Signal From Stage Zero

Signal From Stage Zero

Author: Fumiren x Jaewon

Pairing: Karina (aespa) x Male OC (Police Officer Park Jisung – voice only via walkie-talkie)

Genres: Psychological Horror, Supernatural Horror, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Survival Horror, Time Slip, Alternate Reality, Drama, Dark Fantasy

Tags/Warnings: 18+ for intense horror themes, psychological terror, body horror elements, gore, existential dread, looping realities, violence against anomalies, mild language, emotional distress. Pure dark fantasy.

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The roar of the crowd still echoed faintly in Karina’s ears as she stepped off the stage, adrenaline slowly fading into exhaustion. The final encore had been flawless—thousands of lightsticks waving like stars—but now the lights backstage felt too dim, the hallways too quiet. She wiped sweat from her brow and headed toward the dressing room, heels clicking against the concrete floor.

Something was wrong the moment she turned the first corner.

The usual bustle of staff, makeup artists, and managers was gone. The corridor stretched longer than she remembered, fluorescent lights flickering with a sickly green tint. Her footsteps echoed too loudly, like the walls were swallowing the sound and spitting it back distorted.

“Manager unnie?” she called out, voice echoing unnaturally. No answer.

Karina pulled out her phone. No signal. The screen glitched for a second, showing a time that didn’t make sense—3:33 AM, even though the concert ended just after midnight. She shook it off and kept walking, telling herself it was just fatigue playing tricks.

Then she found the walkie-talkie.

It was sitting on a folding chair in the middle of the hallway, old and scratched, like something from decades ago. A small red light blinked on its side. Curious, she picked it up.

A low static crackled, then a male voice came through—clear, steady, and strangely close.

“Karina? Can you hear me? This is Officer Park Jisung. Do not move.”

She nearly dropped the device. “Who is this? How do you know my name?”

Static. Then the voice again, calmer this time. “I know this sounds insane, but you’re not where you think you are. The backstage area… it’s looping. Alternate layer. You need to listen to me carefully if you want to get out before Stage Zero fully collapses.”

Karina’s heart hammered. She looked around. The hallway looked normal again—no, wait. The posters on the wall were wrong. Her own face smiled back at her, but the eyes were slightly too wide, the smile stretched. One of the posters had her name spelled “Kar1na.”

“This isn’t funny,” she whispered, gripping the walkie-talkie tighter. “If this is some staff prank—”

“It’s not a prank,” Jisung cut in, voice urgent. “I’m outside the anomaly zone, monitoring from the real world. The walkie is your anchor. There are anomalies—things that don’t belong. Spot them, avoid triggering them, and find the correct exit. One wrong move and the loop resets. You’ll forget everything again.”

Karina swallowed hard. Part of her wanted to throw the device away and run, but another part—the part that had survived years in the idol industry—knew when something was real. The air felt heavier. Wrong.

“Okay,” she said shakily. “What do I do?”

“First, turn around slowly. Tell me what you see.”

She turned. The hallway behind her had changed again. A mannequin dressed in one of her stage outfits stood at the far end, head tilted at an unnatural angle. Its fingers were too long.

“There’s… a mannequin. Wearing my outfit. It wasn’t there before.”

Jisung’s voice dropped. “That’s Anomaly 04. Do not look directly at its face. Walk past it on the left side, eyes on the floor. Count your steps. If it moves, run.”