When Elizabeth regained consciousness, she realized her body was being swiftly dragged across the floor.
Amidst searing pain that threatened to unravel her mind, she forced her eyes open. Her hand flailed as she raised her head and saw herself being dragged by a shadow half a person tall. Her right foot was firmly grasped, pulling her backwards. As her vision sharpened, she saw the arched red lips of the doll.
Its fingerless hands tightly gripped her ankle, dragging her towards the couch—beneath which lay a seemingly impenetrable abyss.
Unable to scream for help due to a burning, shattered sensation in her throat, Elizabeth noticed sothing in her peripheral vision and reached out, grabbing a dangling piece of fabric. With a tug, a heavy object atop the fabric crashed down, shattering next to her head and spraying shards of glass everywhere.
It was her display glass cabinet. The doll with red shoes was thrown from inside, landing near the door.
Startled, Elizabeth glanced down at her ankle, eting another doll's gaze.
In a voice barely audible, she rasped, "Ms. Chen!"
The doll paused, giving Elizabeth a chance. She kicked it squarely in its head with her long leg. Its soft, cloth head bent at almost a right angle, loosening its grip on her ankle. Seizing the mont, Elizabeth grabbed a shard of glass from the floor and stabbed it into the doll's face.
Feeling the grip release, she scrambled to her feet, bleeding from cuts on her arms and legs. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the doll's head snap back into position. Not daring to look back, she dashed to the door and flung it open.
"Help! Soone!" Elizabeth stumbled outside, unsure if her cries were heard. After shouting a few tis, she glanced back into her apartnt with a chill—the doll was gone.
The door to Apartnt No. 6 opened, and Pink peered out, quickly approaching. "What happened? You... you're bleeding."
Why did it have to be a child? Elizabeth grabbed Pink and began backing away, her eyes fixed on her dimly lit, partially opened apartnt door.
Suddenly, the door to Apartnt No. 6 was yanked open, revealing Pink's stern-faced grandma who lunged out and knocked Elizabeth down.
"Don't even think about taking my grandson!" she exclaid, continuing to shove Elizabeth towards the staircase. "Give my grandson back to !"
"Wait," Pink said, wedging himself between the two, even taking a few hits from his grandma. "She's not trying to take away!"
Pink's grandma stopped, gasping for breath. Elizabeth, not in the mood to hold a grudge, quickly got up and glanced toward her apartnt but saw nothing. It seed the doll wouldn't chase her outside.
Taking a mont to steady herself, she heard neighbors from below starting to open their doors, slowly feeling reconnected with reality.
Mr. Grant, who lived the closest, quickly approached. "What happened? Why are you covered in blood?"
Elizabeth's hands were still trembling. Both Ms. Chen and Jessica appeared at the top of the stairs, visibly shocked by Elizabeth's state.
"I..." she started, closing her eyes tightly as a thought crystallized, "There's... sothing not human in this building."
"Huh?" Mr. Grant raised an eyebrow. "What are you on about—"
"Let her speak!" Ms. Chen said, causing everyone to freeze.
Elizabeth, however, hesitated to continue. She knew how ludicrous the truth would sound and didn't want to jeopardize the trust she had painstakingly built. Apart from Marigold, who occasionally claid to see nonexistent feet, no one else had reported anything supernatural. If Elizabeth wasn't going mad like Marigold, she might genuinely be able to see supernatural entities.
"She's lost a lot of blood," Pink murmured, acting more his age when strangers were around.
"You should go ho and dress that wound," Jessica suggested kindly. "Make sure to disinfect it."
Elizabeth shook her head. She didn't have any disinfectant at ho, and even if she did, she wouldn't want to retrieve it now. "I... don't have any. I'll ask Jet."
As the initial shock faded, she rembered her mission—she still had to find Marigold.
The wounds from the shattered glass, so deep and so superficial, burned intensely on her skin. As Elizabeth descended the stairs, every movent felt like her skin was tearing further. Ms. Chen, perhaps feeling a need to help, stepped forward and carefully held onto an uninjured part of Elizabeth's arm. "Let accompany you down."
Pink watched Elizabeth for a while before being pulled back into his apartnt by his grandma.
They slowly made their way to Apartnt No. 4, ringing the doorbell and knocking fervently. It almost seed like they might draw all the neighbors out again, but still, no one answered.
This scene was eerily familiar to Elizabeth. Just monts before, she had been standing outside Ivy's apartnt, waiting for soone to answer the door.
"I sense... an ominous aura from within," she said, hoping to gain Ms. Chen's trust even in this dire situation.
"Ominous?" Ms. Chen raised an eyebrow.
"It's like... a flash of blood," Elizabeth said, shutting her eyes tightly against the pain. "I can feel it."
Ms. Chen didn't imdiately dismiss Elizabeth's claim. After a mont of hesitation, she released Elizabeth's arm. "Wait here. I'll go check."
Elizabeth did not follow when the door opened—the overpowering stench of blood that wafted out confird her fears. A while later, a pale-faced Ms. Chen returned.
"Jet is dead," she said grimly. "His entire head has been crushed."
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