They Keep on Dying

Once again, police and ambulance sirens echoed in front of the boy's dorm. Since it was lunchtime, the students had the time to crowd and gossip after exerting the effort of going back just to see it.

Another body was taken outside the dorm, and all the witnesses knew Liu Xiaodan did not touch the body. He just felt compelled to come near it and ended up discovering the student was already dead.

Unlike what they thought, the man died from getting suffocated.

Officer Bai and Detective Hung sat with Liu Xiaodan in the dorm's lobby. Since it was more convenient than dragging him to the station, they talked to him in the dorm. The nurse and the rest of the witnesses were there after all.

Officer Bai's eyes rested on Chuan Nayi before landing back on the troublesome man. Detective Hung, however, glared at him without paying attention to the others.

"I would have questioned you in the precinct, but since the school asked us to keep this on the premises, I can't." Detective Hung hummed. "Based on the statements of the other witnesses, you suddenly went to his bed and stood there. You made weird movements, but you still found out that he was dead.

"From what I have heard, you also approached him when he was sent here." He pinched his forehead to relieve the headache, distressed by the presence of the witnesses. "Chen Gang belonged to Li Feng's class, but he had no connection to his peers. Is there any reason for him to get caught up with this?"

"Are you saying you think I killed him?" Liu Xiaodan took a deep breath. He wanted to keep his gaze steady, but a suspicious object was slithering behind the officer and the detective. He could not help but to divide his focus on it and on the detective's eyes. He could also feel hands feeling his shoulders.

"It had not been a full day since Jiang Hou died. Now, we have another victim." Detective Hung hissed, noticing the moving gaze of the young man. He was also noticing the involuntary movements of his shoulders as if he was shrugging something off of him. "And it happened right after you talked to Li Feng.

"I am curious about a part of your conversation with him. It sounded like... you know what happened to Huang Kun was murder... on top of who killed him.

"Did you have a hand in it, Liu Xiaodan?"

"What?" Chuan Nayi mumbled to herself. She was squeezing her own hands as she listened. Her eyes widened in shock. "N-No, it was a ghost!" She bit into her lip after.

Liu Xiaodan shook his head. "I don't have anything to do with that."

Detective Hung glanced at Chuan Nayi once before he cleared his throat. "Li Feng said he was capable of understanding what happened to Huang Kun. He did not step out when we were investigating his friend's case, but you knew he looked into it himself.

"Are you saying the police missed a vital clue to figuring out what happened that day? But you didn't tell us?"

"That's..."

"It was a little kid!" Chuan Nayi failed to hold her words. She froze the moment everyone in the room looked at her. "I saw a little kid in the kitchen, but he vanished in thin air. Only his shadow appeared in the videos, but there was a little kid."

She ground her teeth, trying to stop herself from speaking. However, she could not stand Liu Xiaodan being put into a tight spot like he was the only other person who knew about it. "How can we tell the police about that?! How will we make you believe that a ghost killed that bastard?!"

She took a deep breath. "That thing had been following me. It must have acted on my anger towards Huang Kun. Xiaodan had nothing to do with that..."

Nurse Wang squirmed as she mumbled loud enough, "That's weird. There's no ghost child among the residents. Where did he come from?"

"What?" Officer Bai gave a curious look at the two women with them. "Are you telling us ghosts are responsible for the deaths happening? Even if they are real, those things are just supposed to be made of mist. Don't give us that load of bull!"

"But it's the truth!" Chuan Nayi cried louder.

Liu Xiaodan shot up from his seat and held onto her girl. The police were somewhat dazed at his action; even Chuan Nayi was shocked. She held onto him as well... but the tears she was holding onto fell after hearing Liu Xiaodan's words whispered into her ears.

"Stop. If you cry some more, he's going to kill these two."

"What?"

"He's watching us... from the stairs. He's already infuriated. We shouldn't make it worse..."

The man stepped back from her and returned to his seat. The father looked past the police and the couch, to the staircase from where Guangru was watching them.

He then brought his gaze back to the detective. "I don't know about the other so-called residents of the house, but that child is capable of harming the living. Even Li Feng is scared of him.

"However, he can't be the one who killed Jiang Hou. He's been... behaving himself lately...

"If ever he would kill again, the most probable target would be Li Feng." He hissed as he stared at the emerging ghost from the floor. He then closed his eyes and continued as if in pain; the hands on his shoulders were starting to claw against him.

"About Chen Gang, I saw something was holding him down. I could only watch it go away; I'm not capable of making them go away...

"I can only—" He felt time stopped as he saw Guangru standing in front of him. His breathing slowed down as he was struck by fear. From afar, he could not see the face the child was making. However, it was so clear by then.

He stared into the child's furious eyes, but his son was not staring at him.

Before he could react, he felt something explode behind him. He held onto the back of his neck in case something would have happened to him.

Screams and disturbed gasps came after as Liu Xiaodan felt a sticky liquid was on his skin. He recalled his hands and found blood coating his palms. He froze at the picture, forgetting the people who also bore the same amount of horror on their faces.

However, the lights went out for a second. The blood was gone, shocking everyone in the room. As well as the ghosts around them.

The ten people who witnessed the curious case resorted to silence.

The next sounds came from Chuan Nayi's shuffling towards Liu Xiaodan. She was worried something happened to her 'friend', especially when she found small holes on his shoulders. They did not bleed much, only blotted dots of blood on his shirt.

Since the clinic was a crime scene, the horseman just had to come back to his room. They gave Chuan Nayi special permission to stay as she rushed to treat her friend. To be honest, they seemed to not care at the moment.

…

The AC whirred as it was set in fan mode. Liu Xiaodan was seated on the swivel chair, but his bare chest was against the back support.

He ended up getting shirtless as Chuan Nayi insisted on treating the small holes on his shoulders, as well as giving him a little towel bath for his back and hands. His medication cream was waiting to be spread on his skin; hives had grown minutes after contact.

"Xiaodan, do you think the school will be closing down the boy's dorm? If this continues, it might be dangerous for the students to stay here."

Chuan Nayi hummed as she scrubbed his back with the towel. She could tell it was not the smoothest of backs, but she could not expect him to be vain enough to make sure it was. "It might be dangerous for you..."

"I've lived with the ghosts in this dorm for a while. No need to worry about me." He hummed, blushing faintly at their situation.

If only he knew he would be shirtless in front of Chuan Nayi, he should have at least taken a longer shower or another one before going to the fifth floor. He should at least get rid of the manly pits as well.

"But why, I wonder. Why are they acting strange these days?" She huffed and patted his back dry with the towel on her lap. She then pressed on the tube and got cream spread on his back. "I doubt things were like this even back then. Even Nurse Wang said so..."

"Nayi..." Liu Xiaodan called out her name, "I don't think it's good to be talking about that right now. Aren't we supposed to rest?"

The girl brought her gaze at his head before puffing. "Aren't you scared, Xiaodan? They seem to be targeting you..."

"Better me than you..." There was a smile on his lips.

He had a soothing feel with Chuan Nayi's smooth fingers rubbing against his back. It was nothing like Xu Disung's big, callous hand. The cold cream soon warmed into her touch, lessening the itchiness of the hives behind him.

It was making him sleepy, like a massage from the girl he liked. His mind went back to her words in the clinic. Such a nice feeling; Chuan Nayi talked like they had a relationship.

Feeling his relaxed breathing with her hand, Chuan Nayi smiled at the sleeping man's back. Though it was bad for him to pass out without a shirt on in a cold room like this. She stopped and waited for any reaction. The man had surrendered to slumber, and the girl had an idea to put his new shirt on for him.

She got up and took the shirt, making necessary folds to pass it through his head and his arms. Moving the man was a difficult task, but the girl was enjoying herself. She finished and figured she should attend to the materials.

She gathered the cloths used and the basin. She went to the bathroom and washed the cloths. She dumped the water in the sink and washed off the blood and dirt from the first cloth, the dirtiest of them all.

However, the more she wetted the fabric, the redder the blood water was. The fabric was whitish, but the water from it had become blood-red. Chuan Nayi gasped as even the water from the faucet had become red. She stepped away from the sink and heard the door swing slowly to a close.

Soft laughter came from inside the room, but she had no idea where it came from. Chuan Nayi went to the door and tried to open it, but it would not budge. She even banged against the door in hopes to wake up Liu Xiaodan.

However, nothing worked. The laughter started to grow louder, and the girl curled where she slid to sit. She covered her ears and closed her eyes. She wanted to scream, but she was too scared to make a sound.

Tears stained her cheeks, and she trembled as hard as her heart pounded in her chest. It should not happen this frequently; her mind started to protest. She mumbled underneath her cries. "Xiaodan... please wake up, Xiaodan..."

"Mama..." A voice broke her cries. "I'll get you out."