I didn't dare breathe.
Not because I was afraid that breathing too hard would... let whatever was standing in the crack of the door hear me.
Giggle...
The laughter without a mouth rang out again. Small. Shrill. Like fingernails scraping across glass.
The black mud had crawled up to my calves. It was cold. Not water-cold. It was the cold of a corpse soaked in a lake for three days. Heavy. With every passing second, I could feel more sensation leaving my toes.
“Don’t let her see your face.”
The message was still glowing on the screen. Battery: 8%.
I lowered my head. My hair fell forward, covering everything. Both hands gripped the edge of the bed until my knuckles turned white.
Click...
The door to Room 13 opened a little wider. A hand-sized gap.
Plastic sandals scraped across the floor. Scuff... scuff...
But it wasn’t one pair. It was two. One pair dragged along. The other walked normally.
“Sweetheart...” Mrs. Lan’s voice. But it was distorted, as if her throat were full of water. “Lift your face and let me have a look. I brought you a present.”
I shook my head. My lips split and began to bleed.
That hand reached in again. This time, it didn’t touch my chin. It stroked my hair. Strand by strand. Ice-cold. Slimy.
“You’re so skinny...” it whispered. “Let me feed you, okay?”
I tensed my whole body. Don’t open my eyes. Don’t look.
BANG!!!
Suddenly, behind me, all eleven picture frames exploded at once. Glass flew everywhere.
The hand jerked violently, pulling back as if burned.
“Well, well...” The voice changed. It was Vy’s voice now. Younger. But crueler. “You’re being naughty. Your mother told you not to, and you still didn’t listen.”
I seized that moment. I ran.
I sprinted straight toward the back of the room. Toward DOOR 12.
It was sunk into the wall of Room 13. Impossible. But real. A rotten wooden door, its red paint peeling off in patches. A green-patinaed brass lock hung on it. There was no keyhole.
Behind me: Scuff... scuff...
“Where do you think you’re running?” Vy laughed. “Your sandals are stuck to your feet now. Think you can get them off?”
I looked down. The black mud had risen past my knees. And the red sandals... were inching backward on their own. As if an invisible string were tied to their straps and pulling them.
“MISSION 1: 2 HOURS 51 MINUTES.” My phone vibrated. Another crack spread across the screen.
Only two hours and fifty-one minutes left.
I threw my whole body against Door 12. “OPEN! OPEN!”
Creak... creak...
The door wasn’t locked. It was just... heavy. Heavy as if someone were holding it shut from the other side.
I used all my strength. Bang!
The door burst open.
A blast of cold air poured out. Ten times colder than outside. So cold that my hair froze.
There wasn’t a room inside.
There was an ENDLESS HALLWAY.
Mirrors covered both walls. Each one was as tall as a person. And in every mirror... there was another “me.”
But none of those “mes” was wearing sandals.
“Give us back our sandals...”
Eleven voices spoke at once. They echoed from inside the mirrors, distorted as if played through broken speakers.
I ran, counting as I went.
At the end of the hallway, on a rotting wooden shelf, were eleven pairs of sandals.
Soaked through. Reeking of mud and old blood.
1. Blue honeycomb sandals. Worn-down soles. 2. White back-strap sandals. One strap broken. 3. Bunny slippers. Rotted through. 4. Flip-flops. Caked in black mud. 5. Toe-loop sandals. Tiny, like a child’s. ... 11. Red plastic sandals. Exactly like the pair I was wearing.
Trembling, I picked up each pair. My hands were numb with cold. Every time I touched one, a fragment of memory flashed before my eyes: a girl being dragged underwater, a man strangled with a sandal strap, a child held under in the lake...
“MISSION 1: 2 HOURS 40 MINUTES.”
I hugged all eleven pairs to my chest. Then I turned around.
Vy was blocking the exit.
The blue raincoat bulged outward. There was no person inside. Only black water sloshing around.
“Good job.” It clapped. The claps sounded wet. “You found all eleven pairs already.”
It raised one hand. In it was the twelfth pair of red sandals. Mine.
“Come on.” It waved them in front of my face. “Put them on. That makes twelve. Then Mission 1 is complete. Easy.”
The black mud had risen to my thighs. I couldn’t feel either leg anymore. All I could feel was... someone carrying my legs away.
I looked at the eleven pairs of sandals. Then at the red pair. Then I looked back at the game’s rule: “Find all twelve pairs of sandals.”
Find. Not wear.
A crazy idea flashed through my mind.
I took a deep breath. Set the eleven pairs on the floor. Arranged them in a circle.
Vy tilted its head. “What are you doing?”
I didn’t answer. I picked up a shard of broken tile from the floor. It was the kind of tile used to build the old boarding house, with a sharp edge.
Vy realized what I was doing. It screamed, “NO!!!”
Too late.
I brought it down. SMACK!
The red sandal strap tore wide open. Black water burst from inside the sole, splattering across Vy’s face.
Vy let out a shriek. A piercing shriek. Not human. It sounded like hundreds of people drowning at the same time.
The blue raincoat on its body ballooned to its full size. Then it collapsed. Flat and empty. As if something had just been drained out of it.
From the eleven pairs of sandals on the floor, pitch-black hands crawled out. Twenty-two hands. They didn’t touch me. They lunged at the blue raincoat and tore it apart.
Vy stumbled backward. Tripped over the torn sandals. Fell flat on its back.
At that exact moment, every mirror in the hallway cracked at once. Crack... crack... crack...
My phone blazed to life.
“MISSION 1: COMPLETE.” “12/12 PAIRS OF SANDALS FOUND.” “BONUS CONDITION: DESTROY THE HOST OBJECT.” “DAY 2 GAME RULES: BEGIN.”
The darkness receded like a tide.
I collapsed. The black mud on my legs melted into water, then evaporated.
In front of me, Vy struggled to its feet. For the first time, I saw “it” clearly.
Beneath the hood of the raincoat... was a patch of darkness. But in the middle of that darkness were two eye sockets. Empty. Water streaming from them.
It bent down, picked up the red sandals with the torn strap, and gently set them down in front of me.
“In exchange...” Its voice was now as soft as a mosquito’s buzz. Exhausted. “Tomorrow... you have to give me a pair of eyes.”
After saying that, it turned its back on me and dissolved into the darkness. All that remained was the blue raincoat collapsing to the floor. Drip... drip...
I sat there, hugging all twelve pairs of sandals and sobbing.
Out in the hallway, the clock struck three in the morning. Bong...
And from Room 13... came the sound of knocking at the door.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
This time, Mrs. Lan’s voice was perfectly lucid, perfectly gentle:
“Sweetheart. Wake up and come get your Day 2 present. I’ve got a new pair of eyes for you...”