The World Below Surface

The candle was slender and frail, consumed by the hungry flame. Molten wax seared their skin, but they endured the pain.

Only Jin Fu Gui whimpered softly, unable to stifle his fear. The others held their breaths and advanced with caution.

They dared not hasten their pace; the feeble fire was easily snuffed out. If they stirred the air too much, the flame would waver and dim, threatening to leave them in darkness.

But even as they moved with care, the fire dwindled by the second. The candle melted away, leaving Jin Fu Gui with a stub. He tried to salvage some wax from a nearby statue, hoping to extend its life.

He failed.

The statue was slick and viscous, defying his grip. He managed to break off a bit of its finger, only to unleash a gush of blood from the wound. Horrified, Jin Fu Gui recoiled and froze.

His candle died.

The faint glow revealed the wax figures around them, slowly turning their heads with a creaking sound. Their eyes rolled in their sockets, scanning the intruders.

“Keep going!” Lin Chu shouted, pulling out another candle from his pocket. He snapped it in half and threw it to Jin Fu Gui, who caught it with relief. He lit the candle and blew on his burnt hand, trying to soothe the sting.

Lu Yan's gaze fell on two candles.

They flickered inside a statue that loomed seven or eight metres away, a grotesque sight that made his stomach churn. A man with a twisted grin held two candles like daggers, plunging them into a woman's eyes as she writhed and shrieked in pain. The wax statue was so lifelike that Lu Yan felt a sharp pang in his own eyes, as if the molten wax was searing his flesh.

The heat inside the building was suffocating, and the floor was covered with a thick layer of melted wax that kept rising and spreading. The air was sticky and humid, clinging to his skin and clothes. He looked up and saw the wax flames dancing like hellish tongues, licking the ceiling that was stained with blood. The crimson liquid boiled and bubbled, sending hot vapours into the air.

Lu Yan and his companions struggled to move forward, as more and more wax figures blocked their way. Some of them were frozen in horror, others in agony, and others in ecstasy. The wax reached their ankles, and every step was harder than the last. The wax hardened around their feet, trapping them like cement.

But Jiang Yu's group had it worse.

They had no candles to light their way, and the wax figures were not passive. They lunged at them, grabbing and biting and scratching, trying to drag them into the wax sea and keep them there forever.

**

On the other side of the town.

A man walked down the street, carrying a long-handled axe over his shoulder. His clothes were soaked with blood, but he did not seem to mind.

It was daytime, but the sky was dark and stormy, as if a curse had fallen over the town. The clouds hung low, almost touching the roofs of the buildings, and the wind howled like a banshee, shaking the windows and doors. The people had fled to their homes, hiding from the chaos outside.

But the man did not care. He walked with a steady pace, as if he owned the street. The wind did not bother him, it seemed to go through him, leaving his clothes and hair unruffled.

He walked with a bloody axe, leaving a trail of crimson drops behind him.

A man scurried along the road, his body bent and his pace quick. He wanted to get home as soon as possible, away from the strange weather that hung over the town. He ignored the gusts of wind that whipped his face and the dark clouds that loomed above. He felt a brush on his shoulder, a flash of red in his peripheral vision. He looked back, against his better judgement.

The person who had bumped him was already ahead of him, but he had turned his head to meet his gaze.

No, he didn't turn his body... only his head...

His neck had twisted in an unnatural way, a full 180 degrees, to stare at him with cold eyes.

The man felt a chill in his veins, a paralysis in his limbs. He tried to run, but he couldn't. He was being pulled towards the person in the bloody clothes, as if by an invisible force.

No! Stay away! Help!

Help!

He cried out in terror, but no one heard him. His limbs betrayed him, moving him closer and closer to the person with the bloody axe.

And then, his neck snapped 180 degrees...

"Jesus Christ..."

A girl saw it all from a high-rise building across the street. She slammed the curtains shut, clutching her chest, and whispered, "It's a ghost... It has to be a ghost, right? The police said Lu Yan was dead."

'Oh God, he saw me. Is he coming for me?'

'Wait, is he the one behind all those killings, those break-ins, in the news?'

The dead man had killed many in his life, but now he was even more dangerous as a vengeful spirit.

The girl felt a surge of fear and shock at the idea.

She shivered as she crept towards the window, carefully lifting a corner of the curtains to look outside.

On the street, the bloody figure remained, seemingly unremarkable.

'Thank God... thank God he didn't see me.'

Only then did she notice that she had been holding her breath, tense and nervous. Her palms were clammy, and the curtain was damp where she had touched it.

But... why did she still feel so uneasy?

She had the sensation of being watched.

'No! Go away! Whatever you are, go away!'

She squirmed, restless and anxious, and drank a glass of water to calm herself, but it only made her more jittery. She walked around the room, unable to sit still.

Something was wrong...

The figure she had glimpsed, there was something off about him!

What was it?

The girl tried to think, feeling her heart pounding faster, as if... something eerie was about to happen.

"Maybe… maybe I should check again?”

'He didn't see me the first two times, so maybe I can sneak another look, right? As long as I'm discreet.' She thought.

The girl approached the window, her body rigid with tension. In the silent room, she could hear her own shallow breath and the loud beating of her heart.

'No! Don't look!!' Her inner voice shrieked as her feet carried her to the window.

'Stop! If he sees you, you're dead!!'

She reached the window.

'No! Don't let him see you!! Don't look don't look don't look!'

Her hand gripped the edge of the curtain, gently pulling it back, creating a small opening. Then, she leaned forward, slowly, cautiously, to peek outside.

She faced a blood-red eye.

The head hovered behind the opening, gazing at her intently, waiting for her to move the curtain. And then—kill!!

"Ahhhh—"

**

Somewhere nearby, a scream pierced the air.

Di Ying, Xi Men Yuan, and others were in the same building. They heard the scream and quickly ducked behind the curtain, scanning the surroundings for the source of the sound.

They gasped at the sight of the blood-soaked building, a gruesome canvas of death and horror. How many lives had been drained to paint such a macabre scene? They watched in shock as mutilated corpses were hurled from the windows, landing with sickening thuds on the pavement.

"It's happening again, the killing spree, and our building is next on the list," Di Ying whispered, yanking the curtains closed. Her voice cracked with fear as she urged them, "We have to get out of here, now! If that thing gets inside, we're all doomed!"

"The rooftop is our only chance. The stairs are too risky. We can leap to the next building and make a run for it on the other street."

They wasted no time in grabbing their belongings and sprinting upwards.

They had made the right call; as they reached the fifth floor, they heard the screams from below.

"Faster! Faster!"

Nobody in their right mind would use the elevator, they all scrambled up with their bags. The screams grew louder and more frantic, they could almost... taste the blood.

The rooftop was on the eighth floor, the door was locked, Tan Xu kicked it open, then turned around to grab Xi Men Yuan, and the two of them dashed inside.

They stopped dead in their tracks.

The rooftop was lined with clotheslines.

From each pole that held the clothesline, a grisly trophy dangled: a human skin, peeled off and stretched out, its yellowish hue betraying the layers of fat that clung to it. On top of each skin, a mass of black hair waved in the wind, as if mocking the lifeless flesh below. The wind tried to tear them off, but they held on stubbornly, refusing to let go.

"Come on, don't look at them, just move!"

The newcomers recoiled in horror, but Xi Men Yuan grabbed Tan Xu by the arm and dragged him along. "Hurry up! Don't touch anything!" he hissed.

How could they have expected such a sight on the top floor?

The others followed them, weaving their way through the macabre curtains of skin that flapped in the wind, making their way to the edge of the floor.

As they stepped in, the skins seemed to sense their presence, and began to writhe and twist in the wind, as if trying to break free.

The wind grew stronger.

At last, a skin came loose, soaring in the air, spinning twice before gently falling.

It had a target. It aimed for Di Ying, who was running behind the others. It glided towards her, closing the gap between them. No matter how fast she ran, it followed her.

Di Ying clenched her teeth and sprinted forward, swerving left and right to evade the limp, flabby hands that reached out from the skins, listening to the screams of agony around her.

The human skins, like hungry parasites, sought new flesh to feed on. They clung to their victims, slowly choking the life out of them. The skins of the chosen ones grew hotter and hotter, as if they were being boiled alive.

And they were. Their insides cooked until they were tender and juicy. Then, with a gentle slice of a knife, they were flipped over, and their muscles and bones spilled out like soup, forming a thick, bloody puddle on the floor.

Xi Men Yuan and Tan Xu had already escaped to the edge of the roof. They looked back and saw the carnage, feeling their stomachs churn and their throats tighten. They quickly climbed onto the railing and jumped.

The building across was only two metres away, a bit lower. They could make it if they tried hard enough. They pushed themselves to the limit and landed safely on the rooftop of the other building.

Next was Di Ying. She didn't hesitate. She stepped on the railing, balanced herself, and leaped. She landed gracefully on the ground. The skin that was meant for her missed its target, and wrapped around another unlucky soul.

The last one had no time to think. He ran for his life, then his eyes bulged—

There was a clothesline pole on the rooftop of the other building, made of bamboo, with a sharp end.

He couldn't change his course in mid-air, and no one was close enough to help him. He could only watch in horror as the bamboo pole impaled him through the mouth, creating a grotesque spectacle.

The image flashed in his mind: a child’s cruel hand, grasping a grasshopper by its legs, thrusting a slender stalk of grass into its gaping mouth, skewering it from end to end, and bending it into a loop to trap the doomed insect.

Xi Men Yuan shuddered, not knowing where this sickening vision came from, but feeling a surge of nausea.

“We have to go. Now.” He yanked Tan Xu by the arm, who nodded grimly and followed his lead.

Behind them, two more figures stumbled after them, barely keeping up. Together, they formed a ragged group of five, racing down the stairs.

By some miracle, this building had escaped the notice of the horrors outside, and they reached the ground floor without encountering any trouble. They burst through the door—

And found themselves in a wax hell.

The place was vast and dim, populated by grotesque and uncanny wax figures, frozen in twisted poses. The heat was oppressive, melting the wax on the floor into a sticky pool that reached their ankles.

Xi Men Yuan’s eyes widened as he recognized some of the faces. “Jiang Yu? How did you get here?”

He barely finished his question when more people poured in, stopping in shock and confusion.

Lu Yan’s face darkened. There were too many people, and not enough candles.