The fingers around my ankle tightened.

Then...

They let go.

I landed on cold concrete.

Not dirt.

A room.

A room beneath the hostel.

No windows.

No doors.

Only walls.

Covered with names.

Thousands of names.

Every girl who had ever slept in Bed 27.

My name...

Was the newest.

Behind me, someone giggled.

The little girl.

She smiled.

"You came back."

Memories crashed into me.

Rain.

Hide and seek.

A wooden box beneath Bed 27.

A little girl laughing.

Me closing the lid.

Running away.

Forgetting.

I fell to my knees.

"I'm sorry..."

She walked toward me.

"I know."

Relief flooded my chest.

Then she whispered...

"I died waiting for you."

The room shook.

The walls cracked.

At first I thought they were bricks.

They weren't.

They were ribs.

The floor beneath me moved.

Like breathing.

The ceiling thumped.

Slow.

Heavy.

Like a heartbeat.

I looked around.

The room...

Wasn't a room.

It was alive.

The hostel wasn't haunted.

The hostel was the monster.

Bed 27 wasn't cursed.

It was its mouth.

The little girl looked up.

"I was never keeping the girls here."

"I was trying to warn them."

A deafening groan echoed above us.

The walls opened.

Not into hallways.

Into a throat.

Hundreds of girls stood inside it.

Silent.

Smiling.

Their eyes empty.

The Head Girl stepped forward.

She looked at me.

Then she whispered,

"We were never students."

"We were food."

The floor lurched.

The girls disappeared into the darkness.

One by one.

Without screaming.

As if they had already accepted it.

The little girl grabbed my hand.

"Run."

"There isn't a door."

"I know."

She smiled sadly.

"There never was."

Everything went black.

...

The next morning...

Construction workers arrived at Queen Mary Hostel.

There had been complaints.

Girls kept disappearing.

The building was scheduled for demolition.

The first swing of the excavator hit Bed 27.

Nothing happened.

The second strike split the floor open.

The workers stared.

There was no foundation beneath the hostel.

Only darkness.

Endless darkness.

Then...

The darkness blinked.

The foreman dropped his flashlight.

Someone below whispered,

"Thank you..."

Another voice answered,

"She's gone."

Then...

Thousands of voices laughed together.

The workers ran.

The hostel was demolished that afternoon.

A shopping mall now stands where Queen Mary Hostel once was.

People say it's perfectly safe.

Except...

Every year...

One shop closes forever.

The security cameras always fail at exactly 3:14 a.m.

And sometimes...

Late at night...

Customers report hearing a little girl beneath the floor.

Not crying.

Not laughing.

Just whispering...

"There's room for one more."

THE END.