The third round of the game began. My shoulder was tapped, and I started to grope my way forward. If nothing unexpected happened, this time I should be passing through the empty corner.
Every step in the darkness was heavy. Nobody knew what waited ahead. I regretted agreeing to play this game with them—I knew the campus was dangerous, and I shouldn't have come.
One step, two steps. My hand finally touched a solid wall. This corner was empty.
For some reason, I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. So far, nothing strange had happened.
"Cough, cough!" Following the game rules, I coughed once and continued to the next corner.
I fumbled and moved forward. Footsteps echoed with a "tap, tap." A shadow waited ahead.
I gently tapped the figure's shoulder and stood in the corner.
The game proceeded normally—until the seventh round. By then, I had lost patience and grown numb. The coughing stopped.
One minute, two minutes, three minutes passed, but no cough came. Yet, the footsteps were still clearly audible.
"Is there an extra person in the room?" I forced myself not to look back, only watching from the corner of my eye. The camera's signal light by the window kept flashing. Yingzi stood there like a lifeless doll, motionless.
"If it's not Yingzi joining the game, then who is this extra person in the classroom?"
My heart pounded faster and faster. No matter which direction I looked in the darkness, it felt like restless spirits of the wrongfully dead were hiding everywhere.
"Listen up, everyone. It seems there's an extra player in our game. I'm changing the rules." Xiumu's voice drifted through the classroom, eerie and distant. "The basic rules stay the same, but now, when you tap the person's shoulder, you have to say your own name. Alright, whoever's turn it is can start."
The footsteps never stopped. I was about to call it off and force the game to end when my back was suddenly tapped.
"I'm Xiumu."
The voice was low and slow, but subtly different from what I'd heard before—almost like someone speaking while chewing food.
Without turning around, I walked to the next corner.
"I'm the streamer." The person ahead heard this, staggered away, and I nervously stood in the corner.
I remembered every position change from all seven rounds. By normal logic and the clues I had, my position and Xiumu's were correct. That meant the extra person had to be either between Xue Fei and Shen Meng, or between Shen Meng and Xiumu.
Time passed, and only footsteps filled the room. I counted seconds and tried to deduce everyone's locations.
"Tap!" A light tap on my back: "I'm Shen Meng."
"Shen Meng?!" The voice sent chills down my spine. "How did she get behind me?"
I didn't turn in the dark, stiff-legged as I stepped forward.
"Some games shouldn't be played lightly, especially in places like this." Shen Meng's voice lingered behind me, but I couldn't catch the rest.
Feeling along the wall, my heart pounding, I moved on.
"This can't be right. There should only be one person's footsteps at a time. Where did Xiumu and Xue Fei go?" I found myself at the next corner. "No one?"
The empty corner was swallowed by thick darkness. I touched the wall, coughed lightly, then stepped toward the next corner.
"Maybe the fifth person already left, so there's an empty corner."
I was still thinking this when the scene in front of me shocked me—the second corner was also empty!
"What the—" I hurriedly moved to the third and fourth corners: "No one. Still no one!"
Touching the wall, my lips felt dry. "Could they have been following me all this time?"
I suddenly turned back—but there was only pitch black.
The footsteps stopped. I was the only one moving.
No way. Could it be that besides me, the others—
I looked toward the window. The camera's signal light blinked on and off, but Yingzi was gone!
Standing in the corner, an unprecedented terror swept over me. It was as if countless malicious eyes in the darkness were staring at me.
I lost my composure and rushed to the window—the only source of light in my view.
I pushed the window open and jumped out into the hallway. I escaped that oppressive black room and collapsed to the floor, feeling drained.
"Haha, so even adults have small guts!" I heard laughter. Looking over, Xiumu, Xue Fei, and Yingzi were hiding behind the classroom door. Xiumu was holding his stomach, laughing hard.
"When did you two get out?" I eyed them warily.
"We left a while ago."
"Then why did the four-person game have an extra person?"
"There were only four of us in the classroom. The footsteps were just me moving around. After tapping your shoulder, I went back to my spot. That made it sound like there was a fifth person." Xiumu was proud of his trick, showing no sign of fear in the dark like the others.
"Boring." Xue Fei shrugged. "There are no ghosts in this world. People just make them up to scare themselves."
"Just a prank, huh." I breathed a sigh of relief, put away the camera, and stood up. "Good, the game's over. You guys should go home."
It was already late. The kids' parents must be going crazy.
I looked at the three kids in front of me. "Why's one missing? What about that short-haired girl Shen Meng?"
"Still not out? Probably scared herself into wetting her pants in the classroom, haha!" Xiumu chuckled.
His joke was met with my dark, stern look. "Still... not out?"
"What's wrong? Didn't you leave early because you saw through Xiumu's prank?" Xue Fei noticed my expression and asked.
"No. I didn't see through it. I searched the whole classroom—every corner. There wasn't a single person. Then I hurried out." I tried to keep my voice simple and clear. "I checked. Shen Meng's not in the classroom."
"Impossible!" The kids finally realized the gravity of the situation. They rushed inside, and I turned on my phone's flashlight. The classroom was empty and silent—no one.
"Shen Meng is missing? Right under our noses?!"
"Shen Meng!" The dark school echoed with their shouted names, but no response came.
"Damn it! It's all because you insisted on playing that Four Corners game!" Xue Fei grabbed Xiumu's collar and lifted him.
"How can you blame me? It was everyone's idea to come here for a dare. You agreed too!" Xiumu didn't resist the taller boy and waved his hands frantically. "Calm down. Shen Meng's brave. Maybe she already left and is hiding somewhere laughing."
"Do you think she's as reckless as you?" Xue Fei got angrier, raising his fist.
"Calm down. Now's not the time to argue." I sighed and grabbed Xue Fei's arm. "We need to find Shen Meng. This school gets strange at night. We don't have time for this."
Pulling Xue Fei and Xiumu apart, I crouched next to Yingzi. She hadn't played and stayed outside the classroom. Maybe she'd seen something.
"Yingzi, do you know where that girl went?" I tried to speak softly, having no experience dealing with kids.
Doll-like Yingzi didn't look at me. Her dull eyes stared at the ground, then she shook her head.
"This kid is so introverted." No matter what I asked, her answers were only two: shake her head or stay motionless like she hadn't heard.
"Streamer, what do we do now?"
"What else? We search every building. We have to find her."
Involved with such a young life, I couldn't stand by—even if it meant sinking deeper into the whirlpool.
"Let's check the teaching building again, then head to the lab building. You three stay close and don't get lost again." Carrying the camera, I led the group. When they weren't looking, I quietly took out my phone and reviewed the earlier footage.
The footage was blurry. Only when passing by the window was there a faint light—and that brief glow captured something terrifying.
There was someone in the classroom, always following right behind me.
"You're lying after all."