"How come we heard knocking, but no one was outside?"

Barry looked at the surveillance footage, puzzled.

Owen said, "Are you dumb or what? It’s obviously someone playing a prank, knocking and then running away. The neighbor’s kids do that all the time."

If only it were that simple.

Last night, David and I actually saw a girl standing outside the door.

I installed a camera in the living room aimed at the front door; it should capture what’s outside if the door opens.

But why didn’t the camera show the girl?

David and I went pale with fear and didn’t dare to think any further.

In the next part of the footage, it should show David scolding the girl and talking to her, but the girl doesn’t appear in the video at all.

It just looked like David was talking to himself, like a lunatic yelling at thin air.

And I was even dumber, standing there watching him argue with nothing.

At that moment, Barry and Owen also sensed something was off.

They stared at the now-stunned David. "Boss, who are you talking to…?"

David was trembling, his mouth opening and closing, but not a single word came out.

I bet he was scared to the point of almost wetting his pants.

I stammered, "Last night, a girl knocked on the door. She was the same one who knocked the night before, saying she was looking for someone named Lucy. Both David and I saw her, but why didn’t she show up on the camera?"

Barry and Owen looked at us with terrified expressions.

Barry hurried over and yanked the curtains open, trying to let in some sunlight.

But this house doesn’t get much light. Even with the curtains open, the living room remained dim.

What’s going on?

The camera captured both of you, so how could it not capture the girl who knocked on the door?

Barry and Owen couldn’t figure it out either. Maybe they already understood but were too afraid to say it.

But how could I explain it?

I couldn’t bring myself to say that word, especially not in this house where it all happened.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

What I couldn’t understand is, if someone really died in this house and that girl is a ghost, could she have died here?

Could she be Lucy? But why is she looking for me?

And if she’s not Lucy, then who is this Lucy?

Thinking about the changes in the footprints, what I’m even more puzzled by is, if this house is really haunted, is the ghost inside or outside the house now?

We then continued to check the footage.

Just as I thought, both David and I were sleepwalking. Before I went to bed, I had locked the bedroom door, but the footage shows that, in my sleepwalking state, I first unlocked it and then opened the door.

David and I were sleepwalking at the same time, just like the night before, stepping out of the master bedroom right at 2 a.m.

The two of us walked out in a line, eyes closed, and sat down on the living room sofa. Then David picked up the remote and turned on the TV.

By this point, David was already slumped on the floor.

The word "fear" didn’t even begin to describe what he was feeling.

Barry and Owen were also scared out of their wits by what they saw on the footage.

The atmosphere had become tense and eerily quiet, as if a strange, indescribable presence was filling every corner of the house.

I got up and walked into the bedroom, lying down on the bed.

David followed me in and, seeing me like this, asked, "Johnny, what are you thinking?"

"If something really happened in this house, why isn’t there any record of it in the police files? And the police even sent people to investigate, but they found nothing. That can only mean one thing—someone died here, but nobody knew."

After hearing my analysis, David’s face turned even paler.

"If we go by that theory, it suggests that there was once a murder here, but no one ever found out that the killer committed the crime in this house."

The buyer mentioned that they felt like they were being watched, but only in the bedroom. I suspect that bedroom is the crime scene.

The muddy footprints from the first night led directly to the bedroom.

And the girl who came looking for Lucy last night? She also pointed to the bedroom with her left hand.

All these strange clues make it hard for me not to suspect that the problem lies in the bedroom.

"Johnny, stop scaring us."

Barry and Owen were already clinging to each other in fear.

Not to mention them—I was nearly wetting my pants after seeing the footage myself.

What rotten luck to encounter something like this.

David came over and said, "But neither of us felt like we were being watched, right?"

I nodded. David only stayed for one night, while I stayed for two nights, and I didn’t feel that voyeuristic sensation the buyer mentioned.

But they didn’t go through what we did, did they?

If that buyer had been sleepwalking every night and experiencing that girl knocking on the door, they would have told us by now.

I also heard the sound of cement scraping on the wall.

At this point, I had nothing to hide, so I told David.

After hearing this, David was completely dumbfounded.

I said, "If there really are those eyes in this room, where do you think they would be hiding?"

Hearing my question, David and the others began looking around, trying to figure out where those eyes might be hidden.

The reason I lay down on the bed was to simulate the feeling the buyer described of being watched, to see if I could find those eyes.

The ceiling?

Unlikely.

The wall behind the bedside table?

Also unlikely, because behind that wall is the outside of the house, and the wall isn’t very thick.

The wall with the window is even less likely, as the bed faces that wall, and beyond it is the living room.

That leaves the wall with the wardrobe.

Have you noticed that the space in the bedroom seems a bit off? The area is very small.

I soon spotted the issue and quickly pointed it out to David and the others.

Although we’re not trained architects, we know enough about house structure and design.

Normally, bedrooms are relatively spacious, but this one is absurdly small.

No sane designer would plan it this way,

Unless,

This bedroom was originally much larger.

But part of the space was deliberately hidden away.