Arya slowly opened his eyes. He found himself standing outside the classroom, right in front of the door he had just entered. His body was still trembling violently. Cold sweat coated his temples, and his breath came in ragged gasps, as though he had just run a great distance. The fear that had seized him earlier had not yet loosened its grip. The more he tried to remember what had happened inside the classroom, the more vividly the horror came crashing back into him.
His mind struggled to make sense of what had just occurred. Then he heard a tapping sound from behind the classroom door. He slowly turned toward the small window on the door. His gaze was wary, guarded. Behind the glass, a bloodstain shaped like a palm print.
Arya froze.
Arya froze.
*Tap. Tap. Tap.*
More bloodstains began to appear on the glass. One after another. More and more, until they slowly covered the entire surface of the window, as though dozens of unseen hands were pressing their palms against it from inside, desperate to claw their way out.
Then a faint voice came through.
*"Come back… quickly…"*
Arya held his breath. His body went rigid, as if every joint had turned to stone. He turned and ran with everything he had toward the stairs. His footsteps slammed against the corridor floor. His breath raced. He didn't dare look back.
As he ran past the corner of the corridor, someone passed at the edge of his vision. Arya slowed and turned his head.
His eyes went wide. Her long hair was loose, cascading down like dark water flowing over her shoulders. For a moment, the fear that had gripped his mind vanished entirely. All that remained was a single, simple thought.
*"She's beautiful…"*
He looked down. The woman lay sprawled in the courtyard, blood streaming from her head, forming a red pool around her body. And yet, strangely, the sight only made Arya's fear dissolve. Without a second thought, he rushed down the stairs.
One floor. Two floors. Three floors.
But the staircase seemed to have no end. Arya kept descending, step after step. After a while, he began to notice something. He seemed to be running in place.
Arya stopped. His breath grew ragged again. His gaze shifted to the floor number sign at the end of the stairwell.
**Floor 4.**
He kept going down. Moments later, he saw the same sign again.
**Floor 6.**
Arya frowned. He descended again. But this time…
**Floor 5.**
The floor numbers changed at random. Arya's unease grew.
*"What is this place? Why do I keep going in circles?"* he muttered, his voice shaking.
He paused and clutched his knees, which had begun to weaken. His eyes darted around anxiously. No one was there. No sound. Only a silence that grew more suffocating by the second.
Then…
**THUD.**
A heavy impact echoed through the corridor. Arya flinched. The sound had come from one floor above him. He slowly looked up. There, on the railing, he saw something.
A massive black hand, covered in fur, with sharp claws gripping the railing tightly.
Arya froze. Fear paralyzed him once more. Then came a laugh—deep, heavy, echoing through all the empty space around him. It was a laugh so terrifying it seemed to come from something that was not human.
Arya didn't want to know anything anymore. He forced his legs to move, running with all his might, not daring to look back. The fear chased him from behind, closer and closer, more and more real—until finally, a sign appeared before him.
**Floor 7.**
Arya paused. He stared at the stairs ahead, then back behind him. Without hesitation, he made his decision.
*"If this staircase has no way out, then I'll make my own."*
Arya jumped. His body plummeted fast. He fell, then tumbled as he hit the surface below. Pain shot through every part of him. Arya winced. But when he opened his eyes, he found himself in the campus courtyard. He was still gasping for air, his body aching in a dozen places, but he was no longer inside the building.
Arya stood still for a moment. He still didn't understand what had actually happened. Confused and fighting through the pain, he limped toward the spot where he had seen the woman fall.
His steps were slow. Arya kept searching for her among the trees and the campus grounds. But when he arrived…
There was nothing. No body. No pool of blood. No sign of impact. Not even a single drop of blood. All that remained were dry leaves scattered across the ground.
Arya stood frozen. His eyes swept the place over and over.
*"Empty."*
As if the woman had never been there at all. As if the body he had seen fall from the seventh floor… had never existed.