“C-come on! I don’t want to go insane all by myself!” Woohyun persisted. “It’ll be too scary on my own! When I’m alone I can’t make well-rounded decisions, especially in a place like this!”

Sunggyu turned to Woohyun with tired but adamant eyes. “As we speak now we’re slowly going insane from being around each other. We all see different things, so trying to convince each other about what we see and if it’s real or not is pointless and makes all of us look crazy. Don’t you understand that?”

Woohyun lowered his head and rubbed his forehead. “It’s just not fair!”

“What are you, a baby?” Hoya asked, annoyed. “We just have to tough it out and follow our leader’s instructions.” He straightened up. “I’ll go down the hall and follow Dongwoo.”

“He’s still watching us?” Sunggyu glanced at him.

“Yeah.”

“Fine, do whatever you have to do.” Sunggyu looked to Woohyun. “Woohyun, can you see any entrances in this hallway?”

Woohyun slowly raised his head and looked around. “No, not right now.” He answered quietly.

“Me neither.” Sunggyu added after glancing around. “Then Hoya will go first.” He turned to Hoya. “Be careful.”

Hoya nodded and turned to walk down the pink hallway. Sunggyu watched him go, waiting for him to fade out, but his figure continued walking. The hallway seemed to only spread out longer and longer. Sunggyu couldn’t blink for a moment and even felt his entire body freeze up, as if he was experiencing sleep paralysis.

“Sunggyu?”

Woohyun’s questioning voice was enough to pull Sunggyu back into his right state of mind. He turned away from the expanding hallway and rubbed his eyes.

“Are you okay?” Woohyun stood up.

“I couldn’t move for a moment…” Sunggyu slowly looked back at the end of the hallway. It looked like it did before with the exception of a medium-sized plastic deer standing at the very end, looking at Sunggyu and Woohyun with black, blank eyes.

“…do you see that deer?” Sunggyu asked quietly.

Woohyun looked around Sunggyu. “Is it alive?”

“No…I don’t think so. It’s not moving.”

“I don’t see it.”

Sunggyu nodded softly and took in a deep breath. “Now we need to split up.”

Woohyun still looked extremely uncomfortable with that idea. “Where are we going to go?”

“We’ll look for any entrances in the hall or if we see any of our other friends, we’ll try talking to them again.”

Woohyun nodded, glancing around the pink walls nervously.

Several seconds went by without any movement or sound from the two. Sunggyu kept his gaze down the middle of the hall, occasionally glancing to his left and right, seeing if an entrance would magically appear. After a few more minutes, he glanced at Woohyun, who was being extremely quiet. Woohyun’s gaze seemed to be fixed forward and his eyes were half open.

“Hey, you okay?” Sunggyu asked quietly.

Woohyun didn’t respond. He didn’t even blink.

“…Woohyun. Are you okay?” Sunggyu turned to him.

Woohyun remained eerily silent.

Sunggyu continued to stare at him nervously, thinking he was seeing something and was in a completely different state of mind. He was about to touch his arm until another voice from behind him made him jump and turn around.

“Leave him. He’s not with you right now.” Myungsoo said. He was standing right behind Sunggyu, gazing at him with a calm expression.

“Oh my god you scared me.” Sunggyu closed his eyes and rubbed the side of his head.

“Sorry.”

“…so I should assume that speaking to you through that mirror in the bedroom wasn’t significant at all?” Sunggyu asked quietly once his heart rate went back to normal.

“Of course it was. You saw the bedroom, didn’t you?” Myungsoo asked.

“Yeah but I wasn’t about to sleep in that bed…”

“Of course you weren’t. She was laying in it.”

“She? You mean the monster?”

Myungsoo nodded. “You were lucky to escape the way you did. She was going to steal your soul.”

“But I have to be completely insane before she does that, right?”

“No. She can steal it even if you’re completely fine. It just takes some time until you get to a state of mind where you completely lose your sense and logic.”

“Fine…so I’ll ask again: how do we stop her?”

“Follow me.” Myungsoo motioned to Sunggyu to follow him.

“But what about—“ Sunggyu glanced behind him and saw nothing. Woohyun had disappeared.

“I already told you. He’s not here right now.”

“Yeah I see that.” Sunggyu sighed and turned back to Myungsoo. “Where are we going?”

Myungsoo didn’t answer and started to move down the hallway. Sunggyu caught up to him quickly. Myungsoo stopped at the end of the hallway and turned left. Sunggyu saw another entrance into what looked like an unkempt, public bathroom. Once they were both inside, Sunggyu looked around and noticed that there was no toilet, just a stained white sink with a tall mirror situated above it.

“Isn’t this a bathroom?” Sunggyu glanced up at the lowly lit ceiling. The only light was coming from the side window.

“Yes it is.” Myungsoo’s voice seemed to come from a bit far away this time. Sunggyu turned toward the mirror and saw Myungsoo in his reflection again.

“Why are we in a place like this?” Sunggyu took a couple steps forward.

“I’ve learned some things about this monster holding us in here.” Myungsoo replied.

“Okay?”

“She was in this public bathroom.”

Sunggyu blinked. “That…. She told you that?”

“Yes.”

“Then what about that bedroom we were in before? Was it her bedroom?”

“Yes. But that room was much darker than this room.”

“Why?”

“She was murdered in there.”

Sunggyu sighed a little. “That must be why I saw blood on my arms and flooding the room after I saw you.”

Myungsoo nodded. “Now she’s managed to continue living paranormally and tortures every soul she can to stay alive.”

“She really told you all of what you just told me?” Sunggyu asked.

“You don’t believe me?”

“Not really…I mean, unless you and the others are getting bored being her prisoners?”

Myungsoo’s eyes narrowed and the room seemed to shake. Sunggyu stumbled a little and steadied himself by grabbing either side of the white sink.

“What the hell was that?” Sunggyu stared at Myungsoo wide-eyed.

“Don’t think of the woman in a funny way. She is very powerful.” Myungsoo’s voice suddenly got a little lower and something in his eyes seemed to show some kind of supernatural power.

Sunggyu blinked and stepped away from the sink. “W-what’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing. I’m perfectly fine.” Now Myungsoo’s voice started to sound the slightest bit more feminine. Sunggyu watched wide-eyed as Myungsoo’s skin turned grey and his eyes pale yellow. Long, dark grey hair extended past his shoulders as long eyelashes grew out from the shorter ones.

Sunggyu took another step back, his voice stuck in his throat.

“I’ve never felt better.” The deep, deadly voice of the ghost woman sounded like a chill that ran through Sunggyu’s ears and down his spine.