Chapter 277: Hospital (11)
Ding-dong!
The surgical elevator stopped at the first floor, and the crisp notification sound rang out as the metal doors slid open. Just as Everly raised her eyes, she happened to meet a face illuminated by the elevator’s light.
It was a rebellious-looking young man covered in tattoos. He didn’t seem very old. His face was pale, and his expression carried obvious unease.
He was likely just passing by. Seeing the elevator open, he instinctively glanced over.
That single glance was enough for him to lock eyes briefly with Everly inside the elevator.
“Uwa—ahhh!!”
The young man froze for a split second, then let out a terrified scream as if he had seen something unimaginably horrifying. He dropped the chain lock in his hand, turned around, and ran down the corridor.
Everly narrowed her eyes slightly.
She recognized him—this was the same man she had encountered not long ago when she was trapped in the basement. Back then, when she had tried to ram open the emergency door at the end of the left corridor, it had briefly cracked open, and this very same tattooed man had been on the other side, desperately trying to hold it shut in panic.
According to Tom’s description, his name was probably Elron… or Edron…?
How convenient. She hadn’t even gone looking for him yet, and he had delivered himself right to her.
A faint, bloodthirsty smile appeared on Everly’s face.
With a light push of her boot, she launched herself out of the elevator like a night owl taking flight, effortlessly leaping forward in pursuit of Edron.
……
Inside the control room.
After sending Edron off, the lip-ringed man and Dr. J returned to the monitors, switching between the left stairwell and the first-floor corridor, closely tracking the movements of both the “mad woman” and Edron.
The woman was still descending the stairs.
She had already reached the second floor. If she continued downward, she would soon arrive at the basement level. That was the lowest point of the stairwell—once she finished the stairs and pushed open the corridor door, that monster would enter the hallway.
To prevent the “mad woman” from using the elevator to go upstairs, the lip-ringed man had already locked down the normal elevators in advance. This meant her only option was to pass through the pitch-black basement corridor and head toward the right-side stairwell.
And what Edron had to do was get there before her and lock the basement’s right-side emergency door in advance, blocking her path upward.
In terms of distance, Edron could still make it in time. However, considering his timid, cowardly, avoidance-prone personality, they still didn’t feel at ease unless someone was there to personally supervise him.
So they kept switching the surveillance feeds between the two of them.
At first, everything was normal—the “mad woman” was descending the stairs, while Edron, chain lock in hand, quickly made his way through the corridor toward the right-side emergency passage.
But midway through, something suddenly went wrong—the surveillance feed covering Edron’s route went black. Both the first-floor corridor and the basement cameras went dark, leaving nothing visible at all.
“What’s going on? Why is this happening!”
“I don’t know—maybe there’s a circuit failure in that area.”
The lip-ringed man broke out in a cold sweat, his fingers flying across the control panel, but he still couldn’t restore the surveillance feeds on Edron’s side.
Dr. J grabbed the intercom and called out into Edron’s channel repeatedly, but there was no response at all.
“He probably left his headset in the basement.”
“Then his phone? You’ve got his number—call him!”
The lip-ringed man shrugged.
“My SIM card got pulled out by you.”
“F**K!”
Dr. J grabbed his phone, angrily tossed it to the lip-ringed man, and turned to switch the main surveillance screen to the left stairwell, scanning for any sign of the “mad woman.”
If they couldn’t track Edron’s situation, then at least knowing the woman’s movements—and her current location—would slightly ease the unease in his chest.
The lip-ringed man caught Dr. J’s phone, opened his own contacts list, found Edron’s number, and dialed it digit by digit.
Beep… beep…
At the same moment the call connected, an intense heavy metal rock ringtone suddenly blasted from the doorway.
The lip-ringed man immediately recognized it—it was Edron’s phone ringtone.
Sure enough, the next second, someone knocked on the control room door.
Knock, knock.
“It—it’s me… Edron. Open the door…”
A muffled voice came through the thick door panel.
“He’s alive?!”
Dr. J tore his gaze away from the surveillance monitors and kicked the mohawked man hard in the side.
“You useless piece of trash, go open the door!”
Ever since Mike died, the mohawked man had been mentally unstable, sitting curled up in his chair with hollow eyes like a puppet that had lost its soul.
Even after being kicked, he didn’t cry out. He slowly stood up and drifted toward the door as instructed.
“Wait! Don’t open it yet—”
The lip-ringed man suddenly had a bad feeling and tried to stop him, but it was already too late.
With a sharp click, the lock was undone.
The metal door swung inward.
Before the mohawked man could even see what was outside, a heavy, warm body suddenly collapsed forward into him, knocking straight into his arms.
“W-what… what is this…?”
The mohawked man instinctively reached out and caught the body.
From the clothing, it looked like Edron—but how had he ended up like this…?
“No… damn it! It’s that mad woman!”
His sluggish mind was still trying to process what was happening when rapid footsteps suddenly sounded from behind him.
He only felt a sharp pull on the hem of his clothes. Turning his head, he saw the lip-ringed man grabbing him, clearly trying to drag him back.
He was about to ask why he was pulling him when his body suddenly froze in place.
He saw it—
Through the lip-ringed man’s widened pupils, he saw his own stunned, vacant expression… he saw Edron’s half-limp head resting on his shoulder… and he also saw the woman standing at the doorway, smiling at them.
Half of her body was soaked in blood. Her face beneath the hat and scarf was splattered with crimson droplets, looking like a demon crawling out of a blood-soaked hell.
And yet that face—
Those deep, captivating blue eyes, the straight bridge of her nose, the perfectly shaped lips—
It fulfilled every human definition of “beauty.” Even drenched in blood, it remained beautiful.
Like a poppy flower. Like a venomous snake. Beneath that stunning exterior lay cruelty, madness, and violence.
But how could she be here…?
A cold hand suddenly closed around his wrist.
The grip was terrifyingly strong—calloused palms and fingertips like iron clamps. Once it latched on, there was no escaping.
Before he could even resist, a tremendous force yanked him forward. A nearly 100-kilogram man was dragged off balance and stumbled violently toward the front.
Even the lip-ringed man holding onto his clothes couldn’t escape; he was pulled forward as well, forced to stagger two steps toward the doorway.
“Found you all, hehe… let’s play together~~”
Everly tilted her head down about forty-five degrees, revealing a wide, crimson smile split unnaturally across her lips beneath the scarf. Her glass-like blue eyes rolled slightly upward, locking onto the people at the door.
Her voice was sweet—
and chillingly eerie.
This angle was deliberately chosen by her.
Light spilling from inside the control room struck her face at an oblique angle. Most of it was blocked by the fur hat and her high brow ridge, leaving only faint, dim illumination that outlined her blood-soaked cheek and her eerily distorted expression.
Even the most beautiful person would look ghostly and sinister under this kind of lighting.
Let alone her—she no longer resembled anything close to “beautiful.” If anything, she looked less like a human and more like a monster that had crawled out of hell.
“Aaaah! Aaaahhh! Help! Help!”
The mohawked man broke down completely, tears and mucus streaming down his face as he screamed and flailed his arms in panic.
Physically, he was actually quite strong—his forearm muscles were thick and well-defined, his arm circumference nearly rivaling Everly’s calf. But despite having a strong body, its owner had neither the courage nor the combat instincts to match it. Faced with danger, he could only cry, shout, and swing wildly without any structure or purpose.
He didn’t hit Everly.
Instead, Edron—the one who had been shoved into his arms earlier—was struck first.
With a dull thud, Edron’s body collapsed to the ground like a rag doll.
The lip-ringed man instinctively looked down—and immediately met Edron’s face.
It had been brutally mutilated.
From chin to forehead, all the skin had been peeled away, exposing raw layers of muscle and fat beneath. His eyes had also been gouged out, leaving behind two pitch-black empty sockets where the eyeballs should have been.
Those hollow sockets now stared directly at the lip-ringed man with deep resentment—like they were questioning him.
Why did you push me out to lock the door?
Why did you get me killed?
Why… did you do this to me?
“I’m not—no, no, it wasn’t me!” the lip-ringed man screamed, his scalp crawling and his whole body drenched in cold sweat. Even his voice had changed pitch. “If you want someone, blame Dr. J! Don’t come after me—this has nothing to do with me!”
After saying that, he rushed to the door, trying to slam it shut—but the mohawked man was still blocking it, and the control room door wouldn’t close properly.
“Move!”
Dr. J’s cold voice came from behind him.
The lip-ringed man instinctively stepped aside.
A dark blur shot forward from inside the room, violently slamming into the mohawked man at the doorway and knocking him completely outside.
“Close it!”
Taking the command, the lip-ringed man’s eyes darkened. He forcefully pulled the door shut—
BANG!
A loud impact echoed.
At the same moment, the black figure beside him moved with incredible speed, twisting the lock beneath the handle and flipping the deadbolt into place. Then he slumped against the door, sliding down the wall, gasping for breath.
“No! Open it! Open the door!”
Fists hammered against the thick door panel.
Then came the screams—agonized, desperate wails that pierced through the wood and into everyone’s ears inside.
The sounds were horrific.
Intermixed with the dull thuds of bodies colliding and the wet, sickening pu-chi of blades stabbing into flesh.
It was enough to make one’s spine go cold—and the stomach turn.
“Block the door first…”
Dr. J’s face was ashen as he stepped away from the entrance.
The lip-ringed man, equally unwilling to listen any further, nodded silently. Together, they moved to the table and lifted the heavy wooden desk, dragging it toward the door and wedging it in place.
Thud.
When the desk was finally set down, the outside had already fallen silent.
Only a thin trail of blood seeped through the crack under the door, slowly spreading inward.
The vivid red looked like a blade slicing into the lip-ringed man’s vision, filling him with a wave of nausea—and an overwhelming sense of guilt.
“I’m sorry…”
He looked away, lips trembling as he mouthed the apology without sound.
“I’m sorry… Dr. J told me to do it… don’t blame me…”
The control room had only one door and one window facing the outside of the hospital. Because this was a critical surveillance hub, the hospital had installed iron security bars outside the window during construction.
The bars were sturdy—without special tools, even the “mad woman,” no matter how strong she was, would not be able to break in.
So in theory, as long as they held the entrance, they were safe.
After hurriedly moving tables, cabinets, and other heavy objects to block the door, the two men finally returned to the monitors and collapsed into their chairs in exhaustion.
They thought that as long as they did this, they could finally breathe easy.
But at that moment—
Crackle, crackle.
The ceiling lights, along with more than a dozen surveillance screens, suddenly began to flicker without warning.