This kind of real touch tells him that he is not dreaming, nor is he having hallucinations; everything in front of him is real.

Seeing his vague face reflected on the water, Ethan's spirit became a little dazed.

Being alone in this deadly place, without a trace of anger or hope, Ethan felt a sense of despair and loneliness, abandoned by the whole world.

Suddenly, a splash of water appeared in front of him, and a certain sound came faintly.

Ethan, who was in a trance, was taken aback and stood up abruptly.

"Who is it?" He suddenly felt like there was something in the water in front of him, which made him retreat a step.

He stared at the water for dozens of seconds and noticed that the plastic basin floating on the water was shaking slightly; other than that, there was no movement.

After about a minute or two, after confirming that there was no other movement, Ethan slowly walked closer to the water surface of the stairs and looked into the water at close range again.

This time, he saw the corner of the stairs leading to the next floor. In the water, there was a black shadow, but because the stairs blocked his vision, he couldn't see what the black shadow was.

Ethan stared at the black shadow, and his heart began to throb. From the angle he could see, the black shadow that appeared looked more and more like a human head.

He was certain that he hadn't seen this black shadow before, and he didn't know if he hadn't noticed it earlier or if the black shadow had just floated over.

"That...that looks like a human head... with very long hair, is it a woman's head?"

The more Ethan thought about it, the more he felt his scalp tingle, and a chill crept down his back. Finally, unable to restrain his fear, he stumbled backward.

He fled all the way back to his house, slammed the door shut, and returned to a familiar place. The fear and anxiety in his heart only slightly eased. He calmed down and began to rethink what he had just seen.

"Yes, it may really be a woman's head, because it could be a drowned person, most likely a tenant living on the twenty-ninth floor.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

If this is true, it means that not everyone was evacuated, but many people were drowned in the sudden flood before they could escape.

I survived the flood.

Maybe there are other survivors like me who were trapped.

I am not alone."

Thinking about this, Ethan felt calmer. After further thought, he decided to go to the stairwell to check. He wanted to know if it was a corpse soaking in the water.

He rummaged through the cabinet and found a flashlight that he hadn't used in a long time. After testing it, he saw that it still worked. He took the flashlight with him, picked up a clothes rail, opened the door again, and walked out.

The corridor was still quiet. Ethan walked along it to the end, pushed open the two doors on the side of the corridor, and walked in.

He walked down the stairs and turned on the flashlight, shining it into the water in front of him.

Although it was daytime and the stairwell had large windows, the light was not particularly bright. He had been flustered earlier and hadn't looked carefully. Now he turned on the flashlight and carefully observed the water.

Finally, Ethan was certain that the black shadow in the water at the corner of the stairs was a head. Because of the water, the long hair floated, giving it an eerie and frightening appearance.

Now that he was mentally prepared, Ethan wasn't too panicked this time. He took a deep breath, steadied his nerves, put away the flashlight, and grasped the clothes rail with both hands, intending to retrieve the body from the water.

Facing a corpse alone, Ethan's palms were sweaty, his throat felt dry, and he had to grit his teeth before finally mustering the courage to lower the clothes rail into the water.

Soon, Ethan realized that the length of the clothes rail was not enough to reach the head. He frowned and, in the end, followed the stairs, stepping into the water and taking one step down.

His shoes soaked in water, Ethan felt a chill.

Now that he had made up his mind, Ethan didn't dwell on it. His thoughts were now focused on how to pull the corpse out of the water.

Holding the clothes rail, he waded a few steps down the flooded stairs. The water soon reached his knees, and the clothes rail finally touched the body soaking in the water.

First, Ethan used the clothes rail to poke the head lightly. The head floating in the water swayed slightly, creating ripples.

The body revealed a head from the corner of the stairs. Because of the water level, the body was wedged between the wall and the stairs, so it hadn’t floated away.

Ethan stirred the clothes rail a few times. Thanks to the water’s buoyancy, he didn’t need much force. After a few tries, the body slowly drifted toward him.

Seeing a corpse floating in the water, Ethan took a deep breath and backed up, retreating up the stairs again.

Though he understood it was just a corpse, he couldn't stop waves of cold fear from washing over him. At the same time, a sliver of curiosity gnawed at him—who was this corpse? Was it someone he knew?

Of course, the greatest likelihood was that it belonged to a resident of the twenty-ninth floor. After all, if residents from other floors drowned, the chance of their bodies floating here was far less than that of a body from the twenty-ninth floor.

Handing the clothes rail to his left hand, Ethan turned on the flashlight again, intent on observing the corpse more closely.

The beam of the flashlight illuminated the floating body in the water, sending a shiver down Ethan's spine as fear gleamed in his eyes.

Perhaps due to the prolonged submersion, the corpse was bloated and swollen, making it hard for Ethan to identify the person. He could only tell it was a woman from the long hair.

What horrified Ethan was that the woman's corpse was incomplete. The bloated body was partially eaten, with exposed bones in the thighs, chest, and abdomen. It looked like it had been attacked, and the sight sent chills through him.

Ethan, now 27, had never seen such a grisly, terrifying scene. His heart trembled as he staggered back a few steps. The murky water before him now seemed even more eerie.

"This...was eaten by something, maybe fish or some other animal in the water..."

Ethan didn’t dare think further. His scalp tingled as panic swelled inside him. He couldn’t stay there any longer staring at the ravaged body, so he quickly retreated with the clothes rail.

He returned to the corridor, closed the door leading to the stairwell tightly, and felt his heart pounding violently.