At 3:00 a.m., I heard a voice message from my cell phone, which I had left charging in the living room.
The cold hairs on my body immediately stood up.
This has always been a habit of mine.
Charge your phone before you go to bed and make sure it's in the living room.
"Face unlock failed."
Once again I heard the warning.
To take better care of my octogenarian grandmother, who has mild Alzheimer's, my door was left ajar.
At first, I thought my phone was malfunctioning.
But I soon realized it wasn't.
Because I heard a human breath.
It was light, just a little, but my ears picked it up clearly.
My heart is beating fast right now.
Cold sweat slowly trickled down my back.
A thought came clearly to my mind.
Someone has entered my house.
Who could it be?
A thief?
Or some kind of burglar?
Whoever it is, I hope he knows what he's doing.
I don't have much cash at home, all the money is in my Paypal.
The only cash I have is the hundred dollars I left for my grandmother today.
But apparently he's still trying to unlock my phone.
I tiptoed out of bed and quietly poked my head around the door.
My eyes widened for a split second.
I saw a very tall woman standing in front of the table where I keep my phone.
She stuck her head out, hunched over, her body twisted in a strange arc, her neck stretched.
And my phone kept giving me the "face unlock failed" message.
I was so nervous that I broke into a cold sweat.
I didn't expect it to be a woman.
Her hair was long, like weeds, and piled haphazardly on her shoulders, as if it hadn't been combed in a long time.
On her feet she wore a pair of red embroidered shoes that were so old-fashioned they were rarely seen these days.
The door locks on my house are security locks, and there is no surveillance on the porch, but there has never been a problem.
How the hell did that woman get in here?
That's when I saw the bathroom door swing open and felt a slight breeze. Apparently the bathroom window was left open.
The window of the toilet where we live faces the common walkway outside. The woman climbed in through the toilet!
Grandma's room was next to mine, and I prayed desperately in my heart that Grandma wouldn't get up in the night to go to the toilet. But my prayers didn't work. I heard Grandma get out of bed.
Her outstretched neck immediately snapped back and she jerked her head around. I ducked behind the door, gasping for air.
At that moment, I saw that the woman was holding a sharp knife.
I'm a mediocre reporter, and my grandmother is 80 years old.
We couldn't even beat that strong woman.
And my cell phone was still in front of the woman. The door next door opened. I heard my grandmother's limping footsteps. She couldn't see very well in the dark. Obviously, she saw the woman. But she thought it was me.
"Alice, why are you wearing outdoor shoes at night? Did you just get home from work?" I heard my grandmother's voice.
I was screaming in my head, "Grandma, that's not me!" "Don't go near her!"
"Grandma, hurry back!" The woman moved.
Although I couldn't see her, I could hear footsteps. Grandmother finally realized that it wasn't me. "Who are you? Why are you in my house?" Although Grandma has Alzheimer's disease, her attacks are irregular. Sometimes she was awake. At that moment, she was obviously very lucid. I clenched my fists in a fearful death grip. My grandmother was in a very dangerous situation. This woman was holding a knife. I had to go out immediately and save my grandmother.
But at the same time I realized that I was so cowardly that I couldn't even take a step. The fear was so strong that I could only cower behind the door.
My grandmother asked out loud who the woman was, but then her voice stopped.
For a moment there was silence outside.
My heart was about to beat out of my chest.
Then I heard a muffled grunt from my grandmother.
The next moment was the sound of a sharp instrument piercing flesh.
Tears streamed from my eyes.
My shoulders shook and I covered my mouth.
I know it was her that killed my grandmother.
I crouched and held my breath.
"Don't find me."
"Don't find me."
I kept praying.
But God did not hear.
I felt breathing from above.
I looked up and saw the woman's head peeking through the door.
She was grinning and looking at me, her eyes glazed over with extreme exaggeration.
I could see the red blood in her eyes like cobwebs.
I screamed in horror.
The woman raised her knife and lunged at me.
I felt a sharp pain.
But the next moment I lost consciousness.
I snapped out of it.
The clock on the wall was about to strike three o'clock.
What just happened, was this a dream?
Just when I thought it was just a terrible nightmare--
I heard the creepy voice coming from the living room.
"Face unlock failed."
I sat up with a jerk.
No dream.
Everything was really happening.
But for some reason, I'm back.
Back to this moment at 3:00 in the morning.
Maybe this is a chance God has given me.
I clenched my fists.
I had to save my grandmother and myself.
I looked at the clock on the wall.
In one minute, Grandma will get up to go to the bathroom.
I had to use that minute to get into Grandma's room and stop her from coming out to use the bathroom.
I quietly stuck my head out.
The woman was still standing there, sticking her neck out, trying to unlock my phone.
I wanted to take a step.
But fear made me hesitate.
I looked at the time on my watch, only 30 seconds left.
At that moment, I gathered all my courage.
With a quick sideways glance, I dashed into my grandmother's room and quickly locked the door.
Grandma was about to get out of bed.
She looked at me blankly.
She was about to open her mouth when I rushed over and covered it.
"Don't make a sound."
I lowered my voice and gasped.
Grandma was shocked and looked at me with uncertain resignation.
I didn't have time to explain.
I grabbed my grandmother's cell phone, which was on the bedside table, and prepared to call the police.
But to my despair, her cell phone was dead.
"Why aren't you charging it?" I asked, lowering my voice in desperation.
Grandma looked at me accusingly and waved her hand, "I forgot, I forgot."
Her expression was as innocent as a child's.
I know she's sick.
Right now I am desperate and helpless.
The only cell phone that could contact the outside world was also temporarily dead.
But the good thing is that I had locked the door and had enough time to charge it and turn on the alarm.
Suddenly I heard footsteps.
These footsteps were strange.
It was as if the man was walking on tiptoe.
The woman is coming this way!
Wait!
Suddenly a shock went through me.
There is a key in the lock of my room.
This key also opens the door.
"Hide!"
I anxiously tried to get Grandma to hide under the bed.
"It's dirty under the bed. I won't go."
Grandma had no idea what was going on outside.
I was so scared I was about to cry.
Footsteps stopped at the door.
I heard the key being removed.
Done.
It's too late.
I pushed my grandmother under the bed like crazy.
But Grandma just wouldn't go in.
It was a moment of total devastation.
I cried and crawled under the bed.
I was overwhelmed with guilt.
I had done such a terrible thing.
I gave up on my grandmother and hid myself.
Soon I heard the sound of a doorknob turning.
The woman came in.
A great fear choked my heart and I couldn't breathe. "Who are you and why are you here?" My grandmother asked the same question. But soon her voice ended abruptly in a muffled grunt. My tears had long since smeared all over my face. Grandma collapsed.
It seemed a coincidence that her body just happened to block the gap in the bed. The woman didn't notice me hiding under the bed for a moment. But the woman didn't leave after killing her grandmother. She was looking for me. She knew that two people lived here. I was shaking all over. The woman walked around the room for a long time, but didn't seem to notice me.
Suddenly, just then, I felt a scary sight behind me.
I shuddered and turned my head.
An eerie, grinning face was plastered to the floor, its eyes staring at me menacingly. One of her hands reached under the bed and grabbed my ankle. I kicked the woman's hand as hard as I could.
But as if she didn't know pain, she pulled me stiffly out from under the bed. The next second I saw the raised knife again. The pain returned - and I lost consciousness again. I awoke with a ragged gasp. It was three in the morning again.
Once again I returned to that moment. And again the voice that frightened me came from the living room: "Face unlock failed.
After the first two attempts, I became much calmer. I realized that I seemed to be going through the cycle over and over again. Each time I resurrected, I woke up at the moment of three in the morning. This time, without the slightest hesitation, I rushed out the door and pulled out the key. But inevitably, I made a loud noise. I saw the woman slowly raise her head and meet me on all fours. Her eyes were wide and exaggerated, and she seemed to be staring at me with all her might. Cold sweat broke out on my forehead. She suddenly rushed towards me. I ran into the room as fast as I could, and just as I was about to close the door -
A withered hand snapped in.
It had long nails and bright red nail polish.
I slammed the door shut.
Her hand retreated as soon as it was caught.
I took a deep breath.
I quickly unlocked the door.
Grandma looked out in disbelief, "Who's that?"
"It's a bad guy, a really scary bad guy, and we're going to play hide and seek, and the bad guy is a ghost."
Grandma nodded very happily when she heard about hide-and-seek.
Her favorite game to play with me was hide and seek.
It's only because of my busy schedule that I rarely play this game with her.
"You hide under the bed, okay?" I patiently coaxed Grandma.
Grandma nodded meekly like a child as she crawled under the bed.
She even gave me a happy smile before she climbed in.
Apparently, Grandma thought it was a game.
But she doesn't know that that man out there could take our lives anytime, anywhere.
"Don't make any noise, be good and hide, I'll take you for ice cream tomorrow."
I immediately charged my grandmother's cell phone.
At the moment, I regret why I bought that old cell phone for my grandmother in the first place.
One of the obvious drawbacks of these old phones is that they can be very slow to restart when the battery runs out.
Suddenly I heard the door being slammed frantically.
"Open the door."
"Open the door."
The woman's voice was very sharp and harsh, as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper.
She repeated it mechanically.
"Alice, who's talking?"
Grandma asked curiously from under the bed.
"It's the bad guy, you have to hide, she can't find you." I said in a sharp tone.
Bam bam bam.
The door shook violently.
Suddenly, sharp knives sliced through the boards.
I was startled, but the phone screen still showed a black screen.
"Open the door."
The woman's voice rose, almost screaming.
The already deteriorated wooden door soon broke through a hole.
A dead-eyed stare appeared at the mouth of the cave.
The whites of her eyes were covered in spidery red blood from staring at them with excessive force.
"I've called the police!" I shouted in fear, trying to scare the woman away.
"Who are you and why are you doing this? If you want money, I can wire it to you right now!"
The woman grinned a smile that looked like a cry, a smile that looked like a laugh.
"Money? What's money for?"
"My Lisa is not coming back."
"And every one of you is to blame."
"You deserve to die and I will kill every one of you."
I was frozen.
The name Lisa was very familiar to me.
At that moment, I also recognized who this woman was.
Her name is Anna.
She's a woman in our neighborhood who specializes in leather.
And Lisa, her sister, is a twenty-year-old retard.
The last time I saw Anna was half a month ago.
In just half a month, she had aged so much that it was like she had aged ten years at once.
Plus that weird outfit, so I didn't recognize her.
Anna laughed strangely, "You didn't call the police, you're lying to me because your phone screen is black.
I hadn't realized that Anna had such good eyesight.
Seeing the hole in the door getting bigger and bigger, I desperately tried to push against the cabinet and block the door.
"Alice, I'm so cold on the floor. Can the game be over? I don't want to play anymore."
At that moment, Grandma tried to crawl out from under the bed.
I was so scared that I was on the verge of tears.
"Just hide a little longer, please, just a little longer." I cried.
Grandma seemed stunned by my tears.
She raised her head shakily and wiped away my tears before dutifully crawling back under the bed.
Soon the closet began to shake violently as well.
Fortunately, the phone finally came on.
I immediately called the police.
Forcing myself to calm down, I explained the situation to the police.
They told me to find a place to hide and that they'd be there in twenty minutes.
After I hung up, I contacted the security guard downstairs.
The guard said he would be right up.
The shaking of the closet suddenly stopped.
I looked nervously at the door.
Suddenly, my grandmother, who was under the bed, said, "That one standing on the balcony, who is that?" I froze and turned my head. It was Anna standing on the balcony.
Her face was pressed against the glass door, her face distorted.
Her eyes, however, were wide open and looking at me.
I shuddered and stepped back.
I had forgotten that there was an extremely narrow passageway from the window of my room to the balcony of my grandmother's room.
Since I'm on the twenty-fifth floor here, and the passageway is so narrow that even an adult could hardly stand in it, I didn't even think about going there.
Anna's red nail-polished hand rests on the handle of the glass door.
It's too late.
I closed my eyes in despair.
My only prayer was that Anna wouldn't find her grandmother under the bed.
But I didn't expect Grandma to crawl out from under the bed at this time.
I didn't have time to stop her before I saw her run up to Anna, bow her head and ask, "Are you a bad person? "Come back, come back!"
I screamed my heart out and then could only watch as my grandmother collapsed in front of me.
My eyes snapped open.
Once again, I'm back at 3:00 a.m.
The familiar voice prompt from the living room sounded again.
I was calmer this time than the last three times.
I can't let Anna in from the balcony again.
But how?
Cold sweat slides down my forehead.
If Anna could come to the balcony from the outside passage, so could I.
I walked to the door and gently pulled off the key.
This time I moved incredibly slowly so I didn't make a sound.
The woman was still there with her neck stretched out, on her cell phone, and hadn't noticed me.
My back was sweating profusely by now.
After removing the key, I carefully pushed open the window.
A cold wind blew in and I shivered.
The passageway in sight was extraordinarily narrow, and I also have a slight fear of heights.
My heart was beating wildly.
But I could already hear Grandma coughing.
There's no time.
I summoned up all my courage and climbed up the passage.
I scaled the wall with my hands and carefully moved over a little.
Finally, I made it to the balcony.
Grandma was just about to get out of bed when she saw me, surprised and trying to speak.
I made a shushing gesture at her and quickly closed the door.
I still used the hide-and-seek excuse to get Grandma to hide under the bed and then charged my cell phone.
For once, everything seemed to be going well.
The sound of feet walking around the living room rang out.
The voice approached towards the room we were in.
Even if we didn't make any noise, she still came here.
I was so nervous that I squeezed my cell phone tightly and called the police and security.
I used the closet to block the door tightly and this time, there was plenty of time.
It takes about three minutes for the security guard to get here as fast as he can.
Three minutes, that's enough.
"Open the door."
Anna's voice rang out shrilly. I didn't make a sound, staring dead at the time on my phone.
One minute to go.
The security guards will then break into the house.
Grandma and I would have survived.
Finally, I heard the sound of the security guard outside banging hard on the door.
The door rumbled and fell to the floor.
I exclaimed excitedly, "I'm here!"
The sound of a fierce fight soon came from outside.
The security guard for the neighborhood was a very tall and strong man.
Anna is clearly no match for him.
"Alice, she's been knocked out by me."
My high heart finally dropped and I breathed a long sigh of relief.
"Grandma, you can come out now. The bad guys have been subdued."
Granny crawled out slowly.
Just as I was about to open the door, my grandmother had a death grip on my hand.
She shook her head at me, wide-eyed and sweaty.
I looked at her quizzically.
"Alice, do you have any rope here? I'm going to tie her up with rope."
"Yes there is, I'll go out and get it for you." I said in a rush.
But Grandma grabbed my arm with both hands this time.
She couldn't stop her cheeks from fluttering, and I never imagined that she could be so strong.
"Grandma, what's wrong with you?"
I'm also sensing that something is a little off.
"Alice, I can't find the rope, she seems to be waking up soon, can you come out and help me find it?"
The security guard's voice sounded again.
Seeing that my grandmother was really reacting strongly, I gave up on opening the door.
"The rope is in the cabinet in the entryway. You can see it when you open the door."
The rope is an emergency escape rope that is issued to every tenant.
But no one outside answered my words.
I repeated, "The rope is right there in the entry cabinet."
It was dead silent outside.
I felt vaguely out of place and pressed my ear to the door.
Suddenly, the knife slammed through the door panel and stuck just centimeters above my ear.
"It's a shame it's in the wrong place."
I saw the eyes, which were staring in an extremely exaggerated manner, appear at the mouth of the cave.
Outside, however, came the voice of a security guard.
Anna can imitate other people's voices.
The thought flashed through my mind.
I also remembered that I had met Anna in the neighborhood once a month ago on a certain night when I was returning from overtime.
She was drunk and scantily clad on a bench in her neighborhood.
The kids giggled and threw rocks at her, and I frowned as I shooed the kids away.
Just as I was about to leave, Anna grabbed my hand.
She spits a mouthful of wine at me, her eyes glistening with water.
"You know, I used to be in the opera. Then the opera closed down, and I took Lisa with me, and there was no way, no way for us to..."
I didn't continue to listen to her after that.
Because I don't have the patience to listen to the experiences of a woman in the skin business.
She studied opera so she could imitate other people's voices perfectly.
I grabbed Grandma's hand and said to her, trembling, "Hide, the bad guys are out there." But Grandma suddenly got sick again.
She adamantly refused to hide under the bed.
I glanced at the time on my watch.
It's ten minutes till the police come.
I have to stall for another ten minutes.
It was only a matter of time before Anna broke down the door with her knife.
An idea suddenly slammed through my mind.
The floor plan here has a balcony that is very close to the downstairs balcony.
It might be too late if I jumped and asked my neighbor for help, then returned to the upper floors as fast as I could.
"Grandma, please, just one last time, okay?"
Trembling, I grabbed my grandmother's hand and begged her to hide under the bed.
This time, Grandma agreed.
She looked at me calmly, like she seemed to be awake.
"Alice, be careful."
With those words, Grandma burrowed under the bed.
I let out a long breath and quickly opened the balcony door.
It was windy and cold.
I'm scared.
But I have no time to be afraid anymore.
Grandma's waiting for me.
I jumped downstairs on the balcony.
But I didn't stand still, and I distinctly heard the bones in my ankle click.
A sharp pain struck.
I couldn't care less about the pain.
I stumbled to tap on the balcony door.
Let out a desperate cry for help.
In the bedroom, there was someone lying down.
By the light of the moon outside, I could see two people lying in bed, seemingly asleep.
"HELP! Help me!" I frantically rapped on the door.
One of them heard it.
For I saw him strain to turn his head extremely slowly.
But it was at this moment that I also saw it clearly.
Their bodies, covered in blood.
I stiffened in place.
He strained to raise his hand toward me, his lips twitching a few times.
A large mouthful of blood gushed out of his mouth.
Immediately afterward, his body twitched a few times and he never moved again. He was dead.
Anna killed my downstairs neighbor before she came up.
I know why she tried to kill us.
No one in the neighborhood likes Anna, especially the women and old people in the neighborhood.
Which, in turn, includes me.
Anna lives on the 23rd floor and the house is rented.
Sometimes in the elevator, I would see her holding the hand of a different man.
At this time, I would silently steer clear, even if they were the only two people in the elevator, and I would go wait for the next trip.
Anna gave me an awkward yet polite smile every time.
I have great contempt for her work.
I've also seen her more than once dragged out by a couple of women by the hair and beaten up.
Anna was beaten and bloodied all over her face, and in severe cases even a lot of her hair could be ripped out.
The people in the neighborhood were not surprised and never called the police.
They felt it was what Anna deserved.
I've also seen her take Lisa to the hospital before.
For a twenty year old girl, Lisa is actually quite good looking.
She used to giggle and smile at me.
But Lisa died a month ago.
The killer is everyone in our neighborhood.
There was a fire in the neighborhood at 3:00 a.m. a month ago.
The fire started exactly where Anna and Lisa live.
That day, Anna didn't come back and Lisa was home alone.
She got bored and started playing with the lighter in the house.
One mistake, and you set the curtains on fire.
Lisa must have been so scared she didn't know how to take first aid.
The fire is spreading very fast.
A downstairs neighbor smelled a great deal of smoke and he called the police.
The fire truck arrived at the entrance to the neighborhood in ten minutes.
But they soon ran into a problem.
The roads in the neighborhood are very narrow.
Private cars and battery-operated vehicles were parked on both sides of the road.
The fire trucks can't even drive in.
The firefighters were sweating profusely as they frantically dialed the car's phone.
But it took a long time to call before someone came down late to move the car.
The neighborhood came down in twos and threes.
Instead of worrying about the fire, they were complaining.
By the time Anna arrived, the fire had been extinguished.
The fireman held a charred body and placed it in front of Anna.
Anna went crazy, she screamed and cried her heart out.
But her sister, still, couldn't come back.
Lisa died to the indifference of all.
If she had gotten in there five minutes earlier, maybe Lisa would have survived.
I happened to be coming back from an overnight shift that day.
I saw the whole thing.
Anna knelt in front of me and she pleaded with me to write about it.
She wants the whole community to know the true cause of Lisa's death.
All she needs is an apology.
I shuddered and picked her up.
I said, "Okay."
"Alice, look up."
I heard Anna's voice from above.
I looked up and my pupils contracted violently.
Grandma was pinned against the balcony railing by Anna.
Anna held a knife to her throat.
I broke down.
"Anna, I'm guilty, but my grandmother, she didn't do anything! She has Alzheimer's disease and she didn't know anything!"
I cried and yelled.
Anna cocked her head, and her face, which had a few moments of grace left in it, looked surprisingly like a sixty year old at the moment.
"You all deserve to die. Everyone in this neighborhood deserves to die!"
Anna growled shrilly.
"You're the ones who killed my Lisa!"
Anna suddenly stared at me and smiled wryly.
"Why haven't you posted about this?"
"You obviously promised me."
"You obviously could have helped, you're a journalist, you knew how to get this out in the open and you didn't do it."
"I waited a month for the apology I wanted, and when I went to beg you, you shut me out."
"So now, I've come to do it. I've come to punish you for Lisa."
Anna laughed, and suddenly, her hand slashed.
"No-" I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Grandma's dead.
She was brutally killed.
"She's the only one you've got left to depend on, isn't she? Lisa is to me, too."
Anna murmured.
At this moment, the sound of sirens rang downstairs. The police had finally arrived.
I broke down and sat on the floor, bawling my eyes out.
I survived.
But Grandma, she died.
Anna seemed to know she couldn't escape anymore.
She leapt down like a kite.
I looked up and met Anna's eyes eye to eye.
In this moment, I could clearly see the smile on her face.
A very complex smile.
The weirdness, the relief, the moment, all appeared on this woman's face.
The police are coming up.
A policewoman took off her uniform and draped it over me.
She hugged me tightly and said that the child should not be afraid.
Sorry kid, we're late.
I couldn't contain it any longer and sobbed silently.
Anna was right.
I'm a journalist and I know how to get this out with the most impact.
I did write about it the next day.
When I took the story to my leader to go over it, he threw in a flippant comment:
"Alice, you've been interning with us for a couple months now, right?"
I froze.
There were four interns who came in with me.
I, on the other hand, was the one with the most average education.
"Logically, we wouldn't have chosen you, but I've decided that I'll give you a chance."
"Alice, you're a smart person."
"You know which stories should be published and which ones shouldn't."
"In this neighborhood, there lives my father-in-law, and I don't want his old man to go through any more stress."
The leader smiled at me.
When I got home, I tore up the story.
I'm sorry Anna.
But I need this job.
A full-fledged job as a journalist was the only way to support me and my grandmother.
I can be poor for the rest of my life, but not Grandma.
She's eighty years old.
That day, I saw Anna all haggard and standing in the doorway of my house like a madman.
She saw me and grabbed my hand excitedly, "Alice, help me, help me will you? You post about this and tell the whole community."
But finally, I let go of her hand.
"I'm sorry, Anna."
I closed the door.
Soon, I heard Anna's heartbreaking cries from outside the door.
I'm having a hard time.
The cycle seems to be over.
Because I survived.
If--
I die again?
I broke away from the police and entered the elevator to the twenty-third floor.
That's Anna's house.
The place where she lives has been restored.
The accident, which was completely buried.
I seemed to see Lisa appear in the window.
The girl who smiled stupidly at me.
It was hard on my heart.
"Alice, what are you doing!"
The policewoman from before was standing downstairs, nervously yelling at me.
I closed my eyes.
"I'm going to save Grandma."
I took a leap from the twenty-third floor.
I'm going to bet on this one time.
I opened my eyes.
Sure enough, my bet worked.
Once again, I'm back at 3am.
I'm going to save Grandma.
This time, I'm not running away.
I heard a voice from outside "Face unlock failed."
I walked out "Anna."
Anna slowly turned her head, wide-eyed, and looked at me.
She then grinned a smile and raised her knife, about to charge at me.
"Anna, I'm sorry." I said shakily.
Anna paused in place as she stared at me blankly.
"I could have let the whole community know the truth about Lisa's death, but I didn't do that."
"I'm sorry Lisa, I'm sorry you."
I said with tears in my eyes.
Two lines of tears flowed from Anna's eyes.
Her cheeks shook involuntarily, and her hand holding up the knife trembled.
"Anna, put down the knife, I'll report this and have the whole neighborhood apologize to Lisa."
I fell to my knees in front of her. Pleaded with her to let me and my grandmother live.
Anna gave an extremely hard smile.
"Originally, I just wanted you to apologize to my sister."
"I obviously just want an apology, I don't want compensation, I just want them to tell me that they did wrong."
"But you turned me down."
"So then, I changed my mind."
"I'm going to make you all taste the death of someone important too."
My body jerked.
My words didn't change Anna's mind.
The tip of the knife was aimed at my throat.
I saw Anna's hateful and desperate eyes.
Those were a mother's eyes.
Is it possible that, this time, nothing will change?
I closed my eyes.
But the expected pain didn't come.
Because my grandmother stood in my way.
The knife was stuck in Grandma's chest.
"Grandma!"
"Grandma!"
I cried out on my hands and knees.
Why, why did Grandma come to her senses at this time?
"Alice."
Grandma strained to turn her head and look at me.
I rushed to hug my grandmother.
"Alice, don't go back into the loop."
Grandma said with a trembling voice as she held my hand.
I shuddered at her words.
Grandma's mental thoughts.
I have a granddaughter I grew up with called Alice.
I told her that her parents died in a car accident when she was three.
But really it was me lying to her.
Alice is not my real granddaughter.
She's a kid I picked up.
My husband died young and my daughter left me due to illness.
From then on it was just me and Alice.
She's brilliant, knows her stuff, and works hard.
She got into a top university and became a journalist.
How I wish, how I wish I could have stayed with her longer.
But I'm getting old too fast.
Slowly, I began to lose track of what had happened before.
Alice took me to the doctor, who said I had Alzheimer's disease.
I'll slowly forget everything, and eventually I'll forget Alice.
That, more than anything, scares me.
I can't forget Alice.
So I look at the photo over and over again every day and tell myself, this is Alice.
It's my most precious granddaughter.
Tonight, when I came out to use the restroom, I saw a woman.
I thought she was Alice at first, but she wasn't.
She rushed forward and stuck the knife in my chest.
Before I died, I collapsed.
With the last of my strength I twisted my head to look at Alice's room.
Great, she didn't come out.
But I didn't realize that I wasn't dead.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back in this moment.
This time, I recognized the woman as Anna.
I didn't know why she was doing it, but I knew in my heart that I had to protect Alice.
I don't have what it takes to stand up to this woman, and neither does Alice.
Then the only thing I can do for her is time.
Alice, Grandma can't see you get married.
I'm sorry, but Grandma must keep you alive.
As long as I can get Anna's attention and get her to kill me first, the better chance Alice has of surviving.
But I didn't realize that Alice had entered the loop as well.
She was just as desperate to keep me alive.
But it's clear to me that if we're going to buy enough time, only one of us will survive.
So I pretended to be in a demented state, knowing that Alice wanted me to hide.
But I can't. I must stand in the way of my granddaughter.
Unbeknownst to Alice, I was in the loop before she was.
The only way to end the cycle is for Alice to live.
That time, I fell in front of Alice.
Alice hid under the bed.
With the last of my strength, I blocked Alice under the bed.
Live, Alice.
Hearing my grandmother's words, for a moment, I understood everything.
Grandma is going through the cycle too.
She wasn't being ill, she was deliberately trying to get Anna's attention.
She was using her weak body to protect the cowardly me at every turn.
She was in the loop before I was, and each time, she gave her life to give me the best chance she could to live.
The sound of sirens rang out downstairs.
Anna stared blankly out the window, "Lisa, your sister is here to see you."
She took a step toward the window and then leapt down.
I clutched my grandmother's hand and cried out in despair.
"Alice, my only regret is that I won't get to see you in your wedding dress."
Grandma's face went quickly pale, but she managed a hard smile.
"Grandma, Grandma, please, don't die." I hugged Grandma and cried until I couldn't catch my breath.
I remembered a lot of my past with my grandmother.
When I was young, I was often bullied by my schoolmates because I had no parents.
They called me a fatherless child, blocked me in an alley after school and threw small stones at me.
It was Grandma, in her old age, who drove those children away again and again.
She told me, Alice, that even though you don't have a mom and dad, you have Grandma, and as long as Grandma is alive, she will always protect you.
When I was in middle school, the girls in my class teased me about the dirt clothes I wore, for which I cried and begged my grandmother to go buy me clothes from the mall.
I didn't know at the time that my grandmother had been picking up trash for two whole months in order to buy me clothes from the mall.
But she didn't say anything, just smiled and handed me the dress.
"Alice, what others have, Grandma will do her best to give you." My tears continued to flow.
Grandma didn't go back on her word, she really did do her best to protect me.
"Promise me you won't go back into the cycle, it won't work, you won't convince her."
Grandma said with difficulty.
"My Alice is so good, Grandma knows it, and Grandma is really happy for you that you got into such a good college and got such a good job."
"You have a long life ahead of you, and I can't be a drag on you."
"Promise me."
With the last of her strength, Grandma grasped my hand.
The next moment, Grandma's hand loosened and hung limply.
She closed her eyes and stopped breathing forever.
She no longer had the strength, to grab my hand.
I bawled like a baby.
"Grandma, Grandma!"
At that moment, police and doctors rushed into the room.
The cycle, it seems, is completely over.
I watched my grandmother being carried away as the policewoman sympathetically draped me.
I suddenly grabbed her hand.
"If, if you knew the most important person to you was going to die, and the ending couldn't be changed, would you still choose to save her?"
The policewoman froze, then nodded firmly.
"I will, even if there's the slightest chance."
I looked at her and smiled.
Determined, I turned and made my way to the window and took another jump.
This thing started because of me, and I should be the one to put an end to it.
Even if there's the slightest chance, I'll try.
Grandmother, I'm coming to get you.
Once again, I'm back at 3 in the morning.
"Face unlock failed."
This time I won't run away.
"Anna."
I walked out of the room and calmly called her name.
Anna whipped her head around.
Her red, bloodshot eyes went as wide as they could go as she looked at me.
"Anna, I know what you're looking for."
"The manuscript that didn't go out is on my cell phone."
A strong wave of emotion appeared on Anna's face and her cheeks shook uncontrollably.
"You want revenge, you want me to taste what it's like to lose the one you love the most."
"You're trying to get the community's attention by killing us, so everyone knows what's going on."
"Anna, you killed that family downstairs. Now stop it."
"I'm the one who broke my promise to you, and I know it's too late to say anything, but give me a chance, okay?"
I said, shaking and crying.
Grandma suddenly rushed out of the room and grabbed my hand violently.
"Alice, why... why did you come back in?"
I didn't answer my grandmother's words and went straight to Anna.
She took two steps back, shaking, and raised her knife.
"At first all I wanted was an apology."
"Anna, give me your cell phone, I'm going to upload the manuscript now and let everyone know what happened."
"Will you trust me again?"
With tears in my eyes, I knelt before Anna and kowtowed.
Anna gasped and gave a smile that was worse than tears as she grabbed my hair harder.
"Alice, why should I trust you again, huh? Why?"
The tip of the knife was at my throat.
That feeling of near death fear struck again.
But Grandma, knowing that she would die herself, had no choice but to stand in my way again and again.
Apparently, this old lady is the timid old lady who would scream at the sight of a cockroach.
"Anna!"
Grandma rushed over and grabbed Anna's knife.
Blood dripped from her hand.
"Anna, leave Alice alone."
"Grandma!"
I rushed to grab my grandmother's hand, which was already dripping with blood.
Anna looked at us for a long time.
Finally, she dropped the knife in her hand and wept loudly.
The sound of sirens came from downstairs.
I picked up my cell phone and sent the draft I had saved in my draft folder.
"Anna, soon everyone will know about Lisa."
Anna lifted her head and gave me a tired look.
She staggered towards the window and I tried to stop her, but it was too late.
Anna's figure disappeared in front of the window.
The police and the doctor rushed into the room.
The cycle is over.
I hugged my grandmother and cried like a baby.