One second, Lie Qiye was squinting at a spreadsheet, the fluorescent office lights buzzing overhead like angry flies. The next, the air tasted like dust and something metallic, like old pennies mixed with rust. His stomach lurched, a cold, greasy knot forming deep inside.
He blinked, trying to clear the sudden fuzziness in his head. The buzzing was gone. Replaced by... nothing. An oppressive, heavy silence that pressed in on his eardrums until they felt like they might pop.
This wasn't his office. Not even close. The walls weren't beige cubicle hell; they were stained, grimy concrete, the colour of dried blood and old bruises. The floor was a cracked, peeling linoleum that looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the building went up – or perhaps since it died.
"What the actual hell?" someone yelped, the sound sharp and panicked in the suffocating quiet. It was Manager Zhou, his usually slicked-back hair now sticking out at odd angles, his face pale and glistening with sweat.
Around Lie Qiye, his colleagues were scattered like bowling pins after a strike. Some were sprawled on the floor, scrambling up. Others were frozen, eyes wide, scanning the unfamiliar, menacing space.
This place felt... wrong. Deeply, fundamentally wrong. The air wasn't just still; it felt thick, heavy with unspoken dread, like walking through a graveyard at midnight.
Lie Qiye pushed himself off the floor, his knees aching. His cheap office shirt felt clammy against his skin. He looked around again, trying to find something, *anything*, familiar. There was a reception desk, but it was overturned, splintered wood and twisted metal splayed across the floor like broken bones.
"Where are we?" a young intern, Xiao Li, whimpered, clutching her arms around herself. Her eyes were huge, darting everywhere.
"This isn't funny, guys," barked Zhang Wei, the guy from marketing who thought he was God's gift to spreadsheets. He stood with his arms crossed, trying to project confidence, but his voice trembled slightly. "Alright, who's behind this? Is this some kind of team-building exercise? Because it's crap."
Team-building? Lie Qiye almost snorted, but the fear lodged in his throat prevented it. This wasn't ropes courses and trust falls. This felt like being dropped into the opening scene of a horror movie, and he wasn't the final girl.
"Team-building? Are you insane, Zhang Wei?" Manager Zhou snapped, running a shaky hand through his hair. "Look around! This place is... derelict! And how did we even get here? One second I was reviewing expense reports, the next I'm on this... this disgusting floor!"
Disgusting was an understatement. There were dark, greasy stains on the floor, some vaguely humanoid in shape. A faint, sickly sweet smell hung in the air, like rotting flowers mixed with something metallic and sharp. It made Lie Qiye's stomach churn harder.
"Maybe it's a prank? A really elaborate VR thing?" someone suggested hopefully, but the hope died instantly, crushed by the sheer, tangible reality of the grime and the chilling silence.
Lie Qiye took a hesitant step, his cheap office shoes squeaking faintly on the gritty floor. The sound seemed deafening in the quiet. He looked down a long, dark corridor leading off from the main reception area. Shadows clung to the corners like malevolent spirits.
His heart hammered against his ribs. This was bad. Worse than bad. This was the kind of bad you read about in those creepy online stories, the ones you scrolled past quickly before bed.
"Okay, okay, everyone calm down," said Ms. Wang from HR, trying to take charge. Her usual calm demeanour was strained, her hands clasped tightly together. "Let's just... assess the situation. We're clearly in some kind of building. An office building, by the look of it. We just need to find an exit."
An exit. Right. Because finding an exit in a place that felt designed to trap you was always easy. Lie Qiye's mind helpfully supplied images of bricked-up windows and doors that led nowhere good.
"I'll give someone ten thousand yuan right now," a plump, nervous-looking accountant, Mr. Chen, blurted out, his voice high-pitched. "Ten thousand! Just get me home! Right now!"
"Mr. Chen, your money is useless here!" Manager Zhou hissed, though he looked equally desperate. "We need to figure out what's happening!"
Chaos was starting to bubble up. People were talking over each other, some crying softly, others pacing frantically. Zhang Wei was still trying to look tough, muttering about lawsuits and how someone was going to pay for this inconvenience. Inconvenience? Lie Qiye thought. This felt more like the end of the line.
He stayed near the edge of the huddle, watching. His mind felt numb and frantic all at once. How? How did they get here? There was no flash of light, no sudden jolt. Just one second he was there, the next he was *here*.
He risked a glance down the dark corridor again. It seemed to stretch into infinity, swallowed by the gloom. Was that... a faint scratching sound? He strained his ears, but the noise of his colleagues' panicked chatter drowned it out.
Maybe it was just the building settling. Old buildings made noises, right? But this place felt less like an old building and more like a forgotten, decaying entity.
He remembered reading somewhere that silence could be the most terrifying sound. That absence of noise, that lack of familiar comfort, could fray the nerves faster than a scream. And this silence... it was heavy, expectant. Like it was waiting.
He shivered, despite the clammy heat in the air. The light filtering in through the few grimy windows was weak, grey, and did nothing to alleviate the pervasive darkness. It just highlighted the dust motes dancing in the air, thick enough to taste.
Someone stumbled near him, bumping his shoulder. It was Xiao Liu, another intern, her face pale and streaked with tears. "Lie Qiye... what's happening?" she whispered, her voice barely audible.
He didn't have an answer. He was just as lost, just as terrified. Maybe more so, because unlike some of the others who were still clinging to the idea of a prank or a mistake, a cold, creeping dread was settling deep in his bones. This wasn't a mistake. This felt deliberate.
He looked at Xiao Liu, at the raw fear in her eyes. He wanted to say something reassuring, something like 'we'll be okay'. But the words felt hollow, false. His mouth felt dry and tasted like that metallic dust.
"I... I don't know," he admitted, his voice rougher than he expected. He managed a small, weak smile that probably looked more like a grimace. "Just... stick together, I guess?"
Great plan, Lie Qiye. Stick together. In a place that felt like it wanted to pull you apart, bit by bit.
Zhang Wei was now yelling into his phone, even though it clearly had no signal. "Hello? Anyone? This is Zhang Wei! I'm trapped in... somewhere! I demand to be let out! My lawyer will be hearing about this!"
Lie Qiye watched him, a strange mix of pity and morbid amusement bubbling up. Zhang Wei's arrogance, usually annoying, now seemed pathetically fragile. Like a thin layer of ice over a bottomless, frozen lake.
Mr. Chen was still offering money. "Twenty thousand! Cash! Just tell me how to get out!"
The offers of money, the demands for lawyers, the desperate clinging to the rules of the world they knew – it all felt so utterly pointless here. This place didn't care about yuan or legal threats. It felt ancient and indifferent, like a predator observing its trapped prey.
Lie Qiye's gaze drifted back to the dark corridor. The scratching sound seemed a little louder now, or maybe he was just imagining it. It was faint, irregular. *Scritch... scritch...* Like something dragging its nails along a rough surface.
He swallowed hard. No, definitely not just the building settling. That was a *movement* sound.
He needed to think. Panic wouldn't help. But thinking felt hard when his brain was screaming 'RUN!'
Okay, what did he know? He was Lie Qiye, 20 years old, worked in data entry. Liked video games and instant noodles. And now he was in a nightmare office building with his colleagues, who were rapidly losing their minds.
He looked at the overturned reception desk again. Splintered wood... twisted metal... it looked like it had been ripped apart, not just knocked over. And those stains... they really did look like old blood.
A wave of nausea washed over him. This wasn't a prank. This wasn't a mistake. This was something else. Something... hungry?
The thought came unbidden, chilling him to the bone. Why else would a place feel so empty, yet so full of menace? Why the silence, the darkness, the sense of being watched?
His eyes scanned the ceiling. Fluorescent light fixtures hung crookedly, some smashed, wires dangling like severed nerves. Dust webs, thick and grey, draped over everything like funeral shrouds.
He focused on the silence again. It wasn't total. Beneath the colleague's panicked murmurs, he could hear it. That faint, persistent *scritch... scritch...* And something else now. A low, almost inaudible hum, vibrating just at the edge of hearing. It felt wrong, like a machine running somewhere deep inside the building's decaying structure, a machine that shouldn't exist.
"We need to find a way out!" Ms. Wang said again, her voice firmer this time, trying to rally everyone. "Let's try that corridor. It might lead to stairs or another exit."
The corridor. The dark one where the scratching was coming from. Lie Qiye felt a cold dread pool in his gut. Every instinct screamed at him to stay away from that darkness, to huddle here in the slightly less terrifying open space of the reception area.
But staying still wasn't an option either. The silence here felt temporary, a pause before something truly awful began.
Manager Zhou, trying to regain some semblance of authority, puffed out his chest. "Right. Ms. Wang is correct. We need to explore. We'll stick together. No one wanders off." He gestured towards the corridor. "Let's start there. It looks like the most logical path."
Logical. Right. Because logic applied here. Lie Qiye suppressed a dark, humourless laugh. Logic had packed its bags and left the building the moment they arrived.
A few people hesitated, looking down the dark hallway with obvious fear. Zhang Wei, surprisingly, was one of the first to step forward, though his bravado seemed forced. "Fine. Lead the way, Zhou. Let's get this over with."
Lie Qiye found himself moving with the hesitant group. His legs felt heavy, like he was walking through treacle. He kept his eyes fixed on the entrance to the corridor, trying to pierce the gloom.
The scratching sound seemed to stop as they approached. The low hum, however, seemed to intensify slightly, a faint, unnerving vibration in the air.
As they neared the entrance, the air grew colder. Not just a temperature drop, but a bone-deep chill that felt unnatural, like stepping into a freezer that smelled of decay.
Lie Qiye glanced back at the reception area. The weak light made the space look even more desolate, the overturned desk like a sacrificial altar. He felt a sudden, intense urge to run back, to hide under the desk, to pretend this wasn't happening.
But the group was moving into the corridor now, a huddle of terrified office workers venturing into the maw of the unknown. He couldn't stay behind. Not alone.
He took a deep breath, the air tasting foul and metallic. He stepped into the darkness, the faint light from the reception area immediately swallowed up behind him. The silence here was absolute, pressing in on his ears until they rang.
And then, from somewhere further down the corridor, from the inky blackness ahead, came a sound. Not scratching this time. Something wet. Something... heavy. Like something large and slick was being dragged across the floor. *Squuuelch... drag... squuuelch... drag...*
Everyone froze. The air crackled with silent terror. Lie Qiye's blood ran cold. This was it. The silence was broken. And whatever had broken it sounded like it was coming for them.
His heart hammered, a frantic drumbeat against his ribs. He could feel the fear radiating off his colleagues in waves. No one spoke. No one dared to move.
The dragging sound grew louder, closer. It was accompanied now by a faint, rhythmic wet *thump*. *Squuuelch... drag... thump... squuuelch... drag... thump...*
It sounded like... like something without bones, something heavy and soft, being pulled along, occasionally bumping against the wall.
Lie Qiye's mind conjured images he immediately wanted to un-see. Grotesque shapes, impossible forms. The smell in the air seemed to thicken, becoming more pungent, more sickeningly sweet.
Ms. Wang let out a tiny, choked gasp. Manager Zhou made a noise that was half whimper, half curse.
The sound was just around the corner now, further down the corridor. Almost on them.
Lie Qiye pressed himself against the grimy wall, his breath catching in his throat. His eyes were wide, fixed on the bend in the hallway, where the sounds were originating. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to run, but his feet felt cemented to the floor.
He could hear the ragged breathing of the people around him, the tiny rustles of their clothes as they tried not to move. The silence of the building was gone, replaced by the terrifying, approaching noise and the frantic sounds of their own fear.
The *squuuelch... drag... thump...* was right there. Just out of sight. And then, a shadow fell across the floor at the corner, a moving shape in the absolute darkness of the hallway.
It was large. And it was definitely moving.
Lie Qiye squeezed his eyes shut for a split second, then forced them open again. He had to see. He had to know. Even if knowing meant seeing something that would haunt his nightmares forever.
The shadow elongated, distorted. And then, slowly, something began to round the corner.
He couldn't make out details in the gloom, just a mass. A dark, glistening mass that moved with that awful, wet dragging sound.
A low moan escaped someone near him. Mr. Chen, maybe.
The thing was fully visible now, or as visible as anything could be in this darkness. It wasn't... a person. Not really. It was a shape. A formless, dark shape that seemed to ooze and pull itself along the floor. There was a wet sheen to it, even in the weak light.
And then, Lie Qiye saw something else. Something trailing behind it. A thin, pale line, like a rope. But it wasn't a rope. It was attached to... something else. Something smaller. Something that bumped and scraped along the floor with that sickening *thump*.
He stared, his mind struggling to process the grotesque sight. The large mass paused, seemed to ripple, and then, with a wet, tearing sound, the thin line trailing behind it grew taut.
And the smaller thing trailing behind it was pulled forward. It was a leg. A human leg. Severed messily just above the knee, trailing behind the dark mass like discarded luggage.
A collective gasp went through the group. Someone screamed. A raw, animal sound of pure terror.
The dark mass shifted, and Lie Qiye thought he saw something like a head emerge from the amorphous shape, turning slowly in their direction. It wasn't a head, not like a human head. It was smoother, darker, with... something glinting on its surface. Eyes? Or something worse?
The wet dragging sound resumed, but faster now. The mass began to accelerate, pulling the severed leg behind it, moving down the corridor towards them.
Panic exploded. The silent terror shattered into screams and frantic movement. People were shoving past each other, scrambling back towards the faint light of the reception area.
Lie Qiye was jolted into action. His body finally obeyed, adrenaline flooding his system. He turned and ran, following the tide of terrified colleagues, the image of the dark, dragging mass and the severed leg seared into his mind.
He didn't look back. He couldn't. The sounds of the thing pursuing them, the wet *squuuelch* and the *thump*, were right behind them, closer than he ever wanted them to be.
They burst back into the slightly less dark reception area, gasping, stumbling over the debris. Zhang Wei tripped over the overturned desk and went down hard, crying out.
Manager Zhou was yelling, "Go! Go! Find an exit! Anywhere!"
But where? Lie Qiye's eyes darted around the space. There were no other obvious doors, just the corridor they'd just fled from and a few dark openings that looked like storage closets.
The wet dragging sound was entering the reception area now. They were trapped.
He saw the dark mass emerge from the corridor entrance, larger and more terrifying in the faint light. The severed leg bounced sickeningly behind it.
And then, he saw something else. Something on the surface of the mass. A face. Pressed into the dark, yielding surface, like someone had been absorbed into it, their features stretched and distorted into a silent scream.
Grotesque. Utterly, horrifyingly grotesque.
He scrambled away from the desk, heart hammering like a drum solo gone mad. People were screaming, scattering in blind panic. Some were trying to push open the heavy, rusted main doors, which were clearly locked and bolted from the outside.
The thing moved surprisingly fast, flowing across the floor. It reached Zhang Wei, who was still struggling to get up, his face a mask of pure, unadulterated horror.
Lie Qiye watched, frozen for a second, as the dark mass enveloped Zhang Wei's legs. Zhang Wei screamed, a high, piercing sound that was abruptly cut off.
The mass seemed to pulse, to absorb. Zhang Wei's body convulsed for a moment, then went still, sinking into the dark form. His arms flailed for a second, then vanished.
The mass seemed to grow slightly larger. And the severed leg trailing behind it... it didn't look like a human leg anymore. It looked... different. Wrong.
This wasn't just scary. This was... cosmic. Like something from beyond their understanding had decided to visit their mundane office lives and turn them into a meal.
Ms. Wang was pulling Xiao Li towards one of the dark closet openings. "In here! Quickly!"
Lie Qiye didn't hesitate. He sprinted towards the opening, dodging a hysterical Mr. Chen who was still babbling about money. He scrambled into the dark space, the air thick with dust and a faint, musty smell.
Ms. Wang and Xiao Li were already inside, pressed against the back wall. The space was cramped, barely big enough for the three of them. It was pitch black inside, the only light coming from the narrow gap where the door wasn't fully closed.
He could hear the sounds from the reception area outside. More screams. Wet, tearing sounds. And that awful, rhythmic *thump*.
He pressed himself against the cold, rough wall, trying to control his ragged breathing. His heart was still pounding furiously. His body trembled uncontrollably.
He could see the faint light from the gap under the door. And he could see shadows moving outside. The dark mass was still there, moving around the reception area. Was it looking for them? Could it sense them?
Xiao Li was sobbing quietly beside him. Ms. Wang put an arm around her, her own body rigid with fear.
The sounds outside seemed to be receding slightly, moving further into the building. Was it gone? Or just... exploring?
Lie Qiye didn't dare move. He didn't dare make a sound. He just stood there in the suffocating darkness of the closet, listening to the sounds of the nightmare just outside the flimsy door, and the terrified thumping of his own heart.
He was Lie Qiye. 20 years old. Office worker. And he had a feeling his life, such as it was, had just taken a very, very dark turn.
The silence returned, but it was different now. Not just empty, but heavy with the memory of screams and wet, dragging sounds. It was the silence of a predator resting after a kill, or perhaps, the silence before it decided to hunt again.
He closed his eyes, trying to block out the images. The dark mass. The severed leg. The face pressed into the surface. But the images were burned into his retina, into his mind.
This was real. This was happening. And he had no idea what to do next.