005, Who is outside the door?

He inserted the key, turned it.

Click...

Pushing open the door, a cold breeze blew in.

Du Wei's gaze was serene, as usual, he walked in.

There wasn't the sudden drop in temperature one might imagine, nor the spine-chilling cold described by third-rate horror writers that would make one's blood run cold.

Everything seemed to have remained unchanged.

Du Wei hung up the 'Open for Business' sign and then took out the laptop from the first floor, sitting on the coffee-colored sofa where he received patients, and booted up the web browser.

Father Tony had said that when an Evil Spirit sets its sights on someone, running is useless, as it would only provoke it to strike earlier, resulting in a quicker death.

So staying at home for the time being was a choice that couldn't be said to be good or bad, at least, home was a familiar place, which was more comfortable than an unfamiliar location.

He typed "Evil Spirit" into the web browser's search bar and pressed enter.

Soon, Du Wei's eyes were met with post after post and wiki entries about Evil Spirits.

There were over fifty pages.

Du Wei picked out a few older posts and began reading.

...

July 14, 1978, Tuesday.

Conas State, suburban town, the Roger family—collective disappearance.

As an oil painting enthusiast, Roger was very fond of collecting famous paintings. On July 2, 1978, he purchased an oil painting from an unnamed merchant, painted by the artist Barov—named, Another Door.

In the early hours of July 14, Roger's neighbors heard some strange noises, like two people arguing. The noise continued for an hour, followed by silence, and about ten minutes later, the neighbors heard Roger's cries of pain.

The neighbors knocked on the door to inquire, but received no response.

The following morning, the family of four had vanished from the human world, with no one knowing where they had gone to this day.

...

December 2, 1989, Friday.

Jedecra State, the Evil Spirit Mary incident.

Evil Spirit Mary was a piece of folk horror lore from Jedecra State.

On December 1, a girl of the same name, Mary, conducted a Spirit Summoning game with her classmates at school.

Their method of Spirit Summoning appeared to be some kind of Voodoo Cult ritual; according to recollections from those present, they placed a piece of paper in the classroom, and everyone contributed items like hair, fingernails, blood, and so forth.

After the Spirit Summoning Ritual concluded, they all heard a woman's sinister voice; she—it—said a name: Mary...

On December 2, Friday, all who had participated in the Spirit Summoning game suddenly began screaming frantically during class.

The others tried to restrain Mary and the others, tying them to chairs and calling the police.

But the chairs, as if affected by some mysterious force, eerily floated in mid-air, then upturned, and crashed to the ground.

Except for one lucky survivor, all others died on the spot from broken necks.

That survivor was the girl named Mary.

After the incident, the school was closed off until it was eventually demolished in this century, and a hospital was built on the old site.

Note: The Evil Spirit Mary incident is completely true; all relevant information can be verified, and it is hoped that the truth behind the Evil Spirit Mary incident will be unveiled soon.

...

"Spirit Summoning games..."

After reading the information about the Evil Spirit Mary incident, Du Wei frowned slightly, his gaze fixed on the words "Spirit Summoning games."

For some reason,

he suddenly thought of the little girl Reagan who came for a psychological consultation with her parents on Friday, February 17.

She too had played a Spirit Summoning game. The former nearly died, while the latter developed severe dissociative identity disorder, thinking she was a man named Hoddy...

Wait a minute...

What if, it's not a split personality?

...

Du Wei suddenly had the urge to see that little girl again, to understand what had happened to her, maybe his initial diagnosis was wrong, maybe she really encountered an Evil Spirit...

But just at that moment, a distress post caught his attention.

The post was published at 4:10 a.m. today.

The poster was someone with the username Conan Doyle, a username Du Wei remembered clearly, as this person had left the most comments under the thread he read last night wishing ill upon the poster's mother.

After clicking in.

The content was as follows:

I am Conan Doyle, and I have encountered something incomprehensible.

It was probably a little after 3 a.m., I work as a voice actor, so my working hours are mostly late at night.

I heard a very regular, very... eerie knocking sound?

This was almost impossible, because for professional reasons, my work is done in a professional-level recording studio at home, and under normal circumstances, even if someone fired a gun outside, the sound wouldn't reach the studio.

But the situation was just that weird.

At the time, I didn't think much and just opened the "door" of the recording studio, went to the living room to prepare to open the door, because anyone who would knock at my door at this time must have something very important."

But it was only a momentary lapse in judgment, by the time I got to the door, I suddenly realized that something was wrong.

So, when I approached the door, I didn't open it; instead, I looked through the peephole to see outside.

It was very dark outside, an unnaturally dark...

[So I took a picture]

Du Wei's hand scrolled on the touchpad, and then he saw the photo.

The photo taken by this poster named Conan Doyle was directly aimed at the peephole and used the flash, allowing a view outside the door through the peephole.

Next, he saw an eye filled with bloodshot veins, with a dilated pupil.

...

I am Conan Doyle.

When I saw that eye, I almost peed my pants.

Immediately afterward, I returned to my room. I was very scared, filled with terror, as I had never encountered something so dreadful, something that only exists in novels and horror movies.

But then, I heard footsteps...

The sound was coming from the direction of the recording studio, as if it knew where I was and was heading towards my room...

I immediately dialed the emergency number, but for some reason, the signal on my phone seemed to be affected by some kind of magnetic field and became very poor.

I couldn't get through on the phone...

Stranger, if you see this post, please be sure to call the police, my address is in the North Brook District...

And now, it's in my room...

—4:40 a.m.

Scrolling down, there were responses from people, 80% of which expressed disbelief, accusing the poster of making up ghost stories, and so on...

However, Du Wei's expression froze, he scrolled back to the top of the post, and read it carefully once more.

Then, he took a deep breath...

A bead of cold sweat rolled down his forehead.

He might have made a mistake about something from the very beginning.

In his house, there were two Evil Spirits...