Ladders

Series: PSYCHO-LOGIC (Original)
Rating: Dark Themes (+13)

Word Count: 1,139 words (5,840 characters)
Last Updated: 5th December, 2025

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The sight of a bright full moon is a perfect night to take an evening stroll down the brick slope. Coming out of the tunneled darkness is a man carrying a lady like a bride. His face is bloody, cheeks splattered in red with thick dark eyes. It occurs to me that the woman in his arms wasn’t alive, arms dangling out like a ragdoll.

The stranger and I look eye to eye as we walk past each other. His eyes didn’t leave me, neck twisted like an owl eyeing its next prey. I couldn’t twist any further and continued looking ahead in front of me.

Darkness.

Eerie silence.

Uneasy cold air embraces my skin and stops my steps. Why wasn’t I nervous at first sight?

I’m not one to judge but, was the man a killer? It didn’t click to me that the man might be a murderer. I assumed he’s carrying a dead girlfriend or wife, but why would anyone carry a dead body so poetically dramatic in the middle of the night? Wait, where is everybody?

I turn behind to the full moon and the same man stands on top of the wall, covered by the shadows with bloodthirsty eyes of a vampire. His red eyes target me. Why? Am I a witness he needs to eliminate? Or a potential victim like every serial killer with a particular pattern or ritual they must complete? But I’m not a woman! I say that with my hands soft and delicate, fragile and ready to scream. Scream?! I don’t scream! I either run or hide in silence to avoid unnecessary fights from insane randos.

In a wild bewilderment, my face feels smoother and rounder, confirming my body deformed into a female anatomy. His knife is ready to slice another beautiful lady’s life.

Okay. I’m next.

Fuck.

Run!

Hurriedly down into the darkness, my physic remains carrying the strength and stamina of a man. I’m still wearing the same loose clothes and managed to outrun the killer into a shopping centre as fast and far as I could from the small rural town. The building interior is very modern, round and bright white. I exhausted all my energy. No where to hide or run, but the glass elevator in the center. I span the button up, up, up! Come on! Hurry!

A high-pitched ping alerts my instinct to slitter impatiently in between its hungry mouth. The dark shadowy man fast-pacely walks for the elevator. Quick, quick, quick! Close the fucking door already! Why won’t it let me go up?! And why are there yellow horizontal bars in front of me?!

I look on my left, more metal bars. My right, even more bars. Behind me, bars. This is an elevator, right? I’m still inside the exterior of one, but the buttons aren’t real. Not even a ceiling to lift me off. What once an elevator became a trapped jungle gym.

He’s there.

I have to climb now. NOW!

Hop, and hop. Hopping onto the bars and extending my hands to the next bars above me. Luckily, it carries my weight as I exceed to aim for the top floor. I climb, and climb, and climb. Somehow, it gets easier if I just skip a couple of bars to save the energy and time to reach the top.

Looking down, I can spot the killer a few levels behind me as he rushes to the steps. I can do this! With sudden determination, I carry my body all the way to the 100th floor.

The higher I am, the harder it is to see. I rest at the top to find no escape. The entire time, there’s no opening or entrance to let me leave. The space in between the bars is so narrow no human can squeeze through. If I was a butterfly or something small, I could have escaped. Thinking back, the only exit was right from the start. I have to drop all the way down. Grabby hands extend and reach out from the darkness. I was caught with intense red eyes through the gaps. How the fuck?!

“Get off me, freak!” I kicked and squirmed my arm off before he could swing a cut with his knife.

I let go.

Fall, and fall, and fall.

But I grab on.

Safe.

And somewhere halfway of the building level.

I look up and the irritated man clicks his mouth and is forced to descend down. This time, I waited to rest. Once he’s near the same floor, I hurry down or up. Hmmm, maybe up to throw off his mind.

And up it is. He nearly grabbed my leg, but he cursed and hurried up the steps again. On the 70th floor, I switch back down, falling all the way to the bottom.

However, there’s no door. It was there before I arrived. How did I get trapped to begin with?! All hope is lost as I'm trapped inside the rectangular cylinder of bars like an animal. The killer has the advantage to stab or slice me once I exhausted my energy. I was never gonna win ain’t I? All I can do is delay my death by surviving from his bloodthirsty hunger.

As he arrives on the ground floor, I climb up. This time, he expects it and plays along the long game.

I reached the top. So does he.

I descend to the bottom. So does he.

I keep climbing up and down, but where does it lead? It’s always him.

How long do I have to survive? And why wouldn’t he leave me alone?! What does he want?! What did I do?!?! All the highs and lows, numbers up and down, it’s leading me to nowhere, driving me nuts.

This time, he’s… no, he’s not enjoying the chase to begin with. Eyes piques interest as he continues to stalk my very next moves. I’m just a prey to his sport, a worthy reward and effort once he finally rips me to shreds. A shadow who haunts my dreams.

My legs give in. So do my arms. I don’t have time to rest. He’s already here, taking his sweet time after me. He hasn’t broken a sweat since. He’s not human, isn’t he? But I doubt he’s a vampire or a werewolf, otherwise I would have noticed.

I climb up with all that’s left of my strength. The man stops and watches my pathetic life wasting his energy. And so, he waits. By the time I’m on the fifth level, he begins walking the steps again.

I dropped.

And fall.

No longer able to hold on.

He noticed and rushed back down.

I asked myself, what’s the point?

Won’t it end already…?

If he’s the grim reaper, then so be it.

My eyes closed before anything happened.

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Author's Note: Originally, I thought about the title as "Snakes and Ladders" with the shadowy killer as the snake, but there's no fun between it. I could turned it into an execution or killing game story, but I rather keep the original script based on my recent nightmare. After all, death will always win and it's the matter what you do with your life now before there's nothing left to climb up or down.