This floor was noticeably different from the one above.
The rough, dusty stone had given way to polished, pristine walls, and the ground beneath their feet was smooth and seamless.
Everything was starkly visible.
An eerie ambient glow seemed to emanate from the architecture itself despite the total absence of any visible light source.
Sam and Alice carefully peered down the long corridor.
Nothing immediately dangerous stood out, so they cautiously stepped out from the stairwell, pushing forward into the unnerving quiet of the second floor.
They walked for several tense minutes without encountering a single threat.
“Well, no monsters yet, so that’s good,” Alice whispered, trying to break the tension.
She spoke too soon.
What appeared ahead wasn’t a beast, but something arguably more horrifying.
A hand.
It was sticking partially out of the right side of the corridor.
Strangely, the hand appeared to be composed of the exact same polished, seamless material as the wall itself, as if it had grown directly out of the architecture.
Did the hand belong to some unfortunate contestant who had become fused within the wall, or had it always been a part of this twisted place?
FWOOM!
Without a word of warning, a brilliant fireball erupted from Alice’s right hand, streaking down the corridor and slamming directly into the stone appendage.
Sam flinched, coughing as the sudden heat and blinding light flared violently in the narrow hall.
“Why?! Why did you do that?” he hissed, rubbing his eyes.
“I need to see if it reacts,” Alice said, her eyes narrowed as she watched the smoke clear.
Her hand remained raised, dangerous sparks still dancing across her palm.
“We need to make sure that’s not some hidden monster waiting to grab us the second we walk past.”
As the smoke cleared, the hand’s fingers began to violently wiggle.
Suddenly, dozens of pale hands erupted from the polished walls, clawing frantically at the empty air.
The limbs pushed outward with a sickening, grinding sound, dragging seamless arms and blank torsos behind them as they broke free from the solid stone.
Creatures resembling featureless mannequins stumbled out into the corridor.
They had human-like proportions, but their faces were horribly distorted—looking as if someone had crudely drawn their eyes and mouths with a black marker, only to smudge the wet ink away with a damp cloth.
Alice quickly fired off another blast, the concentrated heat shattering the lead mannequin into a shower of porcelain shards.
She immediately aimed for the next one, but the creature fluidly leaned backward at an unnatural, spine-snapping angle, letting the flame streak harmlessly overhead.
Before she could attack again, the dodging mannequin’s smudged face split open sideways.
The seam tore brutally from ear to ear, revealing a hollow cavity packed with hundreds of tiny, twitching, bloodshot eyes.
Sam stared at the blinking mass, his voice dropping to a flat, terrified whisper.
“Maybe we should go back up…”
Alice swallowed hard, her confidence wavering.
“Uh, yeah.”
But when they spun around, their blood ran cold.
A secondary horde of mannequins had silently emerged behind them, completely cutting off the path back to the stairs.
They were completely surrounded.
With a horrific collective screech, the creatures from the front lunged through the air.
Reacting on pure instinct, Alice thrust both her palms outward.
CRACKLE!
A semi-translucent wall of roaring flames materialised just inches from Sam’s face.
The mannequins slammed violently into the fiery barrier, their limbs melting and cracking beneath the intense heat.
They clawed and threw themselves at the shield with mindless ferocity, but the barrier held firm.
In a split second, Alice dropped the barrier and thrust her hands forward, unleashing an enormous wave of fire that completely engulfed the front line of mannequins.
“ARGH!” Sam gasped, stumbling backward.
A few stray embers from the blast had seared straight through his clothes, leaving painful, red burns across his forearm.
“Sorry! Are you okay?” Alice called out over the roaring flames, her face pale with sudden panic.
Sam clutched his stinging arm, the skin burning fiercely, but he forced a nod.
“Don’t worry… I’m fine. Just keep going!”
Alice bit her lip and clenched her fists.
She knew she had enough raw firepower to reduce all these mannequins to ash, but the tight, enclosed space changed everything.
If she used the full scale of her abilities, Sam would be incinerated right alongside these monsters.
Killing every last one of them simply wasn’t an option.
Alice quickly gripped Sam’s uninjured arm tightly.
“Hold on!” she yelled.
They bolted forward.
With her free hand extended, Alice unleashed a rapid barrage of smaller fireballs into the mannequins ahead.
The blasts punched holes through the crowd, shattering stone limbs and clearing a desperate, narrow path.
Sam ran as fast as his legs could carry him, keeping pace with her as they barreled through the choking smoke and flying debris.
A sudden, violent jerk nearly threw Sam off his feet.
From behind, one of the mannequins had lunged forward, its cold, pale fingers wrapping tightly around the collar of his shirt.
Sam choked as the fabric cut into his throat, but Alice reacted instantly.
Spinning on her heel, she ignited her right hand and sliced downward like a blade, cleaving the mannequin’s arm entirely in half.
Before the creature could even recoil, she pressed her bare palm directly against its smudged face and unleashed a point-blank fireball, reducing its head to drifting ash.
She snatched his arm again, pulling him back into a dead sprint.
As they ran, more pale arms burst from the polished stone ahead and beside them—a terrifying sign that the horde was growing by the second.
Turning back to the stairs was entirely out of the question.
Suddenly, the corridor split into a sharp fork.
Left or right.
Alice didn’t waste a single heartbeat deliberating.
Veering sharply to the left, she dragged Sam around the corner with her, plunging blindly down the new hallway.
The polished corridor felt endless.
When will this nightmare end?
Sam thought, his lungs screaming for oxygen.
He risked a glance over his shoulder, but the moment he did, a cold dread seized his chest.
Regret hit him immediately.
The swarm behind them had grown so massive that it looked like a tidal wave of porcelain flesh and twitching limbs, surging down the hallway to swallow them whole.
Terrified, he snapped his head back around, forcing his legs to move even faster.
“Wait! I see something!” yelled Alice.
Up ahead, a familiar sight came into view.
Stairs.
The descent to the next floor lay wide open.
There was no guarantee of safety waiting below, but it was a thousand times better than staying up here to be mauled to death.
Locking their eyes onto the stone steps, they poured the absolute last of their energy into a final sprint.
Sweat poured down Sam’s face, stinging his eyes, and every muscle in his body screamed in pure agony.
His lungs felt like they were collapsing, but with the shadow of the horde looming over his back, he choked down the pain.
The stairs were right there, getting closer and closer with every desperate stride.
But the mannequins were closing the distance just as fast.
Behind them, the chaotic thundering of thousands of footsteps grew louder and louder, filling the entire corridor with a deafening roar.
Almost there.
They lunged for the descent, but Sam’s exhausted legs finally gave out.
He tripped violently, his forward momentum sending him crashing straight into Alice.
With a collective gasp, both of them went flying down the stone steps in a chaotic tangle of limbs.
They hit the landing hard, their bodies bruised and aching from the brutal tumble.
Ignoring the throbbing pain, they scrambled around on their hands and knees, bracing themselves for the wave of mannequins to pour down the stairs after them.
But the attack never came.
Up at the top of the stairwell, the entire horde had come to a dead halt.
The creatures crowded the threshold, twitching and staring down with their hundreds of bloodshot eyes, but not a single one dared to set a single foot onto the third floor.