"No one lives there?" The writer was taken aback. "Then what's with the knocking I heard on the wall?"

"I wouldn't know about that." The old woman rummaged through a large bunch of keys she carried with her for a long time before producing a copper key and handing it to him. "This is the key to the room next door. Go take a look if you don't believe me."

Seeing the old woman's confident manner, the writer didn't press the issue. But when he returned that evening, he reached into his pocket for his key and pulled out two.

He immediately recognized the old-fashioned copper key as the one the landlady had given him that morning, saying it was for the room next door.

His gaze slowly shifted to the door not far away. Suddenly, a powerful attraction began to tempt him, as if someone was whispering in his ear, urging him to open that door.

So, the writer... immediately threw the copper key away, far away. Then, he used his own key to open his own door, quickly closing and locking it behind him.

"Something's not right here. I'm moving out tomorrow," the writer told himself.

While taking a break from writing that evening, he suddenly remembered that it was his good friend's birthday. So, he turned on his computer camera and recorded a birthday greeting video in his study.

After setting it to send precisely at midnight, the writer yawned and went back to his bedroom to rest.

His body had been acting up these last few days. His lower back ached, and his shoulders, especially, felt dislocated, completely without strength.

Not long after he fell asleep, he was awakened by a shrill telephone ring. Groggy, he picked up the phone, and as soon as he answered, he heard his friend's voice.

It was the birthday boy.

Before he could even offer his well wishes, the other man began to berate him in a complaining tone. He sounded not only unhappy but also furious, and the writer even detected a hint of fear.

"Why are you sending me stuff like this in the middle of the night?" his friend demanded, panting. "I know you write supernatural novels, but you can't just joke around like that, you know?"

The writer was completely baffled. "What did I send you?"

He had really just recorded a simple birthday greeting video.

"Don't play dumb with me. Here, I'll send it to you so you can see for yourself," his friend said. "I'm telling you, I watched it with my girlfriend earlier, and now she's threatening to break up with me. You deal with it!"

Before long, a video was sent to his phone. The writer clicked play. The video began with him sitting at his computer in his study, saying the same old birthday greetings.

But then, ten seconds in, suddenly, the writer's pupils contracted. He saw a dark shadow appear on the wall behind him.

But it wasn't his shadow!

His shadow was also on the wall, but the other shadow was much higher.

As the video continued, a terrifying scene unfolded. The shadow actually began to sway slowly, but not in a typical side-to-side motion, but like a pendulum.

As the shadow swung to its highest point, a familiar sound came from the video, sending shivers down the writer's spine the moment he heard it.

"Thump."

"Thump."

…

It was exactly the same sound he had heard that night!

The video ended abruptly, but a flash of insight struck the writer. He began to drag the progress bar back and forth, repeatedly adjusting it. Finally, the video frame froze at the last moment, just as he was getting up.

In the blurry image, a pair of icy, blue-gray feet were resting on his shoulders.

His thoughts instantly connected, and he immediately understood what the swaying shadow that appeared at the beginning of the video was.

It was a person.

A person hanging from the ceiling!

Because of the position, the dead man's feet were resting right on his shoulders.

And the so-called "thump, thump" sound was the sound of the corpse hanging from the ceiling swinging and its feet hitting the wall.

The problem wasn't with the room next door at all, but with... his room!

"Thump."

The writer's hand trembled, and he immediately looked up in the direction of the study.

"Thump."

"Thump."

…

The sound was getting faster and closer. This time, it wasn't coming from the video, but real, coming all the way from the study.

"Squeak..."

It seemed that telling this story was also a torment for the man. After he finished speaking, he stopped talking and stood there alone, not knowing what he was thinking.

"I'll tell the next one," the woman in red said, seeing that no one else was speaking. Her eyes were very beautiful but gave a sense of emptiness.

"This story is called..."