LETTERS THAT BLEED
991 Words
Chapter Six - Letters That Bleed
The stairs weren't supposed to exist.
But they waited like they'd been expecting us.
Selene doesn't speak on the way there.
She walks slightly ahead of me, barefoot, her steps quiet but firm, like she knows where we're going. Like she's been here before.
The hallway bends in ways it didn't yesterday. The air gets colder. The lights don't flicker-they hum. As if nervous.
And then... we reach it.
The stairwell.
Behind the emergency door no one uses. A door that was always locked until now.
There's no sign, no label, just a faint red smear on the handle.
Blood?
Lipstick?
Ink?
I don't ask. I just follow.
---
The steps are metal and rusted. They creak like they've forgotten how to hold weight. But they don't break.
Not yet.
Selene turns back once.
"You're sure?" she whispers.
"I don't think I've ever been sure about anything in this place."
She nods. And climbs.
---
The Third Floor
Doesn't feel like a floor.
It feels like after. Like something that was built and then abandoned in the middle of being forgotten.
"The third floor wasn't hidden. It was waiting."
Walls are bare. No doors. Just long corridors, windows with no view, and-
Letters.
Hundreds of them.
Scattered on the floor, pinned to the walls, folded into cracks in the plaster. Torn pages, some burnt at the edges, some stained with something dark.
Each envelope is sealed with red wax.
Each one is addressed to "Dr. Sky."
I pick one up.
It trembles in my hands.
Selene stands beside me, wide-eyed.
"Don't open it," she says.
"I think I already did."
Some letters don't need to be opened to hurt you.
I flip it over.
The wax seal is broken.
Inside, there's a single sentence.
"You promised not to forget her."
I swallow.
The next letter says:
"This place only exists because you let it."
The one after that:
"The mirrors lie. But the stairs don't."
[Insert image: A scattered pile of torn letters under a flickering light, all labeled "Dr. Sky"]
"Who wrote these?" I whisper.
Selene's voice is barely there. "I think... we did."
---
We explore. Slowly.
Down one hall, we find a broken wheelchair.
Upturned, rusted, and covered in cobwebs.
Another letter sits in its seat.
This one is handwritten in frantic, looping strokes.
"She's not a patient. She's a witness."
I look at Selene.
She looks away.
"Do you know what this means?" I ask.
She hugs herself. "I know what it doesn't mean."
That... is not comforting.
---
In one of the rooms, we find a mirror.
Of course.
But this one is tall, standing, framed in black wood. Its surface is completely fogged from the inside.
There are no fingerprints this time.
Only writing.
Selene leans in.
The message forms slowly, like breath on cold glass.
"She's forgetting you."
"Who?" I whisper.
The mirror answers:
"Me."
[Insert image: A mirror with fog writing: "She's forgetting you."]
Selene steps back fast, like it burned her.
I look at her.
"Is it true?"
Her lips tremble. "I don't want it to be."
---
We take a stack of letters back to the office.
Chris isn't there.
Not in the waiting room.
Not in the hallway.
Not even his dumb granola wrappers.
But his coffee is still warm.
Selene picks up one of the red-sealed envelopes.
"Do you think they're all from her?" she asks.
"Who?"
She looks at me like I've forgotten something obvious.
"The girl in the mirror."
I want to laugh.
But I don't.
Because I remember now.
The knock.
The blurred face.
The reflection that blinked when I didn't.
---
Back in my office, I sort the letters.
Some are stained with ink.
Others with what I hope is just old coffee.
But a few... are bleeding.
Literally.
Red ink drips from the paper.
Letters that bleed when opened.
Letters that scream when read.
One screams now.
Just as I tear the seal:
"STOP."
Selene covers her ears.
I drop the paper like it's on fire.
"What the hell-"
But she's not listening.
She's staring at the wall behind me.
Where a new mirror is forming.
Growing from the paint like rot.
I turn slowly.
It's already half-formed, and inside it?
A girl.
Not Selene.
Not me.
Just her.
Head tilted. Eyes blank.
Mouth open in silent words.
She raises a hand to the glass.
And points at me.
---
The mirror disappears by morning.
Like it never grew out of the wall at all.
Chris still doesn't show up.
Instead, there's a note in my drawer.
"Don't forget the promise."
That's it.
No signature. Just those five words.
I don't remember making any promise.
But the stack of letters keeps growing.
And more of them are bleeding.
Selene watches me sort them every night now.
"You're not sleeping," she says.
"I can't."
"Because of her?"
"No," I say. "Because of me."
---
That night, I dream again.
I'm on the third floor.
Only this time, I'm the one writing the letters.
The wax seal sticks to my fingers. My handwriting crawls across the pages in frantic ink.
Selene watches from the doorway.
But in the mirror behind her?
There's no reflection.
Only the girl.
Smiling.
---
I wake up to a single new letter on my pillow.
It says:
"Open the last door. The truth is waiting."
But when I show Selene-
She says she didn't write it.
And that scares me more than anything else.
---
Author's Note
You made it to Chapter Six. You're deep now. The clinic's breathing. The mirrors are watching. And the letters are bleeding.
Don't forget to vote, comment, and tell me what you think the third floor really is. (Or who the girl in the mirror might be.)
Next up:
Chapter Seven - Static on the Line
And trust me...
She's going to start talking soon.
🪞🩸
- Nav
---
- Writer
