Chapter 7 :Together in adversity

　　In school, I was afraid that the flashlight would attract the attention of something, so I turned it off. My vision became slightly blurry, and I experienced some dizziness.

　　After a while, it gradually subsided. Holding the flashlight, I slowly opened the door and quietly walked out. As I passed by the bulletin board, I averted my gaze and looked elsewhere, avoiding reading its contents. I proceeded up the stairs.

　　However, when I was about to reach the second floor, I heard a faint chewing sound not far away.

　　There were also agonizing moans of a man!!! I made an effort and climbed two more steps, cautiously lifting my foot and peering upward... There was a white figure crouching next to the stairs. Strangely, the white figure had a slender physique, resembling a thin child of around eleven or twelve years old, but without any hair. Its entire body was as white as paper!

　　Wait a minute! Every part of its body had distinct edges and corners. It was... a paper person, the kind you would only see in a graveyard!!! Underneath it was Wu Tian... The paper person had its back turned towards me while consuming Wu Tian's body, and the moans were coming from Wu Tian.

　　Wu Tian stared at the paper person with a look of indescribable fear in his eyes. I widened my eyes and opened my mouth, but I forcefully covered my mouth with my right hand, preventing any sound from escaping. Slowly, I began to retreat. I kept my gaze fixed on the area above the steps, carefully gripping the wall as I moved backward. My heart was pounding loudly, and I worried that it might hear me!

　　Fortunately, I didn't alert the Paperman.

　　As I descended the steps, my legs felt weak, and I nearly stepped into nothingness. Luckily, I managed to steady myself in time. Upon reaching the last step, I turned around and ran, clutching the flashlight tightly. I dared not cry or shout. And just like that, I ran out of the school. With a thud, I stumbled and fell near the school gate, flinging the flashlight far away. I felt a sharp, agonizing pain in my knees and hands, as if they were fractured. I knew my wounds must have torn open again!

　　Summoning all my strength, I struggled to get up and crawled towards the flashlight. I turned it on, and its feeble yellow light provided some visibility on the road. Fearful of stumbling upon something else, I limped towards the direction of the haunted house. I had nowhere else to go. Now I realized that I would only be safe inside the door marked with the word "blood"!

　　"Never go out at midnight!!!" I supported my thigh with one hand and held the flashlight tightly with the other, trying hard to move forward. To my immense terror, I couldn't walk too fast.

　　I kept turning back from time to time, but all I saw was an endless abyss of darkness.

　　"Xia Ning?"

　　A voice suddenly appeared by my side, causing me to take a step back and switch on the flashlight, shining it in that direction.

　　"Who??" I asked.

　　Turns out, it was Guo Qiang. He had a crew cut, wore a blue and white checkered short-sleeved shirt, and had torn jeans with holes. He stood around 1.75-1.76 meters tall, neither ugly nor good-looking.

　　He shielded his eyes from the blinding flashlight and I felt a sense of relief. I turned off the flashlight and said to him, "Guo Qiang, how are you? Are you okay?"

　　Guo Qiang put his trembling hand down and pointed toward the direction of the school, saying, "There's something... something dirty in the school... Wu Tian was caught by that thing!" His whole body was shaking intensely.

　　"Stop talking! Wu Tian is dead, eaten by the paper person. We need to get back to the haunted house!" I said urgently.

　　"What? Dead?!" He took a step back, appearing nervous.

　　I nodded at him. "Hurry! The paper person can come at any moment. We'll only be safe if we get back to the haunted house!" I urged anxiously.

　　He hesitated for a moment, looking me up and down, but eventually nodded. "I'll carry you!" he said, coming in front of me and bending down.

　　There was no room for formalities like "a gentleman doesn't touch a lady" now. Without hesitation, I climbed onto his back.

　　"Thank you!" I expressed my heartfelt gratitude.

　　He lifted me up, and with a slight jolt, I hung onto him. He started jogging, and the sound of our footsteps echoed clearly.

　　I wrapped my arms around his neck. I was completely drained of energy and needed to relax for a while. It was my first time being so intimately close to a boy, but the current situation lacked any romantic atmosphere.

　　"Let's not say anything more. We're classmates, after all."

　　After a while, Guo Qiang asked me, panting as he ran, "Why did you say that we would be safe once we entered the haunted house?"

　　"Yeah, when the three of us entered the house, were those your exact words?" he bombarded me with two questions in a row.

　　"It was me. As for why I think entering the haunted house is safe, it's just a speculation. In fact, I feel like we're not even in the same world anymore!" I revealed my hypothesis.

　　Upon hearing this, he suddenly stopped in his tracks!

　　My heart skipped a beat as thoughts of Yu Meng's death crossed my mind. What about Guo Qiang? At that moment, I felt an icy chill run down my spine!

　　Suppressing my fear, I moved my hand away slightly and said with a hoarse voice, "Why... why did you stop? Put me down!!"

　　"Why... why do you think this place isn't the same world?" Instead of releasing me, he asked me directly.

　　"It's just a feeling. We'll know once we go and see. I... I have a question for you... How did you manage to escape?" I nervously inquired.

　　He took a deep breath and started running again. "I hope you're right. That thing was too terrifying. When the three of us saw you covered in blood, we thought we were seeing a ghost, so we ran towards the school. But something even more bizarre happened when we got there. We returned to our dorm room, and as soon as we opened the door, we saw that thing!!"

　　"We were terrified. I saw that thing attach itself to Wu Tian in an instant. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't shake it off. After that, we got separated," he explained.

　　Listening to his words and feeling the warmth that only a living person possesses emanating from him, I gradually calmed down.

　　But when I turned around to look behind us, my whole body trembled. A faint white figure floated towards us, its hands twisted grotesquely, its head tilted to the side, and its feet off the ground. Its pale face had rigid features!!!

　　"Can you go any faster?" I asked, my voice trembling.

　　As soon as he heard the fear in my voice, he sensed something was wrong. Just as he was about to turn around, I blocked his line of sight. "Hurry, that thing is chasing us!!!" I blocked his eyes to prevent him from getting too nervous and accidentally dropping me. In that case, I would be left with no choice but to face certain death.

　　He didn't understand my urgency and thought I was trying to deceive him, so his speed actually slowed down.

　　"Move faster, or we'll both die here!!!" I shouted nervously, but my voice clearly revealed weakness.

　　My sudden shout startled him, and he immediately started running faster. "How far is that thing from us?" he asked.

　　"There's still some distance," I replied, holding the flashlight in my right hand, pressed against my chest.

　　"Stay still!" I may have made a slightly exaggerated movement.

　　"Okay!"

　　His speed increased, but he also started panting. Surprisingly, the white figure behind us seemed to have disappeared!

　　Just as I let out a sigh of relief, I turned my head and saw paper figures floating out on both sides of the road!!!

　　Guo Qiang exclaimed, "Oh my God!" and hesitated for a moment, too scared to look to either side. He ran past them with me on his back. Glancing ahead, I noticed that we were almost at the entrance of the haunted house!

　　"We're almost there!" I wiped the cold sweat off my forehead and said.

　　He didn't respond to my words, just continued running, panting heavily. I knew he was reaching his limit. My gratitude towards him grew stronger. Not every man would risk their life to protect a girl like this.

　　As we ran, his breathing became louder, and his steps slower. We were now less than a hundred meters away from the haunted house's entrance. "Let me down, I've regained some strength," I said in a gentle voice, expressing my gratitude.

　　"Alright..." He was exhausted as well.

　　As soon as my feet touched the ground after dismounting from his back, a searing pain shot through my knees. I almost lost my balance, but luckily he caught me in time.

　　"Are you okay?" he asked, looking at me with concern.