The monster seemed to be looking for something. It swallowed up the entire public toilet. All the lights outside went out, leaving only a few flickering dim lights on the top of the public toilet.
From the crack in the door of the cubicle, Song Huaimin saw the monster's wriggling tentacles, and his heart was about to jump out of his chest. He held his breath and inserted the valve in little by little.
On the other side, Ling Su was concentrating on pooping, and the sound of flushing kept coming from the cubicle next to him.
What surprised Song Huaimin was that although the monster was just outside the door, it did not move immediately, but stopped instead.
After an unknown amount of time, someone gently knocked on the partition on the other side: "Old Song, do you have a cigarette?"
Song Huaimin was startled and quickly lowered his voice and said, "Robin! Why are you here too... and you're still yelling with Ling Su?!"
Robin squatted on the other side and honestly changed his words: "Deputy Captain."
Song Huaimin sighed and suppressed all the questions in his stomach.
He was sent to cooperate with the mission after retirement. He is good at catching criminals, but he doesn't know what to do in this situation.
Ling Su studied psychology and knows all kinds of supernatural horror stories.
Although Robin looks a little dangerous and his identity is unknown, now is not the time to doubt him.
Song Huaimin is an old smoker, and it is not difficult for him to materialize cigarettes and lighters.
He hasn't been hiding in the toilet with others to smoke for a long time. He took out a box of cigarettes and a lighter, and handed them over from under the partition with a little unfamiliar movements: "Is it enough?"
Robin took it with both hands: "Yes, enough."
For some reason, the monster did not break in immediately, but did not leave either, and was still wandering outside the public toilet cubicle.
The lighter clicked.
After a few seconds, Robin opened the door of his cubicle.
Song Huaimin didn't expect him to dare to go out like this. He immediately cheered up and was ready to knock on the door and go out to save people at any time. But the scene in front of him stunned him.
Because of the angle, Song Huaimin could only see Robin through the mirror.
Under the dim light, Robin in the mirror looked younger than he is now. He was thin and small in school uniform, with pale skin and half-long hair covering his eyes.
That hardly looked like Robin, but more like a student who was forced into a corner, being swallowed up by despair in a nightmare.
In an instant, Song Huaimin remembered several cases he had handled during his appointment, which were so similar.
Robin leaned against the door of cubicle 7.
His posture was relaxed, even a little leisurely.
He held a cigarette between his pale fingers, tilted his head slightly, and squinted his eyes to look at the monster that had almost occupied the entire public toilet.
"I told you there were people in there."
His voice slowly rose: "Can't you hear? Are you deaf?"
The public toilet suddenly fell silent.
The ugly and clumsy monster also stopped moving inexplicably. Its tentacles, which were about to reach into the cubicle, were burned by the cigarette in Robin's hand and quickly retracted.
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Song Huaimin wondered if he had seen it wrong. He always felt that the monster was a little afraid of Robin, and even slowly took a few steps back.
Robin did not give it too much time to hesitate and walked straight towards the monster.
He lowered his head, and his hair covered his eyes, making it impossible to see his expression.
Under the dim light, Robin seemed to be playing with a lighter, and the "click-click" sound kept ringing, and the fire flickered.
In this remote public toilet, any tiny sound was clearly captured.
The monster seemed to become a little stiff because of fear, but still a little unwilling.
Its tentacles quietly bypassed Robin, trying to sneak towards the cubicle where Song Huaimin was hiding, but the sparks in Robin's hand flashed, and the tentacles stopped in place, not daring to move again.
Slowly, Robin had walked in front of the monster, and the cigarette butt in his hand flickered, almost touching the tentacle.
As if he noticed the monster's gaze, Robin raised his head and gave it a friendly smile.
The monster twisted instantly.
It seemed to be overwhelmed by deep fear, and shook off the tentacle. Its huge body desperately squeezed the wall of the public toilet, and the meat kept squirming, and finally it actually ran away directly.
Robin breathed a sigh of relief, extinguished the remaining half of the cigarette in the puddle, threw it into the trash can, and then suddenly opened the doors of the two cubicles: "Did you see it?"
Ling Su nodded vigorously: "I saw it, it's terrible."
Song Huaimin didn't say anything, he was also scared.
"We were chased all the way." Ling Su raised his hand and grabbed Robin's hair, and continued: "If it weren't for you, we would have been swallowed by it and the toilet."
Ling Su took out a dagger and squatted to check the minced meat left by the monster: "The appearance of such a monster in the dream shows that the person's mental state is very bad..."
"What's going on? Why did the monster run away?" Song Huaimin felt that the mental state of these two people was also problematic, "Robin, where did you go just now? Why did you change clothes?"
He looked at Robin and the mirror carefully and found that Robin standing in front of them was normal, but the shadow reflected in the mirror was still the thin student in school uniform.
"You can see it too?" Robin pointed to the mirror, "He should be the owner of the dream."
"Four o'clock in the afternoon" is a key time point, like a curse deeply engraved in the heart of the person.
Every time at this time, he will be pulled into an endless nightmare.
Therefore, he must escape to the safest public toilet before anything happens.
Someone was looking for him everywhere, and he didn't dare to resist, so he could only hide in the seventh cubicle deep in the public toilet.
Robin thought of this, so he went to check the cubicle. Not long after he entered, he met Ling Su and Song Huaimin who were chased by the monster.
All three of them knew what happened next.
Ling Su didn't find any clues, so he put away the dagger and stood up, and walked to the outside of the seventh cubicle with Robin: "It seems that this place can't protect the dream master we are looking for."
The seventh cubicle looked like a cleaning tool room, with a broken lock hanging on the door and dirty walls.
The cubicle was filled with old brooms and mops, as well as some garbage. There was nothing special about it.
The public toilet was not big to begin with, and the seventh cubicle was half the size of the other cubicles. Coupled with the accumulation of debris, it made people feel particularly depressed.
"By the way, that 'shadow' ran out of the seventh cubicle." Song Huaimin suddenly remembered, "Could the black shadow be the owner of this dream?"
Song Huaimin followed the two people's thoughts: "The monster that just escaped is the bad guy who bullied the owner of the dream, and chased him even in the dream..."
"Is it the subconscious projection of the dream owner? It's unlikely, the dream owner's consciousness is very vague."
Ling Su walked into the cubicle, closed the door and felt it: "But the monster is a metaphor for the perpetrator, this possibility is very high."
Knowing that the monster is a person, the fear is reduced a lot.
Song Huaimin breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his palms: "Since it is a human, why does it have to become a monster? Isn't this more terrifying?"
"The mapping of fear in dreams is divided into several layers. The most basic fear has a clear object, specific to someone... But after the fear erodes the heart, only the invincible monster is left."
Across the door, Ling Su's voice was a little dull: "Old Song, we are in the subconscious of the person involved. In reality, it is a person, but as long as the fear is still there, it is a monster."
This is a nightmare for everyone, including the dreamer of course - if the dream does not end, the person involved will live in fear forever.
Thinking of the situation in the simulated dream, Song Huaimin also broke out in a cold sweat and nodded seriously.
He had experienced it once in person and was deeply impressed by the destructive power of the monster.
It was also because of this that Song Huaimin didn't expect Robin to scare the monster away just by his aura...
Thinking of what happened just now, Song Huaimin was a little alert and wanted to ask Robin about his situation again: "Speaking of which, you used to--"
But as soon as he opened his mouth, Song Huaimin was stunned again.
At this moment, Robin was standing in the corner. Captain Ling had just confiscated his lighter and cigarettes, and was turning out his pajama pockets for Ling Su to check, and he was actually rewarded with a lollipop!