The Most Dangerous Games: The Apartment Staircase Game

Previously: The Eternal Love Ritual.

It’s been a hot second since we’ve looked at a ritual game designed to take you to another world, so here’s an interesting one to throw into the mix: What I like to think of as the Apartment Staircase Game, or How To Go To Another World Using The Stairs Of Your Apartment Building. Functionally, it’s sort of a combination of the Elevator Game and the Staircase To Another World Game, while also being its own thing. The evolution of these kinds of ritual-based legends is fascinating, isn’t it?

There’s a lot about the Apartment Staircase Game that remains a mystery to me, including precisely where it originated and when. For what it’s worth, I’ve found it pretty much entirely in Korean sources; it also may be a little more recent of an invention than most of the other “how to go to another world” ritual games I’ve investigated here at TGIMM: The earliest version I’ve been able to locate is dated Feb. 24, 2023, which is when it was added to the “How To Get To Another World” Namu Wiki page.

[Like what you read? Check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available from Chronicle Books now!]

Of course, the fact that this version is one that was added to an existing Namu Wiki page implies that it was likely already circulating before that point; usually, something has to be established by the time it makes it to a wiki of the sort that Namu Wiki is — that is, you typically won’t find things on these kinds of wikis that were invented on said wikis. (Wikipedia works this same way.) However, it’s also likely that the sources at which these older versions of the Apartment Staircase Game may have been located (Thredic, if I had to take a guess) are no longer accessible.

In any event, it’s also available on a handful of other Korean sources, including the Tistory site Fox Story Scary and TheWiki.kr, where it’s mostly been copied, pasted, and republished verbatim.

It’s easy to play… but as always:

Play at your own risk.

Players:

• One principal.

Requirements:

• Access to an apartment building that satisfies the following conditions:
  • It has at least 10 floors;
  • All of the apartment’s floors are reachable by stairs;
  • AND all of the apartment’s floors are also reachable by elevator.
• A timekeeping device.

Instructions:

Preparing:

1. Choose the apartment building in which you will play.
2. Choose the date on which you will play.
3. On your chosen date, go to the apartment building after 1am, but before 4am. Utilize your timekeeping device for this purpose.
4. Enter the apartment building on the first or ground floor.
5. Upon arrival, locate the stairs or stairwell.
6. When you have located the stairs, decide: Are you willing to take this journey? Truly willing? No matter what may occur?
   • If not, do not enter the stairwell. Leave the apartment building. This game is not for you.
   • If yes, enter the stairwell. It is time to begin.

Ascending:

1. When you have entered the stairwell, climb the stairs until you reach the ninth floor of the building.
2. When you reach the ninth floor, stomp one foot on the ground four times.
3. Then, continue climbing the stairs until you reach the top floor of the building.
4. Exit the stairwell on the top floor.
5. Proceed to the elevator on that floor. Do NOT turn around. Do NOT look at the stairs or stairwell.
6. Kneel before the elevator and close your eyes.
7. Keep your eyes closed for one full minute.
8. Do NOT open your eyes before the full minute is up — no matter what you might hear. No matter what you might sense. No matter what you might feel. Do NOT open your eyes.
9. After one full minute has passed, open your eyes, get to your feet, and press the elevator call button.
10. Do NOT turn around. Do NOT look at the stairs or stairwell. And if you do make the poor decision to turn around and/or look at the stairs or stairwell, do NOT make eye contact with… whatever you might see there.

Descending:

1. When the elevator arrives and the doors open, board the elevator and press the button for the ninth floor. Do NOT look behind you. Do NOT look at the stairs or stairwell.
2. When the elevator reaches the ninth floor, exit the elevator and locate the stairs or stairwell.
3. Enter the stairwell, but do NOT look up the stairs to the floor or floors above you. Look ONLY down, toward the floors below you.
4. Descend the stairs until you reach the first or ground floor. Do NOT turn around. Do NOT look behind you.
5. Exit the stairwell at the first or ground floor. Do NOT turn around. Do NOT look behind you. And ESPECIALLY do not look back up the stairs as you leave.
6. When you exit the stairwell, you will find yourself in another world — one different from the one from which you came.
7. I hope you’re happy here.
8. You made the decision to come here, after all.
9. There is no known way to return.

Additional Notes:

The building in which you play MUST satisfy ALL requirements.

Do not attempt to play in a building that is not an apartment building.

Do not attempt to play in a building that does not have at least 10 floors.

Do not attempt to play in a building which does not have stairwell access to all of its floors.

Do not attempt to play in a building which does not have elevator access to all of its floors.

If you attempt to play in a building that does not satisfy all requirements, it will, at best, simply fail. At worst — well.

Let’s just say that there are fates worse than death.

On Returning:

Once you have performed this ritual, and you have performed it successfully, there is no known way to return to your original world.

When you have arrived in your other world, you may choose to stay, or you may choose to journey on.

Be careful of journeying too much or too often, though.

It’s easy to lose your way. And should you become lost — well and truly lost—

—you might find that you are no longer able to stay tethered to any reality at all.

Eternity can be an awful long time under the best of circumstances. You wouldn’t want to spend it adrift between worlds, would you? Forever?

Forever.

Forever.

***

Follow The Ghost In My Machine on Bluesky @GhostMachine13.bsky.social, Twitter @GhostMachine13, and Facebook @TheGhostInMyMachine. And for more games, don’t forget to check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available now from Chronicle Books!

[Photos via Leonhard_Niederwimmer, Pixabay, faith4mer/Pixabay; H&CO/Pexels]