“Ugh…” Nayeon woke up and grabbed her head in pain. She looked a little fuzzy. As she regained her senses, she looked around and found that she was laying on the grass right in front of an entrance gate. There was a huge barrier at the entrance gate, preventing her from leaving the place.

 

The first thing Nayeon did was reach for her phone that was laying on the ground. It has a message opened on the screen. It was a message from Nayeon’s best friend, Jennie that read, “Hey, Nayeon. I’m sorry for yelling at you the other day. You know, I don’t mind you going to your friend’s house but please be careful. There’s an old legend that says a witch lives in that forest and kidnaps people who passed by. Your friend’s house is very near to the forest so I was worried about you. Your friend’s name was Jihyo, right?”

 

Nayeon stood up and walked towards the barrier. As she closed in towards the barrier, a voice called out to her. “Hey, don’t touch it! Don’t forget what made you unconscious in the first place.”

 

Nayeon turned around and saw a small fairy the size of Nayeon’s hand floating behind her. “Uhm…”

 

“You look confused. Never seen a fairy before? I’m Momo.” The fairy introduced. “It seems like the shock you got from touching the barrier made you a little fuzzy… No matter… Well, since you can’t escape anyway, why don’t you go inside the house and take a look?”

 

Nayeon then saw a huge mansion behind Momo. “...”

 

“This is the witch’s house. But of course, you know that already right?” Momo chuckled. “It seems that she had put a barrier around the house, preventing your escape. But there’s a way to break the barrier. All you need to do is to get the Witch’s Diary and turn to the last page. There will be a spell to break the barrier. Only then, you can leave this place. Bear in mind… She placed traps and released the supernatural entities in the house already. But don’t worry, I’ll guide you along your way to make sure you leave safely.” Momo smiled and convinced.

 

Hearing that from Momo gave Nayeon more courage. “Thanks Momo.”

 

Not having any other choice than to get the Witch’s Diary from within the house, Nayeon was forced to enter it. As she approached the door and opened the door, a loud creak echoed in the empty hall. It has a dusty chandelier at the ceiling and only another door from the hall. “There’s only one door…”

 

“Weird…” Momo said. “There used to be 5 other rooms connecting to this hall other than this one. It seems like she changed the layout of the entire house with magic.”

 

“...” Nayeon slowly walked towards the only door she could go through. And then, a tile that she stepped on sunk in. That caused all the surrounding tiles to start falling down into a dark hold below. Nayeon desperately tried to outrun the falling tiles by hopping from one tile to another till she reached the door safely. By the time she reached the door, the entire hall already crumbled into the hole.

 

“Wow, you’re quite fast.” Momo chuckled.

 

“I’m just trying to survive.” As soon as Nayeon opened the door knob and entered the room, it was like a swimming pool. The only thing connecting her to the door on the other side was an old wooden suspended bridge that has no handles at all. Nayeon took a peek at the water and couldn’t estimate the depth at all. She could only assume that it’s very deep. There was a caution sign at the start of the bridge, so she read it. “Beware the mermaid Chaeyoung for her enchanting melody swims at a depth most would drown in.”

 

Momo nodded. “The mermaid’s voice has the ability to put you in a trance so you have to cover your ears as you walk past the bridge.”

 

Nayeon placed a foot on the bridge and it started creaking. “The bridge is so unstable…”

 

“Hmm~ Hmm~” All of a sudden, a melodious hum was heard.

 

“The mermaid’s hum! Quick, cover your ears!” Momo called out.

 

Without any hesitation, Nayeon covered her ears. “…”

 

Momo slowly flew in front of Nayeon and guided her steps as she was immune to the mermaid’s voice. “Slowly…”

 

Nayeon took her steps carefully but as she closed in towards the middle part of the bridge, she started panicking when the bridge started shaking a lot. She couldn’t balance herself well because she was covering her ears. “Wow!!”

 

“Watch out!!” Momo called out when Nayeon lost her balance.

 

Nayeon immediately used her hands to hold onto the bridge to prevent herself from falling but at the same time, exposing herself to the voice of the mermaid. “That was close…”

 

“Now quick cover your ears and get back up!” Momo said.

 

“…” Nayeon didn’t react to Momo at all. She merely stared into the water with a blank expression.

 

“Oh no…” Momo snapped her fingers in front of Nayeon’s face. “Hey, snap out of it.”

 

“The voice… It’s so…beautiful…” Nayeon’s eyes was half opened and she was smiling a little, a sign that she was already in a trance from the mermaid’s hum.

 

“Hey, stop!” Momo tried to push Nayeon back when she started leaning forward towards the water but to no avail as she was so small in size.

 

That was when things got worse. Chaeyoung the mermaid came out of the water and smiled at Nayeon from a close distance. With her beautiful smile and still humming melodiously, she caressed Nayeon’s face gently and spoke in the gentlest tone. “Come with me…and you will hear my singing…forever~”

 

“Yes…” Nayeon then leaned forward as Chaeyoung slowly pulled her into the water.

 

“No!” Momo, not wanting to let Nayeon waste her life just like that, attempted to save her. She picked up a sharp coral nearby and stabbed Nayeon’s arm right before she was dragged down completely.

 

“Ouch!!” The pain brought Nayeon immediately came back to her senses just as her head was dragged down completely by Chaeyoung.

 

Nayeon started struggling for air and desperately kicked Chaeyoung away. Angered that the spell was broken, Chaeyoung’s beautiful face turned demon like and started screeching at her. As she was in the water, Nayeon could finally see the bottom. Her eyes widened at the sight of countless numbers of bodies and skeletons of those who had been dragged down by Chaeyoung. Seeing that horrifying scene made her panic and swam up with all her might.

 

As she reached the other side of the room, Nayeon pulled herself up from the water, only for her right leg to be grabbed by Chaeyoung as the latter screeched with an ear piercing voice. “COME DOWN WITH ME!!!”

 

Nayeon was dragged down once again, but not for long. She reached for a nearby sharp coral and stabbed Chaeyoung’s hand with all her strength. Letting out a painful screech, Chaeyoung released her and swam back to the bottom. Nayeon quickly pulled herself up and laid on the ground in relief. She panted again and again to catch her breath.

 

Momo flew in and landed on top of Nayeon’s stomach. “How you feeling there, tiger? We’re nowhere near the end yet. Chances are, she’s going to make you go through every single one of her supernatural entities.”

 

“I’m not going to allow her to dominate against me.” Nayeon stood back up and stared at the piece of sharp coral on her hand. “I think I’m gonna keep this. Just in case.” She then entered the next room.

 

Momo nodded. “I like your determination. Makes things easier for me.”

 

The next room was small. There was a table and a chair at the corner of the room with a book on it. The front of the book was written ‘Witch’s Diary’, the book that Momo was talking about. Nayeon immediately opened it and found that only the first page was intact. The other pages from the diary seemed to be torn out. Nayeon then read the words on the first page.

 

“My father and mother didn’t love me. So I killed them. I lost everything… At least that’s what I thought. A demon came by and ate their souls before guiding me to the forest. It gave me a house as a sign of thank you and offered me a contract. ‘If you let me eat more souls, I’ll teach you a spell to cure your illness, Jihyo. All you have to do is lead them to the house.’ And of course I made a contract with the demon and became a witch.”

 

“Seems like you may have to find the other pages somewhere in this house.” Momo said.

 

Nayeon closed the Witch’s Diary and held it with her tightly. “She scattered the pages… Doesn’t seem like she wants me to find them easily.”

 

“It seems so.” Momo nodded.

 

“Come on, we have to go.” Nayeon immediately reached for the door on the other side and opened it. It was a room filled with extra-large sized bunnies hopping around. The bunnies were even larger than Nayeon herself. She gasped a little. “Oh god…”

 

“Don’t worry, these bunnies may be large but they’re harmless.” Momo convinced.

 

There was a caution sign on the wall that read. “Beware the bunny Dahyun for her teeth are tainted with the blood of the innocence.”

 

“I bet you understood what that caution sign meant right…” Momo said. “Watch out for one specific bunny that looks…a little different than the others. That one is dangerous.”

 

“I’m already watching her…” Nayeon’s eyes were fixated on a weird looking human sized bunny that has her back facing her. That bunny seemed to be munching on something on . As Nayeon squinted her eyes to focus, she noticed that the thing on the bunny’s mouth was a bloody arm and there was a dead body right in front of her.

 

Nayeon took a step back out of fear. “What do we do now?”

“We have to sneak past Dahyun so that she doesn’t chase us.” Momo told. “Walk very slowly and move in between the large bunnies to keep out of her sight. Don’t even think about attacking her at all. The more you provoke her, the more aggressive she becomes.”

 

Dahyun’s ear twitched and immediately turned back to spot for a weird sound from a distance. Her eyes were completely white and her hands and face were smeared completely in blood. Nayeon immediately hid behind one of the bunny. With that, Nayeon sneaked in between the giant bunnies to avoid being in Dahyun’s sight. When Nayeon tried to take a peek at Dahyun, to her horror, she wasn’t at her spot anymore. There was only the dead body of her victim on the ground. Nayeon swore Dahyun was just there a second ago. “Where did she go??”

 

Momo too started panicking as she also lost sight of Dahyun. “Run. Now!”

 

Without further ado, Nayeon started running towards the door at the end of the room with Momo following behind her. All of a sudden, Dahyun appeared from the side and growled like a beast before pouncing towards Nayeon. She hopped incredibly far and managed to reach her target with a single hop. Dahyun landed on Nayeon, causing her to fall onto the ground with Dahyun desperately trying to plunge her teeth into Nayeon’s neck. “GRRRRAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!”

 

“Argh!!” Nayeon struggled and resisted with her entire body. Dahyun’s sharp claws kept on scratching on Nayeon’s white skin, leaving some scars on her arm. After a few seconds of resisting, Nayeon managed to kick Dahyun out of the way and rolled back.

 

Kicking Dahyun’s face made her angrier than before as she released an angry growl. “GRRRR!!!!!”

 

“You have to lure her away with her meal.” Momo pointed at the disembodied victim of Dahyun.

 

“What!? Ew!” Nayeon was disgusted at the torn up body on the ground.

 

“That’s the only thing to distract her away or else she will never stop chasing you. You should know very well that you can never outrun her.” Momo convinced. “And you kicked her on the face.”

 

Dahyun’s eyes twitched like an insane beast as she glared back at Nayeon who remained stiff. Nayeon was eyeing on Dahyun’s meal which was a few meters away from her. Convinced that she could reach there before Dahyun get to her, Nayeon started running towards the dead body. Seeing Nayeon run made her hop towards her direction as well. As Momo suggested, Dahyun was catching up to Nayeon incredibly fast. Just as Nayeon reached the dead body, she grabbed onto a bloodied arm and swung it towards Dahyun’s direction.

 

Like Momo suggested, Dahyun’s eyes were diverted towards the arm that flew towards her as she hopped and grabbed it with its sharp teeth. Momo then called out. “Now’s your chance. Run now!”

 

With Dahyun distracted momentarily by her meal, Nayeon took this chance to run towards the door first. The distraction didn’t last long. Dahyun chased after Nayeon once again after a few seconds. “GGRRRRR!!!!”

 

“Come on come on!” Nayeon sprinted with all her strength and finally reached the door with Dahyun just right behind her. Immediately after Nayeon rolled into the next room and closed the door, Dahyun was heard slamming on it hard. That made Nayeon crawl back out of fear and could only pray that the door was strong enough to hold Dahyun back. After a few slamming and angry growls, it finally settled down.

 

Nayeon finally released a huge breath. “That was a close one…” She stood up and patted the dust off her clothes.

 

“Hey, there’s a page on the floor.” Momo pointed out. “It’s the second page from the Witch’s Diary.”

 

Nayeon picked the page up and read the words on the page.

 

“I killed all the people who came to my house after that. They were all eaten by the house. But that wasn’t enough… I needed more souls… The demon wasn’t satisfied yet.”

 

“Alright, let’s move on.” Momo told.

 

Nayeon slid the second page into the Witch’s Diary book and moved on to the next room. As soon as they entered, it was as if they were transported to a different place. The place was huge and it looked like a small town. There were a lot of houses in it. This huge room even had a night sky and a moon up there. Momo knew exactly whose room was this.

 

“Oh gosh, not this one……” Momo shook her head. “It looks like she’s forcing you to pass through every single one of her supernatural entities in this house. Now this especially…is a tough one…”

 

Nayeon walked towards one of the lamppost with a caution sign pasted on it. “Beware the hero Sana for her unrivaled justice will crush everything in her path.”

 

“Sana is incredibly dangerous.” Momo explained. “She’s constantly on the lookout and she would crush anything that moves. Literally. And to add on to that, she can fly. You have to make sure you don’t get spotted by her.”

 

From a distance, with the moon in the background, Nayeon could see a silhouette of a female standing on one of the rooftop, glancing over the town. “I see her.”

 

“Sana may be a dangerous entity, but she has a weakness.” Momo told. “The reason why she’s constantly on the lookout and destroys everything that moves in this room was because in this room lies a snake that she fears to death. To be honest, everything that moves is a snake to her. But she only truly fears a real snake. Since you’ll be spending a long time looking for the next door in this room, you might need to find the snake and scare her off with it.”

 

“This is a huge room and I have no magic powers. How am I supposed to find it?” Nayeon asked.

 

“Well good luck to you then.” Momo shrugged.

 

“You know you’re supposed to help me get out of this place alive right?” All of a sudden, the moonlight started shining upon the both of them from the side. “...”

 

They were hiding behind a house so why would there be moonlight shining at them suddenly? “...”

 

As both Momo and Nayeon silently turned their heads to the side, they saw a floating Sana lifting up the house that they were hiding behind and glaring back at them. “I WILL DESTROY YOU, SNAKE!!” She then threw the house at Nayeon and Momo’s direction.

 

“Run run run!!!” Momo immediately flew out of the way. “Go find it!”

 

Nayeon who managed to roll away from the crumbling house started running away from Sana. “I know!”

 

“COME BACK!” Sana started pursuing Nayeon.

 

“!!!” Nayeon ran through the smallest alleys and diverting left and right to make Sana lose track of her.

 

As Sana was a little clumsy, she lost track of Nayeon swerving from left to right and accidentally knocked over a few houses in the process. “UGH!! I WILL FIND YOU!!”

 

Nayeon started looking left to right for the snake that Momo mentioned. “…”

 

“COME OUT, SNAKE! I KNOW YOU’RE HERE SOMEWHERE!!” Sana screamed at the top of her lungs.

 

From the corner of the house, Nayeon saw a mysterious lever out in the open. She tried to reach for it as fast as she could. Just then, she tripped over something right before she could reach the lever. “Ouch!”

 

That attracted Sana’s attention. She immediately flew towards Nayeon’s position who was completely wide open. “I FOUND YOU, SNAKE!! I’M GOING TO CRUSH YOU LIKE A BUG!!”

 

Without any moment of hesitation, Nayeon stood up, reached for the lever and pulled it hard. The lever triggered a lightning and thunder in the sky, effectively stunning Sana. “UGHH!!!” Sana grabbed her ears in pain from the thunder roar and shut her eyes from the lightning strike.

 

“She’s stunned… Now’s my chance.” Nayeon used this chance to escape from Sana’s sight once again to look for the snake.

 

“YOU SLY SNAKE!!! WHERE ARE YOU!?” Sana screamed as she shook away her dizziness but to no avail. The thunder and lightning managed to render her mind dizzy, she still didn’t want to give up looking for Nayeon. She started knocking over every single building in her sight, making it harder for Nayeon to hide.

 

Nayeon panted crazily while hiding behind a house. As soon as she turned her head to the side, there was a dead body of a man there with his body all twisted up and broken bones protruding out of his skin. It seemed to be one of Sana’s victims who got crumpled up like a ball. That made Nayeon gasp. “!!!” That was before she saw something slithering around the dead body.

 

Sana who was nearby heard the gasp and looked towards the direction. She immediately flew there and surprised Nayeon with her presence. “AHA!!! FOUND YOU!!!”

 

The first thing Sana saw was a snake just an inch away from her face. Nayeon was holding it at Sana’s face. The sight of the snake so close to her face traumatized her badly. “S-S-S-Snake!!” She then flew away in fear, knocking through a few houses in the process and cowered herself in fear in the corner of the room.

 

With Sana cowering herself in fear, Nayeon safely found the next door and exited the room. Momo was already waiting for Nayeon on the other side of the room. “Oh you’re already here.”

 

“Of course. I have wings.” Momo told.

 

As expected, there was another page from the Witch’s Diary on the table. Nayeon picked it up and read it.

 

“I don’t like illness. Because it kept me from going outside. Because it made no one love me. I was forced to use tremendous amount of magic to make sure the hikers get lost in the forest and direct them towards my house. Do I feel bad for them? No. I need them to die so I can live. So I can get out there once again to make friends.”

 

“Wow, that’s really cold…” Momo told.

 

“What did you expect? It’s written by a witch.” Nayeon slid the page into the Witch’s Diary and moved on to the next room. When Nayeon opened the door, it wasn’t a room, but a very tight hallway. Its width could only fit one person at a time. There were a lot of paintings along the wall all the way to the end of the hallway.

 

On the wall was a caution sign that read, “Beware the pirate ghost Mina for her trapped soul draws you into your demise.”

 

“It’s a really tight hallway…” Momo said. “Do not touch the paintings on the wall any means. Mina’s soul is able to drag you into the painting and that’ll be the end for you.”

 

“Where’s she?” Nayeon started looking around the paintings.

 

“Beats me. She moves through paintings so even I couldn’t tell.” Momo said.

 

Nayeon began walking in a straight path to avoid touching the walls. Her arms were only a few inches away from the wall. Along the long and tight hall were paintings of different people. The creepy thing about the paintings were the fact that the people in the paintings were wearing a horrified expression on their face. Each and every one of them. They were all victims to Mina’s soul trapping spell. “Hey…” A voice called out all of a sudden.

 

Nayeon looked to her right and saw the pirate ghost Mina staring at her from within the painting. Noticing that, Nayeon immediately ignored her and continued walking straight. “…”

 

“You’re just going to ignore me? That’s rude.” Mina told as she phased to the next painting. “Come on, let’s talk.”

 

“...” Nayeon still chose to ignore Mina.

 

Just then, Mina’s ghost came out of the painting and appeared in front of her, pointing her pirate revolver at her. Nayeon’s eyes widened at the sight. “You humans simply love to ignore me don’t they? I’ll teach you a lesson not to ignore me.”

 

When Mina pulled the revolver hammer back, Nayeon twitched a little. Momo then tapped on her shoulder. “Don’t be distracted. It’s her ploy to get you to move closer towards the walls. That is just an illusion. Mina can’t leave her painting.”

 

Nayeon didn’t feel too good about it. Just as Mina released a shot, Nayeon pushed Mina’s hand up as the bullet pierced through the ceiling. “BANG!”

 

“What the hell!?” Momo was shocked. “How!? You’re not supposed to be able to leave the painting!”

 

“Not if the witch’s magic allows me to.” Mina’s face turned horrifyingly ghostly as the skin on her face started tearing apart slowly.

 

“Ugh!!” Nayeon was still struggling against Mina who attempted to shoot her again. Nayeon managed to push Mina away and started running towards the next door.

 

“Oh no you don’t!” Mina used her magical powers to drag the carpet on the floor violently.

 

The sudden carpet pull made Nayeon lose balance of herself and fell towards a painting on the wall. Momo was shocked. “No!”

 

Immediately, the spirits in the painting started protruding their hands out and slowly grabbing Nayeon into it. “Let go of me!”

 

Mina smirked with joy and flew into the painting that was dragging Nayeon. She too started pulling Nayeon in and laughed in a menacing manner. Nayeon felt her shoulders being dragged in even more. “You’ll be a fine collection to add to the paintings here.”

 

“ARGH!!! Let go!!” As Nayeon was struggling against the spirits, she noticed something. The painting directly on the opposite side of her was a painting of a ship but unlike the other paintings, this one has no human in it. The title of the painting was ‘Myoui Mina the Pirate Queen of Twiceland’.

 

As Mina was too eager in adding Nayeon into her painting collection, little did she notice that her original painting was only on the opposite side of her. She failed to notice that Nayeon was already eyeing on it. By the time she noticed, it was already too late. “Wait, what are you doing!? No!!”

 

“UGH!!” Nayeon stretched her leg and landed a hard kick on the painting, causing it to fall from the wall.

 

“Argh!!” Mina immediately retracted her hands and started holding her chest in pain. The painting did damage to her and nullified her spells for a short moment. This caused the spirits in the painting to retract themselves as well. Nayeon took this chance to release herself and ran towards the next door.

 

“I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS!!” Angered with Nayeon’s actions, the entire hallway and the paintings started shaking violently as if there was an earthquake. All the paintings in the hallway started bleeding in red as the spirits in each painting started screeching at an ear piercing screech that rendered Nayeon motionless.

 

“Argh!!! My ears!!” Nayeon covered her ears in pain. It hurts so much that Nayeon fell on her knees.

 

As Momo was immune to the spells of the house, she flew towards Mina’s painting and stomped on it once again. This caused Mina to scream in pain and released Nayeon from the ear piercing screech. Without wasting any more time, Nayeon reached for the door handle and entered the next room along with Momo before slamming the door shut. Momo let out a huge breath. “Wow, I didn’t know she was capable of bringing Mina out of the painting. I’m actually impressed.”

 

Nayeon was still panting from her close call. She could still hear ringing in her ears. After rubbing them for a few seconds, she felt much better. “Looks like she really wants me dead.”

 

“Of course. Which is why you need to get the spell and leave this place as soon as possible.” Momo told.

 

As expected, there was another page from the Witch’s Diary in this small room. Nayeon picked it up. This paper had some blood on it.

 

“A girl came over to play. A cute girl who has a smile brighter than anybody. She was different than the others. She made me feel wanted.”

 

“I wonder who the cute girl is.” Momo asked.

 

Nayeon merely gave Momo the side eye. “…”

 

Momo shrugged and chuckled. “What?”

 

This time, the caution sign was stuck on the door instead of being inside the room. “Beware the vampire Tzuyu for blood is her life and you are the prey.” and there was a potion bottle with a colorless liquid hanging on the door.

 

“She released this one too, huh…” Momo told.

 

As Nayeon grabbed the potion bottle and opened the door, a few bats flew out of the room. It was pitch black inside. “…”

 

“Well, I’ll light up the way.” Momo flew in first. “Don’t worry, Tzuyu is usually hibernating most of the time.”

 

Nayeon sniffed something weird in this room. “What’s that smell?” Just then, she stepped on something sticky. “Ugh… What is that?”

 

It felt slimy. The more Nayeon tried to breathe in, the worse the smell became.“It smells like rotten egg here.”

 

Nayeon lowered herself a little and rubbed her fingers on the floor. To her horror, it was blood. There were blood spilled all over the floor, in fact, it was drenched in it. That’s why it smelled bad. “That’s the blood of all Tzuyu’s victims.”

 

Just then, a slight snore was heard from the darkness. Someone or ‘something’ was sleeping in the darkness just as Momo suggested. “Well as expected, she’s sleeping.”

 

A monstrous grunt was then heard, halting Momo and Nayeon’s movements. “…”

 

All of a sudden, the lights in the room . As the room brightened up, Nayeon gasped at the sight of countless number of dead bodies all piled up in the corner of the room like a small hill. Some of them were missing their heads and some of them were missing their limbs. The others were left with bones and their completely shrived pale skin from Tzuyu every single drop of blood from their body. The walls and floor were splattered with blood. Nayeon and Momo started looking around the room. “Where’s she?”

 

“That’s weird… I swore I heard her snore earlier.” Momo frowned.

 

“...” Momo and Nayeon slowly turned their head back and tilted their head up to see a monstrous bat-like creature staring back at them with its red eyes. Tzuyu the vampire was at least three times Nayeon’s size and her vampire fangs were stained in her prey’s blood.

 

Nayeon slowly stepped back with Tzuyu grunting back at her. “…”

 

“...” Tzuyu tilted down and slowly sniffed Nayeon’s body before letting out a huge breath.

 

“The potion.” Momo whispered.

 

Nayeon slowly reached for the potion bottle in her pocket that she took from the door earlier. “…”

 

Not giving Nayeon any chance to reach for her pocket, Tzuyu attempted to grab Nayeon with her razor sharp claws. “Wow!!” Nayeon ducked and rolled past Tzuyu from between her legs and started running away.

 

Seeing Nayeon running away made Tzuyu spread her huge wings and started flapping them. Doing that, Tzuyu was able to fly and flew towards Nayeon to grab her with the sharp claws on her feet. As Tzuyu closed in, Nayeon took out the potion bottle just in time but was thrown off guard when Tzuyu released an ultrasonic screech that rendered Nayeon motionless. She was forced to cover her ears with all her strength, but even after doing that, the screech was still incredibly loud. With that, Tzuyu managed to sweep Nayeon off the ground like an eagle sweeping its prey.

 

“No!” Momo shouted.

 

Tzuyu’s feet claws were literally plunging into Nayeon’s shoulder, causing them to bleed a lot as she flew her up. “Argh!!”

 

Not wanting to be Tzuyu’s prey, Nayeon gripped onto her foot and actually bit on it with all her strength, causing Tzuyu to screech in pain in her monstrous pitch and released her from the grip. Nayeon continued grabbing onto Tzuyu’s foot because if she were to fall from this height, she still wouldn’t be able to survive. Angered with what Nayeon did, Tzuyu grabbed Nayeon and immediately shoved her head into .

 

Right before Nayeon’s head entered Tzuyu’s mouth, she smashed the potion bottle on her face as the colorless liquid splashed all over. The liquid seemed to be burning Tzuyu’s face badly. She was in a lot of pain. She kept on scratching her own face to get rid of the liquid but to no avail. It kept on eating through her skin. This caused Tzuyu to be thrown off balance and kept slamming herself onto the wall hard and finally slammed herself at the corner of the room. The impact this time was so hard that Nayeon’s fingers slipped right off.

 

“WOWW!!!!!” Luckily there were a pile of dead bodies in the corner of the room. Nayeon fell on them and slowly rolled down onto the ground. “Ugh…”

 

Tzuyu then screeched in pain one last time before she too fell on the ground motionless with a loud impact. “…”

 

Momo immediately flew towards Nayeon to tend to her injuries. “Are you alright?”

 

Nayeon groaned a little as she lifted herself up. “Yeah, I’m fine… Just a little pain on the shoulders. That’s all.”

 

“Well, bright side is, you’re still alive. I’m impressed.” Momo said.

 

“You just stood there and watched.” Nayeon told.

 

“Well, you seem to be doing fairly well.” Momo shrugged. “If I were to interfere, I might end up slowing you down instead. Besides, I never had a doubt that you would survive in this place.”

 

Nayeon squinted her eyes at Momo. “No doubts at all?”

 

“Well… Maybe there were certain situations where I thought you were not going to make it but hey… You still made it in the end.” Momo smiled.

 

“I don’t need any compliments right now, Momo. I just want to get out of this place alive.” Nayeon told.

 

“Ah yes of course.” Momo nodded.

 

Nayeon and Momo then entered the next room. Once again, there was a study table at the corner of the room and a page from the Witch’s Diary laying on it. Nayeon picked it up.

 

“She stayed by my side and befriended me despite my sickness. She was the only one who was willing to play with me when the whole world despised me. So I didn’t kill her. I made her my ‘friend’.”

 

Momo nudged. “What do you suppose a ‘friend’ is?”

 

“...” Nayeon merely kept quiet and slid the page into the diary. “Let’s move on. We’re close. I can feel it.”

 

Momo nodded. “Yup. If my calculations are right, there should be only 1 more supernatural entity in this house that you have yet to go through, and it’s right beyond this door.”

 

The door slowly creaked open. There was only a path of light in the center of the room leading towards the next door. Both sides of the room were in darkness. However, Nayeon could still see the silhouette of puppets and dummies hanging by the ceiling with strings on them. The way they were dangling from left to right while turning around in the darkness looked as if they were humans who got hung by their neck. Strangely, they were all human sized as well. There was a caution sign that read, “Beware the puppet Jungyeon for her strings had tangled many who had seen her.”

 

“Jungyeon is troublesome. It’s over once she tangles you up.” Momo told. “You see those puppets and mannequins dangling around? Yeah… All of them were once humans. All of them…”

 

“Don’t worry. I got this.” Nayeon answered confidently. “I’m not going to allow a mere puppet to tie me up in strings.”

 

“...” Momo blinked a few times. “Wow, you’re acting like a hero now after you took Tzuyu down.”

 

“I said I got this.” Nayeon repeated.

 

“You know I’m really going to take your words for it, right? Well, I wish you good luck then. I shall wait for you in the next room.” Momo said as she flew past the wall and into the next room.

 

Every step Nayeon took forward created a creaking sound on the old wooden floor. “…”

 

All of a sudden, a hum was heard. A soft voice echoed in the room with a singing tone. “I’ve got no strings~ to hold me down~”

 

The creepy singing tone sent chills up Nayeon’s spine. “…”

 

Somewhere in the room, a clacking sound was heard as if some wooden edges were rubbing against one another. Then the singing continued. “To make me fret~ or make me frown~”

 

“...” Nayeon halted for a moment.

 

“I had strings~” The clacking sound became more obvious this time. “But now… I.AM.FREE~”

 

“...” Nayeon started feeling uneasy so she immediately ran towards the door.

 

From the darkness, a few strings flew out and tied onto Nayeon’s foot. That caused her to trip onto the ground. More strings started coming out of the darkness and started tying Nayeon’s entire body up and hoisting her up in the air. It tangled her so much that she could barely move a muscle. “Ugh!!”

 

From the darkness, a silhouette was seen limping out into the light. The puppet Jungyeon came walking out with her head twitching from left to right as if she couldn’t control its movement. She then turned her head towards Nayeon with an instantaneous twitch which shocked the latter badly. There was something about Jungyeon’s expressionless face that made Nayeon shiver in fear. slowly creaked open, creating the frictional sound between two pieces of woods. “Going somewhere, little child?”

 

“Let me go!” Nayeon was struggling hard.

 

Jungyeon slowly dragged herself towards two of the puppets hanging by the ceiling and pulled them down before showing them to Nayeon. They were obviously just puppet shells covering the rotten dead bodies within. Nayeon could still see the human eyeball intact inside one of the puppets. “Do you like them?”

 

“...” Nayeon remained silent.

 

Not hearing an answer, Jungyeon moved both the puppets closer towards Nayeon’s face and repeated her question. “Do you like them?”

 

Nayeon was so incredibly disgusted at the rotten flesh being so close to her face that she turned her face away and closed her eyes. She wanted to throw up so much. “…”

 

“Strange… People usually like them…” Jungyeon backed off a little.

 

“...”

 

“...” After a moment of silence, all of a sudden, Jungyeon just threw both the puppets onto the ground hard and broke the shells. The dead bodies fell out of it and smeared the floor with their decomposed guts. “It’s alright if you don’t like these. I just have to make a new one.”

 

Nayeon started sweating in fear. Now, she was starting to regret not needing Momo’s help. “…”

 

Jungyeon started touching Nayeon’s face. “Shall I make you into a dummy? Or a mannequin?”

 

“!!!” Nayeon then remembered something. She reached for her other pocket from within the strings so Jungyeon couldn’t see anything.

 

“You face isn’t smooth enough.” Jungyeon said as she took a string out. “I need to shave all your skin off first.”

 

“Ugh!!” All of a sudden, Nayeon’s strings were cut off, releasing herself from being tied up. On her right hand was a sharp coral which she picked up when she was in Chaeyoung’s room. She jumped towards Jungyeon and stabbed the sharp coral into .

 

“You cannot hurt me. I don’t feel pain.” Jungyeon answered with an expressionless face. With that, Jungyeon grabbed Nayeon’s hands tightly and slowly stood back up with the sharp coral puncturing .

 

“Let go!” Nayeon pulled her body back and released a kick powerful enough to tumble Jungyeon back onto the ground. Nayeon then removed the sharp coral from Jungyeon’s mouth and kept on stabbing her on her all over her body.

 

“As I said, you cannot hurt me.” Jungyeon repeated.

 

“What about this?” Nayeon was holding onto the magical puppet string that Jungyeon was holding earlier.

 

“!!” Jungyeon’s eyes actually widened a little at the sight of it despite being perceived as being expressionless. With that, Nayeon coiled the string around Jungyeon’s neck and pulled it tight, immediately decapitating her on the spot. Jungyeon’s body immediately stopped moving once her head started rolling on the ground but her eyes and mouth were still moving. “I will remember this.”

 

“...” Nayeon merely ignored Jungyeon’s comment and went to the next room. As promised, Momo was already there waiting for her.

 

“Wow, you actually made it. Very good.” Momo nodded. “Why did I even doubt you in the first place?”

 

“I told you.” Nayeon panted and stood up once again.

 

“Now’s the time.” Momo said as she looked upon a red door. “This is the final room. The witch’s room. But there seem to be a magical force blocking out all supernatural entities. I can’t enter, but you can. You have to go in yourself and get the final pages of the Witch’s Diary. There should be a shortcut door in that room that leads you back to the main hall. I will meet you back at the entrance. One more thing. Please don’t die. I didn’t help you so much to watch you die in the end.”

 

“I’m not going to die. Not today.” Nayeon nodded and opened the door to the final room. The room was big and very well furnished. There was a bed in the middle of the room, soaked in blood. The sheets were thrown onto the floor, also soaked red in blood. Deciding to ignore the creepy sight, Nayeon walked towards the study table. On the table laid the final two pages of the Witch’s Diary. Nayeon immediately went over and grabbed them.

 

The second last page read,

 

“My sickness was going to kill me, but I finally did it. I finally satisfied the demon’s hunger. What I wished for was a spell to cure my sickness. What I got was a spell to trade bodies. It’s the same isn’t it? My sickness will be gone when I trade bodies. My ‘friend’ was loved by many. So…I’m going to be taking her body from her. I want to live on in her body. That’s fine, right? Because we’re ‘friends’. She should be willing to give me her body. Because we’re ‘friends’. So, today… We should play some more. Right, Nayeon?”

 

The last page was smeared completely in blood. The words written on this page were all over the place but it was still readable.

 

“She rejected me. So I mutilated my own body so Nayeon would pity me even more. Now, she will be more willing to give her body to me, right? Because she understands me. She knows how much I’m suffering.”

 

Nayeon turned the last page around and finally saw the spell that she was looking for. “This is it. The spell.”

 

Just as Nayeon slid the final pages into the Witch’s Diary, the lights in the room suddenly turned off, shocking Nayeon badly. She literally had goosebumps all over her body. The walls around her started bleeding in red as a bone chilling groan was heard from one side of the room. “G……Gi…ve……”

 

With sweat rolling down from her forehead, Nayeon slowly turned her head to the side only to be greeted with the horror of Jihyo’s mutilated body dragging herself on the ground. Both her legs were gone and she only had one eye in her socket. The other one was empty and bleeding. She was bleeding all over her body and mostly from the wounds where her legs used to be. Shocked at the sight of Jihyo grunting at her in a frightening manner, Nayeon took a few steps back. She was trembling a little in fear. “*Gasp*”

 

“Gi…ve……bo…dy……”

 

Nayeon eyed the escape door on the other side and immediately ran towards it, only to be pursued tightly by Jihyo. Despite having both her legs gone from her body, Jihyo still managed to crawl in an utmost incredible speed with the help of her magic. Not only that, she used her magic to throw the tables and chairs in front of Nayeon’s path, attempting to slow her down to get to her. Nayeon almost tripped over a chair, causing herself to almost get caught by Jihyo. She immediately stood back up and continued making her way to the door. She opened the it to reveal a long spiral staircase leading all the way down into the darkness.

 

As they were heading down the spiral staircase, Jihyo used her magic to break the floor open right in front of Nayeon. The latter saw through Jihyo’s trick and hopped past the hole formed on the floor. Nayeon was panting from the fatigue and kept on running forward. She tried to lose Jihyo but to no avail. Jihyo was literally on her tail and she couldn’t afford to slow down at all. The way Jihyo dragged her body on the ground was horrifying with trails of her blood left all over the floor.

 

Jihyo attempted to use every bit of the magic powers left in her mutilated body to stop Nayeon. She threw a cabinet in front of her, broke the floors on the ground, launched a few lightbulbs at her and even tried to twirl the staircase around in hopes of getting Nayeon’s body. Nayeon was injured by a few shards of glasses thrown at her but that wasn’t enough to stop her. She was determined to get out of this hell hole alive.

 

As the chase prolonged, Jihyo started slowing down from the depletion of her magic, allowing Nayeon to lose her. Nayeon slammed open the front door, ran past the front garden where she first woke up in and straight towards the front gate. Momo was still nowhere to be seen but Nayeon couldn’t wait anymore. She immediately recited the spell from the last page of the diary and watched as the barrier broke into pieces. From a distance, Jihyo’s mutilated body still continued crawling towards Nayeon, not wanting to give up at all despite Nayeon had already secured an escape route. 

 

As Nayeon pushed the gate open and took a step out of the gate, she suddenly stopped and turned back, staring at Jihyo’s mutilated body coming closer to her. Since Nayeon was just standing there, Jihyo managed to grab onto Nayeon’s foot with ease. “Gi…ve……bo…dy……”

 

“...”

 

“Gi…ve……” The blood on Jihyo’s hands smeared all over Nayeon’s legs as she attempted to push Nayeon down but to no avail.

 

“Boy you’re stubborn…” All of a sudden, Nayeon released a hard kick on Jihyo’s face and caused her mutilated body to tumble back. Nayeon shook her head and answered with a cold tone. “How long are you going to chase me? You know that body won’t last long… You’ve probably lost all the magic powers from moving around in that state by now.”

 

“Gi…ve……it……” Jihyo was persistent. Despite being injured by Nayeon’s kick, she still kept on crawling towards her desperately.

 

“Give it back? No way… This body hurts much less…” Nayeon chuckled. “You gave it to me in the first place. Why should I give it back? Right………Nayeon?”

 

“.…..” Jihyo’s mutilated body continued crawling towards Nayeon desperately wanting her body back. “Gi…ve…ba…ck…my……bo…dy…”

 

“You felt so sorry for me. I couldn’t even move from my bed. That’s why I used my magic to trade bodies with you. Just for a day? Hehe… I guess we did agree on that…” Nayeon chuckled. “But I’m afraid I’m going to have to pull out from that agreement.”

 

“.…..” Jihyo’s mutilated body started weakening and slowing down.

 

Nayeon chuckled. “I was surprised you could trap me with my own powers and also use my very own supernatural entities against me… You almost got me killed……almost… but to no avail. After all, it’s my house, yes? It wouldn’t be killing me anytime soon. I was guided by that house all the way. So I was ensured to escape.”

 

“Gi…ve…back……” Jihyo’s mutilated body grunted.

 

“...” Nayeon showed an unamused expression. “Still not dead? I applaud your tenacity. Ah… Could it be that you’re worried about that friend Jennie? Oh I know about you and your best friend Jennie. Those memory stayed in your body. She’s a very kind person, isn’t she? And she even sent you that message. What a good friend. So then I suppose you’re worried about what would happen when you’re gone? It’ll be just fine. I’ll give her your share of love. So…”

 

“Nayeon!?” A voice called out all of a sudden. Nayeon turned around and saw Jennie standing at a distance. “Nayeon, you’re hurt! What happened?”

 

Nayeon immediately hid behind Jennie acting like she was afraid and stared back at Jihyo’s mutilated body. “…”

 

As soon as Jennie saw Jihyo’s mutilated body crawling on the ground, she took a step back from the horrifying scene. “What the hell is that!?”

 

Jihyo weakly reached her hand out. “Je…jee……nn……J-Jeee……nni……N……” As she was already in the verge of death, her words came out very slurred.

 

“Stay away monster!!” Jennie kicked Jihyo further away and grabbed Nayeon’s hand. “Let’s leave this place right now, Nayeon. I knew something wasn’t right about you going to her house.”

 

“Ok.” Nayeon nodded innocently as Jennie grabbed her hand and started walking away.

 

“N………o………Je…..jen……n…nnie… T…Th…at’s……not……m-me… Co……me……b-b……… Co…me……” Jihyo’s hands slowly lost energy as her head lowered onto the floor, and finally her body motionless as she breathe her last breath.

 

Nayeon turned her head around and peeked at Jihyo’s lifeless body one last time and smiled before heading back to the city with Jennie.

 

Momo then appeared beside Jihyo’s lifeless body as she looked upon Nayeon leaving with Jennie “It seems that the contract has been completed. You have a healthy body now…Jihyo.” as she disappeared into thin air with the dead body.

 

The Witch's House

THE END