A few days passed after they left the archive room.
Outside the teaching building, the wind howled through the cracks in the windows, bringing with it a damp chill that cut straight to the bone.
These days, Alice had been acting strangely. She often woke up in the middle of the night, murmuring the same dream over and over — in the dream, she was trapped inside an elevator with no end, the floor numbers kept counting down, until she stopped at "B2."At that moment, Maya's heart clenched. She remembered Lucian mentioning a file about "The Gray Passenger," a ghost connected to an elevator.
And so, the three of them stood together now.
Maya tightened her coat around herself and looked up at the sealed dormitory building before them.The old structure almost melted into the night, with only a few dim lights flickering weakly through its windows.
Lucian leaned casually against a lamppost nearby, his silver hair swaying slightly in the wind. His expression was calm as ever — as if he had expected this.He said quietly, "Among the seven ghosts, the Gray Passenger resides in this building's elevator."
Maya swallowed hard. "But this building… wasn't it sealed off?"Lucian glanced at her. "If it can't be sealed, that means it's still moving."
Alice stood silently between them, holding her tattered teddy bear missing one ear. The wind brushed through her bangs as her eyes grew distant, as if she could hear something far beyond human reach."…Lucian," she whispered, "the elevator is breathing."
Maya's head snapped up. In the center of the building — the elevator indicator light was flickering without sound.The red numbers jumped repeatedly between 3 and B1.
Yet no one had touched the power.
"It knows we're here," Lucian said coldly, already stepping toward the stairs.
They entered the building.The lights flickered weakly; the air smelled of rust and old disinfectant.
Maya followed close behind Lucian, her fingers unconsciously clutching the hem of his coat."Hey… Lucian," she whispered, "if this elevator really goes… all the way down to the underworld, what do we do?"Lucian replied calmly, "Then we come back up."His tone was cold, but somehow it eased the fear tightening in her chest.
Alice trailed behind, staring fixedly at the elevator doors ahead.
The elevator door was blackened with age, as if something had clawed it from the inside. Maya noticed faint gray mist seeping from the gap between the doors.Lucian lifted his hand, his fingertips glowing with a faint bluish sigil."Let's see if it's awake."
"Lucian!" Maya gasped.She reached out to stop him, but an unseen force shoved her forward toward the elevator.With a sharp hiss, the doors slid open.
Inside — there was no light.Only that suffocating sense of falling — like someone in the darkness was reaching out, waiting for them.
Lucian reacted instantly, grabbing Maya's wrist and yanking her back."Don't go in!" he barked.
But Alice seemed drawn by something unseen. Step by step, she moved closer, her eyes unfocused, lips trembling."…Gray… gray… people…"
Lucian's eyes hardened. He pulled her back with brute force.
And at that instant—
The elevator doors slammed shut with a clang.
The indicator light blinked again.3… 2… 1… B1… B2…There were eighteen floors in total—and they were descending.
"Damn it, it's dragging us down!" Lucian cursed, slamming his palm against the wall, trying to disrupt the force pulling the elevator.
Finally—
The descent stopped.
—Underworld, Basement Level 2—
The doors slid open slowly.Outside was a pitch-black corridor.The walls were covered with yellowed student photos — every pair of eyes scribbled out with gray marks.The air was damp, heavy with the scent of decay.
"Looks like we've entered its domain," Lucian said coldly.
A deep, low chime echoed suddenly —the sound of an elevator arriving.
But this time, the elevator doors behind them were opening again.