(Aaron POV)
Dominic handed me his phone, his fingers trembling. The faint glow of the screen painted our faces pale blue in the pitch dark. The moment the light appeared, the footsteps stopped.
For a heartbeat, everything froze.
Then—drip.
Somewhere outside, water fell onto tile. Once. Twice. Then again, like a slow rhythm.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
I turned the brightness down to the lowest setting and held the phone close to the cabinet door.
Then I turned on the camera with night mode in it
At first, nothing. Just stillness and the faint refection of outside wall was visible in camera
Then we felt someone was coming
It moved slowly — not walking, not gliding — just shifting, like the air itself was dragging something heavy along. I could hear the faint sound of something brushing the floor, like a wet mop sliding in circles.
My throat tightened.
Dominic whispered, "You hear that?"
I just put my palm on this dumb idiot mouth
The shadow paused right in front of our sink. We both held our breath. The smell hit next — sharp bleach and disinfectant .
Then, soft and low, came a voice.
"Still dirty..."
Barely audible. The words dragged, distorted like a warped recording.
The mop brushed against the tile again, and I saw a pair of shoes through the camera — worn-out black boots with rubber soles, streaked with water stains. They faced directly toward our cabinet.
The dripping stopped.
I could hear the faint creak of a metal bucket being set down.
And then — silence.
My heartbeat filled my ears. Dominic's shaking hand gripped my sleeve so tight I felt my skin burn under his fingers.
I forced myself not to move. Not to breathe.
And then a mop came through crack and it keep coming and going back
After what felt like forever, the footsteps started again — slow, retreating. The sound faded .
Only then did I realize I'd been holding my breath for nearly a minute.
Dominic whispered, barely audible, "What the hell was that?"
I didn't answer. Because I'd seen something — just for a split second.
When the shadow had moved away, i saw a mark
There was a mark. A wet streak across the floor — shaped like a handprint, but too long. The fingers stretched farther than they shoud
The mark glistened for a few seconds before fading, as though the tiles themselves swallowed them whole.
Neither of us spoke.
I could feel Dominic's breath brushing my arm, fast and shaky, but neither of us dared to move. The air inside the cabinet had grown heavy — thick with that sour-chemical smell, the kind that burns your nose the longer you breathe it in.
I waited, counting in my head. Ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty.
No sound. No footsteps. Nothing.
Finally, I whispered, "We wait another minute."
Dominic nodded, though I felt the tremor in his movement. I could tell he was on the edge of breaking — his fight-or-flight instincts switching between both every second.
The silence stretched. It felt unnatural. Silence here didn't feel like peace; it felt like the world was holding its breath with us.
When my internal count hit sixty, I carefully pushed the cabinet doors open a few inches.
The hallway outside looked empty. The lights were back on, but dimmer — a soft yellow instead of sterile white. The tiles still gleamed, too clean, like the place had been freshly mopped.
I crawled out first. The air felt wrong, heavier than before. There were faint smudges on the floor — streaks leading away from the sinks toward the far end of the corridor.
Dominic crawled out after me. His voice was small, hoarse.
"It's gone, right?"
"I don't know," I said. "But we can't stay here."
We both looked around. The hall stretched like endlessly in both directions, the line of sinks repeating, mirrors reflecting into distance
I stepped toward the nearest mirror. My reflection stared back, pale and drained. For a moment, it was normal.
Then it blinked.
I didn't.
I froze.
Dominic noticed my expression and stepped up beside me. His reflection was fine — moving perfectly in sync. Mine wasn't. It tilted its head slightly, smiling faintly, eyes hollow but wide.
I stumbled back, heart hammering. The reflection raised a finger and pressed it against the glass, leaving behind a faint trail of water. The mark slowly spelled something out .
"NOT CLEAN YET."
Dominic noticed my expression and grabbed my arm. "We're leaving. Now."
We started walking fast in the opposite directions to where that figure went — not running, just fast enough to make distance between us and that mirror. But every few steps, I could hear it again: the squeak of rubber soles on wet tile.
I turned. The floor behind us was spotless.
Still, the sound continued — slow, steady, almost in rhythm with our own steps but half a beat off, like someone walking just behind us, mirroring us but lagging a fraction too late.
The corridor lights flickered again. I caught a glimpse of something at the far end — a shape bending over, dragging a mop in wide, slow circles. The motion was methodical, hypnotic.
Dominic whispered, "Don't look back."
We kept moving. I tried to focus on the next stretch of tiles, the light, the sound of our own breathing.
Then a thought came in my mind and I asked Dominic " Did you see that figure ? " .
" Nah man , I was too scared so i closed my eyes " he replied fastly
Then I asked him again " did you see that figure in the mirror ? "
" No , i didn't see anything wrong there but why are you asking me that ? "
It was just as i thought , maybe this is happening because I saw that figure
Maybe it is a sideeffect of seeing what I was not supposed to see , maybe I should have resisted my curiosity.
My mind felt heavy but it was controlled, suddenly i noticed a streak of hot liquid flowing through my nose , i caught the metalic scent because of it so I placed my hand on my nose and then looked at my hand and saw blood there
Then I stopped and saw dominic looking behind and shouting before he stopped and came back and said in paranoid voice " you are having a noseblead man , clean it or you might suffer from blood loss "
" Nah I am fine " but my mind felt increasingly heavy , then I told him " let's hide under the sink again"
He listened and opened a sink cabinet and we both hid under it , I felt my eyes going heavy and then I lost my conscious
But just before losing conscious, I heard a sound before closing my eyes
" Have good dreams , sleepyhead "