Terrifying Holiday Trip: The Human-Faced Crab and the Blood-Red Waves (Day Two)

Last chapter, we left off with my decision to spend the holiday in Qinhuangdao. During the six- to seven-hour journey, I had a dream that eerily overlapped with reality. The sudden dark clouds, the desolate ruins, and the blood-red bedsheet in the hotel room. In a daze, I thought I saw a woman in a white dress with short hair staring at me from the ruins. Who was she? And what did that strange dream mean? Let's find out in this chapter.



I slept soundly through the night, surprisingly at ease on that blood-red bedsheet. I woke up naturally early the next morning. Checking my itinerary on my phone, I realized that a trip to Qinhuangdao wouldn't be complete without trying some crabs. It was early October, after all. Without much thought, I hailed a taxi and headed to the nearest seafood market.



The market was small, with tiny stalls displaying plump crabs on one side and tender shellfish on the other. I wasn't particularly fond of seafood, but I never turned down a good meal. After the vendor's recommendation, I bought four crabs—two male and two female—and headed back to my apartment to cook them myself.



While listening to a TV program about how to prepare crabs, I started scrubbing the large crabs in my hands. They were tightly bound with ropes, helpless against my actions. But as I washed, I suddenly noticed a pattern on the belly of one crab. It looked like a face, a pale, ghostly face.



"Ah!" I screamed and quickly dropped the crab, wiping away the splashed water. The pungent, fishy smell hit me. Suddenly, the other crabs in the basin flipped over, revealing their white undersides. On each belly was a grotesque, pale face, constantly shifting as if they were struggling spirits.



After the initial shock, I calmed down and cautiously approached the crabs again. But upon closer inspection, there was nothing there. The crabs were just moving their strange eyes and bubbling. Had I just hallucinated? Yet, it had seemed so real. I don't know what kind of mindset I was in as I continued to cook the crabs, even bringing out soy sauce and wasabi to dip them in.



October is indeed the perfect time for crab, and the meat was succulent, satisfying my appetite. After eating my fill, I glanced at the crab shells on the side. For a moment, I thought I saw those grotesque faces again, roaring but trapped within the shells. But then they were gone. Another hallucination?



I quickly cleaned up the mess and fled the apartment, rushing towards the sea. My place was quite remote, not part of any tourist spot, so the beach was incredibly quiet. I had the whole stretch of sand to myself, along with a small wooden boat moored on the shore. I didn't need to do anything. I just leaned against the boat, spread my arms, closed my eyes, and let myself be embraced by the ocean.



The wind blowing in my face was cool and slightly salty, the true taste of the sea. The sound of the waves was like a song, growing louder with each crash. I felt as if I were standing in the center of the ocean, drifting with the waves, feeling the sea breeze, the seawater, and the rhythm of the tides. My heart had never felt so at peace. But I didn't know that when I opened my eyes again, I was already standing in the sea.



It was the cold sensation under my feet that woke me up. I opened my eyes to a blood-red scene. The red spread from the horizon, layer by layer, staining the ocean and even the waves a deep crimson. A huge wave crashed towards me, and I fell to the ground. The water wasn't deep, but the strong, metallic taste of blood in my mouth made it hard to breathe. I don't remember how I managed to crawl back to the shore. The small wooden boat was right in front of me, unmoved. So how did I end up in the sea?



Confused and terrified, I turned back to look at the blood-red ocean. Within the layers of waves were faces—grotesque, struggling faces. They were eerily similar yet strangely unfamiliar. I raised my hands, and droplets of blood-red water fell from them. This wasn't the sea dyed red by the setting sun. It was blood, pure and simple! In that instant, my world had completely changed.



To be continued...