小說連載、美圖分享

The 'me' sitting on the floor saw me approach, turned deathly pale, and frantically backed away, dropping the phone in my hand with a clatter onto the floor. The faint light from the screen illuminated our faces. Identical features, identical terrified eyes. "Who are you? Don't come closer!" He screamed hysterically, his voice exactly like mine. I stood frozen, a sharp pain throbbing in my head. I looked down at my own hands. In the dim light, my skin had a bizarre grayish-blue hue, my nails had become sharp and long at some point, and I could even faintly see black liquid flowing beneath my skin. I wasn't the living person who had escaped in here. I remembered. The real me, on the very first night I moved into this apartment, had been dragged into the wall and eaten by the ghost inside out of curiosity after knocking on it. And the 'me' standing here now is just a 'scapegoat' created by Room 404 using my memories and remaining flesh and blood to lure more prey. "No... this is impossible!" I clutched my head in agony, letting out a non-human roar. At that moment, the 'real me' sitting on the floor suddenly pointed behind me, letting out a desperate scream. Behind me, the densely packed bloodshot eyes and mouths had merged into a giant black shadow, lunging at both of us with a sinister grin.

Sunrise I captured from an overnight flight. So beautiful, so beautiful. I really want to travel abroad again 🫠

Countless pairs of blood-red eyes opened densely on the ceiling and walls, casting an eerie dark red glow upon the pitch-black, narrow crawlspace. Those eyes were filled with malice and hunger, and below them were deformed mouths, lined with fangs and constantly dripping black saliva. This wasn't a room at all; it was a living prison built from the flesh and blood of countless vengeful spirits. "Newcomer..." "Such a delicious scent..." The mouths simultaneously emitted sharp whispers, the sound surging into my brain like a tide, causing my eardrums to ache. They began to struggle out from within the walls, their withered, twisted arms flailing wildly in the air, trying to grab my clothes and tear apart my flesh. Terrified, I lost all reason and ran frantically forward, groping my way through the narrow space. I kept bumping into the severed limbs hanging in the air, the cold touch making my scalp crawl. Just then, not far ahead, a faint glow from a phone screen suddenly lit up. Behind that light sat a trembling figure. He was frantically typing on his phone. When the figure turned his head in terror upon hearing my footsteps, I completely broke down. Because that person was the real me. He was sitting there, unharmed, with a red string tied around his right hand.

An endless, looping staircase of terror ahead, and twisted corpses closing in from behind. With no other choice, I had to brace myself and rush into the dark crawlspace of Room 404. The moment my feet touched that narrow gap, the hidden door behind me slammed shut with a 'boom,' completely cutting off all sound and light. Darkness and dead silence enveloped everything. A pungent smell of rotting meat and formaldehyde hit my nostrils, making me gag. I reached out to feel the walls, but my hands brushed against a slippery, cold, and strangely hairy texture. It didn't feel like a concrete wall, but rather like the inner lining of some massive creature. "Anyone here?" I asked in a low voice, my words sounding incredibly dry in the confined space. No one answered. But I could feel that I wasn't alone in this pitch-black crawlspace. Countless faint breaths, not human, rose and fell around me. Suddenly, my foot stepped on something soft. I crouched down and felt it with my hand. It was a rough, gray robe, and wrapped within it was a cold, stiff, headless male corpse. It was the landlord's body. Before I could even scream, a drop of cold, viscous liquid fell from the ceiling, landing precisely on my cheek. I slowly looked up. In the darkness, countless pairs of glowing bloodshot eyes simultaneously opened.

"Aaaah!" Finally, I let out a scream I had suppressed for so long and turned, running frantically towards the stairwell. My heart felt like it was about to leap out of my chest. The sound of the twisted 'myself' crawling on the floor behind me grew closer. The sharp nails scraping against the tiles felt like they were directly cutting into my nerves. I burst into the stairwell in one breath, desperately trying to escape downwards. This apartment building only has five floors, and I live on the fourth. Just one floor down should lead to the lobby. However, as I ran down the first flight of stairs, panting, I saw a large, bright red number painted on the wall in front of me: 4. I froze. This was impossible; I was definitely running down. Gritting my teeth, I frantically rushed down three more flights of stairs. When I stopped to check the sign, the black lettering shattered my sanity once again: 4. This was a dead-end, infinite staircase. Even more despairing, a heavy dragging sound began to echo from above the stairs behind me. The contorted corpse had already chased me into the stairwell. It poked its head through the gap in the handrail from above, its lifeless, bloodshot eye sockets staring intently at me. "You can't escape..." The landlord's voice suddenly echoed from the fourth-floor hallway, accompanied by the heavy sound of a door opening. I turned back. The wall of apartment 404 had opened again, and the endless darkness, like the gaping maw of a colossal beast, waited for me to walk right into it.

The corpse hanging in mid-air. Its clothes, shoes, even the red lucky string on my right wrist – everything was identical to mine. My legs gave out, and I collapsed to my knees. Cold sweat instantly soaked through my shirt, my brain ceasing to function from sheer terror. If that was me hanging there, then who was the 'me' standing here right now? At that moment, the hanging corpse suddenly convulsed violently. Its neck made a sickening cracking sound as it twisted 180 degrees, an impossible angle for a human, turning its entire face towards me. That face was indeed mine, but its eyes had sunken into two black, hollowed-out sockets, and its mouth was stretched impossibly wide, the jaw nearly falling to its chest. "You... are back..." The corpse's lips didn't move, but the voice exploded directly in my mind. Its dry, withered hands slowly lifted, beginning to pull at the thick rope around its neck. As the rope loosened, the corpse fell heavily onto the hallway floor like a sack of heavy sand. It didn't stand up. Instead, like a giant lizard, it folded its limbs, belly pressed to the floor, and in an extremely contorted and rapid motion, crawled frantically towards me on the stark white hallway floor. All the while, black, frothy blood spewed from its mouth.

"Ding dong." In the dead silent corridor, my phone vibrated violently again, the sound piercingly loud in the empty space. Trembling, I picked up my phone. The screen still showed an unknown number. I wanted to just turn it off, but for some reason, my fingers uncontrollably tapped on the voice message that had just arrived. Static crackled from the speaker, sounding like interference from a magnetized tape. A few seconds later, a familiar voice echoed in the corridor. It was my own voice. "Help me! I'm trapped in Room 404! It's so dark here, and they're biting my feet!" The me in the voice message was crying hysterically, accompanied by the crisp sounds of flesh being torn and bones being gnawed in the background. I was struck as if by lightning. This voice was definitely mine, identical in tone and breathing pattern, yet here I was, standing perfectly fine in the corridor. Just as my mind was reeling in chaos, a line of text suddenly popped up in the chat window: "Turn around, look behind you." I stiffly turned my body. At the far end of the corridor, a faint green emergency exit light had turned on at some point. Under the light, a figure dressed in the exact same clothes as me was hanging from the ceiling, back turned towards me, feet dangling. Their body swayed gently left and right in the eerie wind.

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The landlord's fingernail scraped hard against the pale wall, and the once-solid paint cracked like skin, revealing blackened wooden planks underneath. Startled, I let go and stumbled back three steps. But the landlord, acting as if nothing happened, turned around and forcefully jammed the key into the crack. 'Karak.' A crisp sound. The concrete wall I thought was solid slowly caved inward under the landlord's twisting, revealing a dark crawlspace just wide enough for a person to squeeze through sideways. A blast of cold air, smelling of formalin and strong mildew, rushed out from within, instantly dropping the corridor's temperature to freezing. The sensor light began to flicker frantically, emitting a crackling electrical sound. 'This is room 404,' the landlord said, turning to look at me. His eyes seemed utterly hollow in the flashing light. 'Take a look inside. The truth you've been searching for is in there.' I stared in terror at the pitch-black crawlspace, vaguely seeing the interior packed with unknown clutter. Just then, a withered, blackened hand suddenly shot out from the depths of the crawlspace and grabbed the landlord's ankle. Instead of screaming, the landlord was obediently pulled into the darkness by the hand. The hidden door slammed shut the next second, and the corridor returned to a deathly silence, leaving only the crack on the wall slowly oozing black liquid like fresh blood.

A cracking sound, like bones breaking, echoed from behind me, accompanied by a heavy dragging noise. I slammed my body against the door like a maniac until the doorknob finally gave way. I tumbled out and scrambled into the cold hallway outside the suite, gasping for air. The motion-activated light in the hallway flickered on with my frantic movements, casting a pale glow. Shaken, I looked back. My room door was closed as if nothing had happened, and silence reigned within. Just as I was hesitating whether to call the police, steady footsteps suddenly approached from the end of the hall. It was the landlord, wearing his usual gray robe and carrying a set of keys, walking towards me with a blank expression. "What are you doing in the hallway so late at night?" His voice was low and monotonous, creating an eerie echo in the empty corridor. I frantically grabbed his arm, pointing at my room, my words tumbling out incoherently: "There's something in the closet in my room! And the wall next door..." The landlord cut me off coldly, his eyes fixed on the hallway wall behind me, a disturbingly unnatural smile suddenly curling his lips. It was then I realized his arm was as cold as frozen meat straight from the fridge, and around his neck was a deep, toxic purplish-black bruise, as if from a thick rope. "Weren't you asking where room 404 was?" The landlord pointed to the solid wall between rooms 403 and 405 and said softly.