Nightmare Apostle

She dashed towards the door like a madwoman, pulled it open in a single motion, and ran outside, shouting for help as she went.

However, apart from a few special rooms, most areas were unlit at night, so the corridor was dim, and at that moment, someone heard the cries for help and came rushing.

"Doctor Ma... What happened to you?" asked the man Ma Jing saved in the cafeteria during the day. His name was Liu Yunfeng.

He was holding a simple candlestick, as if he had just returned from a night routine. It was evident that Liu Yunfeng was also terrified by the scene.

"Ghost! There’s a ghost!" Ma Jing screamed frantically, losing control of her emotions.

"Ghost?!" Liu Yunfeng’s hand trembled, and the candlestick almost fell to the ground. His face changed dramatically, and his lips quivered as he spoke, "Where is the ghost, Doctor Ma... Please don’t scare me, I’m easily frightened!"

"Run, run quickly!" Ma Jing said as she dashed towards the front, where the exit was located, and the duty room was also in that direction.

Liu Yunfeng followed suit, for who would dare to stay in such a situation?

"Doctor Ma... Wait for me, wait for me!" Liu Yunfeng called out tearfully as he ran behind, his voice tinged with desperation.

However, with Liu Yunfeng’s appearance, Ma Jing’s initially panicked mind found some relief. It seemed that both of them had been targeted by the ghost in the cafeteria, hence getting involved in the fierce ghost’s murderous game together.

She had an advantage over Liu Yunfeng; if the ghost could only kill one person at a time, her chances of survival were greater than his.

Running all the way, Ma Jing became aware of the problem: in this health center that usually had a dozen or so people, it seemed as though only the two of them were left.

She rushed to the window of the duty room, but the lights inside were also out, silent and pitch-black.

Turning around, Ma Jing didn’t know what her foot had landed on, and she slipped, failing to stay upright. In her tumble, she instinctively reached out to grab Liu Yunfeng beside her for support but managed only to grasp his leg instead of his arm.

But in the next second, what happened nearly frightened Ma Jing to death. Her grasp tore Liu Yunfeng’s pants to shreds and even ripped off the flesh on his left leg.

The sensation was like tearing the flesh off a chicken leg, the original skin and meat fell away in shreds, leaving only a bare shine of the shin bone.

The flesh in her hand was roasted crispy black, and the air was suffused with the stench of burnt protein.

Trembling, Ma Jing looked up to find Liu Yunfeng holding the candlestick, looking down at her, his eyes already filled with unprecedented madness and distortion.

At this moment, Ma Jing realized, apart from the face and upper body partially covered by faint candlelight, the rest of Liu Yunfeng’s body was burnt black and crispy, a horrifying sight; he was, in fact, a burnt ghost!

Ma Jing finally understood why she had always felt something was off during the run; it was the candlestick, the candle. They ran so fast, yet the flame didn’t flicker much, but she realized it too late.

The strong survival instinct overwhelmed everything as Ma Jing screamed, pushed "Liu Yunfeng" fiercely, then quickly climbed up and rushed towards the main entrance of the health center.

But upon bursting through the door, Ma Jing was dumbfounded; the outside was not the factory grounds under the night sky, but a cafeteria.

The cafeteria’s lights were off, completely shrouded in dimness with poor visibility, barely allowing some sight.

It was precisely the cafeteria where she saved someone that night, with overturned meal boxes and food scattered on the floor not far away.

The scene was familiar, as if time had frozen at that moment, never to tick forward again.

When Ma Jing turned back, the health center was gone, only the cafeteria remaining, along with the pursuing ’Liu Yunfeng’.

With most of the flesh on his left leg being torn away, "Liu Yunfeng" walked with a limp, yet his speed was unaltered, staring fixedly at Ma Jing who was desperate to escape, the hatred in his eyes almost tangible.

He caught up to Ma Jing, swung a hammer hidden at his waist, and knocked her down, causing her to fall precisely upon the spilled food. Then quickly stepped forward, pulling out a pair of black iron scissors, blood-stained.

He pinned down the struggling Ma Jing, stabbing the blades along her hairline, opening a large cut, then persistently began cutting through flesh.

"Slut! Slut!!" Liu Yunfeng screamed viciously, spewing the most venomous curse, "A slut who randomly seduces men, ruins others’ relationships, shameless, shameless... deserves to be killed, you all deserve to be killed!!"

The intense pain unlocked Ma Jing’s potential, suppressing the agony, she swung a punch at Liu Yunfeng’s face, and the next second, his face disintegrated.

Underneath the facade was burnt blood and flesh, shattered by the blow, half of the face was ruined, revealing the underlying blood-stained skull.

With this strike, Ma Jing temporarily escaped Liu Yunfeng’s clutches, and she quickly ran towards the cafeteria’s back door.

If she remembered correctly, it led towards the kitchen, where the environment was chaotic, aiding in delaying time, for this ghost’s pursuit couldn’t be infinite.

If only... If she could just stall a bit longer, she would survive!

Dragging her injured leg, Ma Jing fled laboriously, half her face peeled back, profusely bleeding like money spilling downward, the blood blurred her vision. Especially in such dim light, she was almost blindly fleeing.

From behind came the spine-chilling howls along with the burnt smell, persistently pursuing her like a bone-clinging maggot.

But now, after she had "destroyed" its face, the fierce ghost no longer borrowed "Liu Yunfeng’s" identity; its voice ceased to be Liu Yunfeng’s, morphing into that of another strange man’s voice line, hoarse, piercing, smeared with hysteria.

From behind also came sharp metallic scraping sounds, caused by the scissors grinding against the racks on the walls.

This was more like an experienced hunter’s intimidation of prey, a torment before death.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Driven by intense hatred, the ghost intended not only to kill Ma Jing but torment her with fear before her demise, leading to her suffering extremely.

Fear almost dismantled Ma Jing’s psychological defenses, forcing her arduous flight through near-total darkness.

Due to excessive blood loss, or perhaps dominated by terror, her consciousness grew hazy, until finally, after busting through a door, the tension in her mind gave way completely, causing her to pass out.

...

Family Building No.1, 2nd Floor, Room 9.

The sleeping Yang Xiao was woken by a flurry of knocks at the door, with Hu Weimin’s anxious voice coming from outside: "Captain Ma, Captain Ma there’s trouble, Ma Jing... Ma Jing has gone missing!"

Ye Zheng was ahead of Yang Xiao, drawing the tightly shut curtains, revealing the sky outside just beginning to brighten, the horizon tinged with dawn.

Outside the door, besides Hu Weimin’s voice, there were several others, all men; among them was one voice Yang Xiao found quite familiar, resembling one of the two security team members who escorted them to the dormitory last night. He was a rather plump, fair-skinned man.

Without clarity on the situation, Yang Xiao and Ye Zheng dared not open the door rashly and instead sent Hu Weimin to find Chief Zhou, while preparing themselves to follow shortly.

Without wasting time, Hu Weimin turned and left.

The commotion in the corridor naturally alerted the neighbors, and after they departed, conversations arose in the hallway.

"You guessed correctly, it really was Ma Jing." Ye Zheng whispered in a voice of admiration towards Yang Xiao.

Meanwhile, Yang Xiao’s face bore not a trace of joy, instead growing increasingly somber. He sat by the bed, lips pursed tightly, his eyes complex as if ceaselessly calculating and validating something in his mind.

"Tonight we won’t separate, everyone stays together." After some time, Yang Xiao spoke, "We’re going to the security department to show them a dead person."