Steve felt that Richard was going to do something big. On one hand, he was curious; on the other, he was worried that Richard was overreaching and might need his help.
Thus, a man squeezed into Richard's room tonight and stubbornly refused to leave, as if he were planted there.
Richard didn't drive him away either. If Steve wanted to stay, he could stay; as long as he didn't go downstairs, his safety could be guaranteed.
Coincidentally, Richard lived in Room 1508, separated from the haunted room by just a floor. As long as Richard lay on the floor and listened carefully, he could hear the movements downstairs without any hearing aids.
At this moment, Mike's frantic shouts came from the room below. One moment it was ghost-like wailing, the next it was the sound of a shower gushing. Clearly, Mike had already begun to suffer the attacks of the haunted room.
"Phew." Richard let out a breath and walked to the open windowsill, looking toward the window directly below.
Seeing Richard's strange behavior, Steve, who was sitting on Richard's bed, immediately sprang up. Looking left and right, he grabbed the desk lamp and cautiously approached Richard's side. "Chade, did something happen?"
"Yeah, the haunted room is starting to riot. It seems that room really does possess some kind of mysterious power." Richard stared intently at the window of the room below.
"I still know too little about this world." Steve couldn't help but swallow. He also leaned toward the glass window, curiously checking the situation in the room below with Richard.
Soon, Steve spotted the room below open up. A man in a floral shirt climbed out of the window; it was the strange man they had met in the elevator who was going to stay in Room 1408.
"It's dangerous!" Steve couldn't help but stick his head out and shout to Mike.
However, Mike acted as if he hadn't heard. With a face full of terror, he climbed out of the room's window and moved step by step toward the adjacent room. Just watching was heart-pounding for Steve, who now didn't even dare to make a sound for fear of disturbing the concentrated man.
"Why can't he hear?" Steve pulled his head back from the window and asked Richard.
Richard thought about it and said, "He must be caught in a hallucination. The power of the haunted room has affected his senses, only letting him hear what it wants him to hear. Aside from that, he can't hear anything."
As he spoke, Richard walked to the bedside, yanked off the bedsheets, then tore down the curtains, ripping them into strips and twisting them into a rope.
Seeing this, Steve immediately realized what Richard wanted to do and hurriedly tried to stop him, saying, "You're crazy! This is the 15th floor, dozens of meters high. If you're not careful, there's no way you'll survive!"
"Someone has to be saved." Richard smiled, then pulled out high-proof alcohol and a lighter from the shopping bags he had brought back, turning them into Molotov cocktails that could be lit and thrown at any time.
Watching Richard's actions, Steve finally understood that Richard's sudden mention of buying alcohol, cigarettes, and lighters when they went out today wasn't accidental; it was clearly premeditated.
After tying one bundle of rope to himself, Richard held the other and jumped down from the windowsill without hesitation. Stepping against the wall, he reached Mike, who had just accidentally slipped off the ledge and almost fallen. He grabbed the rope and bound Mike's limbs and body completely.
When he was done, Richard shouted to Steve, "Pull him up!"
"O... OK!" Steve replied from upstairs, dragging the struggling Mike up bit by bit.
Feeling that it might be difficult for Steve to pull him up like that, Richard gave the hallucinating Mike a few hard slaps.
He didn't wake up, but he passed out... but that was fine; the goal of making him behave was achieved.
In this way, Mike, tied up like prey and unconscious, was pulled back up bit by bit by Steve. This sudden turn of events seemed to completely infuriate the haunted room.
Richard suddenly felt a strong wind hit him. His body swayed uncontrollably with the rope. Just as he was about to take out the lighter, the swaying caused him to accidentally lose his grip on the lighter slipping from his pocket, letting it fall to the ground dozens of meters below.
"Shit." Richard cursed and kicked through the window of the haunted room with a flying kick.
At that moment, he vaguely heard Steve shouting frantically from upstairs, "Chade, your rope is about to break!"
Regardless of whether the sound he heard was real or fake, Richard couldn't afford to gamble. He tore off the rope bound around his waist and decisively jumped into the haunted room.
Entering a room with a layout almost identical to the one he was staying in, Richard felt an overwhelming chill surging toward him, as if countless invisible malicious ghosts were surrounding him and letting out soul-piercing shrieks. The surrounding lights flickered, dimming and brightening; the familiar atmosphere actually put Richard at ease quite a bit.
Beep!
At the same time, the radio in the room began to play uncontrollably, switching between songs. The lyrics of those songs combined to form a sentence: "You will die here in his place!"
"Heh." Hearing this, Richard laughed. "How can you kill me? By relying on those hallucinations you create?"
Facing Richard's mockery, the radio immediately emitted a piercing frequency, like an angry response from a malevolent spirit sneering at him.
Immediately after, Richard felt a sharp pain in his brain, as if something was trying to invade his mind. However, having experienced Henry's consciousness intrusion, Richard felt that this haunted room's intrusion ability was inferior to Henry's; at least, he could withstand it.
Richard's hearing was already strong, and with this stimulation, his temper flared. His gaze swept across the room, which seemed to be switching back and forth between The Upside Down environment and the real world. He quickly found the lighter Mike had left on the table. He immediately lit the Molotov cocktail he had brought from his own room, threw one into the bedroom, and smashed another directly at the bathroom door.
In an instant, the flames blazed, quickly climbing the walls and swallowing the entire room, also scorching the evil within.
"No!!" The radio, swallowed by the fire, let out a scream of shock and anger. Before it could make a more miserable sound, its speakers were destroyed by the flames.
This was the weakness of the Phantom Haunted Room. It could control all the original items in the room to create hallucinations for the guests, but no matter how it created hallucinations, it couldn't control the items the guests brought in from the outside, such as Richard's Molotov cocktails and Mike's lighter. This was also Mike's way of breaking the deadlock at the end of the original story.
Facing the surging fire, even the room's fire sprinkler system couldn't save it. Instead, thick smoke soon billowed. Richard took a handkerchief from his pocket to cover his nose and mouth and walked to the main door, attempting to break it down by force.
However, the furious haunted room used the last of its strength to lock the door directly.
"A tiny door lock might work against ordinary people, but you're using it to lock me?" Richard found the haunted room's idea laughable. He took a running start and followed up with a flying kick.
Bang!
In an instant, the solid door of Room 1408 was kicked flying, crashing into the wall panels of the hallway.
Richard felt his foot go numb, but he endured the pain and numbness to maintain his cool persona. He limped out of the room and said, "Of all the people to provoke, you had to provoke me. Trashy thing."
Hearing Richard mock it once again, the haunted room seemed to be enraged once more. This time, the voice, seemingly coming from the netherworld, was clearly audible: "I will kill you!"
But all its fury was no match for the ruthlessness and consumption of natural fire. The flames triggered explosive items in the room. After a series of explosions, Room 1408 was blasted until the wall panels bulged. Fire snakes hissed, rushing out of the room's door and windows; the sound was like the final wail of a malevolent ghost before its demise... Two hours later, the fire at the Dolphin Hotel was extinguished. Mike Anselm and Richard were both safe and sound. Mike still had memories of his time in the haunted room. With lingering fear and a somewhat vacant look in his eyes, the immense terror he had personally experienced made him unsure if he had had a nightmare or truly lived through it all. It wasn't until his ex-wife heard the news and rushed to the scene to embrace him that he finally came to his senses, tearfully hugging his beloved.
Richard's leg was no longer numb, and his movements had returned to normal, but seeing this display of affection made his heart feel numb.
The hotel manager, Olin, walked up to Richard and Mike at this moment and suddenly thanked them very sincerely: "Thank you very much for your heroic actions. To the hotel—no, to humanity—you are both heroes."
Richard chuckled, neither confirming nor denying.
Mike regained some composure and asked, "What does your hotel plan to do next?"
Olin smiled and said, "You don't need to worry about that. Our hotel will take full responsibility for this fire accident and will ensure you are given adequate compensation."
After a while, a firefighter coming out of the fire scene walked down with a half-charred bag and gave it to Olin: "This was found in the fire. It should belong to one of your hotel guests."
"That's my backpack!" Mike pointed at the plastic-wrapped bag and, supported by his ex-wife, walked up to Olin and snatched the item.
Olin smiled as gently and elegantly as ever; he hadn't intended to take it anyway.
Mike tore off the plastic and rummaged through the backpack. Most of the items inside were ruined by the fire. Among the few precious things that survived, besides his identification, was the voice recorder he used to record his talks about the supernatural.
"Hey, Mr. Great Author, do you mind giving me that recorder?" Seeing the recorder, Richard suddenly stood up, walked to Mike's side, and asked with a smile.
"Who are you?" Mike's ex-wife heard this and immediately frowned in displeasure.
"Wait, Lily, he's the one who saved me." Mike timely stopped his ex-wife's dissatisfaction and hurriedly explained, "If it weren't for him, I'm afraid I would have died inside."
Hearing Mike's words, his ex-wife's mouth dropped open in surprise, and she then lowered her head apologetically to Richard.
Mike knew his ex-wife might find it unbelievable, but it was better not to let her know everything that happened tonight. He looked at the recorder, then at Richard, handed the recorder to Richard, and said meaningfully, "Can you take good care of it, kid?"
Richard and Steve looked very young, just eighteen or nineteen-year-old youths. This might be why Mike's ex-wife had subconsciously underestimated Richard.
Richard patted the back of the other's hand earnestly. "I will, Mr. Mike Anselm."
Hearing this, Mike slowly removed his hand from the recorder, then left the scene with his ex-wife.
"Isn't that thing something you use for work?" Lily couldn't help but ask. She knew her husband had a habit of recording writing materials with a voice recorder.
Mike got into the car with Lily without looking back. Even as the rearview mirror reflected Room 1408 still drifting with black smoke, he didn't intend to look again. He gave Lily a complex smile: "I think I'll remember what happened tonight for the rest of my life, even without that thing."