For us now, there was no difference between day and night, any time in this closed space was dark. We could only judge whether it was time to eat or sleep by the fluorescent hands of the wall clock. To be honest, if I say that I feel depressed when I stayed in this dark environment, I might feel hypocritical. After a day, I have been somewhat adapted to this life like nocturnal animals. I could barely see other people's faces without the help of the faint light of the flashlight. Throughout the afternoon, I sat by the wall thinking about when my adaptability became so strong, but when I saw that other people in the supermarket were almost like me, I understood a little bit — When people are in adversity, it will always inspire some potential.

Since it was time to sleep, there was only one flashlight standing on the floor in the middle of the supermarket. The small, orange light projected on the ceiling became the only difference between us and the insects underground. I was staring at the orange light, and I had many boring fantasies related to this halo in my head — I was really too bored and had nothing to do. From 9 o'clock in the evening I leaned against the wall and took a nap. As a result, I woke up and started insomnia. But this kind of upside-down life had become commonplace.

Just when I imagined the round orange aperture as a golden moon cake, I suddenly saw a small figure between the two rows of shelves in front. I looked closely at the 14- to 15-year-old boy who walked slowly between the two rows of shelves. I was very surprised. I didn't expect that there was someone in this supermarket who hadn’t slept besides me. Of course, what I didn't understand was why the boy was still walking in the supermarket at midnight. Just then, he suddenly turned his face to stare at me. I was shocked — impossible. I was far away from him, and I didn't move, just looked at him. In this extremely dim light, I didn't believe he could see if I opened my eyes or closed my eyes. When I was puzzled, the little boy's face turned back, and his figure disappeared behind a row of shelves. I breathed as a sigh of relief, thinking that he probably just got up to use the toilet and inadvertently glanced over here.

Everything returned to a state of stillness. I stared at the flashlight's aperture for a long time, and gradually got some drowsiness again. Suffering from insomnia, I did not dare to neglect. I lay down immediately and finally fell asleep after a long time.

To me, it seemed that I was awakened by the harsh scream as soon as I fell asleep. But I knew later that in fact I heard the scream at about 3:30 in the morning.

It was a heart-shattering woman's screaming. I was awakened from a deep sleep, sat up from the ground in horror, not knowing what happened. At this time, everyone else in the supermarket was also awakened like me. Everyone opened a pair of terrified eyes and inexplicably looked left and right. Until the second scream told us the direction of the accident and everyone rushed towards the row of shelves closest to the door.

At the forefront was the middle-aged man, who had another opened flashlight in his hand. When he ran between the rightmost row of shelves and the wall, he stopped suddenly, stunned in shock. Through the light emitted from his hand, we saw a terrifying scene in front of us. The strong man fell into a pool of blood with a twisted gesture, and the entire blade of a fruit knife was deeply inserted into his neck. There was no doubt that he must have died before he could even make a sound. The most frightening thing was that although he seemed to have been dead for a long time, his eyes were still open, looking straight ahead, and his mouth was open, as if he tried to call before he died. The first feeling of people of his strange death was that he saw something terrifying and amazing things when he was killed, so that he still maintained this hideous expression after his death.

I believed that everyone present was just like me, taking a few breaths, and was shocked by the sight and shuddered. Not to mention the female clerk who first discovered the body. She was curled up against the wall at the moment, her hands clenched tightly in front of her mouth, and she was trembling. After the two screams just now, she seemed to have been squeezed her strength to scream again. The single mother picked up a tablecloth on the floor, stepped forward to wrap the trembling female clerk, and hugged her over, comforting her, "It’s ok, everything is ok."

The fashionable girl took a bottle of mineral water from the shelf next to it, unscrewed the cap, and handed it to the female clerk: "Drink it, it will be better."

The clerk took the water tremblingly and took a few sips, her face was still pale like a blank sheet of paper. The single mother kept stroking her back. After a few minutes, she looked slightly better. The uncle tentatively asked, "How did you find him?"

The female clerk swallowed, as if trying to swallow her fear, but still shivering: "I got up and went to the toilet, passing by here ... tripped by his leg ... I looked over at him, I saw him ... killed. I don’t know anything else. "

Everyone looked at each other. The fat woman murmured in horror: "He was killed ... murdered, so that means ..."

I knew what she wanted to say — the murderer was among us--this was the undoubted fact. Although no one said this sentence, I knew everyone was thinking about it at the moment, because this sentence was clearly written on each of our faces.

"It seems that we all have to be on guard tonight." The red-haired man sneered coldly. "Things are getting more and more interesting."

I was very disgusted with what he said and this attitude. Although, I didn’t like the sullen-faced, arrogant and unreasonable strong man, but after all, he is also a life, and now he has been killed so cruelly. I looked at the indifferent red-haired man with disgust — do you think it was fun to be killed? It would be more interesting if the fruit knife was stuck on your neck at this moment.

Suddenly, I was shocked, like a flash of lightning in my head, my breath paused in an instant.

Fruit knife?

You need this — I remembered that when the little boy said this to me, the fruit knife that was handed to me was exactly the same as the fruit knife that was inserted in the neck of the strong man!

God. I threw a cold sweat on my back, then slowly turned my head and looked back, and saw the little boy watching us silently in the darkness in a distance. It’s too far apart, I couldn't see the expression on his face, but I could guess — because I've seen that cold, consistent expression many times.

Was it a coincidence? Still ... I was in a mess in my head, and I quickly turned my face back, not daring to look in his direction anymore. I just felt like I had fallen into an ice cellar and my body was deeply cold.

"Hey, hello, wake up."

In a slight call, the single mother opened her eyes and saw the two young people in front of her in the dim light. She asked, "What's wrong, you guys?"

"Someone was killed, can you still sleep?" The fashionable girl asked.

The single mother smiled bitterly: "What can I do when this happens? I can't just stay asleep all the time."

The boyfriend of the fashionable girl blinked and said, "You don't seem to realize that the murderer is one of us, and we are still in danger."

"Of course, I realized. But we were originally in danger. Why should we be afraid of a murderer?" Said the single mother, exhausted physically and mentally. "Besides, I don't know who he or she is, and I have no idea who to beware. "

"We are indeed always in danger. But the threats before came from the outside didn’t hurt us actually. But this time differently, the danger comes from within us and threatens our lives from time to time. I can't just sit back and ignore it. "

The single mother stared at the fashionable girl: "So what do you want to do?"

"Do you remember what was the last sentence of the murdered strong man last night said?" The fashionable girl asked.

The single mother thought for a while: "He said that at nine o'clock this morning, no matter what, he would definitely hit the door and threatened us not to stop him."

"Yes." The fashion girl lowered her voice and said, "Think about it. After he dropped these words, he was quietly killed within a few hours. What does that mean?"

The single mother straightened and seemed to understand a little: "You mean ..."

"Of course. The big man was undoubtedly killed by one of those who did not approve of smashing the door. Otherwise, I can't think of any other motives." The fashion girl looked amused.

"Think about it, no one will propose to smash that door at 9 o'clock this morning — of course, the premise is that the three of us no longer insist on going out." The boyfriend of the fashionable girl added.

The single mother now fully understood the intention of the two of them to come and find her. She said: "I understand, apart from the strong man, only three of us are in favor of going out. If we insist on breaking the door in the morning, the next victim may be one of us."

"Thank goodness, you finally understood what we meant." The boyfriend of the fashionable girl exhaled.

The single mother said: "Then you came to me to discuss, just wanted me to stop talking about going out in the morning?"

"Not only you, we also need it." The fashion girl said, "I think we have to rush to show our attitude before the murderer wants to start against us, we need to let everyone know that we have given up the idea of going out."

The single mother frowned and said, "I don't think it's so terrible. After all, that strong man was the main threat to them, we all just echoed him. Now that the man is dead, it is necessary to kill the three of us all? "

"Who knows? Anyway, the murderer has already started killing. For him, killing one is just the same as killing a few." The boyfriend of the fashionable girl said worriedly.

The single mother sighed sadly: "Actually, I'm not afraid of him coming to kill me. Anyway, I'm also a little bit desperate. If he really wants to kill me, it frees me too."

The boyfriend of the fashionable girl looked at her worriedly: "What do you mean by that ... Would you insist on going out in the morning?"

The single mother shook her head disheartenedly and said, "I am c and powerless. With my own strength, it is certainly impossible to break the door. Things have happened till now, just let it be my destiny. "

The fashion girl looked at her frustrated look and comforted: "Don't be so discouraged, maybe we are lucky, and wait patiently for a few days, the rescuers will come."

The single mother smiled bitterly and did not speak.

Then, the fashionable girl and her boyfriend said words of encouragement and comfort to each other. I had no intention to listen anymore.

It was only six o'clock in the morning, and I guessed they must have thought that their soft-spoken conversation was not heard by anyone who was asleep. But they didn't know that I was only two shelves away from them. I haven't fallen asleep since the murder, and all the conversations they just made came into my ears.

I thought the analysis of fashion girls makes sense. Indeed, it was clearly one of these people who had the motive to kill the people who was opposed to going out. I guessed she and her boyfriend were just hiding in another more secret corner at the moment, and further analyzing: the middle-aged uncle, the fat woman, the female clerk, and of course me — who was more likely to be the murder?

I sighed sadly in my heart — her analysis was reasonable, but there were serious omissions--those who did not express their opinions, it didn’t mean that they did not necessarily have no idea in their hearts. In fact, this kind of person who is silent and hides his true thoughts is sometimes the most terrible.

But the problem was that they didn't think at all that the murderer might be the little boy, which really disappointed me.

I suddenly realized that I might be the only one of these people who really knew the identity of the murderer. But what should I do? If I went tell someone, I just thought that the boy was the murderer just because I saw the boy walking in the supermarket in the middle of the night, which is a little too non-convincing. Others would only think that he got up to use the toilet, and I really had no real evidence to prove that he killed someone. As for the fact that he implicitly handed me a fruit knife a few days ago, even I myself felt weird and unbelievable. So, I didn’t tell others.

But then I thought again, if I didn't take any measures, will the boy continue to kill? Or is he going to start with me? Thinking of this, I felt anxious, but could do nothing.

I was thinking hard, falling into deep confusion and embarrassment.

Amy (9.4) - Text

Guo Yutong - Zeichnung