#exit 8

Then she found the walkie-talkie.

It was sitting on a folding chair in the middle of the hallway, old and scratched, like something from decades ago. A small red light blinked on its side. Curious, she picked it up.

A low static crackled, then a male voice came through—clear, steady, and strangely close.

“Karina? Can you hear me? This is Officer Park Jisung. Do not move.”

She nearly dropped the device. “Who is this? How do you know my name?”

Static. Then the voice again, calmer this time. “I know this sounds insane, but you’re not where you think you are. The backstage area… it’s looping. Alternate layer. You need to listen to me carefully if you want to get out before Stage Zero fully collapses.”

Karina’s heart hammered. She looked around. The hallway looked normal again—no, wait. The posters on the wall were wrong. Her own face smiled back at her, but the eyes were slightly too wide, the smile stretched. One of the posters had her name spelled “Kar1na.”

“This isn’t funny,” she whispered, gripping the walkie-talkie tighter. “If this is some staff prank—”

“It’s not a prank,” Jisung cut in, voice urgent. “I’m outside the anomaly zone, monitoring from the real world. The walkie is your anchor. There are anomalies—things that don’t belong. Spot them, avoid triggering them, and find the correct exit. One wrong move and the loop resets. You’ll forget everything again.”

Karina swallowed hard. Part of her wanted to throw the device away and run, but another part—the part that had survived years in the idol industry—knew when something was real. The air felt heavier. Wrong.

“Okay,” she said shakily. “What do I do?”

“First, turn around slowly. Tell me what you see.”

She turned. The hallway behind her had changed again. A mannequin dressed in one of her stage outfits stood at the far end, head tilted at an unnatural angle. Its fingers were too long.

“There’s… a mannequin. Wearing my outfit. It wasn’t there before.”

Jisung’s voice dropped. “That’s Anomaly 04. Do not look directly at its face. Walk past it on the left side, eyes on the floor. Count your steps. If it moves, run.”

Karina’s breathing quickened. She kept her gaze down, heart pounding as she passed the mannequin. She swore she heard fabric rustling behind her, but she didn’t look back. Ten steps. Fifteen. The temperature dropped sharply.

“Good,” Jisung said, relief evident. “You’re doing well. Keep going straight. There should be a green room door on your right in about thirty meters. But watch for the clocks.”

The clocks. As she walked, she noticed them—old analog clocks on the walls, all showing different times. One was melting like wax, dripping onto the floor. Another spun wildly backward.

She reached the green room door. The handle felt ice-cold. When she pushed it open, the room inside was a perfect replica of her actual dressing room… except the mirror showed her reflection with black tears running down her cheeks, though her real face was dry.

“Jisung,” she whispered into the walkie. “The mirror… it’s crying.”

“Close the door. Slowly. That’s a memory bleed. Don’t interact with your reflections—they pull you deeper into the slip.”

She slammed the door shut, backing away. The hallway had shifted again. Now it sloped downward slightly, and distant music—her own song—played backward at a crawl.

Jisung’s voice crackled through. “You’re in a time slip layer now. The anomalies get smarter the deeper you go. Tell me everything you see, no matter how small. I’m cross-referencing with previous victims’ reports. We’re going to get you out, Karina. I promise.”

Victims. The word made her stomach twist.

She kept moving, describing every wrong detail: the staff ID cards on the floor with photos of people who had no eyes, the vending machine that dispensed photographs instead of drinks—pictures of her performing on stages that didn’t exist. One photo showed her alone on stage, audience seats filled with motionless mannequins.

Every time she spotted something off and avoided it correctly, Jisung praised her quietly, his voice becoming a strange source of comfort in the growing madness.

But the loops were getting shorter.

After what felt like an hour—but the walkie said only eleven minutes had passed—she found herself back at the same folding chair where she’d found the device. The mannequin was closer now, head fully turned toward her.

“Jisung,” she breathed, voice trembling. “I’m back where I started. It reset.”

A pause on the other end. When he spoke again, there was tension beneath the calm.

“Stage Zero is tightening. You have to break the pattern this time. Next loop, take the left corridor instead of right at the first split. And Karina… if you see yourself walking toward you, do not speak to her. Run.”

Karina gripped the walkie-talkie like a lifeline, sweat mixing with the remnants of stage makeup. The lights flickered again, and somewhere deep in the corridors, she heard footsteps that sounded exactly like her own heels—but faster. Closer.

She started walking again, following Jisung’s instructions, every nerve on edge as the backstage labyrinth twisted around her once more.

This wasn’t just a building anymore. It was alive. And it was hungry.

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