Room 102, Room of Curses — Mansion of Terror (5)

"Unnieeeee! Ughk, uh-huh…"

"Noonim! Are you all right? Can you see me?!"

The mansion filled with sobs, groans, and screams until every sound blurred into a single deafening roar, and my own mind nearly went with it.

Song-i was crying as if someone had driven holes through her eyes—just as she had that morning. No one else was in much better shape.

What the hell had just happened?

Maybe two hours earlier, when Noona stepped alone into the study, none of us had imagined anything like this. Unsettling mansion or not, when she went in, we all glanced after her with a kind of quiet confidence. The study was neat, almost comforting—a place that somehow felt stable. So we had agreed that once she came out, we would all sit down and talk through whatever she had found.

Midnight came and went, and still she showed no sign of emerging. Thinking of Elena, we called to her at intervals, anxiety tightening each time.

"I'm busy right now!"

"This is going to take a while!"

"Just go to sleep. We'll talk tomorrow."

Snappish answers, every one of them—leave me alone, I'm drowning in work. In the end we all gave up. It was late; we would talk in the morning. Besides, Jinchul-hyung and I were still wrung out from the trek to the Cathedral through the storm. Two exhausted adults and young Seungyeop finally turned in; Song-i alone stayed up waiting. About an hour later—

A scream like something being torn in half ripped through the mansion.

No one had been sleeping deeply. We scrambled out of our rooms. Song-i was half-carrying Noona, wailing loud enough to shake the walls, while Jinchul-hyung shook her body as if trying to make her collapse faster, too frantic to know what he was doing.

A sharp awl. Or a skewer. Something so ugly just to look at had punched halfway out through the back of her neck. Blood fountained upward; the mansion's screaming would not settle.

Ari came running at some point and only paced, helpless. The Butler tried wrapping the wound in bandages, but everyone present felt the truth in their bones—it was useless. Who on earth lives with a finger-width hole through their throat? The artery had not quite been fully severed, so her breath still clung on, but time was clearly running out.

Then Noona stretched out her arm and pointed at me.

How much strength must that clear gesture have cost, with a hole in her neck? Something clenched hard in my chest as I stumbled to her side. She was past speaking, and she could not even turn her eyes toward me. She only seized my hand and held on.

Was that the last of her strength? In less than three minutes her body went slack.

The mansion filled with weeping.

So it still isn't over. How many nightmares, how much tragedy, does this mansion—and beyond it, this hotel—still have locked away?

I left the others behind and returned to my room.

My heart felt frozen solid.

I wanted to cry like Song-i. I wanted to rage like Jinchul-hyung. I wanted to hide and shake like Seungyeop.

I couldn't.

It was already plain ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that the others could not think straight. If I, too, let go—if I started weeping and shouting and cowering—then who would stay standing to the end? Who would overturn this tragedy and force a happy ending?

That was why Noona had taken my hand at the last moment.

I sat on the bed and opened my palm.

A small scrap of paper. Not much written on it.

Creak.

Is that lone S a slip from starting to write Cathedral?

Creak.

Either way, I could make out at least two of the words. The Cathedral I had already visited; there was only one maid in the mansion. But what did "Bell" mean?

Screeeeech.

If she was going to leave something this dying-message, she might have been a little more specific. Judging by the violently scrawled hand, though, she had been writing in extreme haste.

First I would have to dig into what "Bell" meant.

And for tomorrow's schedule…

I needed to sleep.

Elena had died in the morning. In the evening, Eunsol-noona was dead.

The mirror was busy staring me down; the clock had drowned itself in blood more than ten times over; the dolls tilted their heads every time they saw a person; cups walked around on their own—this was a madhouse of a mansion.

Rattle-rattle-rattle! Hissssss!

And still—

To survive to the end, to walk out of this mansion with everyone else, to save the strength for tomorrow's searching and surviving—

I had to sleep.

Kikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikiki

"Would you just shut the hell up already, you son of a bitch!!!"

I stabbed under the bed with the silver dagger from my pocket. I didn't hit anything solid, but something made a noise as it fled.

Whatever had been under the bed, and wherever it went—at this point, I didn't even care.

"You talk straight! Do you think I'm an idiot? You've been weird since you started smiling that sunny smile yesterday!!!"

"Ughk… Hyung, please stop. Ari doesn't know anything either."

A bellow loud enough to rattle the whole mansion yanked me out of sleep.

What now? This place never had a quiet moment.

I didn't even wash properly—just threw myself toward the living room. Jinchul-hyung's face was flushed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠brick-red as he held Ari and roared at her. The almost funny part was that Ari herself looked surprisingly calm; it was Seungyeop beside her who was crying.

Was Seungyeop filming his own private Romeo and Juliet over there?

Love subplot or not, someone clearly needed to cool this down. Suspicion was one thing, but if secrets spilled just from grabbing a kid and yelling, this place would never have earned a name like Mansion of Terror.

"Hyung-nim. That's enough. What's this about?"

I was quietly braced for the worst—that this extremely worked-up Jinchul-hyung might charge me like a wild boar too. Honestly, that would have been frightening…

Fortunately, he still had enough reason left to recognize an ally.

"Perfect timing. I'm not holding her for nothing. You think I wanted to grab a little kid and scream? I was going to settle this with that bastard old man—except the old man vanished out of nowhere!"

"Grandfather didn't vanish. I already told you he usually tends the mansion and the garden in the mornings, so you don't see him."

"In this storm? He tends the garden? You really think you can mess with adults—"

"Has it not occurred to you that I look down on you because you're an idiot? You wouldn't get out of here in ten years."

…What?

Just now—Ari had been a completely different person. Yes, she had every right to be angry, being berated for something that wasn't even her fault… but had she ever been the type to throw words that hard?

The tone, even the voice, was nothing like her usual self.

Jinchul-hyung himself, hearing it, looked less furious than stunned, unsure what to do with his hands.

Clunk.

"My apologies. With the storm raging, I thought I might at least find some side path, and wandered here and there—it seems I caused you concern."

The Butler returned at a timing so perfect it left the air painfully awkward. Jinchul-hyung, who had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been so ready to confront "the old man," could not hide his fluster at being caught manhandling the old man's granddaughter right in front of him.

"And Ari—you will apologize to our guest at once. I will apologize as well. She is still ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a child, and it seems she could not master a flash of temper. Please forgive her."

Could the man who had just been berating a child in front of her grandfather really stand there and say he could not forgive her for losing her temper? Hyung did not have that kind of steel in him.

"No… I wasn't trying to get angry at her in the first place. It was just, uh… the situation was, uh…"

It was going to drag on forever—and it wasn't a productive conversation. I cut it short.

"Things have been bad in the mansion since yesterday; everyone's nerves are frayed. Let's leave it here. So, Butler-nim—did you find any side path? Yesterday you mentioned something about repairing the boat."

"Regrettably, no side path presented itself. So I believe we will indeed have to repair the boat. Would you be willing to assist me? I have already prepared the tools."

"Well then, I'll just change and—"

"Hyung, I think you'd better stay here."

Jinchul-hyung looked at me, startled. I jerked my chin toward Seungyeop—you're going to leave him alone in a mansion this dangerous? Thankfully he understood and turned back.

Leaving Seungyeop alone was a concern, yes—but more than that, I doubted this hyung could keep his emotions in check walking around with the Butler.

And I, for my part, had something I wanted to ask the Butler—preferably alone.

"With sorrow after sorrow since yesterday, I myself am at a complete loss. Gain-ssi, that you do not easily lose your composure even in this—your self-discipline must be remarkable."

"Self-discipline? Nothing so grand. I just spend all day thinking how to stay alive, and that tends to shove every other thought aside."

"That is precisely self-discipline. Nothing else is."

A sideways dig at Jinchul-hyung's inability to master his feelings? Whatever nerve war the Butler and Hyung were fighting was none of my business. My turn for questions.

"Butler-nim. Is there anything in the mansion related to a 'bell'?"

"A 'bell'? Hmm… I cannot imagine where you would have heard of that."

Should I tell him? Better to dress it a little.

"Ah—while I was sleeping, I thought I heard something like a bell. With ghostly things running wild through the whole mansion since yesterday…"

"A bell… I did not hear it myself, but the mansion has had its troubles in connection with a bell."

"Troubles?"

"The Cathedral you visited yesterday. In truth, that Cathedral once had a rather fine bell. There was a time when its clear morning and evening peals were something of a local pride."

"However… at some point the Master came to detest that sound intensely. Every morning and evening when the bell rang, he would clutch his head."

"Hmm. And the souring of relations between the mansion and the Cathedral began with that?"

"Exactly so. Because of that bell, the Master wanted to buy the Cathedral's land outright and drive them out… I am ignorant of the law, so I do not fully understand the suits of that time, but the dispute did not go entirely as the Master wished."

"Still, in the end the Cathedral fell half to ruin, and there was no one left to ring the bell… so in the long view, the Master's will was accomplished."

"Then the bell is still at the Cathedral?"

"Of course. The ownership of the bell rests with the Cathedral, and the Master saw no reason to meddle with a bell no one would ring. Climb the ladder to the upper part of the Cathedral and there is a small bell tower; as far as I know, the bell is still inside it."

Two facts secured.

The Master had hated the sound of the bell with a passion. The bell still hung in the Cathedral's upper bell tower.

While I turned over the new information against what I already knew, working the pieces around in my head, we arrived at the Cathedral before I quite noticed.