Chapter 93: The Disappeared Girl

Carol was mentally prepared for this, so she was not overly surprised. After all, this question was one that simply could not be ignored. Without understanding the intelligence, they would be unable to proceed.

The front desk clerk's expression abruptly shifted, clearly caught off guard and unsure of what to say.

Carol's demeanor turned icy: "Are you concealing something from us? If there is an issue, I can file a complaint with the housekeeping department."

The clerk pressed her lips tightly together before responding, "What issue are you referring to?"

"Room 1505—has anything unusual occurred there in the past few days?"

Upon hearing this, the clerk's face went pale. She bit her lip, glanced around nervously, and leaned in closer, lowering her voice. "Did other guests on the fifteenth floor tell you about this?"

Realizing the implication, Carol nodded in understanding.

After a moment of contemplation, she whispered, "I'm sorry, but the hotel cannot disclose guest information. I cannot share anything."

Maintaining confidentiality regarding guest information is a fundamental ethical standard in the hospitality industry; front desk personnel, who directly interact with guests, are certainly not allowed to be loose-lipped. Thus, they found it nearly impossible to extract any useful information.

However, the reticence of the staff did not imply that all employees were equally tight-lipped. Carol and her companions proceeded to seek out other hotel staff to inquire about the matter. Eventually, they located a service person who, after receiving a small bribe, opened up. At that moment, each of the five was deducted twenty redemption tickets.

"One year ago... a female guest stayed in Room 1505. She mysteriously... disappeared."

Disappeared?

This revelation took Carol by surprise; she had initially assumed that someone must have died in Room 1505. Since it was a case of "disappearance," one could not hastily conclude that the individual was dead; perhaps she was portrayed by a newcomer actor, now hiding somewhere.

Given the possibility of such a scenario, Carol felt compelled to proceed with caution. Meanwhile, Allen, standing behind her, shared her astonishment; like Carol, he had believed that a murder had likely occurred in Room 1505.

"A year ago, there was a high school girl, about eighteen or nineteen years old, traveling alone, who also stayed in Room 1505. She remained there for approximately a week. However, as time passed, she began to exhibit increasingly strange behavior..."

Both Carol and Allen recognized that the following details would be crucial.

"At that time, she seemed to be afraid of something. Strangely enough, despite her fear, she never checked out. Each day, she appeared deeply terrified... I had observed her odd demeanor; she was perpetually startled, reluctant to go outside. She still had some money with her, so she would have us deliver meals to her room, with the cost settled separately. Each time we brought her food, she would be extremely anxious, only daring to open the door a crack to receive the meal before immediately shutting it, as if terrified of something. Then... one night, she suddenly vanished without a trace..."

"The next day, when the server delivering her meal found her absent, given her peculiar behavior, the housekeeping staff grew concerned and reviewed the surveillance footage. They discovered that the night before her disappearance, she had exhibited even more abnormal behavior. As she entered the fifteenth floor, she kept glancing around, looking back with every step, displaying a startled expression several times. In fact, she seemed to have rushed back down the corridor to her room. Notably, there were no cameras installed at her room's entrance. Sensing something was amiss and unable to reach her, we reported it to the police."

At this point, Allen's mind suddenly recalled the real-world case of Elisa Lam. That case remains unsolved, the deceased exhibiting bizarre behavior before her death, captured by surveillance cameras. Ultimately, her body was discovered in a rooftop water tank. The videos she recorded prior to her demise were sensationalized as paranormal footage. Allen had seen it online; it depicted her entering an elevator, inexplicably pressing every button, while the doors refused to close, leading her to exit the elevator, displaying strange behavior toward an unseen presence. Viewers speculated that she was being chased by an assailant, pressing all the buttons in fear, worried that the perpetrator was waiting for her on the upper floors. Consequently, the elevator's malfunction and her peculiar actions arose from her terror.

This horror film momentarily evoked a sense of overlap between Allen's thoughts and the real-life Elisa Lam case.

"So, she has yet to be found?" Carol pressed for more information.

"No," the service staff replied, shaking her head. "The police conducted an investigation, reviewing the surveillance footage in hopes of uncovering what happened that night. They managed to capture footage of her returning to the fifteenth floor around nine o'clock on the night of her disappearance. However, there was no recording of her exiting the building. It was as if she had completely vanished from existence!"

The five of them felt a chill run down their spines—only footage of her going up, but none of her coming down?

"Doesn't that imply she is still on the fifteenth floor?"

"That would seem to be the case. However, the police conducted a thorough search of the fifteenth floor and could not locate her. They repeatedly reviewed the surveillance footage from the two days surrounding the incident, yet they were left bewildered about her whereabouts! She vanished under such mysterious circumstances! The police also investigated the other guests on the fifteenth floor, and at that time, there were only five guests, including that girl. Strangely, all five of them appeared in the surveillance footage, returning to the fifteenth floor before the girl's disappearance. The next day, upon discovering the girl was missing from her room, we immediately reported it to the authorities. After the police arrived and reviewed the footage, they searched all the rooms but found no trace of the girl. Throughout this period, those five individuals never left the fifteenth floor! Yet, it is precisely that the girl has completely vanished! Moreover, the surveillance cameras did not capture any suspicious individuals entering the fifteenth floor that night, aside from these six guests!"

The situation indeed seemed quite sinister.

"Those five individuals..." Carol clenched her teeth and began describing the physical characteristics of Long Ni'er and the others. "It must be them, right?"

"Yes, that's correct. It is them, especially that young lady—she is exceptionally beautiful, so her appearance left a deep impression on me. They have been living here for a whole year without leaving!"

"A year..." Carol felt a tremor in her heart. "They have been living here all this time?"

"Indeed. I found it strange as well. Yet they have remained in this hotel for an entire year!"

A year ago, Long Ni'er and the others had portrayed characters who resided on the fifteenth floor, while the girl who mysteriously vanished from Room 1505 had not been captured in any surveillance footage leaving the fifteenth floor. However, the police could not find her there.

There were two possibilities: one was that a ghost had killed her, rendering her disappearance entirely unsurprising; the other was that she transformed into a ghost after her death, which, of course, could not be documented on camera.

Regardless of which scenario, the situation was far from favorable. The fifteenth floor undoubtedly concealed lethal dangers! Yet, the script mandated that they remain on the fifteenth floor, under no circumstances permitted to leave its confines!

What should they do next? Logically, although the girl's disappearance was bizarre, it had little to do with them. Their characters had not encountered any supernatural occurrences, and they certainly did not believe in the existence of ghosts. Questioning the matter seemed absurd.

However, since all five of them were actors from the Eighth Circle of Hell Cinema, their roles could only be those of human perpetrators, not vengeful spirits. Thus, if a ghost had killed that girl, it could not be among the five of them. The script would never allow actors to portray ghosts, as that would transform the production into a nonsensical horror film devoid of peril, allowing everyone to engage with it in a carefree manner.

Regardless, it was time to return to the fifteenth floor. They all hastily finished their meals to delay their return to that ominous floor. Now, they had no choice but to head back.

Entering the elevator, Carol pressed the button for the fifteenth floor, then, after a moment of silence, asked, "What are your thoughts?"

"It does sound rather eerie," the first to speak was Edith. "Perhaps it truly is a supernatural event."

At such a moment, it would certainly be inappropriate to suggest it was merely a criminal's clever scheme. This was also a strategic move by Edith, setting the stage for potential investigations into supernatural phenomena; otherwise, she would be closing off her escape routes.

At that moment, Allen interjected, "We cannot definitively conclude that the girl is dead. She may still be alive. However, if she is indeed dead, it would be a calculated murder. She might have sensed that someone intended to kill her and stayed here solely due to issues with her credit card. Even if the killer is someone from the fifteenth floor, she could not request a room change. This implies she might have known that someone on the fifteenth floor wanted to kill her but had no choice but to remain there. As for whether it is a supernatural incident, that depends on how the situation unfolds."

Allen refrained from categorizing it as a supernatural occurrence because his earlier statements were based on logical deductions, assuming that the murderer was human, and naturally, such considerations did not involve the supernatural.

"However, Yang Tieyan advised us to be cautious... Moreover, why have the five suspects continued to reside here for a year following the incident? The expenses of staying in this hotel for a year are staggering. Are they all wealthy individuals?"

At that moment, the elevator doors opened. As the five actors stepped out, another elevator door opened, revealing the strikingly beautiful Long Ni'er stepping out.

"Everyone," Long Ni'er said, turning her gaze toward the five, "I have something I wish to discuss with you."

This statement... was not part of the script!

What could she possibly want to say?

Carol's expression hardened with a hint of wariness as he regarded her. He would not let his guard down simply because of her beauty; after all, they were not from the same cinema, and he knew nothing about her—better to err on the side of caution.

"Let's sit down for a moment," Long Ni'er said with a faint smile. "My name is Wu Yinchun. I have some matters I wish to discuss with you."