The Ruby Wand's Light
This 「Princess Wand」 belonged to Yang Ju-hui. And toys like this usually came with some kind of magic spell.
“Yang Ju-hui! The incantation! The spell! Say the spell!”
Our fates rested on Yang Ju-hui’s wand. I had no choice but to press her.
She flinched. Despite her usual bold and courageous demeanor, she looked extremely tense. I wondered what was about to happen.
At that moment, Yang Ju-hui handed the lighter over to me.
“Agh, damn it! I don’t know either! You… if any of you laugh or tease me, I’ll really kill you! I mean it!”
She hesitated, her posture awkward to anyone watching. Gripping the wand with both hands, she waved it left and right and shouted.
“…Ahem, ahem. O… O jewel fairy! With light! Ru… Ruby Shine Ruby Power!”
It was an utterly bizarre incantation. The same Yang Ju-hui who ruled over 1-D was now striking a cutesy pose like a child at a school festival. In a way, the sight was as shocking as a severed-head ghost or a furious shaman ghost.
“Whoa!” I let out a short gasp of admiration.
Jeong Seok, unable to endure the awkward and embarrassing scene, turned his head and scratched his scalp vigorously.
What was going to happen now?
The ruby-colored wand in Yang Ju-hui’s hands began to emit light. It was a rainbow of colors. In this pitch-black darkness, the glow almost looked like some kind of barrier or protective field.
“Did it work? It worked, right? I did it!” Yang Ju-hui exclaimed, overjoyed.
Jeong Seok immediately asked, “Can you move while keeping that light on?”
“I don’t know! Let’s try!”
Yang Ju-hui took a step. The moment she did, the light flickered violently.
“No good. It looks like the light will go out if I move. This is an old toy. I bought it ages ago—when I was about seven. It’s practically broken already!”
What a shame! Since we didn’t know how long the barrier would last, I took a deep breath and prepared for the next move without wasting any time. All I had to do was run over and rip the talisman off the statue!
I’d already simulated everything in my head.
“Guys, I’m going! Jeong Seok! I’ll give you the talisman! The moment you wake up, write down everything you remember, just like I said! Got it?”
“Got it. I’ll do exactly that.”
“I’m going! Me! Really! I’m going! Don’t stop me! Aaaah! I’m going! I’m really going! I’m going now!”
If only there were a magic spell that could give someone courage. After chanting to myself like that a few times, I finally managed to move my feet.
I sprinted across the water that reached my ankles. Moving faster than I thought possible, I cleanly tore the talisman from the statue.
“Got it!”
“We got it, we got it, we got it.”
The problem was that my movement had agitated the head ghost. I’d probably stepped on its submerged hair. The head ghost’s cracked, glass-like eyes snapped open, its mouth twisted into a grotesque grin, and it lunged straight at me.
“Aaaagh! Shit!”
Was this what they called your life flashing before your eyes? The scene of Jeong So-jin dying at the hands of the head ghost replayed in my mind. Hair would wrap around my limbs and force its way into every opening—eyes, nose, mouth, ears—killing me in a horrifying, disgusting, and agonizing way. I didn’t want that!
“Uwaaaaaaaaah!”
Screaming in a way that even I found pathetic, I ran toward Yang Ju-hui. I felt hair coiling around my arms and legs, but I gritted my teeth and kept pushing forward.
“Hey! T-take this!”
I thrust the talisman forward. Jeong Seok, who had been waiting inside the barrier, approached and took it from me. At that moment, I felt a bit of strength drain from my body. I supposed I could relax a little.
Of course, the head ghost hadn’t completely let go of me. I kept pushing forward desperately until I finally stepped into the rainbow glow created by Yang Ju-hui’s wand.
“D-did it work?!”
What happened next was quite encouraging. The hair that had been wrapping around me recoiled from the light like cockroaches caught in the open. The head ghost could no longer approach me. It gnashed its teeth for a moment before floating upward and vanishing into the darkness above.
“…Is it gone? Did it go back to the first floor?”
Feeling the strength leave my body, I collapsed to the floor. My underwear got soaked from the water on the ground, but I didn’t care. I might have even wet myself a little. At this point, getting wet from the water was probably the better option.
“Ha Yeong-won. You really worked hard. I see you in a new light. I didn’t know you had that kind of courage.”
Jeong Seok praised my efforts. A few words couldn’t possibly repay what I’d just gone through, but it still felt good.
Jeong Seok held the talisman out to me.
“Yeong-won. Would it be okay if I escaped instead of you?”
“……”
I hesitated for a moment. There was only one escape ticket in this hellish nightmare, and there were three of us. That meant two people would inevitably have to stay behind.
“I… don’t need it. I have to keep looking for my sister.”
After thinking it over, Yang Ju-hui gave up her claim to the escape ticket. I had my own reasons for hesitating—I honestly didn’t want to stay in this place any longer. I was terrified of where the head ghost had gone… Should I just leave?
But in the end, I shook my head.
“Jeong Seok. You go. Honestly, you have the best memory out of all of us.”
“Then… should I just hold onto it and use it later? We could use it as bait for ghosts like before and make an emergency escape.”
Jeong Seok’s suggestion sounded reasonable. But we still didn’t understand the mechanics of “escape.” It wouldn’t hurt to just escape once and see what happened.
“No. Get out while we still have the chance. Go now! Right now! Before I change my mind!”
I squeezed my eyes shut. I had made up my mind to send Jeong Seok away.
“Go! Leave this place! Don’t ever come back!”
“Understood. I’ll never forget what happened here. Never!”
Jeong Seok gripped the talisman tightly. I lit it with the lighter, and something incredible happened. The moment the talisman caught fire, flames also engulfed Jeong Seok’s body. He burned like the talisman in his hand before quickly disappearing.
Only Yang Ju-hui and I remained. With two people left where there had once been three, the area was swallowed by an uneasy silence.
“Did it work? Ju-hui, what do you think? Jeong Seok definitely escaped, right?”
“I don’t know.”
The light from Yang Ju-hui’s toy wand went out. The wand’s duration was probably around two minutes.
“Hey. I think the wand’s broken.”
“So what do we do now?”
I looked around and asked Yang Ju-hui. She was also scanning our surroundings.
“Since the head ghost is gone, let’s search the area a bit more. There might be something useful.”
Good idea. Yang Ju-hui was always good at searching around like this.
# # #
“Yang Ju-hui, look at this! A rope!”
We found a rope near the statue. It looked to be about two meters long.
“With this, we can definitely escape from this basement!”
We decided to head back the way we came and return to the broadcast room. We needed to get the second talisman. According to the records, there was a statue on every floor, each with a guaranteed escape talisman attached. Since we’d just taken the one from the basement floor, there should be another on the first floor.
That meant one of us—either me or Yang Ju-hui—could escape.
“Hey, Ha Yeong-won. Boost me up. I’ll climb up with the rope and pull you after me.”
We had reached the hole in the broadcast room. Two meters. It felt much higher when you had to climb up instead of jumping down.
“Hey. Lie down here.”
Yang Ju-hui pointed at the floor. I got down on all fours, and she took off her shoes and wet socks before stepping on my back.
“Ah, shit. I can’t reach! Hey! Lying down won’t work! Lift me up!”
“Lift you up?”
In a situation where we had to do whatever it took to escape, I grabbed Yang Ju-hui and lifted her with all my strength.
“Hey! What are you doing?! Put some real power into it!”
“Nngh!”
Even in this situation, hugging a girl felt strange. She smelled nice and was soft. It was… actually pretty embarrassing. Of course, the reliable Yang Ju-hui didn’t seem bothered at all as she moved around.
“Hold steady! I’m going to step on your shoulders!”
Yang Ju-hui stepped onto my shoulders. I staggered but held onto her legs to support her. She used my shoulder as a stepping stone and, with her excellent athleticism, grabbed the edge of the hole in the broadcast room.
“Got it!”
“You got it? You got it?”
Without thinking, I looked up. Yang Ju-hui, still wearing her school uniform skirt, stomped on my face with her bare foot.
“Geh!”
“…Hey! Where are you looking?! Look up and you’re dead!”
“I didn’t see anything!”
After some struggling, Yang Ju-hui climbed up to the first floor. From above the hole, she called down.
“Hey! I’ll lower the rope now!”
“Okay!”
I waited for the rope.
... ...... .........
“Hey! You said you were lowering the rope!”
Five minutes passed, but the rope never came down. What was going on?
“Hey! Yang Ju-hui! Ju-hui? Ju-hui, where are you? What are you doing? Hurry up and pull me up!”
An uneasy feeling crept up my spine. I desperately wanted to get out of this basement. But there was no response from Yang Ju-hui, who had gone up.
Just as I felt like I was going to lose my mind, the rope finally dropped down from above.
“Oh!”
I grabbed the rope and climbed up with all my strength. It was my first time climbing a rope, so my arms and thighs got scraped, but none of that mattered. As long as I could survive!
But the moment I reached the top, I was horrified. Yang Ju-hui, who should have been waiting for me, was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a pale face was illuminated by the lighter’s flame—a face I never expected to see.
“Y-you’re Yu Da-hee!”
“Yeong-won.”
“You… you crazy bitch! Where’s Yang Ju-hui?! Where did Yang Ju-hui go?!”
I looked around in panic. There were large red puddles around Yu Da-hee. Blood. Pools of blood had gathered on the floor. And hair that had been repeatedly dyed and bleached lay scattered across the ground.
“Ugh. Uweeeeh—!”
Unable to hold it back, I vomited everything into the basement hole. As I rolled on the floor, I saw a 「Louis Vuitton backpack」 and the blood-soaked 「Princess Wand」 lying nearby.
There was only one thing that could mean.
“She’s dead…”
Yang Ju-hui was dead. Without even having time to scream. And these traces… were far too similar to the scene where Kim Geon-ho had died in front of the multipurpose room’s lock.
The third ghost’s traces. Yu Da-hee. The vanished Yang Ju-hui.
“Y-you evil bitch!”
I was so frustrated, angry, and terrified that foam formed at my mouth. But Yu Da-hee frowned and slapped my cheek.
“Ow!”
“Yeong-won. Calm down. This… I didn’t do it.”
“You didn’t do it?”
“Yeah.”
If Yu Da-hee didn’t do it, then who did? Even as doubt filled my mind, I wanted to believe her. In extreme situations, people naturally wanted to rely on and trust something.
But… just like Yu Da-hee said, I needed to calm down.
“Yu Da-hee. What the hell are you? What’s your real identity?!”
“Shh…!”
Yu Da-hee covered my mouth with her hand. It was soft and warm.
“If you make too much noise, that woman will come back to the broadcast room. You guys got the talisman from the basement, right? Once you take a talisman from the basement, the head ghost starts moving. That woman noticed it too. We have to be careful.”
That woman?