Mysterious Awakening

“The surveillance room can store up to fifteen days of footage. Let me pull up the past week’s data,” said Strong, swiftly navigating the intricate machinery to retrieve the archived surveillance records. “What’s the purpose of sifting through this old footage?”

“I’m trying to track a few individuals, hoping to shed some light on their recent activities,” Miles clarified.

Suddenly, Strong broke in, “Who is this woman? She’s not one of our staff. The mall’s been shut for days. How on earth did she manage to get in?” A middle-aged woman donning a dress had just appeared on the surveillance monitor.

“Don’t you recognize her?” Miles questioned, casting a suspicious glance at Strong.

“I can’t place her, but she does strike a chord of familiarity. Can’t recollect where I might have seen her, though,” Strong confessed.

Miles was equally clueless. Having only been there for two days, he barely knew the preceding crew.

“Keep tabs on her, see what she’s doing inside the mall.”

Miles suspected the woman on the screen might be the ghost, but circumstantial evidence seemed to indicate that it was Strong who was the ghostly entity. If the ghost had the ability to change its appearance, everything would fall into place. However, the speculation wasn’t sufficient. He required solid proof in the form of surveillance footage.

Miles kept his eyes glued to the video. The woman’s behavior was peculiar. She used the elevator to reach the second floor, but then lingered at the stairwell, standing motionless as if she were a display mannequin.

“Advance the footage a bit,” Miles instructed.

The video played at an accelerated pace.

The woman remained stationary by the stairwell for a good half an hour before finally making a move. She advanced to the second floor. At this juncture, Blush, a cashier, appeared on the screen, apparently on duty.

Blush looked fatigued. Rising from her counter, she took a moment to stretch. Unbeknownst to her, the woman was slowly closing in.

It wasn’t until the mysterious woman had silently positioned herself behind the unsuspecting Blush that…

“Slow it back down,” Miles commanded.

The footage resumed at regular speed.

The unidentified woman stood ominously still behind Blush for a couple of seconds before abruptly seizing Blush’s head.

Blush remained oblivious, her body quivering slightly. What unfolded next was a surreal sight. The woman effortlessly detached Blush’s head from her body as if she were handling a removable toy, leaving a headless corpse behind. The scene was uncannily calm, devoid of screams and bloodshed.

Blush’s lifeless body stood stiffly, a shell devoid of life.

“This… this can’t be real,” Strong stammered, visibly shocked.

River, who had been covertly observing the surveillance video, was equally startled, promptly muffling her screams with her hands.

Miles watched the unfolding scene on the surveillance screen with an unwavering gaze. A mysterious middle-aged woman, after decapitating Blush, shockingly decapitated herself and swapped her head with Blush’s. Suddenly, the stranger became Blush.

Not long after, the woman, now transformed into Blush, casually exited the second floor, her own severed head in hand, along with her original body. Her eerie strength in carrying the lifeless form far surpassed that of an ordinary person.

Miles’s face hardened. “Five days ago, Blush was turned into a ghost,” he deduced, connecting the dots as to why Blush’s severed head appeared so decomposed. It would make sense, given the timeline, if her head had been replaced by the ghost’s five days prior.

“Keep the footage rolling. Watch Blush closely,” he instructed.

Strong, though audibly nervous, complied. The footage resumed, and he swiftly pulled up Blush’s video feed.

The tape from four days prior showed Blush performing everyday tasks at work, interacting with others—seemingly just an average person. She even shared laughter and conversation with her peers. However, the afternoon brought an unsettling shift.

Looking to pass the time, Sister Pear invited a group of female colleagues, including Blush, to try on clothes at a store on the mall’s fifth floor. The store was deserted due to the mall’s closure, leaving the racks full of clothing free for their perusal. Sister Pear was assessing a dress in the mirror when Blush began to act out of the ordinary.

With a slow, stealthy approach, Blush moved behind Sister Pear, extending her hand toward her head. Sister Pear, unaware, turned to engage Blush in conversation, unknowingly thwarting Blush’s unsettling intention.

However, Sister Pear’s luck was fleeting. Oblivious to the supernatural situation, she continued to interact with Blush as she would with any colleague. When Sister Pear turned her attention back to the mirror to appraise another dress, Blush made her move.

In a terrifying echo of what the unknown woman had done to Blush, she reached out and wrenched Sister Pear’s head from her body, causing it to convulse violently.

Miles frowned in confusion. “Wait, if Sister Pear’s head was removed, she shouldn’t have shown up later,” he noted. After all, there could only be one ghost—Blush or Sister Pear, not both.

But the footage that followed left him in shock.

On-screen, Blush, after beheading Sister Pear, then did the same to herself. They exchanged heads. After a moment of stillness, both figures resumed their activities, carrying on as if nothing had happened.

A sudden realization struck Miles, and his heart thudded in his chest. The situation was far more intricate than he had initially perceived. His eyes darted over the surveillance footage, scanning the layout of the mall.

His attention was drawn to a figure lingering by a storeroom door on the mall’s fifth floor. The figure’s back was turned to the camera, obscuring their identity.

“Bring up the video feed from this angle,” Miles directed.

Complying, Strong pulled up the requested surveillance footage.

In a timestamped video from ten minutes prior, it appeared that Mr. Calm, Master Catch, Sister Pear, Mall Manager Li, and others had followed Ethan into the storeroom, seeking refuge.

Simultaneously, individuals started appearing from the elevator hall, the security door, and various stores. They moved sluggishly, enclosing Ethan and his group.

Once Ethan and his group were sequestered within the storeroom, the encircling mob took up positions blocking the storeroom’s entrance. It was only after a considerable period and an unknown event that these individuals gradually dispersed, melting away into the recesses of the mall’s fifth floor.

Witnessing this, a cold shiver ran through Miles as he heaved a shallow breath.

There wasn’t a single ghost. It was an entire throng.

Those who had undergone the head exchange were all either ghosts or manipulated by them.

At this revelation, his eyes fell upon a faint red line wrapped around Strong’s neck.

Strong was one of them too.