đź“– Chapter 5: Upstairs
341 Words
The laughter upstairs echoed through the house, low and broken, like someone trying to imitate a human voice.
I backed away from the open door slowly.
The footprints in the mud were fresh.
Whatever had been outside…
was now inside with me.
My hands trembled as I shut the door again.
“Think,” I whispered to myself. “Think…”
But my mind felt frozen.
Then I heard it.
A soft crying sound.
Upstairs.
Linh.
This time, it sounded real.
Not twisted.
Not fake.
“Please…” she sobbed weakly. “Help me…”
I looked toward the staircase.
Every part of me wanted to run out of the house and never come back. But if Linh was really up there…
I couldn’t leave her.
I grabbed a broken piece of wood lying near the wall and held it tightly like a weapon.
The staircase creaked beneath my feet as I climbed again.
One step.
Two.
Three.
The crying grew louder.
At the end of the hallway, the same dark room stood open.
But this time, the room was empty.
The thing that looked like me was gone.
“Linh?” I whispered.
No answer.
I stepped closer.
The air inside the room felt freezing cold. The wallpaper was peeling from the walls, and the smell of something rotten filled the air.
Then I saw her.
Linh sat in the corner of the room with her knees pulled against her chest. Her long hair covered her face, and her body shook as she cried softly.
Relief hit me so hard my knees almost gave out.
“Linh!”
I rushed toward her.
But just before I touched her—
I noticed something wrong.
Her fingers were too long.
Too thin.
And bent in strange directions.
Slowly… very slowly…
she lifted her head.
Her face was hidden behind her hair.
Then she spoke.
“You shouldn’t have come back.”
The voice was not Linh’s.
Every light in the room suddenly went out.
And in the darkness…
something grabbed my ankle.
- Writer
