Chapter 3

Just when I thought I was about to escape, I glanced back.

The killer was gone.

The space beyond the half-collapsed wall was empty.

Confused, I reached for the door, ready to make a run for it.

Then my backup phone vibrated again.

My eyes widened.

Through a hole in the door, I saw him.

The killer was standing there in silence without moving.

He somehow crossed the distance without making a sound.

Panic slammed into me.

I threw the backup phone aside, grabbed the phone I was streaming with, and ran.

I vaulted over the broken wall, landed in the sticky pools of blood on the floor, and sprinted down the hallway as fast as I could.

To my surprise, the killer didn't immediately chase after me.

Instead, he picked up a hammer and began striking a metal door.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Each blow landed with an eerie rhythm, accompanied by his excited laughter.

The metallic echoes rolled through the abandoned building, each strike hitting my nerves like a hammer to the chest.

I could barely breathe.

His laughter was worse than a nightmare.

It crawled beneath my skin and filled me with a terror I never knew.

At that moment, I realized exactly what I was to him.

A prey; a victim who had wandered into his hunting ground.

But I wasn't even a woman.

The killer was a man.

I was a man.

So why the hell did he sound so excited?

The viewers in my livestream flooded the chat, telling me to shut down the stream and find somewhere to hide.

Some of them said they had already called the police.

I followed their advice immediately.

I muted my phone completely.

Somewhere during my escape, I lost my power bank.

Fortunately, the phone still had forty percent battery remaining.

That should be enough to last until the police arrived.

As sick as the killer made me, I couldn't help feeling grateful for one thing.

He was a predator who enjoyed the hunt.

He wanted to chase me and toy with me.

And because of that, he was giving me time to run.

I raced up to the fifth floor and found a room to hide in.

When I opened and closed the door, I deliberately tossed several loose stones in different directions to disguise the sound and throw him off my trail.

Then I slipped into the darkness.

The room was pitch-black.

Today had been overcast.

There were barely any stars in the sky, and even the moonlight was weak.

I listened to the distant hammer strikes echo through the building and knew the killer was getting closer.

I'd already confirmed this place was truly abandoned.

There was no electricity, running water, and security cameras outside, which meant there was only one way for him to find me.

Room by room.

Floor by floor.

I silently prayed that the police would arrive soon.

I checked my phone and saw the battery had dropped to thirty percent.

I immediately switched to power-saving mode.

It would still be able to receive calls.

Then, all at once, the outside world fell silent.

The hammering stopped.

The relentless clang that sounded like a death sentence finally vanished.

For a brief moment, I thought things might be turning around.

Then…

Bang. Bang. Bang.

A rapid series of blows erupted just outside my door.

Oh, no.

The killer was right outside.

But that didn't make any sense.

I'd deliberately run all over the floor before hiding.

The footprints outside were a complete mess.

There was no way he should've known which room I was in.

A second later, I heard a door being kicked open.

Not mine; the room next door.

I carefully crept toward the door and pressed my eye against a crack.

The killer was searching room by room.

After checking three rooms, he stopped.

His patience had run out.

My chest tightened.

The phone in his hand was mine.

The backup phone I'd thrown away.

Instinctively, I pressed a hand against my chest, trying to steady my breathing.

“It's fine. Stay calm.”

The backup phone didn't have my main number saved in it.

Once he worked his way to the rooms across the hall, I'd make my move.

I'd burst out the door and sprint for the stairs.

As long as I was fast enough, death wouldn't catch me.

Unfortunately, reality had other plans.

My nearly dead primary phone started receiving a call.

For a split second, I wasn't worried.

I'd already switched it to silent mode.

Then a terrifying realization struck me.

My sleep schedule was a disaster, and I was constantly switching my phone between silent mode and vibrate mode before going to bed.

Sometimes I couldn't even remember which one it was set to.

And at that moment, I wasn't entirely sure my phone was as silent as I thought it was.