The Sixth Floor

While Wen Taio and Xu Disung were busy with the toilet, Ruan Jin heard the detection camera flashing again and again behind them. Seeing that there was more physical action by the stairs, he chose to walk back to check.

He had his laptop at hand and opened it to see the photos taken by the camera. They ended up being empty, but he knew something was making it capture photos.

Ignoring the sounds it made as he climbed the stairs, Ruan Jin peered over what seemed to be the sixth floor. It was identical to the rest of the floors in the building, but there was this ominous feeling pulling him. The video tech guy continued to the second set of stairs, vanishing from the view of the detection camera.

The girls' dorm was known to be enthusiastic and carefree. Floral paintings were littering the walls and kept away the boring cream. Ruan Jin stood at the last step on the top of the stairs, looking around from there.

'I'm not on the sixth floor as long as I don't put my foot up there, right?' he thought as he looked around.

He checked his laptop again for the photos captured by the camera showing him… and someone else. He frowned at the presence of a girl in their school's uniform climbing the stairs just behind him. It was too opaque to be a ghost, but he swore no one was supposed to be there with him.

In fright, he sat down. He kept his eyes on the laptop, wary of seeing anything else. He then opened some software to send messages to his bros. He was pretty confident they had a reception to receive a message from the Internet-to-phone texting software. At this point, he was too scared to move and go down on his own.

"Taio. Crying emoticons. Pick me up. I'm on the sixth floor," Ruan Jin called for help.

Faint footsteps came behind him, and his laptop just went to sleep. He did not take his eyes off of the screen, and so he ended up staring at his reflection on its black mirror. He closed the laptop and began to look around again.

He soon realized that he could just go and yell to take the attention of his bros on the fifth floor. He tried, but no voice came out of his throat. Ruan Jin started dragging his ass down the steps… to the point of stumbling. He put his laptop down on the floor and crawled to the floor beneath him.

As if the silent nightmare was not enough, he saw no cameras. Only the vibrant blue flowers that painted on the cream walls. It looked like the sixth floor he did not climb. Ruan Jin had no choice but to get up and go down one more time. However, he spotted his laptop on the landing before the second half of the stairs.

The faint footsteps from earlier resounded, and the video tech guy only sat down by the stairs and curled up in tears.

"Why are you crying?"

Ruan Jin heard a voice akin to a female. He lifted his face and saw a girl standing next to him. She was wearing white shorts and a baby blue blouse. She had slippers on her small feet and a red anklet on her right leg.

The girl sat on her feet, getting a closer view of the panicking guy. They both stared at each other's faces without a sound… until she smiled at him.

"Are you lost?"

"N-No… I'm trapped…" Ruan Jin mumbled his words, a little happy he could make a sound by then. He cared too little if the girl would believe him at all.

"Ah, me too. Do you want to walk around?" She reached out her hand to him.

Ruan Jin wanted to trust the pretty girl before him, and he was a little happy a pretty girl was talking to him. However, in his situation, he was not even sure whether to take her hand or shoo away what could have been a ghost.

"Don't be scared. My name is Ling. What's yours?" The girl insisted on him to take her hand.

"J-Jin… Ruan Jin…" the scared man whispered.

"Ah… are you from Film and TV Prod? Your name sounds familiar…"

"Why would it be familiar?" The man squirmed. He then gasped softly as his shoulders started to hurt. Probably from his bad posture as he sat and curled up against the metal railing of the stairs.

He then stared at the girl before him, who was only giving him a smile as an answer. "Are you from Film and TV Prod, too?"

"No."

There was something else seeping from the girl's stare. Her tan brown beady eyes were fixed at his face, and the rate of her blinking made it more terrifying to the man. By rate, it meant zero.

She was staring at him while leaning forward slowly. So slow that Ruan Jin was not able to tell until he started feeling her breath on his face. The strong smell of chrysanthemum came from her lips before she tried grabbing his head with both of her hands.

Ruan Jin screamed and pulled himself to the side. He opted to fall down the steps rather than to be held by the girl. His arms began to hurt, and he felt being shaken. Then again, there were no hands around him at all.

He stopped rolling down with only a bruise and bump on his forehead. He crawled downstairs again only to find the same floor. Ling was still there, smiling at him.

"Big brother, come with me! Let's walk around!" She called out as she walked towards him.

The horseman ran up the stairs and saw another Ling at the tops of the stairs.

"Why are you being so persistent? Let's walk around!" She reached out her hands.

"Let's walk around!" The other Ling from the floor below took steps up, cornering the guy at the landing.

"S-Someone help me!" Ruan Jin screamed as loud as he could, now that his voice was back. He pressed himself against the wall and glanced at the two sealed windows behind him. He could jump out and die… or he could stay and die. Both were big if's, but he had to choose.

Tears dripped from his face as he also wetted his pants as he got within the reach of the two identical women. However, they stopped… and ran through the window on their own. The loud crashing of the glass made him scream so loud one last time.

It did not matter which Ling screamed with him, but he knew someone also fell down from the height.

He dropped to the floor and began to cry again. He then noticed that someone was standing in front of him. His blurry view panned up to see Kite.

However, she did not say anything. She turned to the higher sixth floor and grabbed him from the ground, only to drag him upstairs.

"No, please! No more!" Ruan Jin used the strength of his twenty-one-year-old body to pull away. He did not take into account that a ghost would always be stronger, and so he was crawling the steps with one of his wrists almost breaking at Kite's hold.

"You came to help…" Her voice was nothing compared to the whiny one he knew.

The man managed to get himself together as they reached the floor. Kite dragged him to a room and banged at the door. Ruan Jin reached for the knob and twisted it open.

It was a dark place—a storage perhaps. He let his left hand go in to grope the wall next to the door for the light switch. The light came up, and there was this mess inside the place. He walked inside to see a black figure huddled into the sink.

"The ring… the ring…" the black figure cried as it scratched the basin of the sink.

"You… you had Wing killed," Kite spoke in a lower tone, comparable to the scary ghosts Ruan Jin used to hear from the movies. "Give me the ring."

"Ring… is gone…" it continued scratching.

Ruan Jin started backing off, making sure he would not bump into Kite. He then took off and ran down the floor, only to notice that he was still trapped.

He turned behind him to see a shadow cast on the floor that towered against his. He stepped back and closed his eyes. "I know where the ring is. Let me go, so I can get it."

Smack! A loud slap against Ruan Jin's face made him groan in pain. His vision was still a blur, but he still tried to hit the same person who struck him. However, when his hand flew up, he ended up grabbing something soft. His eyes managed to adjust to the light and managed to recognize Li Yunru before him.

"Ah, so hard to pull back…" She sighed before casually reaching to her chest to take his hand off. "Don't hit my breasts; they're sensitive."

"Shit! I'm so sorry!" The man tried to back up only to hit his head against the wall. He groaned in pain again, but he was released from Li Yunru's personal space. The moment his eyes opened again, his bros were in front of him.

Xu Disung grabbed his collar and shook him. "What were you doing?! You made us so nervous!"

"You passed out on the sixth floor. Why are you even there?" Wen Taio glared at the man, flicking his nose at every opportunity under Xu Disung's shaking.

"Stop! Stop! You're making me puke!" Ruan Jin protested before being released. He then sat properly, feeling the wetness of his bum, but he cared too little about it. He then grabbed Xu Disung's arm and started crying. He mumbled and ate his words, neither of the three making out anything from his cries.

After the ruckus, Ruan Jin learned that their time to use the fifth floor was over. Some girls had gone up to the fifth floor, only to witness Wen Taio and Xu Disung trying to wake up their friend.

Li Yunru came to help and spent almost an hour getting him back. The girls were terrified, but these would only embody as rumors. Wen Taio had to apologize to Mei Niang for the trouble they caused. Even then, with Ruan Jin back regaining control, he went to search the back of the girls' dorm.

"Dude, why are we here? This looks like a pervert camp…" Xu Disung commented as they scaled the back of the building with their eyes. He could see windows for the rooms which could be occupied at the moment. It was also too hidden that one could set up a telescope to peer inside a window with drawn curtains.

Ruan Jin then ducked out of nowhere, notwithstanding the grime and moss covering the area. He launched his right hand into the dried yet infested tube. He groped the floor of the tube, shaking his hand off from time to time until he moved forward to reach further inside.

He pulled his hand out, holding a grimy ring between his fingers. He cleared it from grime and showed it to the two. "Tadaa! Kite's ring!"

"What? How did you even know it's there?" Xu Disung glared at him, picking it up so Ruan Jin could get up on his own. The audio guy brought it to his face, noticing the glass sitting on its center as if an imitation of a diamond ring. "Why is this so important?"

"It's a gift."

The men gasped softly as Kite showed up next to them. The audio guy gave the ring to her which she took with both hands.

"The Superior hates it when we lose her gifts. Wing only defended me, and now…" She lowered her head and sniffed away from their sights. "Thank you for finding it."

She then lifted her face. "Also, be careful in coming around here from now on… I'm pretty sure they would be after you when they see you again…"

"Those three?!" Ruan Jin shuddered and ducked to protect his head. "Ah! No more! No more!"

Kite then panned her view somewhere else and smiled. "Guangru…"

She heard the other two men react and look around, even though Guangru was just next to them. There was a big chance that they could not see him at all. She only scoffed at the problem. "Guangru, thank you for helping us look for the big tall man."

"Baba is busy. I got bored." The ghost child pouted before dropping his head. "Wing is gone now. What are you going to do?"

"Ah, just stay here and guard my ring." She slid the ring on her finger. "That big tall man… lost his own ring, right?" She turned to the humans looking at her, before waving goodbye. However, her voice remained.

"I hope that Li Feng is pleased with himself."