Chapter 219 Hospital Aberration

“Young lady, I’m dying… Can you call the police for me?”

The old woman in the hospital gown had a smile on her face as she walked toward her, one step at a time.

That smile looked deeply unsettling on the face of a dying woman.

Peng ZhenNi instinctively took two steps back, her eyes filled with terror.

‘How could someone who’s just been in a car crash, on the verge of death, possibly smile?’

‘And why was her smile so… eerie?’

She suddenly felt like all those horror novels she’d read were complete bullshit.

‘That whole trope about “the old person in strange clothes who is obviously not right, but the heroine insists on going over to help”—wasn’t that just the act of a complete moron?’

Now that it was really happening to her, all she wanted to do was run as far away as she could.

The curve of the old woman’s smile stretched wider and wider:

“Why won’t you save me… Why won’t you save me!”

Her voice grew shriller with each repetition, until it no longer sounded human.

The next second, the old woman suddenly dropped to the ground, landing on all fours, and charged at her like a wild beast.

Peng ZhenNi clamped her hands tightly over her mouth, her pupils filled with pure terror.

The fear was bone-deep, her instincts screaming in alarm.

‘This thing in front of me… it’s like a natural predator of humanity!’

Her legs felt as if they were filled with lead, robbing her of the courage to even run.

Just as the old woman was about to pounce, Jiang Chaosheng moved.

He shot out a hand and clamped it on the old woman’s head. His fingers tightened, and he lifted her clean off the ground before viciously slamming her back down.

“THUD—”

The old woman hit the ground but started to get back up as if she were completely unharmed.

Jiang Chaosheng lifted his foot and brought it down squarely on her neck.

The entire sequence of moves was clean and fluid, possessing a brutal elegance that made one’s teeth ache.

Peng ZhenNi swallowed hard:

“What… what in the world is going on…”

Jiang Chaosheng rummaged through his backpack for something, his tone as calm as if he were commenting on the nice weather:

“Your grandfather told you, didn’t he? From the moment he told me about Hell, they would start targeting you.”

Peng ZhenNi slowly lowered her gaze to the old woman pinned to the ground by his foot, her face a mask of horror:

“This… This is something from Hell? Then, who are you? A priest? An Exorcist?”

“CREAK—CREAK—”

The old woman’s neck suddenly twisted one hundred and eighty degrees to face Jiang Chaosheng.

Blood trickled from the corners of her mouth. Her eyes, bloodshot and bulging from the unnatural angle, stared up at him. And yet, that eerie smile never wavered.

“Manager.”

Her voice turned low and raspy, as if forced from deep within her throat:

“Are you sure you want to get involved in this mess?”

Peng ZhenNi stared blankly at Jiang Chaosheng.

‘Manager?’

‘What does that mean?’

Jiang Chaosheng finally pulled what he was looking for from his bag.

An ancient flintlock gun, its body glowing with a dim light.

He leveled the gun with one hand, aiming for the center of her forehead:

“So you do know who I am.”

He pulled the trigger.

“BANG—”

A crimson bullet disappeared into the center of the old woman’s forehead.

Peng ZhenNi screamed and covered her eyes, but couldn’t resist peeking through her fingers.

The gruesome explosion she expected never came.

The bullet simply vanished into the old woman’s forehead.

“AH!!!”

The old woman let out a bloodcurdling scream.

Two seconds later, the scream abruptly stopped.

She closed her eyes. Her face became surprisingly serene, as if the earlier ferocity and eeriness had never existed.

‘Like… a normal old woman who had been possessed.’

‘The possessing entity was dead, so she returned to her original state.’

The gunshot was especially piercing in the night.

Passersby, in twos and threes, had noticed the commotion. Someone was already pulling out a phone to call the police.

Jiang Chaosheng put away the gun and glanced at Peng ZhenNi:

“Go get your things.”

“Oh, oh! Okay!”

Peng ZhenNi forced her stunned brain to reboot, then turned and hurried upstairs.

….

「Nightfall. Jiangchuan Third Hospital.」

“Move! Get out of the way!”

A gurney raced down the hallway, several nurses pushing it frantically while a doctor ran ahead to clear the way.

The patients and their families in the emergency hall all moved aside, their gazes following the gurney—some with pity, some with curiosity.

On the gurney lay a biker who had just been in a crash. His face was covered in blood, and one leg was twisted at an unbelievable angle, dangling limply over the side like a noodle.

His vital signs were so weak they were almost undetectable.

The gurney was rushed into the trauma bay. The doctor immediately started an IV and began to stanch the bleeding while nurses deftly hooked up the monitors.

“BEEP… BEEP… BEEP…”

The beeping was slow and faint.

“Adrenaline! Blood bag!”

Sweat rolled down the doctor’s forehead, his hands never stopping for a moment.

“BEEEEEEP—”

The long, flat tone was like a needle piercing everyone’s heart.

The nurses stopped what they were doing.

The doctor stood in place, silent for a few seconds, then slowly removed his blood-stained gloves.

“Send him to the Morgue,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Notify the family.”

He turned and walked out of the trauma bay, leaned against the hallway wall, closed his eyes, and sighed.

From inside, he could hear the clatter of nurses cleaning up their instruments.

“BEEP… BEEP… BEEP…”

The monitor suddenly started beeping again.

The doctor froze, then spun around and pushed his way back inside.

The white sheet was suddenly thrown off, and the biker on the gurney sat bolt upright.

The two nurses staggered backward, their faces deathly pale.

The biker’s eyes were open, his pupils spinning frantically in their sockets, as fast as two runaway gears.

He didn’t look like a living person, but more like a machine that had just been forcibly switched on.

“What’s wrong? What happened?!”

The doctor rushed in, but when he saw the scene, he stopped dead in his tracks.

The doctor’s pupils instantly constricted to pinpricks.

The corners of his mouth slowly curved upward into an eerie arc.

The biker swung himself off the gurney, his gait unsteady, like a puppet that had just learned to walk.

He ignored everyone in the room and walked straight for the door, his destination terrifyingly clear: the stairwell.

The doctor and nurses held their breath, watching helplessly as he vanished down the hall.

….

「At the same time, in the Morgue.」

The cold body lockers were embedded in the wall. A dozen or so stainless steel tables were neatly arranged, and on each table lay a person, covered with a white sheet.

Under the stark white light, a young security guard sat in a chair, head down, playing on his phone.

Being a security guard at the Third Hospital’s Morgue was a cushy job. The pay was a few hundred higher than a normal post, but the work was pitifully scarce.

Aside from the unsettling business of sharing a room with the dead, everything else was great.

He was brave and didn’t believe in the supernatural. He’d just laugh whenever he saw those online tropes about “morgue security guards are all reclusive masters.”

Online commenters always asked him, “Ever seen a Ghost?”

‘What a joke. There’s no such thing as ghosts.’

“CLANG!”

The sound wasn’t loud, but in the silent morgue, it was jarring.

The security guard, who was in the middle of an online game with his sister, jumped, nearly dropping his phone.

He slowly turned his head.

The dozen or so bodies under white sheets had all sat up in unison.

Motionless. They just sat there quietly, the white sheets draped over them, like a row of silent statues.

A short scream escaped the security guard’s throat.

His sister’s annoyed voice came from the other end of the phone:

“What the hell was that! You scared me!”

He didn’t have time to answer.

The white sheet on one of the dead bodies slid off, revealing a pale, stiff face.

Its pupils spun frantically in their sockets as its head trembled violently, shaking with an amplitude no human could achieve.

Then—it froze.

Its pupils contracted to pinpricks.

The corners of its mouth curled into an eerie smile.

“CLANG!”

The security guard stiffly turned his head.

The sound came from the body lockers.

Something was slamming against the locker door from the inside.

“CLANG!”

“CLANG!”

“CLANG CLANG CLANG—”

The banging grew faster and louder, until the entire bank of lockers was vibrating.

The world went black for the security guard, and he collapsed.