Evening shadows stretched across Emily’s room as she sat on the floor, doing homework with one hand and playing video games with the other. Her eyes were glued to the screen, until the doorbell rang.
She paused her game and peeked through the peephole. There stood Kate and Hannah, both grinning like they had a mission.
Emily opened the door. “Why do you look like suspicious raccoons planning a crime?”
Kate stepped inside. “We’ve been thinking… Maybe the ghosts appear only at certain times.”
“Like… ghost business hours,” Hannah added with a nod.
Kate ignored that. “So maybe if we go now, they won’t be there. Or maybe they weren’t real to begin with.”
Emily straightened up. Something in her chest sparked, fear mixed with courage. “Fine. Let’s investigate again. But this time we take torches.”
“Detective squad?” Hannah asked, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Detective squad,” Kate confirmed.
Minutes later, the three girls were dressed like mini-investigators. Emily grabbed three flashlights. Hannah brought… an umbrella.
“In case it rains ghosts,” she explained proudly.
Kate sighed. “Ghosts don’t fall from clouds, Hannah.”
“You don’t know that,” Hannah whispered dramatically.
They snuck out of the building and waited for the elevator… and waited… and waited.
Twenty long minutes passed. Hannah fell asleep standing, leaning against the wall like a snoring statue.
“Hannah, wake up!” Kate hissed when the elevator finally arrived.
Hannah jolted awake. “I WASN’T SLEEPING! I WAS GUARDING!”
Emily rolled her eyes. “Congrats, best guard ever.”
They stepped inside and rode up in silence. When the elevator doors creaked open onto the 14th floor again, the air felt heavier, like the darkness had been waiting for them.
Flashlights clicked on. Pale beams cut through the shadows, dust swirling in the light.
Emily pressed her face to the same window from last night. The room stood empty now. No ghostly figures. No chilling laughter. Just silence.
“See? Nothing.” Emily whispered, though her voice shook.
Kate moved to another window, a different apartment. She hesitated… then peeked inside.
A ghost was there.
Still.
Silent.
Staring.
Its hollow eyes locked onto hers. Dark. Endless. Cold.
Very slowly… its head tilted sideways. Bones cracking. Mist curling around its neck.
Kate stumbled backward, heart hammering. “N-not imagination,” she whispered. “Not a hologram.”
Hannah, meanwhile, had opened a third apartment door just a few feet away. The hinges creaked like they hadn’t moved in a century.
“Hannah— No—!” Kate tried to warn, but it was too late.
The door yawned open.
Inside was only darkness. A thick kind of darkness that swallowed the light whole.
Hannah raised her umbrella defensively. “I’ve got this.”
But something moved in that darkness.
Something slow.
Something scraping.
Something stepping forward.
The girls froze—flashlights trembling in their hands—staring into the black mouth of the apartment as it seemed to breathe.
And then—
A low whisper…
Right behind them.
🌀 What Just Happened?
- Kate and Hannah convinced Emily to investigate the 14th floor again.
- The girls returned armed with flashlights and one very confused umbrella.
- One apartment looked empty, giving them false hope.
- Kate saw a real ghost staring straight at her.
- Hannah opened a dark apartment and something whispered behind them.
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