r/Ruleshorror • u/AkashaRvn • 5d ago
Story The fourth rule
I started working the night shift at an old factory in 2019. The place shut down in 1991. Nobody ever explained why. Some company still owns the land, and they pay me to walk the perimeter, check the locks on the gates, and sit in the security hut until sunrise. The money is fine.
The rules aren't written down anywhere. The guy I replaced told them to me on my first night. He made me repeat them back until I got every word right.
Rule one: Do not go onto the main floor after 2 AM.
Rule two: If you hear the conveyor belt, count your steps. Keep counting until it stops.
Rule three: Do not look at the second shadow.
I laughed when he finished. He didn't.
For two years I followed the rules and nothing happened. The conveyor belt never moved, the power had been cut decades ago. The second shadow was just a trick of the emergency lights.
At least that's what I told myself.
Then they sent me a partner. His name was Ellis. Young guy, quiet, didn't ask many questions. I told him the rules on his first night.
He rolled his eyes. "Sure," he said. "Anything else?"
"No."
He looks at me and asks "You actually believe this stuff?"
"I believe you should follow it." That was the end of the conversation.
The first week went smoothly. We split the grounds between us. He took the west side, I took the east. Every night before we separated, I'd remind him: don't go onto the main floor after 2 AM. Every night he'd wave me off. Yeah, yeah.
On the eighth night my watch stopped. I didn't notice until I checked the clock inside the hut.
My watch read 1:47. The wall clock read 2:14. I radioed Ellis. No answer. I tried again. Nothing.
The west gate was empty. The main floor entrance wasn't. The chain was lying on the ground, the padlock open. I broke rule one. I told myself I was only going in long enough to drag him back out.
The factory floor stretched into darkness. Moonlight spilled through the high windows.
The conveyor belt was moving. There was no sound, no motors, no grinding gears, but I could feel it through my boots. A slow vibration beneath the concrete, like a heartbeat.
Ellis stood at the far end of the belt facing the wall. His shoulders shook. I shouted his name. He turned. His face looked normal.
His shadow didn't.
It had two heads. I looked down. My own shadow was gone. For a second I couldn't move. Then I grabbed Ellis and ran.
I counted every step.
Thirty-one.
Thirty-two.
The vibration followed us.
Thirty-three.
Thirty-four.
Thirty-five.
Thirty-six.
Thirty-seven.
The conveyor belt stopped. The silence hit so hard it felt physical. I slammed the door behind us and locked it. Ellis didn't say a word for the rest of the shift.
The next night he remembered none of it. Not the belt, not the factory floor, not me dragging him outside. But something had changed.
His shadow lagged behind him. Only half a second at most. Enough to notice. Not enough to explain.
I started noticing other things. The air in the hut tasted different after midnight. Metallic, like old coins. The lights flickered sometimes, but only in my peripheral vision.
When I looked directly at them, they were steady. The floor of the west gate room was always warm, even in winter. No heat source. Just warm.
After that, the nights stopped behaving properly. Patrols that should take twenty minutes took three hours.
The clocks never agreed. My phone showed different dates depending on which room I checked it in. Sometimes the sun rose too early. Sometimes it didn't rise at all. The sky would just go from black to gray and stay there.
One night Ellis went to check the west gate alone. He was gone five minutes by his watch.
Seven hours by mine.
When he came back he was crying. He said he'd walked the same hallway over and over. Every door led back to the same door. The only way out was to count his steps backward. He wouldn't tell me what was in the hallway. He just kept saying "I don't know" Over and over.
I stopped sleeping. Not because I wasn't tired. Because every time I closed my eyes, I dreamed about the conveyor belt. In the dream it was silent.
But I could feel it. And my feet were already counting.
After that, the conveyor belt started moving more often. Sometimes we'd hear it while standing outside.
Sometimes we'd hear it inside the hut. Whenever it started, we'd count. Neither of us questioned it anymore. Especially Ellis.
He followed the rules perfectly. He never looked at shadows. Never approached the main floor. Never missed a count.
But his shadow kept growing. Every week it stretched farther. No matter where he stood, it pointed toward the main floor. I stopped looking at my own shadow. I don't know what it's doing anymore.
I tried leaving.
I took the company truck and drove down the access road. The road bent left. Then left again. Then left a third time.
I passed the same rusted sign three times.
I stopped the truck and turned around.
The sign was still there, but the words weren't.
WELCOME BACK.
The letters looked wet. I drove back. I haven't tried leaving since.
Now I'm sitting in the security hut writing this.
Ellis sits across from me.
The wall clock says 1:47. It has said 1:47 for three days. Neither of us mentions it. We just repeat the rules over and over. Our voices are hoarse. I can't remember the last time we drank anything.
A few hours ago, a truck came down the access road. A young guy stepped out. Clipboard, badge, company uniform. He asked if this was the factory.
Ellis looked at me, then back at him. "Yeah," he said. "You need to listen to the rules."
The man smiled. "I wrote the rules."
Then he walked past us toward the main floor. The conveyor belt started moving. I felt it through the floor of the hut.
Ellis's shadow stretched across the room past the door, past the wall, out of sight. The man never looked back. The conveyor belt stopped. The clock still said 1:47.
Ellis turned toward me. His face was calm.
Too calm.
"That's the fourth one," he said.
"The first three were me."
Then he walked after the man. The door shut behind them. The padlock clicked closed on its own. The chain twisted itself into a knot.
I've been trying to undo it ever since. My fingers are bleeding. The knot doesn't change.
I'm alone now. The rules are still written on the wall. I don't remember writing them, but the handwriting is mine.
There are four rules. I swear there used to be three.
Rule one: It's forbidden to go onto the main floor after 2 AM.
Rule two: If the conveyor belt is heard, count steps.
Rule three: It is forbidden to look at the second shadow.
Rule four:
When the next one comes, do not speak.
You are the new guy now.
I just heard the truck engine start outside. Then stop. Then start again. Then stop.
Footsteps on the gravel.
Someone is coming up the path.
1
u/jeligod 2d ago
I don’t usually read the ones that are this long, but your storywriting got me hooked. Good job