Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The place you mentioned is a shabby villa north of Building 7, in the northeastern corner of the residential complex.

It used to be the sales office. After all the units were sold, the religious residents in the community converted it into a church, leaving only a few rooms for the property management office.

You don’t remember much about the villa. All you recall is that its outer walls were covered in ivy. When the wind blew, the leaves rustled, and the air turned bitterly cold.

That night, you couldn’t fall asleep. In your daze, you even felt as if wind were blowing from the depths of the villa into your room, sending a chill skittering across the back of your neck. You couldn’t help but pull the blanket tighter around yourself.

The warmth under the covers gave you a small sense of security, and you closed your eyes, beginning to sort through the information in your mind.

First, the poster really was changing. Now there were only a handful of people left in the audience stands, and the basketball had vanished from the poster. Second, the blank spaces in the book were increasing. Half the book no longer had a single word in it. And during the few times you had gone out, the colors on the walls of the residential complex had also been changing. The blue and yellow paint was gradually fading away, as if… something in this world was disappearing.

The next day, morning, [9:00 AM]

You went downstairs with your white cane. Although you had taken these stairs many times before, the sight of those eyes still sent a chill down your spine.

To reach the villa, you had to pass through the small garden and cross a gravel path. The short route would take only two minutes to walk, yet you had already been hesitating there for fifteen.

Half of that hesitation came from your own resistance. The other half came from the sounds behind you.

Before this, you had grown used to being followed soundlessly, as if by shadows.

But now, every time you took a step, identical footsteps landed behind you. Dozens of footfalls merged into one. At first, they were very faint, but as you moved forward, the sound grew louder and louder. You could even tell that the distance between you and them was shrinking.

Thump. Thump. Thump!

Louder than the footsteps was your heartbeat. Your breathing became ragged and disordered.

You didn’t dare look back. Steeling yourself, you decided to take a gamble.

You broke into a run. As long as you could make it into the villa, even if you died this time, it would be worth it.

At the end of the gravel path was a flat stone bridge. Beneath it lay a very shallow pond. Once you crossed that stone bridge, you could charge straight into the villa in one breath.

The villa grew clearer and clearer in your sight. Dense ivy covered the dilapidated outer walls, layers of dark red leaves overlapping until only a few narrow windows remained exposed. The front door stood wide open, the interior pitch-dark, like a cave capable of devouring light.

You ran, and the footsteps behind you drew closer and closer.

Your entire body went tense. With one leap, you rushed onto the stone bridge.

The footsteps stopped abruptly.

Standing on the bridge, you looked back and found the crowd standing rigidly in place like trees, unwilling to take another step forward.

It was as if an invisible line had cut them off from the stone bridge.

Sure enough, this place was different. They didn’t dare come close. You had won the bet. Thinking this, you inexplicably let out a breath of relief and turned to walk toward the villa.

But in the next instant, you heard the faint sound of water.

A hand shot out from under the bridge and clamped around your ankle. Your body tilted, and you fell into the pond.

You struggled to get up, but some force seemed to be pinning you down, making it impossible to continue. Water poured through your airways and into your alveoli. Your trachea filled with water. Then, once again, you felt the agony of suffocation. Soon, deprived of oxygen, your strength drained away, and you gave up struggling.

The last thing you saw through the surface of the water was wavering sunlight and a hideous face.

Your consciousness sank into darkness.

…

Time: afternoon, [5:45 PM]

“Don’t tell them you can see.”

Your eyes flew open in terror. The veins at your temples bulged as you gasped for air in great heaving breaths, but it still did nothing to ease the pain.

Your body curled into a ball. You screamed without a sound. A few syllables jumped from your throat, like a hoarse, skipping cassette tape.

This was your eleventh death.