Epilogue

The man with many titles walked down the hallway. He had stayed in his little chamber for far too long. It was time to finish up. How many minutes had this curse taken from his ever going, yet limited, cursed life? “Twenty minutes…” time was his enemy. It was slowly ticking away and the pain followed him around, like a wound that never actually healed properly. The scars on his body kept opening up. He could feel blood running down his spine. But it was never truly there. “Twenty one…” a soft whisper he produced. To think these people thought they were here for weeks, months, ages. Only twenty minutes.

He was getting his stuff. A black bag with everything he needed. His dolls, all of them and his books. All of them. He could leave now. This was actually easier than everything he had ever have to leave before. Strange. Maybe this story was way too dark to understand, anyways. Maybe this wasn’t his cup of tea either. He wouldn’t fool himself and overthink. To cope with his strange responsibilities, he was an observer. That’s what he was going to do before everything officially ended.

Upon reaching the first floor, he ignored the thought of dead bodies. For them, they all had disappeared into nothingness, but to him, they were there. Blood stained the hallways, screams filled the atmosphere. This spirit he had to deal with was the worst of any case and he had seen a lot of angry spirits. Even the fallen twin did not seem to be in that kind of pain anymore. He rested. He never haunted.

His slender legs carried him upstairs, towards the exit of this curse. A room that was at the end of the corridor. And when he entered, what he saw… It was a massacre. A slaughtering. It was madness. A dark feeling took control of his nonexistent heart. He had to swallow a bit, to wash away the last bit of humanity that hadn’t left his body yet. There they were. All of them had been going on until the very end. A subject to the game Xiumin wanted to play. He invented rules and rules, but they never applied. The buddy system was a fraud. The only thing that was real, were their deaths and insanity.

He couldn’t recognize most of them. He needed to sense their still present souls, forever attached to their mutilated corpses, in order to find their true faces. Their identity. He recognized the girl who went by the name Yuri. He did his research. Her mother died at her birth and her father wasn’t the kind of man that could understand such an event. He had always accused her of murder. The murder of her own mother. He couldn’t ever start a new life, because Yuri was his burden. He had abused her, until she wanted to die. But like every strong human soul, she mutated those feelings and projected them onto someone who had everything she did not have.

She did have something. A friend. The boy who had been holding her hand until the very end. It was a friendship that had so many depths, only Jaejoong could understand. It was the same kind of friendship that made him into who he was today. Or tomorrow. It depended on how you looked at it. Yuri and Yong Guk. Both dead. Turned inside out. Their faces had decayed, black goo running down their bony skulls. They were ripped open, from neck to stomach. Jaejoong couldn’t decide on what to feel, but he knew that the fact that he was able to feel at all, meant something. He closed his eyes for a second and realized that they died thinking they were murderers. They both thought…

Every single corpse inside this room died in peace, knowing they were killers. But they were nothing like that. They were just kids that were haunted by society and family. All of them were faulty to an extend, but still had made human mistakes. True, they were bullies, but not murderers. However, they did deserve punishment. This paradox was too much for his genius mind and he had to refrain himself for a minute.

This room held the shredded corpses of many. Some were leaders, some were followers, but this place had exposed their true colors. Jaejoong was aware of this. He had to catch the breath he couldn’t breathe. This was the room filled with a pure innocence, that was still corrupted. It was not up to him to decide who was right and who was wrong. He was not supposed to feel and think for himself. He was not allowed. But right now, he was able to. And that was all part of his own curse. How cruel. To be numb and cold until the very end and then to be washed away with this nasty feeling. This happened every single time and he knew she was doing this on purpose.

He also had almost forgotten about the last corpse. A man that went by the name Byun Baekhyun. When he was little, his own teacher had inspired him to become one. His home wasn’t the warmest one, yet he was always appreciated and praised by the man who taught him math and physics. The warmth that was placed in his heart, was a warmth that led him into the field of teaching himself. He was a substitute for the worst possible teacher in the world. A teacher that had cancer and was going to die anyways. Mr. Kim. A teacher that knew about the bullying and pestering of his own students and he allowed it. It wasn’t his deal. Yet Xiumin decided to punish Mr. Byun anyways. He was testing him. He did not make the cut. He couldn’t save them. But they couldn’t be saved. That was the cruelest part of all.

Jaejoong decided to leave the room painted with blood of the innocent. It had happened and now it was time to go. But there was another door that needed to be o