The middle-aged woman’s surprised voice came from the phone. Xiao Yu had chills all over her body. “Did you see another person in the living room?!”
“Yes! He grabbed your dirty clothes and entered the bathroom. I thought that was your boyfriend!”
“Bathroom?!” It was only then that Xiao Yu realized the bathroom door had been closed. She didn’t have the habit of closing it. Terror consumed her. Xiao Yu rushed to open the front door. She twisted the doorknob, but it sent her into deeper despair. Something was edged into the lock, so it refused to open!
Thud, thud, thud…
Strange noises came from the bathroom on another side of the living room. Xiao Yu held the doorknob with both hands as she kept turning her head around to look at the bathroom. Water droplets slid down the semi-transparent window. It sounded like someone was doing the laundry inside the bathroom. The strange noise also became more common.
“Help! Is anyone there?” Xiao Yu panicked. She slammed her palms into the front door and screamed. However, there was no reply.
“Girl, call the police! I’ll call the police too!” Her mom said.
After Xiao Yu screamed, the strange sounds from the bathroom stopped. A few seconds later, something appeared from behind the glass. It was a glob of blackness. It felt like a face stuck to the glass.
The door handle of the bathroom slowly moved. If Xiao Yu still couldn’t escape, she would come face to face with this terror. In her panic, she grabbed her phone and escaped back to her bedroom. Just as she was about to close the bedroom door, the bathroom door opened. Xiao Yu didn’t dare to look. She only saw a pair of legs.
Xiao Yu locked the bedroom door and ran to open the bedroom window. However, she was on the 7th floor. If she jumped, she would die. She didn’t dare to end the call with her mother. She switched the channel and called the police. However, to her consternation, the call to the police wouldn’t connect!
Emergency numbers were special numbers. They were not limited by cell services. As long as there was a transmission base nearby, one could accept and send the signal. However, that was not the scariest thing. If she couldn’t connect to the police number, how did she manage to have a video call with her mom?!
Her cold sweat poured. At that moment, the video call popped back up. Xiao Yu looked at her mother’s face on the screen, and her fingers trembled. It was not until now did Xiao Yu realize how pale her mother’s face was.
“Baby, what’s wrong? Don’t be scared! I’ll be there soon!”
“There’s no need!” Xiao Yu screamed as she almost threw the phone away.
“Mommy is already in your neighborhood! Don’t be scared!”
“No! Don’t come here!” Xiao Yu’s voice turned shrill. Her body shook.
“Baby! Mom is already in the corridor!”
“Who! Who are you?” The image blurred. The signal was gone. However, Xiao Yu could see her mother’s face on the screen. The face was glaring at her.
“I’m on the third floor, the fourth floor…”
Xiao Yu collapsed. She was so frightened that she couldn’t hold the phone. Just as the phone fell to the ground, her mother on the phone said, “I’m at your door!”
Thud, thud, thud!
The knocking sound came from the living room. Xiao Yu held her breath and didn’t know what to do. At this terrifying moment, the strange footsteps echoed in the living room again. It sounded like someone was pacing outside. The sky darkened. The temperature dropped.
Several seconds later, Xiao Yu could hear the front door open. However, that was the last sound she heard. After the door opened, the world submerged into silence. Xiao Yu stopped where she was and held her breath. Eventually, she gathered her courage to approach the bedroom door. “What is going on outside?”
Her hands shook uncontrollably. Just as Xiao Yu was about to touch the bedroom door, her phone on the ground vibrated. She received a series of messages. Some came from the landlord, others came from Mr. Jia and a few came from her mother. “Has the signal recovered?”
Xiao Yu stopped her fear and grabbed her phone. As she called the police, she checked her father’s messages.
“Yu Yi, I can’t reach you. I know you still hate me, but I hope you’d come to the city hospital.
“Can you reply to me? No matter what, you’re my only daughter. I promise I’ll never gamble again!
“Your mom went to find you around 4 pm. She ran into a car accident, and there’s a low chance of them saving her.
“Yu Yi, come back home. You’re the only family I have left.”
When Xiao Yu saw the messages, her mind was buzzing.
“Mom?” As if remembering something, Xiao Yu grabbed the phone and rushed out of the bedroom. The living room was filled with wet footsteps. The faucet in the bathroom was opened. The mirror was cracked. The sharp shards were everywhere. There was a sign of struggle.
The living room door had opened a gap. Xiao Yu tried it again, and this time, it opened easily. Before she could react, a force pushed her from behind out of her rental room. Xiao Yu turned back to look and saw her mother being strung on the living room lights. There was a bloody phone stuck to her neck. She was holding a strange man’s shirt with extreme force.
“Yu Yi! Run!” Her mother’s voice echoed in her ears. Xiao Yu climbed up and ran. She rolled down the stairs and took out her phone to call the police again. Compelled by fear, Xiao Yu raced all the way to the first floor. However, a yellow talisman was stuck on the building’s entrance, and it was locked. Xiao Yu shook the door, but it refused to budge. She screamed, but no neighbor appeared to help her. It was like no one could hear her. However, the strange footsteps came from upstairs.
“He’s coming!” Fear overwhelmed her heart. Xiao Yu looked around and realized a few of the doors on the first floor weren’t locked. She picked a random one and snuck inside. There was no one inside the room. Xiao Yu slowed down and hid inside a dresser. Xiao Yu bit her lips and set her phone to mute. She didn’t dare to make any noise. Darkness arrived. Xiao Yu was so nervous that she didn’t dare to breathe too loudly. She glanced outside through the gap in the dresser door.
After a while, Xiao Yu’s phone suddenly lit up. She lowered to look and realized it was a call from her mother. In her shock, she answered the call. The video came up. She didn’t see her mother on the phone but the rapidly moving staircase and the door numbers of the second floor.
‘No! This is not mom calling! It’s that ghost! It’s coming!’ Xiao Yu quickly hung up. She was so nervous that she bit her lips until they were bloody.
After she hung up, her mother kept sending requests for a video call. The phone shook endlessly, and the screen glowed coldly. Xiao Yu shut the phone off and placed it in the corner of the dresser. At that moment, she heard the front door being pushed open.
‘Is it here?!’ Her heart was about to stop. Xiao Yu hugged herself. Time slowed in the dark. Xiao Yu didn’t dare to move.
The footsteps were close. The thing was pacing. About ten minutes later, the footsteps appeared inside the bedroom where Xiao Yu was hiding. They stopped before the dresser. Xiao Yu tried to look through the gap.
At the same time, the voices of two men came from the corridor.
“Han Fei, run slower!”
“This is an emergency! We can’t slow down!”
“What should we do now? The entrance is locked. We can’t reach the girl. Shall we wait here?”
“It’s alright. I am a professional lock-picker.”
“What?”
BANG!
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