You were just heading back to your apartment, casually walking alongside Charles, who had insisted—almost begged—to hang out at your place for a bit. You didn’t really mind. He was entertaining company, even if his brain occasionally seemed to go on vacation.

But the moment you both stepped into the elevator, something switched in him.

Without warning, Charles jabbed at the buttons like a little kid discovering technology for the first time. Every single floor—lit up.

“Charles. Stop it,” you warned, giving him a flat look.

“Relax, I’ve done this a bunch of times! It’s fun, trust me.” he replied, grinning

You didn’t trust him. Not in an elevator. And not when he was grinning like a five-year-old who just drank two bottles of soda.

He kept giggling to himself.. And then—without any warning—the elevator shuddered violently, let out a deep, unnatural groan, and the doors scraped open with a loud, screeching sound that made your entire spine go rigid.

The light inside the elevator flickered, and what lay beyond the doors wasn’t the warm hallway of your apartment building… but something else entirely.

Dark. Empty. Wrong.

The hallway in front of you was barely lit, cloaked in eerie shadows, the kind that made it hard to tell if something—or someone—was standing just beyond sight.

“…Uh oh.” He turned to you slowly, eyes wide "Okay, that one's on me..."