deformed bone

In Red Deer's view, the broken mirror trembled like a lake where stones were thrown, and ripples overflowed outward.

The face of the handsome green-eyed man in the shards came into sharper focus, though the fragmented face was much paler than Red Deer's own.

【I am afraid of you. 】

Fogg said quietly.

Red Deer's eyelashes fluttered, and he frowned haughtily.

"Oh, my dear Fogg, my dear little liar..." Red Deer showed a slightly malicious smile towards him in the mirror image, "Why didn't you speak?"

The man's face in the mirror suddenly became strange after hearing Red Deer's words.

【silence? ] Fuge said in shock, 【...Can't you see 'him'? 】

However, Red Deer did not answer Fogg.

After a while, Fogg let out a long sigh, with a sense of helplessness and sadness.

He was acutely aware of that—Red Deer couldn't see that shadow, that opposite of himself, himself behind the door.

[Believe it or not, everything I do is for that purpose, for Calvin - and you are putting everyone in danger. 】

He said in a muffled voice, the strength supporting him was weakening.

"Crack-"

A small shard of glass fell from the mirror.Then came another slice.

A few seconds later, the shattered side suddenly collapsed with a whoosh.

"Tick tock..."

Red Deer frowned slightly, he raised his hand, and a drop of bright red blood slowly oozed from between the finger that was pressing the mirror just now.

He seemed to smell a bitter scent of myrrh.

Fogg seemed to be acting weird just now, and this drop of blood also—

Just as Red Deer was trying to sort out his thoughts, there was a loud noise from downstairs, and an exclamation that he would never mistake.

"Calvin!"

Red Deer's expression changed, and he rushed downstairs.

-

15 minutes ago -

Calvin turned awkwardly in front of the bathroom mirror and glanced at the wound on his back out of the corner of his eye.

Little yellow spots had appeared on the red and swollen scar, and Calvin knew it was a sign of ulceration.The place where the blood oozes before has condensed into a dark red scar, and some transparent yellow water overflows.

Calvin hoped that he could completely ignore the two scars that had tortured him for a long time and sleep peacefully on the bed, but he didn't want to see a worse wound after waking up—the inflammation of the wound would cause A high fever, however, meant he had to spend some time with Reed at the Vigili house.

Thinking of this, Calvin stood up with the remaining willpower, bent his arms, and applied some gel to his back through the mirror.

And at this moment, he heard that voice.

"Da da da……"

Small but coherent footsteps.

At the very beginning, Calvin subconsciously thought it was Reed, but he soon realized that it was absolutely impossible for a big man like Reed to have such light and fast footsteps.

The sound of footsteps sounded familiar, and Calvin was in a daze.

It's the sound of a kid in hard-soled shoes hopping and running down the corridor—

Behind the Cross Bar, on the corridor leading to the staff dormitory, Isa would often run forward like a deer, and then she would turn around and watch Calvin slowly approaching her with a smile .

"Da da da……"

Just when Calvin thought he had hallucinated due to a high fever, he heard that voice again.

Is there anyone else in this house?

Calvin subconsciously rejected this possibility.

He walked out of the bathroom cautiously, the voice sounded...as if it came from the corridor across the door.

"Huh...huh..."

In a trance, you seem to be able to hear the little girl's slightly aggravated breathing after a slight exercise.

"who?"

Calvin asked in a low voice.

His hand was on the doorknob.

"crunch-"

The door was opened by him.

Not far away was the master bedroom. The dark maroon door was half-open, and there was a vague sound of water flowing through the gap in the door. It was the sound of Reed taking a shower.

Outside Calvin's door, the hardwood floors, which are old but still gleaming with careful care, are polished.Calvin settled down, was it an illusion?He thought, goosebumps rising from the cold on the skin of his arms.

After a few seconds, however, he felt the voice reappear.

"Da da da……"

The hard-soled shoes don't support kids' feet well, but they're cheap and look great - you can get little red faux leather shoes with bows for a few bucks and sparkling decorations.Isa also looks used to the stiff shoes.She has many pairs of these shoes, and they make such noises when they step on the concrete floor in the hallway.

Calvin pressed hard on his temple, his wound burning hot on his back.

He could even feel a tickle—maybe the wound was bleeding again, trickling down his back.

The footsteps sounded so vivid, but auditory hallucinations also sounded very vivid in many cases, as vivid as reality.Calvin felt more and more sick, and his whole body was cold.

He looked in the direction of the footsteps, and at the end of the corridor was the stairs leading to the first floor.

The little girl he had imagined was running briskly down the stairs in cheap hard-soled shoes.Calvin's body swayed, and he walked slowly towards the stairs while holding on to the railing.

There was no one on the stairs.

The auditory hallucinations disappeared.

There was a sudden silence in Calvin's ear, and behind him came the intermittent voice of Red Deer, maybe it was on the phone, Calvin didn't pay much attention to it.

He stood stiffly at the top of the stairs, feeling that everything was so absurd, dreams and reality crossed and crossed in his brain.He stared intently at the bottom of the stairs, from which it turned to the right to connect the dining room and kitchen of Virgil's house. The off-white carpet on the first floor looked extremely soft.

It is impossible for someone to tread on such a material with such a footstep--

Calvin said to himself.

But every nerve of his was tense, premonition, or intuition, he strongly felt that at the corner of the corner, it seemed that someone was standing there quietly, waiting for his arrival.

"crunch-"

Calvin stepped down the steps slowly.He went downstairs, and after taking a deep breath, he suddenly turned and faced the kitchen.

The well-decorated kitchen is clean and refreshing, and every spotlight has been carefully calculated.On the marble island-shaped counter is a decorative lamp that emits soft light, the floor is made of classically patterned wooden blocks that form diamond-shaped small grids, and the stainless steel sink is shining.On the other side of the wall, a deluxe double-door refrigerator was running, humming almost completely inaudible if you weren't listening carefully.

Calvin breathed a sigh of relief.He tried his best to stabilize his spirit, checked every corner of the living room and kitchen, and proved how neurotic he was with reality—there was no one here, and there was no sign of someone intruding.

"How stupid."

Calvin rated himself.He believed it was Reed's mental stress and the antipyretics and of course the immune cells fighting in his body that made him so neurotic.

His throat was a little thirsty from the previous tension, so he walked towards the refrigerator and opened the refrigerator door.

"Crack-"

The beer bottles in the refrigerator collided with each other the moment he opened the door.

Calvin looked at the empty refrigerator, and took a bottle of ice-cold purified water from the deep drink shelf inside.

"Crack-"

Probably something touched it again, and the sound appeared again.

Calvin didn't pay much attention. He closed the refrigerator door, turned around, opened the bottle cap of purified water, and took a big gulp of ice water.

"Crack-"

Calvin froze.

He put down the water bottle and turned around slowly.

Well, he finally found the source of that unsettling feeling.

that refrigerator.

The refrigerator was shaking very slightly, as if someone was trying to push the heavy iron box.

The wound on Calvin's back was so painful that spots of light appeared again before his eyes.

Calvin paused for a few seconds, but he quickly jumped up and walked slowly to the front of the refrigerator.At first he wanted to move the refrigerator out, but the refrigerator was as heavy as a coffin filled with corpses (of course, it may be because Calvin is too weak now), and in the end the only thing he could do was, Only by pushing the refrigerator out a short distance.There was a gap between the side of the refrigerator and the counter, Calvin turned sideways and squeezed in, his heart was beating frighteningly fast, and bean-sized sweat slowly slid down his forehead.

Calvin took small breaths, adjusting the rhythm of his body, and after getting ready, he slowly put his head behind the refrigerator...

"Huh...huh...huh..."

Subtle... The sound of breathing came from the gap behind the refrigerator.

A thin little girl stood facing the wall.

Her body is as thin as a firewood, she stands straight, as if her spine has been replaced by a steel pipe, and she is clamped straight between the refrigerator and the wall in that abnormal way middle.

From Calvin's point of view, all he could see was the little girl's expressionless face and her blood-stuck hair.

Breathing heavily, she banged her forehead against the wall again and again.

It was this action that caused the refrigerator to shake slightly just now.

"Isa?"

Calvin asked tremblingly.

The girl's movements stopped suddenly.

She slowly, slowly turned her head in the extremely narrow gap.