My legs wouldn't obey me anymore.
I wanted to back away.
But they were walking on their own toward the space beneath the bed.
Little by little.
Dragging across the ice-cold tile floor.
“No...”
I clawed both hands against the floor.
My fingernails cracked and broke. Blood seeped from my fingertips.
“No... I didn't put them on...”
But my feet kept moving forward.
From beneath the bed, those cloudy white eyes stared straight at me.
It blinked once.
Then the corners of its mouth slowly stretched wider.
“Good girl...”
The raspy, wet voice sounded like it was rising from the bottom of a well.
“Put them on...”
A pale white hand reached out.
It pushed the red sandals toward me.
“They're so warm...”
I screamed.
My whole body felt as if it had just broken free from an invisible cord. I lurched up and bolted out of the room.
I ran.
I didn't dare look back.
The hallway of the boarding house was pitch-black.
The clock on my phone read three in the morning.
I pounded on Mrs. Lan's door.
“Ma'am!”
“Mrs. Lan! Open the door!”
“Help me!”
The door flew open.
Mrs. Lan stood there.
But it wasn't her deathly pale face that left me frozen.
It was what she was holding.
Sandals.
So many sandals.
She set them down on the floor.
One pair.
Two pairs.
Three pairs...
I counted.
Twelve pairs.
All different kinds.
Mesh sandals.
Back-strap sandals.
Fuzzy slippers.
Flip-flops.
Some had lost their straps.
Some had soles worn completely smooth.
Some were caked in mud.
But the one thing they all had in common was...
They were all wet.
Water dripped from the sandals onto the floor.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Mrs. Lan silently arranged them in a circle.
A chill ran through my entire body as I watched.
“Ma'am... what are you doing?”
She didn't answer right away.
After a while, she rasped,
“These belonged to the twelve people who lived here before you.”
I stood there, stunned.
“Twelve... people?”
She nodded.
“The people who used to stay in that room.”
“Where are they?”
Mrs. Lan looked at me.
The look in her eyes made me not want to hear the answer.
“Gone.”
I swallowed hard.
“No one found them?”
“They did.”
She looked down at the twelve pairs of sandals.
“But they only found the sandals.”
I took a step back.
“Then... why do you still keep them?”
Mrs. Lan didn't answer.
She only said in a tiny voice,
“Because if I throw them away...”
She raised her head.
“...it'll look for another pair.”
My heart felt like it stopped beating.
“Why me?”
Mrs. Lan looked down at my feet.
I followed her gaze.
And that's when I realized...
The red sandals had somehow been placed neatly beneath my feet.
I hadn't put them on.
But both my feet were snug inside them.
Mrs. Lan whispered,
“Because you picked them up.”
“By the bathroom door.”
Outside, the rain began to fall again.
Pitter-patter.
Pitter-patter.
Then, amid the sound of the rain, another noise rang out.
Scuff... scuff...
My body went rigid.
Scuff... scuff...
The sound of sandals walking.
It circled the twelve pairs of sandals on the floor.
Once.
Then once more.
After that...
It stopped.
Right in front of me.
Mrs. Lan's door slowly swung open.
Creak...
I looked outside.
Vy stood at the end of the hallway.
The blue raincoat still covered her entire body.
But this time...
Vy had no face.
There was only a pitch-black void beneath the hood.
In her hand were twelve strands of hair.
Each strand was tied to a pair of sandals.
I recognized them immediately.
One was long and black.
One was brown.
One had already gone gray.
Twelve strands of hair.
Twelve people.
Vy walked toward us.
Her voice wasn't raspy anymore.
It was clear, like a child calling a friend out to play.
“She misses home...”
I didn't dare breathe.
“She’s cold...”
Vy tilted her head.
“Those twelve people refused to come home with her.”
A giggle came from beneath the raincoat hood.
Then she lifted her head.
“But now...”
She pointed at me.
“...there are thirteen.”
I backed away.
My back slammed into the wall.
“Come home with me, Mai.”
Right behind me...
Something touched my ankle.
I screamed and spun around.
There was nothing there.
But on the opposite wall...
There were photographs.
I had never seen them before.
Twelve ID photos.
They were all girls.
Strange, unfamiliar faces.
Some were smiling.
Some looked stern.
Some were still very young.
But they all had one thing in common.
The eyes in every photo had been clawed to pieces.
I looked at the end of the row.
A brand-new photograph.
It hadn't been scratched.
It hadn't been torn.
I looked at the face in the picture.
The blood in my veins seemed to freeze.
It was me.
The photo had been taken on the day I enrolled in school.
I had never given Mrs. Lan a photo of myself.
I had never hung a photo here.
“No...”
I shook my head.
“That’s impossible...”
Mrs. Lan suddenly grabbed my shoulders.
“RUN!”
She shoved me toward the door.
But it was too late.
All twelve pairs of sandals on the floor began moving at once.
There were no feet inside them.
No one was wearing them.
They stood up on their own.
One pair.
Then a second.
Then all twelve pairs turned their toes toward me at the same time.
Scuff... scuff...
They formed a line.
And slowly moved toward me.
My phone vibrated in my pocket.
A text message.
With trembling hands, I opened it.
“Game on.”
A second message arrived right after it.
“12 people hiding. 1 person seeking.”
I looked at Vy.
She was smiling.
My phone vibrated again.
A third message.
“If you can't find me by 3:15...”
A moment of silence.
Then the final line appeared.
“...I'll find you.”
I looked up at the clock.
3:14.
Only one minute left.
Vy tilted her head.
“Count.”
I didn't understand.
“Count what?”
She smiled.
“Count the people who are hiding.”
“One...”
From beneath Mrs. Lan's bed...
A pale white hand slowly reached out.
“Two...”
The window behind me flew open.
Cold wind slapped me in the face.
“Three...”
All twelve pairs of sandals turned around at once.
Their toes pointed straight at me.
“Four...”
I wanted to run.
But my legs wouldn't move.
“Five...”
A laugh rang out right beside my ear.
“Six...”
I turned my head.
There was no one there.
“Seven...”
The red sandals around my feet...
Suddenly tightened around my ankles.
“Eight...”
I screamed.
“Let go!”
“Nine...”
Mrs. Lan looked at me.
Her face was deathly pale.
She whispered,
“Mai...”
“Stop counting.”
“Ten...”
I looked at her.
“Why?”
Mrs. Lan didn't answer.
She only looked up at the clock.
The second hand was ticking forward one tiny step at a time.
3:14:52.
“Eleven...”
I heard sandals running in the hallway.
So many footsteps in sandals.
Scuff.
Scuff.
Scuff...
“Twelve...”
Every light in the single-story rental building suddenly went out.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Right in front of me, Vy giggled.
Then another voice rang out.
Not Vy's.
Not Mrs. Lan's.
My voice.
“Thirteen...”
I froze.
In the darkness, a freezing hand settled on my shoulder.
And someone whispered right beside my ear:
“It's your turn to seek, Mai.”