Jack got up from his bed and searched for his handphone. It was there on the table with some clothes he had prepared. He turned his handphone on and checked the date. It really was that day. The day of Second World’s beta test. He remembered he had been so fired up for this day that he had prepared everything the night before. He looked at the nicely folded clothes on the table.
‘So it was all really only a dream?’ Jack sighed. Did he get so enthusiastic about this day that he actually had such a vivid dream about it? Such a long vivid dream he might add. He was practically experiencing more than two months’ worth of time in his dream. He had heard that the sense of time in a dream could be different from when awoke, but still, wasn’t this a bit exaggerated?
He took his prepared clothes into the bathroom and hanged them on the side before taking a shower. He then brushed his teeth, put on his clothes, and combed his hair. He looked at his reflection in the mirror. After making sure everything was fine, he turned around.
What Jack didn’t notice, was that his reflection in the mirror didn’t turn around as he did. The reflection instead watched Jack’s back as he walked out of the bathroom.
Taking his key and putting his handphone in his pocket, he did another check again to make sure nothing was forgotten. He checked his wallet and made sure his ID card was inside. The checkpoint on the beta testing site would want to check his identification. He didn’t want to be denied entrance and had to run back here again to get his ID card.
After he was sure that he did not forget anything, Jack went out of his apartment room and headed for the stairs.
Somehow, he was not so fired up about this beta test anymore. After all, however cool this beta test was, it wouldn’t be as cool as the dream he had. He was practically living the game in his dream, for God’s sake. How were you going to beat that kind of experience?
But a dream was still a dream. When it’s over, then it’s over. No matter how much wishful thinking you coveted, it won’t change reality.
He thought about all the friends he had made in his dream. Peniel, John, Jeanny, Bowler, Flame, The Man, and the others… So they were all only figments of his imagination? He was going to miss them. Even the natives he had befriended on the way, Amy, Samantha, Duke Alfredo, Commander Quintus, Prince Alonzo, Captain Salem. Heck, he was even going to miss his enemies, Red Death, Scarface. But then again, those two were famous people in the gaming community, so perhaps he would still meet them as long as he kept on playing games. Still, they won’t be the same ones he fought against in his dream.
Jack sighed again. Could someone really miss their dream this much? If only he could go back to sleep and continued the dream.
His steps that were descending the stairs became slower. ‘That’s odd…,’ he thought. He felt that he had been going down the stairs for some while already, why was he still on it? This apartment only had six floors and he was living in a room on the fifth floor. Although he was daydreaming when he walked down the stairs, it still shouldn’t take this long.
He peeked down from the railing.
‘Huh?’
What came into view was many flights of stairs going down. The stairs were of the double winder type which had a U-shape, but he could still see from between the gaps at the middle to gauge how far the ground floor was. From the view, he still had roughly four floors to descend.
‘Did I only go down one floor?’ He was not sure now. He felt that he had made several turns when he walked down the stairs, which indicated that he had passed multiple floors, but now he was not so sure anymore.
He looked at the number on one of the doors in the corridor. There was a door to an apartment room right in front of the stairs. The number on that door started with four, 411, so he was indeed on the fourth floor. As he was about to continue going down the stairs, something caught his eyes from the far end of the corridor.
The stairs of the apartment were situated at the center part of the building. A long corridor stretched out to the left and right of the building. There were a total of twenty-one rooms on one floor, ten on the left-wing, ten on the right. The ten on each wing was arranged at both sides of the corridor, so there were five rows of doors on each wing. Then there was one door at the center opposite the stairs, which was the position Jack was at.
To save energy, the stingy landlord never opened the lamps on the two wings. So only the center part with stairs had light illuminating them. The two ends were dark. Many tenants had complained to the landlord, including Jack, but apparently, these complaints were simply ignored.
Jack was now staring at the right-wing side of the corridor. It was dark, but he could make out the shape of a person in front of the door at the far end of the corridor. From the outline, it appeared like a woman with long hair.
The woman simply stood there, unmoving. Jack couldn’t see clearly because of the absence of light, but he had a feeling this woman was looking directly at him. He tried to think of the tenant who lived there. Couldn’t think of one. However, if he did not remember wrong, the rooms on the right-wing of the fourth floor should all be empty. So, who was this woman?
Jack stood there as he also observed the woman. Unsure if he should greet her or not. Seconds passed, the woman was still, without a sound. Jack was getting uncomfortable. He felt his hair stood on ends. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore and decided to just go down the stairs, away from this creepy woman.
As he descended, he made sure to count now. One floor, two floors, three floors… four floors… fifth…?
‘What the hell!’ He glanced down between the gaps of the stairs again and was greeted with the same view as before. There were still roughly four floors left.
He slowly turned to the door in front of the stairs and stared at the number 411 on the door for the longest time.
As he fought to try to make sense of this confounding matter, he remembered something and turned to the right side. There she was. The shape of a woman was still there, still the same place as previous. Wait! No, she was not in the same position as before. Last time she was in front of the last door at the end, which was the fifth row. Now she was on the fourth row. She was one door closer.
Jack gulped. Did this mean something?
He slowly backed away to the stairs. Then he ran down the stairs. He no longer walked, he ran. Jumping through two or three stairs at once on occasion. After passing through one floor, he ran slower as he leaned on the railing, looking at the floor below as he descended.
The sight caused him even more bafflement, which soon turned into a disturbing feeling. The lowest floor stayed the same distance as he descended. It was as if he was chasing a still picture. No matter how many floors he went down, he was still four floors away from the bottom.
He was panting when he decided to stop. All the running and the inexplicable situation had caused his heart to beat wildly. He was bending down with his two hands on his thigh, catching his breaths. Remembering something, his eyes slowly turned to the right.
The woman was now just three doors apart.
It was still dark, he still could not see the woman clearly, but it terrified him nonetheless. Jack turned around and settled for running back up instead. If he could not go down, then he would just go up!
He continued to run the stairs. There was an open roof at the top of these stairs. He had a strange feeling that as long as he could get out of this building, then things would go back to normal. However, he realized with dread that just as when he was going down, he couldn’t get to the end of the stairs as well going up. He looked upward and saw that it was the same as when he was running downstairs. The top of the stairs kept on going up as he ascended.
He was tired of running, so he stopped again. He looked at the door in front. Its number was 511. He was back on the floor where his room was. He turned to his right. That creepy woman was on the fourth floor, so in theory, she shouldn’t be…
“F*ck…!” He cursed out loud. The woman was there, standing still, in silence.. He was two doors away from Jack.
