With every increase in the rain’s intensity, the sharp sound of drops striking the windows grew louder. That night, four high school students stepped through the gates of an abandoned hospital. The flashlight in Shota’s hand illuminated the rusted sign: ○○ Municipal Central Hospital. Once a hub of the community, the hospital had been closed for over a decade, becoming infamous as a haunted spot.
“Are we really going in there?” Kenta asked, eyeing the slick ground beneath his feet. His shoes skidded slightly on the wet pavement, and his expression darkened with unease.
“What, are you scared?” Shota smirked. “I’m going to prove it’s all just a bunch of rumors.”
“Does it really need proving…?” Yumi muttered under her breath, regret already etched into her face as the chilling air of the abandoned building seeped into her bones.
At the rear of the group, Mika was holding up her smartphone, recording everything. “This is going to blow up online, for sure,” she said, her excitement cutting through the tension, albeit faintly.
Together, they pushed open the rotting door and stepped inside. The damp air hit them immediately, carrying with it the sharp, metallic tang of rust.
“Ugh, what is that smell?” Kenta grimaced, covering his nose.
“Keep it down. Your voice echoes,” Shota snapped, but even as he spoke, a faint noise reached their ears from further down the hallway.
Clack… clack… clack.
It was the sound of footsteps. Uneven, almost dragging, and distinctly inhuman in their rhythm.
“Is… someone there?” Yumi’s voice trembled.
Shota swung his flashlight in the direction of the sound, but all it revealed was a broken hospital room door at the end of the corridor.
“It’s nothing,” Shota said, though his voice lacked conviction. As Kenta opened his mouth to respond, the silence was shattered by a sudden, piercing noise.
Yumi’s smartphone blared at full volume.
“Stop! Stop it!” she cried, fumbling to silence it. But everyone had already noticed—the phone had turned on by itself. None of them had touched it.
“Let’s get out of here! Now!” Kenta shouted, his panic evident. Almost as if in response, a loud groaning sound reverberated through the building, as though the entire structure was shifting.
Clack… clack… clack.
The footsteps were louder now. Closer.
Shota turned his flashlight again, this time toward the hallway’s end. In the shadows, something took form. A hunched silhouette stood there—human-like, but off.
“Let’s go,” Shota whispered, his voice almost inaudible. But no one moved. Fear rooted them in place as the shadow began to shift, its shape distorting and swaying unnaturally in the beam of light.
A single moment of silence passed before Yumi screamed and bolted. Her sudden movement snapped the group out of their paralysis, and they all ran toward the exit, feet pounding against the floor.
But as Shota reached the door, he realized something.
“Kenta?”
He turned back, his flashlight darting wildly in the darkness. Kenta was gone.
“Kenta!” Shota’s voice echoed down the hallway, swallowed by the shadows. The rain outside continued to pour, its steady rhythm mixing with the fading sound of footsteps—clack… clack… clack—that never seemed to stop.
