For a brief moment that stretched like forever, only an utterly terrifying silence remained.
Jin Jiuchi sensed the jade doll growing tense, eyes sharp in alert and vigilance as if preparing to attack should the paper dolls make a move. They pressed their little hand on Jin Jiuchi's mouth harder, preventing him from making the slightest sounds. Both of them had stopped breathing altogether – although for very different reasons.
Jin Jiuchi felt the weight of the paper dolls' stare like a cold and sticky sensation running across his skin, and he had to resist a shudder. He would have laughed out loud had his mouth not been blocked. Those gazes were awfully similar to the one he had sensed when he entered the apartment earlier; weaker, but still unpleasant nonetheless.
It's been so long since something evoked such an unpleasant feeling in him. To think that he would encounter it again here…
