Don’t Make a Sound, Run

At three o’clock in the early morning, Jiang He was trapped in deep sleep when her young daughter An An suddenly seized her wrist in a tight, frantic grip and jolted her awake from her rest. The whole apartment lost power completely out of nowhere, swallowing every corner in heavy, impenetrable blackness. Even all the emergency lights lining the hallway flickered and died, leaving no faint light to guide their way. Instead of bursting into tears like most scared children, An An kept her voice barely above a whisper, trembling as she urgently urged Jiang He to gather their critical identification papers and flee with her immediately. Barefoot, the mother and daughter stepped onto the cold, dusty floor of the pitch-black hallway and crept forward with painstaking care. Along the way, they had to dodge faint, drifting footsteps echoing from the shadows around every bend. They held their breath, dared not make a single sound, terrified that even the softest rustle would give away their position to whoever was lurking and hunting them. They clung to each other through the endless, gut-wrenching hours of darkness, hiding and moving slowly until the first pale streaks of sunlight painted the sky. When daylight finally broke, messages exploded nonstop in the apartment complex’s residents’ group chat. Neighbors shared accounts of the bizarre blackout and unexplained strange happenings overnight. As Jiang He read through the flood of panicked posts, a cold wave of terror washed over her. She slowly came to understand that the power failure and unseen stalkers in the dark were only the tip of the iceberg. A massive, horrifying secret lay behind everything, one powerful enough to swallow her and An An whole. What confused and frightened Jiang He most was An An’s uncanny, mysterious gift. The little girl could always sense and predict hidden dangers long before they drew near, repeatedly guiding her mother away from deadly harm. Yet no matter how Jiang He begged, comforted or pressed her for answers, An An stayed tight-lipped. She refused to reveal who was pulling all the strings behind these terrifying events. The unseen threat clung to them relentlessly, and the mother and daughter had no choice but to stay quiet and keep running for their lives.