Nara did not move.
Those small eyes were still visible through the crack in the door at the end of the hallway.
Black eyes.
Unblinking.
Unmoving.
Nara held her breath.
“Hey...”
Her voice was barely audible.
The girl remained silent.
Nara gripped her phone tighter, then turned on the flashlight at full brightness.
She aimed the light at the end of the hallway.
There was no one there.
The door was still slightly open.
But the girl’s figure had disappeared.
Nara stood there for several seconds.
Then she slowly climbed the stairs.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
The wooden stairs creaked every time she stepped on them.
Creak...
Nara stopped on the last step.
She looked at the door again.
It was only a few yards away.
“Excuse me...”
There was no answer.
Nara walked closer.
She reached out to push the door open.
But before touching the handle, she stopped.
She remembered Grandma Sari’s note.
Don’t let her know you’ve come back.
Nara lowered her hand.
“This is insane.”
She backed away.
Maybe she was just tired.
Maybe the long journey had made her imagine things.
She decided to inspect the house first.
If the house was really going to be her home, she should at least know what condition it was in.
Nara took a notebook from her bag.
She began taking notes.
First floor.
Living room.
Dining room.
Kitchen.
Bathroom.
One bedroom.
One storage room.
Then she went up to the second floor.
The upstairs hallway turned out to be much longer than it had looked from below.
Several old paintings hung along the walls.
Most of them depicted village scenery.
But one painting made Nara stop.
It depicted the same house.
The house stood among the trees.
An old woman stood in front of it.
Grandma Sari.
Nara moved closer.
A little girl stood beside Grandma Sari.
Her face had been deliberately scribbled over with black ink.
The hair on the back of Nara’s neck prickled.
She quickly looked away.
Then she began counting the doors.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
She opened several doors to make sure.
An empty room.
An old bedroom.
A room with a large wardrobe.
A room filled with dust.
One bathroom.
One small room that seemed to have once been used as a maid’s room.
Nara kept walking.
Until finally, she found the last door.
“Eleven...”
She wrote the number in her notebook.
Then she looked toward the end of the hallway.
There was one more door.
A dull white door.
Nara walked closer.
Her hand touched the doorknob.
Cold.
She opened it.
Creak...
The room was empty.
There was only an old bed, a small table, and a wardrobe.
Nara looked around.
“So that makes twelve.”
She wrote it down.
Total rooms: 12.
Nara let out a relieved breath.
Simple.
The house was certainly large, but the number of rooms was still reasonable.
She closed her notebook.
But as she was about to leave the last room, her gaze fell on the wall.
Something had been written in red ink.
The writing had almost faded away.
Nara moved closer.
There were only three words.
DON’T COUNT AGAIN.
Her heart began beating faster.
She backed away.
“Who wrote this?”
There was no answer.
Nara left the room and closed the door.
Then she walked back toward the stairs.
After only a few steps, she stopped.
Something felt different.
The hallway had had twelve doors.
Now...
Nara counted them again.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
Eleven.
Twelve.
Nara exhaled.
But just as she was about to continue, a soft sound came from behind her.
Click.
Nara froze.
She slowly turned around.
The last bedroom door...
which she had just closed...
had opened again.
And above the door, something that had not been there before was now clearly visible.
A small number was affixed to the wood.
13.
Nara stared at it without blinking.
Her hands began to tremble.
She opened her notebook.
The number of rooms written there was still the same.
12.
Yet beneath the number, without her realizing it, a new message had appeared.
Red ink.
Handwriting that was not hers.
“YOU COUNTED WRONG.”