Death Spiral [Infinite Flow] - Chapter 58

Chapter 58 – Butterflies in the Stomach

After turning right, there was a long corridor. Xu RenDong raised his flashlight and proceeded cautiously. He has been in the underground labyrinth for more than half an hour and his eyes have almost adapted to the dark environment. He could see everything clearly as long as the flashlight was shining.

He swept the flashlight away and suddenly something moved in his field of vision. Xu RenDong once again shone the light straight ahead and saw a large number of jointed dolls far in the distance. He was immediately taken aback.

The pile of jointed dolls were tightly packed in the corridor with a myriad of different positions, blocking the corridor completely. After being illuminated by the light from the flashlight, they also seemed to be frightened. One by one the dolls twisted here and there and then suddenly all their joints twisted frantically!

It didn’t look like they were welcoming him at all but more like they were rushing towards him with bitterness and a desire to kill him.

Xu RenDong gasped: There’s so many of them! How can I fight them!?

He glanced and there were at least 30 jointed dolls squeezed in here. Those in the front row reacted the fastest, rushing towards him at a frightening speed. Xu RenDong turned his head and ran without hesitation. The flashlight in his hand also turned, illuminating the direction when he came.

Lian Qiao had already given instructions. This time he did not speak left and right in Chinese but used arrow symbols instead. Xu RenDong ran out according to the instructions for a while and then suddenly felt that the pressure behind him disappeared. The frantic footsteps had also somehow disappeared.

Xu RenDong looked back in surprise. Lian Qiao asked: “What’s wrong?”

Xu RenDong: “They’re not chasing.”

Lian Qiao: “Is there a defensive range?”

Xu RenDong did not answer. The joint dolls were located in the only pathway to the end and he had no choice but to go through them. Therefore he turned back towards the corridor with the jointed dolls again and felt the surrounding air around him was stagnant and there wasn’t any sound. It seems that the dolls have really stopped moving.

Standing on the corner, Xu RenDong leaned his back against the wall, carefully shining his flashlight at the dolls. As soon as the light entered their eyes, the dolls instantly turned their heads and stared directly at the flashlight. The uncoordinated limbs also began to twist again, rushing towards him at a pace that was really terrifying.

Xu RenDong was shocked and instinctively turned his head to run away. After running two steps, he found that the dolls behind him had stopped chasing him again.

What happened? They wouldn’t chase as long as your back was facing them?

Lian Qiao was suddenly excited: “SCP 173!” (See Author’s Note at the end.)

Xu RenDong: “?”

He didn’t have time to think about what Lian Qiao was excited about but looked down at the flashlight in his hand. Suddenly there was an idea in his heart.

He turned around and pointed the flashlight again at a figure tens of meters away. The moment the light fell on the dolls, the dolls immediately gained life and ran furiously.

This time, Xu RenDong did not turn his head to escape but pressed the flashlight switch again. With only a click, the entire corridor plunged into darkness. The running sound of the joint doll also stopped very cleanly.

Got it, so turned out it was the light.

Xu RenDong immediately recalled the description on the employee’s profile: Working hours are 17 hours and rest time is 7 hours. Because their work was too hard, you must not disturb them during their break.

It seems that this is the place where the jointed dolls rest. Once they are stimulated by light, they will violently want to beat up people.

… Angry about being woken up, probably?

Yes, this was reasonable.

It seemed that as long as he didn’t turn on the flashlight, he could avoid retaliation. In that case, this obstacle was not too difficult, you could just walk past them in the dark.

After turning off the flashlight, the entire corridor was plunged into complete darkness. Not to mention that he couldn’t see his fingers, Xu RenDong almost couldn’t feel the existence of his body. He walked along the wall towards the pile of dolls and Lian Qiao wrote: “This trash camera doesn’t have infrared night vision.”

Xu RenDong did not reply.

Lian Qiao: “Big brother, what are you doing?”

Xu RenDong: “…” 

After a moment of speechlessness, Lian Qiao suddenly realized: “Oh, oh, it’s light, right?!”

Xu RenDong nodded in the dark. It was unknown if his meaning has been passed on. In short, Lian Qiao didn’t type again for a while.

Suddenly his toe hit something hard. Xu RenDong’s heart shuddered and reflexively stepped back. Probably because he was in a completely dark environment, his nerves were highly strung. Just such a small stimulus actually made him stiffen. His chest tightened and palpitated. It took a long time before he mustered the courage to move on.

He adjusted his direction and avoided the doll he had just ran into. Suddenly, there was another punch in the stomach.

Like a frightened cat, Xu RenDong curled up and took a big step back. His heart was beating wildly and burst in his chest. Even the roots of the teeth began to feel numb  and his head was full of cold sweat.

He wanted to turn on the flashlight to see what was going on but he couldn’t. Therefore, he could only carefully touch forward to confirm the situation in the dark. It turned out that it was a doll frozen in a running position with his fist outstretched. Xu RenDong had just run into his fist just now. In fact, the speed was not fast but because of his tense concentration and tightness of his abdominal muscles, he has the illusion of being hit in the stomach with a punch.

It’s okay, it’s okay. As long as he doesn’t turn on the lights, they won’t move.

Xu RenDong tried to calm down but his frantic heartbeat couldn’t calm down. His chest was so tight that he really didn’t want to stay in the dark anymore. So he forced himself to cheer up and stepped out into the darkness again.

The reaction of the articulated doll to the light seems to be related to the intensity of the light. The doll that was standing in the front row was directly exposed to direct exposure, so it reacted most intensely and ran the fastest. After Xu RenDong passed a few scattered dolls, he soon came to the most concentrated part of the jointed dolls.

He stretched out his left foot and kicked something with his left foot. Stretched out his right foot and kicked something with his right foot. After adjusting the direction, he stretched out his hand toward the darkness but found that there were dolls everywhere, blocking the path.

Although the dolls are crowded together, because each doll has a slender figure and distorted movement, and after receiving the light stimulus just now, the original dense formation had been disrupted so it was feasible to pass through them. But this meant that he had to make a lot of physical contact with the dolls, groping all the way through the gaps.

…Don’t be afraid, they won’t move.

Xu RenDong tried his best to comfort himself in his heart but when he squeezed against a cold doll and was forced to assume the same twisted posture, he felt his scalp numb again. His tongue was stupefied and even his breathing became stiff.

……How can you not be afraid, how do you do something like that?

He was squeezed in between dozens of puppets. In case the lights were accidentally turned on, even if the puppets did not attack him, they could just twist his chest and crush his limbs.

At this moment, he wished extremely that Lian Qiao was by his side. Even if he was just groping in the dark with him, even if he was just standing beside him quietly, he would feel much better.

It was too uncomfortable to be alone in the dark.

Suddenly, in the vision of his left eye, Lian Qiao moved his fingers and quickly typed out a line: “I’ll sing a song for you.”

Xu RenDong was taken aback. Sing? What song could you sing at a time like this? And also they couldn’t share sound so how could he even hear Lian Qiao singing?

He saw Lian Qiao say: “Now, please enjoy the theme song of Journey to the West: Sound of Cloud Palace. Let’s begin.”

“Diu-diu-diu!”

“Den-den-deng-deng-den-den-deng, den-den-deng-deng-den-den-deng, den-den-deng-deng-den-den-deng, diu-diu-diu! Diu-diu! Den–den-deng-deng-den-den-deng….”

{This song is just music with no lyrics but a very recognizable tune that people can recall easily: 

Xu RenDong: “…”

You can actually transmit music like  this?!

Seeing that magical line “den-den-deng-deng”, Xu RenDong’s mind actually echoed the melody of the theme song of Journey to the West. This song was so familiar that Lian Qiao just had to prompt him and Xu RenDong automatically completed the whole song, complete with a picture of Monkey King riding through the clouds.

Inside his heart he couldn’t help humming: “Dang! Dang! Dang-dang-dang-dang– dang-dang-dang!”

With Journey to the West as the background music, the previous sense of horror was instantly wiped out. Before he knew it, Xu RenDong had already walked out of the puppet formation.

He walked along the wall for a while and after passing the corner, he was finally able to pull out the flashlight. His vision regained its brightness and Xu RenDong let out a long sigh of relief.

Lian Qiao: “You got out!”

Xu RenDong: “Yes, thank you. But why did you suddenly think of singing?”

Lian Qiao: “The labyrinth is so dark and you can’t turn on the lights. There were a lot of dolls around. Just watching from here made me feel terrible. So I thought you might also be scared. But there is no one around you and you can’t talk to me. You can only walk in the dark alone. This will make you feel helpless right?”

Xu RenDong looked at the phrase “walk in the dark alone” and the most vulnerable part of his heart was suddenly poked and became sour.

In the vision of the left eye, Lian Qiao’s finger moved again.

“Shall we live together?”

Xu RenDong was taken aback.

Lian Qiao quickly deleted the jargon and hurriedly corrected: “I’m not talking about cohabitation {the phrase is commonly used by a couple who have decided to start living together romantically}, I’m talking about simply living together. Then we don’t have to enter separate instances…”

Xu RenDong: “…”

Lian Qiao: “I will move over or you will move over and live with me, okay?”

Xu RenDong: “…”

Looking at the phrase “Okay?”, he seemed to hear Lian Qiao’s soft voice ringing in his ears. He could even imagine Lian Qiao pulling his sleeves, looking at him in anticipation and anxiously asking him: “Okay?”

Suddenly a tickling sensation rose in his stomach. It was warm like a kitten’s paw gently scratching at him.

Immediately afterwards, his throat felt itchy. Suddenly, he vomited.

Lian Qiao: “???”

However, there was no vomit in front of him. When Xu RenDong opened his eyes, he saw a royal blue butterfly flying in front of him. The butterfly was very small and the scales on its wings were shining with fragments of light. It fluttered leisurely in the dark.

Lian Qiao: “?????!!!”

Xu RenDong stretched out his hand in a daze. The butterfly swayed and slowly landed on his palm.

Then it disappeared. Only a piece of silver-white round metal remained in the palm.

The elevator button.

Butterflies… Ah, that’s how it is. “Butterflies in the stomach” refers to the feeling of rapid heartbeat when falling in love.

Lian Qiao: “Brother RenDong…”

Xu RenDong’s blood rushed to his cheeks and he almost couldn’t breathe. The metal button lay hard in his palm and he squeezed it tightly, finally calming down.

Even though Lian Qiao did not speak, Xu RenDong gradually calmed down on his own.

He suddenly remembered that Lian Qiao has a girl who he likes, called HuaHua.

The butterfly just now was like Xu RenDong’s confession, as if he was bluntly proclaiming: I like you. But… Lian Qiao liked girls.

Lian Qiao must have been shocked to be suddenly confessed to be a person from the same sex. But he was so gentle that he didn’t want to say hurtful words so he remained silent.

By the way, the “living together” he just proposed should be just for safety reasons. There really is no other meaning, just Xu RenDong thinking too much.

… He shouldn’t make it any more difficult for Lian Qiao. If this continued, they wouldn’t even be able to stay friends.

A strong sense of shame blocked his chest and bitterness was mixed inside it. Xu RenDong took a deep breath, trying to think about how to make Lian Qiao forget about what he just saw but then Lian Qiao suddenly inputted:

“If I was by your side right now, I would definitely push you against the wall and press you down hard…”

Before he finished speaking, Xu RenDong suddenly raised his head— an unknown monster appeared in front of him. He instinctively took up his weapon and stepped forward. Lian Qiao deleted the sentence and changed it to “Forget it, focus on killing monsters. Let’s talk when you come out.”

Xu RenDong thought sadly while fighting monsters: This time they definitely couldn’t be friends any longer! He actually wants to push me against the wall and beat me hard!

***

The author has something to say:

Who will tell RenDong what Lian Qiao wants to do after pushing him to the wall?

Note: SCP 173: The SCP Foundation is a series of works about various supernatural phenomena, individuals and other events. Due to the large number of authors and global oriented, qualified articles can be accepted. The core setting is to confine anomalies, individuals, events, etc. into the Foundation for “containment” to prevent harm to humans. One of the more famous SCP 173 is a humanoid object made of concrete and steel. When it is in front of you, you must keep looking at it without blinking. Once it is not in anyone’s field of vision, it will instantly twist your neck.