Chap 6: A Joke Gone Wrong

Night Falls...Chiến tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep as his mind kept replaying the conversation from earlier that day. A strange fear crept into his heart—had his joke gone too far? What if it was real?

What if Minh truly wanted them? And what if it was Chiến's turn next? Questions swirled in his head, making him paranoid—every shadow seemed threatening, every sound made his skin crawl. He kept telling himself, "It's only in movies, only in movies."

Suddenly, the doorbell rang, breaking the silence of his house. The ringing continued—urgent, insistent. No one answered. Then he remembered—his family had left for their hometown to attend a gathering.

Normally, he would have loved having the house to himself. Maybe he would have thrown a party, invited some friends over, stayed up late chatting. But tonight… tonight was different.

The doorbell kept ringing. Chiến hesitated, pacing inside. What if it was... that? But curiosity and a sense of pride began to rise in him—he wanted to prove he wasn't scared. Slowly, he tiptoed toward the door, peering through the foggy glass panel.

"Who... is it?" he called out.

The doorbell kept ringing. His question was met with silence.

"If you don't say anything, I won't open the door!"

A whisper came through the crack in the door, cold and distant, as if carried from the land of the dead:

"You don't need to open the door, my dear friend. I can come in on my own."

Chiến's body froze. He stumbled backward, crawling desperately away, his voice breaking into a terrified scream:

"Go away! I'm not who you want! I'm only eleven! I'm too young to die!"

"Then just lend me your MP3 player... Let it take your place instead."

Something about that sentence felt strange. Chiến paused. His panic shifted into suspicion. He stood up abruptly, threw open the door, and glared at the figure standing there.

"Thắng, is that you?" He exhaled, half relieved, half annoyed. "What the hell are you doing here this late?"

Thắng grinned. "Just messing with you, seeing if you're as brave as you claim. Turns out, you scream just like a scared little girl."

He stepped forward, intending to enter, but Chiến blocked his way.

"What's with you? Come on, let me in—I just want to watch some TV."

"Go home and watch it there." Chiến shoved him back and slammed the door.

"But my brothers took over the TV for the football match!"

"If you don't let me in, I'll just keep ringing your doorbell all night. Let's see how long you can last."

And so, the doorbell started ringing again. Chiến smirked, lying down on the sofa, deciding to let Thắng wait a little longer before letting him in.

On TV, HBO was playing The Ring. Though scared, he couldn't look away. He had seen the movie multiple times, yet it still gave him chills. He figured he'd let Thắng in sooner than planned—after all, having company would make the horror movie less terrifying.

But strangely, the doorbell had stopped ringing.

Thắng must have known Chiến would eventually let him in, so maybe he was just waiting.

"Alright, you can come in now!" Chiến called out.

Silence.

Thắng was nowhere in sight.

That wasn't like him. He never gave up this easily.

"Is he hiding to scare me again?" Chiến muttered, stepping out into the dark street.

"If I catch you, you're dead meat."

He squinted into the inky blackness, determined to prove he wasn't afraid.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder.

He spun around. Before he could react, an eerie cloud of ash engulfed him, forcing its way into his nose, his mouth, his ears. He couldn't breathe. He struggled desperately, but it was useless. His body felt weightless, as if it were being lifted, dissolving into the swirling dust.

A chilling numbness spread through him. His senses dulled. His ears filled with a shrill, metallic screech—the sound of something being dragged across the pavement.

His vision blurred. The last thing he saw was the flickering embers of a burnt tin can, charred and reeking of coconut candy. Then he saw the old restroom wall—where Thắng lay motionless, his lifeless eyes staring blankly at him.

The final sensation he felt was the icy coldness radiating from Thắng's corpse, as he was placed beside him.

And the last thought that crossed his mind was pure, suffocating terror, as he turned to look straight into his soul.