At first, the knocking was just a few thuds, then it grew increasingly urgent and faster, pounding so hard it made our eardrums ache. I guessed if we didn't answer soon, the door would be demolished.
Chloe didn't dare move. She kept hugging me, staring at the door with terrified eyes - clearly that paper person had frightened her badly.
I refused to believe a real person like me could be intimidated by a mere paper figure. I stood up, and Chloe followed, hiding behind me while tightly clutching the corner of my coat.
When I reached the peephole, the knocking suddenly stopped.
I swallowed hard, sensing something strange in the air, but still looked through the peephole.
For some reason, the hallway lights were off, leaving the view through the peephole completely dark. I couldn't tell if no one was there or if the hallway was simply too dark to see anything. Either way, I didn't spot the suited man Chloe had described.
But just as I was about to pull back, a lantern suddenly appeared in view of the peephole - a lantern wrapped in what looked like skin.
The skin had distinct texture and looked strangely familiar.
Wait... this seemed to be... human skin! This was a human-skin lantern!
"Roger, why have you gone so pale? What did you see?" Chloe asked, noticing my expression. Though scared, her curiosity remained.
I didn't dare tell her I'd seen a lantern made of human skin, much less let her look for herself.
The lantern-bearer was an old woman with silver hair, her skin like tree bark, forehead covered in bruises. In the lantern's ghostly green light, her wrinkled face looked straight out of a horror movie.
"Are you Nuwa's Forsaken Shade?" I asked through the door.
"Who's Nuwa's Forsaken Shade?" Chloe whispered.
She didn't know yet - she'd left before Nuwa's Forsaken Shade appeared that night.
"Nuwa's Forsaken Shade is the one who made you pregnant with the Corpse-Fetus," I explained.
She deserved to know the truth. Keeping her in the dark after what she'd been through would be unfair.
Outside, the old woman spoke slowly, word by word: "Master sent me to play with you. Let the games begin! Hehehehehe..."
Her toothless mouth gaped black as she laughed eerily.
Master? So she wasn't Nuwa's Forsaken Shade herself? Could she be another paper person? And what did she mean by "games"?
At that moment, the old woman did something utterly horrifying - she suddenly raised her hands and gouged out her own eyes.
She actually gouged out her own eyeballs while still alive, and blood splattered onto the door.
"Hehehehehehe..."
The old woman laughed with an eerie, chilling tone, then pressed one eyeball against the peephole. From then on, we couldn't see anything outside - only a bloody eyeball staring back.
"What's wrong?" Chloe asked as she saw me recoil from the door.
I told her an old woman had blocked the peephole with an eyeball, and now we couldn't see outside.
"An old woman?" Chloe looked confused. "Shouldn't it be that suited man with the knife?"
She crouched to look through the peephole too, but immediately let out a terrified scream. The eyeball shocked her so badly she nearly fainted.
Just then, numerous footsteps suddenly sounded outside - a dozen or more people frantically stomping near our door. With the peephole blocked, we couldn't see what was happening outside or why so many people had appeared. We certainly didn't dare open the door to check.
After about five minutes, the footsteps stopped. Then came waves of cold laughter - sounding like one person laughing, yet somehow many voices at once, as if multiple people were joining in.
The creepiness kept us frozen in fear. Chloe kept clutching my coat sleeve, refusing to let go. Both our faces burned with tension.
Suddenly - snap! - the lights went out. In her panic, Chloe screamed. I told her to stay calm while I felt for the light switch.
But when we pressed it together, nothing happened. Was there an electrical problem?
I asked Chloe where the circuit breaker was. Instead of answering, she kept pointing shakily toward the balcony.
Following her finger, I saw a man standing outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. With the lights out and the balcony equally dark, I couldn't make out his face - only that he wore a suit and held a long watermelon knife.
The suited man! He's here! But this was the fifteenth floor - how did he get onto the balcony?
"H-he... floated up. I... I just saw it," Chloe stammered in terror.
Floated? To the fifteenth floor? Shit, this had to be that damn paper person - nothing else could float up like that!
The balcony window wasn't locked. With a slow creak, the suited man began pushing it open with one hand.
"Roger, wh-what do we do? He's coming!" Chloe trembled violently against me.
"What else can we do? Whether he's a person or a paper person, we've got to fight!" I grabbed a fruit knife from the basket on the table, though it was shorter than the suited man's weapon.
"So, are you keeping the Corpse-Fetus or not?" The suited man stepped inside, advancing toward us. His voice sounded unnatural, like a recording.
Chloe didn't dare answer, staying hidden behind me. The man added, "If you don't answer, you'll die too!"
"Fuck you! We'd rather die than surrender! Get out!"
Enraged, I stabbed at the suited man. He didn't even dodge - the fruit knife plunged straight into his chest with a hissing sound, like puncturing paper.
The suited man remained completely unaffected, as if the knife couldn't harm him.
"My turn!" he said slowly, raising his arm to slash directly at my head.
Fortunately, I reacted quickly and dodged. Unlike a paper person, one slash from that knife would draw real blood from me.
But the pressure didn't let up. After my failed stab attempt, I tried pulling the knife from his chest, but he gave me no chance - kicking me hard in the stomach.
His strength was inhuman. The kick sent me flying several meters, crashing through the coffee table and couch.
The pain made me croak like a dying frog. I vomited blood and rolled across the floor uncontrollably.
The suited man kept coming, knife in hand, stabbing toward me as I lay on the ground. "I'll fight you to the death!" I shouted, lunging up to grapple with him.
Even after making him drop his knife, I couldn't overpower him - his strength was overwhelming. But I had another plan. I pulled out a lighter.
You're just a paper person, right? Let's see how you handle fire!
Seeing the flame, the suited man panicked, desperately trying to push me away. But I'd already thrown the lighter at him.
Paper ignites easily. With a poof, the suited man burst into flames. Before he could even scream, he burned completely to ashes.