Shattered Illusions Love Lies and Redemption (Lizetta and Remington) novel Chapter 1022

She must have been seeing things. But just as Stella breathed a sigh of relief, she faintly heard the sound of a child crying drifting up from downstairs.

"Ron? Who's down there?!"

Stella's face went instantly pale. The thought that little Ron was sleeping in the master bedroom across the hall meant even if he had woken up, the crying couldn't possibly be coming from downstairs. A chill ran down her spine.

Suddenly, the faint crying morphed into a child's laughter.

Hee hee. Hee hee hee.

The alternating crying and laughing was far more terrifying than just crying alone.

Stella hugged herself tightly, looking around wildly. The atmosphere felt incredibly eerie, the trees in the distance casting ghostly, menacing shadows.

"Ah!"

Forgetting entirely about her staged photoshoot, she wrapped her arms around herself and sprinted back inside. She slammed the balcony door shut, bolted to the bedroom door, and yanked the handle with all her might.

That was when she realized the door wouldn't budge.

She was locked in. Stella tugged at the handle even more frantically and was about to pound on the wood when the sound of pitter-patter footsteps echoed from the hallway outside.

It was unmistakably the sound of a child running back and forth, completely different from heavy adult footsteps.

The footsteps quickly approached her door. Terrified, Stella let go of the handle and stiffly looked down.

A sliver of light spilled through the gap under the door. The hallway lights seemed to flicker, shadows danced, and then, a dark red liquid began to slowly seep in from the outside.

Stella was wearing white disposable slippers. Before long, the tips of her shoes were stained a grotesque red.

"Ah! No! Don't come in! It wasn't me! Don't come looking for me!"

She could almost smell the faint, metallic scent of blood in the air.

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