NOVEL WEB Chapter 5: THE BLOOD STAIRCASE
"Every step is a decision. Take the wrong one, and the floor takes something back."
There were no stairs.
Not at first.
Just a gaping hole in the wall, lined with muscle and twitching veins, sloping downward like a throat built to swallow the desperate.
Jié stood at its edge, breathing slow.
The air that poured from the dark corridor stank of copper and rot, and something deeper—decay soaked in regret. Like the scent of abandoned hospitals and confession booths that had never been cleaned.
He stepped forward.
Not because he was brave.
Because going back wasn't an option.
The incline dropped fast.
The ground beneath his feet squelched with every step. Not mud. Not tile.
Something alive.
He walked carefully, measuring his balance, shifting his weight like a predator that had never been taught how to walk on anything but concrete and broken glass.
Each footfall echoed.
But not away from him.
Back toward him.
Like the floor was remembering the sound of his steps.
The descent twisted.
Left.
Then right.
Then again.
No pattern. No rhythm. Just organic madness.
Every few minutes, he passed someone else — or what remained of them.
A man crawling on his elbows, mouth sewn shut with his own hair.
A woman sitting against the wall, her eyes scooped out but still following him somehow.
A child with skin that breathed.
None spoke.
None moved toward him.
They were trapped in decisions already made.
A name pulsed on the wall beside him.
Jié.
He froze.
It wasn't written in ink. Or blood.
It was grown.
The tissue of the hallway had shifted to form his name — each letter twitching faintly like a muscle spasm.
He didn't touch it.
Just stared.
Then kept moving.
[SYSTEM EVENT: ECHO PATH TRIGGERED]
This floor has marked you.
Your path will not be the same as theirs.
Risk: Unpredictable encountersBonus: Higher trait distortion potential
Jié clenched his fists.
The floor was watching him now.
Not just observing.
Investing.
That meant it wanted something.
And that meant he could use it.
The hallway finally opened into a room.
A massive chamber, circular, with walls lined by faces.
Dozens.Hundreds.All pressed into the meat-flesh. Some screaming. Some whispering. Some smiling.
In the center: a spiral staircase made of bone.
Polished white.Laced with tendons.And each step?
Covered in symbols.
He approached slowly.
Looked at the first step.
It read:
"The first time you lied."
He hesitated.
Then stepped on it.
The bone beneath his foot groaned — not from weight — but memory.
A vision slammed into his skull:
He was eight.Hungry.Starving.
His mother had hidden two boiled eggs in the stove, planning to give one to Xiǎorú and keep the other for herself.
He'd taken both.
Ate them in silence.
Told her he hadn't seen them.
She'd believed him.
The vision faded.
The pain stayed.
His head throbbed.
The bone beneath his foot cracked.
He moved to the next step.
"The first time you wanted someone to die."
He stepped.
Another surge of memory.
He was eleven.Yanyue had already left.Their father came home drunk.Xiǎorú had tried to hide in the closet. He pulled her out.
Jié had watched.
From the other room.
Hands clenched.
Eyes empty.
He had wished — with everything in him — that the man would just fucking die.
The vision ended.
He didn't scream.
Didn't flinch.
He climbed the next step.
Then the next.
And the next.
Each one dredged up a truth he didn't want to remember — every weakness, every betrayal, every unspoken sin.
Until the final step.
Blank.
No words.
He stood on it.
And heard his own voice.
"I don't care who dies."
"I just want her to live."
The staircase shattered.
Not down — but up.
It opened a new path, straight through the ceiling — through white flesh and red heat and a shriek that never ended.
Jié pulled himself up.
Hand over hand.
Flesh wrapped around his arms like rope.
And he climbed into the next chamber…
…laughing.
Because the floor thought it could break him by showing him his worst.
It didn't understand:
He already lived there.
Next: Chapter 5 – The Mask of Teeth
"What you wear becomes who you are. On this floor, it decides your face."