003 – A Really Scary Story # 3
003 - A Really Scary Story # 3
003 - A Truly Scary Story # 3
I left my room again today to buy chicken breast and protein drinks.
Tat-tat-tat-.
The transparent girl, whom I'd identified as an 'Imp,' quickly followed me out.
For reference, an Imp is a 'lesser demon.'
If demons like the Marquises, Dukes, or Paimon of Hell are tigers, then an Imp is about the level of a cat, right?
So, it fits her perfectly, since all she does is steal from convenience stores.
Anyway, I was worried about what I'd do if the Imp just holed up in my house, but it looks like she intends to tag along after me.
Could this be a problem in its own right?
For now, I headed to the convenience store.
And paid for the chicken breast and protein drinks.
Beep, beep.
"Honey, how come you're buying two of everything today? Buying for tomorrow, too?"
The convenience store owner asked slyly while chatting me up.
I snuck a glance at the 'Imp' hiding behind me and staring at the snack aisle.
Salang-salang-.
An arrowhead tail wagging left and right like a puppy's.
If the owner had seen something like that, they definitely would have said something, but the fact that they didn't—
'I guess it really is only visible to me.'
Stepping out of the convenience store, Jjae-aeng-. The sunlight was blinding.
So, what now?
Do I have to keep dragging this weird Imp around like this?
At this rate, my food expenses will double, and my Engel coefficient will explode.
'Should I at least look up "how to get rid of a clinging demon"?'
I returned home thinking about that, and there was a female student from the apartment across the hall standing in front of my door.
She looked to be around twenty.
She was a foreigner, so her skin was slightly dark, but she had a slender, beautiful face, and above all, her breasts were huge.
For the record, she was wearing a sleeveless top that showed off her cleavage even now.
"Heelllo."
The woman greeted me in a slightly clumsy voice.
It had already been nearly half a year since she moved in, but this was the first time she'd spoken to me.
Suddenly, my tension skyrocketed!
"Ah, ye-heh."
"I'm Ming, who lives across the hall. I have a sauce jar at home that won't open. I was wondering if you could help me with it...."
A sauce jar? Can things like this actually happen in real life?
The woman who identified herself as 'Ming' opened her door and went inside.
As I waited for her to bring out the sauce jar, a cheerful voice called out from inside the open door, "Come on in─."
Even though we're neighbors living across from each other, is it really okay to invite a man inside so carelessly?
If she were my younger sister, I wouldn't have let her do that.
Thinking that, I stepped into her house—
"Ugh, uuuugh─."
I couldn't help but feel nauseous.
Because her floor was completely covered in something that looked like 'bright red blood.'
Her bed, windows, wallpaper, bathroom door, balcony, and refrigerator were all painted with the bright red liquid; it was enough to drive someone insane.
Splosh-. There was even so much red liquid on the floor that my feet were slightly submerged.
Just as I was standing frozen at the entryway, wondering what on earth was going on, Ming-ssi giggled.
"...Heh, it's pretty messy, isn't it?"
No, damn it, is this a level that can just be brushed off as 'messy'?
The place is completely fucked up, it's a total shitshow!
"Why aren't you coming in? Is there a problem?"
But Ming-ssi kept urging me to come inside.
Her expression and gaze were somehow cold.
At that moment, I felt a strange pressure, and sensing that something ominous would happen if I stayed like this, I had no choice but to take off my shoes and step inside.
Chap, chap-chap-.
Fortunately, I was wearing slippers, so I was barefoot.
"This is it. It's a Thai sauce. Sriracha...."
"...I guess you're from Thailand, Ming-ssi."
I blurted out something random so I wouldn't be overwhelmed by the shitty atmosphere of this mysterious room.
Ming-ssi beamed as if she liked my question.
"Yes, I'm from Isan. Have you heard of it? It's famous for its food."
"No.... More importantly, hup─cha! There. I opened it."
"Wow, that fast? As expected, men are strong. Look at the veins on your hand."
Ming-ssi poked the back of my hand, which was holding the sauce jar, with her finger.
At that moment, it felt like electricity was racing from the back of my hand toward my tailbone and the top of my head.
Oso-so-so, goosebumps broke out all over, starting from the back of my hand.
"Oppa, let's be close from now on. What are you doing this evening?"
She laughed, 'hu-hu,' with her narrow eyes.
Even though I'm a novice who hasn't had a girlfriend until twenty-five, I know this is a seduction.
If it were me up until yesterday, I might have fallen for it.
But today, I was feeling the gaze of the weird 'Imp' behind me, and above all, I didn't have the thick skin to do anything in this room covered in blood.
'The situation is fucking weird!'
So I hurriedly evacuated to the entryway.
My only thought was that I had to get out of here.
"I'm sorry, but I already ate dinner yesterday!"
"Huh? What you ate yesterday was yesterday's dinner─."
"Goodbye!"
Huda-dadak─.
After fleeing like that, I returned to my place and slammed the door shut.
I even locked the latch, which I usually never use.
# # #
Evening had passed before I knew it.
Swa-aaa, swa-aaaaa-.
The Imp was in the bathroom, playing by turning the shower on and off.
It seems she liked the shower.
"Boribori, stop it, it might break."
I made the Imp stop.
For reference, 'Boribori' is the name I gave her.
She felt just like 'Bori,' the Border Collie I used to raise in the past.
Since she's twice the size, she's 'Boribori.'
Whether my meaning was conveyed well or not, Boribori came out of the bathroom and curled up in the corner again.
Gu-uuuuu-.
Her stomach growled with great presence.
"Is it already time for dinner?"
I opened the refrigerator.
Since Boribori arrived, the speed at which the groceries I'd stocked up on were running out had doubled.
The wages from when I worked at the restaurant were almost gone, too; this is a big problem.
Swa-aaa─.
Even in the midst of that, the sound of water kept coming.
"Boribori, you should have turned off the water before coming out. Water bills don't just come from digging in the ground."
I went into the bathroom to turn off the water.
But water wasn't coming out of the shower?
Imp Boribori just tilted her head while looking at me.
"Eh? Then what is it?"
Swa-aaaaa-.
Where on earth was this sound of water coming from?
Wondering what on earth this was, I strained my ears and walked around to find the source of the water sound.
And I realized the sound was coming from in front of the entryway, in front of my door.
Deul-geu-reok-.
When I opened the door lock and went out, my brow immediately furrowed.
Swa-aaa-.
The villa floor was completely filled with bright red water, which was flowing along the floor.
And that water was none other than the stuff gushing out from under the door of 302, the apartment right across from mine.
"Ugh."
It was a nauseating smell.
The intensely fishy metallic smell was exactly like blood.
A clearly abnormal situation.
Kwal-kwal-kwal, swa-aaaaaaa-.
The blood gushing out from the apartment across the hall looked like it was going to flood the entire villa, so I slammed the door shut first.
Kwal-kwal-kwal-.
But maybe opening the door was the problem; this blood-like stuff had come in through the gap in my door and was already soaking my entryway.
"Argh!"
Flustered in many ways, I shoved rags into the gap in the door.
Even so, it wasn't enough to stop the overflowing blood, and just as the back of my head was tingling, Imp Boribori, who had been curled up in the corner, raised her head like a meerkat.
"......!"
Pat-pat-pat-.
She seemed to bounce toward the entryway, then poked her finger into the red water and drew a circle, a triangle, and some geometric formulas on the front door.
The size was about 30cm in diameter.
"Huh?"
The moment I saw that, blood dripped down from my nose.
It felt like a very refreshing sensation in my head, as if I'd been suffering from a headache for a long time and then felt relieved when my nose started bleeding.
It felt like a corner of my brain that I didn't usually use was being heated up, stimulated, and opened.
The meaning of the shapes Boribori drew rearranged themselves in my head like stars in the solar system aligning, bringing a single word, a concept, to the forefront of my mind.
"Sealing."
Sealing.
The meaning is to lock something firmly so that it cannot enter or cannot leave.
What happens to a door with that meaning written on it?
"Oh?"
Strangely, the overflowing blood stopped dead.
My front door had literally sealed off that flood of mysterious blood!
"Wow, what is this?"
I felt like I had been in hell just a moment ago, but now, for some reason, I felt great.
And the name 'Wizard,' which I had searched for a lot yesterday, took a more definite place in my heart.
"Magic of Sealing!"
I tried drawing the shape Boribori had drawn on the torn screen door as well.
Then, the mosquitoes that had been struggling with their needle-like snouts to get through the gaps in the screen all flew away, buzzing, as if they were terrified.
"It actually works!"
I feel amazing!
I can't believe this actually works!
Am I finally a real wizard now─!?
At that very moment when I was rejoicing.
Knock, knock, knock-.
━Yuseong-ssi, it's me, Ming. I made a dish with the sauce you opened the lid for earlier. Would you like to try some?
The slightly clumsy Korean coming from beyond the door.
It seemed to be Ming-ssi, the woman from across the hall.
I recalled that the fountain of blood that had been gushing out was pouring from the apartment across the hall.
Honestly, it wasn't a normal situation, and since I wasn't an idiot, I reached this conclusion.
'The woman across the hall is suspicious!'
I crept toward the entryway, keeping my footsteps as quiet as possible.
And the moment I looked outside through the peephole on the door─.
'Ugh!'
I screamed without realizing it.
That wasn't just Ming-ssi.
A woman covered in blood, with pitch-black eyes without a single speck of white, was looking at me and flicking a tongue that looked longer than my hand span.
It was the evil Ming-ssi.
A voice that didn't match her appearance, a sweet, seductive voice, came from those lips.
━Yuseong-ssi, please open up.
She kept calling my name.
Ha Yuseong. But the strange thing is....
"...I've never told you my name, Ming-ssi. How on earth do you know my name?"
━.......
................
It's long.
The silence.
It feels like time is melting like hot, heated sugar and sticking to my body.
Beep, beep-beep-beep-.
Soon, instead of an answer, I heard the sound of the door lock being pressed.
I suddenly remembered the fact that my fingerprints were clearly left on the buttons of the door lock.
Because I was too lazy to wipe them off.
What would happen if she opened my door?
'No, even if I didn't wipe the fingerprints, how could she guess the number!'
Ddi-ro-ring-.
But I heard the sound of the door lock unlocking after the correct number was entered.
How on earth?
At that moment, a scene flashed through my mind.
If she had been watching the door lock numbers I pressed carelessly when I entered my house from her own house through the peephole─!?
Ossa-aaa-k.
Dal-gak, dal-gak-dal-gak-.
But it sounded like the door wouldn't open, just the sound of the doorknob being turned wildly.
Soon, a beautiful, sweet voice mixed with a monstrous screech like rusty metal scraping against a wall came from beyond the door.
━A barrier? Heh, I vaguely guessed you were a wizard earlier, but you're pretty good, aren't you? It's been a while, so I might be able to suck out some yolk.
I let most of the latter part slide, but the word 'barrier' pierced my ears.
If it's a barrier, is it that thing that comes out in cartoons and stuff?
Why is that on my door... Ah!
It seems the 'Sealing' magic circle that Imp Boribori drew on the door earlier became a barrier!
If that hadn't been there, by now I would have....
It was so chilling in many ways that my blood ran cold.
"Pee-bup."
At that moment, Imp Boribori opened her mouth for the first time in a while.
However, without even a moment for me to wonder about that word, Boribori strode toward the door and let out a threatening sound, 'Grrrrrr'─like a beast, like a wolf that was pissed off.
And─.
━Ugh? Kyaaaaaa!!!
A sharp scream was heard from outside the door.
And also the sound of something falling, 'Kudangtang, kwadang,' and disappearing down the stairs far away.
If it wasn't just my imagination....
It seems Boribori chased away the crazy Ming-ssi and saved me!!!