Chapter 380: Chapter 380 : The Horror House

As Alicia and Alex stepped into the horror house, the temperature seemed to drop a few degrees.

The door shut behind them.

Click.

Not loud. Not dramatic.

Just final.

Alex flinched so hard his shoulders jumped.

Alicia caught it instantly.

“…Wow,” she said, folding her arms. “We’re not even inside five seconds.”

“I didn’t flinch,” Alex replied, already defensive.

“You absolutely flinched.”

“It was the echo.”

“The echo of what? Silence?”

Alex clicked his tongue but didn’t find a retort.

The hallway ahead was too narrow for comfort—walls stained dark, like old water damage… or something that used to be wet and wasn’t anymore. The wallpaper peeled in long strips, curling at the edges like molting skin. Faint reddish smears dragged along the lower half of the walls, too deliberately placed to be accidental.

The ceiling lights flickered unevenly, each one humming at a slightly different pitch, creating a low vibrating dissonance that made Alex’s teeth itch.

He took a huge gulp. “Man, they sure know how to make things entertaining.”

Alicia nodded with a strained smile. “They sure do.”

Alex stepped forward.

The floorboard beneath his foot screamed.

Not creaked.

Screamed.

A high, sharp, humanlike wail, like something in pain being stepped on.

Alex froze, breath hitching violently.

Alicia swallowed. “…Okay. That sound was aggressive.”

“I’m fine,” Alex said quickly.

His hands were shaking.

He shoved them into his pockets.

Suddenly, a body with a disfigured, twisted face dropped from the ceiling right in front of them, suspended on invisible wires for a second before slamming down. Blood splattered theatrically across the floor.

Both of them bolted.

They ran like their lives depended on it, clutching each other’s hands in a death grip as they sprinted down the corridor, shoes skidding on the grimy floor.

They only stopped when the hallway finally widened and the props stopped falling.

Alicia leaned forward, hands on her knees, panting. “Okay… looks like it was a bad idea to come here.”

“Yeah?” Alex wheezed. “What was your first clue, honey?”

Alicia’s eye twitched. She opened her mouth to retort—

The lights buzzed overhead again, louder, angry. Each bulb hummed at a slightly different pitch, the sound crawling under their skin, vibrating in their bones. As they walked, the lights behind them shut off one by one, plunging the hallway behind into narrowing, creeping darkness.

A whisper slid along the wall.

“Kill… kill… kill… eat… eat… eat…”

Alex almost stopped breathing.

Alicia shaking herslef also noticed alex immediately. “Hey. You good?”

“…Yeah.”

Another whisper, right against their ears this time.

“The handsome one looks more delicious…Let’s cut off his balls first..”

Alicia slowed. “You heard that too, right?”

Alex nodded stiffly. “Yeah. Looks like the ghost got mesmerized by my beauty too. Damn it… it really is a sin to be this good‑looking.”

Alicia stared at him, speechless. ’Even scared shitless, his narcissism doesn’t lessen one bit…’

They turned a corner.

The ceiling burst open with a sudden, violent crack.

Another body dropped.

It hit the floor with a wet, sickening thud, limbs bent at impossible angles, neck twisted sideways. Its skin was gray and stretched too tight, veins dark beneath the surface. Its mouth was sewn shut with thick, black thread that glistened under the dim lights.

Then its eyes snapped open.

The chest rose.

Once.

Twice.

Alicia’s sanity snapped. “Kyaaaaaaaa!”

Alex screamed louder, voice shooting into a pitch even higher and more girly than hers. “Kyaaaaaaaahhhh someone save me!”

The corpse snapped upright, joints popping loudly as the stitches on its mouth tore and its jaw split open into a grin full of jagged, broken teeth.

Alicia stumbled backward and slammed straight into Alex, grabbing his shirt so hard the buttons strained.

The thing lunged.

The lights exploded white.

The figure froze mid‑motion.

A hidden door in the wall slid open with a hiss and swallowed the corpse whole, yanking it out of sight.

Silence crashed down like a dropped curtain.

Alex stood there shaking, knees visibly trembling.

Alicia stared at him, still breathing hard, then managed to tease through her own fear. “Wow. You screamed like you were a dying heroine.”

“That thing fell from the ceiling! Didn’t you see that? It could have eaten my balls!”

“You still screamed the most girly scream I have ever heard.”

“Shut up,” Alex muttered.

Alicia laughed louder, the sound half hysterical.

They moved on.

Much closer now.

The next corridor was lined with thick black plastic curtains, hanging from the ceiling in overlapping strips. They were sticky and cold against their skin, clinging slightly as they brushed past. Shadows moved behind them—wrong shapes, too tall, too thin, dragging themselves along the walls.

A whisper brushed Alicia’s ear this time—warm, wet breath that wasn’t there.

Her breath caught.

She grabbed Alex’s sleeve. “Okay. That wasn’t scary at all.”

“Yeah, right,” Alex replied, voice thin.

They pushed through the curtains.

Inside was a nursery.

Small.

Claustrophobic.

Cribs overturned. A rocking horse split in two. Walls smeared with tiny, smeared handprints dragged downward, as if little fingers had tried to hold on and failed.

A mobile spun slowly overhead, its once cheerful stars and moons now stained and cracked. The music box above it played, but the tune was warped and distorted, notes dragging like something drowning.

One crib rocked.

Slowly.

Back.

Forth.

Back.

Forth.

Alicia froze.

Alex’s hands shook so badly he had to clench them into fists.

The crib stopped.

The silence before it moved again felt endless.

Then something unfolded out of it—child-sized, crawling on all fours, but its head hung backward, facing the wrong way. Its spine arched unnaturally with every movement, and its joints popped loudly, bones cracking with each step as it scuttled forward.

Alicia lost it completely.

She lunged forward blindly, grabbing for Alex’s shirt—missed, and clutched his butt instead.

Hard.

Alex yelped. “OW! Hey hey hey WHY—where the hell are you grabbing, lady?!”

“I CAN’T SEE—AND IT’S COMING TOWARD US!” Alicia shouted.

The thing shrieked—high and piercing.

Alex screamed again.

He stumbled backward, foot slipping on the slick, wet‑feeling floor.

They collided.

Hard.

Alex’s balance vanished.

Instinct took over.

He grabbed the first solid thing in front of him and buried his face forward as he fell.

Straight into Alicia’s Boobs.

There was half a second of stunned silence.

Then Alicia shrieked. “ALEX—!”

He froze, brain finally catching up, very aware his face was absolutely not where it was supposed to be.

“I—WHAT—NO—THIS WAS NOT ON PURPOSE!”

She grabbed his tie and yanked him upright, face burning, voice shaking. “WHY is your face THERE?!”

“I SLIPPED OKAY !” he shouted back, equally mortified, hands hovering uselessly. “THE FLOOR—THE SCREAMING—YOU RAN AT ME!”

Another shriek echoed through the room, the child‑thing scuttling closer.

They both screamed again.

Alex panicked and all but climbed onto Alicia jumping in her hands, arms wrapping around her shoulders, legs half wrapping around her waist like a terrified koala.

Alicia grunted, but still hooked one arm under his thighs and the other around his back on pure adrenaline.

SHE RAN!

They bolted out of the nursery area, Alex clinging to her like his life depended on it, face buried in her shoulder, refusing to look back.

The lights snapped on.

Everything vanished.

No nursery.

No crib.

No creature.

Just an empty corridor with some painted walls and exposed speakers.

Alicia realized she was still holding Alex around the waist.

Alex realized his face was still buried way too close to Alicia’s chest.

They stood there, breathing hard, faces flushed, hearts pounding.

“Some boyfriend you are,” Alicia huffed finally. “Climbing on your own girlfriend for protection.”

Alex muttered, “What, I should have climbed on that lady who wanted to eat my balls?”

Alicia laughed weakly. “You coward.”

“That is called survival instinct, okay.” Alex said in his defense.

They moved on—hands locked now, fingers threaded together.

No more pretending it was accidental.

The final room was silent.

Too silent.

No cheesy music. No flickering lights.

Just a vast, cathedral‑wide space where the darkness felt thick enough to touch. The walls were painted pitch black, swallowing the weak glow of a single red bulb hanging from the ceiling, swaying slowly like a pendulum.

Alex’s breath hitched. His grip on Alicia’s hand tightened.

“This is it,” Alicia whispered, voice tight despite herself. “Final scare.”

The bulb stopped swinging.

The darkness moved.

Not jumped.

Not rushed.

It peeled itself away from the walls, like shadows unhooking themselves.

Dozens of shapes emerged—tall, wrong, stitched‑together silhouettes dragging heavy chains that clinked against the ground, some crawling on ceilings with spiderlike motions, others dragging themselves along the floor.

Faces unfolded in layers, skin peeling back to reveal more faces beneath. Eyes opened where eyes shouldn’t exist—on shoulders, on palms, on empty chests. Mouths stretched too wide, teeth long and uneven. The floor rippled under their feet like something alive, like flesh trying to breathe.

A deep voice echoed from everywhere at once, rattling their ribs.

“DIE…DIE….DIE.”

Alicia ran.

Alex ran harder.

Pure, instinctive, soul‑deep terror ripped through him.

“NOPE—NOPE—ABSOLUTELY NOT—!”

Something lunged—fast, too fast, a mass of teeth and eyes and shadow coming straight at them.

Alex didn’t think.

Didn’t aim.

Didn’t plan.

His instincts took over.

He panicked.

And threw a punch.

The shockwave detonated outward like a bomb.

The floor cracked in a spiderweb pattern.

The walls exploded outward.

The ceiling caved in with a thunderous roar.

Lights burst. Props flew. Smoke cannons imploded. Hidden panels tore open like cardboard as the entire horror house collapsed in a single, deafening cascade of destruction.

Then—

Silence.

Dust drifted down in lazy clouds.

Emergency lights flickered on, casting everything in ugly yellow.

Standing in the wreckage were dozens of very real, very human horror actors—wide‑eyed, frozen, some still mid‑scare pose. One guy in his underwear was halfway out of a demon costume, horned mask dangling from one hand.

Another man stood there in a blood‑smeared apron… and boxers. “HEY—I WAS CHANGING!” he yelled.

Alex stood in the center of it all, fist still raised, suit dusty, hair slightly mussed.

He blinked.

“…Huh.”

Alicia stared.

Then stared harder.

Then—

She broke.

She bent over laughing, hands on her knees, absolutely wheezing. “OH—MY—GOD—!”

Actors scrambled to get their bearings. Staff shouted orders. Someone tripped over a fake chainsaw with a very real yelp.

Alex looked around at the ruined house, the torn‑open walls, exposed wires, half‑hanging props, and very confused employees.

“Well,” he said calmly, lowering his hand, “that was anticlimactic.”

Alicia straightened just long enough to point at him, laughing so hard she could barely breathe.

“YOU,” she gasped, “are the biggest PUSSY I have ever seen.”

He opened his mouth to protest.

She grabbed his arm, still laughing uncontrollably. “Screams the whole time—DESTROYS THE BUILDING—oh my god, I’m never letting you live this down.”

Alex groaned as distant sirens began to wail, approaching fast.

“You are enjoying this too much,” he muttered.

Alicia laughed even harder, wiping tears from her eyes.

“I’m gonna send the bill to Lucas,” Alex grumbled.

“Stingy,” Alicia snorted.

“Indeed I am, my lady,” Alex replied dryly.

They walked out of the smoking ruins hand in hand, his pride in tatters, her laughter echoing all the way.

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