恐怖故事分享地

"Also, what does she mean by calling you Taji?" Upon hearing this, Mita's pupils rapidly constricted, and his breathing became extremely rapid. I knew he was in a state of extreme fear. Even a single second on a high mountain can lead to a great crisis if one falls into panic. No matter what, he couldn't lose his reason. So I hurriedly jumped out of my sleeping bag and sat directly on Mita's chest to hold him down. Slap, slap, slap, I gave him several hard slaps. As expected, Mita's breathing began to slow down, and he slowly regained his reason. The two of us probably stared at each other like this for a good five minutes. Mita finally spoke slowly. "I'm sorry. There's something I should have told you before we came up the mountain. Among this rescue party, Kiyoko is also here. She... is also on this mountain." Hearing Mita say this, I felt extremely surprised. Because I didn't see Kiyoko's name on the list of the first expedition team. Unless she anonymously disguised herself as a man and went up the mountain. But why would she do that? "Was that her voice just now?" Mita nodded. "Kiyoko wanted the child, but I thought both she and I were still too young and had too many things left undone. I was the one who made her get rid of it. And Taji is the nickname she called me only when it was just the two of us. She said a man should stand tall and upright, so she gave me the nickname Taji, which sounds similar." But... Kiyoko should already be dead.... Both Mita and I fell into silent speechlessness. Because both he and I knew very well that this was not an auditory hallucination.

I saw a senior who taught me mountaineering. But he never returned after going to K2 ten years ago. Although the senior's smile was as kind as ever, he told me many anecdotes that only the two of us knew. For a moment, I was deeply moved. However, my reason clearly told me: The senior was already dead. The figure before me was just a phantom projected by my own mind. So when the senior asked me to go with him, I coldly refused. Because of that experience, when I heard a woman's crying intermittently, I didn't find it strange at all. But what happened next I couldn't explain at all. All the auditory hallucinations I heard were about Mita. And they were stories I had never heard before. It's not strange to hear my own secrets through hallucinations. But hearing someone else's secrets is very odd. I shook Mita, who was beside me, and found he was also awake. He was sweating profusely with a look of terror. I asked him: "Mita, Are you hearing the same thing? The whispers in the wind say You let her down. She happily told you she was pregnant, but you coldly said you didn't want it." Mita turned his head in disbelief, his eyes wide, and stared at me. A faint sound came from his throat. Without saying a word, he nodded. "She also said: Do you remember the promise you made in front of the fountain that day? Why don't you wear the cross pendant she gave you anymore?"

『Be careful. I think we're not alone on this route. I don't know if it's just my imagination, but ever since we started climbing, I've felt like I'm being watched.』 Mita's words sent a chill down my spine. It was true that we had climbed several mountains over 8000 meters, and our mountaineering experience was quite extensive. Yet, this was the first time a mountain had exuded such a strong sense of hostility. This strange, uncomfortable feeling seemed to protest our presence. Thinking back now, I realize how foolish I was. I always taught people that if you feel anything unusual while climbing, you should descend immediately without hesitation. I had seen too many people ignore their instincts, rely on their past experience and skills, and ultimately lose their lives on the mountain. However, when I myself felt something was wrong, I arrogantly assumed it was fine. Overestimating my own abilities and those of my companion, and rushing to complete the assigned search mission, ultimately led me down a path of no return. That night, we set up camp near the original site of the first expedition's C1. High-altitude nights are filled with many annoying sounds. First, the low atmospheric pressure causes tinnitus. Coupled with the extreme cold, it leads to headaches and discomfort. The strong wind outside batters the tent, making a noise like sandpaper rubbing. But the most terrifying thing is that in such conditions, people can hear hallucinatory sounds or even see people who are no longer there, replaying past events before their eyes. Most mountains above 5000 meters have a certain malevolence. It's like how I repeatedly faced challenges from my inner demons on Lhotse before.

What's more, the ridgeline where those five people were doesn't belong to any of the three glacier routes. Normally, they wouldn't go to that place. Even with suitable equipment, it wouldn't be easy to climb to that treacherous mountain ridge. Just as I was pondering all sorts of issues, the first of those five figures suddenly fell. I couldn't help but cry out on the spot. Then the second. The third. The fourth. The fifth. One by one, in sequence, they fell to the other side of the mountain. In my many years of mountaineering experience, I've seen fellow climbers slip and fall off cliffs more than once, and I've seen many cases of people being blown into valleys by gusts of wind. But the way these five people fell was too unnatural. It was like how I saw on TV a few years ago, in a certain Central Asian country, after the people's revolution overthrew the dictator, when they pulled down the dictator's bronze statue, their bodies maintained a straight posture and fell forward in a direct, toppling manner. Sanda heard my cry and hurriedly caught up from behind, asking what had happened. I was stunned for a moment, unsure whether to tell him what I had just seen. Looking up again at the position of the peak, it was once again surrounded by clouds, just a vast expanse of white. Let alone any figures, I couldn't even see the mountain's ridgeline. I waved my hand at Sanda, signaling it was nothing. However, Sanda clearly didn't believe me, and he had a look of suspicion on his face. Finally, Sanda came up to my ear and said in an extremely quiet voice.

Moreover, the group's speed just now was so fast that even veteran mountaineers like myself and Mita weren't confident we could catch up. It didn't seem like the first climbing team, mixed with scholars and researchers. And it was even less likely to be someone who had been stranded on the mountain for ten days, possessing such stamina and spirit. "Perhaps it was a distant climbing party, whose reflection was coincidentally projected in front of us by the light?" Mita echoed Chen Ming's sentiment, trying to find a reasonable explanation for the figures they had just seen. But I believe all four team members present knew very well in their hearts that the figures they saw were not an illusion. Something had genuinely passed by us. After lunch, the afternoon journey was considerably easier. On the way to C2, we walked along the mountain ridge. At this altitude, we didn't need oxygen tanks yet. The order of the team remained the same: Chen Ming at the front, Wang following behind, then myself, with Mita bringing up the rear. Around 3 PM, I saw another strange phenomenon. I noticed something on the mountain ridge between the main peak and the side peak in the distance. So, I took out my binoculars from my backpack to confirm what it was. To my surprise, I saw what appeared to be five figures. Standing in a line, with their backs to us. So I thought, Ah, they must have successfully reached the summit. That's great. But a chill immediately ran down my spine. No, who exactly is up there? If the first team was safe, why hadn't they contacted base camp for over ten days? And if they had the energy to summit, shouldn't they have requested help from below first?

Wang Yi unexpectedly stepped onto the cap of an ice crevasse. Although it wasn't visible on the surface, underneath the thin ice layer was an endless, bottomless abyss. In his haste to cross, Wang Yi didn't notice the thickness of the ice beneath his feet, crushing the thin ice cap and falling in. When he fell, Chen Ming was immediately pulled down by the safety rope around his waist. Experienced as he was, he immediately flipped over and tried to embed his ice axe into the glacier, but he couldn't stop the downward momentum and was dragged towards the edge of the crevasse. As for me and Mita, we immediately sat down, using the crampons on our feet to desperately brace against the ground in front of us, and pulled hard on the safety rope with our hands. Until the rope dug firmly into our gloves, and both our palms went numb with pain. It took nearly half an hour before we finally pulled both of them out of the ice crevasse. Wang Yi's slip caused us to lose the progress we were supposed to make that morning. Chen Ming bruised his left elbow during the fall, but the injury wasn't too serious. On the other hand, Wang Yi hit his head during the fall, and there's suspicion of a mild concussion. He's still being observed after resting for a while. "You saw it too, right?" Mita was the first to speak during lunch. Then, a silence fell. "I don't know what I saw. The fog was too thick at the time, so I couldn't confirm. It could have been our reflection, or an illusion caused by light refraction." Chen Ming, the team leader, analyzed calmly. Although there was another possible explanation, none of the four of us believed that in the absence of food and equipment, a stranded team could still have all members survive after ten days. There was no possibility.

A gust of mist blew up from the foot of the mountain, and it was about to catch up to us soon. It would be troublesome if we got separated at a time like this. At this moment, both of them knew in their hearts that this mountain seemed a bit strange. It would be better to be careful. When they caught up to the two of them, Chen and Wang seemed to be arguing about something. Apparently, Wang thought he saw something, while Chen said it was a hallucination caused by the thin air on the mountain. Anyway, now was not the time to argue. We four had only just tied our safety ropes. Soon, a vast fog started to rise. As the four of us cautiously advanced, Wang Yi suddenly pointed to his right and said, "Look, you guys." About 30 meters away from us, a group of people were also advancing on the glacier. Because the fog was quite thick, we could only vaguely see dark figures moving. I wondered in my heart, Was this our own reflection? Logically, there should only be the four of us on this route. But upon closer inspection, no, that wasn't it. There were so many people! Counting them, there were actually 17 figures. Sanada and I exchanged a glance. We thought our rescue team didn't have this many people on the mountain this time. Besides the first group of victims, there was no way there could be this many people on the mountain. "Hey, you guys, don't move. I'm coming over to your side right now." Wang Yi, who was leading, shouted at the other party upon seeing this. However, the figures on the other side seemed not to have heard him, and continued to move towards the summit at an extremely fast speed. Seeing this, Wang Yi started to get anxious. He changed course, moving towards the front right. Chen Ming, who was following behind, suddenly felt a bad premonition. By the time he tried to call out to Wang Yi, it was already too late.

"Actually, when I was setting up the aluminum ladder just now, I saw something inside the ice layer. I thought I was seeing things, so I didn't tell you. Now that I think about it, the more I think about it, the stranger it feels." Mita suddenly dropped a bombshell. Did he see something? Don't scare me. "Do you remember Professor Kitai's birthday a few years ago? That walking stick I gave him?" Of course, I remembered that clearly. This brat, trying to suck up to Mr. Kitai, had dragged me to pick out that walking stick. In the end, he felt too embarrassed to give it himself, so he passed it off as if his daughter Kiyoko had bought it. Mr. Kitai was overjoyed, and took it with him everywhere he went, showing it off to everyone. "Did it fall into a crevasse?" "I wish it had." Mita looked like he had something difficult to say, and after thinking for a long time, he slowly said, "That stick is frozen in the ice layer." Frozen in the ice layer?? Is this guy serious? It usually takes tens of thousands of years for glaciers to form. Normally, things that fall into crevasses end up being washed down to the very bottom, and with the water from the underground liquid glacier, they're either washed out from the foot of the mountain much later, or get stuck in a crevice, waiting to be discovered by future generations. "I didn't missee it. It's that stick. And it wasn't just lying on the surface, it's frozen about a meter deep inside the ice." "You must have seen wrong." I ignored Mita, and urged him to hurry up and meet up with Chen Wang and the other guy.

I decided to ignore it and pushed forward another hundred meters. This strange shadow, centered on me, also advanced a hundred meters with me. I've climbed many high-altitude mountains and seen countless strange phenomena, but this was the first time I'd encountered anything like it. I had no choice but to stop and wait for Mita, who was at the end of the group, to catch up. Curiously, perhaps this force read my mind, because just as I was thinking this, the black shadow left me and moved towards the summit, disappearing. When Mita finally caught up, I mentioned seeing the black shadow. Mita looked utterly bewildered, saying he'd never encountered such a phenomenon either. Mita's explanation was this: "That was probably due to the angle. It must have been the shadow of some other peak cast over here. As the sun's angle changed, it moved with it, and finally disappeared somewhere else." On the surface, I played along, saying, "Oh, yeah, that must be it." But in my mind, I thought: How could that be possible? What kind of mountain peak casts a circular, disc-shaped shadow of a specific range with no discernible base? And as the sun rises, shadows should only recede down the mountain slope. How could a shadow possibly climb *up* the mountain...? But after spending a long time in the mountains, you inevitably encounter phenomena that are difficult to explain. At times like these, you can't dwell on them too much. What struck me as odd, however, was Mita's hesitant demeanor at that moment, as if he had something more to say but couldn't.

The summit was shimmering with a golden light. I couldn't help but stop and admire it. However, at this moment, I sensed something was wrong. The sun had risen, and I could see the distant mountain peaks bathed in golden light, but my vision was pitch black. Yet, when I felt around my face, I realized I hadn't put on my sunglasses yet at this time. (Because the glaciers and snow on the mountain are highly reflective, I always wear protective goggles.) My vision shouldn't have been this dim. So I called out to our leader, Akira (meaning [bright] in Japanese), and gestured that I was feeling a bit unwell, asking him to wait a moment. Then I took out an oxygen canister from my backpack and took a breath. But Chen Ming gestured back, saying the ice layer here was unstable and we should rest after moving forward a bit. So, as I continued to move forward, I felt puzzled. Logically, I had just returned from Kangchenjunga with Shida, so my acclimatization should have been quite good. How could I be experiencing visual impairment on a glacier less than 6000 meters high? Furthermore, if it were visual impairment due to lack of oxygen, I should have felt some improvement after inhaling oxygen. Why did I still feel surrounded by darkness? At this point, I stopped again and observed the surrounding environment. Suddenly, I noticed that only within a radius of about 50 meters centered on me was it dark. Beyond 50 meters, it was still bright. It was as if something was blocking the sunlight from above. With a slight sense of fear, I looked up at the sky. But it was just a clear blue sky, with nothing there.