Nara was still standing in front of the mirror.
The writing on its surface had not disappeared.
DON'T ANSWER.
BECAUSE ONCE YOU ANSWER, IT WILL KNOW WHERE YOUR SOUL IS.
Nara stared at the words, holding her breath.
She had no idea how long she had been standing there.
Then her eyes fell on the little clock on the table.
03:07.
Nara froze.
"Three-oh-seven..."
She hadn't realized how quickly time had passed since last night.
She immediately grabbed her phone.
There was no signal.
The battery was down to twelve percent.
Nara clutched both dolls and headed for the door.
She wanted to get out of room number 13.
But the moment her hand touched the doorknob, a sound came from throughout the house.
Click.
Nara stopped.
Then another sound rang out.
Click.
From downstairs.
Then from the hallway.
Click.
One after another.
Like dozens of locks being turned at the same time.
Nara opened the bedroom door a crack.
The hallway outside was dark.
But she saw something that made her heart stop for a moment.
Every bedroom door...
was open.
The first door.
The second door.
The third door.
All the way to door number 12.
They had all opened at once.
Nara didn't move.
She raised her phone.
The flashlight swept across the hallway.
There was no one there.
Yet each room gave off a different sound.
A child crying.
A woman laughing.
Someone knocking on the wall.
A chair being dragged.
And from one of the rooms came the sound of someone singing softly.
Nara swallowed.
She remembered Grandma Sari's warning.
Never stay in this house after midnight.
She should have left already.
But now every exit seemed to be blocked by something invisible.
Nara stepped out.
One step.
Two steps.
She didn't look inside the rooms.
She didn't want to know what was behind them.
But as she passed the sixth door, a child's voice rang out.
"Nara..."
Nara stopped.
She covered her mouth.
Don't answer.
Then the voice called again.
"Nara..."
This time, it came from the seventh room.
Nara kept walking.
A woman was crying in the eighth room.
There was knocking in the ninth room.
Knock... knock... knock...
Laughter came from the tenth room.
And when Nara passed the eleventh room...
a little girl was standing inside.
Nara almost screamed.
The girl didn't move.
She was simply standing there, facing the wall.
Her hair was long.
Her dress was white.
Nara turned her face away.
She mustn't look.
Mustn't answer.
Mustn't count.
But as she passed the twelfth room, she heard a voice that stopped her in her tracks.
Grandma Sari's voice.
"Nara."
Nara covered her ears.
"Don't listen."
The voice changed into a whisper.
"If you want to know what happened to Mira..."
Nara fell silent.
The name made her turn around.
"Nara..."
"You want to know, don't you?"
Nara bit her lip.
She wanted to know.
For years, she had had no memories of this house.
Of Mira.
Of the night that seemed to have been deliberately erased from her mind.
But she knew that voice wasn't Grandma Sari.
She kept walking.
Until she finally reached the stairs.
Nara looked down.
All the doors on the first floor were open too.
The living room.
The dining room.
The kitchen.
The storage room.
Even doors she had never seen before.
They were all open.
Nara gripped the banister.
Then she heard the clock.
Tick.
She looked at the wall clock.
Its hands were moving.
03:12.
One more minute.
Nara remembered the old photographs.
Every photograph showing the time as 03:13.
She began to understand something.
Maybe this was the time.
The time when the house showed its true self.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
The minute hand moved.
03:13.
At that exact second—
BANG!
Every door in the house flew wide open at once.
The impact shook the entire building.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Nara covered her ears.
Whispers came from every room.
Dozens of them.
Then hundreds.
They were all calling one name.
"Nara..."
"Nara..."
"Nara..."
The house lights turned on by themselves.
One by one.
The living room.
The dining room.
The hallway.
The stairs.
The second floor.
Until finally, room number 13.
The light from that room was much brighter.
Nara turned.
Door number 13 stood wide open.
Inside, the little bed was gone.
The table was gone.
The toys were gone.
All that remained was a long hallway.
Very long.
Far longer than the size of the house should have allowed.
There were doors all along it.
So many doors.
Nara stared at it, her body trembling.
She didn't count them.
She didn't dare.
But one of the doors at the far end of the hallway slowly opened.
A little girl stepped out.
Mira.
But this time, Mira wasn't smiling.
Her face was filled with terror.
She pointed behind Nara.
Nara slowly turned around.
Downstairs, every door now had a number.
1.
2.
3.
The numbers continued appearing.
One after another.
Until they filled the entire house.
Nara backed away.
Then the final number appeared on the farthest door.
100.
Mira whispered from the distance.
"Nara..."
Nara looked at her.
"Don't go into room one hundred."
Mira stopped.
Then added in a very soft voice:
"Because that's where they keep all the children who have ever gone missing."