Chapter 519: Island of Devil’s Maw (25)
“Night arrived and the six consecutively arrived at the bus stop near the school.
“The brothers, Wang Xiaowen and Wang Xiaowu came the arrived, the two brought with them the food that would be needed for the barbeque; following them was Zhao Guan, he had with him a small freezer that was filled cold beers; Lee Bin and Jia Ming soon arrived as well. They brought along the tools need for a barbeque as well as the utensils respectively; at around 9 pm, Hu Sheng finally showed up. He was responsible to bring the fuel and the match. Of course, other than these things, everyone of them… carried a school bag with them, one that was filled with textbooks.
“After the six met up, they followed a narrow path up into the mountain. The mountain at the back of the school was not the kind of peak that was that steep, to be frank, it was just a hill that was abandoned. You could easily reach the summit after 15 minutes of trekking. The forest on the mountain was not that dense and due to heavy neglect over a long period of time, most of the trees were dead and the place was more covered in grass than trees.
“All six boys were young man at their prime. Even though they carried many things, it did not slow down their speed at all. In less than 20 minutes, they reached the summit of the mountain. At this vantage point, one could have a clear view of the entire school. From the school hostel to the field, everything was captured within the sight. It did not take long for the guys to set up everything needed for the party. They had readied the fuel and lit it up.
“The group of boys sat around the campfire and started their barbeque. They used the textbooks that had been their instrument of torture for days as napkin to wipe their mouths and hands. They occasionally tore out a few pages or even threw the whole book to feed into the burning fire. They looked down at the school and a complicated cocktail of feelings arose in their hearts. Indeed the place housed many of their horrible memories but they had experienced many beautiful joys there as well..
“No matter what, the three years that they had spent there were a period of their life that could not be wiped away. Perhaps things that tasted bitter today would percolate into a different taste many years later. They had their fill of drinks and food.
“Several hours later, they finished the food that they brought and the textbooks had almost all been fed to the fire. But there were still plenty of beers left, in fact about one third of the alcohol was left. The night was darkening and Hu Sheng suddenly came up with the brilliant idea and uttered out loud, ‘By the way, have any of you heard… of the ghost stories about this mountain before?’
“Jia Ming was quick to add, ‘I do, I believe it was called… The Bloody School Beauty?’
“Lee Bin said, ‘eh? How come the version I heard is called The Mad Killing Machine?
“Both Wang Xiaowu and Wang Xiaowen though said, ‘The version we heard was… The Scavenger.’
…
“Zhao Guan shrugged. ‘Wandering Soul…’
“‘Ha? So there are so many ghost stories related to this mountain?’ Hu Sheng was shocked, he thought he could use this chance to scare his bunch of friends but he was surprised all of them had heard similar story before. ‘How about… we each tell our own version of the story that we’ve heard then?’ Hu Sheng suggested. That was approved by everyone else. Actually ghost stories, when you get to the bottom of it… they can be summed in 3 to 5 or sometimes even 1 sentence. But this gang of youngsters were determined to exaggerate and embellish so the stories became longer than they should be.
“The Bloody School Beauty that Jia Ming told was basically about… a very beautiful girl who was ostracized by the other female students due to the good helps. One day, her spirit finally broke. She came to the back mountain and used an art knife to slash open her face and she ultimately died from blood loss. In the three months after her death, the girls who once bullied her were found dead one after another on this mountain. When they were found, their faces were heavily distorted like a pair of invisible hands had been trying to twist their face into a different person’s feature…
“The story of Mad Killing Machine by Lee Bin was about a murderous teacher who specifically targeted the school students. After he killed each student, he would bury their broken body in this mountain. Until one night… he went up the mountain to dispose of his freshest kill but did not return. Later, the police found his body on the mountain and a large amount of other people’s broken carcases around his body. The pieces stuck to the teacher’s dead body like bugs and refused to be torn off easily.
“The Scavengers by the Wang brothers was the simplest. It was about this green-faced old man with a hunchback carrying a basket that would appear on the mountain. When he greeted you, do not answer back, just pretend that you do not see him or you will be carried away in his basket…
“The Wandering Soul by Zhao Guan was about… this very weak student that did not dare to go to the school due to fear of bullying. Therefore, every morning after he left home, he would come hide at this mountain instead of going to school, he would stay until school was over and then return home. This continued for some time but since this meant that he would need to skip lunch, his body became weaker and weaker; Furthermore, he was not up in the mountain doing some exercise, he just sat there and looked into nothingness, so his spirit slowly deserted him. Eventually, the school and his parents found out about this. The school deflected all of the responsibility and turned the blame onto the student and the student was also given quite a lecturing by his family. The next day, the student left home like usual but he never came home. According to legend, after that some, people would see a shadow wandering up the mountain. Once they approached it, it would disappear and no one would be able to find him again…
“The five had finished all of their stories and finally it was Hu Sheng’s turn. As the person who suggested this activity, he was confident his story was going to be the scariest so he purposely requested to go last. By then, the atmosphere had turned rather strange. Even though the six boys were at the age where nothing could really faze them, to hear four ghost stories in succession in that environment, they could not help to break out in cold sweat.
“As time moved to midnight, the supposed hour when the supernatural was the strongest, Hu Sheng began his story…
“‘The story that I wish to tell… has no fixed name because it has gone through many names and no one knows what it is called at the beginning anymore.’ Hu Sheng was a good story teller that’s for sure because he knew how to build a scene. ‘The story goes like this… many years ago, there was a couple at the school. They were friends when they were young, they became official couple during the second year of high school and had even done the deed…
‘but the good fortune did not last long, their relationship was eventually found out by both parents. What happened next was similar to the story of Romeo and Juliet. But the couple did not give up that easily. They had no money and no ability to start a new family on their own, the only thing they had was their youth and their lives to use as a complaint against this unfair world. Therefore, on a dark and windy night, they came up this mountain…’
“At this point, Hu Sheng suddenly stopped talking. His expression contorted and his face blanched with both of his eyes staring straight down a fixed direction ahead. Lee Bin, Jia Ming, Zhao Guan and the Wang Brothers all felt something was wrong. They quickly whipped their heads around and followed the direction Hu Sheng was looking…
“They saw two shadow, a male and a female, each holding a flashlight, slowly walking up the path that led up the mountain. Even though they were not dressed in school uniform, from their appearance, they were undeniably high school students. The wind carried their conversation to the boys…
“‘Hey, I say… did you feel that… the temperature around us has suddenly dropped?’ The girl asked. ‘Is it?’ The boy responded with a brave tone. ‘It is probably your mind playing tricks on you…’ He forced a smile, ‘this is just a courage test, there is nothing to be nervous about.’
“‘But this back mountain is real strange…’ The girl replied, ‘Have you not heard of the ghost story called the six ghosts?’
“The two talked as they moved forward and when the girl asked that question, they were ‘walking through’ the bodies of Hu Sheng and his friends. At the same time, the bonfire, the barbeque stand, the beer cans, the ashes all disappeared.
“‘Hah? What is that?’ The boy asked.
“The girl said mysteriously, ‘According to rumors… many years ago, it was a summer night like this one where six boys came to this back mountain… to have a barbeque using textbooks as fuel.’
“‘Ha ha… that could the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.’ The boy chuckled.
“‘The rumors said that they were all third year students and had just finished the finals,’ The girl replied.
“‘Okay… now I can get a bit behind their action.’ The boy responded. The girl continued, ‘But… during the barbeque, an accident happened, a flick of flame from the bonfire jumped to the nearby brush and instantly turned into a giant forest fire, it burned all six of them alive on this mountain… that fire caused half of the forest to get destroyed and it was the reason why the place looks the way it is now…’
“‘I guess that is what they call extreme joy begets sorrow…’ As the boy replied, he subconsciously rubbed at his arms because at that moment… he did feel a chill caressing his arms. ‘That was not the end of the story…’ The girl continued, ‘Later the final result was announced and the six all got into the university of their dreams but unfortunately… they would never see and hold their official offer letter.’
“‘He… he he… Well, that is quite scary…’ The boy’s smile was becoming more and more unnatural. The hairs on his body stood on end and he kept surveying their surroundings with the corner of his eyes as if trying to check there was something attempting to jump out at them from the dark…’From then on…’ The girl continued, ‘The legend says that… whenever summer nights come, there would be spirit fires that appear on the mountain and they were the six boys who have returned…’
“Her words were then stuck in her throat, because… she saw a burnt hand land on the shoulder of the boy next to her and the boy did not seem to notice it at all…”
Feng Bujue’s story could be considered to reach its end then. He paused for a few second to stare at the Soul of Mimicry. “well, that ends the tale, it’s not that bad, right?”