The red number on the elevator panel turned from negative 4 to negative 2 and then it stopped without warning again. The silvery grey door slowly opened but there was nothing in the dark corridor. “I heard from my senior that the company used to supply accommodation for the workers and allow them to bring their families to live at the underground hostel. But something happened and the boss chased everyone out. The hostel was officially closed down.” Bai Sinian looked at the corridor and curled deeper into the elevator.
“Do you know what happened?”
“I heard one of the girls came back late one night and she was killed on her way home. If you follow the corridor until the end, you’ll come across her picture and an altar set up for her.”
“I didn’t see any altar or picture.” Han Fei grumbled, “But I did scare the girl away.”
“What did you say?” Bai Sinian pressed on the elevator button crazily before the doors finally closed. “The elevator would stop every time on this floor, it’s just crazy. Some even claim that they have seen a girl standing outside the elevator, she seemed to be observing the people inside the elevator, looking for her killer.”
“I’m surprised so many things happened here.” Han Fei had a feeling that he found the right person, with Bai Sinian as his guide, he had saved a lot of time. The two of them took the elevator to the fourth floor but the old elevator once again stopped when it reached the 2nd floor. Han Fei noticed that the strange elevator would stop at every even number floors.
Compared to the basement, the surface floors were cleaner and neater. The corridor had lamps every few metres and the place was well lit. The place looked normal, like a typical office. Han Fei couldn’t find any problem. But in the cryptic world, when there was no problem, it was the biggest problem. A very faded scent of plastic burning lingered in the air. It made Han Fei’s nose twitch uncomfortably. He couldn’t find the source, the smell appeared to come out from the walls itself. “Was there a fire here?”
“I don’t think so.” Bai Sinian scratched his head and straightened his cap. He walked out from the elevator and reached out to grab the patrol form hanging beside the elevator. The old form had names written down in red but most of them had been crossed off.
“Whose prank is this?” Bai Sinian took out a pen from his shirt pocket. He was about to fill in his report when he realized his name was not on the form. “This is strange…” He flipped through the form again and again. With each turn of the page, his expression became stranger and stranger. “Impossible! Someone must be pranking me!” His eyeballs gradually protruded and his normal face started to pale.
“What’s wrong?” Seeing this, Han Fei asked with concern.
“Our company’s patrol form will update once a week. When I went to the fourth floor basement, it was a Wednesday but the date here says that it’s already Thursday! And my name is nowhere to be found!” Bai Sinian spoke urgently, his emotions fraying.
“If that’s the case, then perhaps you should look at the earlier pages. But if you can’t find your name on the patrol form at all, that can only mean that you entered the basement a long time ago and haven't left there ever since.” Han Fei’s method of consolation was quite direct.
“No! Impossible! I remember everything very clearly!” The skin on Bai Sinian’s face started to wrinkle. His fingers gripped the patrol form and then he charged towards one of the rooms. “Senior! Are you there? Wang San! Sister Lan! Is anyone here?!” Bai Sinian stopped before a door. He shook the handle madly but the door didn’t open. Han Fei walked over and helped him by kicking it down. Once the door opened, Bai Sinian turned the place upside down. He pulled down all the drawers and scattered the files everywhere. “Why isn’t it there?” The drawers had the files on all the security guards except Bai Sinian. Unwilling to accept the truth, he switched on the old computer on the table. The screen flickered several times. It was barely usable. He clicked on the mouse madly, his eyes were red. None of the documents had anything to do with him, it was as if his existence had been wiped away by this company. “No, no, there’s still nothing!”
Staring at the desktop, Bai Sinian clicked on the recycle bin, his mind standing on the edge of despair. There were plenty of files inside the recycle bin. He noticed a file from 1 month ago. He restored the files and realized they were all video files. Bai Sinian clicked on it and a surveillance video started to play. The midnight elevator rose up from the fourth floor basement and stopped at the second floor. Then the patrol form beside the elevator fell to the ground. The papers rustled and someone roughly scrawled out the names. Unclear footprints appeared on the corridor. A barely visible shadow walked through the darkness and stopped before the office door. The office door suddenly started to tremble like someone was shaking the lock madly even though there was no one in the corridor. Moments later, the door opened.
That was the end of the first video. Bai Sinian turned to the second video. This time the video was captured by the camera right above his head. In the second video, the midnight office appeared to be haunted. The drawers were pulled open, the cupboards were pushed over and documents scattered everywhere. When everything stopped, the computer suddenly came alive. The documents were opened one after another, before finally the recycle bin was clicked on.
Soon, the computer started to play the surveillance videos. At the last segment of the video, the screen of the computer reflected a face covered in scars and blood. Then a row of words appeared on screen—Do you remember now?
Bai Sinian slowly raised his head to look at the camera above him. He was doing the same thing as the ghost inside the video.
Smell of decomposition drifted out from his body and his bones started to collapse. Bai Sinian’s face rapidly decayed. He looked at the video inside the computer, he looked at the ghost inside the video and his face on the screen. His lips slowly opened and he uttered rather weakly, “So I’m already dead…” The walkie-talkie on his shoulder echoed with static. No wonder no one answered him, he was talking to himself. “I remember it now, everyone was led through the iron door but me. I was trapped inside that room on the fourth floor basement. I was the one who was most afraid of ghost stories, I was the most cowardly guard…” He mumbled to himself, “No wonder I don’t fear ghost stories anymore…”
“Why so glum, chum?”
Observing the complete change on Bai Sinian, Han Fei opened the urn and released Weep and Lee Zai. “Being a ghost is not so bad, some might not even have the chance to become a ghost, you’re already much luckier than most.” Pulling the confused Bai Sinian to his side, Han Fei used Soul-depth Touch to grab the man’s hand. “If you really do feel lonely, I have a big family who is always ready to welcome you.”
