight. There were 6 hours left after that. After discussing with the rest, Jiang Cheng would stay up from 12 midnight to 2 am; the middle-aged would take the shift from 2 am to 4 am; Fatty would stay up from 4 am to 6 am.

The muscular man found a thick blanket and settled down beside the fireplace. The flame cast his face occasionally in the shadow.

Jiang Cheng lay on the sofa next to Fatty’s. The middle-aged man stayed on the other side of the living room, away from them.

“Brother,” Fatty stretched his neck over to whisper, “Are you asleep?”

Jiang Cheng turned around to show him his back. Jiang Cheng stayed up for the two hours the muscular man took the vigil. Other than the sound of wood burning, nothing happened. When it was time, the muscular man walked over to ‘wake up’ Jiang Cheng.

“Be on alert when you’re on the watch. Shout to wake us up if something happens.” The muscular man added as if in worry, “Those things have a higher chance of happening after midnight.”

“What things?” Jiang Cheng stood up to ask.

The muscular man’s face dimmed, but he still answered in a whisper, “Supernatural things.” After a quick exchange, the man took the sofa Jiang Cheng vacated. Jiang Cheng walked over to the fireplace and continued the shift.

The surrounding was quiet. Other than Fatty’s occasional snores, there was no other sound. The middle-aged man and the muscular man had their eyes closed. They looked like they were asleep, but Jiang Cheng suspected they were just pretending, like how he had been earlier.

Two hours later, Jiang Cheng walked to the other side of the living room and shook the middle-aged man awake. They didn’t have much time to talk. Jiang Cheng went back to sleep while the middle-aged man took a few sips from the bottle of mineral water and went to the fireplace. He added some firewood to the pile and sat before the fireplace. He held the pocket watch in his palm.

The middle-aged man’s experience was not as bountiful as the muscular man and the woman, but he had escaped twice from the mission. Therefore, he knew about the supernatural things the man mentioned and how scary they were.

Similar to Jiang Cheng’s guess, the middle-aged man had been awake since the muscular man held watch. He was wary of bad things that might happen. One and a half hours passed, and nothing happened. During this period, he added more wood to the fire. The fire burned brightly. It warmed the middle-aged man as if it could chase the chill in his heart away.

The two hours were soon up. His shift was over. He slowly stood up and turned to look out the window. Through the gap in the curtain, the sky appeared brighter. People in the nightmare were averse to the night and loved the day. The middle-aged man was no exception.

As he worked the kinks in his limbs before calling Fatty, he suddenly had the urge to pee. It even caught him off-guard. He stared at the bottle of water… Did he drink too much?

The arrival of dawn made him feel better. He turned around. The toilet was in the corner of the living room. It was less than 20 metres from where he was. His eyes focused on the toilet, slowly changing. The sense of alertness slowly subsided. Following it was an inexplicable sense of familiarity and… security. He licked his lips and turned to look at his sleeping mates. He did a mental calculation. If he took a toilet break, he would come back in time to wake up Fatty. It should be… fine.

He pushed on his glasses and slowly moved towards the toilet. He carefully opened the door and left it open. After all, it was all males in the living room. He gave it a good shake and felt better when it was over. To be honest, both his stamina and energy were at their limits after 6 hours of staying awake. After all, he was not young anymore. The middle-aged man sighed as he studied his tired face in the mirror. He removed his glasses, twisted open the faucet and splashed his face with cold water. The chill cut through his senses. It woke him up. Just as he was about to take a second splash, he glanced from the corner of his eyes and realised there was someone standing behind him in the mirror reflection. The person sidled behind him without making any sound.

“Who is it?!” The shock lasted less than a second. Soon, the man calmed down. Even though he didn’t have his glasses on and couldn’t see the person’s face clearly, the rotund body exposed the man’s identity.

“It’s me.” After hearing Fatty’s voice, the man calmed down. Then, he groused, “Say something next time. Do not appear behind me so suddenly.” The middle-aged man wiped his face with his sleeve. Then, he put his glasses on. He turned around as he shook the water off his hands. The moment he fully turned around, the chill crawled from his feet to his head. Ice crystals seemed to form in his blood vessels.

There was no one behind him.

Where was Fatty?

His eyes reddened. Subconsciously, he wanted to turn around to check the mirror, but he failed because something landed on his shoulders.

…

The sun rose.

The three who stayed on the second floor had the same system as the people on the first floor. A person took a shift to keep watch.

The male worker at the corner of the bedroom just wanted to stretch and yawn when he was interrupted by a shrill scream. He was so shocked that he almost fell down from the chair.

The woman and the girl who were sleeping on the bed were woken up by the scream. They shared a look and then rushed downstairs.

Jiang Cheng and the muscular man stood beside Fatty. Fatty was slumped on the ground. It was clear where the scream came from.

The three of them looked at the toilet in the corner.

There was fear, anxiety and… confusion.

The woman with the mole looked around. When she failed to find the middle-aged man, her heart was prepared. She shook the innocent girl’s hand off and walked to the toilet alone.

The toilet door hung open. She stood at the door and took a quick glance inside. Even though she was prepared, she sucked in a cold breath.

The middle-aged man stood rigidly before the mirror. His body faced the door and away from the mirror. However, his head was twisted 180 degrees to look at the mirror behind him.

In the mirror reflection, the middle-aged man’s eyes bulged like they were about to fall out of the sockets.

After they calmed down, the man and then the muscular man moved to examine the middle-aged man. Jiang Cheng followed after watching for a few seconds. He stood outside the door to look in.

The woman moved her hand away from the man’s neck and concluded, “A giant force snapped his neck.”

This was something evident.

“He was given the fright of his life right before his death,” The muscular man added as he looked at the middle-aged man’s eyes.