WHAT IS LOST

167Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8fYPjwGnFY

167Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ctAbrZ0d9

Chapter 1

The Red Switch

The dream always began with sound.

Drip.

Water echoed somewhere far away before Aya even opened her eyes. Cold air brushed against her skin as she stood at the top of a staircase inside a building she did not recognize.

Or maybe she did.

The place felt wrong in the way forgotten memories feel wrong — familiar but impossible to explain.

The walls were painted a faded yellow. Old tube lights buzzed overhead. The air smelled like dust, wet concrete, and something metallic hidden beneath it.

“Aya!”

She turned.

Her two friends stood further down the hallway laughing at something on a phone. Their voices sounded strangely distant, as though the corridor swallowed parts of their words before they reached her.

“Hurry up,” one of them called.

Aya walked toward them slowly, her footsteps echoing too loudly against the floor tiles.

The deeper they went into the hallway, the heavier her chest felt.

Then she saw it.

At the end of the corridor beside the washroom door was a giant red switch fixed to the wall.

It looked old. Industrial. Completely out of place.

A small crack ran through the center of it like dried blood.

Aya stopped walking.

Something inside her screamed not to go closer.

“You guys see that?” she asked quietly.

One of her friends laughed. “It’s just a switch.”

“No,” Aya whispered. “Something feels weird.”

But nobody listened.

Her friends walked toward the washroom while joking with each other. One of them lifted her water bottle and pointed it toward the giant switch dramatically.

“What if this opens a secret door?” she joked.

Aya’s heartbeat quickened instantly.

“Don’t touch it.”

Her friend grinned.

CLICK.

The sound rang through the hallway unnaturally loud.

For one second, nothing happened.

Then the building moved.

The floor shifted violently beneath them. Lights flickered overhead. A deep groaning noise echoed through the walls like the entire structure had awakened from sleep.

Aya grabbed the wall before falling.

“What the hell—?!”

The corridor stretched strangely for a split second, becoming longer than before.

And at the very end of it—

Someone stood there.

A man.

Tall.

Still.

Watching them.

Aya’s breathing stopped.

The man wore dark formal clothes untouched by dust or age. His face looked normal at first glance, but the longer she stared, the more wrong it became.

His smile never changed.

Even when the rest of his expression did.

The shaking stopped suddenly.

Silence flooded the hallway.

Her friends had stopped laughing.

The man began walking toward them slowly.

Step.

Each footstep echoed seconds too late.

Aya felt something cold crawl up her spine.

The man stopped directly in front of her.

Not her friends.

Her.

His eyes locked onto hers with terrifying familiarity.

Then he spoke softly.

“You pressed it again.”

Aya’s stomach dropped.

“I didn’t touch anything,” she whispered.

The man tilted his head slightly.

“But you wanted to.”

The lights went out.167Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAMybUJE7kD

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