The B-Movie Director
Inside the van, all of us stared intently at the old book on the CCTV screen Seyeon was pointing to.
"It's decided, then!"
Just as Deokhu said, our next target was set.
"Alright."
I spoke, my mind made up.
"We're splitting into two teams. We have one objective: retrieve that grimoire."
"You're going in... yourself?"
I shifted my gaze to Deokhu.
"Deokhu. You're the first bait."
"Huh? M-me?" Deokhu asked back, his face pale with terror.
"You're not physically going in. Your sound is."
"My sound?"
I pointed to the blueprint of the club building.
"You hid a wireless speaker in the vent at the end of the club room hallway, didn't you?"
"Y-yes! Just in case of emergencies."
"Listen carefully. From now on, I want you to blast the loudest, most obnoxious sounds you have through that speaker. Construction noise, sirens, screams—I don't care what it is. We need to completely deafen the bastard and draw all its attention toward the vent."
Deokhu nodded, instantly catching on to my plan.
"Understood! I'm ready to rupture its eardrums!"
Next, I turned to Minhye.
"Minhye, you're the second bait. And yours is the most critical role."
"The second bait?"
"The moment Deokhu starts the noise, you head to the first-floor lobby. Find a pipe or a stick and start pounding on the walls and floor like crazy. Make as much noise as possible to mock and provoke it."
"How exactly?"
"Something like, 'Hey, you stupid goat bastard! Over here!' Like that."
"Ah... and the reason?"
"With its hearing already overwhelmed, it'll react with extreme aggression to any new stimulus from below. We're going to drag its focus and rage all the way down to the first floor."
Minhye answered without a moment's hesitation.
"Got it, Sunbae. I'll pull the greatest aggro of my life."
Finally, Seyeon.
"Seyeon, you need to monitor everything and feed me information. Tell me where the demon is looking, how distracted it is. You have to give me the perfect window."
"Yes, Sunbae. Leave it to me. But wait, now that I think about it... what are you going to be doing?"
"While it's distracted, I'm going to slip into the club room through the opposite window."
At my words, everyone's face stiffened.
"By yourself, Sunbae? That's too dangerous!"
"No. This is actually the safest way."
I reassured them.
"The bastard is trapped in that room. That's our greatest advantage. While its attention is completely elsewhere, I'll quickly grab the grimoire and get out. Once we strip away its power, putting it down will be easy."
The plan was now crystal clear.
Deokhu would deafen the enemy with noise, Minhye would blind it with provocations, and I would slip through the cracks to retrieve the grimoire—our key to neutralizing the beast.
"Let's begin!"
A moment later.
"Here we go!"
The moment Deokhu slammed the Enter key on his laptop, an ear-splitting cacophony of heavy metal and construction drills blasted out. The sound would strike the demon's ears directly from the Bluetooth speaker hidden in the vent at the end of the hallway.
It went exactly as expected.
On the CCTV screen, the demon clutched its ears in agony, looking around wildly at the sudden auditory assault. Right on cue, Minhye's phase of the operation began in the first-floor lobby.
"Hey! You ugly goat-faced freak! Over here, over here!"
Clutching a steel pipe, Minhye began hammering furiously against a metal pillar in the lobby. Clang! Clang! Clang! The metallic din reverberated through the entire building.
"I said over here! Come get me!"
Noise from above, provocation from below.
The demon's face contorted in sheer, unadulterated confusion.
Then, consumed by a mounting rage, it let out a savage roar and began clawing frantically at the closed door of the club room.
All of its senses and fury seemed entirely focused on the noisy door and the vent. Seyeon, watching the whole scene unfold on the CCTV monitor, spoke to me through the earpiece.
"Got it."
The moment I received the signal, I bolted from the van and headed straight for the main entrance of the club building.
Stepping inside, I silenced my footsteps and crept up toward the third floor like a cat. Even though the beast couldn't open the door and escape, I had to be as cautious as possible.
With every turn of the stairwell, Minhye's shouting and the clanging of the steel pipe from below clashed with the demon's furious roars from above, creating a bizarre symphony. I tuned it all out, focusing entirely on my senses.
Finally, I reached the third-floor hallway.
There it was: the door to the club room.
A sinister red light seeped through the gap beneath the door.
Gulp.
Swallowing hard, I made my way toward my destination.
It wasn't the room where the demon was thrashing, but the empty club room right next to it.
Since the walls between the club rooms were just thin drywall, my plan was to slip into the empty room first, then slide an endoscopic camera through a small gap in the corner to peer next door. This was my staging point.
I quickly pulled the endoscopic camera from my bag.
Stepping into the adjacent room, I carefully threaded the camera through a narrow gap in the corner of the drywall. Instantly, the dark, dusty interior of the demon's room appeared on my smartphone screen.
On the screen, the demon was still venting its fury toward the main door.
On the floor, right near the drawn magic circle, lay the worn grimoire.
"Perfect."
The infiltration was complete.
Now came the real challenge: retrieving the book.
Opening the door and walking in myself was an absolute last resort.
I reached into my bag and pulled out another tool.
It was a telescopic magnetic toy fishing rod.
My plan was simple. I would slide the rod through the same gap as the camera, guide it toward the grimoire, and snag it with the magnet. Fortunately, the gap in the wall was just wide enough for the book to pass through. If I could just hook it, pulling it back would be a breeze.
Let's do this.
Keeping my eyes glued to the camera feed, I carefully slid the rod through the gap. The metal rod slithered across the floor like a snake, inching closer to the grimoire. The demon was still huffing and puffing, its back turned to me as it glared at the door.
Just a little further. Everything is going perfectly.
And then, it happened.
A faint movement caught my eye beneath a desk.
It was the last surviving student, cowering in fear.
Wait... no way.
Spotting the strange metal rod slithering across the floor, the terrified student must have thought it was some appendage of the monster coming to kill him. Panic seized him.
"Ah—!"
A sharp, stifled gasp escaped the student's lips.
Instantly, the demon's head snapped around with the jerky, mechanical motion of a broken doll.
Damn it. We're busted.
The beast's gaze locked onto the very gap where my camera was inserted.
On my smartphone screen, the demon's blood-red, rage-filled eye filled the entire display in a terrifying close-up.
Crash!
The demon punched straight through the thin drywall.
"Son of a... bitch!"
With a deafening splintering sound, chunks of drywall rained down. I scrambled backward. Through the newly made hole in the wall, the massive silhouette of the demon slowly loomed over me in the darkness.
A flaw in my own setting. If it can just smash through the wall, then this room and that room are practically the same space!
The rat trapped in the corner wasn't the students anymore. It was me.
But I had no time to answer, and nowhere to run.
What do I do?
In this life-or-death crisis.
Perhaps because death was staring me in the face, my brain began firing at hyper-speed.
Right. That's it!
I recalled one of the sloppiest, most childish tropes I had written into my own script.
The protagonist happens to find holy water and splashes it to repel the demon.
A natural resolve washed over me.
If Plan B failed, then we go to Plan C. I'm the director of this B-movie. And starting now, I'm also the lead actor.
I decided to improvise. Forcing a look of sheer terror onto my face, I stumbled backward toward a dusty, old water dispenser sitting in the corner of the room.
"Ugh! Stay back!"
I shouted, adopting the most exaggerated, theatrical tone I could muster.
"Do you truly think a wretched demon like you can lay a hand on me, a servant protected by the grace of God?!"
Perhaps thrown off by the cringeworthy line straight out of a bargain-bin horror flick, the demon actually paused.
The demon I designed has low intelligence. It's bound to try and analyze what I'm doing.
Just as I expected, the beast tilted its head.
I didn't waste a single second, my mind racing to capitalize on the hesitation.
Then, the water dispenser caught my eye.
That's it!
Snatching a crumpled paper cup rolling around next to the dispenser, I frantically pressed down on the lever. Fortunately, a tiny bit of water remained at the bottom of the tank. I filled the paper cup to the brim.
Then, with the dramatic flair of someone revealing a secret weapon, I pulled out the silver crucifix necklace from beneath my shirt.
"Behold, foolish demon! This single cup of water, blessed by the power of the Holy Cross, shall banish you back to the fiery pits of Hell!"
After my solemn declaration, I dipped the crucifix into the paper cup and pulled it back out.
It was a laughably shoddy performance.
Yet, staring at the fake "holy water" in my hand, the demon actually began to take a step back.
I muttered under my breath.
"The plan failed."
"But it's not over until it's over."