The clock ticked.
Once.
The sound was impossibly quiet.
Yet everyone in Apartment 7C heard it.
Kai turned toward the grandfather clock.
Its hands had been frozen at 3:17 for who knew how many years.
Now...
The second hand crept forward.
Tick.
Another second passed.
Tick.
The air shifted.
Not colder.
Older.
Like the room itself had exhaled after holding its breath for decades.
Daniel looked around uneasily.
"...Did anybody else feel that?"
Kai nodded.
"The building changed."
It wasn’t a guess.
He knew.
Somehow.
The silver ring on his finger had stopped vibrating, but the new words remained engraved inside the band.
Find the last witness.
Luna read them through the camera Kai had unknowingly pointed toward his hand.
"...Last witness."
"What does that even mean?"
"I don’t know."
Kai glanced back at the photographs.
"But I don’t think it means the last survivor."
Daniel frowned.
"What’s the difference?"
Kai thought about Elias.
The forgotten photographs.
The burned silhouette.
The older Kai.
"They aren’t the same."
"A survivor lives through something."
"A witness..."
He looked toward the hidden doorway.
"...remembers it."
Nobody argued.
Because deep down...
They all knew.
Memories had become more valuable than lives.
A loud metallic clunk echoed somewhere above them.
Not inside Apartment 7C.
Higher.
Everyone instinctively looked toward the ceiling.
Another sound followed.
A door opening.
Very slowly.
Daniel’s face turned pale.
"...There isn’t another floor."
Kai looked at him.
"What?"
"This building only has seven."
"I’ve worked maintenance here for twelve years."
He pointed upward.
"The roof is directly above us."
Another clunk.
This time it sounded closer.
Like an old elevator locking into place.
Kai frowned.
"There isn’t an elevator either."
Daniel laughed nervously.
"There definitely isn’t."
The building trembled once.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
Then...
A faint bell rang.
Ding.
Everyone froze.
Kai recognized the sound immediately.
An elevator arriving.
Except...
There wasn’t one.
The bell came again.
Ding.
This time a woman’s voice followed.
Calm.
Professional.
Almost cheerful.
"Eighth floor."
Silence.
Daniel slowly shook his head.
"...No."
His voice barely worked.
"...No."
Kai looked toward the hallway leading back into Apartment 7A.
Beyond it...
He could now see something that hadn’t existed before.
Where the emergency stairwell should have been...
An elevator waited.
Old brass doors.
Scratched metal.
A glowing floor indicator above it.
The display read:
8
Kai stared.
"It wasn’t there."
Daniel whispered,
"It still isn’t."
Kai frowned.
"What?"
"I..."
Daniel rubbed both eyes.
"I know it’s there."
"But every time I blink..."
"...my brain tells me it’s a wall."
Kai slowly understood.
The building wasn’t hiding it physically.
It was hiding it mentally.
The elevator chimed again.
The doors slid open.
Inside...
No one stood waiting.
Just warm yellow lighting.
Polished wooden walls.
A single button panel.
Every floor button had been removed.
Except one.
8
The doors remained open.
Waiting.
Kai felt the familiar pull in the back of his mind.
Not compulsion.
Invitation.
Choose.
The creature always offered choices.
Never commands.
Luna immediately understood.
"...Don’t."
Kai smiled faintly.
"You know I’m going."
"I do."
A pause.
"I still hate it."
Daniel looked between the elevator and Kai.
"...I’m coming."
"No."
Kai answered without hesitation.
Daniel frowned.
"You don’t even know what’s up there."
"Exactly."
Kai stepped closer.
"I don’t."
"So I’m not risking anyone else."
Daniel folded his arms.
"Too bad."
"I’m coming anyway."
Kai sighed.
"You always this stubborn?"
Daniel smiled for the first time all morning.
"My wife says worse."
For a moment...
Everything felt almost normal.
Friends arguing.
Morning sunlight.
Bad jokes.
Then Luna quietly interrupted.
"...Kai."
He looked toward the monitor.
"I remember something."
His expression immediately changed.
"What?"
"It wasn’t just us."
She closed her eyes.
"I remember..."
"...someone waiting upstairs."
Kai’s heartbeat quickened.
"Elias?"
"No."
She slowly shook her head.
"He was..."
Her voice became uncertain.
"He was protecting them."
"Them?"
"I don’t know who."
She pressed a hand against her temple.
"The memory won’t stay."
"It keeps..."
She winced.
"...slipping away."
Kai looked at the ring.
Find the last witness.
The words suddenly made more sense.
There was still someone alive.
Someone who remembered everything.
Someone Elias had protected.
Someone waiting above the seventh floor.
Kai took a deep breath.
"I’m going."
The elevator remained patiently open.
Daniel stepped beside him.
"I already told you."
Kai looked at him.
"You don’t have to."
"I know."
Daniel smiled.
"But somebody has to make sure you don’t do something incredibly stupid."
Kai laughed quietly.
"Fair."
He stepped into the elevator.
Nothing happened.
No voices.
No crushing pressure.
Just...
Warm light.
Old wood.
The faint smell of cedar.
Daniel stepped in beside him.
The doors remained open.
Waiting.
Kai looked toward his monitor one last time.
"Luna."
"...Yeah?"
"If something happens..."
She immediately interrupted.
"I’m staying."
"Luna—"
"I’m done waiting outside."
Her voice had become unexpectedly firm.
"I waited two years."
"I’m not disappearing again."
Kai opened his mouth.
Couldn’t find an argument.
Instead...
He smiled.
"...Okay."
The elevator doors finally began sliding shut.
Just before they completely closed...
A hand reached between them.
Not pale.
Not monstrous.
Human.
Wrinkled with age.
The doors immediately slid back open.
An elderly woman stood outside.
She looked to be in her late seventies, wearing a neatly pressed gray cardigan and carrying a small paper grocery bag.
She glanced at Kai.
Then at Daniel.
Then smiled as though she had been expecting them.
"You certainly took your time."
Kai blinked.
"...Do we know you?"
The old woman’s smile widened.
"No."
Her eyes moved to the silver ring.
"But your brother did."
The words hit harder than Kai expected.
Your brother.
Not friend.
Not someone you knew.
Brother.
The grocery bag slipped from her hand.
An apple rolled across the elevator floor.
Inside the torn paper bag...
Kai caught sight of dozens of old Polaroid photographs.
Every single one...
Featured Elias.
Different days.
Different places.
Different moments.
Elias laughing.
Elias cooking.
Elias standing beside Kai.
Elias watching over everyone.
Like he had always been there.
Like he had always belonged.
Kai slowly looked back at the old woman.
"Who are you?"
The woman stared at him for a long moment.
And for the first time since they met...
Her smile disappeared.
"My name is Evelyn."
She bent down and carefully picked up one of the photographs.
Her fingers trembled.
"I was there when it started."
Kai’s expression changed.
"Started?"
Evelyn looked toward the elevator button.
Toward the glowing number eight.
"Your brother spent years trying to keep you away from that floor."
A pause.
"And now..."
She looked at the ring.
"...you finally remembered enough to go there yourself."
Daniel swallowed.
"What is on the eighth floor?"
Evelyn’s eyes darkened.
"The place where Elias made his last promise."
Kai felt his chest tighten.
"What promise?"
The old woman looked directly at him.
"The promise that if he couldn’t save everyone..."
She held up the photograph.
"...he would make sure someone remembered why he failed."
The elevator lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then the display above the doors changed.
8
The elevator began moving.
But it wasn’t going up.
Kai felt it immediately.
The numbers outside the doors didn’t change.
There was no sensation of rising.
No movement at all.
It was as if the elevator wasn’t traveling through the building.
It was traveling somewhere else.
Evelyn stared at the closing doors.
And whispered:
"Welcome back, Kai."
The lights went out.
And in the darkness...
Someone inside the elevator quietly laughed.
A familiar laugh.
One Kai hadn’t heard in years.
Elias.
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