“Where did you go?” he asked when Fernan arrived in front of him.
“I just took care of something. Sorry to keep you waiting, boss,” Fernan replied.
“Oh, is that so?” Dillan shrugged and continued walking.
When he checked the time, it was almost one in the morning. When they were about to enter the apartment, he saw the figures again, but this time he ignored them. His experience earlier taught him that there were malignant ghosts that could attack him. But it only happened when he was alone, so he assumed that the entities might be docile because of Fernan, at least for now.
When they returned inside, he told Fernan to wait in the receiving area while he went up to his room to get the tablet containing the list of tenants and check the name of the occupant of Room 502. He then returned to the living room, lay down on the sofa there, and spoke to Fernan.
“Wake me up before three,” he said before closing his eyes.
“Okay, boss,” he heard him reply.
When Dillan fell asleep, the lights in the receiving area suddenly flickered. Not far away, a woman dressed in black appeared out of thin air, her face covered by her hair.
“Is he the new caretaker of the apartment?” she asked.
Her voice was cold and seemed to come from underground
“You shouldn't come out of your room while he's here,” Fernan replied without looking at her. “Now that there's a new caretaker, if you leave your room without permission, you know what will happen.”
The woman in black tilted her head. She floated in the air, and the hair obscuring her face parted. She was smiling. She licked her pale lips, revealing a black tongue. Her eyes were still covered by her hair. She stretched her arms, revealing her sharp nails as she reached for Dillan. But the lights in the receiving area suddenly flickered, and out of nowhere, several hands appeared and tightly grabbed the woman.
“EEEEKKK!” she screamed as she struggled.
Fernan turned toward her with indifference. As time passed, more hands surrounded her.
“You shouldn't forget. We're inside the apartment.”
The woman struggled for a while, but Fernan remained motionless as he watched her being swallowed by the hands. A few moments later, the hands, along with the woman, completely disappeared.
***
“Boss, wake up, boss.”
Dillan opened his eyes when he heard Fernan calling him. He sat up on the sofa and checked the time: 2:30 a.m. He hadn't expected to sleep while a ghost was watching over him, but he felt safer whenever Fernan was with him, even if he wasn't inside the caretaker's room. Dillan stretched his arms and arranged the things he would need for his next task. Then he stood up.
Fernan went ahead of him. Dillan just followed him and saw another hallway. There were two elevators there, with labels that read: For Management and Tenants and For Guests.
Dillan opened the elevator intended for Management and Tenants, and he and Fernan stepped inside. He looked at the numbers and saw that it went all the way up to the fifteenth floor. He pressed the 5th Floor button. A few moments later, the elevator doors opened.
Dillan furrowed his brows when he stepped out of the elevator. He observed the new area and couldn't help but feel uneasy. The walls were painted black, but the doors were painted red, and the color looked like blood. The lights in the hallway were dim, like they would turn off at any second.
Dillan's breath became uneven as he stared down the hallway, and his vision started to blur. He closed his eyes, then opened them after a few seconds and waited for his vision to adjust to the new surroundings. Dillan also noticed the length of the hallway. There were many rooms on both sides, and he estimated that there were about ten rooms on each side.
“Boss…”
Dillan turned toward Fernan's voice.
“Just call me when you're done with your duty.”
Before Dillan could say anything, he saw Fernan completely disappear in front of him, leaving him alone in the quiet hallway. Nevertheless, Dillan didn't waste any time and looked for Room 502, which was listed on his to-do list. He found it immediately and was about to knock when—
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Dillan almost screamed at the loud sound of the alarm, which seemed to echo throughout the hallway. It was the sound of an old clock, the kind you would usually see only in old houses. He checked the time on his wristwatch—it was exactly three in the morning.
“It’s okay, it’s just an alarm, just an alarm,” Dillan repeated to himself to calm his nerves.
He looked at the room number and raised his hand to knock.
Tok! Tok! Tok!
No one answered, so he knocked again. He knocked three more times, but there was still no answer. He checked his to-do list again. The room number was correct, and he couldn't leave until he finished his first duty. His salary and vehicle were still at stake. After receiving no response several times, Dillan finally spoke.
“Good morning. I'm Dillan Madrid, the new caretaker. Could you open the door?”
After he said that, the door slowly opened. He carefully stepped inside and closed the door behind him. Inside, he couldn't see much because the lights were off. The only light was coming from the table lamp near the bed. Then his gaze turned to a figure sitting beside the bed. Dillan froze when he noticed that it was a young girl with short hair. Her head was lowered as she sat on the floor hugging something.
“Sierra…” he softly called out to her.
Before entering the room, he made sure that he remembered the tenant's name. She didn't answer and simply remained with her head lowered, so he was forced to approach her and sit on the floor as well.
“Sierra?”
“Mama…”
“Huh?”
“Mama said I shouldn't open the door for anyone who knocks.”
Before Dillan could ask anything else, he heard some kind of loud noise from outside the room.
“LET GO OF ME!”
Dillan's body stiffened when he heard a woman's voice from behind the door. The sound that followed was that of two people struggling outside. Dillan could hear the woman's crying outside, but it was already faint.
“Please, have mercy on our child…”
Thud.
Everything around him fell silent when Dillan heard what sounded like a body falling outside the room. But what happened next made him stand up.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Someone was repeatedly kicking the other side of the door. Dillan then looked at the door handle as someone outside tried to force it open.
“Hik…”
Dillan turned around and saw Sierra quietly crying in the corner. A moment later, the outside became slightly quieter, and he heard faint knocks coming from the door.
Tok! Tok! Tok!
“Sierra… Sierra…”
It was a man's voice.
“Sierra, sweetheart… It's Papa. Could you open the door?”
“Hik… hik…”
Dillan’s hand curled into a fist, then opened it. He turned to Sierra before facing the door again. Based on what he had heard, it was Sierra's father calling for her. And the noises he had heard earlier, the words spoken by the woman, the sound of the body falling, and Sierra's reaction all pointed to something. The knocking stopped, and Dillan heard footsteps moving away, but he had a strong feeling that the man would return.
He knelt in front of Sierra even though she still wouldn't look at him.
“Sierra… could you hide in the bathroom? I'll just talk to your papa.”
The child briefly stopped crying and raised her face. Then, after a few seconds, she stood up. With the bedside lamp providing some light, Dillan could make out what she looked like. She was wearing a simple dress.
The dress was covered with what appeared to be stains. They looked almost the same as the stains on Fernan's clothes. Her face was covered in blood, and he saw bruises on the child's legs and arms.
“This son of a b*tch.”
Dillan was not yet familiar with how the apartment truly operated or why the ghosts' appearances looked ghastly. But he had some assumptions. Their appearance might be related to their deaths, and based on the girl's appearance, her death might have been brutal.
Dillan smiled at her and held her hand. It was cold, but he ignored it. He guided the child toward the bathroom.
“Stay here for now.”
She didn't say anything, but after a moment, she nodded. Dillan turned on the bathroom light and gently closed the door.
Tok! Tok! Tok!
Dillan turned toward the door when he heard the knocking coming from it again.
“Sierra… It's Papa again. Could you open the door?”
Dillan turned off the bedside lamp and picked it up. The room became dark, but it only took a few seconds for Dillan’s eyes to adjust. He walked behind the door while carrying the object. From his position, he could hear the rattling of keys, as though the person outside was looking for the right key.
Click!
The door slowly opened, and behind it, Dillan silently waited for the man calling for his tenant to enter the room.
46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCJP9o7JQ8I
46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhwxQpipmUN
and then Add to home screen.