熱愛冒險，分享樂趣的 Flo.

來到這，請別害怕...

故事開始前，先解釋一下：

這個故事原本是來自於一場惡夢 

由於夢中都是英文，所以醒來時，也就用英文寫下了。

原本故事是寫在美國 Reddit，剛好看到台灣的朋友想看，也就順手翻成中文。

那麼，祝大家閱讀愉快!

-----------故事開始分隔線-----------

我已經有十年沒見到艾力克斯了。

就在他說要回去那裡帶奈特回來以後。

當我們還在念高中的時候，

艾力克斯, 奈特, 海倫, 傑克和我感情最好。

艾力克斯就像是我們的隊長或是中心一樣，

就是那種生來就適合當CEO的人才。

比起我們，他成熟的簡直不像高中生。

他的言談舉止，他作的一切都更像是父親會做的事。

同時，他也很神祕和…詭異…。

他從來沒談過自己、家人或他的過去。

他對於棒球、連續劇，甚至是新聞都像是一無所知。

而且他沒有手機! 他說那很不方便。

我記得當我們聽到他這樣講時，我們都很困惑。

手機要怎麼 “不方便”?

它就是設計來讓你的生活更方便的啊!

最奇怪的是，他從來不跟我們說他怎麼找到那些地方，

還有他是怎麼知道那些「規矩」的。       

直到現在，我也還是不知道他怎麼辦到的。

總之，他是很棒的人，雖然對他不太了解，

我們還是都很尊重他，也很相信他。

我懷疑是不是也有人跟我們有相同的經歷。

當我們還念高中的時候，出於愚蠢盲目那種匹夫之勇，

我們超愛冒險的。

而艾力克斯就是那位常帶我們去不同地方 “冒險” 的人。

某個禮拜六清晨，我們約出來一起向陌生的方向出發，

往一個小鎮去…你知道，就「冒險」啦。

艾力克斯說，去那個小鎮要過一個隧道。

讓我想到了當時剛上映的電影「沉默之丘」。

艾力克斯和我都坐傑克的車，奈特則開在我們後面。

我們想說這是奈特和海倫單獨聊天的好機會，

他超迷戀她的。

森林中，不到一小時車程，隧道就出現在我們眼前，

艾力克斯要傑克停在隧道口。

我們想說他大概是要跟我們講那些規矩吧。

他總是在我們還沒真正到那些地方前就先講。

通常只有兩點。

但這次多了一點。

第一、  不要脫隊。

第二、  不要去弄那些人或是任何那邊的東西。

(就是不要有眼神接觸、肢體觸碰、回應或反嗆之類的)

第三、  這也是最重要的一點，不要去想到鬼! 絕對不行!

這對奈特來說肯定滿難的。

我們都知道這點，奈特自己也知道啊，

他超愛鬼故事。

但怪的是，

他其實不太有種。(這麼說有點對不起他)

當車開進隧道裡，我發現隧道其實我比預期的短，

因為隧道的盡頭離我們並不遠。

隧道裡已經有很多車子了。

它們都很怪異地停在那邊不動，而且還都是空的，

車尾燈又都暗暗的，像是被拋在這裡有一陣子了。

艾力克斯打開車門，下了車，                         

說：「別擔心，這小鎮就在外面而已。我們用走的過去吧。」

奈特和海倫也下車跟著我們走。

我們只花了15分鐘就走出隧道了。

這裡比較涼爽、潮濕。

小鎮風格很復古，那些餐廳、商店還有房子，

還有那邊的人們都穿你阿公、阿媽會穿的那種復古衣服。

真的太酷了。

海倫問：「所以…你帶我們回到過去嗎? 我的意思是，這是時空旅行嗎?」

艾力克斯回：「不是。」

那邊的居民就像是我們之前在冒險時遇到的人一樣，

他們沒辦法看到我們、聽到我們，或感覺到我們的存在。

所以我們必須隨時注意，

那些人啊、野狗啊，甚至是車子都有可能撞到我們。

而這也等於違反了第二點規則了。

那裡有間滿漂亮的房子，

兩個小孩在前廊玩耍，而門是敞開的。

傑克沒發出任何聲音，就成功地進屋了。

我們也小心得跟在他後面，沒人注意到我們。

廚房裡，有位男人和女人開心得在聊天。

我猜他們是外面兩個小孩的爸媽。

傑克從二樓走下來，看起來很無聊的樣子。

(好吧，我承認在以前的冒險中，我們已經進去過好多屋子了。)

當我們在客廳看著從沒看過的電視節目時，

這位妻子突然撞到了海倫。

她往後退了幾步，表情很疑惑，

而海倫則是嚇得目瞪口呆。

艾力克斯說：「我們該走了」。

我們快速跑出屋子，再也不敢進其他間。

但我們並沒有從中獲得教訓。

奈特接著又帶我們去一間離隧道很近的餐廳，

我們想說這應該會很好玩。

一開始，我們到處晃來晃去，

把手放到人眼前，對他們大吼大叫，作一些蠢事。

但是，問題又來了。

這次是傑克。

一位服務生撞到傑克，湯灑得到處都是。

傑克向來都很暴躁，他用力得推服務生，

他說：「你他媽的白癡!」

我們都倒抽了一口氣，他犯規了。

服務生馬上就變得很可怕。

他冷笑著，眼睛變得血紅，皮膚開始剝落，

說：「噢…是個男孩啊…」

海倫開始尖叫，餐廳裡的人都轉過頭來盯著她看。

「太棒了。」服務生繼續說。

看來傑克和海倫對他們來說都不再是隱形的了。

餐廳立刻變得很擠，

那些人或者該說是某種莫名的形體，就這麼突然出現了，

我們剛見過的那對夫妻和他們小孩也在。

他們看起來很恐怖，有些臉和身體都扭曲到不合理的角度，

有些還在流血。

他們都靜靜得不動。

這是我第一次看到艾力克斯緊張的神情，也是最後一次。

他催促著我們：「走走走走走走!」

我們竭盡所能得往隧道跑。

那些…居民，他們追我們的方式很奇特，

他們不是用跑的或走的，

他們就是突然出現又突然消失，

但不管我們跑得多快，每次他們出現都離我們越來越近。

我們成功地跑進隧道裡，還以為這樣就安全了。

但我們錯了。

「繼續跑啊!直到跑出隧道為止!」艾力克斯大喊，

「還有什麼都不要想，就是跑就對了! 你們有聽到嗎!」

我不知道他為什麼要怎麼說，我的腦袋早就一片空白了。

傑克和奈特都在找他們的車，

但是隧道有太多車了，而且又有點暗。

「我說繼續跑! 不要管車了啦! 現在!」

傑克和我就放棄找，跟在艾力克斯後面跑，但奈特和海倫沒停。

我們邊跑邊叫他們。

「在這裡!」

接著傑克和我就聽到一陣笑聲迴盪著。

我們當場就起雞皮疙瘩了，

因為那聲音好低沉、好毛骨悚然，根本不是我們同行這幾個人的聲音。

海倫害怕得大哭，拋下奈特一個人，就往我們這邊跑。

當我們接近隧道口時，聽到了後方的車聲，

我們以為奈特會緊跟在後，把車子開出來。

我們跑出隧道，一回頭才發現一排排車子開始從遠端消失。

奈特一定也看到了，因為他一邊倒車一邊尖叫。

而他的車也瞬間消失了。 

這簡直令人難以接受。我們從沒遇到過這種事。

我跟傑克一樣都愣住了，只聽到海倫在啜泣。

一切都太不真實了。

艾力克斯邊罵髒話，邊往隧道走去，

說：「你們快回家，沿著這條路走就對了。」

傑克跟上去想阻止他，說：「不不不，你他媽的在幹嘛啊?」

「我要帶奈特回來。」艾力克斯頭也不回得踏進隧道裡。

那是我最後一次見到他。

「那我們現在怎辦?」

直到海倫問這個，我們才發現天有點黑了。

我們的手機顯示是五點左右。

真不敢相信，我們好像才待在那鬼鎮不到1小時，

現在應該還是早上才對啊，但現在已經快傍晚了。

我們的確沿著那條路走，而且走一陣子後，

我們的手機就幸運得收得到訊號了。

我們打電話求救，警察就來載我們回家。

後來他們也搜尋了整個區域，來幫我們找車和失蹤的朋友。

雖然他們後來在隧道裡找到了車子，

他們卻告訴我們爸媽說，

隧道另一頭就只有森林而已，根本沒什麼鎮。

下個禮拜一早上，

奈特就被發現昏倒在學校，好險他毫髮無傷。

他不記得那個週末發生了什麼事。

他媽媽很生我們的氣，她完全不相信我們的話，

還以為是我們霸凌她的寶貝乖兒子，

而我們還想編些爛藉口!

但比起被禁足和被當成是瘋子，

艾力克斯的失蹤更讓我們難過。

我希望我可以多了解他一點，

這樣我就可以回報給警方，

而他們也不會再認為他是我們想像出來的朋友了。

(都已經高中生了還會想像朋友嗎? 不合理吧?) 

===================    

=====故事結束線=====   

===================  

也許是文筆的火侯不夠，讓很多朋友誤會我的意思了。

海倫被看見不是因為尖叫，是因為服務生現出了原形，讓她違反了第三條規則。

奈特被空間吞噬了也是一樣；隧道的笑聲讓他有了聯想，讓他也違反第三條規則。

================================

英文版 Haunted Town - nosleep - Reddit

================================

I’ve never seen Alex for ten years. Just after he said he had to go back there to get Nate back.

Alex, Nate, Helen, Jack and I were best friends when we were in high school.

Alex was like the leader or the center of us. I mean, he was that kind of guy born to be a CEO, you know. He was too mature to be a high school student like us. His behaviors, his remarks…, everything he did was more like a father. And also, he was mysterious and…weird. He’d never mentioned about himself, his family or his past. He seemed to know nothing about baseball games, tv series, even news. And, he had no cellphone!

He said that’d be not convenient.

I remember we were all puzzled when hearing that. How could a cellphone be not convenient? It was designed to make your life more convenient!

Most strange thing was that he never explained to us how he could find those places and how he knew the “rules”.

Even until now, I still don’t know how he could do that.

Anyway, he was a nice guy, we respected him and trusted him, without knowing him too much.

I doubt if anyone has the same experience as we do.

When we were in high school, out of some silly blind bravery, we loved adventures. And Alex was the one who took us to different places for “adventures”.

On a very early Saturday morning, we met up and headed to an unfamiliar direction to a town for, you know, an adventure. Alex said that town was over a tunnel. That reminded me of Silent Hill, a film just released at that time.

Alex and I were in Jack’s car with Nate’s car behind us. We thought that was a nice chance for Nate to talk with Helen in private, he had a crash on her.

Less an hour driving in woods, the tunnel was in our sight, Alex asked Jack to stop in front of it. We guessed he was going to tell us the rules. He always told us before really arriving those places. Normally there were just two. But this time, there was one more.

Rule no.1: Keep yourself in team.

Rule no.2: Don’t fuck up with those people and anything there. (That means no eye contact, no touching and no answering/ talking back, etc.)

Rule no.3, which, is the most important one: Don’t think of ghosts! NEVER, EVER!

This was definitely hard to Nate. We all knew that and Nate, himself, knew that too. He loved ghost stories, but weird thing was, he was actually not that brave. (sorry to say that.)

As cars driving in the tunnel, I found it was actually shorter than I expected because the end of it was not very far from us. There were already many cars in the tunnel, and they were oddly all still and empty, their taillights were dimmed, like abandoned for a while.

Alex opened the door, got out of the car and said, “Don’t worry. The town’s just outside. Let’s walk there.” Nate and Helen got out of the car to join us.

It only took us about fifteen minutes to walk out. It was cooler and humid. The town was in old style. I mean, the restaurants, the shops, the houses. People there were in that kind of old fashioned clothes like what your granny or grandpa would wear. It was amazing.

“So… you took us back to the past? I mean, is all this time travel thing?” Helen asked.

“No.” Alex answered.

Residents there were like those we'd met in other adventures before, they couldn’t see us without eye contact and couldn’t hear us as long as we didn’t answer them. Those men, stray dogs or even cars might bump into us, and that would violate rule no.2. So we had to be really careful anytime.

There was a nice house, two children were playing on the front porch, and the door was wide open. Jack entered the house successfully without making any noise and we followed him carefully. None of them noticed us.

There were a man and a woman chatting happily in the kitchen. I guessed they were the parents of kids outside. Jack went downstairs from second floor and looked bored. (Alright, I got to admit we’d entered many houses in those adventures before.)

When we were in the living room, watching a tv show we’d never seen before, the wife suddenly bumped into Helen. She took few steps backward, intrigued while Helen was stunned with mouth opening.

“We need to leave now.” Alex said.

We quickly ran out of the house and dare not enter any other house. But we didn’t learn a lesson from it. Later, Nate led us to a restaurant very close to the tunnel, and we thought that would be fun.

At first, we walked around, putting hands in front of people, yelling at them, and doing something foolish.

But there was something wrong, again.

This time, it was Jack.

A waiter bumped into Jack, and the soup was spoiled everywhere. Grumpy as Jack always was, he pushed the waiter hard.

“You fucking idiot!”

We all grasped, he just violated the rule.

Then the waiter became horrible right away. Sneered, his eyes became red with skin peeling.

“oh…a boy…”

Helen started screaming. All the others in the restaurant turned their heads and stared at her.

“Beautiful.” The waiter continued.

It seemed that Jack and Helen were no longer invisible to them. The restaurant was crowded immediately, those people or whatever they were just suddenly appeared, the couple and their children we'd just seen were there too. They looked horrible, some of their faces or bodies are twisted in an impossible angle, some of them were even bleeding. They were all speechless and motionless.

That was the first time I found Alex looked nervous. And that was the last time too.

“Go, go, go, go, go, go!” he urged us.

We ran to the tunnel as fast as we could. Those…residents, the way they chased after us was different, they didn’t run nor walk, they just popped up and disappeared again. But no matter how fast we ran, every time they appeared, they would be closer to us.

We successfully ran into the tunnel and thought we’d be safe, but we were wrong.

“Keep running! Don’t stop until the other end of the tunnel,” Alex yelled.

"And stop thinking, just run! You hear me?”

I didn’t know why he said that, at that time, my mind already went blank.

Jack and Nate were trying to find their own cars but there were too many cars and it was a bit dark inside the tunnel.

“I said ‘keep running!’ Drop your cars! Now!”

Jack and I gave up and followed after Alex but Nate and Helen didn’t. We kept calling them as running.

“Here it is!”

Then Jack and I heard a laughter echoing.

We got goosebumps right away because it was low and so creepy, not from one of us.

Terrified, Helen cried out loud, starting running to us, leaving Nate alone. When we finally got close to the end of tunnel, we heard the car and thought Nate might drive out just right after us. We turned around when we got out from tunnel, only to find rows of cars were quickly disappearing from distance.

Nate must have seen that too because he was backing his car and screaming. Just in second, his car vanished too.

It was hard to take this. We'd never been in this kind of situation before. I was stunned just as Jack, hearing Helen sobbing. Everything was so unreal.

Alex cursed and walked toward the tunnel.

“You guys just go home. Just go along the road.”

“No, no, no, what the fuck are you doing?” Jack said. He followed up trying to stop him.

“I’m gonna get Nate back.” Without headturn, Alex just stepped into the tunnel.

That was the last time I saw him.

“What are we supposed to do now?”

Not until Helen asked did we find the sky was a bit dark. Our phones told it was about five. Unbelievable. It felt like we just stayed in that creepy town for an hour. It should’ve been still in the morning, but it was almost dusk.

We did go back along the road, and luckily, after a while, our phones had signal. We called for help and those polices drove us home. And later, they did search the whole area for our cars and missing friends. Though they found the cars in the tunnel, they told our parents there was nothing but woods over it, not to mention a town.

Nate was found unconscious and fortunately, unharmed in school next Monday morning. He didn’t remember anything on that weekend. His mom was very angry with us. Despite believing what we explained, she thought we bullied her baby son and tried to make some stupid excuses!

There was one thing upsetting us more than being grounded and considered nuts.

Alex was gone.

I wished I knew more about him so that I could report to polices and they wouldn’t think he was just our imaginary friend. (Imaginary friend for high school guys? Seriously?)

=================== 

想看更多  【異國怪談】

☢️ 推薦其他《短篇》💀 👻 

【捷運百鬼夜行】

【都市傳說】   【鄉野奇譚】

【校園鬼話】   【海中迷藏】

☢️ 我要挑戰《長篇》🔪🔫  

【金沙渡假村謀殺案】(老梅謠前傳)(已完結) 

【老梅謠】(已完結)

=================== 

📬 熱門文章更新搶先看！獵奇的怪趣味都在這裡唷 👀