Chapter Four: Oh No, I’ve Been Caught Too

“This is…” Qi Chen stared in shock at the grayish-white phantom hovering before him, his mind momentarily blank. Something about all of this defied his understanding. In that brief interval when the corridor lights died and flared again, it seemed some sort of confrontation had taken place.

That shrill, eardrum-piercing scream still echoed faintly in his ears—it must have come from the high-heeled horror. He remembered those bloodshot eyes appearing before him, the same malicious intent that had torn apart those three unfortunate souls in the elevator. And yet, the towering, robust figure that had burst forth from his mind—or body—seemed to have saved him from a similar fate.

Confusion clouded his thoughts.

Suddenly, Qi Chen’s vision blurred—the floating gray-white presence vanished, and a wave of frigid cold swept over him, as if he had been stripped of all clothing and thrown into a snowfield. The chill bit so deeply that Qi Chen shuddered, but as quickly as the sensation came, it vanished.

Thud!

A numbness shot through his arm as Huang Xu slipped from his embrace, falling heavily to the floor and snapping Qi Chen back to reality. The ache in both forearms made it clear: carrying Huang Xu out of this building was beyond his strength.

Gritting his teeth, Qi Chen looked down at the slumbering face, drew a deep breath, and stepped in front of Huang Xu. Without hesitation, he hoisted him onto his back.

If he couldn’t carry him in his arms, then he would carry him out on his back.

“The elevator is a deathtrap. Maybe I can escape through the stairs… What rotten luck. My resume is still in that damned elevator…”

The thought of his painstakingly prepared interview resume, crafted with the help of his neighbors, sparked in him a surge of anger that almost eclipsed his fear of the high-heeled specter. Faint, bestial roars seemed to echo again in his mind.

What was that figure, so like the high-heeled horror? The roaring that rang in his head surely belonged to that entity, and in the brief moment it had appeared, Qi Chen had sensed a blurry, inexplicable connection between them.

But he had neither the time nor the clarity to ponder it.

“None of that matters now—just get us out of here!”

Feeling the weight on his back and the tremble in his legs, Qi Chen drew a breath, tilted his body forward, and began descending the stairs, step by trembling step.

Eighteen floors—nothing he couldn’t handle.

Snap!

The motion-activated stairwell light suddenly blinked out. Qi Chen froze, one foot suspended in midair, as a faint, brittle click sounded in his ears.

The high-heeled horror was still on his trail.

“I thought this fog-shrouded world was strange enough, but it’s bizarre all the way down, isn’t it?” Qi Chen grumbled inwardly, longing for nothing more than a quiet job, but now relying on a mysterious night vision that had come to him from who knows where to hurry down the stairs.

From what had just happened, it seemed that sound really did guide the high-heeled entity toward its prey.

Even as he muffled his steps as much as possible, worry gnawed at him. The friend sleeping so sweetly on his back was still wearing those bright, blood-red heels.

“Come on, just fifteen more floors!” Qi Chen urged himself, his trembling calves straining. Hunger and exhaustion weighed heavily on him, even though he’d always been in good shape. He yearned more than ever for a steady job—at least then he’d have something decent to eat.

Click, clack!

The sound of heels striking the floor, once distant, suddenly drew much closer. Qi Chen’s facial muscles twitched; he silently cursed the entity’s entire family and forced himself to keep moving.

Every footfall, burdened by Huang Xu’s weight, sent a tremor through his calves. Yet, no matter how hard he pushed himself, he could not outpace the clicking behind him.

Now, those crisp, ominous footsteps seemed to be only a floor above.

Under the influence of that almost inhuman wail, the stairwell’s motion lights kept flickering on and off, the pallid glow making his face look even more ghostly.

A pained moan suddenly rose beside Qi Chen.

“Damn!” His heart leapt. With a sidelong glance, he saw blood dripping from Huang Xu’s dangling foot. The blood-red high heels, twisted to an impossible angle, were violently constricting, exerting an inhuman force that squeezed Huang Xu’s feet as if juicing them.

The agony was nearly enough to wake even someone rendered unconscious by terror.

Qi Chen’s expression darkened. If Huang Xu woke, he would surely draw the entity’s attention—and Qi Chen doubted his luck would save him again.

The wild, guttural roars still echoed in his mind, but they were quieter now than when the gray-white figure had appeared.

With no real understanding of what that thing was, all Qi Chen could do was gauge the situation by the volume of its roars.

He dared not gamble.

“Huh? Why did the footsteps stop?”

The clicking abruptly ceased, but if experience had taught Qi Chen anything, it was that this silence did not mean safety. It was the calm before the storm.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Suddenly, the narrow stairwell erupted with sharp, cracking blasts as one after another, the voice-activated bulbs flared at maximum brightness before shattering into shards!

Glass fragments sprayed through the tight space like shrapnel.

On Qi Chen’s back, Huang Xu bore the brunt of it—several shards pierced his back with vicious force, the pain snapping the security guard awake.

A scream of terror filled Qi Chen’s ears.

But then, following Huang Xu’s cry, came another shrill scream that made every hair on Qi Chen’s body stand on end—

The white-clad specter was now only seven or eight steps behind them!

“Why the hell are you screaming so loud?!” Qi Chen clamped Huang Xu’s legs tightly and, roaring, dashed down the stairs at breakneck speed!

Adrenaline erased all fatigue; with superhuman night vision, he flew down several flights in a single breath.

Thud!

Racing blindly, Qi Chen tripped on a landing, sending both himself and Huang Xu crashing hard to the floor.

A stabbing pain flared in his feet. Qi Chen looked down in horror.

A pair of demonic, blood-smeared high heels now adorned his own feet.

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