Chapter 274: Hospital (8)

From the moment Everly entered the inpatient building, she had carefully studied the layout.

On Basement Level 1, there were two morgues—left and right—and each morgue had two entrances.

One entrance was next to the elevator hall. Corpses transported via elevator would be brought into the morgue through there.

The other entrance seemed to have been added for safety reasons and was located at the end of two separate corridors—step outside and you would be right by the emergency door and stairwell.

The morgue doors were a pair of symmetrical metal panels with two oval handles.

When Everly used the bent IV stand to block the entrance at the end of the corridor, the people inside were still rummaging through the morgue, trying to find something to barricade the door.

By the time they heard Dr. J’s warning through their earpieces and realized there was another exit, Everly’s figure had already melted into the shadows of the corridor like a ghost—vanishing at the edge of the surveillance feed.

She was fast.

Far faster than a group of out-of-shape, frightened “middle-aged corporate drones” could ever hope to match.

Across multiple surveillance feeds placed side by side, Dr. J and the man with the lip piercing saw the girl’s blood-stained figure darting across the screen light as if it had no weight at all—moving from the left side of the frame to the right in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, when she came to a stop again, she was already standing at the second entrance of the morgue beside the elevator hall.

Bang!

The familiar sound of pounding echoed once more.

Like the tolling of a death bell, it drew closer step by step, making Dr. J’s chest tighten violently.

[Where is she? Where did my Bloody Mary go?!]

[Director, switch the camera—I want the next scene!]

[So intense, this is insane WWW…]

The livestream feed had not yet been switched. It was still fixed on the far end of the left corridor.

On the floor lay their former colleague Mike, a hole torn through his chest, soaked in blood, completely motionless in a pool of crimson.

But the viewers thought it was all special effects and makeup. They remained completely indifferent to the murder happening in front of them, instead flooding the chat with demands for a camera switch.

Should… should they switch?

The man with the lip piercing glanced awkwardly at Dr. J.

But Dr. J was busy ordering the morgue staff to rush to the other entrance and block the door. He had no time to care about the livestream.

The man then looked toward the mohawk-haired colleague.

Since being scolded earlier, the mohawk man had curled up in his chair, dazed and hollow-eyed, as if his soul had left his body. Completely unreliable.

So it had to be him.

A thin layer of sweat formed on his forehead. Breathing shallowly, he stared at the screen—at the relentless flood of comments and colorful donation effects.

Then, with eyes shut tight, he made his decision and pressed the button in his hand.

The livestream went black.

When it lit up again, the camera had switched—from the far end of the left corridor to the second entrance of the morgue beside the elevator hall.

The girl who had previously vanished from the screen was now standing by the door.

Still humming that soft, sand-textured lullaby in a sweet voice, she violently slammed her shoulder into the tightly shut iron door. The contrast between her gentle singing and frantic movements created a disturbing sense of unease in everyone watching.

“Children, stay away. Listen to what people say.”

Bang!

“The witch’s waiting for her next prey.”

Bang! Bang!

“Heed the warning, let it be known. Don’t come here, don’t wander alone…”

Bang!

With wave after wave of violent impacts, the morgue door didn’t hold for long. It was suddenly forced open, swinging inward at an awkward angle, leaving a narrow gap.

Clearly, the door wasn’t built for this kind of force—but that wasn’t really the hospital’s fault. After all, who could have predicted someone would try to break into a morgue?

On the other end of the line, the staff inside the morgue had only just stumbled their way to the side exit.

“Don’t—don’t come! It’s too late, the door’s already been forced open! She’s coming in—run! Run!!”

Dr. J, watching the screen, shouted into the communicator in a near-rabid panic, completely losing his composure.

But his warning was already too late.

On the livestream, the humming madwoman slipped inside with a folding knife in hand. Then she turned and kicked the open door shut from the inside.

BOOM!

The moment the heavy metal door slammed shut, everyone inside felt their vision go dark—and with it, a chilling sense of despair, as if hope itself had been cut off.

Not long after, the sound of violent struggle erupted from within the morgue.

Through the wall, screams and cries of agony rose one after another without pause, echoing endlessly—sending shivers down the spine of anyone who heard them.

“Clang! Crash! Boom!”

“Help! She’s got me—help me, please…”

“No—Roy!”

“Run! Run! She’s coming!”

The sounds of pursuit and struggle moved steadily from the entrance near the elevator hall deeper into the basement, echoing throughout the entire Level B1.

There were no cameras inside the morgue, but even without visuals, the sounds alone were enough for anyone to imagine the horrific violence unfolding within.

“Stay calm! She’s only one person! There are five of you—are you seriously telling me you can’t handle a single woman?” Dr. J barked into the radio, veins twitching on his forehead.

But all he received in return was chaotic static—and one scream after another.

As more people died, the sounds of fighting gradually shifted from one end of the morgue to the other.

The man with the lip piercing no longer dared to think about how many had already died inside. Like an empty shell dragged along by the will of the livestream audience, he sat frozen at the control desk. As the battle moved across the room, he mechanically switched between surveillance feeds, satisfying the chat’s growing hunger for “updates” through sound and footage.

Bang! Bang bang!

As time passed, the voices inside grew fewer and fewer.

By the end, when the opposite metal door—still jammed with the IV stand—was slammed repeatedly from within, only Tom’s desperate cries remained in the morgue.

“Open the door! Open it! Edron! Edron, please, help me! Open the door for me! Please!”

Hearing Tom’s screams, Dr. J finally realized—there was still one employee stationed at the end of the corridor, behind the emergency exit.

The two doors were so close.

If Edron came out through the emergency door and removed the IV stand blocking the morgue entrance, Tom could be saved.

“Edron! Edron, do you hear me?! Go to the door and remove the IV stand! Tom needs you! That’s an order!”

Dr. J located Edron’s channel and screamed into it in a near-hysterical voice.

No one answered.

Edron was as if he had vanished from the world—no response, no signal, nothing at all.

Bang! Bang! Bang bang bang!

“Open the door! Edron! Edron, help me!”

The pounding grew louder, Tom’s pleas more frantic by the second. At the same time, everyone watching the screen began to hear another sound—faint at first, then growing clearer, drawing closer and closer to the door.

“Children, don’t stray. This ain’t a place to play.

The evil witch’ll take your life away…”

Along with it came the steady, unhurried tap-tap of boots on tiled flooring.

Measured. Calm. Almost leisurely.

[She’s here! She’s here! She’s here!]

[Dr. J is insane—using sound instead of visuals is genius. We can’t see anything but it’s somehow even scarier!]

[WWW! WWW!]

“No—no! She’s not human… a demon, she’s a demon!”

After a violent struggle, Tom’s desperate scream became the last words he ever left in this world.

Then came a chilling “squelch” of stabbing.

The trembling of the metal door gradually ceased.

In its place, a thick stream of dark red blood began seeping out from beneath the morgue door, flowing steadily outward—growing, spreading—until it merged with the pool of blood beneath Mike’s body into one continuous crimson stain.

Tom was dead.

Aside from Edron, all of Dr. J’s staff on Basement Level 1 had been completely wiped out.

……

The livestream froze for a moment on the image of flowing blood.

Then it abruptly cut to a brightly lit room.

Dr. J leaned in close to the camera, holding up a phone. Resting his chin on one hand, he deliberately tilted his head and gave the audience a forced wink.

“Alright, that’s it for today’s prank show. I’ve got to rush downstairs and apologize to my staff—y’know how it is, they were definitely terrified after something like this, hahaha, so that’s all for now…”

[NONONO! Why is it ending so soon today!]

[I want to see their faces when the truth is revealed!]

[What about the female killer? Her acting is amazing—aren’t you bringing her out to say hi?]

A massive wave of comments flooded the screen, filling every corner of the display.

If it were before, Dr. J would never have ended the stream like this. He loved attention—loved being the center of everyone’s gaze. He wanted to be famous more than anything.

But not this time.

If only one or two people had died, his family might have been able to smooth things over. But six deaths at once—even for them, it would be troublesome to handle.

Just thinking about the lecture he’d get from his parents made his mood turn sour.

And that wasn’t the only problem.

After killing Tom, that woman was still roaming the basement. He had to deal with her as soon as possible.

Tch. Annoying.

Ignoring the rapidly scrolling flood of comments, Dr. J tapped his finger and shut down the livestream. His face stiffened as he pulled out his phone and began scrolling through his contacts.

Who should he call? Local gangsters? Or have his uncle send a trusted man over directly?

While he was still hesitating—

The man with the lip piercing suddenly trembled.

“…She… she got into the elevator!”

Dr. J snapped his head up.

“What did you just say?!”

“I just checked the equipment—she… she, she, she… she came out of the morgue exit on the elevator side about half a minute ago and went into the elevator!”

The man with the lip piercing spoke while selecting the surveillance feed facing the elevator-side exit. He dragged the timeline back half a minute and hit play.

On the playback, a girl with half her body drenched in blood was seen holding a folding knife. Her back hunched, she staggered forward like a zombie from a movie, slowly walking out of the morgue doors.

There was so much blood on her that with every step she took, a horrifying trail of bloody footprints formed behind her.

After leaving the morgue, she looked around briefly, then turned and stepped into the lit elevator nearby.

About five seconds later, the elevator doors closed, and the floor indicator on the panel began to tick upward.

-1… 1… 2…

The numbers climbed steadily, then finally stopped at 18.

“Damn it! She went in there?! Isn’t Renier still on the 18th floor? Tell him to hide!”

“We tried contacting him—no response.”

“F**K! What kind of situation is this?! Then call him!”

“But the building’s mobile signal has been jammed.”

“Lift the jammer! Do I have to teach you how to handle something this basic?!”

Dr. J’s emotions had clearly reached the edge of collapse. His eyes were wide open, and his once-handsome face was now twisted into a grim, distorted expression.

The man with the lip piercing rarely saw him like this. His lips twitched, but he didn’t dare argue back. Instead, he followed Dr. J’s orders, lifted the signal jammer, and dialed Renier’s number.

Beep… beep…

After two cold rings, the call connected.

The man let out a slight breath of relief. He was about to tell Renier that Everly was heading upstairs—

But in the next second, the voice coming from the receiver made his blood run cold.

A familiar children’s rhyme echoed from the speaker.

“Behind the red bricks, blood’s been shed.

Take no chances, as evil unfolds…”

Then, followed by a soft, playful giggle:

“Heeheehee… Are you hiding well? I’m coming to find you…”

!!!

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