Chapter 1 — The Night of Power Failure on the 17th Floor

At three o'clock in the morning, my daughter suddenly squeezed my wrist. Her nails dug deep into my skin, her voice trembling: "Mom, don't turn on the lights, don't speak up, bring the papers, we have to go now." I was still in a daze and asked her what happened. She only said two words: "Run quickly." I was dragged by her, groping in the dark and jogging down from the seventeenth floor, even wearing the wrong shoes. When I got downstairs, I discovered that the whole apartment building was strangely quiet, there were no alarms, no announcements, not even the emergency lights were on. Everyone is still sleeping. We took the car to the nearest hotel. My daughter locked her room door and sat quietly until dawn, not saying a word. The next morning, when I opened my phone, the group of residents exploded.01At three seven in the morning, Khuong Hoa was woken up by a cold hand. That hand was very small, but it used all its strength. The nails dug deep into the inside of her wrist, causing so much pain that she immediately opened her eyes. It was dark in the room. The curtains were not closed, there was not a single ray of light outside. Even the yellow street lights in the residential area did not penetrate. Her first reaction was that An An had a nightmare. "What's wrong?" As soon as she opened her mouth, her daughter rushed to cover her mouth. Safe palms Safety is sweat. The girl's face moved closer, her voice shaking so much that it was almost inaudible. "Mom, don't turn on the light, don't speak." Khuong Hoa's sleepiness immediately disappeared. She raised her hand to touch the bedside light switch. An An held her hand, the strength was so great that it was not like a thirteen year old child. "Don't touch." In the room, only the sound of the two people's breathing remained. The air conditioner stopped working a long time ago. The refrigerator also makes no noise. The indicator light of the wifi transmitter, which is always on at night, has now turned off. Only then did Khuong Hoa realize. There was a power outage in the house. "Did you jump off the bridge?" An An shook her head. Her hair stuck to her cheeks, her eyes were wide open. Those eyes stared at the bedroom door. There is no light under the door. The living room is also dark. Khuong Hoa lowered her voice. "Let me go look at the electrical cabinet." An An's face immediately turned pale. The girl grabbed Khuong Hoa's nightgown tightly. "Don't go out." "There are people outside." Khuong Hoa's heart tightened. She slowly sat up, without saying anything else. The apartment's sound insulation is not very good. In the middle of the night, the upstairs flushes water, the children next door cry, the elevator goes up and down, and you can usually hear it a little bit. But tonight is too quiet. It was as quiet as if the whole building had been submerged under water. Khuong Hoa tilted her head to listen for a few seconds. There isn't anything. There were no footsteps. There was no talking. There was no sound of the door opening. There were also no common complaints after a power outage. The entire seventeenth floor seemed to be deserted. "What did you hear?" An An stared at the door. "Didn't hear it." "Mom, don't ask anymore." "Bring papers, phone and cash." Khuong Hoa looked at her daughter's trembling lips, the little doubts in her heart were immediately suppressed. Normally, An An is not a coward. Last time there was a drunk guy downstairs knocking on the door, she even knew to call the police first, then install an anti-theft chain. It won't suddenly become like this. Khuong Hoa did not turn on the lights. She groped down the bed and took out the bag of papers from the drawer. The phone still has sixty-two percent battery left. She stuffed the backup charger into her bag. An An has finished wearing her coat. The girl wasn't wearing slippers, on her feet was a pair of untied sneakers. Khuong Hoa felt the shoes next to the bed, wearing one cotton slipper and one thin slipper. Just as she was about to change it, An An pulled her. "There's no time." "Go now." "Take the stairs." Khuong Hoa looked towards the door. Door

Anti-theft is still closed. There wasn't any sound outside. But she suddenly felt like something was standing behind that door. An An pressed her ear to the door. A few seconds later, the girl took a deep breath. "Mom, put the phone on silent mode." Khuong Hoa immediately followed. An An stood on tiptoe and turned the door lock little by little. The sound of the locking tongue was very small, but in the dark it was like tapping directly on bone. The door opens into a narrow slit. The hallway outside was also dark. Emergency lights do not light up. The blue emergency exit sign has also been turned off. The entire hallway stretched forward, with no end in sight. Khuong Hoa's throat choked. "That's not right." An An did not turn her head. The girl pulled Khuong Hoa and walked along the wall towards the emergency exit. The fire door on the seventeenth floor is ajar. A cold wind blew from the crack in the door. Khuong Hoa remembers that normally this door is always closed. An An stopped. She took a coin out of her pocket and gently threw it into the stairs. The coin falls to the ground and rolls twice. No echo. No one moved either. Only then did An An pull her in. The stairs are even darker. Khuong Hoa held on to the wall with one hand, while his other hand was pulled by his daughter. The thin slipper on her foot didn't fit, and with every step it seemed like it was about to fall off. Seventeenth floor. Sixteenth floor. Fifteenth floor. Every time she goes down another floor, Khuong Hoa feels someone is following her. But she didn't dare turn around. An An walks very fast. She didn't count the steps, but it seemed like she knew exactly where each turn was. When he reached the twelfth floor, there was suddenly a very soft noise below. Like metal hitting the handrail. Khuong Hoa's whole body stiffened. An An immediately pulled her to the twelfth floor landing and covered her mouth. The two of them stuck close to the wall, even trying to hold their breath. Below the stairs, someone is slowly walking up. The sound of footsteps was very light. One step. Stop for a moment. One more step. Those were not the footsteps of residents fleeing. The other person looked like he was looking for something. Khuong Hoa's palms began to sweat. An An leaned close to her ear. "Mom, don't move." The footsteps stopped between the thirteenth and twelfth floors. In the darkness, someone coughed softly. Then, a man's voice rang out. "The apartment on the seventeenth floor is open."02 Khuong Hoa's blood immediately turned cold. Apartment on the seventeenth floor. It's their home. An An's hand still covered her mouth, her fingers shaking violently. In the stairs, the other man did not continue going up. He seemed to be listening to something. A few seconds later, another voice came from below. The voice was very low. "Going down?" "Can't see." "Don't turn on the flashlight." "If someone wakes up, it'll be troublesome." Khuong Hoa's heart beat so hard it hurt. This is not a power outage. There are people in the building. Someone knew they lived on the seventeenth floor. An An slowly let go of Khuong Hoa's mouth and pointed to the fireproof door of the twelfth floor. Khuong Hoa nodded. An An passed first, pulled the door open to a narrow slit. The hallway on the twelfth floor was also dark. They don't go in. An An just gently opened the door a little wider, then immediately closed it, leaving only a small gap. The next second, she pulled Khuong Hoa and continued running down. Khuong Hoa understood. She's creating a fake scene. Making the people in the stairwell think they had escaped to the twelfth floor. Mother and daughter held their breath and ran downstairs. Eleventh floor. Tenth floor. Ninth floor. The sole of Khuong Hoa's foot hit the edge of the stairs, causing so much pain that his eyes turned black. An An did not stop. The child turned her head to look. In the darkness, that cold gaze frightened Khuong Hoa. There

Not the eyes of a frightened child. It was like she had seen something even scarier. When we reached the sixth floor, we heard the sound of the fire door being pushed open above. Then there was the sound of hurried footsteps. The other two were chased into the twelfth floor. An An pulled Khuong Hoa to hide in the corner between the sixth and seventh floors, bent down to take off one of her shoes. She gently placed the shoe in front of the fireproof door on the sixth floor. Then pull Khuong Hoa to continue going down. Khuong Hoa almost asked her why. But as soon as the words reached her mouth, she swallowed them down. Can't speak up now. When he reached the fourth floor, Khuong Hoa heard someone above shouting: "No one." "Shoes on the sixth floor!" The sound of footsteps rang out again. This time it was very chaotic. They are going down. An An suddenly accelerated. Khuong Hoa was pulled so much by her that she almost fell down the stairs. The fireproof door on the first floor is right in front of your eyes. But the door handle was wrapped around a ring of black tape. An An didn't stop and took out a small pair of scissors from her pocket. Those are the scissors she often uses to decorate notebooks. She cut off the tape with just two cuts, then used her shoulder to smash open the door. The first floor lobby was empty. The light box at the reception desk was turned off. The front glass door is locked from the inside. An An ran to the security desk and took out a set of keys. Khuong Hoa looked at the girl expertly choosing one among a bunch of keys, her spine chilling. "How do you know the key is here?" An An did not answer. The key is inserted into the lock. Couldn't open it the first time. In the stairs came the sound of footsteps. Very close. An An's hands trembled. The second time, the lock opened. Khuong Hoa pulled open the glass door, cold wind immediately rushed in. The mother and daughter rushed out of the lobby. It was also dark in the residential area. Not only their building, several rows of street lights were all turned off. But on the big road in the distance there are still car lights. Only then did Khuong Hoa feel like she had just emerged from the water. She took out her phone to call the police. An An held her back. "Go first." "Let's leave here before calling." "Why?" "They saw the entrance of the building." Those words made Khuong Hoa's fingertips cold. She didn't dare ask more. The two of them ran along the green strip outside. An An does not go through the main gate. She led Khuong Hoa around to the back of the trash house, where there was a low door that the management usually used to transport things. The door is not locked. The two got out and stood on the side of the road at dawn. The wind blew, Khuong Hoa realized that outside of her pajamas, she was only wearing a thin shirt. Under the feet is a cotton slipper and a thin slipper. She looks ridiculously disheveled. But she couldn't laugh. An An ordered a technology car. After getting in the car, she read the name of the nearest hotel. The driver looked at the two people through the rearview mirror. "Is there a power outage?" Khuong Hoa was about to nod, but An An spoke first. "There's someone drunk in the house causing trouble." The driver didn't ask any more. The car had gone very far before Khuong Hoa turned to look back. The apartment building where they lived stood tall in the night. Twenty-eight floors. Not a single window was lit. Like a dead rock. An An was always staring through the rear window. It wasn't until the apartment building was hidden by the corner of the street that she leaned back in her chair. Khuong Hoa discovered that his hands were still shaking. The hotel receptionist yawned while checking them in. Khuong Hoa did not bring her original identification card, only her household registration book and electronic documents in her bag. The receptionist seemed unwilling to accept. An An suddenly spoke up. "Miss, we're not in the room next to the street."