0002: THE 12th FLOOR

One day, a small girl was playing soccer with her best friends in the neighborhood park. Although her real name was Nikki, everyone fondly called her "MISS FEARLESS", as she was scared of nothing. Well, at least she said so.

Right beside the park was a rusty old building, on the peak of getting demolished. The children had given it a name "THE HAUNTED HOUSE". They believed that anyone who went in, never came out.

Unfortunately, for them, as soon as Nikki tried to score a goal, the ball flew inside that "HAUNTED" building and shattered the glass window. As it was the only ball they had (and pretty expensive too) they started having a heated argument about who would go and fetch it. Nikki, being the overconfident one, suggested that she should go. Since nobody else wanted to volunteer, it was decided. She was going to go up the staircase of the building and fetch the ball.

So Nikki entered; The rugged metal doors made a strange creaking sound as she opened them. it was pitch dark and gloomy inside. There was no light except the daunting flicker of a worn-out lamp kept on a small side table. Just beside the table, a staircase came into view. She quickly ran up to the top. but, could only make it to the 3rd floor before her breath was exhausted and she had to rest her legs.

<p style="direction: ltr;">Then Nikki started up the stairs again. There were small signboards indicating which floor it was. the ball had shot straight through the window and landed on the 12th floor. "Well, 5 down, 7 more to go" she thought, desperately trying to distract herself from looking at the huge spider dangling from the ceiling. Once she had reached the 12th floor, she was bursting with happiness. She had proved that she was-in fact, scared of nothing. She quickly grabbed the slightly-punctured football. Nikki skipped down the stairs, holding the ball tightly in her hands. she didn't want another accident. All she wanted was to get out of this CREEPY building as soon as she could.

<p style="direction: ltr;">But, surprisingly, when she looked at the signboard, it still read 12th. That was strange. She thought she reached the 8th floor by now. Regardless, she carried on. By the time she got to the 1st floor, she was getting excited. She would give her friends a nasty surprise. They would all worship her. She would become famous and everyone in the entire town would be talking about her.

<p style="direction: ltr;">However, all her dreams quickly faded away when she realized that there were still almost a MILLION stairs below, leading deeper down into nothingness. "What?" she exclaimed and started panicking. The stairs seemed to be going on forever. Was she really lost here, with nobody to help her? 'THUMP', came a noise, and Nikki fainted and fell to the ground.