The Fallen's Guide - chapter 30

Tang Nian nodded. As the maid’s figure vanished around the corridor’s corner, she turned and walked toward the direction from which the cries for help came.

Elegant, low music echoed through the marble corridor, as if in a strange dream.

On both sides hung enormous paintings, magnificent sculptures, jewel-inlaid vases, and colorful enamel floor-to-ceiling windows-opulence to the extreme.

“Help…”

The cries for help grew weaker, and closer.

Tang Nian quietly stood at the doorway of a certain room, craning her neck to look inside.

It was a room decorated in an extremely lavish and cozy style, like a sweet bedroom meticulously arranged by a lady.

A maid dressed all in black stood with her back to Tang Nian, humming an unknown tune. Her fingers held a long needle threaded with silver, raising it high before plunging it down, sewing something together.

It seemed she was doing some craftwork that brought her joy.

But when Tang Nian saw what was in her hands, her pupils contracted sharply, and she felt sick to her stomach.

Before the maid, the thing being sewn was a living person.

Someone Tang Nian knew well.

Rose.

Looking closer, the maid’s fingers holding the needle were horrifyingly dry and rotten, the skin like bark covered in mold, tightly clinging to the bone.

–

Rose’s eyes were gone.

On her beautiful face, only two black, blurred, bloody holes remained.

She wore a gorgeous, lace-covered puff dress, her hair curled into neat, delicate ringlets, like a doll carefully dressed up.

But her body was incomplete, as if many limbs had been stitched together.

What should have been a slender, graceful female lower body was now filled with organs that should never have belonged to her-some male, some female.

Bulky and grotesque, like a horrifying mass of flesh haphazardly pieced together.

“Help…”

The eyeless doll uttered a desperate plea, but before the last word could escape, her mouth was covered.

The maid holding the needle pressed a finger to her lips, her rotten face nearly touching Rose’s, and softly shushed her.

“Please be quiet. The master will be awakened,” the maid admonished. “No one can bear the master’s wrath.”

Rose looked terrified.

Her face had only the eye sockets left, blood streaming out.

She dared not call for help again, but couldn’t suppress pitiful whimpers like a frightened animal. She was so terrified her whole body trembled.

Because of her shrinking movements, the maid’s sewing became unstable, the needle leaving more scratches on Rose’s twisted body. The maid seemed troubled, sighed, and pulled a rusty pair of scissors from the tool basket.

“Why can’t you just be quiet? I’ve told you, you’ll wake the master…”

As she spoke, she gripped Rose’s chin, her voice gentle as a lullaby, “Let me help you quiet down.”

The eyeless girl sensed danger approaching and cried out uncontrollably.

The next second, a dull tearing sound as the scissors bit into flesh rang out, accompanied by a horrific scream of pain.

Tang Nian gasped, hurriedly covering her mouth, unable to suppress a physiological retch.

What kind of deranged scene was this!

The maid, about to continue sewing, stopped and turned around.

Beneath the black veil was a face mottled and rotten, covered in corpse spots.

“Are you lost?”

With that question, countless black moths surged from her body, swirling straight toward Tang Nian’s face.
Rose let out a heartrending wail.

Tang Nian turned and ran.

The once luxurious and spotless corridor instantly became mottled and old, the candle flames gradually extinguished, and the portraits hanging on the walls grew increasingly grotesque.

On the previously faceless portraits, blood-soaked features slowly emerged. Pairs of crimson eyes stared at her through the canvas, following her every movement.

What kind of real-life ghost story is this!

A string of curses flashed through Tang Nian’s mind. As she ran, she quickly kicked off her leather shoes and dashed barefoot down the long corridor.

A dense swarm of moths beat their Wings, terrifying to the extreme.

Passing by the room that smelled of food again, Tang Nian glanced inside.

She immediately retched.

The steaming food on the long table had all turned into bloody limbs and organs. The man who had been sitting at the table was now lying on it.

His body was sliced open, a bloody mess, his chest cut apart to reveal scarlet, warm viscera.

A group of diners, covered in corpse spots and rotting all over, sat elegantly on either side of the table, slicing his body with grace.

With each mouthful of flesh and blood they swallowed, their shriveled faces grew fuller, and the signs of decay faded a little.

The man lying on the table hadn’t realized he’d become a feast for the evil spirits. His head was tilted back, eyes clouded with Greed.

His mouth was still wide open, swallowing whatever the Maid fed him.

He didn’t know that what the Maid was feeding him were his own organs, discarded by the other diners.

The entire vast manor began to rot at a visible speed.

As if it had been dead for many years.

The fresh flowers in the vases withered and fell, ivory and gold were covered in thick dust, lampshades were webbed with spiders, and thorns and cracks spread across the walls.

At the end of the corridor, countless black shadows appeared, blocking Tang Nian’s way.

She didn’t hesitate and turned to keep running.

Tang Nian was drenched in cold sweat, gritting her teeth.

There was no game prompt before entering that said this was a horror scenario!

The air was filled with a strange mixture of decay and rose fragrance.

She ran desperately, crossing corridor after corridor, as if trapped in an endless maze.

Beside her were tall floor-to-ceiling windows covered in thorns. Tang Nian clenched her teeth and crashed through a window, leaping down.

A sudden sense of weightlessness hit her, and her body landed on a dust-covered cushion.

She coughed violently, only to be horrified to find herself back in the very first room.

The Maid, her body severely decayed, stood by the bed holding a dress. “Did you forget this dress? I brought it back for you…”

In an instant, Tang Nian was engulfed by fear.

Why won’t this ghost leave her alone!

She pinched herself hard, the pain bringing her back to her senses. Tang Nian shoved past the Maid and ran for her life.

A sticky, putrid sensation lingered on her shoulder; she felt as if she’d knocked off a chunk of rotten flesh. Just imagining it was enough to make her heart stop in the real world.

She fled desperately, the scenery on both sides shifting rapidly.

“You’ll be late for the ball.”

“Why are you running?”

Each question sounded like a devil’s whisper from hell, close behind her.

The damp, rotten stench grew stronger and stronger. Dense black spots of decay seeped from the walls and carpet, as if something had died and festered there.

As the stench assaulted her, the strange scent of roses flickered in and out. The farther Tang Nian ran, the stronger the fragrance became.