**Splitting Up**
Marc scoffed at Darius's suggestion, saying, "If you're willing to risk your life to test the authenticity of these rules, be my guest."
Darius's expression darkened. "I did say I wanted to break the rules and see what happens, but not to be anyone's guinea pig. I just think this is all a prank. Haven't you noticed how weird Alex, the landlord, is? He only asked for copies of our IDs and let us move in without any issues. Maybe he's trying to scare us. Some of these rules, like not cooking together and keeping things clean, are just basic house-sharing etiquette. Alex might be using these rules to scare us into taking better care of the place."
Li Tao cut in, "Darius has a point, but if that's true, Alex is a real jerk because the girls are already scared. But I also don't agree with Darius's idea of taking risks. Let's split up for now. Dev, here's Alex's car key. You're a truck driver, so driving should be no problem for you. Take Ashima and go get some food. Luna, we'll take these notes and walk the dog while sorting things out."
After everyone dispersed, Luna grabbed Kiki's leash and said to Li Tao, "Let's go. There's a dog park nearby where we don't need to use a leash."
Li Tao nodded, and they left together. As they walked along the street, Luna kept glancing down at the notes in her hand, trying to find some useful information. Kiki joyfully ran ahead, occasionally looking back at them.
Once inside the dog park, Luna released Kiki's leash, allowing her to run freely. Luna and Li Tao sat on a park bench, unfolding the notes and discussing them.
"These rules are really strange," Luna said. "Especially the parts about light sources and the black room. Why would there be such prohibitions?"
Li Tao frowned. "Maybe these rules are meant to prevent something we don't know about from happening. Our job now is to find clues in these rules and ensure they don't pose a real threat to us."
Meanwhile, Dev and Ashima were in a nearby supermarket picking out dinner. Dev held a bunch of groceries and asked, "What should we buy?"
Ashima checked the shopping list. "We need something simple for dinner. Pizza and salad should be good. Don't forget to grab some drinks."
As they shopped, their conversation drifted back to the house's strange rules. They discussed possible origins and shared their thoughts on the rules.
Back at the house, Marc began inspecting every corner. He found hidden spots, such as covered vents on the walls and doors he hadn't noticed before. Using a flashlight, he carefully examined these areas, looking for anything unusual.
Darius wandered around the house, deliberately touching areas prohibited by the rules. His goal wasn't to provoke anything but to see if he could find evidence to prove the rules were fake.
That evening, everyone gathered around the dining table in the backyard to share their findings. Dev and Ashima brought back dinner, lightening the mood slightly. Although the conversation still focused on the house's strange rules, everyone's anxiety seemed to ease a bit.
Luna was the first to speak. "These are the rules Danny and I summarized. I've sent them to your phones, so take a look."
Everyone glanced at their phones, reading the list:
**General Rules:**
1. Return to your rooms by 12:00 a.m. and stay there until 6:00 a.m.
2. Do not enter the living room from the backyard after 10:00 p.m.
3. Every Saturday at 11:00 p.m., all tenants must gather on the first floor to discuss the week's events.
4. Lock all doors and windows from 1:00 to 3:00 a.m.
5. If you find something in your room that doesn't belong to you, place it under the desk. It will disappear the next day, but you must not keep it.
6. If you hear strange noises in your room, ignore them and act like nothing happened.
7. Stay alert and remember who you are.
8. After 10:00 p.m., do not enter any unlit room.
9. If you receive a message asking you to open the door, do not open it.
10. If a light source behaves abnormally in your room, immediately close your eyes and remember who you are.
11. Do not cook together with another person.
12. Never enter the black room / If in danger, enter the black room (these rules contradict each other).
13. Do not bring anyone who is not a tenant into the house.
14. Keep the house clean.
15. You may stay in each other's rooms if needed.
**Rules for Tenants on the First and Second Floors:**
1. Do not enter the first-floor kitchen after 1:00 a.m.
2. Access to the basement is prohibited.
3. Do not open the cabinet under the sink when using the first-floor bathroom.
**Rules for Basement Tenants:**
1. Do not stay on the first or second floors for more than three hours a day.
2. There are no cats in the basement; if you see one, please feed it.
3. Basement tenants are not allowed to walk the dog.
After reading the rules, Li Tao said, "Two important points stand out: one is about the black room—there are two contradictory rules, which suggests some of these rules are true while others are false. At least one must be fake. Another point to note is the reminder to remember who we are; it's mentioned twice in the rules."
Marc nodded. "Today, I checked the basement. As soon as you go down, you enter the kitchen. On the left is a room that's probably Ashima's. On the right, there are a few rooms—I tried to open them and found the electrical room, the air conditioning unit, and the water heater, plus one locked door. But all the doors are white. Past an L-shaped hallway are Dev's and my rooms. Nothing unusual. I also searched online for information about this house, and the strangest thing is that there's absolutely nothing. No information at all."
Darius smirked slightly. "I inspected the first and second floors today. Nothing unusual except the light switches for the stairs between the two floors. There's a switch at the top and one at the bottom, which should control the lights conveniently from either floor. But they don't work that way. If you use one switch, the other stops responding until you turn the first one off. Also, while going upstairs, I noticed that the wall felt hollow."
Luna asked thoughtfully, "Hollow? How thick is the wall?"
Darius shrugged. "It looks like a regular wall, but the sound is off when you knock on it, like there's a gap inside. This kind of structure isn't uncommon in older houses, but the wall's position is odd—sandwiched between the staircase leading from the first to the second floor. It's as if something is hidden inside."
Li Tao frowned and thought for a moment. "Could there be something behind the wall? Like a hidden room?"
Marc nodded in agreement. "If there's a hidden room, that would explain why we can't find any information about this house. This place might have been deliberately concealed, and maybe Alex just rented it temporarily without knowing all its secrets."
Luna turned to Li Tao and said in a low voice, "Do you remember the rules we found earlier? About not entering unlit rooms and the warnings about abnormal light sources? Maybe these rules are hinting at hidden places we should be cautious of."
Li Tao's eyes flickered with unease, a sense of foreboding settling in. He glanced at the others and continued, "Should we check out that wall? See if there's a way to uncover anything?"
Darius grinned. "You're not thinking of tearing down the wall, are you?"
"Of course not!" Li Tao quickly denied it. "But we shouldn't ignore it either. We can start by looking for hidden doors or mechanisms. Marc, you have a flashlight, so tomorrow during the day, let's inspect it more closely. It's too risky to act now that it's dark."
Luna nodded. "Exactly. Exploring during daylight is safer. The darkness can amplify fear."
Just then, a faint noise echoed through the house, like something had fallen to the floor. Everyone tensed up, eyes immediately turning toward the source of the sound—it was coming from the kitchen.
Li Tao signaled for silence and slowly opened the sliding door, heading toward the kitchen. Darius followed closely behind, gripping his phone, ready to turn on the flashlight at any moment. The kitchen was dimly lit, and there was nothing on the floor, but a cabinet door in the corner was slightly ajar, as if it had just been opened.
Li Tao approached the cabinet, gently pushing the door fully open to reveal it was empty except for a porcelain bowl that had tipped over, appearing as though it had just fallen. He picked up the bowl and examined it closely, discovering a small inscription at the bottom:
**"Remember who you are."**
Li Tao's hand shook violently, and the bowl nearly slipped from his grasp. He quickly handed it to Darius. "Look at this," he said.
Darius took the bowl, glanced at the writing, and gasped. "What the hell is going on? Is someone trying to scare us?"
Luna and the others entered from the backyard and saw the writing on the bowl's bottom. The tension in the room rose again. Marc shone his flashlight around the kitchen, searching for more clues, but found nothing.
"It seems these rules aren't just written on paper anymore. They're starting to appear around us," Luna said, a trace of fear in her voice.
Li Tao clenched his fists, his tone firm. "Whoever's behind this, we can't let them scare us. We need to find out what's really going on and uncover the secrets of this house."
"What time is it?" Dev suddenly asked. Everyone seemed to realize something and quickly checked their phones: the time read 21:47.
"Thank goodness, we almost made a mistake," Ashima sighed in relief. "The rules say we can't enter the house from the backyard after 10 p.m."
Is something trying to help us? Li Tao wondered. As he scrolled through his phone, hoping to find a message from Alex, a news article suddenly caught his eye.
"With everything going on, why don't we just move out? Why are we still here?" Ashima asked.
Luna replied, "I've thought about leaving, but Danny told me that if the rules are real, we might not be able to leave easily. And if they're fake, we'd be wasting the house."
"Forget the rent. We're way past that point—who cares about money now?" Dev said, clearly agitated.
As the group debated, Li Tao slowly spoke up. "Maybe we can't leave."
"What do you mean?" Darius asked.
Li Tao raised his phone, displaying a news headline in Chinese: "Emergency Alert: 33-year-old Toronto driver missing after picking up a passenger last night. Anyone with information, please come forward."
"What does it say?" Marc asked.
Li Tao pointed to the photo of the man in the article. "This man was my driver last night—his name is Jack. He struggled to find the way here, but after calling Alex, he found the house and stayed outside for about five minutes. Now he's missing. I'm not sure if it's connected to this house, but don't you think it's strange? The banking system, the SIM card, Ashima's driver, and now my driver Jack—they all couldn't find this place. Jack only saw the road after talking to Alex, and then he vanished. And now, Alex is missing too."
The atmosphere in the room instantly turned icy. Everyone's eyes were fixed on Li Tao's phone screen. Marc broke the silence first, his voice low. "So, this house isn't just scaring us—it's affecting people outside too."
"If Jack's disappearance is linked to this house, then we're in more danger than we realized," Darius analyzed calmly. "This isn't just about following rules anymore; this house might have some inescapable power, or someone is orchestrating all of this."
Luna's eyes flickered with uncertainty. "These rules seem to protect us but also bind us. It's like they're maintaining some kind of balance, and if anyone tries to break it, unpredictable things happen."
Dev suddenly remembered something and asked, "If these rules are real, what's their purpose? Are they to protect us from some danger or to control us?"
Li Tao looked around at everyone and took a deep breath. "Whatever the true intention behind these rules, we need more clues to understand the secrets of this house. Tomorrow, we have to thoroughly investigate that hollow wall and see what's behind it. And we should avoid being alone; we need to ensure each other's safety."
Darius scoffed. "If you're all so scared, I'll handle the wall. I've said all along that I don't believe in these rules. Even if something's wrong, I want to see for myself what this place is capable of."
Ashima looked at Darius with concern. "Don't be reckless, especially given how complicated this is. Let's stick to the plan and check it during the day. For now, we need to ensure everyone's safety."
Marc added, "Let's stick to the rules tonight, especially those concerning doors, windows, and light sources. We need to be cautious with these anomalies, whether they're man-made or supernatural."
As night deepened, everyone returned to their rooms. Li Tao lay on his bed, his mind racing. The rules and the message on the bowl—**"Remember who you are."**—kept replaying in his head. It felt as if some unseen force was watching them.
Suddenly, the lights in his room flickered. Li Tao's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly shut his eyes, remembering the rule: **If you encounter an abnormal light source, close your eyes immediately. Remember who you are.** He took deep breaths in the darkness, silently repeating his name, his heart pounding as if he could hear faint whispers from the walls.
Several minutes later, the lights returned to normal. Li Tao slowly opened his eyes, feeling the cold sweat soaking his back. He realized these rules were not just idle threats; they were survival laws. He pulled out his phone and sent a message to Luna: **"We need to investigate further tomorrow."**
Luna's reply came quickly: **"Be careful, and don't forget who you are."**
Li Tao stared at the screen, unable to sleep. He thought of Jack—the driver he'd met only once. Though not particularly likable, he wasn't a bad person, and his sudden disappearance was incomprehensible.
Li Tao had a nagging feeling that this house was more than an abandoned dwelling; it felt alive, slowly waking up, with them caught in the middle. The rules were becoming real, and escaping might be getting harder by the minute.
Tossing and turning, Li Tao reopened the news about Jack's disappearance, searching for contact information. As he scrolled to the bottom of the page, a voice call suddenly popped up. The caller ID read: Jack.