I didn't dare go to sleep.
Ever since I saw Mrs. Lan's sandals lying outside my door, I'd been sitting on my bed with my knees pulled to my chest, unable to take my eyes off the door.
Black mud still clung to the soles of the sandals.
Dirty water slowly dripped onto the tiled floor.
Drip... drip... drip...
I looked down.
Three footprints.
They were unmistakably human footprints.
But what sent a chill down my spine was that those three footprints hadn't come in from outside.
They started right in front of my door...
Then led straight inside.
One step at a time.
Stopping right beside the foot of my bed.
I swallowed and pulled my legs up as high as I could.
There was only me in the room.
So what had just walked in?
The phone on my bed suddenly lit up.
I snatched it up in shock.
A new text message.
It was still from Mrs. Lan's number.
This was the third message.
"Day 1: Don't trust the mirror. Day 2: Don't open the door after midnight. Day 3: Don't turn around when you hear your name. After three days, you'll be allowed to go home."
I read the last line over and over.
"Allowed to go home?"
Why did Mrs. Lan talk as if I'd been here for a very long time?
And "go home"...
Did she mean my actual home?
Or...
I didn't dare think any further.
Just then, the clock on the wall ticked over to 2:59 a.m.
Knock.
I went rigid.
Knock.
The knocking at the door rang out again.
Knock.
Three knocks.
Slow.
Steady.
Exactly like last night.
Then a woman's voice rang out from the hallway.
So gentle it was instantly familiar.
"Sweetheart..."
I held my breath.
"Open the door for me."
It was Mrs. Lan's voice.
"I'm returning your ID card."
I looked toward the door.
No.
That was impossible.
Mrs. Lan had disappeared last night.
I slowly climbed out of bed.
My legs were weak and trembling.
I walked toward the door but didn't dare open it.
I only bent down to look through the crack.
The hallway was pitch-black.
There was no one there.
No footsteps.
No shadow of a person.
Only the old mirror propped against the opposite wall.
I stopped short.
That mirror...
It hadn't been here last night.
I stared at its surface.
And then the blood in my veins seemed to freeze.
Inside the mirror...
Someone was standing there.
It was Mrs. Lan.
She stood in the middle of the hallway, her hair hanging loose on either side of her face.
She was holding my ID card.
And smiling.
It was a very strange smile.
Her mouth was smiling...
but her eyes didn't move at all.
I took a step back.
Mrs. Lan in the mirror stepped back with me.
I raised a hand to cover my mouth.
She raised hers too.
But then...
She was one beat slower than me.
I didn't move at all.
Mrs. Lan in the mirror still slowly lifted a finger to her lips.
"Shh..."
I wanted to scream.
But my throat couldn't make a sound.
Mrs. Lan raised my ID card.
Then she waved.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
As if calling me to come outside.
I spun around.
I didn't look at the mirror again.
At that exact moment, I suddenly remembered the end of the hallway.
Room 13.
Mrs. Lan had once told me:
"This boarding house only has twelve rooms, sweetheart."
I looked toward the end of the hallway.
A door was half-hidden in the darkness.
On the door...
was a number painted in red.
13.
My heart pounded.
If there were only twelve rooms...
Then who did Room 13 belong to?
I didn't understand why I stepped out of my room.
Maybe I wanted to find the answer.
Or maybe...
I no longer had a choice.
I grabbed the flashlight from the table, unlocked the door, and stepped outside.
The hallway was colder than usual.
So cold that my breath turned into thin streams of white vapor.
I didn't look at the mirror.
I didn't dare.
I hurried toward the end of the hallway.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps...
Until I stood in front of Room 13.
I reached for the doorknob.
Click.
The door wasn't locked.
It opened on its own.
Creeeak...
A rush of cold air blew straight into my face.
I shone my flashlight inside.
There was no bed.
No wardrobe.
No table or chairs.
The room was completely empty.
There was only one wall covered from top to bottom in picture frames.
I moved closer.
One frame.
Two frames.
Three frames...
There were twelve frames in total.
The first eleven held pictures of strangers.
Some were men.
Some were women.
There was even a very young girl.
They were all staring straight at the camera.
But the scariest thing...
was that beneath every picture sat a pair of sandals.
Some were old.
Some had rotted away.
Some were caked in mud.
I looked down at the last frame.
My whole body began to tremble.
It was a picture of me.
Not an old picture.
Not a picture from the internet.
It was a picture of me...
right now.
In the picture, I was standing in front of Room 13.
A flashlight in my hand.
My eyes wide open.
In exactly the same position I was in now.
I immediately turned to look behind me.
There was no one there.
I looked back at the picture.
It was still me.
But this time...
the person in the picture was smiling.
I stood frozen.
Beneath the twelfth frame was a pair of sandals.
I bent down.
They were the sandals I was wearing.
I looked down at my feet.
Then back at the sandals beneath the picture.
They were identical.
Every detail was exactly the same.
A whisper suddenly came from the corner of the room.
Very faint.
As if someone had leaned close to my ear.
"Welcome..."
I slowly turned my head.
The darkness in the corner seemed to be moving.
"...to day one..."
A soft giggle rang out.
"...of the rules of the game."
The flashlight in my hand flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then went out completely.
In the darkness, I heard sandals dragging across the tiled floor.
Scuff... scuff...
It was coming toward me.
And this time...
I heard more than one pair of sandals.
I heard twelve pairs.
All at once.
Scuff... scuff... scuff...
My phone suddenly vibrated in my pocket.
The screen lit up.
A new text message.
It wasn't from Mrs. Lan.
There was only one line:
"Day 1 has only just begun. You already broke the rules."