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墨書 Inktalez
Ziya was looking around downstairs, casually glancing at the facade of the entire building. The sixteenth floor loomed high above, instilling a sense of dread, especially the eerily dark Fourteenth Floor, which was the only level devoid of any noticeable lights. The stone lion at the entrance, seemingly shedding tears, added to the mysterious atmosphere. Ever since the incident in high school, she had been avoiding anything related to the supernatural.
Fully focused on the floors and feeling slightly anxious as she waited, Ziya suddenly heard a loud shout directed at Qin Nannan from nearby. She quickly turned and headed towards the stairwell. The building featured a long corridor with two sets of elevators—odd and even numbered.
Earlier, Ziya had been with Liu and the others in the odd-numbered elevator, so she hurried over to the stairwell next to it. Upon reaching the stairs, she found nothing but an eerie silence; there was no sign of Qin Nannan.
Perhaps Qin Nannan was still upstairs! This person always acted fearless and brash but was actually quite cowardly when it came to scares. With that thought, Ziya snorted disdainfully, adjusted her backpack strap, and continued her search up to the third floor.
However, by the time Ziya reached the seventh floor, she was too tired to climb further. She sat down on a stair step and took off her backpack to grab a bottle of water. After gulping down a mouthful, she wiped her lips and muttered about how it was troublesome for her to come looking for him. With that, she stood up and began climbing to the eighth floor.
The stairwell lights flickered on with each step she took, casting an eerie glow along the deserted corridor and silent staircase. It seemed that Qin Nannan had not come down after all. Although taking the stairs was slower than using the elevator, she figured it should be relatively quick to reach the eighth floor. Why hadn’t she seen him yet?
As dusk began to fall, night was creeping in. Checking her phone, Ziya noted that it was already 8:10 PM. Growing anxious, she resorted to the most straightforward method—cupping her hands into a megaphone shape and shouting up the stairwell.
“Qin Nannan… Qin Nannan… Qin Nannan…” The vast space echoed back her own voice in response. “Qin Nannan… Qin Nannan… Qin Nannan…” Frustrated by this mockery, she cursed under her breath and continued up to the ninth floor.
The sound of Ziya’s solitary footsteps echoed in the stairwell as she hurriedly moved between floors. Each time she passed through that long corridor, she couldn’t help but glance around nervously while trying to maintain an air of indifference. Whether for herself or for any lurking spirits didn’t matter; all that mattered was finding him quickly.
The tenth floor loomed ahead, causing Ziya to hesitate momentarily. Due to her unique sensitivity, she felt an increasingly cold presence approaching—one that definitely wasn’t human and certainly not Qin Nannan.
Her steps slowed instinctively as she ascended slowly; her shoes made soft sounds against the stairs while an unnameable chill occasionally swept past her. Reaching the eleventh floor, she casually glanced down its corridor. Aside from its emptiness, there were tightly closed office doors lining either side. The overhead lights cast a dim and murky glow over the long and desolate hallway, making it feel even more foreboding.
Ziya closed her eyes and concentrated; surely Qin Nannan wouldn’t have gone back alone to the sixteenth floor? But where had that shout come from? Who had been calling out? Lost in these frustrating thoughts, she realized she had already reached the Fourteenth Floor…
Fourteenth Floor
It was pitch black... A cold wind rustled, and her body felt as if it had frozen in place, suddenly stiffening. Ziya furrowed her brow, wanting to leave this place immediately and head to the fifteenth floor.
Suddenly, in the dark corridor, Light unconsciously flickered on one by one. "Ah... no..." Ziya crouched down in shock. Despite having prepared herself thoroughly, she never expected to encounter such an unpredictable situation on the Fourteenth Floor. As she let out a silent scream, a light laugh pierced her eardrums...
Slowly opening her eyes, the corridor was silent except for scattered pieces of paper fluttering around due to lack of cleaning. There was no one there. Where did that laughter come from? The dim lights flickered ominously, and Ziya let out a quiet sigh as she slowly stood up from the ground, thinking to herself: I should just leave! I’ll figure out how to find Qin Nannan when I get back to school.
With that thought in mind, Ziya immediately took action. Taking the stairs down felt unrealistic; glancing at the time, it was almost 9:10. It would be safer and faster to take the elevator. With that thought, she quickly ran toward the elevator near the stairwell.
Her heart raced wildly as her fingers nervously pressed the elevator button countless times before it finally began to ascend. She watched as the orange-yellow indicator light moved from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10, 11. Suddenly, the elevator stopped; it wasn’t going to the fourteenth floor. She hurriedly pressed the buttons on the wall again with a series of frantic taps. Just as Ziya was focused on pressing the buttons seriously, a cold wind rushed in from behind her neck, causing her loose hair to flutter. There was something behind her; that instinctive thought shot through her mind as her fingers trembled and retracted stiffly.
Facing the elevator, Ziya noticed that the blood-red walls seemed freshly painted, smooth like a mirror reflecting her shadow. Behind her stood a vague figure just a meter away in the corridor, staring intently at her.
The sensitive nerves under her tongue triggered an overwhelming secretion of saliva due to anxiety; Ziya swallowed hard while anxiously watching the blinking indicator light display 12, 13, 14—the elevator had arrived. With a clang, she didn’t care about anything else and took a quick step into the elevator. The eerie figure behind her reached out with its bony hands but grasped nothing...
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh,” Ziya exhaled deeply to release the tension she had been holding back while still anxiously watching the indicator light flash one Arabic numeral after another. At that moment, a hissing sound came from one side of the elevator wall; she nervously stretched her neck and slowly turned to look at where the sound originated.
The smooth blood-red walls of the elevator inexplicably began to ooze a liquid that resembled water stains. Ziya glanced up at the ceiling of the elevator. It was intact; no liquid was flowing down from above.
The liquid continued to flow. Ziya stepped forward and touched it with her fingertip; bringing it closer to her eyes revealed—“Ah... ah... ah... ah...” She let out a piercing scream as she felt faintness wash over her body and collapsed limply onto the ground.
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