She must have been seeing things. But just as Ste breathed a sigh of relief, she faintly heard the sound of a child crying drifting up from downstairs.


    "Ron? Who''s down there?!"


    Ste''s face went instantly pale. The thought that little Ron was sleeping in the master bedroom across the hall meant even if he had woken up, the crying couldn''t possibly being from downstairs. A chill ran down her spine.


    Suddenly, the faint crying morphed into a child''sughter.


    Hee hee. Hee hee hee.


    The alternating crying andughing was far more terrifying than just crying alone.


    Ste hugged herself tightly, looking around wildly. The atmosphere felt incredibly eerie, the trees in the distance casting ghostly, menacing shadows.


    "Ah!"


    Forgetting entirely about her staged photoshoot, she wrapped her arms around herself and sprinted back inside. She mmed the balcony door shut, bolted to the bedroom door, and yanked the handle with all her might.


    That was when she realized the door wouldn''t budge.


    She was locked in. Ste tugged at the handle even more frantically and was about to pound on the wood when the sound of pitter-patter footsteps echoed from the hallway outside.


    It was unmistakably the sound of a child running back and forth,pletely different from heavy adult footsteps.


    The footsteps quickly approached her door. Terrified, Ste let go of the handle and stiffly looked down.


    A sliver of light spilled through the gap under the door. The hallway lights seemed to flicker, shadows danced, and then, a dark red liquid began to slowly seep in from the outside.


    Ste was wearing white disposable slippers. Before long, the tips of her shoes were stained a grotesque red.


    "Ah! No! Don''te in! It wasn''t me! Don''te looking for me!"


    She could almost smell the faint, metallic scent of blood in the air.


    Ste stood frozen, too petrified to move a single muscle, her voice trembling violently.


    With her existing head injury, the terror now made her dizzy and nauseous. Covered


    in a cold sweat, she was on the verge of fainting.


    "Hee hee, hee hee hee..."


    The only response she got was that chillingughter, now even clearer. "Ah!"


    Screaming in agony and horror, Ste covered her ears and backed away. She tripped over her own feet; her slipper flew off, and she crashed heavily to the floor.


    It was a hard fall. She wished more than anything that it had just knocked her out cold.


    But despite the severe dizziness, she remained painfully conscious.


    She stared around in pure terror. Some of the furniture in the room was draped in white dust sheets, looking as if something monstrous might emerge from beneath them at any moment and drag her into the abyss.


    Remembering that this was the nursery Remington and Liz had prepared for their stillborn son, the icy grip of fear seeped from her heart all the way to her bones.


    Ste hugged her knees, writhing on the floor and curling into a tight, violently trembling ball.


    Infants only a few months old rarely slept through the night.


    Liz had fully prepared herself to be woken up by Ron crying in the middle of the night. But when she finally stirred and regained some consciousness, the room was already bright with morning light.


    Blinking groggily, she felt a soft little lump in her arms and realized her own body


    was enveloped in a warm, incredibly secure embrace.


    Liz''s eyshes fluttered as she opened her eyes.


    The first thing she saw was a pair ofrge, innocent, dark eyes.


    It was little Ron.


    The little guy had woken up in her arms, but to her surprise, he wasn''t crying or fussing at all. He just stared at Liz with those curious


    pure, and harmless eyes.