“What?!” Just as Wufan promised he told Yixing what happened last night but Yixing wasn’t taking it that well. “H-her head was gone? Are you serious? You better not be joking, Wufan!”

“I’m not, I know what I saw. A headless woman and a dead tenant next to her.” Yixing was sitting on his bed as Wufan stood next to him, buttoning up his shirt. “I’d rather not remember that image.”

“You really have the worst luck to even see that,” Yixing said. “I’m worried now, Wufan. What if you’re in one of them and it breaks down? I don’t want anything to happen to you.” Yixing’s concern made Wufan think back on what the old woman told him before she disappeared. Nothing would happen to him as long as he didn’t take that certain elevator, and now that he thought about it he didn’t exactly know which one that was. Finding out the number of the lift didn’t cross his mind until now.

“I’ll be fine. It’s not like I have much of a choice since I won’t take the stairs, but I promise I’ll be careful,” Wufan said, ruffling his boyfriend’s hair before walking to the bedroom door.

“It would be better if you just move in with me...” Yixing mumbled under his breath. He was worried about Wufan living there. The thought of the encounter they had with one of those lifts came to his mind but he quickly pushed it away. It was just a foolish thought anyway.

“What was that?”

“Oh, nothing!” Yixing smiled widely as he got up from his bed and followed Wufan out of the bedroom. He decided to keep what he said to himself for now. Wufan began to collect his bag and put his shoes when Yixing spoke up, “You sure you don’t want to stay for breakfast?”

Wufan shook his head, feeling guilty that he had to leave Yixing so early in the morning. “I still need to go back to my place and clean up before work.” Yixing pouted at his answer, causing Wufan to lightly chuckle as he planted a kiss on his forehead. “Get some sleep; you don’t go in for a few hours.” Yixing nodded and reminded him to at least eat something at home.

They were standing by the door, kissing for a while because neither one wanted to pull away but once they did Wufan had to rush through everything before he was late for work.

Wufan was finally on his break, relieved to step away from the project, but he wasn’t relaxing and barely touched his lunch. He was at his desk, looking over a few papers and writing in his notebook. The papers were the flyers of the missing tenants. The lobby had enough flyers posted on the walls so taking a few wouldn’t make a difference.

It was getting harder for Wufan to ignore the disappearances, the words of the old woman and the school girl. He figured if he could make some notes there might be some sort of connection. He wrote down the times the tenants were last seen, when he saw the girl, and included when the two deceased women were found , which were all after midnight. It was a pattern but he felt he needed more information to back it up. He moved on to the next note about the old woman’s warning, finding out that it was the fourth elevator he had to stay away from. There was one superstition that came to his mind but before he could write it someone tapped his shoulder.

“Yo, Wufan!” It was his co-worker and friend, Chanyeol. “What are you doing here on your break?”

“Work,” Wufan said as he closed his notebook and turned to face Chanyeol.

“You’re going to send yourself to an early grave if you keep working non-stop,” Chanyeol said, leaning on his friend’s desk. “By the way, tell me what happened at your apartment. Did someone really get their head chopped off?”

Wufan raised an eyebrow, confusion etched on his face.

“Yixing told Baekhyun and Baekhyun told me.”

Wufan nodded, understanding how that news traveled quickly. “Yeah, but another woman was in there. Apparently, she died from a heart attack.”

“That’s crazy, man. What elevator is it so I can avoid it the next time I visit you?” Chanyeol asked. He was slightly serious but let out a small chuckle at the end.

“The fourth one.”

This time it was Chanyeol’s turn to raise an eyebrow. He hummed; a thought circling around in his mind.

“Any chance either of them lived on the fourth floor?”

“Not that I know of, why?” Wufan asked.

“There’s this superstition that the number four is cursed. Apartment floors, hospitals, hotels, elevators, practically anything that has the digit four. It relates closely with death. At least that’s what my mom used to tell me.” At least Wufan wasn’t the only one thinking of the same superstition.

“My mom told me the same story, too. But it doesn’t seem possible that the elevator is cursed just because it’s the fourth one. If that was the case, no one would use it,” Wufan explained. He had seen tenants use that same lift every morning and nothing bad happened to them. If it were the fourth, fourteenth or twenty-fourth floors that were cursed then he would believe it.

“Probably, but there might be more to it like some force controlling it.” Chanyeol moved away from Wufan’s desk, patting his shoulder as he made his way toward the exit and adding, “It’s just a superstition though. Don’t let it get to you.”

A few days passed and the fourth elevator reopened. The only explanation the tenants received was that it had malfunctioned but was quickly fixed. However, there was nothing mentioned about the horrific incident.

Wufan became a little more observant of his apartment complex after his talk with Chanyeol. Every morning he noticed people using all the elevators but it was a different story at night. When he came home late from work, there were people using the elevators but they always avoided the fourth one. It made him think that Chanyeol’s suggestion was correct.

It was one of those rare nights that Wufan was home at a decent hour and Yixing was spending the night with him. They were sitting on the couch but instead of cuddling together Wufan was busy writing in his notebook while Yixing was resting his head on the armrest. Yixing looked over at his boyfriend, getting annoyed that he wasn’t kissing him senseless or, hell, even hugging him.

“I thought you said you were done with work,” Yixing voiced out. Wufan stopped writing for a bit and leaned back into the couch.

“I’m just taking notes.” Yixing crawled over to him, pressing his cheek against Wufan’s shoulder as he skimmed over his writing. There were some parts he could understand but the last few lines were too messy. The content of it didn’t please him though. He reached out and closed Wufan’s notebook, sighing.

“If you add anymore you’ll be able to write a book on the supernatural.”

Wufan lightly tapped the cover of his notebook with his pen before he opened it again, lifting it up to Yixing’s eye level.

“Xing-”

“I thought we weren’t going to talk about this again,” Yixing said, interrupting his boyfriend rather coldly. It surprised Wufan since Yixing wasn’t the type to speak that way to anyone unless they pissed him off, and that was a rare occurrence as well. Was Yixing really bothered by the paranormal theory? Wufan remembered Yixing’s reaction when he told him a ghost hypnotized him. He was angry and denied Wufan’s theories, saying ghosts weren’t real and he wasn’t possessed.

It wasn’t the best idea to continue the conversation but Wufan needed another opinion and Yixing was the only one who could provide that, not because he was his boyfriend but because he was there the night they encountered that girl.

“I know, but just take a look at this,” Wufan pointed to his notes for Yixing to read. “Do you notice anything with the disappearances?”

Yixing sighed again and snatched the notebook out of his hands, reading over the notes. His brows furrowed, “They all happened after midnight?”

“It’s a pattern. I’m assuming the accident from a few days ago happened after midnight as well.”

“And you think a ghost did all this?” Wufan hesitated with his answer but he nodded in the end. “Did it occur to you that maybe it’s some sicko committing crimes at night?”

“I highly doubt it’s someone alive. If it is then that old woman wouldn’t have a reason to tell me to stay away from the fourth elevator.” Yixing looked at him with a confused expression on his face. “I wrote down what she told me. Keep reading,” Wufan added. He did as he was told and read the notes on the old woman. He skimmed through Chanyeol’s superstition as well.

“I’m just curious why all that happened after midnight. It was almost around the same time we saw that girl.” Wufan ran a hand through his blond locks. These thoughts were making him exhausted.

“If you really believe that girl’s a ghost then I think I have a theory,” Yixing spoke, immediately catching Wufan’s attention. “There’s this thing called the ‘witching hour’ where demons and ghosts appear around midnight when they have the most strength. I learned it from an old friend who believed in that stuff and there were a few times I had to stay up with her until four in the morning when the witching hour ended. Anyway, that could be a reason why those things happened after midnight. She’s at her strongest during that time.” Yixing reached over and held one of Wufan’s hands, rubbing his thumb over his knuckles.

“You’re not a detective. Please, don’t think so much on this.”

There was an unsettling feeling in Wufan’s stomach over the new information. It was his first time hearing about this belief, which he never expected Yixing to tell him about, but it made sense with the notes he took. Seeing the girl, running into the old woman, the disappearances and the deaths of those two women; it all happened after midnight. Combining Chanyeol’s superstition of the number four and Yixing’s witching hour theory, the fourth elevator was extremely dangerous after midnight. It made sense why tenants avoided it at night. The girl was controlling that elevator and taking anyone who entered it, which explained why the old woman warned him to stay away.

One question remained unanswered: why was the girl doing this?

---

The next day Wufan was completely drained of energy and it showed through his performance at work. He couldn’t sleep last night despite Yixing being there with him. He was busy writing what Yixing told him and piecing together his theory of the ghost girl. Yixing had to pry the notebook out of Wufan’s grip just to get him to go to bed.

It didn’t help him that he had to stay after work again to put the finishing touches on the project. At least he wasn’t alone since he had a co-worker assigned to this project as well. He was resting his head on the table when he heard a light tap beside him. Lifting his head to find the source of the sound, he noticed a cup of hot coffee next to him and his co-worker throwing him a sympathetic smile. He looked almost as tired as he was.

The vibration of his phone against his leg helped him wake up a bit more. Grabbing his phone, he excused himself from the room to answer the call.

“Hey Fan!” Wufan smiled for the first time today after hearing Yixing’s cheerful voice and replied back. Yixing continued, “I’m on my way over to your place. Will you be done soon?”

“It’ll probably be another hour,” Wufan said, a sigh escaping his parted lips. “It’s already late. Why don’t you stay home tonight?”

“But I want to see you,” Yixing whined. “I can wait for you in your apartment or better yet...in your bed.”

Wufan let out a small laugh at his boyfriend’s flirtatious tone.

“I hope you weren’t in public when you said that.”

“Nope, I just walked out the door. I’ll be over at your place soon. Be careful getting home.” Wufan hummed a response, checking his watch for the time. He froze when he saw it was already midnight and everything about his suspicions came flooding back to him. He began to worry about Yixing going over to his apartment now.

“Hey Xing, do me a favor. Don’t take the fourth elevator,” Wufan said, hearing Yixing scoff on the other line.

“Don’t start wi-”

“Please, just do this for me,” Wufan pleaded. He was getting frustrated that he practically had to beg Yixing to listen to him. He allowed Yixing’s attitude toward this slide because he understood something like this was hard to believe especially for someone who thinks ghosts don’t exist, but this was for his safety. It wasn’t a joke.

“Fine,” Yixing responded, hanging up the phone without saying goodbye.

Yixing walked into the lobby of the apartment building, a slight frown on his face because of his boyfriend’s ridiculous suspicion. There was no way a ghost was haunting the building and he started to regret telling him about the witching hour belief. If he had known Wufan was going to spend the entire night trying to solve this mystery, he would’ve kept his mouth shut. He felt responsible for causing him another sleepless night, in addition to however many he had before then.

When he reached the elevators he noticed the fourth one already vacant and available, almost inviting him in. He decided to ignore it and activate the lift next to it. He usually didn’t care about waiting alone in the lobby but it was creepy having the fourth elevator open. It felt like he wasn’t alone at all. Glancing at the vacant elevator, he started moving to it until he stood in front of the entrance. The air around him was stiff and ominous, and alarms went off in his head to stay away.

He slowly blinked a few times, eyes half-lidded as he entered the lift.

He pressed the button that would take him to the twentieth floor and looked around the elevator. It looked normal and there was no sign of some force controlling it. However, the same couldn’t be said for him. He felt dizzy; his head hurting as if something powerful was applying pressure. It was suddenly cold as well. He closed his eyes for a moment to push away his headache, but when he opened them again he was greeted with a chilling sight.

In front of him was the same girl who put him under a trance. She had a smile on her face that stretched from cheek to cheek as one eye twitched upward and long hair covered parts of her face. Did she manage to put him under another trance to lure him in to her lift? Yixing didn’t have time to answer that question as he tried to back away from her. He couldn’t speak, which terrified him even more.

His back hit a bulky surface and he hoped it was the wall.

A large, pale and bloodied hand grabbed the side of Yixing’s face, slamming his head against the wall. Yixing out from the blunt impact before falling to the floor.

The girl walked over to Yixing’s unconscious body, squatting down and patting his soft hair. There was some blood trailing down the side of his face causing the girl to frown.

“You better hope he’s not dead.” She only received a grunt from her minion, which she ignored and returned to petting Yixing’s head.

“He’s the perfect subject to test out my new power on.”

A/N: Before anyone smacks me, don't worry, the next chapter is almost finished! I mean it, like, the majority of it is done. I just need to write and edit a bit more. It should be posted by tomorrow. I knew if I just stopped here it would take another month and a half to write the next chapter and I didn't want to keep you guys waiting. I feel bad when I do that (like right now because I still haven't updated my angst Fanxing fic, gdi).

I apologize for the wait though. I've been swamped with homework and writing articles for an online magazine our campus has. I do appreciate every subscriber, vote and comment I get. You're all so kind!

Be prepared for the next chapter because things are going to get a little crazy. Thanks for reading~!