Part 1Ground Floor Does Not Exist

My roommate convinced me to hit the latest "extreme" haunted house that had gone viral on Reddit.

It was October 30th—Devil’s Night. He’d dropped a staggering amount of money to rent the entire place out for a private, overnight "immersion experience." We were supposed to be there until dawn.

We hadn’t been on the service stairs for more than twenty minutes when the guide suddenly stopped. He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead, his flashlight beam trembling against the gray concrete.

"We’ve been going down for dozens of flights now," he muttered, his voice sounding thin in the narrow stairwell. "Why haven't we hit the basement yet?"

Tyler, my roommate, let out a dismissive snort. He was leaning against the handrail, looking bored. "It’s a marketing gimmick, man. They probably just looped the stairs to mess with our heads. It’s part of the 'immersion,' right?"

I looked over the railing, staring into the rectangular void of the stairwell. The darkness below was absolute, a throat that seemed to swallow the light from our phones. My stomach did a slow, nauseating flip.

"Tyler," I said, my voice tight. "We’ve been walking down for almost two hours."

* * *

I turned to the guide, my pulse thrumming in my fingertips. "I… I just remembered I have a project due. Something came up. Can you just take us out through the emergency exit? The normal way?"

Under the harsh, pallid glow of his industrial flashlight, the guide’s face looked skeletal. He wasn't smiling. "This is the only way. I don't get it. I’ve run this route a hundred times. I don’t remember it being this many floors."

I felt a chill settle into my bones, a physical stiffness spreading through my limbs.

Tyler rolled his eyes, a smirk playing on his lips. "Oh, come on, Jason. Are you serious? You’re letting the 'actor' get to you? He’s clearly just building the atmosphere. Give the guy an Oscar and let's keep moving."

The guide didn’t look like he was acting. His eyes were wide, fixed on the darkness below. "I’m not building atmosphere," he whispered. "I’ve never seen this before. Is it possible we… we crossed into…?" He didn't finish the sentence.