Opening my eyes to see a ghost

I looked around at my roommates. They were sound asleep, some even snoring lightly.

I shook my head helplessly; perhaps my nerves were just too sensitive. Just as I lay down to sleep, I suddenly noticed that across from me, Zhang Ye was curled up in the corner at the head of his bed, silently holding that cloth doll.

I quietly walked over and tapped him, "Dormitory Head, what are you doing? Why aren't you sleeping in the middle of the night and just sitting here spacing out?"

Just like in the daytime, he didn't respond to my calls, so I patted his shoulder harder, and he finally reacted.

"Damn it, Yue Ming, are you crazy? Why the hell are you bothering me in the middle of the night?"

I was at a loss for words; he was the one sitting there staring at the cloth doll.

He retorted that he was not crazy, why would he stay up at night, and besides, where would a doll come from in this juvenile detention center?

When I picked up the cloth doll and waved it in front of his face, the color drained from his cheeks, little by little.

"This... Where did this cloth doll come from? Yue Ming, get rid of it right now, your joke is not the slightest bit funny."

I was still puzzled, it was clearly he who had taken it out from room 309 during the day, even saying he wanted to bring it back to scare the roommates. Now, why was he pretending as if it were real? But from the pallor of his now colorless face, it didn't seem like he was lying. Unless he was some sort of an actor with a talent for deceiving with his performance.

I told him what happened during the day, but he insisted that I was joking, especially when I said the doll was taken from room 309.

"Stop... stop joking around, there's no room 309 here. If you keep this up, I'm really going to get mad."

Only then did I realize that this matter was not simple; perhaps the red-dressed woman was not really sealed away and still lingered within this prison, with her "home" likely still being room 107.

I picked up the cloth doll and asked him if he still wanted it, how he wished to dispose of it.

He pulled his blanket up further, huddling tighter, and said it was up to me to do whatever I wanted with it, just to get rid of it, preferably by burning it.

Burn it? I did want to burn it, but there was no fire here, and even if there was, lighting something in the dormitory would just be inviting trouble.

Seeing how frightened Zhang Ye was, I placed the cloth doll under my bed and softly chanted a spell: "Transform sky into prison, earth into jail, the circle into boundary, no evil shall prevail, swiftly may this command avail."

After I finished reciting, I quickly drew a circle around the cloth doll with my shoe, enclosing it within.

Everything was settled, and after comforting Zhang Ye until he fell asleep, I dragged my tired body back to bed.

As I was drifting off, I felt bursts of warm air hitting my face, which was very uncomfortable. Slowly, I opened my eyes.

Ah...

I screamed and tumbled out of bed, because as soon as I opened my eyes, I saw someone standing face to face with me, and I was so scared that my soul nearly flew out.

My scream woke everyone else up, and they all blamed the Dormitory Head standing by the bed and me lying halfway on the ground for disturbing their rest.

But at that moment, my gaze was glued to the Dormitory Head, for I had noticed his eyes—slightly glowing green—possessed by a ghost.

There were no chopsticks in the cell, so how was I going to drive it away? Just as I was trying to come up with a plan, the Dormitory Head spoke up.

He questioned me in a strange, ghastly voice, asking why I had locked up her child, whether I was planning to kill her child.

I quickly denied it, saying I saw the little girl lost. Seeing she was quite cute, I kept her here, waiting for her mother to come and claim her.

The other cellmates watched us from their beds, unsure of what kind of show we were putting on. Was this some kind of performance?

"Give me back my child..." That eerie and weird voice came again.

By now I had figured out a strategy, remembering Master's 'Three Pure Ones Finger' technique for exorcising ghosts, I slowly pulled the cloth doll out from under the bed and gently passed it over.

I thought I saw a look of delight in the Dormitory Head's eyes, slowly... slowly, just as he was about to grab the cloth doll, I leapt forward, and with the 'Three Pure Ones Finger' I struck him heavily on the forehead.

A scream came from the Dormitory Head as he collapsed softly onto the ground. Without delay, I tossed the cloth doll back into the middle of the circle.

Seeing the Dormitory Head go down limp, the cellmates thought I had done him in. They all crowded around, and one of them went so far as to check his breathing. Finding that he had only fainted, no one said anything, knowing the Warden would take care of any issues.

"I want revenge, I want to kill all of you..." A sudden voice came from behind all of us, and as we turned to look, we were scared half to death, dragging the Dormitory Head with us as we squeezed into the corner of the cell.

They saw at the same time a woman dressed in red, with iron chains on her feet. There was a big bloody hole where her left eye should have been, with red and white matter occasionally oozing out.

I stepped forward seven steps in the pattern of the Big Dipper to confront the woman in red.

Suddenly, she moved, lunging swiftly toward my neck. I lifted my right leg and executed a kick—Kui Star Kick Fight.

A streak of golden light flashed by, and the woman in red was sent flying out, effortlessly passing through the door of the cell and landing in the hallway.

I stepped up to the cell door, bit my right index finger, and quickly drew a Spirit Talisman on the door in the manner of a sword finger.

With the Spirit Talisman obstructing her, the woman in red was kept out. She slammed into the cell door forcefully, making deafening noises.

The noise reached the ears of the on-duty Warden, who put on his clothes, grabbed a plastic baton, and stormed out. He was determined to find out which troublemaker was making the noise and deal with him properly.

Not far from there, the Warden saw the woman in red in the hallway, questioned her loudly, and charged forward. Was this an escape attempt? And in red clothes?

No matter what, the woman in red couldn't get in. Full of rage and with nowhere to vent, the arrival of a Warden presented her with a target, so she screamed and pounced...

Ah...

The scream had barely begun when it cut off, followed by the sound of bones being crunched, which gave people the creeps.

The next day, the police carried away the Warden's body. Everyone was ordered to stay inside the cell, not allowed to take a single step outside.

An unsolved case unfolded, and from the surveillance footage, the police saw the Warden, baton in hand, storm out of the duty room and then run forward a few steps.

Then his head separated from his body first, with blood spraying all the way to the ceiling, followed by his arms, as if lifted by something, then severed from the base...