Henry touched his face; although the pain was gone, the sensation of being beaten was still fresh in his memory. He could even remember the feeling of the fist colliding with his face, and his eyes darkened with a hidden gloom.
"That mortal could actually go this far, it's truly unexpected..." Henry closed his eyes, wanting to use his extrasensory perception to sense Richard's presence in the real world, but he soon showed a frustrated expression.
Richard was quite strange. His mental strength wasn't actually strong enough to resist extrasensory detection, but there was a special power on him that could shield Henry's perception and, to some extent, block his mental intrusion. He couldn't even peek into the other's mental memories. Only when the target was within the area of the Haunted House could Henry barely capture his movements through the closer spatial-temporal distance.
"But this is for the better. Only by killing him can I absorb and obtain even more and stronger power." Henry thought, a flash of excitement showing in his eyes. He was already impatient to discover the secrets Richard held.
Clang, crash... Suddenly, Henry heard the sound of breaking glass coming from inside the Haunted House. He got up to check, only to find that the glass in his house wasn't broken... No! This sound wasn't made in The Upside Down; it came from the real world.
Buzz—
The electrical hum of a fluorescent light tube sounded. Following that, Henry discovered that projections of light-emitting appliances from the real world appeared all over the Haunted House where he lived. The light present in the real world turned into glowing particles, floating and drifting, filling the entire house.
Before Henry could figure out what was going on, loud heavy metal music suddenly erupted throughout the house. Roaring bass, passionate drum beats, and showy guitar riffs jumped out unexpectedly like lurking beasts of prey.
"Richard!" Henry immediately understood what was happening. All of this was Richard's doing.
Although he couldn't see Henry's furious expression at this moment, Richard wasn't disappointed at all. Instead, his face was full of laughter. He could already imagine how much Henry, currently in The Upside Down, wanted to kill him.
In any case, there were no residents within a hundred-meter radius of the Haunted House, so Richard could make as much noise as he wanted. He made a racket during the day and packed up to rest when night approached. It just so happened that the biological clock of Reverse World Creatures is the opposite of the real world. When he was active during the day, the creatures in The Upside Down were resting; his actions were truly a disturbance of their peaceful dreams.
As for disturbing Henry's rest, Richard expressed, "I can do this all day."
Richard did this for two consecutive days. He didn't know when Henry, living in The Upside Down, had left, but anyway, when Richard entered the Haunted House for the second time...
The mansion had long been peaceful, and the lights hanging throughout the house hadn't flickered once.
"Now this is comfortable." Richard nodded with satisfaction. Of course, just in case the other party returned after a few days, for the next week, the music kept playing and the lights kept flashing inside the Haunted House.
When the Thanksgiving holiday ended and classes resumed, Richard placed the finished script in front of Jonathan.
Jonathan looked eagerly at the script, then at the smiling but silent Richard. Licking his lips, he opened the script somewhat nervously and read softly: "A new film format, the mockumentary film 'demon child creel'..."
"Hiss... this script!" As the script was passed around to more people, Steve, Nancy, and the others finished reading it too. Nancy opened her mouth in surprise, "Alright, I take back some of my doubts. At least in my opinion, this script is excellent."
How could it not be excellent? It was a fusion of the essence of countless movies, perfectly strung together.
Jonathan sat next to Richard, his eyes sparkling as he looked at him, as if seeing a hidden master. He felt a mix of admiration and apprehension, rubbing his sweaty palms together; he had been in this nervous state all day.
The script was great, but this was only his first time participating in a film shoot. Could he film it well?
Richard looked at everyone present who had read the script and said with a smile, "I presume you all can guess my intention for gathering everyone here today. That's right, I want to invite you all to act in this movie."
"Oh no..." Nancy's mouth dropped open, and then she shook her head vigorously, indicating she couldn't do it.
Richard gave Steve a look, and the latter understood immediately. Steve put on a gentle appearance and comforted her, "You have to believe in yourself, Nancy. You know, the female lead in the script was tailor-made for you. You don't have to worry about not acting well because I'll be acting alongside you. The person who should worry about acting skills is me."
"Exactly, the first male supporting character to get killed off." Richard nodded. He heartlessly assigned Steve a character who would quickly 'receive a lunch box.' Although in the character settings he was the female lead's boyfriend, since the main perspective was female, then according to the conventions of Western horror blockbusters, male characters with close ties to the female lead would, without exception, all be killed off.
Steve had quite a few complaints about this, but considering the script Richard wrote was already excellent, it wouldn't be appropriate to change the plot specifically for him. Anyway, in this movie, character relationships weren't important, and it was a total party-wipe ending, so it didn't really matter if he was the first character to die.
Steve, Nancy, Jonathan, Eddie, and Robin finally all agreed and were willing to participate in the "demon child creel" movie.
"Shooting this mockumentary is still quite simple. Jonathan, you are both the director and an actor in the script. Having read the script, you should understand everything, right?" Richard planned to give a few simple pointers.
Jonathan nodded. Although he had some social anxiety, the character he played in the script was the cameraman. The number of times he needed to appear on screen throughout was limited, and it didn't require much acting, so the burden on his heart wasn't that heavy.
"Steve, the character you play is a wealthy young master; you can just play yourself for this."
"Nancy, you are the protagonist and the female lead. Most of the shots will revolve around you. You don't need to worry about your acting. Um... you'll know why you don't need to when the time comes. The character you play is also yourself."
"As for Eddie, your character is the leader of this exploration team. Your identity is the president of a certain high school's paranormal exploration club, leading your club members to explore the legendary Haunted House. You have an inexplicable obsession with strange things, even to a somewhat frenzied degree. Well, in short, you are also a character destined to die for nothing."
"Robin." Speaking of Robin, Richard turned his gaze toward her. Their eyes met, and there was a long, strange silence. Finally, Robin gave in, her earlobes turning slightly red as she looked away first.
"The character you play is the intellectual puzzle-solver. You are also the third-to-last character to die. You are keen on deduction and possess high intuition; your senses regarding eerie things are quite sharp." Richard scratched his cheek, his tone becoming a bit softer. "Um, you're also playing yourself, so you don't need to worry about whether you can act well. Just remember your lines."
Robin nodded, trying hard not to care about the suggestive looks the people around were casting at her and Richard, her face almost buried in the script.