(A/N):
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The moment Jojo, Leah, and Lorraine stepped through the barrier, the atmosphere changed completely.
The sounds of the city vanished.
No passing cars. No distant sirens.
No voices from neighboring streets.
Only the relentless drumming of rain against broken windows echoed through the apartment complex.
It felt as though they had stepped into an entirely different world.
The lobby was deserted.
Water dripped steadily from the cracked ceiling, collecting in shallow puddles across the tiled floor. Several fluorescent lights flickered weakly overhead, casting long, distorted shadows along the empty hallway.
The smell was even stronger inside.
Rotting flesh.
Wet concrete.
And something strangely metallic.
Blood.
Not fresh blood.
Old blood that had seeped into the walls over time.
Leah wrinkled her nose.
"I officially hate this place."
Lorraine slowly looked around the lobby, her fingers resting on the grips of her pistols.
"This building is alive."
She didn't say it as a guess.
She said it as a fact.
Jojo didn't reply.
He simply walked toward the elevators.
The old lift stood at the end of the hallway.
Its metal doors were covered in rust, while one of the emergency lights above it blinked continuously with a faint buzzing sound.
Jojo reached forward and pressed the call button.
For a few seconds...
Nothing happened.
Then somewhere deep inside the building, ancient gears groaned into motion.
The elevator slowly began descending.
A grinding noise echoed through the shaft as though metal scraped against metal with every passing floor.
Finally...
Ding.
The doors slid open.
Leah immediately frowned.
"...Well..."
The inside of the elevator looked as though it had survived an explosion.
Large sections of the walls had been torn away, exposing twisted steel beams and bundles of electrical wiring hanging loosely from the ceiling.
Several mirrors inside the cabin had shattered long ago, leaving only jagged pieces still attached to the walls.
Dark stains covered one corner of the floor.
The overhead light swung gently despite there being no wind.
Lorraine looked inside for several long seconds before turning toward Jojo.
"...Should we just take the stairs?"
Jojo looked past her toward the stairwell.
The emergency exit door hung crooked on broken hinges.
Through the gap, he could already see where part of the staircase had collapsed several floors above.
He sighed.
"No."
Lorraine blinked.
"No?"
Jojo stepped into the elevator.
"It's a pain in the ass walking all the way to the fifteenth floor."
Leah stared at him.
"Seriously?"
He shrugged.
"We've got super strength, sure."
"But that doesn't mean I enjoy climbing fourteen flights of stairs."
He pointed toward the damaged stairwell.
"And according to the report, one entire section of the staircase collapsed during the storm."
"So we'd probably end up climbing the outside of the building anyway."
Leah reluctantly admitted...
"...Fair point."
With a resigned sigh, she stepped inside after him.
"If this thing drops..."
Jojo interrupted her without looking away from the control panel.
"It won't."
"...How do you know?"
"If it wanted to kill us..."
He glanced upward toward the elevator shaft.
"...it would've waited until we were inside before pretending to break."
Silence filled the cabin.
Lorraine slowly looked toward the ceiling.
"...I really wish you hadn't said that."
Jojo casually pressed nothing.
Leah reached over and pressed the button marked 15.
The worn button illuminated with a faint orange glow.
The doors slowly closed.
For a moment...
Nothing happened.
Then the elevator jerked violently before beginning its ascent.
The old cables groaned under the strain as the cabin climbed floor after floor.
The fluorescent light flickered repeatedly, occasionally plunging the cabin into complete darkness before buzzing back to life.
Leah folded her arms.
"I still don't trust this thing."
"You don't trust anything."
"I trust coffee."
Lorraine chuckled.
"That's actually true."
The ride continued in silence.
Floor after floor passed.
Yet strangely...
The indicator seemed to skip numbers.
Three.
Five.
Eight.
Then suddenly eleven.
Leah frowned.
"Did we just skip three floors?"
Jojo glanced briefly at the display.
"We did."
"...Should I be concerned?"
"A little."
The elevator suddenly shuddered.
A long scraping noise echoed outside the cabin, almost as though something large was dragging itself across the elevator shaft alongside them.
Leah instinctively looked toward the damaged section of the wall.
For just an instant...
She thought she saw dozens of pale fingers sliding across the outside of the cabin.
Then they vanished.
"...You two saw that?"
Neither Jojo nor Lorraine answered.
Their silence was answer enough.
A minute later...
Ding.
The elevator came to a smooth stop.
The doors slowly slid apart.
The fifteenth floor lay before them.
Unlike the silent lower floors, this corridor was filled with people.
Residents stood gathered outside one particular apartment.
Some held their children tightly.
Others whispered prayers under their breath.
Several elderly women clutched rosaries so tightly their knuckles had turned white.
Nobody noticed Jojo's group immediately.
Every pair of frightened eyes remained fixed on the apartment at the far end of the corridor.
Its front door was firmly shut.
Yet muffled voices could be heard from within.
"...Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..."
A man's trembling voice echoed through the hallway.
He was reading from the Bible as loudly as he could.
"...I will fear no evil..."
Another terrified scream interrupted him.
Then furniture crashing against the floor.
Someone inside began crying hysterically.
One elderly resident crossed herself repeatedly.
"It's getting worse..."
Another woman whispered through tears.
"The boy has been inside for almost twenty minutes."
"He said nobody should open the door."
Jojo quietly studied the apartment number.
The same apartment Sara had highlighted in the complaint file.
The same address Beth Harrison had submitted two nights ago.
Without saying a word, Jojo started walking.
Leah and Lorraine followed close behind.
The gathered residents instinctively moved aside as the three calmly approached the apartment.
Some tried warning them.
"Don't go in there!"
"The devil's inside!"
"The young man said nobody else should enter!"
Jojo neither slowed nor stopped.
He walked straight to the front door.
Raised one hand.
Then knocked three times.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
The entire hallway fell silent.
"...."
"...."
"...."
Even the chanting from inside stopped.
The chanting from inside stopped abruptly.
The frightened residents gathered in the hallway unconsciously took several steps backward, as though merely standing near Apartment 803 invited misfortune.
For several long seconds...
Nothing happened.
Then came the sound.
Click.
A lock turned.
Followed by another.
Then another.
Someone was unlocking the door.
Very slowly.
The old wooden door creaked open just a few inches before stopping against the security chain still fastened from the inside.
Only a narrow gap remained.
From that opening, a pair of frightened blue eyes cautiously looked outside.
The girl couldn't have been older than thirteen or fourteen.
Her dark hair had been cut into a short boyish style, though it looked messy now, as if she hadn't brushed it in days.
Dark circles rested beneath her swollen eyes.
Tear stains marked both cheeks.
Her face carried the exhausted look of someone who had cried until there were no tears left.
She looked at Jojo first.
Then Leah.
Then Lorraine.
Her eyes remained filled with suspicion.
"...Who are you?"
Her voice trembled.
Not because she was weak.
Because she had repeated that question too many times over the past several days.
Lorraine's expression softened immediately.
Unlike Jojo, who often approached situations with detached calm, Lorraine had always been better with frightened victims.
She slowly stepped forward, making sure her hands remained visible.
She even lowered her voice, speaking gently enough that the girl wouldn't mistake her for another threat.
"My name is Lorraine."
She gave the girl a reassuring smile.
"We're here because someone named Beth filed a supernatural emergency report."
The girl's pupils immediately widened.
Lorraine continued before panic could return.
"We're from an organization named DMC that investigates cases exactly like this."
She spoke with quiet confidence.
"So you don't have to be afraid anymore."
"We're here to help."
For the first time since opening the door, hope appeared in the girl's eyes.
It lasted only a second.
But it was there.
Then a familiar voice shouted from somewhere deeper inside the apartment.
"Kassie!"
Heavy footsteps hurried toward the entrance.
A woman suddenly appeared behind the young girl.
Beth.
She looked even worse than her report photograph.
Her clothes were wrinkled, her hair tied back hastily, and exhaustion was etched across every feature of her face.
It looked as though she hadn't slept properly in weeks.
The moment she heard Lorraine mention the supernatural report...
Her entire body visibly relaxed.
"They actually came..."
She whispered those words more to herself than anyone else.
For days...
Every person she had begged for help had dismissed her as delusional.
Even her own relatives.
Every single one had believed stress had broken her mind.
Now...
Someone had finally believed her.
Without another word, Beth quickly removed the security chain.
The door swung open fully.
"Please..."
Her voice cracked.
"...Come in."
The three stepped inside one after another.
Leah was the last to enter.
The moment everyone crossed the threshold, Beth hurriedly shut the door behind them.
She locked the deadbolt.
Then the second lock.
Then the chain.
Only after checking every lock twice did she finally step away.
Almost immediately—
A blood-curdling scream exploded from somewhere deeper inside the apartment.
The sound was so inhuman that it didn't even resemble a woman's voice anymore.
It echoed through every room.
Outside in the hallway, several residents flinched in terror before hurriedly retreating into their own apartments, slamming their doors shut.
The scream lingered even after the hallway had emptied.
Inside the apartment, Jojo quietly looked toward the closed bedroom door at the end of the corridor.
The smile on his face disappeared completely.
He didn't need Sara.
He didn't need his enhanced vision.
He could already feel it all those evil sins.
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(Author's POV)
(A/N):
Check my new Fan fic: Karuppan: King of Openings
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