Extra 22: The Abandoned Art Room
Pushing open the door of the fire escape, one sees an even more dilapidated corridor with large areas of peeling walls and abandoned easels and plaster statues scattered everywhere.
The air was thick with the sickly, pungent smell of oil paint and turpentine, mixed with a rusty, old smell of… blood.
At the end of the corridor, on a half-open door hung a crooked sign that read "Art Room."
This is it!
The four of them rushed over and flung open the art room door.
An indescribable, strong breath of resentment and despair hit him in the face, almost knocking him down.
The art room was extremely messy, with easels overturned, canvases torn into shreds, and oil paints of various colors splattered everywhere, solidifying into strange and distorted patterns on the floor and walls.
In the corner were piled some human-shaped objects covered with white cloth.
The most eye-catching thing is the entire east wall.
There were no windows on that wall, but it was covered by an enormous mural painted directly on the wall.
The content of the mural was extremely strange and distorted—it was not a beautiful work of art at all, but rather the crazy ravings of a mentally ill person.
Twisted human figures, broken limbs, screaming faces, countless pairs of eyes filled with pain and resentment...
Everything is chaotically intertwined, dark and crazy, filled with the deepest malice and despair.
Just one look at it makes people dizzy and their rationality is strongly impacted.
And just at the moment they broke in.
“Chuckle…”
A tooth-aching laugh came from the corridor behind him.
“Boom…boom…boom…”
A heavy, sticky crawling sound was also approaching from the direction of the stairs.
The teacher in red and the terrifying existence in the dormitory manager's body chased after them at the same time.
They seemed to merge, and the malice they emitted merged together, becoming larger and more irresistible.
The art room door was slammed shut and locked behind them by an invisible force.
The last retreat was also cut off.
"That's the painting, attack it!"
Li Mu pointed at the huge mural on the east wall that exuded an ominous atmosphere and roared.
Gao Meng roared, squeezing out the last bit of spiritual power from his body, mixed with all his fear and despair, turning it into a weak but concentrated energy shock, which blasted towards the mural.
Zhao Sha also closed her eyes and screamed as she released her mental power.
Wang Ke seemed to be inspired by something. He took out a broken charcoal pencil stained with dried blood from his pocket, scratched his palm hard, and then pressed his bleeding hand to the ground.
He was mumbling something in the broken, resentful tone of a nursery rhyme.
Three weak forces, mixed with Wang Ke's strange ritual, crashed into the huge evil mural together.
The moment the energy touches the mural——
“Buzz——!!!”
The entire wall shook violently.
The distorted human figures and faces on the mural seemed to come alive and began to wriggle and scream wildly.
The shrill, overlapping cries of countless people and curses suddenly erupted, impacting everyone's eardrums and nerves.
In the center of the huge mural, at the core point impacted by energy, the colors began to spin and peel off wildly.
It was like a wound that was forcibly torn open.
Through the swirling vortex of peeling colors, it was revealed that the wall behind was not solid.
Instead, it revealed a... secret compartment?
It seemed to be filled with something.
At the same time, the two terrifying beings that had chased outside the door emitted even more angry and...
But it seemed to have a hint of panic in its scream.
They began banging on the art room door even more frantically.
The door panel groaned desperately and cracks spread rapidly.
"There's something in there!"
Li Mu's eyes were red as he rushed towards the expanding vortex of colors regardless of everything and reached out to the secret compartment.
His hand touched... a thick, rough-edged stack of pages, and he yanked them out.
It was an old, rough brown paper-wrapped...memorial album.
Or rather...a guestbook.
On the cover, written in childish yet twisted handwriting, was a line of words:
【Yucai Primary School·Graduation Commemoration·Never Forget】
Li Mu flipped it open suddenly.
What caught my eye was not graduation photos and blessings, but...
Page after page of shocking notes written in various handwritings...desperate accusations and bloody suicide notes!
Teacher Zhang said my drawing of the sun was black, tore up my drawing, and made me stand all day. The wind on the balcony was so strong, I wanted to fly down and see what color the sun was.
I always fail math. My dad says he'll quit me if I don't do well again. The window of the sixth-floor classroom seems to be open.
They all say I'm a freak and won't play with me. The gym mats are so soft, I wonder if they'll be soft too if I jump off them? The red school uniform looks great, but why can only "disobedient" bad students wear it? I don't want to wear it... I don't want to be taken away...
There are so many rules, I can't remember them all... The principal's office... is so dark...
Page after page, densely packed.
The handwriting changes from childish to illegible, filled with fear, pain, grievance and ultimate despair.
This isn't a yearbook at all.
This is a collection of suicide notes from countless children who suffered torture here and ultimately chose to end their lives.
It is also proof of the bloody crimes committed by this school.
Wang Ke looked at the booklet, his whole body trembling violently, tears silently streaming down his face.
He pointed at the words and made a hoarse sound in his throat:
“…it’s all true…it’s all true…’it’…the principal…and the teachers…they force…the rules…the punishments…they’re never good enough…never up to standard…
It loves to see us afraid... to see us desperate... It lives on this..."
The truth was like a cruel ice cone, piercing into the hearts of Li Mu, Gao Meng and Zhao Sha.
This school with rules is itself a huge evil entity that feeds on torturing and devouring children's fear and lives.
Those weird rules and those terrible teachers are tools that exist to create despair.
"Then...how do we leave?" Zhao Sha cried out in tears. The banging sounds outside the door were getting more and more violent, and the door panel was about to be completely shattered.
Li Mu flipped through the book of blood and tears frantically.
Finally, on almost the last page, he saw a line of words written in extremely weak handwriting, but with a strange sense of relief.
There's also a simple, upward-pointing arrow drawn next to it:
They are afraid of being remembered and revealed.
When all suffering is seen, when sin is exposed to the light, cracks will appear in the cycle of confinement.
【Remember us. Tell the people outside.】
[Then... walk towards the highest place... but not fall... but... leave... towards... the light...]
The highest place...light...
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