Chapter 5

After night fell, I lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

In the end, I picked up my phone and opened the post I’d made that afternoon.

There were hundreds of comments now, all discussing my family. The theories were getting wilder and wilder.

Then a stranger sent me a private message.

[OP, you’d better delete that post. Now.]

Confused, I asked why.

The reply came quickly.

[Aren’t you afraid your parents will see it? If they find out you’ve started suspecting them, do you know what will happen?]

My heart gave a jolt.

I immediately lost my nerve and made the post private. I followed the stranger back, too.

I hurriedly typed, [What exactly do you know?]

The typing indicator stayed on. I waited about half a minute before a reply appeared.

[No singing and dancing at the same time. No hospitals, but they like morgues. No sleeping with the lights off. No air conditioning in summer. No laughing out loud at home… OP, your family sounds a lot like mine. My parents won’t let me do those things either.]

It felt as though someone had seized my heart and squeezed. My blood ran cold.

I rushed to ask about their family, but they suddenly stopped replying.

I was wide awake now. I turned on the room’s light, sat on the edge of the bed, and kept waiting.

About half an hour passed. I was starting to think they were playing a prank and was about to lose my temper when another message came through.

[Sorry. They came to check on us. I had to pretend to be asleep so they wouldn’t find the phone I’ve hidden.]

Something about that immediately struck me as wrong. [Who was checking on you?]

The reply that came next stunned me.

[God.]

I put down my phone in disbelief. I felt like a fool, mocked and toyed with. I didn’t know whether to be angry or speechless.

God?

What a complete lunatic.

I was about to block them when another bizarre message appeared.

[Don’t come. Get away. Don’t come. Get away. Don’t come. Get away.]

The words “get away” instantly made me think of the note in Dad’s mouth.

Dad had told me to get away too.

So what had they been hiding from me?

No matter how many questions I sent, the stranger never replied again. It was as though they’d vanished.

An inexplicable dread closed around me, like rain clouds settling over my heart.

Just then, someone knocked softly at my door.

I looked through the peephole. It was the woman from the hotel reception desk.

I opened the door and faced her.

To my surprise, she looked blank for a moment, then apologized. “I’m sorry. Wrong room.”

I was about to tell her it was all right when I noticed that the small pocket of her jacket was bulging. There were two phones in it.

Instinct told me something was off.