Riverside ■■ South has three prohibitions: Elevator [Shiraishi]

Shiraishi, who had been fast asleep, was jolted awake by a phone call in the middle of the night. He was told that another small fire had broken out at 'Riverside ■■ South'.

After hanging up and looking at the time on his smartphone with sleepy eyes, it was just past 2:00 AM. This was the second time this year; how many small fires had there been in the four years since he took charge?

Here we go again, Shiraishi thought as he got out of bed. He had to rush to the scene and talk to the firefighters. Based on his past experience, if it was a similar small fire, it was definitely suspicious, so the police would likely question him as well. He braced himself for a sleepless night.

He changed his clothes, grabbed his bag, rushed out of the house, and drove his car to the apartment building.

When he arrived at the apartment, the fire had apparently been extinguished, and the police and firefighters were conducting an on-site investigation. He told a nearby police officer that he was Shiraishi, the fire safety manager from the management company, and asked the police about the situation regarding the fire.

"Is it another suspicious fire?"

"This is the second time this year for this apartment building, isn't it?"

Because the police officer spoke in a slightly accusatory tone, and Shiraishi was short-tempered due to lack of sleep, he replied with a bit of a sharp edge.

"Yes. But I have been properly notifying the residents. Was the source of the fire the garbage collection area?"

Had someone among the residents smoked in the garbage collection area again and tossed their cigarette butt?

"It's the same garbage collection area as last time, but the cause of the fire is unclear. There were bags of plastic bottles in the garbage collection area in addition to the burnable trash, but those didn't catch fire..."

The police officer tilted his head in confusion.

"Do you have any ideas or know of anything else that might have caught fire?"

Shiraishi also tilted his head at the police officer's question.

"Paper recycling isn't today, so..."

"Well, with it happening so many times... I would appreciate it if you could come up with some countermeasures."

After receiving the warning from the police, Shiraishi crossed his arms, thinking he would have to discuss this with the apartment owner.

"I'm sorry, could I ask you to patrol the area again?"

"There is a suspicion of arson, and since it keeps happening, we will be interviewing the residents."

"Yes, please do. Thank you for your cooperation."

Previously, there had been a police investigation into suspected arson. However, the culprit was never identified. There was no one in the neighborhood who seemed suspicious.

To grasp the situation, Shiraishi headed down the ramp to the underground parking lot while receiving an explanation from a firefighter.

There was a trash collection area near the locked door leading to the elevator and stairs. To the right was a bicycle parking area, which did not seem to have been affected by the fire.

However, Shiraishi stopped in her tracks once she reached the bottom of the ramp. The firefighter looked back at Shiraishi from the trash collection area. The lights of the underground parking lot illuminated the right half of the firefighter. Darkness, where light could not reach, lingered here and there in the parking lot.

“Ms. Shiraishi?”

Shiraishi remained standing still, staring into the empty space to the left of the firefighter.

A woman was standing there.

In reality, the firefighter was standing there alone. Perhaps Shiraishi was not seeing this woman with her eyes. She was seeing her with her brain.

The woman's traditional Japanese hairstyle was disheveled, hanging down over her pale neck and shoulders. Because she was looking down, her face was hidden. Her breasts, with blue veins visible, hung exposed. She wore a red loincloth, and there was a puddle-like mark at her feet; it was clear that the loincloth and the area around her feet were soiled with filth.

Fortunately, the smell of the filth did not reach this far. Only the acrid, burnt smell drifting in reality pricked at her nose.

It was not the first time she had seen the woman. She saw her every time there was a small fire. What on earth did the woman want to make known by standing here?

The woman slowly raised her face. Shiraishi looked down. She did not want to see her face. It was fine if she only saw the ghost in her mind. However, seeing her face was terrifying.

Disappear quickly! Shiraishi prayed. If she averted her gaze, the figure would vanish.

Before Shiraishi’s eyes, as she looked down, were blackened feet. Drip, drip, watery filth fell onto the concrete floor.

“Ugh.”

The woman was right in front of her. The woman was standing so close that their heads and faces were almost touching. Along with the burnt smell, a foul odor of feces and an intense ammonia smell like rotting fish drifted over.

What should I do, what should I do, what should I do?

Cold sweat beaded on Shiraishi’s forehead. She could not move. Even the woman’s blackened fingernails were clearly reflected in her mind. The filth pooled at her feet and began to spread toward Shiraishi’s black pumps.

Shiraishi.

“Ms. Shiraishi?”

“Eek!”

Shiraishi let out a scream and recoiled.

“What’s the matter?”

When he looked up timidly, a firefighter was standing in front of him, staring at Shiraishi with a puzzled expression.

He looked around carefully, but the woman had already vanished without a trace. The darkness had also eased somewhat.

The fact that he could smell her meant the woman had tried to interfere with Shiraishi. If things had continued like that, she surely would have possessed him. This had never happened before. Shiraishi swallowed the sour taste remaining in his mouth along with his saliva.

In the end, no suspicious individuals were caught on the surveillance camera installed at the garbage collection area, and it was suggested that perhaps the cause of the fire lay within the garbage itself.

According to the firefighter, it seems that if water gets onto a desiccant containing lime, it can spontaneously ignite, so it is necessary to be careful about sorting garbage. When he goes to work tomorrow, he will have to write down the garbage sorting instructions and distribute them to each unit.

It was already past three o'clock, and he thought that if he tried to go back to sleep now, he wouldn't be able to wake up in the morning. Shiraishi sighed, feeling like he would have to go to work sleep-deprived.

After finishing his work, Shiraishi visited 'Riverside ■■ South' shortly after 8:00 PM that day. He went down the slope and stood in front of the garbage collection area, which had been temporarily sealed off with tape. The concrete floor was blackened with soot.

He hesitated to go down to the basement alone at night, but he lacked a sense of responsibility if he abandoned his duties just because he could see ghosts. He held his bag containing documents in his right hand and touched the protective charm of the |Tsunodaishi| hidden in his pocket with his left hand. He had purchased it previously at a Tendai sect temple in K City, F Prefecture.

Shiraishi braced himself, thinking he would be fine with this. It might just be a matter of mindset, but based on his experience that ghosts don't come near him thanks to the charm, there is no doubt that it is spiritually efficacious. Thanks to it, the ghost he saw during the day did not appear.

He took the duct tape and the A4 paper with the printed instructions out of his bag. He stuck the instructions in a conspicuous place at the garbage collection area.

He took a step back and checked the position of the instructions.

“Good.”

All that was left was to return the videotape returned by the police to the manager's office.

In the end, he had stayed awake since then without sleeping. Today, he felt dazed and couldn't focus on his work. With an exhausted head, Shiraishi used his key to open the door to the elevator. The iron door closed with a clatter. In the beige-toned space of about one tatami mat, there were doors leading to the elevator and the stairs.

Unconsciously, he pressed the up button for the elevator. The door opened immediately. He vaguely wondered if someone had used it before Shiraishi came to the basement parking lot, even though it should have been stopped on the first floor by default.

As he stepped in, a large mirror caught his eye. A mirror had been installed directly in front of the door.

Was this mirror always here? Shiraishi stared at the mirror for a while. In the reflection showing his own figure, he saw the door close behind him.

When he turned around, intending to press the button, a pungent, burnt smell drifted by. Shiraishi looked around, sniffed the air, and tilted his head. Had smoke from a fire somewhere else drifted in this far?

He suddenly felt a presence, and when he turned his face back to the mirror, he saw something other than himself reflected in it.

A black mannequin was standing behind him. He instinctively turned around, but there was nothing there. In fact, there wasn't even enough space for a person to stand behind him. When he looked at the mirror again, the black mannequin standing behind his reflection had more arms. He saw another mannequin overlapping it, stretching its arms forward. He turned around again, but there was nothing.

“Huh? Huh?”

Every time Shiraishi turned around, he felt terror at the heads and arms of the mannequins that kept increasing behind him, and he looked away from the mirror.

He pressed the door-open button repeatedly with his index finger, but the door would not open. He kept pressing it over and over again.

“Please refrain from using the elevator after 8:00 PM.”

The words suddenly surfaced in his mind. He had forgotten. The warning the owner gave him when he moved into this apartment building.

The pressure of the presence behind him intensified. He could see black fingers wriggling in the corner of his eye. At the same time, something was scratching at his back.

Shiraishi gave up on the open button and pressed the first-floor button repeatedly. The elevator immediately began to move with a jolt. Even as it ascended, Shiraishi kept pressing the open button.

The presence behind him began to claw violently at his back. The image flashed in his mind of the mannequin, which had leaned out of the mirror by stretching its arms, struggling to grab his back with countless hands.

Open, open, open, open.

Praying in his mind, he desperately kept pressing the open button of the elevator that continued to ascend without stopping.

The fingers scratching his back began to pinch his clothes, pulling at them repeatedly.

Cold sweat oozed from Shiraishi's forehead. Salty fluid trickled down his forehead into the corners of his eyes, stinging them. The pain made tears well up.

Open!

When it reached the sixth floor, the elevator finally stopped quietly, and the doors opened. At the same time, Shiraishi tumbled out.

The fingers that had been pinching his clothes pulled away from his back as if reluctant to let go.

Shiraishi didn't even look back, but ran down the stairs. Gasping for air, he crossed the entrance hall and bolted out the front door. He only stopped once he reached the road in front of the apartment building. He looked back and stared at the elevator to the right of the entrance.

I realized only now that my heart was beating loudly. I took several deep breaths to steady my breathing.

The sensation of being pinched still lingered on my back. Shiraishi remembered the black mannequin, and his whole body broke out in goosebumps. His neck prickled with dread.

I stared intently at the elevator without moving a muscle, but if that mirror had been installed without permission, it had to be removed. Just thinking about it made my breathing ragged.

I slowly approached the entrance and gazed at the elevator through the glass. I had to summon the courage to check it.

I couldn't seem to bring myself to open the entrance and approach the elevator. However, as the person in charge of management, I had to remove any suspicious items. I hesitated, inhaling and exhaling repeatedly, but finally made up my mind to enter the apartment building.

My hand trembled as I inserted the key. The automatic door opened, and Shiraishi stepped into the entrance hall. He cautiously sniffed the air, but there was no smell of burning. There was no sensation of his spine tingling, nor could he sense any ominous presence. Perhaps it was already gone. However, he wouldn't know for sure until he opened the elevator.

I extended my finger, hesitating over whether to press the open button. How many minutes and seconds had I stood there with my finger extended, wavering? But I couldn't stay like this forever.

Shiraishi pressed his finger firmly against the button, knowing he had no other choice.

The doors opened quietly. I had been looking away, but I mustered my courage and turned my gaze toward the inside of the elevator.

There was no mirror. There was no black mannequin. Shiraishi stared into the elevator, stunned and feeling let down. What on earth was that? He felt a little relieved that the mirror was gone.

Suddenly, the sound of the automatic door opening made my heart jump out of my chest. I reflexively turned around to see Atori standing there.

Atori gave a slight nod.

"Good evening."

She was looking at Shiraishi with a puzzled expression. Shiraishi hurriedly returned the greeting. In the meantime, the elevator doors closed.

"Ms. Nakazato, good evening."

"Are you inspecting the elevator at this hour?"

"Huh? Oh, I was just checking something."

"It breaks down at night, doesn't it?"

Breaks down? Shiraishi tilted his head in confusion.

"You can't ride it after 8:00 PM, right?"

Ah... yes, that's right.

Shiraishi pulled himself together and explained to Atori.

It causes malfunctions.

He thought to himself that those malfunctions might be spiritual in nature. But he couldn't tell her that. If he said something like 'ghosts,' it would surely scare Atori, and he had no proof. At worst, she would doubt his sanity.

Atori, who he thought would head straight for the stairs, approached Shiraishi with a troubled expression.

Is something the matter?

Um, about the noise...

Was she referring to the noise mentioned in the rules?

What about the noise?

I can hear voices from the room next door until late at night... Could you please say something to them, Shiraishi-san?

Hearing 'the room next door,' Shiraishi thought of Kawazoe in room 302.

I understand. I will look into it.

Perhaps relieved by Shiraishi's words, Atori's expression brightened.

Thank you. Well then, have a good day.

Oh, um, please contact me anytime if anything unusual happens.

Yes.

With a slight bow, Atori went up the stairs.

Noise complaints in this apartment building were coming from almost every unit. They were all about voices, not daily living sounds like the TV, footsteps, or moving furniture.

However, remembering something about Atori's room, Shiraishi frowned.

There is a hole in the floor of Atori's room. That hole is bad news. Hasn't Atori noticed it yet? I couldn't get inside when I showed her the place. I don't know what's inside the hole, but I got goosebumps just standing in the entryway, feeling something ominous.

Anyway, Atori will probably leave eventually too. I have a feeling she'll move out, just like the previous tenant. As long as she doesn't commit suicide or go missing, I thought that would be fine.

#CreativeAward2025 #HorrorNovelCategory