The three paper dolls floated in the air. Their heads turned. One by one. Everyone is looking at Ma Tao.
He stopped crying. His mouth hung open. "Why… why are they looking at me?"
The middle doll spoke first. Its voice was sharp. Angry. "Fat man. Stop crying. Shut your mouth."
Ma Tao's face went white.
The left doll tilted its head. The whole head tilted, like a broken toy. "One finger… two fingers… three… hehe… I lost count again…" Its right hand was missing a finger—just paper.
The right doll floated closer to Ma Tao. Its paper face almost touched his nose. "Don't be scared," it whispered. "It won't hurt long. Which hand do you like?"
Ma Tao screamed again.
The angry doll charged.
Shen moved.
His bone hook came up. Hit the doll's shoulder. Paper tore. The doll caught fire. Burned fast. Turned to ash on the floor.
The ash moved. Something white was inside.
A bone. Small. Human.
Shen picked it up.
The crazy doll was still spinning. Mumbling numbers. Then it jumped at Jiang.
She ducked. Her knife cut across its face. Paper ripped. The doll burned. Ash fell. Another bone.
The cold doll didn't move. It just stared at Ma Tao. Then it reached out. Paper fingers stretched.
Shen grabbed Ma Tao by the collar. Pulled him back. Swung his hook.
The hook cut the doll's arm. The paper caught fire. The doll burned. No scream. Just a whisper before it turned to ash.
"You'll be paper too."
Ash fell. A third bone.
Shen picked it up.
The wall changed.
"FIRST NIGHT ENDS. PAPER DOLLS LEFT: FOUR. DAYS LEFT: SIX. SEVEN BONES. SEVEN DOLLS. GATHER ALL. THE DOOR OPENS."
The light in the room dimmed. Not dark. Like the evening after a storm.
Everyone sat in a corner. Tired. Shaking.
Ma Tao was still trembling. Zhang patted his shoulder. "You okay, mister?"
"Do I look okay?" Ma Tao's voice cracked. "I pissed myself. A paper doll made me piss myself."
Wang Long snorted. "Could be worse. Could be dead."
"Shut up," Liu Mei said. She was checking her phone again. No signal. She cursed under her breath and put it away. "So we need seven bones. We have three. Four more paper dolls. Four more nights?"
"Looks like it," Zhou said. He lit a cigarette. The smoke curled up. He didn't seem scared. Or maybe he was just too old to show it.
Jiang picked up one of the bones. Turned it over in her fingers. "There are marks on these. Carvings."
"Can you read them?" Zhou asked.
"No. I'm a medical examiner, not a historian." She handed the bone to Shen. "You see anything?"
Shen looked at it. Small scratches. Like tiny pictures. "Maybe. Not sure."
Wang Long grabbed the bone from Shen's hand. "Let me see." He stared at it. "Looks like chicken scratch to me."
"Don't break it," Jiang said.
"I'm not gonna break it." He tossed it back to Shen. Shen caught it without looking.
Liu Mei took out her phone again. Took a picture of the three bones. "In case we need evidence later." She laughed a little. No one else did.
Zhang pointed at the crack in the wall. The one Shen made earlier. "There's light in there."
They all went to look.
Shen pushed his hook into the crack. Made it wider. Behind the wall was a hallway. Dark. Long. At the end, a door. Gray. No handle. But there was a hole. Shaped like a triangle.
"The bones go in there," Shen said.
"How do you know?" Liu Mei asked.
"Just a guess."
Wang Long snorted. "Great. We're guessing."
Ma Tao grabbed Shen's arm. "But what if you're wrong? What if we put the bones in and something bad happens?"
Shen looked at him. "Then something bad happens."
Ma Tao let go.
The wall changed again.
"SEVEN BONES. ONE DOOR. ONE BONE PER NIGHT. FORCE MORE. THE DOOR CLOSES FOREVER."
Zhou blew out smoke. "One per night. That's the rule."
"So we need four more nights," Jiang said.
"Four more bones," Zhang said. "We have three."
"Four more nights," Ma Tao whispered. "Four more nights with those things staring at us."
The remaining four paper dolls were still against the wall. Still watching. Their heads followed every move.
"They didn't attack after we killed the three," Jiang said. "Maybe they only attack at night."
"Or maybe they're scared of us now," Zhang said.
Wang Long laughed. "Paper dolls don't get scared, kid."
"How do you know?" Zhang asked.
Wang Long didn't answer. He just looked at the dolls. His face was hard, but his hands were shaking a little.
Liu Mei sat down against the wall. "So what do we do now? Just wait?"
"We rest," Zhou said. "Take turns sleeping. We'll need energy for the next night."
"I'm not sleeping," Ma Tao said. "No way."
"Then stay awake," Shen said. "But don't bother the ones who do."
They set a watch order. Shen first. Then Jiang. Then Zhou. Then Wang Long. The others would try to sleep.
Shen sat with his back to the wall. His bone hook crossed his knees. The three bones were in his pocket. Warm.
The four paper dolls didn't move. Just watched.
Ma Tao curled up in a ball. He was crying again, but quietly. Zhang sat next to him. The kid didn't say anything. Just sat there.
Liu Mei closed her eyes. She wasn't sleeping. Her fingers were tapping on her knee.
Jiang moved next to Shen. "You think we'll make it?"
"Don't know."
"Honest."
"No point lying."
She looked at the dolls. "I've seen a lot of dead bodies. Pulled bullets out of them. Cut them open to see what killed them. But this…" She shook her head. "This is different."
"Yeah."
"You're not scared?"
Shen thought about it. "Scared. But scared doesn't help."
Jiang nodded. She didn't say anything else.
The light didn't change. No sun. No clock. But after a while, the room got a little darker. Not much. Just enough to notice.
"Second night," Zhou said.
Everyone stood up.
The four dolls lifted off the ground.
The crazy one spun. "One finger. Two fingers. Three— wait. I lost count. Start over." It floated toward the group.
Shen stepped forward. "Jiang. Behind me. Wang Long. Pick up the bone when it drops."
"What about us?" Ma Tao asked.
"Stay back."
The crazy doll lunged.
Shen swung. The hook cut through its middle. Paper tore. Fire started.
The doll laughed while it burned. "No fingers for me…"
Ash fell. A white bone.
Wang Long picked it up. "Four."
The other three dolls watched. Didn't move.
The wall changed.
"SECOND NIGHT ENDS. BONES: FOUR. DOLLS LEFT: THREE. DAYS LEFT: FIVE."
Shen took the bone. Put it with the others.
Four bones. Three dolls left. Five days.
"Three more nights," Jiang said.
"If nothing goes wrong," Zhou said.
Ma Tao looked at the three remaining dolls. "Nothing ever goes right."
The light brightened again. Day.
They sat in a circle. Four bones on the floor.
"We should try to read the marks again," Jiang said. "Maybe there's a pattern."
She lined up the four bones. The carvings were different. Some looked like numbers. Some like tiny pictures.
"This one looks like a fish," Zhang said, pointing.
"This one looks like a door," Liu Mei said.
Shen picked up the bone with the door carving. Held it close.
"My father's notebook had a drawing like this."
"What did it mean?" Zhou asked.
"Didn't say."
Wang Long grabbed the fish bone. "Maybe they're instructions. Put the fish first, then the door, then something else."
"Or maybe they're just decorations," Liu Mei said.
"Nothing here is decoration," Jiang said. "Everything means something."
Zhang picked up another bone. "This one has a line. Like a river."
Shen took it. Looked at it. "The Yellow River."
"How do you know?" Zhang asked.
"Lived on it my whole life. That's the bend near my town."
Everyone stared at the bone.
"So these bones are connected to real places?" Liu Mei asked.
"Maybe," Shen said. He put the bone down. "Or maybe someone just carved what they knew."
Wang Long stood up. "Enough sitting. Let's go look at the door again."
They went to the crack. The gray door was still there. The triangle hole is still empty.
"Three more bones," Shen said. "Then we leave."
"You really think that door leads out?" Ma Tao asked.
"Maybe. Maybe not. But it's the only door."
Zhou flicked ash on the floor. "We should decide who puts the bones in. The wall didn't say."
"I'll do it," Shen said.
"Why you?" Wang Long asked.
"Because it's my hook that got us this far."
Wang Long didn't argue.
The light dimmed.
Third night.
The three dolls floated. The angry one. The cold one. The silent one.
The angry one charged first. "I'll tear your head off!"
Shen met it halfway. Hook cut its arm. Paper burned. Ash fell. A bone.
Wang Long grabbed it. "Five."
The cold one didn't move. Just stared at Ma Tao. "You're last," it whispered.
Ma Tao hid behind Zhou.
The silent one stayed against the wall.
The wall changed.
"THIRD NIGHT ENDS. BONES: FIVE. DOLLS LEFT: TWO. DAYS LEFT: FOUR."
Shen put the fifth bone with the others.
Two more nights.
The room got brighter again. But no one moved to sleep.
Liu Mei looked at the two remaining dolls. "Only two left. But they look different now."
She was right. The angry doll was gone. The crazy one was gone. Only the cold one and the silent one remained.
The cold one was still staring at Ma Tao. The silent one hadn't moved at all.
"I don't like that one," Zhang said, pointing at the silent one. "It never talks. Never moves. Just watches."
"That's the one that scares me most," Zhou said. "You know what you get with the loud ones. The quiet ones… You don't."
Shen put the five bones in his pocket. They felt heavier now.
"Two more nights," Jiang said. "Then we open that door."
"And then what?" Ma Tao asked.
No one answered.