Chapter 4 (1/2)

Well, it seems this series (that started out as a teaser) will be taken on by Yukan from now on. We will try and go for weekly updates. The chapters are long, so, we’ll see how they go before adding more to the schedule.

Reminder: TLC is done as spot checking. Entire doc.u.ment is not TLC-ed.

The year 2016; the beginning of October. In an apartment, south of T city was a single person.

Wu Ma was an engineer for a particular chemical factory in the city. For the past few days, he hadn't been sleeping well due to an endless stream of nightmares.

Tonight, he was lying on the bed, unable to sleep. After an unknown length of time, he finally managed to fall into a muddleheaded one, but it was a light sleep.

The room was humid and dark.

In the pitch-black corner between two walls, a caterpillar slowly crawled out from the darkness.

It was very bright and colourful; its whole body seemed to be covered in velvet thorns.

Its body wriggled, slowly crawling towards the bedside. Using the bed sheet that had fallen onto the floor, it crawled up onto the bed and reached Wu Ma's ear.

Afterwards, it crawled in!

Wu Ma seemed to have felt something as he dreamt. His eyebrows wrinkled and his face twisted as if he was experiencing extreme pain.

Slowly, velvet thorns started to grow on his skin, his body began to bloat, and his head swelled. The man became a gigantic caterpillar!

”AH!”

Wu Ma suddenly sat up, his head full of cold sweat, panting harshly.

A nightmare, it was another nightmare. These days, Wu Ma had been tortured till exhaustion by these dreams.

He sat dazedly upon the bed inside a dimly lit bedroom.

Waking up in the middle of the night, and facing the surrounding pitch-black world alone, there will always be the feeling of disappointment at being abandoned by the world.

Wu Ma picked up his phone and checked the time. It had just reached five am. Dawn would arrive later in the north so, at the moment, the sky was still very dark outside the window.

Every day he would leave for work early in the morning, but at the same time he couldn't sleep well. He might as well just not sleep.

He went to the toilet and turned on the light. In the mirror, his reflection was pale and haggard. Deep, black bags hung from his eyes.

Living alone in a foreign land, with no relatives or friends, and spending the majority of his time at work or travelling to and from his workplace, what followed him was only loneliness and solitude.

Wu Ma desolately stared at the mirror as he brushed his teeth with a dejected expression. His mind was dazed, a mix as if he was thinking of something but also as if his mind was empty.

Right at this time, he caught the vague silhouette of a person flas.h.i.+ng by in the mirror.

This sudden, unexpected occurrence surprised him until he got gooseb.u.mps all over his body.

He quickly turned his head. The mirror was facing the dark living room outside the door. Other than the dim light, there was nothing.

”These past few days my sleep hasn’t been restful. Maybe I was just hallucinating.”

After calming down and thinking about it, Wu Ma comforted himself with these words.

He faced the sink and spat out the toothpaste. However, he just saw red -- completely red.

Were his gums bleeding?

Wu Ma opened his mouth and looked at the mirror and realised that a tooth was loose. He used a finger to test it, and at that, it fell out.

He held the fallen tooth in his palm and stared blankly at it, not understanding why this perfectly fine tooth would just fall out without any warning.

Blood was pouring from the wound; his throbbing mouth now filled with a b.l.o.o.d.y taste.

He held up a cup of water and poured some of it into his mouth, holding it there. He gargled and spat.

Only, when he looked down to at the sink, he drealised that the water he spat out was full of his teeth.

Wu Ma paled with fright and quickly looked in the mirror. All his teeth had actually fallen out!

At this time, he suddenly felt his chest and abdomen moving until it reached up to his throat. ”Wah!” He vomited, but within the vomit, there was a caterpillar still wriggling around!

”Ah!”

Wu Ma shouted and jolted awake; he was on the train to work.

His mind immediately glazed over. His brain had crashed like a computer; it was like a vast and empty s.p.a.ce.

Was it another nightmare?

Wu Ma decided to concentrate. He took a few deep breaths and glanced around.

The train compartment was full to the brim. But compared to the crowd during the morning rush, it was already considered s.p.a.cious.

He leaned against the wall and let out a breath. So he had actually fallen asleep on the way to work. These past few days he hadn't been getting enough sleep. It was exhausting.

He looked up at the light indicating the stations. Luckily he didn't sleep for too long and miss his stop.

It was very quiet on the train. Almost everyone on it was on the phone, with the pa.s.senger’s faces creating a sea of indifference.

Regarding these people in the train, Wu Ma had long stopped caring. T City was a big city, and the people in big cities were usually frigid. It was as if they only cared about themselves and not the rest of the world, unwilling to interact with others.

When they were about to reach his stop, the young lady standing beside Wu Ma suddenly fell without warning. “Pu Tong!” The lady had fallen onto the side of Wu Ma's leg.

Wu Ma was shocked and quickly went to check on her. He saw the young lady's face was pale, her eyes screwed shut; and she seemed to be unconscious.

Wu Ma looked to the people nearby for help, but everyone ignored him. The surrounding people, like before, were minding their own business and playing on their phones. Their faces were indifferent as if they hadn't seen anything.

”Forget it, let's not count on these apathetic people. I can deal with this myself.” Wu Ma thought resentfully.

He painstakingly helped the young lady up, preparing to get off the train at the next stop.

However, when the train was nearing the station, it didn't slow down. Instead, it flew by without pause.

Wu Ma was dumbfounded for a moment before he pounded on the train doors, shouting, ”Stop the train ah! Stop the train! Why is the train not stopping!”

But no matter how he shouted, nothing happened. The train continued to speed through a tunnel.

The people in the train kept their heads down and focused on their phones, ignoring their surroundings.

Wu Ma looked at those indifferent people and couldn't take it anymore. He was angry as he said, ”Did none of you see that the train didn't stop? Stop playing with your phones!”

Following his outburst, the bodies of all the people in the train started to shake. Their phones fell from their numb fingers. The sound ”Pi Pa” fell incessantly onto his ears.

The apathetic crowd one after the other slowly turned their heads. Their lifeless eyes were all concentrating on Wu Ma's body.

At this time, even if Wu Ma were a bit slow on the uptake, he would still be able to tell that the situation was not right.

Instead, it made him feel shocked that this was not the end.

He realised that the faces of those around him were starting to turn blurry, and their features were becoming duller. In the end, their facial features had all vanished, leaving behind just the bare skin. Everything was gone!

The unforeseen event thoroughly scared Wu Ma witless.

His two hands held up the unconscious lady, and his two legs started to tremble uncontrollably.

At this moment, The faceless people in the train started to draw closer towards Wu Ma. Their stiff movements were just like those of a group of terrifying zombies.

”What do you want! Don't come here!”