The Vanishing 13th Step：Chapter 5

The temperature of the thirteenth step was 32.7℃, which is exactly the critical value of the dying human body. When I held my childhood self's hand, my grandfather's pocket watch began to rotate counterclockwise. On the wall of the ward in 1912, twelve beds surrounded the central staircase device, and each step was embedded with a human bone.

The time shown on the last screen of the camera was 2:13AM on October 13, 1923. I counted the delay of the person in the mirror - exactly the time difference of 13 heartbeats. Now I know why those dolls always point to the west, because the real witness of my grandfather's will...

Hidden content begins

...The real witness of my grandfather's will is my reflection in the mirror. Those doll fingers pointing west are actually spelling out Morse code: ·－－·－－· (corresponding to the number 13).

When I crushed the 13th human bone, the glass cover of the pocket watch cracked, revealing the truth of how the soldiers built this house in 1912 - they used 13 bodies brought back from the battlefield to burn bone cement, and each step was poured with the temperature perception ability of a dead soul.

"This is the principle of the automatic increase and decrease of steps in the stairs." I raised the thermistor to the camera, and the 13th step on the screen was absorbing my body temperature. "Don't you want an heir?" I smashed the Leica camera against the resonance point of the load-bearing wall.

Amid the roar of the house collapse, the last piece of unburned blue print floated in front of me. It was embroidered with blood on the birthdays of all the women in the family, including the twin sister who was supposed to have died in a car accident in 1979. There was a line of small words under her name: Space Prisoners Need 13 Heartbeats to Complete Identity Replacement.

Now I know what the shadow in the lawyer's throat is. Watching the asphalt-like substance spilling from my mouth in the surveillance video, I pressed the send button and sent this document called "Inheritance Guide" to the next intended heir.

(The picture captured before the camera ran out of power: On the ruins of the old house, the brand new thirteenth step is condensing in the moonlight)