WHAT IS LOST

Chapter 3: Don't Look Behind You

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Aya could not move.

The breathing behind her was slow and wet, like air passing through a flooded throat.

Her entire body locked in fear.

The darkness felt alive.

Then—

A tiny spark flickered overhead.

The emergency lights returned for half a second.

In that instant, Aya saw the washroom mirror.

The dark figure stood directly behind her reflection.

Tall enough for its head to bend against the ceiling.

Then the lights died again.

Aya ran.

She shoved past the man near the doorway and sprinted into the corridor without thinking. Her footsteps echoed violently through the building as the red emergency lights blinked on and off around her.

The people standing in the hallway were gone.

But the hallway itself had changed.

It was longer now.

Much longer.

Doors lined both sides endlessly, stretching into darkness like the corridor had no end anymore.

Aya’s breathing became uneven.

“This isn’t real,” she whispered desperately. “This isn’t real.”

Behind her came footsteps.

Not running.

Walking.

Slow.

Certain.

The man.

Or something else.

Aya did not turn around.

She remembered the fear on the faces of the people in the hallway.

They were not afraid of her.

They were afraid of what was behind her.

A sudden ringing noise exploded through the building.

BRRRRRRRRRRR.

Aya covered her ears painfully.

An old school bell echoed through the corridor over and over again.

Every door beside her creaked open at the exact same moment.

Inside each room stood people.

Silent.

Watching her.

Some had no faces.

Some had eyes completely black.

Some looked almost normal except for their smiles — stretched far too wide across their faces.

Aya ran faster.

One of the doors slammed shut loudly beside her.

Then another.

Then all of them.

BANG.

The corridor shook with each slam.

Aya reached a staircase at the end of the hall and rushed downward two steps at a time. The lights above flickered violently as she descended.

Floor 8.

Floor 7.

Floor 6.

But something felt wrong.

She stopped suddenly.

The staircase did not make sense.

She had been running downward for several minutes.

Yet the numbers beside each floor were increasing.

Floor 14.

Floor 15.

Floor 16.

“No…” Aya whispered.

The building was taking her deeper.

A soft voice echoed from above her.

“You remembered too much.”

Aya looked upward slowly.

The man stood several floors above, staring down at her through the staircase gaps.

His face looked pale now.

Almost dead.

“Tell me what this place is!” Aya shouted desperately.

The man’s expression tightened for the first time.

“This is where forgotten things wait.”

The lights dimmed again.

Aya noticed movement below her.

Someone was standing at the bottom of the staircase.

The dark figure from the mirror.

This time it was real.

Its body looked unnaturally thin, its arms too long for a human. Black liquid dripped slowly from its fingers onto the steps below.

It did not climb toward her.

It only stood there.

Watching.

Aya backed away slowly.

The figure tilted its head.

CRACK.

The sound came from its neck bending too far sideways.

Aya nearly screamed.

“Don’t let it touch you,” the man said from above.

“Why?!”

The man stared at her silently for several seconds.

Then he whispered:

“Because it is you.”

The building suddenly shook harder than before.

The staircase trembled violently.

And deep below them, something enormous began laughing in the dark.

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