With trembling hands, I checked the work tip note.
11- Are you doing this for two nights in a row?
Sometimes they give you a day off after a night cleaning shift, but doing consecutive nights? That’s rough… Anyway, here are the tips. During the wee hours of the morning,
Wait, no!
‘I gotta stop reading.’
The last section of the previous note had clearly seemed corrupted somehow. While the first note might have been reliable, starting from the second sheet, the notes themselves could be traps.
I firmly folded the piece of paper and shoved it back into my pocket.
Then, I raised my head to glance at the tightly shut doors of Isolation B, my gaze eventually landing on one particular door.
[Isolation Room B14]
Just what the hell is going on?
‘Stay calm.’
I needed to organize my thoughts.
I had clearly been in the middle of my first shift.
It was around 3 a.m., nearing the end of cleaning when the door to an isolation room suddenly opened, and Assistant Manager Eun Haje… no, something that looked like Assistant Manager Eun Haje appeared.
And the moment Supervisor Park Minseong realized its true nature…
‘It immediately did… something horrific.’
From then on, my memory went blank.
But why had an entire day disappeared, and why had it suddenly become the second night with the story ending as, ‘We finished cleaning safely’?
The way events were structured, it almost felt like I had regained consciousness just before this all happened…
Wait a second.
I glanced at the digital watch on my wrist.
Just before 3 a.m.
……
“Supervisor, come with me immediately!”
“Huh? Wh, what?”
After shouting at Supervisor Park Minseong, I immediately bolted down the corridor.
Reaching the metal door at the far end, still glowing faintly under the green emergency exit light, I opened it and ran outside.
“What’s going—”
Bang.
I shut the door the moment Supervisor Park Minseong stepped out, cutting off his confused voice.
“Roe, what are you doing? We haven’t even finished cleaning yet—why are you suddenly—”
[BEEEEEEP!!]
[Unauthorized opening of Isolation Room detected.]
[Corridor lockdown initiated.]
As if on cue, red emergency lights flared, and containment shutters began descending over every door.
Including the one leading to the corridor we had just escaped from.
“……!”
Supervisor Park Minseong’s expression stiffened.
“…Wait a minute. Roe, you knew this would happen—”
“Hold on.”
I immediately pulled out my walkie-talkie, turned it on, and cranked up the volume. Then I pressed the button.
If the thing wearing Eun Haje’s face said not to trust the walkie-talkie, it was all the more reason to believe this was reliable.
“Jay-ssi. Something came out of the isolation room.”
Crackle.
The response was instant.
[From the corridor?]
“No. We left the isolation corridor just before. But…”
I glanced toward the door leading outside from the storage room.
The shutters had also descended there.
“We’re trapped in front of the storage room’s entrance. The containment shutters have sealed this door as well.”
[Um okay… That means the first-level containment has been activated. Don’t panic… Just stay put. I’m on my way.]
[By the way… which door opened? Room 12? Room 6?]
I took a deep breath and answered as steadily as I could.
“…I believe it was Room 14.”
Silence.
[…B14?]
“Yes.”
An unsettling stillness hung over the walkie-talkie.
I felt sweat trickling down my back.
Crackle.
[Don’t speak to anyone. Stay quiet and hide. Move away from Isolation B.]
I swallowed hard.
“Understood.”
[There’s a hold time on containment shutters. Even if they’re unlocked immediately, the system keeps them sealed for a while… Ten minutes.]
Ten minutes.
[Hold out for ten minutes until I get there. …And don’t speak to anyone from now on.]
Click.
The transmission ended.
Silence settled over the dimly lit storage room, bathed in the red glow of the emergency lights.
“……”
I glanced to my side. Supervisor Park Minseong, who had overheard everything, looked pale and was carefully stepping away from the door leading to Isolation B.
Then—
BANG!!
The door rattled violently.
Bang, bang, bang!!
Something was pounding on the door from inside the sealed corridor, hard enough to shake the containment shutters.
And faintly, I could hear a voice.
…Hey! What the hell…!
“……”
Someone from the corridor we’d just escaped shouted out. The voice… was starting to sound strangely familiar.
“Roe, don’t listen!”
“……!”
Supervisor Park Minseong covered my ears and pulled me further toward the front of the storage room, away from the isolation corridor door.
Only when we were a safe distance away did he lean in and whisper urgently,
“There’s no way we should be able to hear that sound through the containment shutters… That’s not real. That’s not…”
He swallowed nervously.
“…It’s really something. Just like you said—something came out.”
“……”
“Someone from the Security Team would arrive in ten minutes, right? Until then, let’s not respond to anyone, no matter who tries to talk to us. Don’t speak first, no matter what…”
I slowly nodded. Supervisor Park let out a sigh of relief and sank to the floor.
“By the way, Roe, how did you know? That the isolation room door was going to open…”
“It’s complicated, but first, I need to ask you something.”
“What is it?”
“What exactly happened on our first day here?”
Confusion spread across Supervisor Park’s face.
“Huh? On the first day?”
“Yes.”
“We just cleaned normally and… well, sure, a few things from the work tips happened, but we handled them and then went home, didn’t we?”
The examples he listed matched everything we had experienced—up until the chaos with the isolation room.
Then…
“Do you remember giving me the second tip sheet during the early hours?”
“…Roe.”
Supervisor Park’s face hardened.
“There is no second sheet.”
“……”
“Are you sure you’re okay? Could you have been… affected when the isolation room door opened? Hang on, let me check today’s work tips—”
What?
I stopped Supervisor Park from pulling the note out of my pocket.
“Wait a moment. How did you even get that work tip sheet in the first place?”
“Huh? I got it as part of the tips that circulate in the Security Team.”
“And who exactly gave it to you?”
“……”
“Can you describe the person who gave it to you?”
“Of course… uh, actually,”
Supervisor Park Minseong’s face turned pale.
He opened his mouth as if to answer, but closed it again, repeatedly struggling to speak.
Eventually, he admitted,
“…I don’t know.”
“……!”