Light in the Darkness Chapter Twenty-Four Ghost Among Ghosts

The group descended the stairs smoothly, encountering no spirits along the way, which finally allowed everyone to breathe a sigh of relief. Upon reaching the first floor, they immediately saw a crowd of more than ten people gathered in front of the basketball room. It was clear this was the location for the second stage of their task. As soon as they stepped inside, a chill swept over them.

At the front stood a male spirit with a body bent like a bow. Why describe him that way? His upper body appeared almost normal, but from the lower abdomen down, it seemed his legs had been crushed, perhaps by a car in life, skewing the lower half to the left. Using the upper body as a reference, his lower legs were on a horizontal plane with his torso, with only his abdomen protruding beyond this line, hence the bow-like shape.

His eyes glowed green, but his face was unrecognizable, as if it had been scorched too long in an oven, oozing a bluish liquid. His head hung askew on his shoulder, and only a pair of intact eyes shone with that eerie green light. He looked every bit like a conscious zombie from a foreign horror film, complete with bluish blood trickling down, making everyone's skin crawl.

"Kekeke..."

"The task for this round is hide-and-seek. Rock, paper, scissors—whoever loses becomes the seeker..."

Though the spirit made no move to open his mouth, his voice rang clearly in everyone's ears. It was evident that whoever was chosen as the seeker would not fare well, nor would those who were found. If the seeker failed to find everyone, the consequences would be just as grim...

"Now, prepare to begin..." As soon as the spirit finished speaking, he took a step forward into the crowd, apparently intent on participating in the game himself. A ghost as the seeker—no scenario could be more harrowing.

As expected, the real ghost became the seeker, while Jiang Li and the others were to hide. The area for hiding was the entire first floor; no one was allowed upstairs or beyond the set boundaries.

"Sixty-second countdown... start..."

"Fifty-nine..."

"Fifty-eight..."

"Fifty-seven..."

...

"Forty-nine..."

...

"Thirty..."

...

"Ten..."

"Nine..."

"Eight..."

"Seven..."

"Six..."

"Five..."

"Four..."

"Three..."

"Two..."

"One..."

Sixty seconds passed quickly. Jiang Li and Fei Ling hid together in the sports equipment storage room. Song Zhi and the beautiful teacher, Song Yan, each found refuge in separate classrooms.

The spirit drifted out of the classroom, narrow eyes darting about. Lockers lined the corridors for students' belongings. A few tall individuals, taking advantage of their height and agility, dared to climb onto the lockers, bracing themselves against the walls. Such a hiding place was only feasible for those with the right physique and quick movements.

At that moment, two men perched above watched the approaching spirit, hearts pounding. The spirit hovered just three centimeters above the floor, gliding past them without pause, eventually vanishing from sight. The two men sighed in relief, cold sweat breaking out from the intense anxiety.

One of them, lying prone, peeked through his legs in the direction the spirit had disappeared, when suddenly his vision went black. A devilish face pressed tightly against his nose.

"Hehe... found one..." the spirit cackled.

Because some distance still separated the two men, the other man hiding above was nearly scared out of his wits, muttering desperately in his heart, "Can't see me... can't see me..."

The unfortunate man was yanked headfirst to the floor, his skull thudding hard. Yet he did not lose consciousness. The last thing he saw was a pair of bluish-black hands drawing steadily closer. That was the final image of his life.

About two meters away, atop the ceiling, another man clasped his mouth in terror, witnessing the horror unfold. As if his prayers had worked, the spirit did not look up as it passed, failing to notice the man hidden above.

The spirit lingered below him for a moment, about to leave in search of new prey, when suddenly cold sweat from the man above dripped onto the spirit's head. Instantly, the spirit toppled backward, lying flat in the air, green eyes staring straight at the man. The upright spirit now floated horizontally, inching closer and closer, the scene twisting as if space itself had flipped. The man, legs braced against the walls, watched as the spirit drifted down from the ceiling, finally settling onto his face.

The second hidden player was found. Aside from the terrified screams echoing down the corridor, Jiang Li and Fei Ling had no way of knowing how close the spirit was. But from two such screams, it was clear that two had already fallen—and the sounds suggested the danger was still some distance from them.

Their storage room was at the very end of the corridor, after a left and right turn, with many classrooms along the way. The spirit would likely find those hiding in classrooms before reaching them. Song Zhi and Song Yan were by the stairs to Jiang Li's right, closer to the left turn in the corridor. The group waited anxiously...

Meanwhile, a man hiding under the teacher's podium noticed something bouncing like a basketball rolling to his feet. Hearing the sound, and assuming it was just a basketball in the dim light, he reached out and grabbed it. Instantly, he felt something strange—a sensation of hair beneath his fingers. Curious, he crawled out, holding the object into the light.

In a flash, terror overwhelmed him. What he held was no basketball; it was the spirit's severed head.

"Third one, found," the head grinned at him, declaring his death sentence.

Anyone stepping out at that moment would witness a sight to shatter their worldview. The spirit's head, body, and hands had split apart, each searching for hiding players in different directions. The head had found the third; the hands set off towards Jiang Li.

Inside their storage room, Jiang Li suddenly heard knocking at the door. He and Fei Ling held their breath. Clearly, this could not be another player—no one would bother knocking; they'd simply enter. So who could it be but the spirit?

Jiang Li scanned the cramped, pitch-black room, cluttered with disordered sports equipment. Fei Ling was panicking too; if the spirit trapped them inside, there would be no escape. They could only hope it wouldn't come in—but reality paid no heed to hopes.

Creak—

The door swung open. Jiang Li and Fei Ling, hiding in opposite corners, tensed and held their breath. Apart from the brief sound of the door, the room was deathly silent.

A pair of disembodied hands, moving with no arms attached, scuttled across the floor like a pianist's fingers. The hands crept ever closer to Jiang Li, who was concealed behind a crate. He dared not peek out; the open door meant the spirit was inside, and any reckless movement would betray him.

The darkness was impenetrable; neither Jiang Li nor Fei Ling saw the hands crawling along the floor. The hands neared, and Jiang Li, highly attuned to danger, felt his heart pounding—some instinct warning him of imminent peril.

Just as the hands were about to reach him, a mouse scuttled from the corner to the door, squeaking. The hands, startled, changed direction, sparing Jiang Li for the moment. Yet how could hands, severed from the body, still respond to sound?

In another classroom, a girl cowered beneath a pile of abandoned desks in a corner, hidden so well she could barely be seen. She had no idea how long she'd been there, only that she had heard several screams already. Terror and helplessness overwhelmed her; she was just an ordinary high school senior, dreaming of university. Who would have thought that everything would change so suddenly?

Lying beneath the desks, the girl heard footsteps outside and began to sob in fear, tears streaming down. Her voice escaped her control and carried beyond the desks; the footsteps entered her classroom. She wiped her tears and covered her mouth, telling herself not to be afraid. From her vantage, she could only see a pair of legs pacing back and forth.

Anxious and terrified, she prayed for a miracle, as in television dramas—a sudden distraction to draw the spirit away. But life was no scripted drama. The spirit, after circling the room and finding nothing, was about to leave when the girl, shifting her numb arm, accidentally scraped a desk. The sound echoed through the silence...