CHAPTER 4 - DARK HALLWAY

"I can't do this!" Natalie cried out, full of panic.

And the game hadn't even really started yet, she was already having second thoughts.

"Don't be scared, it's not real! Go check it out!"

"Natalie, we're here with you!"

"If you keep going, I'll send gifts!"

The audience was clearly more hyped than she was.

Soon, the stream was filled with the sound of non-stop gift alerts, rockets, airplanes, all kinds of rewards started pouring in.

It was... intense.

"...Alright then." Natalie gritted her teeth.

All that gift money suddenly gave her a boost of courage.

For a little cash? Yeah, she could continue to play

She slowly approached the wooden door.

"Haahhh!" she shouted out of nowhere and kicked the door wide open with a loud bang!

"Fuck!"

"Can you not be so loud when opening doors?!"

"Forget the game, Natalie scared me more than anything!"

"My soul nearly left my body from that yell!"

The chat exploded in complaints and laughter, but Natalie was still on edge.

Behind the door was a long, dimly lit corridor.

It looked like a typical apartment hallway. The walls were painted white and lined with various framed pictures hanging on the walls. But something felt... wierd.

The hallway was tight, about 1 meter, barely wide enough for one person to walk through.

And the ceiling light was so weak that it left most of the corridor pitch black.

That combo, narrow space and low light, meant one thing.

If something popped out, there'd be nowhere to run.

And if something was hiding in the dark? You wouldn't even see it coming.

The oppressive feeling hit Natalie like a wave. Her eyes widened as she took a deep breath.

"Damn... this place is way too creepy."

She had to admit, the environment design was incredible. Nothing had happened yet, but her legs already felt weak.

The chat quieted down too. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath.The immersion was just that good.

In such a confined space, the tension crept in easily.

"Alright... let's keep going," Natalie whispered, bracing herself and walking down the hallway.

She hadn't gone far before she noticed a clock hanging on the wall.

The hands were frozen at exactly 11:59. The second hand ticked back and forth, never reaching midnight.

"11:59? So it's just before midnight?"

"Look at the window, it's pitch black outside. Must be really late."

"Yeah... and that's witching hour, isn't it..."

The audience was busy analyzing the surroundings, while Natalie was visibly flustered.

"Zzzzt... zzzzt..."

Suddenly, the sound of messy radio static crackled from ahead.

"Oh my god, guys, what is that sound?!"Natalie shouted, her heart immediately racing.

The static quickly shifted into the voice of a man reading news in a serious tone.

"Breaking news. Three days ago, a man brutally murdered his wife and daughter in his own home."

"Natalie, don't panic, it sounds like a radio broadcast."

"Yeah, stay calm! It might be part of the story!"

"Go listen carefully! It could be a clue!"

Hearing the audience's reactions, Natalie forced herself to calm down and kept walking forward.

Sure enough, up ahead she spotted a counter built into the wall. Sitting on it was an old radio.

"On the day of the murder, the man shot his wife in the hallway with a rifle while she was cleaning. His six-year-old daughter hid in the bathroom. But the man tricked her into opening the door, saying it was just a game."

"He then shot her point-blank in the head. The wife, who was hit in the stomach, was pregnant at the time."

"When police arrived, after a neighbor called it in, they found the man sitting in the hallway, listening to the radio."

The broadcast cut off right there.

That short news segment dropped a huge amount of backstory.

"Wait... guys, don't tell me this is that house?!"

"Sounds like it! This must be where the murders happened!"

"So this is a full-on haunted house then?!"

"That dude didn't just kill his wife and daughter, his wife was pregnant. That's three people!"

"Jesus... this is dark."

The chat went wild, but Natalie was about to start cursing out loud.

Seriously, did her brother really have to make the backstory this creepy?

Just listening to the report made her skin crawl.

Still, she gritted her teeth and kept going. The constant ding of gift alerts in her headset gave her the motivation to keep moving forward.

Up ahead, the hallway took a sharp 90-degree turn to the right. Natalie turned the corner, and stopped dead in her tracks.

Her big, expressive eyes froze in shock.

There was blood. A lot of it.

A massive blood splatter covered the wall in front of her, some of it dripping onto the floor and the nearby counter.

"Holy crap, blood!!"

"Confirmed this is the murder scene!"

"This must be where the guy shot his wife. That blood pattern is from a rifle blast!"

"Wait, so the woman we saw in the doorway earlier... was she the wife?!"

"Bro... I've got chills. This is seriously messed up."

The chat exploded with analysis. Between the news report and the bloody hallway, it wasn't hard to piece things together, and Natalie had come to the same conclusion.

"Stop talking about it already! The more you say, the more freaked out I get!" Natalie shouted, voice a little shaky.

She really, really wished this was just a garbage indie game with low-effort jump scares. That would've been so much easier to handle.

Still, clenching her jaw and pushing through, Natalie tiptoed past the bloodstains and arrived at the counter.

There was a framed photo sitting on it. A family portrait, probably the family from the news report. But the faces of the two people on the left had been completely covered by the blood spray.

Only the man on the far right was still visible, though his face was hazy in the photo.

That had to be the murderer, the husband, the father.

His expression was cold and blank, but his eyes stared straight ahead with eerie stare.

Natalie stared back at the photo.

And for a brief second she could've sworn the man was staring right at her.

Was it just her imagination? Or did the game actually program the photo to track her eyes?

Natalie immediately turned her head away, heart racing. She didn't want to think about it anymore. Not even for a second.

She kept moving forward. Up ahead on the right side of the corridor, she spotted another door.

Frosted glass was set into the upper half of the door, and a soft mat lay neatly at the entrance.

"That looks like a bathroom!"

"Yeah, the design fits. Natalie, try opening it!"

"Come on, go in!"

The audience started hyping her up again, urging her forward.

But Natalie froze in place. She remembered exactly what the radio had said.

The daughter was hiding in the bathroom... until she was tricked into opening the door.

This was another murder scene.

"Don't be scared, Natalie! I'll send you a gift!"

Just then, the familiar ding of a gift notification rang in her ears, followed by the rush of rockets and planes.

"...Alright then." Natalie took a deep breath, steeling herself. Slowly, she reached out and gripped the doorknob with her right hand.

The entire stream held its breath.

A clicking sound came from the knob.

Natalie exhaled deeply, shoulders slumping.

"It's locked. I can't open it."

Thank god.

At least that meant she didn't have to go inside the bathroom. Not yet, anyway.

1272 Words.