HORRIBLE NIGHT

With the small salary of a waitress, Phuong is quite satisfied with this new place - a small, clean and quiet room located on the 3rd floor of an old brick house. The second floor also has a tenant - a young man who is quite approachable and knows how to play the guitar, and the first floor is the residence of Mr. Manh - the person authorized to take care of this house for many years because its owner is currently residing in the United States.

Due to the nature of my job, I have to leave early and come home late, so I rarely see the other two people in the house. Phuong only occasionally met that guy playing his guitar on the balcony downstairs and smiled brightly every time he saw her. As for Mr. Manh, she met regularly at 10:00 p.m. When she returned from work, he often brought trash bags wrapped in black plastic bags to the gate to wait for the city's garbage truck to take them away early the next morning. Mr. Manh is taciturn and rarely speaks, his body is large and rough like an ancient crocodile tree.

According to Phuong's observations, Mr. Manh lives alone and has never seen anyone visit him. She didn't care much, because during the day she was busy with work, and at night she only wanted a good night's sleep, and didn't have the energy to care about an artistic guy or a strange old man.

scared girl

After showering, Phuong wanted to listen to some relaxing music before going to sleep, so she reached across the table to find headphones. Didn't see it there. She clearly remembered that she left it on the table last night while she was peeling fruit. After searching through all the drawers and shelves, she couldn't find anything when she suddenly remembered.

Perhaps this morning, because she was in such a hurry to get to work, she tossed it and the apple peels into the trash bag. As usual, Mr. Manh must have picked it up to put it in the family's trash bag and bring it out the front door.

Hastily opening the door and running down the stairs to the first floor, she saw the trash bag still lying at the foot of the light pole in front of the door. She opened it to find her headphones among piles of scrap paper, discarded boxes...

Digging to the bottom of her bag, she saw her headphones. Through the dim light shining down, she also saw something... She was startled and screamed in terror and fell backwards... A The severed arm fits at the bottom of the bag!

At this time, it was 10:30 p.m., Phuong ran up to her room and dialed the phone to immediately call 113 police to the scene.

While answering the police, she still couldn't stop shaking and her face was filled with panic:

- It's him! I saw him fiddling with that trash bag tonight

- But ma'am, we didn't find any "arms" like you told us over the phone. Is this a joke of a bunch of free-time youths and I'm afraid she will have to be prosecuted for "harassment of public officials"!

- But I saw it with my own eyes, believe me, I'm not lying.

Phuong said as if she was about to cry.

- Out of respect, this is the first violation, we will ignore it. Hope she won't do it again!

The police car's siren sounded in the distance, and Phuong stood and watched helplessly. Feeling bored, she entered the house and immediately saw a cold gaze looking at her. Mr. Manh has been standing at the foot of the stairs ever since, half of his body covered in darkness, the rest casting a wide shadow on the floor, the corner of his mouth tightening in a challenging smile.

Phuong ran back to her room and closed the door tightly. Tomorrow she will move out of here immediately.

she was extremely frightened

Suddenly she heard heavy footsteps pounding down each wooden staircase. Is it him (?)

Phuong listened... Her heart was beating wildly. The sound of footsteps was getting closer and closer to her room. Following the sound of steps is the sound of metal being rubbed and screeched.

Coming to her senses, she pushed the dressing table across the door and sat down, covering her mouth to prevent her sobs from escaping. The sound of heavy footsteps stopped in front of her door.

Suddenly the electricity went out, perhaps he had turned off the power connection. Darkness complicit in crime filled the house. Phuong briefly thought about that terrifying arm, who knows, maybe tomorrow every part of her body will be broken into pieces, thrown into a garbage truck and drifted to some collective disposal site to be prey for rats. . Shivering in despair.

The clicking sound of the killer trying to open the door. There was the sound of metal slipping through the slot, breaking the lock.

Phuong crouched close behind the door, pushing herself to move along the slowly opening door. The intruder slowly entered the room, his large figure and each sniffing sound were like the signals of a wolf when chasing fleeing prey. The large shape walked towards the wardrobe placed in the corner of the wall.

In just a split second, from behind the door, Phuong ran out of the room and rushed down to the first floor door in the dark. Hopeless. The door was locked with a large padlock. She rushed into the kitchen right next to it, hiding under the cooking counter.

Footsteps sounded again. Phuong seems to have no strength left. Her legs were soft.

In the midst of this despair, she wondered where the young man on the 2nd floor was now (?). Suddenly there was a guitar sound, the song "romace".

Are you at home? Why didn't you save her from being chased by a cold-blooded murderer?

The footsteps stopped and hesitated in front of the kitchen door. Perhaps he was wondering if she was hiding in the kitchen or the old storage room nearby.

Finally he entered the kitchen, the sound of metal screeching on the floor. Closer. Closer to where she was hiding... Unable to sit still and wait for death, using all her strength, she rushed out, making him unable to react in time and ran straight to the 3rd floor. She could still hear the sound of the guitar from the 2nd floor. emitted steadily as if from a radio.

The door to the rooftop was unlocked, Phuong opened the latch and rushed up. It was very late, and the originally silent neighborhood now felt even more strange under the darkness of night, as if it didn't exist.

He was about to come up, she knew she had reached the end. Death looms before your eyes. The heavy iron door made a dry sound and slowly opened. Under the pale moonlight, a towering figure appeared. Half was still in the dark and the other half had been stripped bare by the moonlight.

The moonlight revealed his face

Phuong's mouth was wide open, her nerves were tense and her nerves were about to explode. The face of the murderer - the face of the artist boy on the 2nd floor - is the same!

- Didn't expect it was me, right?

Still the smile she often sees but it seems to have been tinged with evil

- You... You? Duplicate...

- The old man you thought was the murderer is probably sleeping soundly with a glass of wine mixed with medicine at night. Combined with his hearing loss, we're probably the only two still awake in this house.

- What a pity! I should have left her alone.

Phuong stopped dead. My feet felt like they were nailed to the floor. He slowly approached, the dragged shovel hissed deathly.

- Goodbye.

He smirked...

***

Pop!

The sound of a strong impact rang in Phuong's ears, at the same time the murderer collapsed at her feet. At some point, Mr. Manh stepped forward and hit the stick straight on the back of his neck, right before the shovel fell from his hand on her head.

In the distance, the sound of police cars blaring sirens could be heard.

- He brought a glass of wine into my room and told me to drink it to help me sleep after being accused by her and being questioned by the police

- I figured he was the real killer, so I just sipped wine and pretended to be asleep

- When you were being chased by him, I silently called the police and knocked him unconscious because if I had shown myself from the beginning, I'm afraid that both you and I would have become lifeless corpses under his hands.

- ...

That night, Phuong immediately packed her things and moved out. Police later discovered many other body parts hidden in his room. Due to the press effect, Mr. Manh was no longer there because there were too many disturbances from reporters and journalists.

Only the old three-story brick house remains, lying silently in the dark...