CH 101

Hyehyun gasped audibly. He started shaking all over. He probably didn’t live comfortably with such a nasty thing stuck to him. He must have had several nightmares featuring the taxi driver, so he couldn’t ignore my words.

“I see it all, Hyehyun. I see the taxi driver latching onto you and digging his teeth in your head.”

“Hae-Haeseo, stop joking around.”

Did this still seem like a joke to him? I shook my head and took a step toward him. Hyehyun started stepping back while still shivering. Whoosh, a sudden gust of wind blew out the candles in the room. The room was silent, and only the lights went out, yet I saw Hyehyun jump.

“That man had a huge wart near his mouth, right?” I asked.

Hyehyun swallowed dryly.

I continued, “That day he was wearing a dark-red checkered shirt and black hiking pants.”

“Ah…”

“He parted his hair to his right.”

“No!” Hyehyun screamed. I ran up and swung my knife at him. However, Hyehyun dodged, and I couldn’t stab his heart like I had wanted to. Instead, my blade dug into his right shoulder blade.

“Arrghhh!” Hyehyun screamed and ran out of the room with the knife still embedded in his back. I ran after him into the hallway.

“Stop right there!” I shouted.

We weren’t supposed to leave the room between 10 at night and eight in the morning. However, that rule didn’t apply to me. I didn’t care. I had nobody left to protect. It was all right that I had no weapons in my hands. Whatever I could get a hold of, I would use it to kill Hyehyun Ham.

I really, really should have done this earlier.

“Hyehyun Ham!” I ran, chasing after the back of Hyehyun’s head. I yelled at him, “Even if this mansion kills me, I’ll kill you with my hands!”

I saw Hyehyun running to the stairs going down at the end of the hallway.

I was no longer afraid of going downstairs.

“I’ll kill you!” I screamed.

At that moment, I tripped over something.

It was probably a piece of clothing lying around the floor in this hallway. I didn’t trip too badly, so I could get up easily, but I had no strength left in my body at this point. How long did I wander since leaving the floor that we had all believed was the uppermost floor? With my energy at rock bottom, I sprawled out on the hallway floor.

…Or that was what I intended to do.

“You’ll end up dying first, at this rate.” Someone’s arm wrapped around my waist. I had avoided tripping, but my center of gravity was still falling forward. The air rushed out of my lungs when my stomach and waist were met with a firm arm. I roughly caught my breath while grabbing the other’s arm and shoulder.

I checked the face of the person who grabbed me. It was dark, but I could easily see his features. Besides, few people looked like him in this mansion.

“Woorim Eun,” I muttered.

He was alive.

I only said his name out loud to confirm my suspicions, but he replied, “Yes?”

After that, he examined my face and body, then he knit his brow. “What’s with this blood? Are you hurt somewhere?”

My legs gave in. I plopped down to the floor. Woorim grabbed my arms to support me. When he asked if I was all right, he sounded tender as always. I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I was just dizzy. Yeonseon, oh, Yeonseon.

For some reason, tears started to pour out of my eyes. I fell out of consciousness then.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, I was in a room.

It wasn’t a room on the dorm floor, but judging from the configuration, it looked like one of the rooms on the grocery store floor. On a makeshift mat and pillow made of abandoned clothes and curtains, I was lying slightly slanted on the floor. It wasn’t soft or comfortable, but I was grateful for it after tumbling down floors and stairs. I laid there limply.

My surroundings were still dark. While staring vacantly at the ceiling, I thought that maybe I had a very long dream until now. But there was no way that was possible. The ceiling that was so dilapidated that it was just about to cave in, the worn-down wallpaper, the age-old blanket of dust, and my clothes all stiff from dried blood mocked my brief escape from reality.

What was scarier than an urban legend coming to life?

The mansion with several doors, the darkened space that had no ray of light, an unsafe location, people whose survival I couldn’t fathom since we were separated—this was the same as when I wandered the mansion when I was younger.

There was only one difference. The rooms were safer than the hallway. However, that didn’t make me feel relieved. I didn’t have a material body when I wandered the mansion when I was younger. I wasn’t a living person at that time. And currently, the hallway was the space for the dead.