I was listening to an audiobook while on the treadmill when I suddenly received a text from a friend: "Somebody help me! I'm trapped in the stairwell!" I replied immediately: "What do you mean? Where are you?" "I was climbing the stairs at the Riverview Apartments for exercise. I got tired and wanted to take the elevator down, but I found the door to the floor wouldn't open. The windows outside are pitch black. I went down several floors, and it's the same everywhere!" I stopped running and looked out the window. Pitch black. "I'm climbing this building too..." 1 I met up with Chloe on the 24th floor. "What happened? Why are you wearing a mask?" Chloe shook her head. "Nothing. Let's go down to the first floor and check the situation." When we reached the first floor, a property manager was trying to pry open the door, while the rest of the people looked terrified. They said they were all forced to take the stairs due to an elevator malfunction and got trapped here. All the floor doors and windows wouldn't open, and the property manager's keys were useless. No internet, and calls wouldn't go through. But there seemed to be a signal within the stairwell itself; we could call and text each other. A delivery guy looked fierce: "My next order is going to be late! Are you guys filming some TikTok skit? I don't have time to play with you, open the door!" Chloe said, "If you don't believe us, go up to the 2nd floor and look." The delivery guy was impatient. "Why should I go upstairs!" "You'll know when you get there." Cursing, the guy went up the stairs. The moment he disappeared around the corner, my heart went cold. His figure reappeared on the landing leading down to the basement level. He had climbed up from downstairs. I looked at Chloe, and she nodded tremblingly. No wonder when I was on the 24th floor earlier, Chloe told me not to move and that she would come down to find me. —In this stairwell, you can't go up, only down. Looking at the stairs leading to Basement Level 1, everyone's faces turned pale. Chloe murmured: "Have you guys heard of the urban legend about the stairwell?" 2 There's a saying where I'm from—man-made structures are things that violate nature. Spirits should have the sky as their blanket and the earth as their carpet. Only things living underground would hide in places untouched by the sun and moon to survive. This is why many old houses in the countryside are fine as long as people live in them, no matter how many years pass. But once the owner leaves, they collapse within a year or two. Because without human vitality ("Qi") supporting it from within, heaven and earth destroy this unnatural enclosed space to prevent underground things from thinking it's their territory and crawling out to cause trouble. Later, many skyscrapers were built in cities, using elevators to go up and down. But for safety, they were also equipped with stairwells. This created a problem. People use elevators; stairwells are almost unused, becoming a space without human vitality. But the stairwell relies on the skyscraper, and the skyscraper has human vitality, so it holds up. So, stairwells in high-rise buildings are easily... unclean. Someone mistakenly entered such a stairwell. Once trapped, there was no other way out but to go down. 3 "And then? What's down there?" Chloe swallowed hard. "I don't know. Urban legends are like that, no beginning or end." Everyone fell silent for a moment. After a long while, a man in a suit asked, "Does the legend mention how to get out of here?" Chloe shook her head. "No, but..." "But, there must be a way out," I murmured. "The fact that we are trapped here proves the urban legend is true, which also proves someone experienced the same thing before, escaped, and spread the story." We can definitely get out! 4 There were eight trapped people in total. Besides those who spoke just now, there was a middle-aged couple and a guy in a tank top. "B1 to B3 are parking garages. The doors there are usually unlocked," the property manager said. "Right, I have a car. If I have a car, I can leave!" the Suit Guy comforted himself. After some discussion, everyone decided to go downstairs. Basement 1. Because it was underground, the windows disappeared. The floor door wouldn't open. Basement 2. The floor door still wouldn't open. Basement 3. Wouldn't open. "No, it shouldn't be like this, this building only goes down to B3..." Even though she had heard the legend, the property manager's voice was tearful. No one comforted her. Everyone stared at the same place. To the left of the stairs we came down should have been the utility room. Now the utility room was gone, replaced by something that shouldn't exist—stairs leading to Basement 4, waiting quietly for us. Chloe took a deep breath. "No other way. Let's go." 5 On the first day trapped, we reached Basement 25. When we decided to proceed to B4, everyone was afraid terrifying things would appear ahead, so we rested for a long time at each floor. But unexpectedly, there were no anomalies. The stairwell was eternally clean, smelling of concrete and a hint of dampness. Cold white lights illuminated every corner, leaving no darkness. We tried every floor door; none opened. At night, we huddled together for warmth to sleep. The only problem was, food and water were running low. Day 3, reached Basement 42. To save battery, I turned off my phone, only turning it on to check the time. Food and water ran out. The middle-aged couple suddenly had low blood sugar, slowing us down. Most people were becoming anxious. Thinking about being over forty floors underground, far from human society, few could not be afraid. Day 5, reached Basement 58. Without food for two or three days, we were one step from death. There was absolutely no hope of escape. The stairwell repeated endlessly without any change. At 9 PM, the middle-aged man breathed his last. Starved to death, or died of dehydration, I wasn't sure. Before dying, he held his wife's hand, muttering about "karma." I leaned weakly against Chloe: "Will we end up like this too..." Dying so meaninglessly. Why am I always so unlucky? Accidentally conceived when I already had an older brother, so I was sent to relatives to be raised after birth. Good grades in high school entrance exams, went home to get tuition only to learn my brother drowned, father cheated and left home taking all the money, mother critically ill. I could only drop out and work. Lasted four years, prepared for independent college admission, mother diagnosed with late-stage cirrhosis. Long-term stress and high-carb diet made me gain weight, ineligible for liver transplant donation. I worked two jobs a day and still had to find time to lose weight. Only half a month left until the surgery deadline, yet I was going to die inexplicably in a stairwell. Chloe's eyes darted around. She wasn't affected by my emotions, instead looking a bit nervous: "No, we will survive." "Why?" The next second, I knew the answer. Suit Guy and Tank Top Guy got up and walked toward the middle-aged man's corpse. I heard them swallowing saliva. 6 The crowd fell into chaos. The middle-aged woman hugged her husband's body tightly while Tank Top Guy kicked her head. The delivery guy fought with Suit Guy. I wanted to help, but Chloe held me down and shook her head. I suddenly felt she was a stranger. Poor and unattractive since childhood, I had few friends. I met Chloe by chance in a local weight loss group. I had never met such a compatible friend, practically another me. We agreed to meet after successful weight loss for motivation. Who knew we would meet here by accident? Even more unexpected was seeing this side of her here. The delivery guy wrestled with Suit Guy to the edge of the stairs and rolled down. I broke free from Chloe and pushed Tank Top Guy, making him stumble. Cursing, he lunged to hit me. I took two punches, tried to fight back, but had no strength. Tank Top Guy suddenly let go. Chloe grabbed his hair, slammed him against the wall, and kicked his neck. Chloe actually wasn't fat. Her muscle lines were distinct, like a fitness influencer. With just one kick, Tank Top Guy gasped for air clutching his neck like he was drowning, unable to move. Suddenly, cursing came from downstairs: "Don't f*cking hog it all! Leave some for them!" Chloe helped me up. We looked downstairs and saw a bizarre scene— Suit Guy sat on the floor chewing voraciously, torn chip bags and spilled cola everywhere. By the wall stood a vending machine, filled with snacks and drinks. 7 This was Basement 59. Except for that vending machine, everything was the same as the floors above. Everyone ate and drank like crazy, quickly emptying the vending machine. We left the middle-aged man's body upstairs and dragged the woman downstairs. She forced herself to eat a few bites, then sat in a daze. I didn't know how to comfort her. Just one floor difference. The middle-aged man died one floor above where food was found. For the woman right now, perhaps without this vending machine, she would feel a bit better. "I know what you're thinking." She suddenly spoke. "I figured it out. Maybe this is really karma. "Over twenty years ago, when I was dating him, the economy wasn't good, and there were often beggars on the street. "That winter, we met a child, just over ten years old, legs gone, wrapped in a tattered quilt, begging from us. "At that time, we had just seen news about 'harvesting'—crippling minors and forcing them to beg for money. "He used to give a few bucks, but that day he hesitated, and we were in a hurry for a movie, so he didn't give anything. "The child said one sentence: 'If you don't have money, give some food. Hungry.' "He paused. We didn't have food on hand. He wanted to give money but was running late for the movie, so we left. "Halfway through the movie, he dragged me out to find the child, but we couldn't find him. "The news next day reported the child died in an alley. Starved to death. "He remembered this all his life. He always said he should have given. Regardless of 'harvesting' or not, if he gave, the child wouldn't have starved. "Now, he starved to death. Consider it paying back that child's life. "You saved his body; I should repay you. Starting tomorrow, I'll go down first. You guys stay away from me." She turned her head away and slept. Chloe and I looked at each other. The next day, by tacit agreement, no one mentioned the fight, and we continued downward. Soon, anomalies appeared. Every 5 floors, a vending machine would appear. We no longer had to worry about food and water. This should have been a good thing, but Chloe looked worried, and I felt something was wrong too. We went down to find a way out. If the stairwell gave us enough food and drink, wanting us to keep going down... Then is our action of going downstairs really correct? A scream interrupted my thoughts. I had never heard such a mournful wail. Subconsciously wanted to look back, then remembered the middle-aged woman was still below. Chloe and I peered downstairs. Couldn't see anything. These days, the lights in the stairwell had always been on. But Floor 71 was dark. The wailing continued. Trembling, I turned on my phone light. The moment the light hit, the wailing stopped. There were no monsters on B71 as I imagined, only the middle-aged woman herself. She stood in front of the stairwell door, her face blood-red, result of congestion after extreme fright. The corners of her mouth were torn, mouth opened wide to an unbelievable angle, almost splitting her head horizontally in half. Eyeballs protruding from sockets, motionless. My legs went soft. Chloe, however, slowly walked to the woman and laid her on the ground. "She's dead." Chloe's voice trembled. "Jade, call everyone down. I need to explain what I've discovered about the truth of this stairwell." 8 "Let's talk about the two deceased first. "The middle-aged man once caused a child to starve to death, and he starved to death here. "The woman who just died, probably figured something out yesterday. She slipped me a note writing about this event: "When she was little, she prided herself on being brave and liked to scare playmates at night. "She had a younger sister with congenital heart disease. "On the night of the second day of Lunar New Year, she and her sister went to buy snacks. At the corner on the way home, she scared her sister. "Her sister died. "Now she is dead too. "I don't know what she saw before she died, but judging from the way she died, she saw something beyond human endurance and was scared to death. "This couple, both died of karma. "Not only that, every time something happens, the stairwell changes a bit. "After the man died, a vending machine appeared every five floors. "The woman died, and there will be corresponding changes too. For example, the lights on this floor are broken now. "The floors below might not have lights anymore. "We will advance in darkness, slowly meeting each person's karma, until we all die—this is the truth of the stairwell. "But Jade said before, since the legend of the stairwell spread to the outside world, it means someone entered here and escaped successfully. "There should be a way for us to survive. "I haven't guessed the specific method yet, but I suggest from now on, everyone confesses their crimes to facilitate preparation. "For example, if we knew the man caused a child to starve, we should have prioritized food for him; if we knew the woman scared her sister to death at a corner, we shouldn't have let her lead the way down. "I'll go first. "A long, long time ago, under forced circumstances, I tried to kill someone. The other party resisted, so my face became like this." 9 Chloe took off her mask. Everyone couldn't help but step back. The lower half of her face was covered with burn scars, like a tattered rag. There was also a terrifying knife scar running diagonally across. I had never seen her face. Her posts on social media were all photos below the neck or from the back showing her figure. I thought she just didn't like showing her face. Trapped for days, she kept wearing the mask. Someone asked, she said she had pneumonia and feared infecting everyone. Didn't expect the truth to be this. Chloe looked at me apologetically: "Didn't mean to deceive you intentionally. I always felt inferior because of this face, that's why I worked hard on my figure. Delayed meeting you because I was afraid of scaring you." I nodded, heart sinking. What other secrets does she have that I don't know?
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