The Kokolia Orphanage was terribly quiet late at night, with only the occasional whistling of the wind outside the window breaking the silence. Rosalia woke up from her sleep, her pink hair sticking up in a mess. She rubbed her eyes, and the pain in her bladder reminded her that she had to go to the toilet.

"Hmm... so cold..." Rosalia muttered softly, and climbed out of bed quietly, afraid of waking up her sister Lilia who shared the room with her. The blue-haired girl was curled up in the bed next to her, breathing evenly and calmly.

The night light in the corridor emitted a weak yellow light, barely illuminating the way to the bathroom. Rosalia yawned and dragged her feet forward with sleepy eyes. Just as she turned the corner, a vague figure flashed past from the end of the corridor.

"Huh?" Rosalia suddenly became more awake. "Who else is still awake at this late hour?"

Out of curiosity, she temporarily forgot the protest of her bladder and followed quietly. The figure was very short and looked like a child in an orphanage, but his walking posture was extremely stiff, as unnatural as a puppet.

Rosalia held her breath and watched the figure stop in front of the bedroom door where the new children slept. The door seemed not to be closed tightly, leaving a gap. The child - if he could still be called a child - stood straight in the doorway, motionless.

"Is she sleepwalking?" Rosalia thought. Occasionally, children in the orphanage would sleepwalk. As the older sister, she felt it was her responsibility to help.

Just as Rosalia was about to step forward, the figure suddenly opened the door and slid silently into the room. Rosalia blinked and tiptoed closer, wanting to help close the door to prevent the cold wind from blowing in and freezing the other children.

As soon as she put her hand on the door handle, a strange "creaking" sound came from the room, like the sound of some sticky object being squeezed. Rosalia couldn't help but look inside through the crack in the door—

Moonlight fell through the gap in the curtains, shining on the uninvited guest standing beside a sleeping child's bed. Rosalia recognized her as a taciturn girl who was brought back by Cocolia's mother three days ago. She always kept her head down and never participated in games.

At this moment, the girl was leaning over the sleeping girl, with her right hand raised in the air. What made Rosalia's blood freeze was that the index finger of the strange girl was broken at the second joint, but there was no blood flowing from the broken finger, instead, some black, sticky substance was wriggling.

What was even more terrifying was that the severed finger was twisting in the girl's palm like a living thing, and then — jumped into the slightly opened mouth of the sleeping girl!

"Ouch!" Rosalia covered her mouth suddenly, almost screaming. Her heart was beating wildly, almost bursting through her chest. The girl on the bed frowned in her sleep, and her throat rolled, as if she swallowed the terrible thing.

The girl standing beside the bed suddenly turned her head and looked straight at the door. Rosalia was horrified to find that the girl's eyes had no pupils at all, only a cloudy white color!

Rosalia could no longer control herself and turned and ran. Her slippers made a "clacking" sound on the wooden floor, which was particularly harsh in the quiet corridor. She didn't dare to look back, for fear of seeing that terrible "thing" catching up with her.

"Lilia! Lilia!" Rosalia almost broke down her and her sister's bedroom door, and was so anxious that she was about to cry.

The blue-haired girl rubbed her eyes and sat up from the bed in a daze, "Stupid Rosalia, it's too noisy." Lilia's voice contained a hint of resentment for being woken up.

Rosalia threw herself on her sister's bed, shaking all over. "There's a monster! In the new kids' room! I saw her put her finger in Anna's mouth! The finger moved on its own!"

"Ah, really?" Lilia yawned, not caring at all. "It sounds like a horror story. Stupid Rosalia, are you having a nightmare?"

"It's not a nightmare, it's real, I saw it clearly with these two eyes!"

Rosalia took a few deep breaths and told her sister everything she had just seen. At the end, her teeth were still chattering uncontrollably: "That, that is not a human at all! Lilia, we have to tell Mother Cocolia!"

"Oh." Lilia threw back the quilt and got out of bed.

"Lilia, what are you doing?" Rosalia asked with wide eyes.

"Of course I'm going to check the situation." Lilia had already put on her little coat, her eyes squinting with sleepiness. "Silly Rosalia, do you remember where that room is?"

“W-what? We’re going back?” Rosalia shook her head frantically, as if she didn’t want to take any more risks. “Lilia, you have to believe me! Really, really, really… there are monsters in the orphanage!”

"..."

Lilia was also a little embarrassed. She didn't want to wake up Cocolia, who was tired after a day, because of her stupid sister's inexplicable nightmare. "Stupid Rosalia, if what you said is true, then isn't Anna in danger now?"

Rosalia was stunned, her pink fur standing on end: "Yes, yes..."

"So..." Lilia had already put on her slippers, although she still looked very sleepy, "We should at least take a look."

The two girls tiptoed back to the bedroom door of the new children. The door was still ajar and it was quiet inside. Lilia gently pushed the door open. Under the moonlight, all the children seemed to be sleeping quietly, including Anna. The room was empty and the strange girl had disappeared.

"Look, there's nothing." Lilia whispered and yawned.

"Impossible! I saw it clearly!" Rosalia whispered anxiously, pulling her sister to Anna's bedside, "It's right here!"

Lilia leaned over to check on Anna. The sleeping girl had a ruddy complexion and was breathing steadily. She looked normal. Just as Lilia was about to stand up, Anna suddenly opened her eyes.

"Ah!" Rosalia was so scared that she almost screamed and hugged Lilia.

But Anna just glanced at them drowsily, muttered, "Sister Rosalia... so noisy...", then turned over and fell asleep again.

"Stupid Rosalia, you scared me." Lilia shook her head helplessly, "Let's go back."

After returning to the room, Rosalia was still frightened: "Lilia, I really saw it..."

Lilia climbed onto the bed and covered herself with the quilt: "Let's talk about it tomorrow, I'm so sleepy..." Before she finished her words, she fell asleep again.

Rosalia sat alone on the bed, hugging her knees.

"Could it be... am I really dreaming?" She muttered softly, but she could not forget those white eyes without pupils.

Outside the window, the snow gradually picked up. On the roof of the orphanage, a thin figure lay quietly, its cloudy white eyes staring at Rosalia and Lilia's room through the frosted glass. Its mouth slowly opened, revealing a weird smile that no human could make...