The moment I processed what was happening, Lizi Sa yanked my arm, pulling me close while keeping a sharp watch on the darkness behind me…

Lizi Sa and I fell into silence. All I could faintly hear was the frantic pounding of my own heart…

What should I do? Shout for help and wake every kind-hearted resident in the whole neighborhood?

After all, there was only one thug. No matter how brazen he was, he wouldn’t dare attack in a high-end complex right in the city center… would he?

_

"Come out!"

Lizi Sa seemed to spot something. Flashlight beam cutting the dark, she slowly advanced toward the shadows…

I couldn’t fathom her courage—how she dared step closer to danger like that. Honestly, she looked nothing like a refined psychology professional. More like a fearless Spartan warrior charging ahead without hesitation…

_

Strangely obedient, the figure emerged the instant Lizi Sa spoke. A wobbling human silhouette materialized from the dark, caught in her phone’s light…

Peeking from behind Lizi Sa, my eyes locked on the gleaming cleaver in his hand.

_

I’ve always been terrified of cleavers. Since childhood, just seeing one in the kitchen would trigger involuntary horror scenarios—imagining that sharp blade slicing my fingers or arm. I’d shiver uncontrollably and force myself to stop.

Just to be clear: this isn’t masochism. I know I’m not a masochist. These are anxiety-fueled daydreams. I only indulge when I’m certain none of it could ever happen. Maybe I crave that contrast—plunging from a terrifying fantasy back into safe, quiet reality. Like waking from a nightmare to find your parents sleeping peacefully beside you. That relief… it feels deeply comforting.

_

But this was different.

Baseball cap. Black mask. Too dark to see his eyes. His dark, ordinary clothes meant nothing next to that razor-sharp cleaver. An invisible pressure clamped my throat.

My only thought: run. No way could I pull off some miraculous move if he charged. But Lizi Sa… she seemed to believe she could.

_

This was my first real brush with danger. My legs trembled slightly. Yet Lizi Sa remained eerily calm, still moving toward the killer.

"The police are on their way! Stay put—for everyone’s sake!"

I shouted, gripping my phone, its light fixed on his mysterious face. If he ignored her and lunged? I’d smash my phone into his face and bolt. He didn’t know this neighborhood like I did. Back in school, I was the track queen. Catching me wouldn’t be easy.

_

"Hehehe… hehehe… heh…"

An eerie laugh cut through the silence.

"A tomb raider’s daughter sure has guts. Selling out her own father just to save herself…"

His tone dripped with sarcasm. Though quiet, every word landed clearly.

Tomb raider?

I froze. My first thought—he was talking to Lizi Sa?

_

In that instant, Lizi Sa’s phone shot through the air like an arrow from a drawn bow—*thwack!*—slamming hard into the killer’s face. I flinched at the force.

By the phone’s fading glow, I saw her move in a flash. She dodged his wild, disoriented cleaver swing, seized his arm, and flipped him over her shoulder. He crashed down with a pained grunt. The cleaver clattered aside. It happened so fast I barely processed it. The suffocating threat vanished. I let out a bewildered laugh.

"That’s it?"

_

Lizi Sa wrenched his arm behind his back with a sickening crunch. I winced. She yanked off his mask. He howled but couldn’t move.

"So satisfying to see a criminal brought to justice!" I taunted from three meters away, smug.

My phone buzzed—a new text. Mom, finally cooled down? I smiled… then froze.

Another message. From *my own number*.

I glanced at the pinned killer—moments ago writhing, now utterly still. Not him. I opened it. Pitch black again. Familiar… wait. The stairwell ventilation window between floors. My building had no elevator.

"Watch out! He has accomplices!"

_

The words barely left my lips when—*whoosh!*—an arrow whistled from the shadows and slammed into the stone wall behind Lizi Sa. Had she not dodged with lightning speed, it would’ve pierced her throat.

I shoved my phone deep in my pocket, dropped into a crouch, and scrambled to the dark wall corner.

While dodging, Lizi Sa lost her grip. The killer vanished.

Now I understood why the neighborhood was pitch black. Streetlights sabotaged. They preferred hunting in total darkness.

Not one killer. A team. A pack.

Despair tightened my chest.