During winter break, every night at exactly 3 AM, a heavy thud, thud, thud echoed from the hallway outside my bedroom door. The noise was driving me insane. I posted a rant about it online, and one comment immediately caught my eye. [OP! Quick, go check if it’s your parents kowtowing outside your door!] [If they are, RUN! They are trying to steal your lifespan!] 1 Right before the Lunar New Year, a strange thud, thud, thud sound started coming from the hallway right outside my bedroom. Every single time I opened the door to check, the sound vanished. The noise was ruining my sleep. I was visibly exhausted, dark circles bruised under my eyes. I asked my mom about it, asking if she and Dad heard the thudding at night. She just smiled softly. "Your dad and I sleep like rocks. We didn't hear a thing. It's probably just the neighbors doing renovations." After a week of this, I lost my mind. I recorded the sound and posted it on Reddit to vent. I asked if anyone had any life hacks to deal with annoying noise pollution. Maybe because it was late at night, the post got a lot of traffic. I got a ton of comments quickly. Some people thought it was noise from upstairs and I was just misinterpreting the direction. Others agreed it sounded like renovations next door. People told me to go talk to the neighbors, or buy a ceiling vibrator to annoy the upstairs tenants back. Some even told me to just call the cops. I was just about to close the app when one comment caught my eye. [OP, that sounds exactly like the sound of someone kowtowing. Go check right now and see if someone is kneeling outside your door!] I checked the time. It was 4:00 AM. This person sure picked a great time to try and scare someone. I rolled my eyes and replied: [Who the hell would be kowtowing in my house at 4 AM? It’s just me and my parents here. Also, trying to scare people in the middle of the night isn’t cool.] The person replied instantly. [Then go check if it’s your parents kowtowing! If it is, RUN! They are trying to steal your lifespan!] Seeing that reply, my annoyance flared. Any sleepiness I had completely vanished. Trying to scare me was one thing, but making up sick rumors about my parents? Absolutely hilarious. Watch me flame this guy to a crisp. My fingers flew across the keyboard, turning me into a regular Beethoven of insults. [Listen here, you ************...] But right before I hit send, I glanced at his profile picture and username. I stopped. Curiosity got the better of me, and I clicked on his profile. He seemed to be a Taoist priest, though whether he was a real one or a scam artist was up for debate. His entire feed was filled with videos of rituals and daily Taoist routines. When I saw a post advertising a "Ritual Fee" of $100, I immediately concluded he was a scammer. I went back to finish flaming him, but he had already sent me a DM. [OP, I know what I said sounds crazy, but please don't get mad. I just listened to your video again on loop.] [I am certain that is the sound of a human head hitting the floor. Go check if your parents are kowtowing to you. If I’m wrong, I will publicly apologize. If I’m right, I only have one word for you: RUN.] I almost laughed out loud at the audacity of this scammer. He must be really desperate for cash, trying this hard to reel me in. Since I was wide awake anyway, I decided to play along and typed back: [Stop being ridiculous. Do you really think I haven't checked the hallway when the noise happens? I’ve checked multiple times, and the hallway is completely empty.] Less than a second later, he replied. I seriously wondered if he had these responses pre-typed and ready to go. [Did the sound stop the exact second you opened the door?] [Yeah.] I replied dismissively. This was literally the most overused trope in horror movies. Anyone could guess that. I wasn't impressed. [That proves it! They are watching your door intently. The moment you move to open it, they know.] [If you don't believe me, sneak out quietly and take a peek. Then you'll know if I'm lying.] 2 A slight chill crept up my spine. My bedroom was at the very end of a long hallway, facing a blank wall. To get to the living room, you had to walk down this hallway. If someone really was kneeling out there... They would have plenty of time to hear me turning the knob, stand up, and retreat to their room before I saw them. To prove this guy was a fraud, and to prove my parents weren't doing some creepy cult ritual at 4 AM, I turned on my phone camera and started recording. I tiptoed out of bed, moving as silently as possible, and gently placed my hand on the doorknob. With a faint click, the door opened. This time, the thud, thud, thud didn't stop. My heart instantly leaped into my throat. Countless times before, the moment I opened the door, the sound vanished. But this time, it kept going. I swallowed hard. I gripped my phone and crept forward. The rhythmic thudding felt like a heavy hammer striking directly against my heart. My palms started to sweat. I moved out of the doorway and headed slowly down the hall toward the living room. Suddenly, my foot crunched down on something. It felt like an empty plastic water bottle. Who left that in the middle of the hallway? In the dead silence of the dark house, the loud CRACK of the plastic was magnified a hundred times. It echoed in my ears. My heart stopped. I was terrified I had alerted whatever was making the noise. Strangely enough, the thudding stopped immediately. I pressed myself against the wall, holding my breath, listening intently. Dead silence. Taking a deep breath, I quickly walked the rest of the way into the living room. Nobody. There was absolutely nothing there. I panned my phone's flashlight across the room. Just as I thought. Empty. My racing heart finally settled. I felt so stupid for actually believing some internet scammer. I turned around, went back to my room, and sent him the video I just took. [See for yourself. There’s literally no one there. It’s obviously just noise from the neighbors or the upstairs unit.] A long time passed. Even as I drifted off to sleep, he hadn't replied. In my drowsy state, I smugly assumed I had called his bluff and he was too embarrassed to respond. The next morning, I woke up to a barrage of messages from him. [Is that your house?! Why is it decorated like a mourning hall?!] [OP, I am dead serious. The people kowtowing outside your door are your parents!] [Your living room is set up exactly like a funeral shrine. Based on the angle of your video, your bedroom door is positioned exactly where the sacrificial altar should be. YOU are the sacrifice!] A mourning hall?! A cold draft blew in through my window, raising goosebumps all over my arms. I suddenly remembered that a few months ago, my parents said our furniture was getting old and they wanted to remodel. They said they looked online and saw that young people really liked "minimalist aesthetics," so they wanted to follow the trend. They redecorated the entire living room in stark black and white. At the time, I even joked about how trendy my sixty-year-old parents were becoming. But reading the priest's messages... I thought back to the layout of the living room. It really did look eerily like a funeral setup... Seeing that I hadn't replied, he sent one final message. [OP, I am warning you one last time. When you hear the sound tonight, sneak out and look, but DO NOT make a sound.] I made up my mind. I was going to check again tonight. I spent the entire day completely distracted, haunted by the priest's words. My mom gently patted my head, looking concerned. "What's wrong, sweetie? You look so pale." Looking at the genuine, maternal worry in my mom's eyes, I mentally mocked myself. How could I trust a random stranger on the internet over my own mother who raised me for twenty years? I told my mom it was because the thudding noise was keeping me up. My mom frowned, pulling me into a hug. I noticed a few more gray hairs near her temples. "It's okay, honey. Mom will brew you some calming herbal tea tonight. It's almost the New Year. If it's still loud in a few days, your dad and I will go have a word with the neighbors upstairs!" 3 After dinner, my mom brought a steaming bowl of herbal tea into my room. She said drinking it guaranteed a deep sleep, claiming it was an old family recipe. I looked at my mom gratefully, my eyes misting over. My mom was so good to me. How could a mother like this ever want to hurt me? So, I decided I wasn't going to make a sound tonight, just so I could prove that internet charlatan wrong once and for all. But I didn't want to break my mom's heart, so I took a few sips right in front of her. Once she left the room, I poured the rest of it into the potted plant on my windowsill. For some reason, the tea smelled a little off. Beneath the strong herbal scent, there was a faint, almost metallic tang of raw blood. At exactly 3:00 AM, the thud, thud, thud started again. This time, I was smart. When I opened the door, I used my phone flashlight to carefully scan the floor. Once I was certain there were no water bottles or anything else that could make noise, I stepped out. As I crept closer, the thudding grew louder and more distinct. It really did sound like a human head repeatedly striking the floorboards. I swallowed hard, my heart jumping into my throat. When I reached the corner of the hallway and peeked out, the sight before me almost made me scream. Cold sweat instantly soaked through the back of my pajamas. My mom was kneeling dead center in the living room, facing the direction of my bedroom, kowtowing slowly and forcefully. Thud... Thud... Thud... My dad stood perfectly straight beside her, holding something in his hands. The priest... he was right. My heart hammered against my ribs, my legs turning to jelly. Leaning heavily against the wall for support, I slowly began inching backward. What the hell were they doing?! I had a terrifying urge to run out there and demand to know why they were kowtowing. But looking at the pale, ghastly glow of the moonlight illuminating their eyes, I didn't dare. Suddenly, my mom stopped. Her head froze mid-air, hovering just above the floor. It was incredibly unnatural. At the exact same moment, my dad stopped whatever he was doing with his hands. Because his back was to me, I couldn't see what he was holding. He slowly lifted his head, his neck twisting rigidly toward my hiding spot in the hallway. I slapped both hands over my mouth, shrinking back into the shadows. An inexplicable surge of adrenaline hit me. I turned and bolted back to my room, gently clicking the door shut, and dove under the covers, wrapping myself up tight. I gasped for air quietly. My palms were drenched in cold sweat, my whole body shaking violently from pure terror. The noise outside had completely stopped. It was replaced by the sound of footsteps. I clenched my fists, forcing myself to calm down. A faint click. My bedroom door opened. I could feel them walking toward my bed. I could feel the heavy, scrutinizing weight of a cold gaze staring down at me in the dark. "Chloe. Chloe, are you asleep?" It was my mom. I focused everything on keeping my breathing deep and even. After what felt like an eternity, my mom spoke again. "See, honey? I told you it was just your imagination. Chloe is fast asleep. Let's go." My dad grunted in agreement. I heard their footsteps retreating toward the door. The moment the door clicked shut, I let out a massive, silent exhale. But I had watched enough horror movies to know better than to open my eyes right away. I stayed perfectly still, pretending to sleep. Two minutes later, I finally dared to crack my eyes open. Thank god. No terrifying jump-scares waiting for me. They had actually left. I shifted my stiff, numb body. Suddenly, a low, breathy chuckle sounded right behind my head. 4 My entire body went rigid. I felt like I had been plunged into a bath of ice water. They... they never left! I swallowed, forcing my eyes to slowly track upward. What I saw nearly made me pass out. My parents were standing right behind the headboard, bent over at a harsh 90-degree angle, their faces hovering directly above mine. They were both smiling—a twisted, unnatural grin—staring dead at me. "Chloe. So you weren't asleep after all." Just as I was about to unleash a bloodcurdling scream, a loud snap echoed through the room, and the blinding white ceiling light flickered on. My mom gently patted my back. "Did we scare you, honey? Mom and Dad were just pulling a little prank on you." "Did you come out of your room earlier? We thought you might be scared, so we came to check on you." Under the harsh fluorescent light, my mom's face looked ghastly pale. But looking closely... The gray hairs I noticed just this morning... there were noticeably fewer of them. I instinctively shook my head. "I... no, I didn't..." For a fraction of a second, the loving smile on my mom's face cracked. She quickly recovered, but I caught it. She grabbed my hand and rubbed it warmly. "Are you lying to Mommy now? Your dad saw you." "Were you spooked? Come on, Mom and Dad aren't going to hide it from you anymore. Come out and look." Before I could object, she forcibly yanked me out of bed. How did a sixty-something-year-old woman have this much strength? Her grip on my wrist felt like an iron vise. I couldn't pull away. She half-dragged, half-carried me out into the brightly lit living room. She pulled me over and pointed at the wall facing my bedroom. "See? We were just praying to the God of Wealth. We didn't tell you because we were afraid you'd think we were just superstitious boomers. But since you saw us, we won't keep it a secret anymore." I followed her finger. Sitting in a recessed alcove dead center in the wall was a terrifying statue. Wait. I had never seen a God of Wealth shrine in our house before. My mom anticipated my confusion and quickly explained. She said that because I was young and didn't believe in this stuff, they didn't want to bother me with it. So they built a hidden compartment in the wall. During the day, it was locked away behind a panel. At night, when it was time, they opened it to pray. That was why I had never seen it. Hearing her explanation, I let out a massive sigh of relief. "Mom, it's fine! A lot of young people pray to the God of Wealth for good luck too! You don't have to hide it. Since it's open, let me pray to him too." I made a move to drop to my knees and kowtow to the statue. My mom violently yanked me back. She looked panicked, almost awkward. "Chloe, no! You can't pray to this one! This is a specific deity from our ancestral village. It's not a normal God of Wealth." I looked at her, confused. "Only older people like us can pray to it, and only at very specific times. We can't mess with the traditions." Seeing that I was about to ask more questions, my mom didn't give me the chance. She practically shoved me back into my bedroom. "Alright, you already had a bad night's sleep. Go back to bed. Just make sure you drink your herbal tea from now on, and the noise won't bother you." I lay in bed. Everything my mom said made logical sense. But for some reason, a deep, primal instinct was screaming that something was horribly wrong. There was no more kowtowing for the rest of the night. I eventually fell into a troubled sleep. 5 I had nightmares all night long. When I finally woke up, it was almost noon. My mom had already cooked a massive feast and called me out to eat. I stood in front of the bathroom mirror, turning my head side to side. The person staring back at me looked incredibly sickly. I ran my hands through my hair, and a large clump of hair came loose in my fingers. Looking closer, there were several gray strands mixed in. I'm only twenty-one! Why am I getting gray hair?! At the dining table, my mom kept piling meat and vegetables into my bowl. She urged me to eat more, commenting on how terrible I looked. Both my parents started apologizing profusely, saying they were so caught up in their prayers they didn't realize they were ruining my sleep. My mom was a fantastic cook. But for some inexplicable reason, I could smell that same faint, metallic tang of blood in the food. After lunch, my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. I went back to my room to catch up on sleep. That was when I suddenly remembered the Taoist priest on Reddit. I frantically opened the app. His last messages were still unread. [Did you check last night? Were your parents kowtowing?!] [Answer me.] I shook my heavy head and rapidly typed on my screen. After what happened last night, I found myself instinctively trusting the priest more than my own parents. Thinking back carefully, my mom's explanation was full of holes. Why did they suddenly start this tradition this year? They had never done it before. Why did they specifically have to pray at 3:00 AM? And that statue... it looked vicious and demonic. Like a monster straight out of hell. The God of Wealth is supposed to look kind and benevolent. That thing was purely malevolent. I started to suspect my parents were involved in something dark. Maybe they got scammed and brainwashed by an evil cult. But I still didn't believe the parents who raised me for two decades actually wanted to murder me. [I saw them last night. My mom was kowtowing. But she wasn't bowing to me, she was bowing to a 'God of Wealth' statue.] [But the statue looked really weird. Not like the normal ones.] He replied instantly, as if he had been sitting there staring at our chat. [!!! Holy shit. I know what this is. Your parents are worshiping an Evil Deity! They aren't just trying to steal your lifespan, they are trying to sacrifice you!] [I guarantee your birth chart (Bazi) is buried underneath that statue. Also, have you noticed any changes in your mom recently? Like her looking younger?] My heart dropped into my stomach. I instantly recalled how the gray hair around my mom's temples had noticeably vanished this morning. And how my own hair was suddenly turning gray and falling out. I typed everything out and sent it to him. He immediately initiated a voice call. To my surprise, the voice on the other end was young and incredibly smooth. "OP, answer my questions. Exactly when did you first start hearing the kowtowing?" I thought about it. "About three weeks ago. Almost twenty days, I think." The line went silent for a second. When he spoke again, his pace was frantic. "RUN! You are out of time! Tomorrow night is the culmination of the ritual. Tomorrow night is when they sacrifice you." My brain buzzed with static. I opened my mouth to reply. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my bedroom door slowly creak open, just a crack. A freezing draft blew through the gap. And in the pitch blackness of the hallway, a pair of eyes was staring dead at me. My throat went bone dry. I instantly pivoted my tone. "Oh, Stacy! You want to grab dinner tonight? Yeah, I'm free! I have time! Let me just tell my mom." I picked up my phone, stood up, and casually walked toward the door, pretending I hadn't noticed anything. Keeping my peripheral vision locked on the crack, I saw the eyes instantly vanish into the darkness. "What happened? Are your parents monitoring you?" The priest asked. "That makes sense. It's the final day. They can't afford any mistakes." "Send me your address right now. My Master and I are on our way. Find an excuse to leave the house, immediately!"
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