After getting off the bus, you feel a sense of relief. No more awkwardness between you and Zelo, and no more travel sickness. Yet, it’s too hard to shake the air of guilt gravitating around you. Chunji, you bastard, you made me do this! You silently wait for Chunji’s bus to arrive.
“Madeline!” Chunji yells as he rushes to you.
“What?” you snap back.
“I’ll let Zelo tag along with us,” says Chunji. Your face lifts to an immediate smile. “Under one condition.”
“What condition?” you ask, annoyed.
“I get to hold your hand.” demands Chunji.
“That’s it? Why would you want to hold my hand anyway?” you ask out of curiosity. I remember when we used to hold hands when walking to school every single day. I wonder when we stopped doing that.
Chunji stares at the ground for a while. He looks back up and his dark brown eyes meets yours.
“So that you won’t fall over.” he simply replies.

After a long day of exploring and eating in the amusement park, the three of you come across the scariest icons of them all—‘The Room’. You have researched many articles of this haunted house online, and you find that many of its visitors were left traumatized, scared and sick to the bone. You watched as the victims entered the place and come out with sick faces, teary eyes while covering their ears, some even vomiting into the bins. Seeing your frightened reaction, Chunji and Zelo smirk. They catch each other smiling and immediately, they initiated a stare down—it was as if invisible lasers were shooting from their eyes.

“Come on,” insisted Chunji. “Let’s go. I’ll stand next to Madeline.”
“No, I’ll stand next to Madeline.” protested Zelo.
You let go of Chunji’s hand, wiping your hands on the hem of your skirt from all the sweat on your palms.
“You both walk behind me, and I’ll walk in front.” you suggested.
They both stare at each other for a while, and nod in your direction. Normally, Chunji would tease you about these things but now he stares at your direction worriedly, well aware of your great fear towards paranormal activities.  

As you enter the vicinity, it is pitch black. Suddenly, you hear a robotic swoosh noise, and the lights appear on the ground, glowing arrows leading into an illuminated door. You open the door slowly, and enter a huge room made purely out of mirrors. You hear the door creak, and it shuts tight behind you, making a loud bang. You turn around in shock, and realize that you are alone in the room. Zelo and Chunji were too late. They didn’t enter the room in time. You are alone, and you are scared. You see yourself multiplied a million times at the reflection of the mirrors.

Suddenly, the lights switch off, and you are left in the vulnerability of darkness. You hear a rustle to your left, and slowly reach your hand out, hoping it’s Chunji or Zelo or anyone.  The lights switch back on, and a young child holding a teddy bear stands silently in front of you. You freeze. The lights go off. You run to the corner of the room, and crouch, holding your knees to your chest and your hands to your ears. Not real. The lights come on. The girl is gone.

A mirrored door on the wall opens. You enter a hallway, a side stained with blood and the other with broken shards of glass and unevenly hanged paintings. Some of the wallpaper hangs loose, making the hallway look a decade old. You walk slowly, the floorboards creaking every time you take a step. Out of nowhere, a woman starts crawling to you from behind. You run as fast as you can and reach for the door at the end of the hallway and turn the knob. It’s locked. She’s coming. I’m going to die. I’m going to die, you think to yourself.

The woman is just about to wrap her bloody hands around the ankles of your foot when the door opens. You fall backwards into the door and land into a room with squishy flooring. You sink to the ground, not wanting to move further. You’re scared, incredibly scared. The door shuts behind you. You hear faint noises. You run around the strange room, occasionally tripping over the random bumps of the flooring. Then you see her. The child, the one holding a teddy bear.

She looks at you. Her eyeball, instead of being white, is stained deep scarlet-red, like blood. She wears a white dress, and holds a brown teddy bear, missing its eyes and its limbs. Her black hair is arranged in two low pigtails, tied with a torn red ribbon. The corners of is slit open into a smile, with blood slowly seeping from her teeth, dripping onto the squishy ground.

You run around screaming. The lights turn off.
“Let’s play hide and seek.” says the girl. “Hide before I turn off the lights, and if I find you, you will go somewhere.”
“Where?” you ask despite your immense fear.
“I’m not sure where you’re going. Maybe in Heaven, maybe in hell.” she says creepily. “Wherever people go when they die.”
As you walk around the room, a hand grabs you and you try to scream, but another hand covers your mouth. The unknown figure drags you into a tiny space, similar to a skinny locker and they shut the door tightly.

You hear the lights go on. You hear her footsteps, and you hold your breath. You can’t see who is in the hiding place with you, but you feel your legs between his, and you feel your chest leaning on his chest. Their arms are awkwardly raised around your shoulders, and your heads are so close that your cheeks are touching side by side. Your arms wrap around their waist, mostly to save space, but also because you’re scared. You can hear and feel the person breathe. The warm moist air rushes against your neck, and you immediately know who it is. Chunji, I'm so glad you're here.

“Ch-” you begin.
“Shh.” he whispers quietly, barely making a sound.
You hear the girl leave the room and Chunji opens the door. A rush of cool, fresh air envelopes your body, and without realizing, you automatically hold tightly onto Chunji’s sweaty hand. Together, you find the exit of the haunted house and leave.

“Are you okay?” asks Chunji. “You look like you’re about to faint.” You shake your head.
“Where’s Zelo?” you ask.
“Ah, I think we may have forgotten him.” replied Chunji in a monotone voice. He obviously left Zelo in there on purpose. You laugh a little when you see Zelo come out with a pale white face.
“Yah, you left me!” he yells at Chunji, with his arms flailing in the air in protest.
“Oops, sorry,” says Chunji teasingly. “Seems I have forgotten that you existed.”