Chapter 13 AM.

I woke up at 3 AM with an urgent need to use the bathroom.

Still half asleep, I grabbed my phone and headed to the bathroom, planning to scroll through TikTok while taking care of business.

The moment the screen lit up, I saw a system notification:

[Password entered incorrectly 5 consecutive times. Please try again in 8 minutes.]

* * *

Try again in 8 minutes?

I froze, reading the sentence out loud involuntarily.

Almost immediately, I realized something was horribly wrong.

I always used Face ID or my fingerprint to unlock my phone. I rarely typed my passcode, and it was impossible that I would type it wrong five times in a row.

Moreover, I had been dead asleep. I had just woken up seconds ago.

A cold sweat broke out across my back.

Whatever residual sleepiness lingered in my brain evaporated instantly.

I remembered my phone's factory settings:

If the passcode is entered incorrectly too many times, the phone locks for ten minutes.

I looked down at my phone again.

In other words, exactly two minutes before I woke up—

Someone was in my bedroom, holding my phone, trying to unlock it!

And that person...

Was highly likely still inside my apartment!