Chapter 23
“You’re right, Melody. There was no one else besides us.”
Erica responded firmly to my muttering.
The female student standing in the corner of the elevator was wearing the same Saint Gloria Private School uniform as us.
The student had her head down, with her hair completely covering her face. Her hair was so long that it dragged on the floor.
‘Her hair is wet.’
Water was dripping from her damp hair, and the floor was soaking wet.
‘Is, is she really human?’
Given the atmosphere, I felt somewhat scared. I clasped my slightly trembling hands together and, like Lady Sutherland, stuck close to Erica.
The cute ghosts that had been hovering around were nowhere to be seen, no matter how hard I looked.
Creeak—
Creeeeeak—
Then, a strange sound came from the unidentified female student.
The student kept twisting her neck as if it was stiff, but her movement was a bit odd.
She was repeatedly tilting her head at an angle, like a broken music box doll.
Then, her face was briefly visible through her hair.
The student’s mouth was split open up to her ears. She was still twisting her head abnormally while smiling widely.
It gave me chills, and my head felt cold with fear.
“…floor …press.”
“Aah! Sh-she spoke!”
When the student opened her mouth, Lady Sutherland made a fuss.
Ignoring Lady Sutherland’s reaction, the student raised her bony arm and pointed somewhere. It was in the direction of the elevator’s floor buttons.
“Press first floor.”
“What?”
I didn’t understand the student’s words for a moment and asked back, which seemed to anger her.
The student twisted her head 90 degrees and shuddered.
“Press first floor. Press first floor. Press first floor. Press first floor. Press first floor. Press first floor.”
“Eek! E-Erica, what are you doing? She’s asking to press the first floor, hurry up and press it! Quickly, quickly!”
Lady Sutherland made a fuss and shook Erica. She had been calling her Lady Queensbury before, but now she was using Erica’s name casually.
Since the floor buttons were right behind me, I pressed the first floor button before Erica could.
My hand was shaking, but I tried to stay as calm as possible.
After all, I was the experienced one among us. Having directly experienced ghost stories before, I needed to remain composed.
Ding—
The elevator stopped at the first floor.
However, the doors still wouldn’t open. It was the same when trying to pull the lever.
“Press seventh floor.”
This time, the student demanded we press the seventh floor. She was a ghost with a lot of demands.
“Press seve…”
“What are you doing, Hastings! Press it quickly! Hurry!”
Before the student could finish speaking, Lady Sutherland made a fuss and hit my shoulder.
I’m not sure when we started speaking to each other so casually, but I dutifully pressed the seventh floor. It was on the top floor.
The student, whose words were cut off by Lady Sutherland, stood quietly.
Ding—
We arrived at the seventh floor just then. Again, the elevator doors wouldn’t open.
“Why is this happening!”
Bang bang—
Once again, Lady Sutherland stamped her feet and banged on the doors.
“Press fourth floor.”
Then the student spoke again. This time, Lady Sutherland got really irritated.
“Why don’t you come and press it yourself, Lady! Why do you keep ordering us to press it!?”
“Press fourth floor. Press fourth floor. Press fourth floor. Press fourth floor. Press fourth floor. Press fourth floor. Press fourth floor. Press fourth floor. Press fourth floor. Press fourth floor.”
The student muttered in a monotone voice and approached Lady Sutherland one step at a time.
Lady Sutherland’s face turned pale.
“Eek! I-I’ll press it! I said I’ll press it!”
Lady Sutherland pressed the fourth floor with tears in her eyes.
Ding—
As expected, the elevator doors didn’t open on the fourth floor either.
“Press eighth floor.”
“Aaagh! This is driving me crazy!”
Lady Sutherland screamed, pulling her hair as if she was going mad.
Personally, I felt like I was going crazy because Lady Sutherland was even noisier.
Then Erica’s voice was heard.
“Huh? There is no eighth floor…”
Come to think of it, the top floor of the girls’ dormitory was the seventh floor.
But suddenly, the elevator started moving without anyone pressing a floor button.
Ding—
And the elevator stopped somewhere. Through the elevator’s metal grate, we could see the corridor of the floor where it had stopped.
The number 8 was written on that floor.
“How is this possible? This building doesn’t have an eighth floor.”
Lady Sutherland turned to look at Erica and me with an agitated face.
Erica was deep in thought with a serious expression. After a moment, she spoke as if something had occurred to her.
“I think I know what this is. Lady Ayrose once told me about a number cipher ghost story from 100 years ago. 1748 refers to the content of Chapter 17, Verse 48 of the Bible, and it says…”
Chapter 17, Verse 48 of the Bible. What could be written there?
Lady Sutherland and I focused on Erica’s next words.
Erica opened her mouth with a trembling voice, glancing at the silent female student standing behind us.
“Thus the door was opened. The lambs lost their way home.”
“What does that mean? Why use such a cipher?”
In response to Lady Sutherland’s question, Erica shrugged and answered.
“I don’t know that either.”
No sooner had Erica finished speaking than we heard the sound of splashing footsteps.
“Eek! You scared me!”
Lady Sutherland clung to Erica and me, startled as if having a seizure.
The elevator floor was flooded with water. It was the water that had dripped from the female student.
Though her face was completely covered by her hair, it seemed she could see as she moved calmly.
Eventually, she passed by me, pulled the elevator lever, and the doors opened.
She got off on the 8th floor. Then she turned to look at us. After staring silently for a moment, she walked off somewhere.
“Shouldn’t we follow her?”
Lady Sutherland asked Erica and me.
Erica nodded to Lady Sutherland’s words with a dazed expression.
‘Huh?’
I raised my head, half-listening to the two of them talking.
‘What’s that?’
I saw something whitish above the elevator. Something pale white was struggling on the elevator ceiling.
As I was staring at the elevator ceiling for a while, I heard Erica’s voice.
“Should we get off? It’s better than staying trapped here…”
Saying that, Erica tried to follow Lady Sutherland out of the elevator.
‘Wait. No.’
I hastily grabbed their arms.
“Lady Hastings, what are you doing?”
“Melody, what’s wrong?”
The two turned to look at me with puzzled faces.
I could only move my lips, my face pale with fear. My hands were trembling with fear.
“G-girls.”
Lady Sutherland and Erica looked at me with frustrated expressions.
“What is it?”
“Tell us, Melody.”
I took a deep breath and told them.
“Don’t move.”
The faces of the two women hardened as they realized the seriousness in my voice.
“Don’t look down under any circumstances. Take one slow step backward.”
At my words, the two women nodded vigorously with frightened faces.
The two who had been stretching their feet to exit the elevator slowly took one step back into the elevator.
Only then did I tell them with relief.
“This is the rooftop.”
As soon as we realized it was the rooftop, our view changed. We were standing not on the eighth floor, but on the dormitory rooftop.
Erica and Lady Sutherland had almost gone over the edge of the dormitory rooftop railing.
If they had stepped out of the elevator…
They probably would have fallen to the ground below.
🐈⬛
Thank you for reading! ♡
