Chapter 33 AM.

I sucked in a sharp breath. My breathing grew ragged and heavy.

A voice in my head started screaming.

Turn around.

Turn around.

TURN AROUND!

Unable to suppress the overwhelming terror any longer, I mechanically turned my head—

It was just the bathroom window. I had left it open.

The autumn wind on the 18th floor was strong late at night.

The blinds were being blown back and forth.

The slats rubbing against each other created that soft rustling sound.

In the dead silence, a sound I normally wouldn't even notice had become deafening.

...

It was just a false alarm!

To keep the bathroom ventilated, I almost always left that small window open 24/7. Even at night.

I was probably just so terrified that I completely forgot about it.

I was scaring myself to death!

I patted my chest, annoyed at my own forgetfulness. A bitter, self-deprecating smile touched my lips.

However, before I could even let out a sigh of relief...

A dark shadow flashed sharply across the floor right at my feet.

This time, I saw it with absolute clarity!

It was absolutely not the shadow of the blinds.

It was the shadow of a person, cast through the gap under the bathroom door by the ambient light in the living room!

My pupils shrank to pinpricks.

That person really was still inside my apartment!

The very next second.

CRASH!

The sharp sound of shattering glass erupted from outside the door.

I violently flinched.

I immediately recognized the sound. The intruder had knocked over the glass vase in my living room!

I held my breath, trembling as I dropped to my hands and knees, slowly lowering my head toward the floor.

Lower, lower, just a little lower...

And the moment I looked through the gap under the door.

What I saw—

Was the contorted, terrifying lower half of a man's face!