Slip : Part 5 : Echoes of the Fifth Floor

 After a while, when her hands and legs stopped shaking, Sunny took a deep breath.

Surely, time must have passed by now. Her boyfriend would’ve tried to call her if she wasn’t home yet, right?

She lifted her phone.

“8:32 PM………………………. still eight-thirty?”

The time hadn’t moved.
It had frozen.

Even though it should’ve been at least an hour later by now.

Sunny looked around. There had to be a way out. Whatever this was, there had to be an end somewhere.

She turned her gaze to the stairs ahead — the other staircase, across from her office.

Slowly, she stood up and began to climb, hoping to finally escape the fifth floor.
She went up to the landing, then kept climbing until she reached the top step.

The water dispenser she’d knocked into earlier now stood perfectly straight, no sign of the dent she had left. That shouldn’t be possible — she hadn’t moved it.

The elevator was closed again on her left.
In front of her, the row of office departments stretched as usual.
And on the far right — her own office.

She was back on the fifth floor.

Sunny’s heart dropped.

She bolted for the stairs again, running up — only to emerge, once again, right in front of the fifth-floor landing.
She turned and ran downward instead. Down and down and down — until she emerged… back on the fifth floor.

Panic flooded her.

She dashed to the opposite stairwell and repeated the same desperate loop — running up, running down, over and over, switching between both staircases like the pattern of a figure eight.

Each time, she ended up back where she started.
Back on the fifth floor.

No matter how fast she ran, no matter which way she turned — she couldn’t escape.

Exhaustion and frustration boiled over.

Sunny stumbled toward the curtains hanging on the wall behind her department.
She yanked them open with both hands — revealing the glass windows behind.

Outside… was pitch-black.
So black she couldn’t see anything.

“CRAAASHHH!”

A chair smashed against the window.

Losing her grip on sanity, Sunny dragged another chair and hurled it again — and again — over and over, until one of the legs snapped clean off.
The windowpane, thin but flawless, didn’t even crack. Not a scratch. Not a vibration.

Sunny slammed her fists on the glass, screaming hysterically for help — until her voice broke, her breathing faltered, and she collapsed to the ground, sprawled out, sobbing uncontrollably.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

Her scream echoed through the building.

“Oh God, oh God, what’s happening to me!? SOMEBODY HELP ME!! PLEASE!!!”

Her cries filled the floor — desperate, hopeless.

She had been running in circles for what felt like hundreds of times, until her will completely broke.

Her face pressed to the floor, tears and mucus smeared across the tiles, her body shaking violently with sobs.

“What’s happening to me??? Oh God… why is this happening?? I just want to go home… I wanna go home… please…”

Her voice trembled between sobs.

Then—

“..................Who’s there?”

A faint voice echoed.

Sunny lifted her head abruptly, eyes wide, and immediately shouted back.

“Who!? Who’s that!? Is someone here!?”

“.....I-I’m here….” came a soft, trembling reply.

Sunny jumped to her feet and turned toward the sound — it came from above, from the staircase landing.

She ran up as fast as she could.

There, slumped against the wall on the stairway landing, was a frail-looking woman. Her face was pale, her body weak and thin. She wore a white shirt stained with faint brown blotches and a plain office-style pencil skirt.

The woman slowly lifted her eyes to look down at Sunny.

Sunny froze. The woman’s face was gaunt and hollow, yet familiar.

And then it struck her — this was the missing woman.

“You… your name’s Pu, right? The woman who went missing? The one everyone’s been looking for?” Sunny asked.

 — To be continued... —

Slip #1,  Slip #2 , Slip #3,  Slip #4, Slip #6,  Slip #7, Slip #8,  Slip #9,  Slip #10