Chapter 12
[Skritch.]
The sound heard in my ear.
I couldn't bear that spine-chilling sound that seemed to ring through my eardrums.
At that moment, the thing was saying something.
[…….]
As soon as I heard those words, I shuddered and flinched.
“…….”
At that moment.
The ghost on the ceiling noticed as well.
Startled, I slumped down, and my whole body became drenched in cold sweat.
Drip.
Something falling again.
What exactly was that thing falling like a water droplet?
I tried to lift my head to check.
Slowly,
My gaze, which had been fixed on the floor, began to move upward little by little.
As my pupils moved up.
My heart also began to beat like crazy.
My heart rate reached its peak.
Around the time hot heat filled my chest.
Eventually.
At the very moment I was about to look at the thing on the ceiling.
Boom!
Suddenly, a thunderous sound was heard.
It was a massive roar that felt as if it would shatter the world.
“Huh?”
A shock that shook my entire body followed in an instant.
My whole body shook, and I couldn't keep my senses.
The world was turning upside down as if an earthquake were happening.
“Ahhh!”
I felt my entire body gradually scattering.
Starting from my hands and feet, I was turning into smoke and disappearing.
Then I knew.
The haunted house I was in.
And the world outside.
That the entire world was shattering into fragments, completely broken like glass.
I was watching that sight.
……
“Ah.”
When I opened my eyes, that was the first thing I saw.
Vast sunlight was shining blindingly.
Following that.
The fresh, green scent of grass brightened my vision.
A wide courtyard appeared.
“Huh?”
I was sitting, leaning against a pillar of the Hanok’s wooden porch.
A bird was perched on a tree in the courtyard, chirping.
It was a leisurely afternoon with sunlight falling and a cool breeze blowing.
“Was it a dream?”
“Yeah.”
A woman’s voice heard from beside me.
The Medium was standing blankly beside me.
“Huh?”
Flinch.
I dodged to the side, startled.
Then she grabbed my shoulder and applied pressure.
“Sit.”
Unable to resist for even a moment, I sat back down just like that.
Simultaneously, her ice-cold gaze stared at me.
It was a gaze like a ghost’s.
“I told you to bring the guests, and you’re dozing off?”
I was slightly flustered.
Having nothing in particular to say, I answered with the first thing that came to mind.
“I have narcolepsy, you know. The disease where you suddenly fall asleep anywhere.”
“Hmm.”
She was suspicious.
“Is it narcolepsy? Or a nap?”
“…Narcolepsy.”
“Fine.”
It was a relief.
I luckily survived because it wasn't treated as a nap.
She let go of the hand gripping my shoulder as if there were no other choice.
“Sleep only when necessary.”
“It doesn’t work according to my will.”
“That’s true, but still.”
Phew.
The Medium’s eyes earlier were truly terrifying.
I felt like my bones would be crushed if I got on her bad side.
“Did you happen to have a dream?”
“Pardon?”
I hesitated for a moment at her question.
“I did.”
“What kind of dream?”
“I went to a haunted house.”
Her complexion changed at my words.
Her eyes, already cool, gradually darkened.
“A haunted house...”
She was lost in thought for a moment, then eventually turned her head slowly.
“I heard something there, but I woke up in the middle and don't remember it well.”
“I see.”
A leaf that had been fluttering slightly in the wind brushed past her face before landing softly on the wooden porch.
“Something has come up.”
It sounded like a brief observation.
There was no specific answer.
“Bring in the next guest.”
“Ah, yes.”
People entering as the door opened.
It was another pair of a couple this time too.
‘Dammit. Why are there so many couples?’
Grumbling, I ended up watching the couples' lovey-dovey behavior all day long.
It was painful.
I was as lonely as if I were inside an urban legend.
“Haha.”
Thus the first day passed.
The day when nothing happened passed safely.
No, I thought it had passed.
“Then I’ll be going now.”
I said goodbye to the Medium and set out on my way.
It was around the time I was relieving the fatigue of the first day while eating a convenience store lunchbox after returning home safely.
Night.
Around the time it was becoming exactly 12:00 AM.
Around the time I was gradually falling asleep while looking at my smartphone in bed.
A ringtone was heard.
“What is it, at night?”
I reflexively checked the caller on the smartphone.
[Medium Lee Yeon-hwa]
It was her call.
“Um, why are you calling at night?”
[Are you listening?]
“Pardon?”
Her words were urgent.
[A ghost is attached to you right now.]
“Whaaat?”
What could this suddenly mean?
She started with a shocking statement.
[You said you had a dream of a haunted house earlier today, right?]
“Yes.”
[That’s a ghost.]
My heart sank.
It was around the time the mental shock made my head ring.
Thump.
Thump-thump.
Suddenly, the sound of knocking at the front door.
Someone has come to my house.
“Someone is here. At the front door.”
[What?]
Her voice trembled slightly.
[Don't open it, no matter what.]
“What?”
[That bastard might have come.]
A ghost?
I froze as goosebumps broke out all over my body.
Is it that ghost from the ceiling of the haunted house?
Of of all things, a strange ghost had to latch onto me on my first day of work.
Thump, thump!
The sound of continuous pounding.
[You must never open the door.]
The voice coming from the smartphone was urgent as well.
My heart was trembling too.
“What should I do?”
[I'm on my way.]
Thump, thump.
The sound of the door continuing.
My mind was gradually wavering.
Whether this is reality.
Or a dream.
I didn't know anything.
Thump, thump.
Amidst extreme confusion and anxiety, the sound of the door banging grew louder and louder.
Like the sound of a drum.
My heart was thumping louder and louder, as if resonating with the sound of the door.
My body kept vibrating.
…….
Eventually, everything went quiet.
The sound of banging on the door disappeared.
“…….”
It was around the time I was starting to regain my senses bit by bit.
Her voice calling me still flowed from the smartphone.
It rang in my ears like an echo.
[Keep your wits about you and just stay there. I'm almost there.]
[Because I'm on my way right now.]
How much time had passed since then?
A brief silence flowing through my dazed consciousness.
It was time to recover a little.
Tap.
A sound heard again.
Unlike before, a small knocking sound was heard from the door.
Tap, tap.
[I'm here.]
It was her voice.
It came from both the smartphone and the door.
“She's here.”
I carefully stepped out into the living room.
In a calmed state, I crept toward the front door.
“Who is it?”
[It's me.]
I heard her voice.
It felt calm and composed.
Like a savior.
A calm yet quiet voice.
I was starting to believe that if I opened this door, I would be liberated.
But,
I suddenly stopped in my tracks.
“The first rule of surviving urban legends.”
Pretend not to know the ghost.
Be careful of the ghost's schemes.
That thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
[Open it quickly.]
“…….”
I slowly opened my mouth.
“Who are you?”
[…….]
The words cut off for a moment.
[It’s me.]
“Who?”
[I talked to you on the phone.]
[I came to save you from the threat.]
I waited for an answer.
“And?”
I asked once more.
“Who am I? And who are you?”
[I told you.]
The answer lingered in the air like an echo.
“What was outside?”
[Nothing....]
Nothing?
Even after pounding so hard it felt like the door would break.
It vanished like smoke?
“Are you sure?”
[Yeah....]
No further answer came.
[I don’t think it’s here now. But I don’t know when it might return.]
[So you have to prepare. I’ll resolve the malice that’s on you.]
“…….”
I didn’t answer.
Then I spoke a word.
“No. I’m not opening it.”
[What?]
“Because you’re a ghost.”
[…….]
[I came to save you.]
“No, absolutely not.”
I was certain.
“That person entrusted me with a role.”
[?]
“I joined as her assistant. Even receiving a salary. We became partners.”
I knew.
It was a feeling similar to being inside the elevator urban legend.
It was a past urban legend created by the Medium, but I never gave up easily within it.
I wasn't fooled by the ghost's schemes either.
“A partner isn't someone who just seeks salvation. They can protect.”
I saved two of the five people in the elevator.
We survived together.
And right now, the most endangered person was me.
“Right now... I’m going to save myself.”
My mood settled calmly.
I realized it instinctively.
[I also came to save you. I came to take you out of your fear.]
“No.”
My answer was firm.
“You aren’t that person.”
[…….]
“If she really intended to help me, she would have notified me by phone first.”
That was my thought.
She would never tell me to just wait without taking any action until she arrived.
“You must have thought at first that I wouldn't open the door. So you disguised yourself as her on the phone. So that I would feel safe and open it the next time you knocked.”
That was it.
The bastard probably wanted that.
[No. I’m not the threat you think I am.]
“Then who are you?”
[…….]
The bastard doesn't know who I am.
He only knows how to pound on the door; he doesn't even press the bell.
“I guess there are no doorbells in your urban legend.”
[…….]
“Who are you?”
I felt it instinctively.
If the dream I’d had during the day was an urban legend.
Although that urban legend had been interrupted by force majeure back then, an urban legend, once started, never truly ends in the middle.
That ghost had whispered in my ear.
The words I didn't know then.
The words I hadn't noticed only now came to mind.
[I will come find you again.]
The human subconscious.
From deep within that other side.
Urban legends continue to grow like a virus inside dreams.
As time passes.
They mutate into something even more distorted and reappear in dreams.
Just as it has been until now.
Day and night.
I had dreamed of two different urban legends, but in fact, the same bastard had been targeting me.
“Who are you?”
[…….]
No answer came back.
The sound of pounding on the door grew louder and louder.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
It struck the door more roughly and violently than before.
It was intense enough that the door might truly break.
But it was different from before.
I stood before the door, staring at it without trembling at all.
‘If this is a dream. If it’s an urban legend.’
This door was not a simple door.
It was clearly the wall of my heart.
In this battle of wits aimed at me by the urban legend’s ghost, I did not back down.
‘I am not afraid.’
I had the experience gained from the elevator urban legend.
I actually already knew the most important law for surviving an urban legend—the so-called ‘Absolute Rule.’
The first rule was ‘Pretend not to know the ghost.’
But there was an even more important rule: Rule Zero.
Although the Medium hadn't told me, it was a rule I had realized on my own.
Rule Zero for escaping an urban legend is:
‘Do not fear the ghost.’
That was it.