📖 Chapter 6: Don’t Look Down
316 Words
I screamed and kicked wildly as icy fingers tightened around my ankle.
The grip was impossibly strong.
I fell hard onto the wooden floor, pain shooting through my arms as something dragged me backward through the darkness.
“Let go!” I shouted.
My fingers clawed against the floorboards, trying to hold onto anything.
Then—
Light.
A weak yellow light flickered back on above me.
The room was empty.
No Linh.
No creature.
Nothing.
I lay there breathing hard, my ankle burning with pain.
Slowly, I looked down.
Dark bruises shaped like fingerprints wrapped around my skin.
Something had touched me.
Something real.
A quiet creak came from the hallway.
I forced myself up and grabbed the broken piece of wood again. My whole body shook, but staying in that room felt worse than moving.
The hallway outside looked different now.
Longer.
The walls seemed narrower, almost bending inward.
And the scratches on the walls—
there were more of them.
Hundreds.
Maybe thousands.
Some deep enough to expose the wood underneath.
That’s when I noticed words hidden between the scratches.
Written over and over again.
“DON’T LOOK DOWN.”
My throat tightened.
A cold breeze passed through the hallway, carrying the smell of wet dirt.
Then came the sound.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Water?
No.
It sounded thicker than water.
Slowly, I looked toward the ceiling.
Dark liquid leaked through the cracks above me.
One drop landed on my hand.
Warm.
Red.
Blood.
A sudden thump echoed upstairs.
Heavy footsteps began moving across the ceiling directly above me.
Slow.
Dragging.
Back and forth.
As if something large was crawling around.
I held my breath.
The footsteps stopped.
Silence.
Then a voice whispered right beside my ear—
“Too late.”
Before I could react, something crashed through the ceiling above me.
And a pale hand reached out of the darkness toward my face.
- Writer
