Three teenagers break into an abandoned tower block to investigate the rumour of Floor 13, only to find a glowing portal that seems to recognise them.
Rain hammered against the windows of the abandoned high-rise on Wspólna Street as Karina, Simon, and David slipped through the half-open emergency door. The corridor beyond was stale with dust, old paint, and the kind of silence that made every footstep sound like a mistake. Their torches carved narrow beams through the dark as they climbed, following the legend that had pulled them here: Floor 13, sealed for years, where people swore they heard voices behind doors that did not exist.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Simon whispered. He kept looking back as if the stairwell might close behind them.
Karina tightened her grip on the railing and kept going. "No," she said. "But if there really is something up there, I want to see it for myself."
David snorted under his breath, though it sounded less like confidence than nerves trying to pass as courage. By the time they reached the thirteenth floor, the air had changed. It was colder here, and the building’s usual creaks had gone so still that even the rain seemed far away. The corridor stretched ahead in a long grey line, empty except for a strange shimmer on the wall opposite the lift.
David stopped first. "Tell me you see that."
Karina did. A mark about the size of a door was glowing faintly in the plaster, as if light were trapped just beneath the surface. When she stepped closer, the shape rippled. Not painted. Not a crack. Something else entirely.
She lifted her hand and touched it.
The wall turned icy. The shimmer deepened, pulsing once under her palm like a heartbeat. Simon sucked in a breath. "Karina..."
A pale green light flashed through the corridor, and the reflection in the glowing surface warped, stretching their faces into colours that did not belong to this building. Then came a whisper, thin as breath against glass, speaking from somewhere on the other side.
The shimmer split open.
Mist spilled out across the floor, curling around their shoes, and a shadow moved inside the light. It was tall, almost human, but its hand had too many joints and its fingers dragged slowly forward, as if it had been waiting for them. Karina did not step back. She could not. The thing on the other side was reaching through, and the portal was getting wider.