Hoya turned around as well. “W-where’s the exit?”

Sunggyu’s stomach suddenly felt heavy and did a small turn-over. It was enough for him to close his eyes and look away from his reflection.

“W-what do you mean?” Woohyun slowly turned around and let out a small noise. “I-it disappeared! Now what!?”

“Don’t panic!” Sunggyu shouted a little and held the side of his head. “If we panic, we might go crazy. Whatever this haunting is, it probably wants us to lose our minds, so don’t let yourself go crazy! Got it?”

Woohyun lowered his head. Hoya nodded slowly.

“Okay.” Sunggyu nodded and turned back around. “Let’s go.”

The three kept their gazes straight ahead as they continued walking. They were getting progressively light-headed until they reached the end of the hall. They could see the entrance to another hallway lined with pink wallpaper. They couldn’t see any mirrors.

“Finally..” Sunggyu breathed out softly.

As they stepped into the pink hallway, Hoya stumbled a little and felt to his hands and knees.

“Hoya??” Woohyun quickly bent down next to him. “Are you okay?”

“Dizzy…” Hoya muttered, holding the side of his head tenderly with closed eyes.

Sunggyu was also feeling incredibly dizzy. All throughout the walk down the hallway there was a steady stream of a high-pitched sound ringing in his ears. Now that they were standing inside of the pink, lit hallway, clarity was slowly coming back to them.

Woohyun helped Hoya stand up and kept one hand around him.

“This room feels good…the atmosphere is better.” Sunggyu mused as he looked at the empty walls and down the length of the hall. He could see entrances to other rooms on both sides.

“Maybe because of the light?” Woohyun glanced at the well-lit lights lining the top of the hall.

Sunggyu nodded. “That’s a good point…the light must be a place where the ghost can’t hurt us. So we can come back to this hallway if we ever need to straighten ourselves out.”

“Why is it always the light that keeps ghosts from hurting people?” Hoya muttered, steading himself without Woohyun’s help. “Are they just shy and don’t like showing off their figures in plain sight?”

Sunggyu continued to stare down the hall, ignoring Hoya’s comment. “If we’re going to find the others, we have to go into those rooms.”

“Um…what are you talking about?” Woohyun asked quietly.

Sunggyu glanced at him. “You don’t see those rooms down the hall?”

Woohyun and Hoya looked down the hall.

“Sunggyu there’s nothing over there. Just the wall at the end.” Hoya slowly looked at Sunggyu.

Sunggyu was quiet for a long time. After a moment, he slowly looked back down the hallway. Indeed there were no openings on either side and the furthest wall was pink like the rest of the hall.

“Perfect…now our leader is seeing things…” Woohyun ran his hand through his hair and sighed shakily.

“Hey, I know I saw them!” Sunggyu spat. “We’ll just wait a moment then look back!”

The three of them waited a couple seconds, then turned back to the end of the hallway.

“They’re there! You see them, right?” Sunggyu pointed.

Woohyun and Hoya glanced at Sunggyu with blank expressions.

“…maybe you’re the only one meant to see them?” Hoya asked.

Sunggyu glanced at him. “So I should go walk into one of them?”

Woohyun’s eyes widened. “No don’t do that! What if something happens to you!?”

“Well we want to get our friends back, don’t we? So we have to take our chances here.” Hoya said.

Woohyun looked extremely upset but lowered his head and sighed again.

“I’ll just look inside. I won’t go in immediately. Okay?” Sunggyu asked.

Woohyun didn’t reply or look at him.

Sunggyu sighed. “Okay.” He took several steps toward the room entrances on either side of the pink hallway. Hoya and Woohyun slowly followed behind, watching him carefully.

Inside one of the rooms, Sunggyu could see a darkly-lit bedroom with the only light coming from the side window. It looked like nighttime and the only furniture he could see was a small bed in the back corner and a chair situated in the middle of the room. To the side of the chair was another mirror on the right wall, facing the chair.

Something ran through Sunggyu and made him shiver slightly and let out a small breath.

“What?” Hoya asked nervously. “What do you see?”

Sunggyu continued to stare into the room. “…it looks like a bedroom…”

“A bedroom?” Woohyun asked.

Sunggyu grunted a little, suddenly hearing the same high-pitched noise he heard walking through the first set of mirrors.

“Sunggyu? Sunggyu!!” Hoya and Woohyun’s voices suddenly got fainter and faded away completely.

Sunggyu held either side of his head and tightened his closed eyes. “S-stop…”

As if his word was the magic word, the noise disappeared and a soft wind replaced it. Sunggyu slowly blinked his eyes open and slowly looked around. He was standing inside of the room now. The back of the chair was standing right in front of him. He took in several breaths and turned toward the window. There was barely any light coming out from it and it didn’t make the uneasy feeling in Sunggyu’s chest go away. He turned around to see if Hoya and Woohyun were still behind him.

There was only a wall behind him. No more pink hallway. No more Hoya and Woohyun.

Sunggyu cursed quietly and turned back to look at the bed in the corner. It was made very neatly and there was a small, brown teddy bear resting on the bottom of the pillow.

Sunggyu blinked slowly then started hearing a stream of incoherent whispers streaming through his head. He started to feel dizzy again and held either side of his head.

“Sunggyu hyung!” A very familiar voice hissed.

Sunggyu’s eyes opened and he turned to face the mirror. But he didn’t see his reflection.

“M-Myungsoo…!?” Sunggyu stared.

Myungsoo was staring right back at Sunggyu with tired but relieved eyes. “Sunggyu hyung…thank god you found me.”

Sunggyu walked closer to the mirror. “H-how are we talking right now? What the hell is going on? What is this place!?”

“It’s a long story. Too long.” Myungsoo shook his head. “Hyung you have to get me out of here!”

“How!?”

“The evil woman that’s holding me here…you have to kill her!”

Sunggyu blinked. “So the ghost is a woman?”

“She’s not a ghost. She’s a monster.”

“What?”

“A monster that is cursed to live only on the souls she collects and devours.”

“…isn’t that technically a ghost?”

“She’s not a ghost.” Myungsoo shook his head. “She’s alive because of the souls she has. They keep her alive.”

Sunggyu nodded slowly. “Okay, so we just have to take them away from her and she’ll die?”

“You have to be careful, hyung.” Myungsoo said. “The more souls she keeps, the more powerful she becomes. She can play awful mind tricks on her victims until they completely go insane. Then she can take over them more easily.”

Sunggyu nodded. “Got it. Let’s get you out first.” He looked around the rim of the mirror and tried to pry it off from the wall. It didn’t budge. “If I break the glass, will it hurt you?” He asked Myungsoo.

“That’s not going to work either way.” Myungsoo said.

“Then how do I get you out?”

“I don’t know.” Myungsoo admitted quietly.

Sunggyu sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Well there has to be some way!”

“Keep thinking…I’ll do the same.” Myungsoo said.

Sunggyu slowly looked back at him. “Where are the others? Are they okay?”

Suddenly the room seemed to shake and Sunggyu stumbled back and almost tripped over the chair. He caught it before it hit the floor but ended up letting go of it anyway. There was red blood covering it and it splattered some once it hit the wooden floor.

“What the…?” Sunggyu stared at his stained hands and quickly turned back to Myungsoo. “What the hell was—“

He was staring at his own, shaken up reflection. He blinked slowly and backed away from the mirror. “N-no…” He heard a creak come from the bed in the corner of the room and turned his gaze to it.

The teddy bear was ripped apart and covered in blood along with the pillow and sheets. It looked like something was lying in it but Sunggyu couldn’t see anything. The same high-pitched sound penetrated his hearing and he moaned softly. He took several steps backward until the top of his back collided with something furry. He quickly turned around and let out a loud, surprised yell.

The cut-off head of a moose was staring right back at him, blood covering its furry head. It’s expression was completely dead. As Sunggyu slowly looked around the room, the room became covered in red blood and a sickly, bitter scent attacked his nose.

He clamped his eyes shut. I-I need the light…need to find light…! His heart rate was increasing and his breaths became faster. He felt similarly to someone who was just about to get attacked and then wake up from their nightmare. Keeping his eyes closed, he felt his way around the room, trying not to squirm at the touch of the red blood. After a few seconds of tapping the walls, he suddenly felt a warmer wall. He could feel light strong like the sun hitting his hands and he quickly moved closer to it.

“Sunggyu…Sunggyu!!” Hoya’s voice exploded in Sunggyu’s ears as he stumbled forward. The bright light from the hallway attacked his eyes and he closed them tightly, falling into Hoya limply.

“Are you okay?” Hoya asked with a shaky voice.

Sunggyu caught up on his breathing and slowly opened his eyes. His hands were completely clean except for the sweat on his palms.

“…w-where’s Woohyun?” Sunggyu slowly looked up at Hoya.

Hoya bit his lip and looked extremely upset. “Woohyun…h-he disappeared. Like you did.”