Nightmare Assault Chapter 405: Stairwell

After Yu Lan died, she became a new horror story. Fear spread in everyone’s heart. Soon, they found other people’s horror stories. There were Lu Huaxu, Liu Guo and Chen Yi. It was striking to see three familiar faces in the horror stories. Being killed in this mission was not the end. The dead would be turned into a new story. It was like a virus. They would stay forever and become ghosts that only knew how to kill.

“Why is there no horror story featuring Wei Jingting?” Wan Xiaoning looked through the pages. Hua Luo frowned. Other than Wei Jingting, the others were all there. “Is he still alive?” He didn’t really believe that.

When she saw Chen Yi’s story, Chu Jiu’s eyes reddened. The last shred of hope in her heart was dashed. Sister Chen Yi… died and became a new story. She resisted the pain and raised her head. “I have one more draft here. It should belong to Wei Jingting.” She added, “It was in the envelope the woman brought in.”

Hua Luo quickly looked through it. The story was oppressive. The artist’s strokes were rough. Based on the background, the story was probably set in a small space. The panels were strange. There was a lack of objects. There were things that looked like frames at the edges.

“It’s the stairwell,” Qiao Yu’s brother suddenly said. This instantly reminded everyone of the ghost who called them. In the video, the ghost was moving to the stairwell.

They kept on reading, and it confirmed Qiao Yu’s brother’s guess. It was the stairwell. Billows of smoke appeared in the next panels. A fire was spreading. Suddenly, a few people emerged from the safety door on the right. For some reason, the door could only be opened a gap. A few people were trapped inside.

Seeing someone coming, the group slammed on the door and opened their mouths. It was clear that they were screaming for help. The next panel showed the situation on the other end of the door. The new arrival hurried to help. After a long time, the safety door opened. The people inside gushed out and hurried down the stairs. However, the person who saved them started to move slower and slower, exhausted.

The people behind him became agitated. It was unclear who pushed him, but the person fell down the stairs. With the obstacle out of the way, the people at the back started to trample over him. The person cried for help, but the people he saved didn’t even stop to glance at him. He tried his best to grab the pants of someone who ran by. However, he was kicked away instead.

In the last panel, the saviour died smothered in the smoke. At that moment, the travellers saw the person’s despair and… her face.

The person that the travellers assumed to be Wei Jingting was a woman. It was Li Zhumei who came to intercept them!

Hua Luo’s hands, which held the script, shook. Wan Xiaoning quickly hurried out. She knew it was too late, but she couldn’t just abandon their lives. Just as she pulled the door open, it was pushed open from the outside. A security guard stood outside the door. “Who are you?” The guard was startled. “Who let you in here?”

Hua Luo walked forward to show his badge. As the guard studied his appearance, he explained that he was on a secret mission. Wan Xiaoning appeared professional and levelled the guard a cool look. She told him, “Don’t tell me you don’t know why we’re here?”

The guard quickly pretended like he knew everything. He would not cause any problem for the police. It looked like the guard did know a thing or two about the strange events.

At that moment, Chu Jiu pulled on Wan Xiaoning’s clothes. “Big Sister, we should ask for more details before we leave.” Since no one was around, Hua Luo pulled the guard into the office and questioned him about Li Zhumei. As expected, the guard confirmed that she had died, and this office used to belong to her. After she died, the office was locked. He came to look because he saw the door open.

“How did she die?” Qiao Yu’s brother asked urgently. Hearing that, Wan Xiaoning’s eyes flashed with imperceptible emotion. She glanced at the man before quickly turning away. The guard was probably shocked because if they were really police, how could they not know how the victims died?

Thankfully, the guard didn’t seem to realise that and was very helpful.

“She was burned to death.” He answered, “I saw it when they carried her body out. Under the white cloth, the arm was like charcoal. It was scary.”

“Burned to death?” Hua Luo frowned. In the comic, there was nothing flammable in the stairwell. He thought Li Zhumei would die from asphyxiation.

The guard looked around and lowered his voice. “It’s as you thought. The whole incident is weird. The corpse was so charred, but her clothes were unharmed. The fire appeared only to affect her. No. It was more like she was the source of the fire. I heard the firemen tried to triangulate the starting point of the fire, but it didn’t lead to anything.” The guard added nervously, “Don’t tell my boss about this, or he’ll fire me.”

“Did anything strange happen here after that?” Wan Xiaoning probed.

“Of course!” The guard nodded. “Sometimes, the fire extinguisher in the stairwell would switch on for no reason. We fixed it many times, but it was still the same. Plus, some workers reflected that they’d smell a burnt smell in the stairwell.”

Hua Luo questioned the scared-looking guard, “Since you know these things, why didn’t you consider changing your job?” The way Wan Xiaoning and Chu Jiu looked at the guard also changed. Maybe he was another horror story.

“However, after the company sealed the left stairwell, the strange events stopped. Everything returned to normal.”

“Sealed?” Hua Luo pointed at the stairwell to confirm, “Do you mean that one?”

“Yes.” The guard nodded.

“That’s impossible.” Qiao Yu’s brother was confused. “We used that stairwell to get up here. It was not sealed.”