The Untitled Horror Story
She looks down at her watch, and it’s 8:30pm. She looks up from her computer, and notices she’s the last one there. The office building always has this eerie feeling at night… she sits on the 28th floor, with long corridors and few windows, especially that one corner by the elevator where the light fixture has been out for a few weeks and still hasn’t been fixed. Lights flicker sometimes throughout the floor, enough to give tiny goosebumps every now and then, especially once the sun sets.
She wraps up her work, puts her laptop away, and starts walking to the elevator. Occasionally looking back at nothing, but just to make sure she’s not followed or that something is behind her. She accelerates her steps a bit, and she stops by the women’s restroom next to the elevator shaft. It was dead silent… just a low humming sound coming from the aging lighting fixtures.
She goes inside one of the stalls, and locks it. Five seconds later, she hears the restroom door opens. A swoosh of chill air sweeps her legs. She hears the footsteps, and the vanity faucet being turned on. Water runs. She tries to listen very carefully to find any kind of human voice… maybe a cough, a sigh, or an exhale to make sure she’s not hallucinating since she didn’t see anyone else on the floor earlier. But she doesn’t hear anything coming out from her. She wants to speak & ask her out loud, but words just can’t come out of her mouth. She thinks it’s better for her to just stay silent and not knowing. Few seconds later, the figure leaves, and she’s alone again, still in the stall. She exits her stall, washes her hands, and exits the restroom. Half running as she looks around and glances at her back.
There is no one outside. The same silence like before, as she presses the elevator button. It always takes a while, since it’s an older building in the city. Her hand reaches down the jeans’ left pocket to grab her phone, diverting her attention to social media as she waits for the elevator to come.
That’s when she feels it again. This time it’s closer and more real, like someone, or something, is watching her… like it’s following her from behind, just at the back corner of her vision. She immediately turns her head around, but she sees no one. Something about the air is not right. She feels exposed and vulnerable. Disturbed… like she can easily be swooped and carried away.
As anxiety starts to kick in, the elevator dings. She rushes to go inside, it feels safer being contained in that metal box. She reaches out to press the P2 button, when she accidentally presses the G button as well. The elevator slowly makes its way down.
It opens up at Ground Level. It is so eerie, since no one neither enters or exits the elevator. Just a sharp “Ding” announcing its arrivals to the open crisp air. She gently presses the ‘Close Door’ button to not make much noise, but in very rapid succession thinking that it would make the elevator door to close faster.
It makes its way down to P2. She exits in a hurry to the vestibule and out to the parking garage. It was only her. She looks left, right, and behind. No one there. No sound, just another low humming consistent machinery noise. She walks as fast as she could, trying to make as little noise as possible, as if it can help her somehow. Tok tok tok tok… her heels decide to make the noise anyways, announcing her arrival & route to get to her car to the whole floor.
As she turns a corner a few feet away from her car, she notices a strange smell. A very strong quench, like a rotten piece of meat. She stops and looks underneath her left heel to see if she has stepped on something. But nothing…she checks the other heel, also nothing. She looks back up to her car, and that’s when she sees it for the third time… a shadow swooshing at the corner of her left eye, but only for a split second. Goosebumps on her spine and through her arms. She glances automatically to the left, but there is nothing. She quickly makes a run to get to her car. She turns on the engine, and drives away immediately.
The drive to her apartment takes about 20 minutes. She keeps glancing at the rear mirror throughout the ride, like she’s expecting someone to be on the backseat. That feeling she had at the office elevator is getting stronger. It feels like she’s driving a passenger… except that she can’t see a body.
She promptly parks her car in the apartment’s garage, and makes a run to the elevator. She’s about to press the elevator button, when she notices the ‘Up’ button has already been activated. But she sees no one… she tries to convince herself that she’s just too tired and it’s just her imagination. She must have pressed it a split second before.
The elevator arrives. She enters and presses the 4th floor button. Her corner unit is located at the end of the hallway. She quickly leaves the elevator when it hits the 4th floor, and walks down the long hallway. The lights flicker a little bit, as if welcoming her presence... and suddenly, there is a gentle, yet firm thumping sound from her back. She freezes. And immediately turns her head to the back to check, but there is nothing. She turns her head back to the front, and that’s when she sees a strange figure in the far distance.
It is short. Like a child, but it stays still. Almost like a mannequin, but the proportion is not quite right. It stands in front of her apartment door. She rubs her eyes, and she squints in an effort to try getting a clearer picture. But it’s gone now… she convinces herself that she must be so exhausted, and she just needs some sleep.
She slowly makes her way to her apartment door. A strange sharp waft of aroma hits her nose, like a combination of lily and lavender at the same time. She’s about to open the door, when she sees a strand of blonde hair on the doorknob. “Must just be wind,” she thinks to herself and shrugs it off.
She looks down at her watch as she enters her apartment. It’s 9:56pm.
She puts her handbag down and closes off the curtain, before going into the bathroom. She leaves her bathroom door open, since she lives there by herself. She undresses and turns on the hot water. The air is chillier than usual for November, even inside her apartment with the heater on.
She’s washing her hair, when she hears something outside her bathroom. It sounds like a very subtle whimper… she takes a peek through her bathtub curtain, but sees nothing. “Must be my imagination,” she thought.
She continues to wash her body, but something just doesn’t feel right. She feels uneasy… like something is about to happen anytime soon. She can’t explain it. The day has been such an exhausting one.
She’s drying herself with a towel, when the front door bell rings all of a sudden. She’s not expecting someone, so it makes her jump a tiny bit. She slowly walks to the front door with a towel around her body. As she gets closer, she hears as if someone is running in a hurry outside the door, moving away from her. Without peeking through the hole, she just opens the door, trying to catch a glimpse of who that person is who rang the bell and ran. But she doesn’t see anyone… just the same eerie empty hallway like when she came home.
She changes to her pajama, getting ready for bed. She really just wants this strange day to be over. She turns off the light and goes into her bed. She slips one hand under her pillow, and there’s something there… she pulls it out. It’s a ball of human hair, blonde color and long. There is also a crumpled paper. So she opens it up and tries to read what it says, with the light from her phone, the rest of the room is dark.
The ink is red… it almost looks like dried blood… she squints trying to read it… it says “I want to play…” she accidentally drops the paper to the floor before she finishes reading the rest of the sentence. She leans over to the floor, trying to reach the paper underneath her bed.
She’s about to reach it, when her phone falls down with the flashlight still on, pointing to underneath her bed…
Time feels like it stops at that moment. She doesn’t know what to say, she can’t move a muscle, she is petrified. She sees a little girl with a messy blonde hair, curled up at one corner underneath her bed. She wants to scream, but not even a gasp of air can come out of her system. Before she can reacts, the little girl starts crawling towards her with her hands and legs, whimpering. She jumps out of her bed, and she runs to her balcony hysterically, finally able to scream to the top of her lungs. The little girl crawls faster and faster towards her, half running, like a spider with all her limbs..
She is in complete shock, petrified on her balcony. Hysterically screaming and crying. She can’t think straight, her mind is messed up… she doesn’t know what to do. In a split second, she jumps down from her balcony. “THUMP”. Her head smashes the concrete 4 stories below, killing her instantly.
