Writers 
The Room That Was Never There
Twenty-year-old Aisha had just moved into a quiet apartment building on the outskirts of Lagos. The rent was surprisingly cheap, but the landlord smiled and said, "Just one rule... never go to the fourth floor after midnight."
Aisha laughed. "Why would I?"
"The elevator sometimes stops there," the old man replied. "If it does... don't get out."
She thought it was just a creepy story told to scare new tenants.
For the first two weeks, everything was normal. She went to work, came home, watched movies, and slept peacefully.
Then strange things began to happen.
Every morning, she found tiny wet footprints on her kitchen floor.
She lived alone.
She checked the windows. Locked.
She checked the doors. Locked.
Maybe she was imagining things.
One Friday night, after returning from work exhausted, she stepped into the elevator.
She pressed 3.
The doors closed.
The elevator started moving...
Then it stopped.
The display changed.
4
The doors slowly opened.
A long hallway stretched before her.
The lights flickered.
There were no decorations.
No doors.
Just one old clock hanging on the wall.
It read 12:00.
Remembering the landlord's warning, Aisha quickly pressed the "Close Door" button.
Nothing happened.
The doors stayed open.
Then she heard it.
Footsteps.
Slow...
Heavy...
Coming from the darkness.
Thump...
Thump...
Thump...
The sound grew closer.
Her breathing became faster.
Suddenly the elevator doors slammed shut by themselves.
The elevator dropped to the third floor.
When the doors opened again, everything looked normal.
She ran straight into her apartment and locked every door.
The next morning, she told her neighbor.
The woman turned pale.
"You saw it?"
"Saw what?"
"The fourth floor."
"But this building only has three floors."
Aisha laughed nervously.
"That's impossible. I was there."
The neighbor didn't answer.
Instead, she handed Aisha an old newspaper.
The headline read:
FIRE DESTROYS FOURTH FLOOR... 27 DEAD.
The date was twenty-three years ago.
Every resident on the fourth floor had died.
Since then, the building had been rebuilt with only three floors.
Aisha refused to believe it.
Until that night.
At exactly midnight...
Someone knocked.
Three slow knocks.
Knock...
Knock...
Knock...
She looked through the peephole.
No one.
Then another knock.
This time...
It came from inside her apartment.
Frozen with fear, she slowly turned around.
The bedroom door was open.
She was certain she had closed it before sleeping.
A dark figure stood in the corner of the room.
It wasn't moving.
Its face was hidden.
Only its glowing eyes stared at her.
She screamed and switched on the light.
The room was empty.
The next morning, she packed her bags.
She didn't care about losing her rent.
She just wanted to leave.
As she carried her suitcase into the elevator, the doors closed automatically.
She pressed the ground floor.
Instead...
The elevator went up.
The display showed:
4
"No..." she whispered.
The doors opened.
This time the hallway wasn't empty.
Twenty-seven people stood silently on both sides.
Their clothes were burned.
Their skin was blackened with ash.
Their eyes were completely white.
All of them smiled.
At the end of the hallway stood a little girl holding a teddy bear.
She pointed at Aisha.
"You came back."
The burned people slowly began walking toward the elevator.
Aisha desperately pressed every button.
Nothing worked.
The elevator refused to close.
The little girl whispered,
"We've been waiting for someone to replace us."
The burned figures reached the elevator.
One by one, they stepped inside.
The temperature dropped so low that Aisha could see her own breath.
The last thing she remembered was the little girl smiling.
Then...
Everything went black.
---
The building manager reported that Aisha disappeared without a trace.
Her apartment was empty.
Her suitcase was still inside.
The elevator camera showed something impossible.
At exactly 12:00 a.m., Aisha stepped into the elevator.
The doors opened...
She smiled at someone who wasn't visible on the camera...
Then she walked out onto a floor that didn't exist.
The elevator closed.
When it reopened a few seconds later...
It was empty.
To this day, the apartment building officially has only three floors.
But every now and then, just after midnight...
The elevator stops at Floor 4.
And if someone is unlucky enough to step out...
A new smiling face appears among the twenty-seven waiting in the hallway.