CH 86

I peeked through the crack of my door. However, I couldn’t see Hyehyun. I could only see his flashlight drawing anxious arcs beyond the door.

Hyehyun must have been using Woorim’s flashlight that I was using before. Seeing that he had a flashlight to himself even though he wasn’t a cast member on the show, the entire top floor must have completely blacked out.

“…Why did you lock me in?” I asked.

“If I didn’t, you would go downstairs, wouldn’t you? You would die if you went downstairs anyway. I had a hard time convincing the others who didn’t give a damn about what you did.”

It was better to only listen to half of what Hyehyun said.

“What about Woorim?”

He sighed and jeered, “You were distrusted all along, and you still want to be on his side? Just quit it.”

Based on that answer, it seemed like Woorim still didn’t return.

My mind replayed the countless screeching sounds coming from below. How many people had died in this mansion? They were all crammed downstairs, but could they climb up the stairs to where we were? I was slowly running out of patience and time.

…Would people believe me if I told them?

“Just because Woorim had two flashlights doesn’t prove that he killed Goyeon’s stylist. Besides, he was with us the entire time. How do you suppose he killed her? Blindly doubting him won’t solve anything.”

“Saying that will only work against you. Be quiet,” Hyehyun replied as if he heard something absurd.

Likewise, I thought Hyehyun was being ridiculous and said, “What do you mean, ‘work against me’? We’re all trapped in this mansion together.”

Then, Hyehyun replied curtly, “Seoyoon Kim disappeared.”

That was quite effective in shutting me up. Seoyoon Kim disappeared? Hyehyun’s voice grew softer like he was telling me a secret, “All the lights in all the hallways aren’t turning on, including upstairs. Do you hear me?”

“Yeah.” I saw through the door.

“We don’t know how the top floor blacked out. Seohang didn’t know why, and he was in his room all along. Seogeung said he was black-out drunk, so he didn’t know as well. According to Seohang, he suddenly heard Seoyoon scream.”

Seohang said that he was listening to music in his room. Since devices with internet access were forbidden, he couldn’t listen to music on his usual device. So, he said that he was using an old MP3 player that only had playback functions.

Well, rather than songs, his MP3 player only had a couple of hymns and Buddhist sutras that he listened to calm his heart before going on stage. Hymns and sutras—I thought they were quite the random combination. But maybe they were an invaluable asset for the situation we were in.

Although listening to those didn’t change this inauspicious situation. Seohang still ended up hearing Seoyoon’s screams. Surprised, Seohang ran out of his room.

“By that time, the hallway was already dark,” Hyehyun continued to explain.

In complete bewilderment, Seohang hovered in front of his room while staring at the ominous-looking stairs. It was then that he heard Seogeung yell from behind, “I heard him from the stairs!”

Seohang and Seogeung took their flashlights and ran toward the stairways. However, they were too late—no matter how they searched downstairs, they couldn’t find Seoyoon. They were debating whether it would be good for them to go one more flight downstairs.

“That was when they met us,” Hyehyun said.

The two groups that met each other on the school floor looked at each other, dumbstruck.

In this building, one had to go through the hallway to travel through the building. There was no way one group would miss another. If Seoyoon had headed down, it would be normal for him to cross paths with Raehee’s group that was heading up.

“We didn’t see Seoyoon. We didn’t even feel his presence.”

It was the exact same as Goyeon’s stylist. He vanished.

“…To where?” I groaned.

Hyehyun replied lightly, “Who knows? But you know too; there are a lot of secret passageways here.”

After the heavy objects fell from the ceiling, Woorim and I could escape that room thanks to the secret passageways. The existence of one meant that there could be more. Given the track record of this place, it was entirely possible.

“We looked at the map you gave us. It was hard to see because they were so small, but there were a lot of hidden pathways here and there. Although they didn’t indicate where they led to. There were a lot of places that were marked as passageways.”

“Then that means…”

“Seogeung also said so. If Seoyoon went downstairs by himself, maybe he found a secret passageway. Maybe something bad happened to him when he went inside.”