At 10:30 in the middle of the night, Aileen, after finishing overtime, was taking the elevator home when her phone suddenly popped up with a news alert: [On the evening of July 1, 2024, at 12:00 midnight, a brutal murder occurred on the 25th floor of Changzhou Garden. The victims were a family of four, with no survivors.]
Aileen froze.
Today was July 1, 2024, and the 25th floor of Changzhou Garden was only inhabited by her family and her family had just had a quarrel.
Her phone's time was still 11:30 in the evening, but the news report's timeline was half an hour earlier. How could the media possibly report on an event that hadn't happened yet?
Aileen quickly switched back to WeChat and opened the family group chat page. His parents and younger brother were still active in the group chat, each sending messages urging her to hurry home. If her family was alive and well, and they had never provoked any trouble, how could they suddenly encounter the kind of incident described in the news?
Aileen refreshed the news page again, and sure enough, the news item had vanished as if it never existed. Aileen let out a sigh of relief, convincing herself that she must be hallucinating due to exhaustion from working overtime for several days.
The next second, the elevator door dinged open. Outside was a pitch-black void, empty and devoid of any presence. Aileen instinctively glanced at the floor number to the right corner of the elevator.
It was the 1st floor.
Her heart skipped a beat.
Aileen had entered the elevator from the underground parking lot on the basement floor, and in the meantime, the elevator had been running for at least tens of seconds, how could it still be on the 1st floor?
Aileen nervously swallowed, frantically pressing the elevator's close door button. But the doors wouldn't budge. It was as if someone outside was deliberately holding the elevator button, preventing the doors from closing.
She mustered her courage and spoke up: "Who's out there?"
There was no response.
Just as she was about to step out to check, a thought from the news she had seen earlier flashed through her mind. Could the murderer really be nearby?
By playing it safe, Aileen took a bottle of mineral water from her bag, aimed carefully, and threw it forcefully towards the side of the elevator button outside.
A dull thud sounded outside.
It didn't sound like a water bottle hitting the ground, but rather... It sounded like it hit flesh!
Aileen's whole body went numb with fear! There was definitely someone out there. Aileen pressed her body tightly against the innermost side of the elevator, forcing herself to calm down. The presence outside seemed to try every means to lure her out.
First, they deliberately hid at the door, continuously pressing the open button to prevent it from closing. Then, they held their breath and pretended there was no one outside when Aileen inquired, creating the illusion that it was safe. If someone inside the elevator heard no response from outside, they would subconsciously step out to check the situation. What could possibly lure them out?
Aileen looked up at the camera in the up corner of the elevator. If the presence outside feared surveillance cameras, then staying inside the elevator was temporarily safe. With this thought, Aileen simply sat down in the corner of the elevator.
The elevator doors remained open.
Messages from the family group continued to pop up. Aileen's mother was anxiously asking why she hadn't come home yet.
At this moment, the elevator doors suddenly closed slowly, and in a daze, Aileen thought she saw a hunched figure flash by outside. Her intuition told Aileen that something terrible would happen tonight.
Taking advantage of the elevator's movement, Aileen quickly messaged her mother, telling her not to open the door for anyone except herself, and to wait a bit.
Aileen glanced at the time again, 11:45.
The eerie atmosphere forced Aileen to recall the vanished news report.
Now, with only fifteen minutes left before the murder time mentioned in the news, Aileen decided she couldn't stay in the strange elevator any longer; she must get home safely first.
[The sound of the elevator, "ding," signaled its doors opening again.]
Aileen rushed out with her handbag. Just before stepping out, she couldn't help but glance to the up-right, and she was stunned in place.
The elevator had stopped at the 1st floor again.
The elevator had clearly moved upwards; Aileen was sure about the elevator's movement, and she had only been replying to messages with her head down for a few seconds, so how could it be back at the first floor?
Outside was still a pitch-black void, with only a small patch of light at the elevator door. Suddenly, footsteps echoed from afar, getting closer and closer.
[The steps were slow, with a heavy and light rhythm, as if someone was dragging his feet.]
Suddenly, the footsteps stopped abruptly. A pair of feet in old-fashioned cloth shoes stopped right in front of the elevator door. Aileen looked up and saw a thin, bony old woman with silver hair covering her head and deep wrinkles on her face. Aileen was startled by the sudden appearance of the "old face" in the night, but she quickly recognized it as a very familiar face.
It was the cleaner of their community, Granny Wong.
But why was she still not home at this late hour? Could it have been Granny Wong who had been hiding outside the elevator, pressing the button to keep the doors from closing? But she had no reason to do so.
Granny Wong lived in a small room on the rooftop terrace of their building. Her husband had passed away early, and her children were distant. She was self-sufficient and cheerful every day, familiar with all the neighbors, and would warmly greet everyone she met.
Aileen subconsciously raised her hand to greet her. But before she could speak, the old woman entered the elevator expressionlessly, not even glancing at Aileen. The elevator doors closed slowly.
[Tick... Tick...]
Beside her, Aileen heard the sound of water droplets falling. Aileen held her breath and looked to the side. Under the bright light of the elevator, Aileen finally saw Granny Wong's current state. Her complexion was pale, her head was down, and her body was wet, with clothes continuously dripping water. Aileen felt her skin tighten, and the surrounding air gradually became cooler.
Usually, Granny Wong was talkative, always chatting and laughing when she met someone. But today, she seemed like a completely different person.
Aileen clenched her fists, her palms sweating from nervousness. The silence around Granny Wong was too eerie, even her breathing was inaudible.
Only the sound of water droplets falling.
[Tick, tick …]
Aileen, who usually didn't mind other people's business, never had a natural curiosity about anything out of the ordinary. So, at this moment, she didn't really want to know what was going on with Granny Wong, nor did she plan to talk to her. She just prayed the elevator wouldn't malfunction and get her home quickly.
Learning from the previous two incidents, as the elevator started to move, Aileen's eyes were fixed on the floor numbers. Seeing the display slowly rise without stopping at any other floor, she finally let out a sigh of relief. This time, it seemed to go particularly fast, and the 25th floor arrived soon.
The elevator doors opened, and outside was no longer the pitch-black basement hall. Seeing the familiar hallway, the string in Aileen's body, which was tightly wound, finally relaxed a bit, and she quickly stepped out.
The next second.
A cold, wet hand grabbed Aileen's wrist. An old, low voice sounded from the body: "Girl, you can't go out." Aileen was startled and instinctively tried to break free, but the hand's grip was extraordinarily strong, and no matter how hard Aileen tried, she couldn't shake it off.
The immense fear almost made Aileen temporarily forgot her fear, and she gritted her teeth and tried her best to walk out with all her strength. Just as the tip of her left foot touched the ground outside the elevator, the force on his wrist suddenly disappeared, and due to inertia, her whole body rushed forward and she fell to the ground.
Looking up again, the elevator was empty, with only a pool of water left behind. Aileen was shocked and numb. Ignoring her trembling body, she got up with her hands on the ground and ran. The old voice suddenly appeared on the right side of her body again. The voice was very close to Aileen, and she could even feel Granny Wong's wet body against her skin and Granny's breath on her ear.
"Girl, you can't go out."
"Girl, you can't go out."
Aileen didn't know when Granny Wong got out of the elevator, nor when Granny Wong stood beside her. She only could cover her ears and ran frantically towards the entrance of her home. The voice by her side followed her, shouting more and more urgently, more and more loudly.
Finally, at the moment when she twisted the lock and rushed into her home, the voice by her ear disappeared. She let out a sigh of relief, walked into the living room, and habitually asked her mother's room urgently: "Mom, do you know the cleaner Granny Wang who lives on the top floor, she..." Before she could finish speaking, the sight before her made her unable to say another word.
The entire living room was a sea of scarlet.