The World Below Surface

Jin Fu Gui scanned the crowd of hopefuls who had answered his simple ad for singers, a flicker of relief crossing his face. He had feared that no one would show up, that his opera troupe would die out like so many others in this bleak and barren land.

He cleared his throat, which felt like sandpaper, and croaked out his questions. "Welcome, welcome. Who's here for an interview? Alright, alright, alright. What songs do you know? Can you give me a sample?" His voice was weak and slow, but his eyes sparkled with a hint of enthusiasm.

Lu Yan observed the fat man from afar, sensing something off. Jin Fu Gui hadn't shed a tear since losing his children, merely maintaining a faint smile. But he shrugged it off since the whole town seemed off. Nobody seemed to care much about the dead bodies piling up in the streets or the eerie silence that hung over the night.

He recognized a few faces among the applicants, but most of them were unfamiliar as they belonged to the second wave of arrivals.

There was Lin Chu, a pretty girl who could carry a tune, and Qiu Zhi, a former soldier who had a booming voice. Lin Chu passed the test easily, humming a melody that Jin Fu Gui nodded along to. Qiu Zhi, however, shocked him with a loud and raucous military song that made him flinch.

Jin Fu Gui ended up hiring five people. He was a frugal man, but he knew he had to invest in his troupe if he wanted to survive. He rented a small courtyard in the town for them to stay, hoping that it would be safe and comfortable. He couldn't afford to lose any more of his performers.

He bowed deeply to Lu Yan, his voice raspy and grateful. "Brother Jiang, I'm counting on you. "

The others understood that they had to learn from this guy to master the tunes. They didn't question his authority, no matter what they thought in their hearts, they only referred to him as Brother Jiang with respect.

Lin Chu had her suspicions, though. If Lu Yan was willing to remain in this opera troupe, there must be something odd about it.

She waited for a chance to talk to him alone, when the others were busy settling in their rooms. She approached him quietly, hoping to get some answers. Lu Yan was guarded, though, and he only told her one thing: to memorise the two songs that Jin Fu Gui had given them, as best as she could.

As the sun set over the courtyard, Lu Yan opened his mouth and let the song ‘Emperor’s Sacrifice’ spill out. He had an uncanny memory, a perfect recall of every sound and note. But his voice was wrong, somehow. It was flat and mechanical, without a trace of feeling or warmth. It sounded like a machine, not a man.

Jin Fu Gui shivered, feeling a chill run down his spine. He muttered to himself, clutching his ears as he walked away. “What a strange voice… It’s not bad, but it’s not right either. Why does he sing like that?”

He left behind five others, who were trapped in their own hell. They had to learn the song, or else. They had no choice, no escape. They listened to Lu Yan’s voice, trying to memorise the words and the tunes, but it felt like needles piercing their brains.

**

Meanwhile, in another part of the town, something was stirring.

Fang Su Li (方素丽: “a simple and elegant direction” or “a plain and beautiful square”) was part of the second group of taskers. Despite the need for secrecy in the tasks, they were able to identify each other through subtle clues without openly revealing or discussing their involvement. She joined forces with a few others and together they secured temporary employment at a supermarket.

Spirit Vale Town, surviving until the Cultural Festival… It sounded like a twisted joke.

Upon arriving in town, they immediately delved into the local gossip, eager to uncover the recent events that had stirred up the community. The more they listened, the more a sense of unease crept over them, as if they had unknowingly entered a distorted version of reality.

“Thank God the bastard who caused the explosion is dead. He could have taken the whole supermarket with him,” Fang Su Li muttered to her friend, Zhang Yuan (张媛:“a graceful woman who spreads beauty” or “a lady who opens up gracefully”), as they walked through the dimly lit aisles.

Zhang Yuan shivered and glanced around nervously. “But did you hear how he died? It’s so weird. It’s like… it’s like there’s…”

Fang Su Li whispered the last word. “A ghost.”

Zhang Yuan nodded, feeling a cold sweat on her forehead. “I know. The police got a call from him. When they got there, he was already dead. Who do you think called them?”

“Enough with the spooky stories, you two,” another colleague, Tu Heng (凃恒: “a constant painter” or “a permanent smearer”), interrupted them. “We have work to do. We have three new recruits in the troupe. Maybe we can speed up the preparations for the cultural festival.”

They had taken advantage of the tragedy that killed most of the supermarket staff and had infiltrated the place as taskers. The explosions had scared away the customers, so the manager had cut down on the electricity bills, leaving only a few lights on to cast faint shadows on the walls.

What they didn’t notice was that behind them, in the clothing section, something was stirring. The face of a plastic mannequin cracked open with a faint sound, revealing a bloody mess underneath.

The lights flickered.

Zhang Yuan shivered as she gazed at the flickering incandescent light above her. "This supermarket is way too run-down, and now there's a power outage!?" She muttered a curse under her breath. The supermarket was a dilapidated mess, and the sudden power outage only added to the gloom.

A sudden chill ran down her spine as she turned her head, feeling a prickling sensation on the back of her neck.

Someone was watching her.

She had seen enough horrors in her previous missions to know that this was not a good sign. She quickly whispered to Fang Su Li, who was next to her, “Do you feel it too? That someone is watching us?”

Tu Heng overheard her and her eyes widened. “What? You felt it just now?” She asked, alarmed. She knew this was serious.

Zhang Yuan nodded, her hands trembling. “I don’t know what it is, but I feel like someone is watching me.” She could not shake off the feeling of being observed by an unseen presence.

She felt very uneasy.

The gaze was still on her, like a dark weight on her chest.

What was it? What did it want?

She felt an urge to look behind her, to confront the source of her fear, but she couldn't muster the courage. She was afraid of what she might see. She imagined a horrific creature, a twisted ghost, a nightmare made flesh.

“Fang Su Li, please, can you check for me, is there really nothing behind me?” Zhang Yuan looked at her with a pleading gaze, tears filling her eyes.

Fang Su Li felt a surge of pity and fear for her friend. She did not feel the gaze herself, so she felt somewhat relieved in her heart.

Fang Su Li tried to summon some courage from within. "Just a second, okay? Let me take a look," she said, squeezing Zhang Yuan's hand as if it were her lifeline. Her palm was slick with sweat, and she felt her pulse racing. She told herself it was going to be alright, as she slowly and carefully turned her head to face the horror behind them.

But there was nothing.

The shelves were neatly stacked with clothes, each one identical to the next, creating a monotonous pattern of fabric and colour.

Except for that mannequin...

Fang Su Li frowned.

Something was off about that mannequin. She knew the owner of this supermarket was a cheapskate, but would he really use such a grotesque and distorted dummy?

"Did you see anything? Can we go now?" Zhang Yuan whispered, her voice trembling.

Fang Su Li hesitated, "No, there's nothing there. You can look for yourself."

She let go of Zhang Yuan's hand and took a step towards the mannequin.

As she got closer, she saw the cracks on its face widen.

It was a horrifying sight, like a broken mask.

And why did that face look so familiar?

She had seen it somewhere before.

"What are you doing? Come on, let's get out of here. This place gives me the creeps," Zhang Yuan pleaded, sounding close to tears.

Fang Su Li trailed off, her voice fading. "No, it's just..." She edged closer to the mannequin, her curiosity overcoming her fear. "You have to see this."

Zhang Yuan resisted, but Fang Su Li's persistence wore her down. She reluctantly turned her head.

But what she saw made her gasp. Fang Su Li had somehow dragged the mannequin behind her, close enough to touch. It leaned towards them, its face cracked and twisted. It was barely a foot away from her!

And the lifeless eyes with pupils on the mannequin's face locked onto hers.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Zhang Yuan shrieked and leaped back, putting as much distance as she could between them.

Fang Su Li said, "Don't freak out. Doesn't it look familiar? Where do we know it from?"

Her words brought Zhang Yuan back to reality.

She forced herself to look at the mannequin again. Weird, it did seem familiar.

Where had they seen it before?

The cracks on the face widened, slowly peeling off, revealing more of what was underneath. By the time they realised what it was, half of the body was exposed.

It was human skin!

So familiar... where had they seen it before?

They were so engrossed in the mannequin that they didn't notice that Tuo Heng had gone silent.

She stood there, still and stiff, like a plastic mannequin.

"Too uncanny... as if it was a living person..."

Fang Su Li gasped and slapped her forehead. “Oh my God, do you see it? This mannequin, it’s his exact replica. Lu Yan, the fugitive the police were hunting down.”

She barely finished her sentence when the last shred of plastic fell from the model’s face, revealing a human face. A familiar one, from the wanted poster. Almost too perfect!

“It is him! It has to be him!” Zhang Yuan exclaimed, feeling a surge of relief. But then, a sharp pain pierced her neck.

The next moment, she was flying through the air, her vision spinning wildly. She caught a glimpse of a headless corpse, clad in her clothes, spewing blood from the gaping wound, before it hit the ground with a thud.

The plastic model wielded an axe, stalking towards Fang Su Li.

Fang Su Li snapped out of her trance.

What had she done...what had she been thinking?! Why had she spent so much time ignorantly discussing the eerie mannequin with Zhang Yuan?

She spun around and sprinted, panic and remorse filling her chest. She screamed at the top of her lungs, “Run! There’s a ghost! Help! Help!”

The other workers heard her cries and scattered. Fang Su Li was on the second floor, in the clothing section. She dashed down the escalator, hoping to catch up with the others. She pleaded, “Wait for me! Don’t leave me behind!”

But no one stopped for her. They all saw the figure with the long-handled axe emerging from the second floor, looming over them. That figure… who could it be but Lu Yan, the man the police had declared dead?

She ran for her life, but the mannequin did not follow. It only stared with its blank eyes.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs and prepared to dash towards the exit, she felt a sudden jolt under her feet. The floor tiles gave way, revealing a dark abyss below. Before she could scream, a cold and clammy hand wrapped around her ankle and yanked her down with brutal force.

She vanished into the gaping hole, swallowed by the unknown. The escalator kept running, carrying the sound of her bones crunching and her flesh ripping.

Upstairs, the plastic models that had lined the shelves began to crack open, exposing the faces hidden inside. Faces that looked just like the people who had been shopping there moments ago.

They stirred, shaking off their stiffness, and then they walked. They walked out of the store, in search of their doubles. To take their place in the world.

The one that looked like Lu Yan carried a long-handled axe. It slipped out of the door, leaving no trace of where it was going.

One of the surviving workers burst into the apartment he shared with his companion, gasping for breath. "It's haunted! It's fucking haunted!" he shouted, slamming the door behind him.

He saw a human silhouette on the balcony with a long shadow and assumed it was his friend.

"What's haunted?" a voice asked.

"There's a haunting at the supermarket! I was just there, a vengeful spirit killed someone. Luckily, I ran fast and made it back in time," he explained.

"What haunting?" his companion asked again.

He felt a surge of frustration and anger. "Are you deaf? The supermarket where I work part-time, you idiot! The one on Main Street!" He staggered to the coffee table and snatched a glass of water, hoping to calm his nerves.

He took a big gulp, then spat it out with a scream. "What the hell is this?"

The glass was infested with tiny white worms, wriggling and squirming in the liquid.

Had he just drunk from this?

A wave of nausea and bile rose in his throat. He was about to throw up when he heard the voice again, asking the same question. "What haunting?"

He realised something was very wrong.

Walking towards the balcony, he stepped on the shadow of his companion. It felt cold and solid under his feet. Looking outside, he expected to see his friend leaning on the railing.

But there was no one there.

The shadow he stepped on was not attached to anyone.

"What haunting?" the voice asked for the last time.

He spun around, desperate to flee, but his own shadow betrayed him. It's hand wrapped around his ankle like a snake, tightening its grip. He felt a cold something clutch his leg and yank him down with brutal force.

He fell.

He merged with the shadow, forming a dark stain on the ground. Soon after, the single shadow on the ground divided into two.

**

A figure emerged from the shadows of the town centre holding a bloodied, long-handled axe. With a casual stride, he entered a building on the ground floor where a family resided.

One by one, screams pierced the night, leaving behind an eerie silence as the lights in the houses flickered and died.