CH 94

“Wh-what was that?” Raehee asked. I turned my head to her. Raehee was trembling terribly, but she managed to stand by supporting herself against the wall. I could tell that she was frightened even in the dark. She must have been shivering as her teeth were chattering. “Th-that thing. That was G-Goyeon, r-right?”

“…”

“H-how?” Raehee asked.

The night was the time of the dead. It was said that at the right place and time, the spirits were visible. But that myth wasn’t what we were experiencing. Our current situation was a whole other level compared to a peaceful and cute urban legend like that.

This building was the problem.

Just how many people died here in pain and suffering? A place filled with such devastation and regret was bound to accumulate bad energy. On top of that, this was a place of absolute darkness, with no glimmer of sunlight. I had never been in such a place before.

At times, the soul of a person would be unable to pass to the realm of the dead. Instead of merely lingering in one location, they would torture other living beings to death. They envied the living and latched on, harassing them until their lives ended—just like the things that pulled my mom’s hair and caused a traffic accident.

I saw it all.

The moment the elevator door opened, Goyeon shot out from inside and bit off Seogeung’s nose. Then, after Seogeung fell backward, she ruthlessly scratched up his body, clawed out his eyeballs, and ate them. She ripped at his face with her teeth and nails, instantly making him unrecognizable. His skull was crushed, and the holes in his face looked as if someone had taken a drill to it.

Raehee also saw that devilish figure.

The corpses in the elevator were already pulverized to mush, white bones exposed and intestines falling out.

Bang, bang, bang!

Raehee winced horribly. The door rattled aggressively. I extended my hand out to Raehee, who was staring at the door. I didn’t need to explain in more detail what we saw. She seemed to intuitively understand.

It was also a being that was difficult to explain in words.

“Let’s run from here before that door opens,” I said.

Trembling, she took my hand.

We were lucky. The place that we entered wasn’t a dead end. There was a flight of stairs leading down. We just didn’t know where it led because we couldn’t see the end.

Bang! Screech, creak! Thud! Thud!

No matter, anywhere was better than here.

* * *

Creak, creak, screech.

The old building wailed and howled. I knew now that it wasn’t from being hit with the strong ocean wind. It wasn’t from the worn-down walls leaning, and it wasn’t the old wooden flooring squeaking. And now, other people could hear it too.

Creak, creak, creaaakkk.

“I-is this the sound that you mentioned before?” Raehee asked tentatively.

The stairway was narrow, so we had no choice but to go down in single file. Raehee’s hand, which I had been squeezing tightly, was cold. Creak, screech. Every time we heard that sound, her fingers twitched. I didn’t reply. I only stared straight ahead as we made our way down.

Neither of us had flashlights, so if we didn’t watch our steps, we could easily tumble down the stairs. Perhaps these old stairs weren’t used in a while as they had a layer of dust on each step. Even though we were treading slowly, each step was slippery.

The air around us was dry, uncharacteristic of a place on an island in the middle of an ocean. The air that smelled dusty and musty now had a top note of blood. With every deep breath, I felt like small droplets of blood and dust were popping in my lungs. Like the spores of a poisonous mushroom, it polluted our breaths and made breathing unpleasant.

“Seogeung… is probably dead, right?” Raehee asked.

“Probably,” I replied tersely.

“I w-wonder why he did that?”

“Who knows?”

Meaninglessly and fruitlessly, our conversation continued.

“Do you think Seoyoon turned the lights off?”

“Maybe.”

“And H-Hawoo said he killed the stylist.”

“We also left Woorim behind.” The last thing I said made Raehee shut her mouth. I realized that it sounded a bit reproachful, so I hurriedly added, “I also thought that Woorim was dangerous. Probably.”

“I see.”

Silence fell upon us again. Honestly, I had no idea what was going on at all. It was weird. Was there an insider that was in league with the producers among us? Were Hawoo and Seogeung the whistleblowers? What about Seoyoon? But they were too shoddy to be the rats. Then, did that mean they did what they did because they could? Once I started thinking like that, my thoughts jumbled up again.

Woorim aside, to think that other people also had a hand in this devastating situation.