Arya slowly opened his eyes. He found himself already standing outside the classroom, right in front of the door he had just entered. His body was still trembling violently. Cold sweat soaked his temples, while his breath came in ragged gasps as if he had just run a great distance. The fear that had gripped him earlier had not yet faded. In fact, the more he tried to remember what had happened inside the classroom, the more clearly that dread came crashing back down on him.
His mind struggled to make sense of what had just occurred. Then a tapping sound came from behind the classroom door. He slowly turned toward the small window on the door. His gaze was cautious. Behind the glass, a bloodstain shaped like a palm print.
Arya froze.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Bloodstains began to appear on the glass. One by one. Growing more and more numerous over time, until they slowly filled the entire surface of the window, as if dozens of invisible hands were pressing their palms from the inside, trying to get out of that room.
Then a faint voice came.
"Come back… quickly…"
Arya held his breath. His body was stiff, as if every joint had frozen from an unbearable fear. He turned and ran as fast as he could toward the stairs. His footsteps pounded against the corridor floor with loud thuds. His breath came in gasps. He didn't even dare to look back.
As he rushed through the corridor, someone suddenly caught the corner of his eye.
Arya instinctively slowed down and turned his head.
His eyes widened. Long hair cascaded down.
Before Arya could process what he was seeing—
Their eyes met. Arya was frozen in place. For a moment, the fear that had filled his mind vanished completely. All that remained was one simple sentence in his head.
"She's beautiful…"
He stopped in his tracks and immediately looked down. The woman was sprawled on the ground below, blood flowing from her head, forming a red puddle around her body. But strangely, the sight actually made Arya's fear disappear. Without a second thought, he rushed down the stairs to help her.
One floor.
Two floors.
Three floors.
But the stairs seemed never-ending. Arya kept descending step after step. After a while, he began to realize something. It felt like he was walking in place. Arya stopped, his breath growing ragged again. His gaze shifted to the floor number sign posted at the end of the stairwell.
Floor 4.
He continued down. A moment later, he saw the same sign again.
Floor 6.
Arya frowned.
He went down again. But this time—
Floor 5.
The floor numbers kept changing randomly. Arya grew anxious.
"What place is this? Why do I keep going in circles?" he muttered in a trembling voice.
He paused for a moment, holding his knees, which were beginning to feel weak from exhaustion and the pressure that was increasingly overtaking his mind. Arya's gaze swept around him with anxiety and confusion.
There was no one.
No sound.
Only a silence that felt increasingly suffocating.
Then—
Boom!
A loud thud echoed through the corridor. Arya flinched. The source of the sound seemed to come from one floor above him. He slowly looked up, his heart pounding. Up there, on the railing, he saw something.
A large, black hand, covered in fur, with sharp claws gripping the railing tightly. Arya froze. Fear paralyzed his body once again. Then a deep, heavy laugh echoed throughout the empty space around him. The laughter sounded so terrifying, as if it came from something inhuman.
Arya didn't want to know anything anymore. He forced his legs to move. He ran with all his might, not daring to look back. His breath came in ragged gasps. Fear kept chasing him from behind, growing closer, more real, until finally he saw a sign ahead.
Floor 7.
Arya stopped for a moment. He stared at the stairs ahead, then behind him. Without overthinking, he made a decision.
If these stairs have no way out, then he would make his own way.
Arya jumped from the stairs. His body plunged downward quickly.
He fell, then tumbled as he hit the surface below. Pain shot through his entire body. Arya winced. But when he opened his eyes, he found himself already on the campus grounds. He was still gasping for air, his body aching in various places, but he was no longer inside the building.
Arya was silent for a moment. He still didn't understand what had actually happened. With a sense of confusion and pain throughout his body, he limped toward the spot where he had seen the woman fall.
His steps were slow. Arya kept searching for the woman among the trees and the campus yard. But when he got there…
There was nothing.
No body.
No pool of blood.
No sign of impact.
Not even a single drop of blood was visible.
All that remained were dry leaves scattered across the ground.
Arya stood frozen. His gaze swept over the spot again and again.
"Empty."
As if the woman had never been there. As if the body he had seen fall from the seventh floor…
Had never existed.