Darkness.

That was what Shen Jiayi saw when he first opened his eyes. His eyes blinked several times, trying to adjust to the dark while he worked his brain, trying to process what had happened.

To his surprise, everything came up 'blank'. Where he was or what he was doing before waking up in this dark room, he remember nothing of it. But what he does remember is that, he had agreed to his fan's request in doing a video blog on an abandoned hotel.

Shen Jiayi's eyes had finally gotten used to the dark, but it did not help much. He trained on his hearing trying to find out if there is anyone else in the room. Few seconds passed, then it turned to minutes... yet Shen Jiayi couldn't hear any movement let alone the sound of another's breathing save for his own. Thus, he concluded that he was alone. Without any recollection on how he had arrived at his current situation, Shen Jiayi was feeling cautious. He was thinking of the worst case scenario, that he had been kidnapped.

So, finding out that he was alone filled him with a sense of relief. He gropped around, and his hand touched something solid. He carefully touched the item, feeling it with his finger. It was something thin, in a rectangular shape. There was a slight bump on one corner of the surface, and a small circular dent just around the middle.

Shen Jiayi found that he was very familiar with this item. It was his phone. Picking it up, he pressed on the power button. The lock screen lights up and seeing the familiar background image, Shen Jiayi let out a sigh of relief. On the top right corner of the screen, it shows that the battery is only at 34%.

'At least, it still works,' Shen Jiayi thought to himself. 'Since my phone is around, that rules out the chance of me being kidnapped. After all, no kidnapper would leave a phone with their victims.'

His thumbs glided across the screen, unlocking the phone. Then, he proceeded to look through his gallery. A frown formed on his face as he found that most of the image taken was corrupted, except the old ones. The most recent that wasn't corrupted, was an image of the abandoned hotel where he was supposed to be recording his video blogs.

"Even the pictures here are 'blank'..." he murmured to himself. Since he couldn't find any further clue to his current situation from his phone, Shen Jiayi decided it was time to explore the room. Turning on the phone's flashlight function, Shen Jiayi could finally take a good look at the room he was in.

Except for a single door, there wasn't anything at all. No furniture, no windows... nothing stuck on the walls and the ceilings. Shen Jiayi walked around the small room, trying to see if there was some kind of hidden mechanism. But after a while, he stopped.

"What am I doing? It's not like I'm in a horror game," he said, slightly ridiculing himself. "Maybe this is just a prank by that group. Right, maybe there's a hidden camera!"

Shen Jiayi did another quick scan around the room, but found no such device. "But then again, if it was placed closer to the ceiling, I wouldn't be able to check anyway. In any case..."

He walked over to the only door to the room. Now that he stood before the door, he suddenly felt nervous. He didn't know why but the moment he lifts his hand to twist that door knob, he hesitated. It was as if something was telling him, something dreadful is behind that door.

His instinct was screaming at him not to open the door, but Shen Jiayi has no other choice. The door was the only way to get out of the room.

Gathering his courage, Shen Jiayi forced himself to grab the door knob and twist it. Opening the door, what greet Shen Jiayi is a single dark hallway. But unlike the room from before, there were windows on one side of the walls. There was a small trace of moonlight shining through the windows. Though it barely helps in lighting the hallway, it was just enough for him to navigate through them.

He stared at his phone, in particular, the amount of battery left. '29%... Maybe I should save up,' he thought to himself as he turned off the flashlight and put them into his pocket.

Stepping out of the room, Shen Jiayi's instinct was screaming danger and he felt cold winds blowing from behind him. He was sure there was nothing in the room before, so he didn't understand how there are suddenly winds blowing behind him. Turning his head, he found that the door and the room he stepped out of, was gone. Replacing them was a single, dark hallway similar to the one in front of him.

Such a mysterious phenomenon would make a person panic indeed, but what made Shen Jiayi panic wasn't that. In fact, the room disappearing is far from his mind right now as he saw a dark figure standing just about ten meters away.

The dark figure was tall, and just by the height alone, Shen Jiayi knew that is not human. From the floor to the ceilings, Shen Jiayi could estimate that there are about 5 metres in between. The dark figure's head was merely half a meter shorter than the ceilings. Shen Jiayi's eyes trailed downwards and he could see, by the foot of the dark figure, lay a mangled corpse.

Shen Jiayi could hear warning bells blaring in his mind, telling him to run. Panic rose up to his chest, and his eyes went up again, staring at the figure's head. Luckily, it was facing away from him.

'It doesn't seem to have noticed me yet... let's just walk away...' Shen Jiayi thought to himself. 'Slowly, don't make a noise,' he added, as if trying to hypnotize himself to stop him getting a panic attack. But unfortunately, try as he might, his feet appeared to be rooted in place.

'Calm down...'

'Calm down...'

Shen Jiayi repeated the words like a mantra. Finally, with much difficulty, he managed to lift his foot and take a step forward.

One step...

Two step...

Thud!

A sound of something hitting the floor seemed to have echoed in his ear. Shen Jiayi turned his head to the source of the sound and saw splatters of blood on the floor.  He followed the trails and saw a decapitated head laid still on the floor. Just looking at the scene, Shen Jiayi knew that the head had been tossed over.

'Wait, tossed over?'

Shen Jiayi's heart which had been beating against his chest felt heavy. Turning his head to glance behind him, he saw that the dark figure has already turned around and was looking at him.

Though covered in dark mists, Shen Jiayi could clearly make up the huge smile on its face. The sharp, jagged teeth, stained with blood. Its eyes appear red and one look was enough to know that it is looking at Shen Jiayi as its new prey.

'Fuck me!' Shen Jiayi cursed. Fueled with extreme fear, his survival instinct kicked in and he immediately broke into a run, trying to escape the killer monster.