Run!

At this moment, I had only one thought in my mind.

I ran to the elevator entrance, but the elevator was still far from my floor. Behind me, my mother was calling out "Rongrong baby," constantly closing in on me. The immense pressure forced me to not think much, and I quickly darted into the dark staircase.

I ran downstairs frantically, not knowing how long I had been running, but I could never get out of the stairs.

But I didn't dare to stop, didn't dare to look back. In the endless dark staircase, I swung my arms and ran until my legs grew weak and I was exhausted.

Suddenly, a pair of hands dragged me out of the staircase.

Instinctively, I closed my eyes and flailed my arms, but my wrists were grabbed.

"Rongrong, come to your senses!"

This voice brought me back some rationality. I opened my eyes; it was Grandma Zhang.

"What happened to you, why are you running wild in the stairway in the middle of the night?"

Grandma Zhang was from the northeast, and the warmth in her kindly accent temporarily soothed my fear.

I steadied myself, and all the fear and grievances erupted in an instant. Regardless of whether she believed me or not, I cried and shouted, "My mom turned into a monster, she wants to kill me. I've been running down from the 18th floor."

"The 18th floor..."

Grandma Zhang opened her mouth and said hesitantly, "But Rongrong, you have never left the 18th floor."

I was stunned.

Right, Grandma Zhang is my neighbor, she also lives on the 18th floor.

So I had been running in circles on the 18th floor from the beginning?

"And, you said your mom turned into a monster..."

Suddenly, Grandma Zhang fell silent, her eyes locked onto something behind me, lifting her hand stiffly like a puppet to point, "Is it that one?"

I turned around. My mother was crawling towards me, leaving a long trail of blood. Her belly was facing upward, her hands and feet facing downward, her neck twisted 180 degrees. As she crawled, there was a cracking sound of bones.

At this point, I was exhausted. The fear in my heart was replaced by a resigned despair.

All my relatives in this world had died miserably, what reason did I have to live on? If accompanying her in death was my mother’s wish, then this life would be for her.

I closed my eyes and waited for death.

"Rongrong, take a closer look at that ghost's face."

Grandma Zhang reminded me.

I opened my eyes. The face was half me, half my brother, with no trace of my mother.

"Your mother is not a ghost."

"The real ghost is you."

Grandma Zhang's words came and went in my ears, and my mind resonated with a piercing cicada sound. My head was splitting with pain.

The monster's face slowly twisted into a vortex, as if sucking in my soul.

My consciousness grew increasingly hazy, and in that vortex and the ringing in my ears, I fainted.