Chapter 3

3

Then, a new message popped up in the group chat.

402: "Everything's fine. We were worried for nothing. Go to sleep, everyone."

I stared at the screen, frozen. I hadn't heard 402 come back and open his own door. He’d definitely closed it when he left. How could he be back inside without opening it?

Unless…he was inside 404? My stomach dropped.

On the screen, 601 and 302 said "Good to hear, night night." Only 504 remained silent. Then I noticed a private message from him:

"Dude, you're not asleep, are you? Fellow night owls, unite. I know you're not asleep…Saw the messages, right?"

I hesitated, but it made sense. 504 and I were both night owls; we'd game together sometimes. So I replied:

"Half-asleep, so I didn't chime in, but yeah, I saw everything. Isn't it over now?"

I didn't mention what I'd just heard. I was more concerned about why he'd messaged me privately.

504 replied quickly, clearly on edge:

"Dude, something's really not right."

I knew that, but I still hesitated to tell him everything, afraid of making things worse. So I just typed:

"What do you mean?"

His message came back fast:

"402, your neighbor. His last message…it's off. Don't you notice his little typing quirk?"

Typing quirk? I scrolled up through the chat history, focusing on 402's messages. Then I saw it. He almost always ended his sentences with "lol" or "haha."

But… his last message, the one telling everyone to go to sleep, didn't have it. It was…serious. Did that mean…? I didn’t want to think about it.

I typed back to 504: "The 'lol' thing? You think someone else sent that message?"

Just then, I heard a faint noise outside my door. Like muffled footsteps. I couldn't resist peeking through the peephole…

And my blood ran cold.

Staring back at me through the peephole was the creepy face of the dad from 404.