Chereads / The Elevator Game / Chapter 24 - floor 25

Chapter 24 - floor 25

RHEANNE can see it. The darkness, the eerie surroundings. She's seeing it all. She then opens the door from her right and there she sees her old friend being tortured.

She quietly cries because of this as she continues to see her old friend being tortured. She can't do anything but to watch. She was useless.

The scene in front of her then vanishes and everything turns into pitch-black darkness. It was silent and all that she can only hear was her silent sobs. She then hears a deep dark voice. And it felt like that this voice was talking to her.

"I will eventually find a replacement for Lilith. I will find you. I will get you."

"Rhei! Rheanne!!" It was Mori, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm just thinking about something."

"You look sick and pale. Are you sick? Did you even get some sleep last night?"

"Y-yeah I did." A lie.

"Anyway your suitor is here."

"Huh? Did he say why?"

"Actually, we called him. We were worried about you, Rheanne. Even our boss is worried since you look like you've seen a ghost, you look sick, and you barely do something! You were mainly just staring at nowhere that's why we've decided to call Max."

"Is the boss not mad?"

Mori sighs as she puts a hand on Rheanne's shoulder, "Even if our boss can be sometimes tough, she cares for the employees. And besides, she knew that the 40th day of your friend's demise is near so we all knew that it could resurface again."

Rheanne only nodded as she continues to stare at nowhere, still remembering what she saw in her dream last night. She felt Mori's hand remove and was replaced by another hand.

"Thanks, Mori. I can take it from here." It's Max's voice.

Mori left the two alone. Max then turns Rheanne's chair towards him so that the two are now facing each other. Indeed Max saw how pale Rheanne is.

"Rhei, let's go now?" Max says and this time Rheanne looks at him and nods.

Rheanne stands up and immediately hugs Max tightly, desperately needing comfort. She really wants to tell him her dream, how she is so afraid. She's not dumb to not realize that her dream is the otherworld. But she just can't tell him. She has no strength to tell him and she was afraid that Max will be worried.

Max, on the other hand, was shocked at Rheanne's move. He wanted to ask what's really wrong since it appears to be that the latter does not feel like she's going through a fever, but he didn't want to just ask her that. He wants her to tell him once she's ready so he didn't say anything and just takes her outside and leaves the office.

Max takes Rheanne home, also not forgetting to take out some food. She was the first one to step outside the car, then followed by Max. He takes the food he had ordered when he noticed Rheanne falls down.

"Ahh!" She falls down to the ground with her hands covering her ears. She heard the voice again, but this time she was conscious. And she's very scared right now.

Max immediately puts the food back in his car and tend to Rheanne's side.

"Rhei, what happened? Are you okay? Should I take you to the hospital?"

"No, no I-i'm fine, really." She says and hugs him once again. Max can feel her shaking, in fear. He wanted to ask her further but decided to not meddle with her yet.

"M-max," she calls out, "Can I sleep at your house tonight? I don't wanna be alone..."

Now, this really made Max curious at what really is happening. She looks restless and scared, but he doesn't know why.

"Sure. I'll be waiting here the--"

"No. Please accompany me up to my condo unit while I get my stuff." Max's brows furrowed but just followed her.

+ + +

LEILA didn't work the whole day because she wasn't able to sleep last night and called in sick.

She also heard from Max that Rheanne was also sick and went home early. Leila didn't suspect anything weird since she knew that around this season people tend to get sick. Summer just ended and now there's a lot of rain happening these days.

It's now 4 in the afternoon and Leila is pretty much nervous now that nighttime will be coming in no time. She was about to make another set of coffee when she felt her stomach growl. She hadn't been eating the whole day and was only drinking coffee.

So she decided to heat up some cup noodles. As she was about to pour hot water to the cup, she felt extreme uneasiness. Like someone is watching her It was an eerie feeling and she can't help but put the pitcher of hot water down and look at her surroundings. She then slowly walks toward her bedroom, and an image of her being possessed on that bed appeared in her mind.

Suddenly she heard the doorbell rang which made her startled and backed out a bit. She sighs heavily as she went to her door and peeked through the peephole and saw that it was June.

She immediately opened the door and saw June's facial expression. He looks afraid just like her now. But even if both had not spoken it out, they knew well that they have felt the feeling.

"You felt it too, right?" June says and Leila can only nod.

It's a strange feeling.