Ghost Stories

Although it's three o'clock in the morning, there were still some taxis that are operating.

The taxi driver arrived at the hospital not long after Ye Bai called for him.

[A/N: First, I must apologize. I've noted that the phone was smashed before in chapter 3. Later, I said that Ye Bai called for a taxi, which is obviously a plot hole in the story. I've changed it to that his phone did not receive any damage from the fall, and it also has some battery left.]

"Where do you want to go?" The middle-aged man asked Ye Bai as he entered the back seat of the taxi.

The lamp next to the hospital building provided light for the interior of the taxi, so Ye Bai could see everything clearly.

Ye Bai scrutinized the middle-aged man; He had partial grey hair and a shaggy face. His sweatshirt had wrinkles from the arm to the stomach area. It's obvious that he doesn't take good care of his clothing.

"Please take me to 13th street, apartment 4." Ye Bai requested.

"Alright. Sit tight." The middle-aged man stepped on the gas, and the car began moving out of the hospital grounds.

In the back seats of the taxi, Ye Bai sat there quietly.

Since there wasn't much to do, Ye Bai sat near the car window and stared outside. It wasn't too dark as there are lamps ever so often on the roads.

The road outside the car window is quite lonely. Three O'clock in the morning really is a dead hour as there weren't many cars active. Occasionally, there will be one or two cars passing the taxi.

"Do you want to hear some ghost stories, young man?" The taxi driver suddenly encroached on the quietness in the car.

"Ghost stories?" Ye Bai repeated. He isn't normally the one to listen or tell ghost stories.

"Yes. It gets quiet and boring during night drives, so talking keeps me awake." The middle-aged man voiced out why he wanted to tell a ghost story.

"Alright. I'll listen to ghost stories, sir." Ye Bai placed his head on the car window and continued staring out the car. Maybe the stories will help him escape this world for a bit.

"Let me begin then…" The taxi driver began with a deep voice.

"Not long ago, there was a taxi driver just like me."

"He had a beautiful wife and an adorable daughter. The taxi driver works for ten hours every day. With the money he was earning, he could afford to send his daughter to a great school. His wife was able to buy herself nice things."

"One night when he came home late, he saw that there was someone else in his wife's bed. It was another man who had taken liberties with his wife."

"He felt sick at his wife. He felt that all his hard work was for naught. He chased the man on the bed out, but he was so enraged that night, he drunk a ton of alcohol."

"Since he had downed so much alcohol, he was drunk before he knew it…"

"When he woke up in the morning, he was in bed with his wife. But… His wife was no longer breathing, and her body had turned cold."

"The taxi driver had killed the wife last night by suffocating her in her sleep with a pillow…"

"Since the wife was a stay at home mother, and she doesn't have any relatives, the taxi driver was able to hide the fact he had killed his wife. He staged his wife's death as a suicide, and they even had a funeral for her."

"Yet… his daughter still believed that his wife is still alive even after the funeral. She will have conversations with nothing but thin air. She will yell out 'mom!' even when no one is at home."

"When the taxi driver asked why his daughter keeps saying those things, his daughter told him that mom is always in the house."

"Scared of what his daughter was saying, the taxi driver brought his daughter to visit hospitals. One night, the daughter began scratching at the taxi driver's bedroom door at three in the morning."

"The daughter would say she doesn't have any recollection of it after the taxi driver asked. This went on until the girl changed her habit and used a kitchen knife to scratch the door every night."

"The taxi driver was so scared that he enlisted the daughter to stay in the hospital for psychosocial rehabilitation. Of course, he had used his wife's insurance money to enlist his daughter."

The taxi driver in front of Ye Bai took a deep breath and opened his window. He placed his hand out of it and continued.

Ye Bai felt that it's too cold, but this wasn't his car so he didn't complain to the driver. If he can't take it, he will voice out, though.

"At first, the taxi driver would frequently visit his daughter. But that stopped when the daughter's situation worsened. The daughter will vividly explain to the taxi driver that her mother is acting kind of strange."

"One time, the daughter even explained to the taxi driver that his wife is trying to choke him during one of his visits. Of course, the taxi driver felt creeped out because he knew that he was the one that killed his wife!"

"Soon, the taxi driver suggested that his daughter should be sent to a mental hospital. Because the little girl kept claiming that her mother is still alive and is coming to take her away, the doctors also believed that it's best if she is sent away."

"Before they could do anything to her, though, the little girl suddenly did something horrifying. She gorged her eyes out overnight and died due to shock…"

The taxi driver stopped talking again to let Ye Bai absorb what he had just said. After all, he had said a lot in one session.

Hearing that the little girl gorged her own eyes out, Ye Bai lifted his head off the car window and turned his attention towards the taxi driver. Maybe he really saw what he thinks he saw back in the elevator?

Back in the hospital elevator, he had seen the face of the little girl who sat outside the elevator for a split second. Back then, he had thought that he saw it wrong because his mind is a bit foggy and he only had a glimpse of it.

"What happened next?" Ye Bai asked the taxi driver. Is this story true or made up?

"The taxi driver never went to see his daughter after getting the hospital's calls. He just used the rest of his wife's insurance money to have someone cremate his daughter's body. He even had the ashes thrown in some random lake."

"But… He always felt like something is waiting for him in the hospital. That's why he drives his car around the hospital, even at odd hours of the day… Though… He doesn't dare go in because he is afraid of what's awaiting him inside."

The middle-aged taxi man ended his story with a rough voice.

After listening to the taxi driver, Ye Bai felt a chill. He wasn't sure if it was because of the opened window which is letting cold air in or if it's because of the story.

But after listening to the taxi driver's story, Ye Bai couldn't get the little girl he saw on the elevator off of his mind.

Because of this, Ye Bai said to the taxi driver: "I also have a ghost story to tell…"

"Hm? I'll listen." The taxi driver replied to Ye Bai. He had already told his story, what will this youngster tell?

"Okay… I'll start then." Ye Bai copied the taxi driver's deep voice and began his story.

"There was once a boy who had woken up in a hospital after jumping off of a 15-floor building."