Chapter 2 — Midnight Snake Knocks On The Door

PART 4 At the end of the hallway, a noise rang out. Not the sound of human footsteps. It was the sound of a heavy object being dragged across the ground, like someone was dragging a sack full of something. The sound got closer and closer. Finally, it stopped in front of the dorm room next door. The person in the next room is colleague Tieu Chau. Aunt Ly in the canteen is over sixty years old and cooks delicious braised meat. Every time I get rice, my aunt secretly gives me an extra chicken thigh. Today my aunt had a day off and took the hospital bus back to the city in the afternoon.

“Tieu Chau, please open the door.”

That is Aunt Ly's voice. The voice carried sobs, exactly like the trembling sound of a frightened old woman. The intonation, pauses, and habit of raising her voice at the end of sentences are all exactly like Aunt Ly's. The door was knocked loudly. Three hours. Stop. Then three more hours.

“Tieu Chau…”

“Stop pretending!”

From the next room suddenly came Tieu Chau's choked scream.

"Aunt Ly is not in the hospital! Stop pretending, I'm not afraid!"

The hallway became quiet. About five seconds later, that voice rang again. It's still Aunt Ly's voice, but the content has changed.

“Tieu Chau, how do you know I'm not here?”

“Didn't you still eat the dumplings I made this morning?”

“Is the meat in the bun delicious?”

The blood in my body immediately froze. This morning's dumplings have meat filling. The canteen said it was pork. It seems Tieu Chau also realized something. There was a dull noise in the next room, like someone falling to the ground. Then came Tieu Chau's trembling voice:

“What meat?”

The thing outside the door laughed. At first it was still Aunt Ly's laughter, then gradually became low and muddy, and finally turned into a completely inhuman sound. Like nails scratching on glass, like a throat full of water. The laughter lasted for more than ten seconds and then suddenly stopped. Then the other thing started crashing into the door. PART 5

“Lam Vi, Lam Vi, can you see building B from the window next to you?”

The security captain's voice rang out on the intercom. I crawled to the window and carefully lifted a corner of the curtain. My dormitory room is located on the second floor, facing the side wall of building B. Below is the internal road of the research institute. The streetlights were still on, illuminating the asphalt surface in a pale white color. On the side wall of building B there is a crack extending from the first floor to the third floor. The crack is still very new, the edge of the wall is still crumbling.

“I saw it. The outer wall of building B is damaged.”

“It was caused by number 7. It broke through the load-bearing wall on the third basement floor, then crawled along the ventilation pipe to the ground.”

The security captain's voice became dry.

"We saw it enter building A through the camera. Lam Vi, listen to me. Armed police are on their way, but the mountain road is difficult, it will take at least another forty minutes."

Forty minutes. I heard Tieu Chau's room door make the sound of wood cracking.

"Run! Tieu Chau, run!"

I shouted loudly towards the wall. My response was the sound of a window being smashed, followed by the sound of something falling from the second floor onto the first floor's lawn. I rushed to the window and looked down. Tieu Chau lay on the grass, not moving at all. She jumped down. To escape from that, her jumped down from the second floor.

"Tieu Chau! Tieu Chau, how are you?"

Tieu Chau's body moved slightly. She turned over with difficulty and waved at me. More than ten meters apart, I couldn't see her expression clearly, but I could feel her telling me to run. Then, the grass behind her parted. A black head larger than a basketball slowly emerged from the grass. On that head is a pair of horizontal human eyes. It stared at Tieu Chau's back, its mouth slowly opening. I see it. It actually has human teeth in its mouth. The two rows of teeth, top and bottom, are even, pale white, including full human incisors and molars, embedded deep in the snake's mouth. It was like someone forced a human jaw into a snake's mouth.

“No…”

Tieu Chau turned around. Time seems to slow down. I saw Tieu Chau's face immediately turn pale. She opened her mouth, perhaps intending to scream, but before she could make a sound, the snake's head shot forward like a spring. It all ended very quickly. The way that thing swallowed Tieu Chau was completely unlike a snake. Snakes eat food very slowly. They will first use their bodies to tightly wrap their prey, then begin to swallow little by little from the head. But it doesn't. It bit Tieu Chau's shoulder, then started chewing like a human would eat food. There was even the sound of chewing. Sprinkle. Sprinkle. The streetlight shined brightly on the lawn, but I'd rather the light was broken. PART 6 I don't know how I backed away from the window. When I regained consciousness, I curled up in the corner of the room, my back pressed tightly against the cold heater. I don't know when the walkie-talkie fell to the ground. Inside, the security captain's voice continuously rang out calling "Lin Vi, Lam Vi", as if it were coming from another world. I picked up the walkie-talkie and pressed the communication button. I opened my mouth and discovered my voice was as hoarse as sandpaper.

“Tieu Chau is dead.”

“When it ate her, it chewed.”

The security captain took a deep breath.

"The armed police are still thirty minutes away from arriving. Lam Vi, lock the door carefully, wait..."

He suddenly stopped mid-sentence. There was a wave of interference on the radio, followed by an unfamiliar voice coming from the security captain's communication channel. That voice was laughing. Laughing very softly, as if afraid of being heard by others. Then it opened its mouth.

“Captain Truong.”

“You're in the surveillance room on the first floor, right?”

“Did you lock the door properly?”