It was an eerily foggy night, a perfect night for a chilling mystery.

 

You enter your fe –

 

Someone snickered in the background.  “C’mon Sooyoung. This sounds – “

 

“Shut up fool. I just started.”

 

“Anyways, as I was saying… “

 

You enter your fears, the unk –

 

“If this is another one of your nightmares where food disappeared on you.”

 

A loud “YAHHH!” was heard through a chorus of cackles.

 

“Okay okay okay. I’ll shut up.”

 

Seething, Sooyoung finally managed to start without anymore interruptions.

 

---

 

You enter into your fears, the unknown. You’re not frightened of what you can see but of what you can’t.

 

 

Two girls were finishing up an episode of a drama they’ve been religiously following through the season. It was a nice routine for the both of them to enjoy in their dormitory, especially after a tiring day of classes.

 

A yawn escaped one of them. “Goodnight,” as she decides to go retire for the night.

 

“Night,” the other responded, and immediately turned her attention back to the television to start another drama.

 

An hour into the show, the TV started freezing and pixelating.

 

“Damn it,” she muttered. She reluctantly got up and gave a few thumps on the TV.

 

“I knew we shouldn’t have picked this up at the thrift shop.”

 

It looked like the signal wasn’t going to improve.

 

She turned off the TV. “Sigh… guess that means it’s time for me to sleep.”

 

But before she even made 10 steps towards her bedroom, the lights in the living room started to flicker on and off.

 

“What in the world. Did the university forget to pay the electric bill for the dorm or something?“

 

Then she heard it. A bloodcurdling scream that rippled through the hallway outside.

 

“Sh*t.” She whipped around. “What was that?”

 

Heart pounding against her ribcage, she slowly started making her way to the front door, even though every fiber of her being was warning her to turn back around.

 

That person might need help…

 

Breathing heavily, she shakily grasped onto the brass-colored doorknob, unlocked it, and slowly turned it. The door creaked open.

 

She peered out into the hallway.

 

But nothing was there.

 

Surely someone else would have heard it? Maybe they were smart enough not to leave the safety of their dorms…

 

She looked back at her roommate’s bedroom door. Did she not hear it?

 

She took a deep breath, paused, and tiptoed out into the hall.

 

Treading carefully through the dimmed corridor, she was expecting for something to jump out at her at any moment or for her to come across a bloody, dead body lying on the floor.

 

Stupid. So stupid. What a time to decide playing the role of Sherlock Holmes.

 

Then she heard something scuttering off in the distance.

 

Okay. Definitely not smart. Maybe she should’ve grabbed her roommate. Or a knife or stick or anything that could defend herself against whatever was running towards her.

 

Because that something she heard scuttering in the distance was growing louder.

 

And it was coming towards her.

 

Chasing her.

 

Her instincts that were seemingly missing earlier finally decided to kick in, and she ran.

 

She ran like her life depended on it …  well… because it did.

 

She tripped and stumbled down onto the floor, just meters from her dorm, turning her head pitifully around to at least get a glimpse of whatever was going to kill her off.

 

But all she saw was an empty corridor. No noise was heard besides the raspy urgent breaths rattling through her body.

 

She scrambled up from all fours.

 

At this point, if she’s not murdered already, she’s going to die from a heart attack, because right now, she thinks she’s going to pass out.

 

Still staring head on to where she previously heard the footsteps, she thinks she sees something. Something sparkling from the dimmed lights reflecting onto it from above.

 

She squinted but couldn’t make out what it was… just that it was small.

 

Okay. Time for another foolish decision.

 

What’s there to lose?

 

Right…?

 

Carefully walking over, trembling and scared out of her wits, she loomed over to examine the item.

 

It was a black, serpentine dagger with a set of what seemed to be strange runes carved into a double-edged ornate silver blade. The blade was fixed onto a metal hilt encrusted with gems of various colors.

 

She would have described it as beautiful if it weren’t for the fact that it unnerved her. She thinks she hears whispers. It was like the dagger was forged from the pits of hell.

She reached with trembling fingers, and as soon as she touched it, an overwhelming helpless feeling of death and evil loomed over her. The image forever etched into her mind.

 

She turned and scampered back into her dormitory, not stopping until she burst through the doors of her roommate’s bedroom, startling her awake.

 

Her roommate groggily eyed her disdainfully. Noticing the terror-stricken look on her face and her sweat-soaked shirt, her expression changed to one of worry.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

Quivering from shivers that racked her body, she told her of what had happened.

 

It was safe to say that neither of the girls were able to sleep that night.

 

Days later, her roommate started to dismiss her claims. The TV was working fine, no one had heard any screams that night, and the supposedly evil-dripped dagger was never found.

 

And so she was left to think that maybe it wasn’t real after all. Trying to comfort herself… it was very late at night when it had “happened” anyway.

 

She sighed. Her roommate was in class, and she was on the couch nursing a bottle of wine. She flipped through the channels and stopped.

 

She stared at a news channel that popped up.

 

A news channel with the headlines, “Update on Murdered Body Found”.

 

“Police had found a body in the middle of a ditch near SoShi University 72 hours ago. After careful examination, all that forensics were able to give us was the estimation of the time of death. Investigators are now updating us with the cause of death, which is believed to be a unique single, deep curved-shaped stab wound to the chest. At this time, the murder weapon has not yet been found.”

 

Body near the university.

 

Stab wound.

 

Curved-shaped stab wound.

 

---

 

The seven girls gathered around Sooyoung collectively gasped, each one of them with a horrified expression painted on their faces. Sooyoung gave a poignant pause. The girls started to speak.

 

“Wow…”

 

“That actually turned out to be good.”

 

“Look! I have goosebumps on my skin.”

 

“It actually didn’t turn out to be about food.” Sooyou