The Book of Modern Strange Stories (Vol.—) Clear sky under the dark night

Cluttered 1 bedroom in the old town

The gloomy wall lamps flickered, and the unstable voltage, just like the cold wind in early spring, was chaotic.

Ma Wen slowly opened her dark red eyes, listening to the cheap quartz clock on the wall, ticking and walking, the boring and monotonous mechanical sound was the only sound in this oppressive air, and this side of the world seemed to have gone through countless reincarnations in this way, and it seemed to be frozen like this.

How long has it been? I don't know, thinking back to the first sleepless night, I have opened my eyes countless times and looked anxiously at the wall clock, thinking in my mind that if I can still enjoy a few hours of sleep if I go to bed now, what time should I get up tomorrow, what time to eat, what time to go shopping... With the continuation of insomnia, Ma Wen's mood changed from helplessness to calm, then from calm to agitation, and finally developed into crazy hysteria.

The Sandman stripped himself of his reason little by little, but stubbornly didn't let her sleep, and finally had to look at the sunlight that penetrated through the cracks in the curtains, and completely emptied himself...

But what Ma Wen didn't expect was that all this was just the beginning, after an empty day slipped away, the second sleepless night was like an unwelcome salesman, stubbornly knocking on her door. The continuous insomnia drained the energy of the whole body, and in desperation, I had to use alcohol to help me sleep, but after drinking the beer in the refrigerator one by one, the brain was still awake and refused to sleep. In this muddy and nightmare of insomnia, Ma Wen doesn't know how long she has been struggling, a day? A week? One month? Maybe a year? Time seems to have lost its meaning, and only endless pain continues in cognition...

"How so... Ma Wen muttered to herself, her voice drifting slowly through the room

It all started last Friday, when Ma Wen received a courier from Algeria from her father, Ma Yuan.

Ma Wen was very disgusted with her father, and in the year she graduated from high school, what she finally reaped was not the blessing from her parents, but the complete quarrel between her parents and a cold divorce agreement. Zeng naively thought that he was the happiest child in the world, his gentle mother was a teacher at school, and his cheerful father lived a stable and prosperous life through a printing house. However, everything was completely ruined on a rainy night, and Ma Wen still remembers the terrible appearance of that night when her father was fanatically talking about his discovery, shouting that he wanted to explore the nature of the world.

Mother originally thought that it was just her husband's temporary ghostly mind, but Ma Yuan was not a whim, and since then he has devoted himself to all kinds of ancient books, buying some strange tools online, and talking all kinds of nonsense every day. Since then, Ma Wen's family has only been left with a crazy father, a desperate mother and a sad child. It's as if the good things were once just a made-up story.

In the year of graduating from high school, Ma Wen's mother and Ma Yuan had a showdown, and this crumbling marriage finally came to an end.

At this time, she realized that the only reason why her mother had survived for so many years was herself, but in the end she decided to go with her father, because she felt that if her mother ignored her father, then her father could only rely on herself. But she never expected that on the first day of her college year, Ma Yuan packed up and went abroad, and Ma Wen didn't even know when her father would apply for a visa.

Ma Yuan sold the printing house and the house like this, and disappeared like evaporation, all of which made her understand that she was not a drag on her father, and she was completely disappointed in her father from then on. The only way to maintain the image of my father is to know that my father is still in some corner of the world through a fixed monthly bank transfer record and the occasional letter from an unknown country.

Ma Wen didn't know why her father would go all the way to send her a package.

Inside, there was a cracked white rock chip with a picture, or part of it, painted with an unknown dye. A man with a feather on his head bowed to a giant foot, the rest of which was mutilated and completely incomprehensible to herself as a non-professional, and certainly never expected to read anything related to her father's so-called "study of the nature of the world." Ma Wen used to seal the rock chip along with the items her father had sent before.

But from the moment I put down the rock chips, the whole world seemed to change in an instant.

At first, there was a whisper, at first Ma Wen thought it was an auditory hallucination, but when she listened carefully, there was no sound, but inadvertently she seemed to hear something. She tried to turn on her phone and put it in the middle of the room, but she didn't get anything. Then she felt as if a pair of eyes were spying on her, no matter where she went, she couldn't get rid of it, as if she was floating behind her out of thin air, and that cold gaze seemed to be able to penetrate the skin and see straight into the depths of her mind.

Ma Wen never thought that she would be so nervous one day, she wanted to go to the streets and buy some daily necessities for the start of school, but the moment she opened the door, it seemed that the whole world was rejecting her. The viscous air flowed in from outside the door, and with the bitter cold of early spring, she was pushed and repelled, and the feeling of suffocation quickly came up. The pale sunlight made his eyes ache like pins and needles, even if he reached out to cover his forehead, the light still pierced his hands like a sharp sword and firmly nailed them to his eyes, and Ma Wen even felt the stinging pain from his hands. The noise of traffic on the road was like a pack of wild beasts, climbing up the mottled façade of the old house, howling and pounced on her, burrowing their massive bodies into their ears.

At this moment, she felt that her head was about to be squeezed, and she quickly turned around and went back to the house and slammed the door. The discomfort receded like a tide, Ma Wenji sat on the ground and gasped for breath, thinking helplessly: Although I don't know what's going on, I can't get out of this door, and I can only eat instant noodles at night...

With that gaze that seems to be staring at himself all the time, he finally lasted until the night, and he wanted to sleep well, but he just stayed up too late yesterday and didn't rest well, and he had a nervous breakdown today. As long as she sleeps well, she will wake up tomorrow and be a lively self again, but what she never expected was that she would have insomnia.

Everything seemed to become strange and unnatural at night, and Ma Wen could even feel that the gaze became more unscrupulous under the night, as if she was naked and exposed to that gaze, and this house, which had been lived in for two months, had never felt as strange to Ma Wen as she had at this moment. In the hazy cold moonlight, everything seemed to be covered with a vague camouflage, and countless deformed ghosts lurked, snooped, and whispered. It was as if all the ugliness and evil were crowded out by the world, pushed and shoved into this small room. But these evil beasts are not willing to bow down, and they are always ready to pounce and tear apart everything in front of them.

And like a sheep in wolf's clothing, the world stuffed it in as a wolf, but the wolves saw through the camouflage at a glance, they hid in the shadows and bared their teeth at this huddled alien, and let out a cold smile. Ma Wen didn't dare to sleep, as if as soon as she closed her eyes, those monsters lurking in the shadows would pounce out, tearing themselves apart in an instant, she smiled bitterly and said to herself: "For the first time in more than 20 years of life, I found that I was afraid of the dark." ”

Glanced weakly at the wall clock, 11:23. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to try to empty my mind, and began to plan my plans for tomorrow: "I can sleep until 9 o'clock tomorrow and sleep for 9 and a half hours, get up, take a shower, put on makeup and clothes, and then go downstairs... Ma Wen focused her attention on the itinerary planning as much as possible, hoping that she could fall asleep as she always thought about it, but the anxious mood still seeped into the tired mind little by little, opening her eyes again and again, watching the hour hand of the wall clock slowly move from 11 to stop at 4, tomorrow's itinerary planning has been postponed all the way to get up at noon and eat buffet in the afternoon. But I still don't feel the slightest sleepiness.

Ma Wen was completely desperate...

At this time, in her eyes, the world seemed to come to life, as if celebrating her insistence on giving up sleep, and the hidden ghosts seemed to be holding a huge and silent festival, they tore off the hazy veil, writhing, howling, opening their bloody mouths and laughing silently, they swirled and jumped around Ma Wen, full of thick malice and strong joy, they stretched out their huge tentacles and danced, like countless random hairs fluttering in the air.

This frenzy quickly infected Ma Wen, although it seemed that she was still curled up in the quilt and suffering from insomnia, but in her mind, she seemed to break free from all shackles, waving her arms and dancing wildly, in this quiet and small old house, it seemed that there was a grand ball crowded the square, the flames surrounded her body, she roared hoarsely, and waved her limbs selflessly, as if she was going to burn herself out in this flame.

I didn't see anything, I didn't hear anything, but I felt that everywhere was full of crazy dancers, huge instruments playing unknown strange music, like a magical rhythm pushing Ma Wen to dance non-stop.

The maddening rhythm came into the heart clearly in the silence. The ghosts and goblins dancing around her shook their unkempt tentacles and wrapped her in it like a sacrifice, burrowing into Ma Wen's body, squeezing, as if to crush her into a puddle of meat from the inside out, the tentacles that probed into her throat made her retch, and the sharp pain came from every inch of skin all over her body, and the moment she reached into her body, the sharp pain made her feel that her internal organs were about to be shattered, until she could no longer bear the intense pain, and suddenly opened her eyes.

Everything seemed like a nightmare, but the fear was so real that Ma Wen didn't know whether she was awake or asleep just now.

The wall clock on the wall still pointed to four o'clock, and the horrible nightmare just a moment ago. Looking around, the floor is littered with laundry, greasy cutlery soaks in the sink, and the standby appliances glow a dim red, nothing has changed, but maybe everything is different.

In the end, I felt that my reason was gradually being stripped away by exhaustion, and after being anxious, Ma Wen began to become numb, just when she thought that she would not have to sleep tonight, a strong palpitation surged up, and the obscure vision suddenly became clear, as if it was hanging tightly in front of her, and the powerful oppressive force was eroding wave by wave, as if a terrifying giant claw grabbed her thin body in the dark night, and the rope of fear was tightened in circles, Ma Wen felt that she was almost suffocating, gasping and struggling in pain, Finally, he couldn't help but ask into the void.

"Who the hell are you?"