After finishing the pancakes, Wendy headed to the kitchen to wash the dishes, Seulgi followed her. “It’s my turn to wash the dishes, you don’t have to worry, I don’t think they’re going to assign you chores anyway” The shorter said, putting the plates on the sink.

“I can help” The hunter said, locating herself beside Wendy, ready to dry the dishes.

“Is there anything you want to talk about…?” The latter asked, judging by Kang’s concerned look.

“You seem more open and kinder than the others” Seulgi said, drying the plates and placing them on the kitchen isle.

“Don’t let looks deceive you, the others are pretty kind too” Wendy smiled.

“Even Irene?” The hunter asked, trying to sound uninterested.

“What happened between you two a while ago?” The other backfired, stopped her chore and turned to look at the monolided girl.

“I-uh, nothing special… I was just curious” Seulgi looked away, almost blushing.

“You can trust me, Seul” Wendy tenderly said, putting her right hand on Seulgi’s left shoulder.

“We had an argument, I told her she was a bad person… I really shouldn’t have reacted that way, she was just trying to figure me out” Hunter Kang sighed.

“So, she’s mad at you…”

 “I actually told her before dinner that I was going to take her out of this house” The monolided girl said, resting her back on the wall.

“Are you…?” Wendy tried to ask her something but couldn’t find the right words. “Is there a reason for you to want to save her? We… we all know she’s doomed, Seul” She continued, she sensed something familiar in the way the hunter was behaving, her promising Irene to free her was like when Joy promised Wendy freedom.

“I just think she deserves a second chance, what’s the big deal?” Seulgi snapped, trying to change the topic.

“Sorry… I didn’t mean to upset you, I shouldn’t be meddling” The shorter girl said, resuming her activity.

“No… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped in that way… it’s just… there are a lot of things I still don’t understand: like, how can it be night time when a few moments ago it was day time?” The hunter said, gently resting her head on the wall, looking up to the almost rustic ceiling.

 “Are you really a witch hunter? You seem to be overall pretty lost…” Wendy frowned.

“Of course I am… I just haven’t debuted yet… this is my last chance to prove myself”

“Well, how come you don’t know about the enchantment?”

“I had this pink book back at the hostel-“

“Okay, listen up” The younger said, stopping her activities once again. “Tempus mea is a spell where the enchanter, or in this case, enchantress, can manipulate time as they please. That’s what Irene does… it’s just night time here inside the house, but if you step outside, it will be daytime again since she can only manipulate time as an illusion” She explained. She’s been in the house for three years after all and once in the house, there was nothing much to do.

Yeri became Irene’s right hand and helped her every day, while Wendy and Joy were almost left out, wandering around the house, reading old enchantment books. That’s how they got their knowledge, not because they were actual witches.

“What about the fifth girl?” The monolided girl asked.

“What do you mean? We’ve been four the whole time” Wendy frowned.

“The files said that somebody saw a fifth girl with you”

“Well, that might have been one of the sacrifices” The shorter said with an apologetic look, she knew that after being in the house there was a part of her that was dehumanized, desensitized, that the whole sacrificing thing was normal to her.

“So, she does kill girls to gain youth” Seulgi concluded.

“Mostly men, but yes… she has killed some girls before” Wendy added.

“Wait… I just realized…” The hunter whispered, making the other confused. “Why are you answering everything? Didn’t you pledge loyalty to Irene? This can be considered as betrayal…”

“I have nothing to lose, I want to get out of here, and I believe you can free us, Seulgi”

Joy paced outside Irene’s door, questioning for the millionth time if it was a good idea to overhear her conversations. It was a usual thing that she started doing over a year ago, she would stand in front of Irene’s door and wait to be brave enough to get closer and put her ear on it.

She sighed, she’s never been caught on doing it before, but any day can be the difference. “You can do this” She cheered and proceeded to spy on the leader witch. She heard pacing, sighing and finally some words.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to keep up with this…” Joy heard Irene talking to another woman.

“But you want this, you want her” The mysterious woman said, she was trying to convince the leader.

“Yes, but drag four poor girls to hell with me? They have nothing to do with this… I tried to save them” It seemed like the witch was talking about her and the others.

“You are dragging them because you were weak… if you wouldn’t have asked them to stay, they will all be dead anyway”

With that phrase, Joy was sure, she was indeed talking about them. Before becoming the ‘witches’ they are today, they were nothing but sacrifices. Irene lured them inside the house like she did with all of her victims and right before killing them, she asked if they wanted to join her. They were the only girls who actually accepted her offer.

“I offered them to join me, they accepted. How was that weak? They obey” Irene said and Joy rolled her eyes.

“You didn’t come all the way just to recruit some girls… if I recall, you’re in this mess because of Kang”

“Kang? What’s a Kang?” Joy asked to herself, furrowing her brows.

“She’s going to fix up this mess… just you wait” The leader confidently said.

“She better, because I’m starting to question your witch skills”

Joy had enough overhearing the conversation so she headed back to the kitchen were Wendy and Seulgi were still talking. Once she got there, she motioned the girls to join her in a small circle.

“I overheard Irene talking with some lady… it was something I never heard before” The taller girl whispered.

“Well, say it already” Wendy hurried.

“Long story short she talked about some Kang, so if we can find whatever-“

“Wait… Kang?” Seulgi interrupted.

“You know what that is?” Joy asked, hopeful.

“Kang is my family name” The hunter explained, Wendy and Joy looked at each other.

“You…?” The shortest girl asked, confused.

“How can it be you if you just arrived? We’ve been trapped in here for years…” The tallest girl did her best trying to understand and tie the clues, but she couldn’t.

“There must be something in this house that can help us understand” Hunter Kang said, approaching to a big bookshelf in the living room, grabbing books and shaking them to see if a piece of paper fell out of them, anything.

The lovers stood there, silently judging the hunter’s intelligence. “I said we’ve been trapped in here for years, don’t you think that by now we already searched in all the books?” Joy asked, annoyed.

“Maybe you missed one” The monolided girl said, shaking the books more frenetically.

“Seul” Wendy called her, walking to her side and grabbing her hands, stopping her. “We checked every single book, there’s nothing” She softly said, disappointed.

“What about the Irene’s room? Have you searched there yet?” Seulgi asked.

“Are you kidding? Nobody except for Yeri has ever entered that room, and clearly, Yeri isn’t on our side” Joy rolled her eyes.

“Well, then I guess I’ll be the first one of us to enter” The hunter confidently said and walked to the leader’s room with the lovers following her. She made it to the door and didn’t even hesitate to open it wide and enter in a matter of seconds, leaving the couple speechless.

“What the are you doing here?!” Irene coldly asked.

“Just let me do my job”

There she was. The cold, heartless Seulgi, frenetically looking for something in the books that sat on the leader’s bookshelf, books that hit the floor once they were of no use for the hunter. This is the Seulgi Irene hated the most, the one absorbed by blinding feelings, the one that wasn’t logical, the one that moved and did stuff based on her ridiculous human feelings of fear and panic. The one that couldn’t be controlled or contained, the one that certainly would discover the truth.

“Is invading my personal space your job? Is ignoring my privacy your job? Is roaming your dirty hands all over my precious books your ing job?!” Irene snapped and snatched a book off of Seulgi’s hand.

“You want to be freed, don’t you?” The hunter defied the leader. The other four girls stood outside of the room in awe.  

“You are such an idiot, Seulgi” Irene sighed, closing her eyes, transmitting a feeling of disappointment that hit the monolided girl.

“I just want to help…” Hunter Kang softly said, returning to her old calmer self.

“Then stop behaving like such a rookie!”

The instant the last word was pronounced by the witch, bright colors surrounded Seulgi with an effect of almost LSD hitting her nervous system. She stumbled and failed to stay on her feet, hitting the ground. As usual, she regained consciousness a few moments after, sat on the floor and examined her situation. She was now wearing a blue doll-like dress, with a strange white lacework on the chest, looking like a straight up bib, “Why does she always have to dress us in the most ridiculous ways?” She sighed. Looked at her now red hair and said “Great, I can kiss my scalp goodbye now”

This new world was sickeningly bright colored, baby pink, baby blue, green and yellow could be seen on the walls and the house was now different. Everything was arranged differently and the only thing that stood from everything was a bright blue closet. The hunter stood up and instinctively walked towards the blue piece of furniture and in a blink of an eye the closet opened, revealing a hidden Irene, calling softly for Seulgi.

Hunter Kang was immediately inside what seemed to be another world, the closet door being shut by the beauty. This new place was still disgustingly filled with bright colors, strange pyramids, spheres and even what it seemed to be tree trunks. “God, this place is hideous” She said.

“Oh, Wendy! Joy!” The monolided girl called the couple as she saw them from afar.

“I’m getting tired of her spells” The tallest girl uttered. “That strange trick she pulled where everything was blurry and moving triggered my motion sickness” She continued, putting a hand on her head.

“Hey, it’s alright, babe” Wendy softly tried to comfort her girlfriend.

“Babe?” Seulgi frowned.

“Babe!” Wendy exclaimed and covered .

“I’m going to be SICK, you’re so greasy Wendy, ugh” Joy sat on one of the spheres, holding her stomach.

“So you guys are-“ The hunter was about to express her support but was interrupted by the ringing of a telephone. “What the hell? Do you hear that?” She asked, but the girls shook their heads. “It’s like a telephone… it seems to be coming from the other side of the closet” Hunter Kang said, approaching slowly to the blue closet. The ringing became more intense, the monolided girl stepped inside the piece of furniture and walked through clothes, Narnia style.

It was now a different room containing only a blue telephone that kept on ringing nonstop. With a trembling right hand, Seulgi finally answered the call. “Hello…?”

“Rookie, rookie, you’re my rookie, rookie, rookie” Some girls chanted what it seemed to be a pop and funky song on the other line, it was almost inaudible and sounded like an old LP.

“Hello??” Seulgi kept on waiting for an answer but the same chanting was heard.

“Rookie, rookie, you’re my rookie, rookie, rookie”

“Interesting phone, huh?” Yeri teased with a smirk.

“Where’s Irene?” The hunter interrogated the girl.

“I have no idea, I haven’t seen her since we got here” The younger girl said, a few moments ago, her expression seemed cocky, like she was in control, but now, she was genuinely concerned. “I’m gonna go find her” She said, hopping into the closet.

“God, she’s so weird it gives me the creeps” The monolided girl whispered, feeling goosebumps.

Hunter Kang hung the phone and followed Yeri’s action. Once inside the unbearably colorful world, she looked everywhere for the couple, but they were nowhere to be found. “That’s weird, they were here just a second ago”

“How did we all get here…?” Wendy asked. She was sitting on a sofa that was in a pink room that looked pretty normal to her, there was a big window, a bed, the infamous blue closet, a blue telephone and what was even weirder, all the girls except for Joy were there.

“What do you mean? We’ve been here for hours” Yeri said, standing next to the phone.

“No… we just got here, I’m sure” Wendy tried to stand her ground but she was starting to get confused.

“It’s true Wendy, we’ve been waiting for Joy” Seulgi said, sitting on the bed, carefully reading a book.

“Are you sure, Seul?” The younger girl frowned.

“Can you stop getting everyone confused? Joy’s here” Irene said.

Joy came from the closet holding a weird cloud of colored smoke, smiling. “Come girls, I’ve got something for you” She said, they all gathered around her and as soon as they inhaled the smoke, they were all into de LSD effect once again.

The world disappeared before Wendy’s eyes, all she could see was weird figures and colors all blurry and moving, which caused her to stumble and drop her body on a nearby chair. “God this is so bad” She chuckled. “But it feels so good” She said, laughing.

“Wendy?!” In other room, Joy was frenetically calling for her girlfriend, roaming every inch of the strange colored house. She reached a room all in blue, opened the door and found the four girls inside small boxes.

“Wendy!!” She yelled, and kneeled in front of her girlfriend’s box.

“It was you Joy!” Wendy angrily shouted. “You casted this spell!” She continued yelling, pointing a finger to the taller girl.

“Me???!!!” Joy asked, disappointed. “It was Irene and you know it Wendy!” She snapped.

“Don’t lie, we all saw you” The leader said.

“Yes, we saw you” Yeri and Seulgi said in unison.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on here but you know it wasn’t me, Wendy” Joy said, stood up and rushed out of that wicked room but was now being followed by a strange figure all covered in flowers. “What the actual is going on here?!” She exclaimed, running away from it.

She passed all the hallways and stopped in the red one filled with doors, Yeri came out of one of the doors to enter another, then came out and entered another, then came out again and entered another, just like if she was playing hide and seek. Joy ignored that and kept on trying to escape from the weird flower man, approaching the main door of the corridor and shutting it closed behind her. She felt relieved for only seconds as a familiar voice popped her bubble. “I know you were spying on me…” Irene chanted and immediately after that, the flower man came flying in a UFO across the room. Talk about bizarre.

“Just let us out of here already!” She yelled as she ran again, away from the flower man. She wanted to still fight the spell but the colors and everything in the world really kept on triggering her motion sickness, so she just wanted to be out of there as soon as possible.

She finally recognized the back of the closet and thought “If I can go through it I bet I can get out of this world” She stepped outside the closet and indeed, she was out of that messed up world, but as soon as she removed her hand off of the handle, the closet started to shake and beep. Confused at first, Joy tried to open it again, but then realized that was the beeping of a bomb, in a matter of seconds she turned around and jumped as the furniture blew up in pieces behind her.

“No…” She whispered, lying on the floor. “Wendy!” She quickly stood up and tried to gather up the pieces. She knew that now the closet was destroyed, there was no other connection to that other world, the world where her girlfriend and Seulgi where trapped in. She felt so guilty for being so selfish and not being able to endure the punishment Irene was putting them through, just because of her sickness. She allowed herself to cry and curse at her current state, eyes shut, clenched fists, she was alone, not even the wicked witch was with her.

After feeling miserable enough, she opened her eyes only to realize she was back in the living room, in France. In front of her, an arm crossed witch stood menacingly. “You!” Joy jerked her body up and pointed a finger at Irene. “You made me believe I was never going to see Wendy again!” She angrily yelled. She felt defenseless, used.

“Stop sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong” The leader nonchalantly said, walking past Joy.

“You are a horrible person… well, if there’s still anything in you that can be described as human”