Twin Ghosts #2
Hong Miri suddenly lost it and started choking me. She was seriously trying to kill me.
I fled while dispatching my Mercenary Group onto myself. The target was the Elevator Heading to the 4th Floor. Someone might ask why I chose the elevator of all things. If Yang Ju-hui had been here, she definitely would have asked that.
If I needed to take Teacher Hong Miri down for good, what was the best way? I had agonized over it until I was ready to tear my hair out and finally reached a conclusion.
The hellish elevator where I had first learned about Teacher Hong Miri. That space on the death floor seemed perfect for throwing her into utter confusion.
On that fourth floor lived the Rolling Head and the Headless Body. When that head had attached itself to the body before, it had clearly said this:
Then it simply rolled away on its own. In other words, the head was searching for a body that truly belonged to it. The body seemed to be looking for its head as well.
And on the nape of Teacher Hong Miri's neck was a scar that looked as if it had been sliced clean by something sharp. It was exactly the kind of mark left when a head and body are severed and then forcibly rejoined.
Only one hypothesis fit. What if Teacher Hong Miri's head and body weren't originally a matching set?
What if they were like snapping together mismatched Lego pieces—parts that had belonged to different people?
I had no concrete proof, but the circumstantial evidence kept piling up. Back at the soup restaurant when we were drinking, her body had flushed bright red like a boiled crayfish, yet only her face remained deathly pale. As if her face belonged to an entirely different being.
To put it simply, if I labeled Teacher Hong Miri's head as A1 and her body as B2, while the rolling head on the elevator was B1 and its matching body A2, far too many pieces suddenly fit together.
What would happen if I returned their proper heads and bodies to them?
"The situation will definitely change!"
I had once returned a body to Gu Hye-na when she had been nothing but a head ghost, evolving her into the perfect complete form of a Female High School Ghost. There was no guarantee the same thing wouldn't happen again.
I hid inside what I guessed was the hallway of the orphanage that had burned down years ago.
Click. Click.
The sharp sound of high heels striking the floor echoed down the corridor. I poked just my head around the corner and peered toward the noise. In the darkness, I saw Teacher Hong Miri walking while cautiously scanning her surroundings.
She had entered the fourth-floor elevator too. It made sense. Wearing high heels, the stairs would have been inconvenient. If an elevator appeared, of course she would have taken it.
Of course, she never would have stepped inside if she had realized it was the hellish elevator that only had the number "4." Which was exactly why I had painted every button with this glow pen.
A pen that remains clearly visible even in complete darkness. Any mark made with this pen cannot be erased unless the eraser on its cap is used.
From the look of things, Hong Miri had fallen completely into my trap. Now everything depended on what I did next.
I flicked on my flashlight and moved quickly down the hallway, sweeping the beam across every corner. I had to find that head and body on this fourth floor.
Please let them be here! These were the very ghosts I had once been desperate to avoid, yet now I was frantic to see them. Life really is unpredictable.
That was when I heard it.
Rooooooll— Thud. Thump. Rooooooll—
The loud sound of something rolling echoed through the corridor. I swung my flashlight toward it and saw an unbelievably grotesque, twisted face rolling across the floor like a ball.
I felt both overwhelming relief and pure terror at the same time.
"There it is! Hey! Hey! Whoa!"
I shouted on purpose to draw the head's aggro. My provocation worked perfectly.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Whoa! Over here! Heyhey! Heyheyheyheyheyheyheyheyheyheyhey!"
The head ghost mimicked my voice as it began rolling straight toward me. I spun around and sprinted with everything I had—directly toward where Hong Miri was waiting.
This place is…
Hong Miri swept her phone light across the surroundings. She saw a door labeled A-1 and another marked Director's Office.
It was the moment her long-buried memories came flooding back. This was the orphanage where she had lived until high school—an orphanage run by the Yeongji Foundation. She couldn't understand how a building that had burned to the ground ten years ago could possibly exist on a nonexistent fourth floor.
This is an unpleasant place. Ha Yeong-won. Did you pull some kind of trick? Or is this just coincidence?
Hong Miri had already guessed that the elevator itself was some kind of anomaly, urban legend, or corresponding mystery. And the odds were high that the reason such an anomaly had appeared was the boy who had fled from her—Ha Yeong-won.
His aptitude as a Watcher was exceptionally high. High enough to make even her feel jealous.
Those who stare into the abyss will find the abyss staring back into them. A Watcher is someone who can perceive anomalies and mysteries—and those same anomalies and mysteries will inevitably stare back at them.
Anomalies and mysteries were beings that craved to be seen. To them, a Watcher capable of clearly recognizing their existence was as captivating as a lantern blooming in the darkness. Like an oasis appearing before wanderers dying of thirst in the desert.
In other words, it's not strange at all for this elevator anomaly to suddenly manifest because of Ha Yeong-won's aptitude. Ha Yeong-won. Running away like this… you lucky bastard. You must be hiding somewhere around here too, right?
Schlck—
Blood suddenly trickled down Hong Miri's neck. When she pressed her palm against it, the old scar began to throb and burn hotly.
How unpleasant. I'll finish off Ha Yeong-won quickly and leave this place. Come to think of it, this is lucky for me too. People who disappear inside an anomaly's domain are never found. Ha Yeong-won. You're going to die here.
Clutching her neck, Hong Miri walked slowly forward.
Rustle. Rustle. Rustle.
She sensed a presence coming from the room labeled B-3.
"Yeong-won. You're in there, aren't you? Teacher made a mistake. Come out here quickly. Teacher suddenly lost her mind… and ended up scaring you. Let's make up, okay~?"
Hong Miri put on the gentle teacher act as she slowly opened the door to B-3.
"As an apology, Teacher will grant you one wish. Anything at all. Even an embarrassing one. Even worries you can't tell anyone else. So come out. Teacher is scared in here too."
Boys around Yeong-won's age were basically monkeys in heat. They would definitely harbor some kind of fantasy toward a young female teacher. Hong Miri intended to lure him out that way. She finally shone her phone light toward the source of the rustling presence.
"Found you!"
It was rummaging through lockers inside a classroom-like space labeled B-1. And it had no head.
"……!"
Hong Miri was violently shaken by the sight of the headless figure. That was unmistakably an anomaly—or a ghost. And it didn't seem like any ordinary ghost.
Excruciating pain exploded from her neck as blood gushed out like a fountain.
"Aaaaagh~!"
The pain was so intense it nearly made her faint. The headless body approached her. When it drew close enough for her to see it clearly, every hair on Hong Miri's body stood on end.
"Get away!"
She decided to run. That seemed wisest. As she fled, she ran straight into Ha Yeong-won in the hallway.
"You son of a bitch!"
Ha Yeong-won was sprinting directly toward her. She would rip out his throat, kill him, and escape this place—
That was what she had been thinking when the male student slammed into her.
"Yaaah!"
Thud!
It was a full-body tackle. Since he had charged at full speed, even Hong Miri lost her balance and crashed to the floor. The high heels made it impossible to regain her footing.
She suddenly remembered experiencing a similar attack recently—when Kwon Su-ho had knocked her down in the Nightmare Corridor. The moment that memory resurfaced, it felt like every drop of blood in her body was boiling over.
"Ha Yeong-won! You son of a bitch! So you really did escape back then!"
"Over here! Here! Over here! Here!"
Ha Yeong-won pinned her down roughly from above. His breathing was ragged, his eyes bloodshot red. He looked like a perverted lunatic.
Hong Miri struggled to throw him off, but his strength was far greater than she had expected.
"This son of a bitch, acting like a real man!"
"Over here! Here!"
Ha Yeong-won's mouth kept shouting the same words over and over, as if calling for something. What was he calling? Hong Miri soon learned the answer.
Rooooooooooll—
Something was rolling toward them from far down the corridor. A face with eyes shattered like broken glass. Hong Miri met its horrifying gaze and saw her own reflection staring back.
It was only natural. Anyone looking closely would have noticed how eerily similar that grotesque head's face was to Hong Miri's own.
"Mi… Miri."
Hong Miri whispered her own name. The head ghost immediately charged at the pair huddled together on the floor.
"Graaagh!"
The male student screamed as the hair attacked him. But only for a moment. The head that had been assaulting him suddenly whipped around toward Hong Miri.
"Let go! Release me! You son of a bitch! Let go! Let me go!"
By now the only thought left in Hong Miri's mind was escaping this place. The jealousy and murderous intent she had felt toward the boy, every other emotion, all of it turned pure white.
She flailed her arms and legs desperately, but the male student's hands still clamped down on both her arms with terrifying strength.
"You son of a bitch! Perverted bastard! I'll let you do it once, just let go! Let go of me! Yaaaaaaaagh! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"
Hong Miri kept screaming curses. The hair wrapped tightly around her thrashing limbs. Then it began to creep slowly, sickeningly, toward the burning scar on her neck.
"Aaaagh! No! Ha Yeong-won! Yeong-won! Teacher was wrong! Let go and we'll talk! Ha Yeong-won! Teacher will cherish you from now on! Hey! You son of a bitch!"
"……."
"This son of a bitch! I treated you like a person and now you act like one! Son of a bitch! Biting the hand that feeds you! You son of a biiiiitch!"
Crack. Snap—
Hong Miri felt the vivid, horrifying sensation of her neck being torn away from her body. It was the feeling of two things that should never have been forced together being ripped apart once more.