Lee Taemin's body was found and retrieved from the lake the next day.

Krystal only took one look at Taemin before turning her body around , refusing to look at it longer. This isn't Taemin! Taemin wouldn't turn into this! No , it must be a mistake , there's no way that hideous thing was Taemin!

 

But that was indeed Lee Taemin.

 

His whole body was soaking wet , covered with mud and weeds. The sweats and T-shirt he had been wearing that night completely ripped and destroyed by dark red . The once smooth and beautiful milky pink skin now blue and purplish with deep cuts and sickening signs that his body was stabbed again and again.

But the scary part is his face. The face that has been completely deformed by beatings and long amounts of time under water  has an enormous hole on the right side. The empty socket bore holes into every person present at the scene. It was obvious that his eyes had been dug out and then thrown into the lake.

 

What happened at the Lake was immediately blocked and covered up by the Presidents to prevent anything from leaking into the media. Bright yellow tapes with Caution! Please keep out , police line do not cross , danger surrounded the woods although it did little to prevent brave students to cross over , trying to check out whats happening and eventually did find out.

This is the reason why no one , not even CL , Key , Top and the rest were present other than Krystal who had contacted the higher ups and 3 security guards who were in charge of the school's safety. They had screamed when the corpse first caught their sight.

Krystal turned around , looked at the empty hole once more before turning completely and running out the woods like a madman.

 

"Woah! That young lady must have gone crazy!" A fat chubby police who knew of their relationship shook his head sadly.

"What kind of person wouldn't turn crazy in this situation?" Another police let out a sigh and looked at Taemin before saying quietly, "The day she died was the ghost festival....." He didn't finish what he was saying and only looked at the other 2.

 

"If you did nothing wrong , there's nothing to worry about. Common, let's get to work!" the third said with a huff.

" What are the three presidents going to do...?"the fat one asked while taking out a big black bag.

"What else can they do , of course just like the other times they are going to say its a case of suicide. This kind of strange thing happening..if the public knew this school don't need to open anymore."

"What about the boy's family?"

"Give them some money , threaten them a bit and they'll keep their mouth shut. He's dead already anyways." 

"Ah, what a shame, I've seen this boy before. Extremely good looking and so talented..." the fat one shook his head.

 

The placed Taemin's corpse into the big black bag and left The Lake.

 

 

 

***

 

 

On the other hand , Krystal rushed into the dance class , ignoring the talking trainer and the shocked students. She took Key's struggling hand with mad strength and grabbed him out of class.

" Key! Tell me , tell me everything that happened that night , the mask , whatever horror story , pen spirit , tell me everything! Now!"

Key didn't even have time to get annoyed at Krystal for being so rude before realization dawned on him and his face paled dramatically," Tae..Taemin...he's , he's really...."

Krystal closed her eyes and took a deep breath," He's dead." When the eyes opened , she once again yelled with a loud thundering voice," Tell me! QUICK!"

 

All energy left key as his legs wobbled and he fell to the floor ," I knew it , Pen spirit is coming...."

 

 

***

 

 

Key obediently told Krystal every detail of that Saturday night .

Taemin told a story about a ghost digging a girl's eye out and throwing her into a lake ?! Krystal couldn't believe any of this, she never believed in ghosts and spirits. No way was she going to believe in some stupid pen spirit taking other people lives !

Krystal's face was even whiter than Key's. She sat there stunned for a few minute before standing up abruptly to punch a tree and walking away quietly after.

Key looked up and stared at the blood smeared on the tree , making it look like the tree was bleeding.

 

"Taemin's dead."

Key looked up again to see CL looking worriedly at him.

He only nodded, lips drawn into a tight line , nothing was said as tears dripped quietly down his face.

"Let's go!" Key suddenly stood up to grab Cl's hand.

"What-" Cl had no choice but allow Key to drag him away.

 

"Those Masks!" Key said while running.

2 people ran madly down the street and arrived at the door of their dorm in minutes.

 

Minzy was sitting in the room when she got a shock from the loud slam of a door.Surprised , she accidentally let her leg hit the floor making her hold her leg in pain.

 

"Whats with you guys looking all flustered?" 

"Trust me ,I have no idea." CL said with a shrug.

Key looked at the table , mouth opened,but no words came out.

"Okay, can you tell me what all this is about?" Minzy followed Key's point of view and looked at the table. There was nothing except for a few books,and some make up!

"The Masks!" Key pointed at the table.

 

There's nothing on the table though! both Minzy and CL turned to look at Key worriedly, did he turn crazy?

"Where are the masks?" Key cried, " I remember we placed all the masks on the table that night!" After that , he desperately looked through an under all the beds," Where the are the masks?!"

 

"He's right , it was at the table , where is it now?" CL asked.

"Why are you looking for the masks?!"Minzy looked at Key , irritated," God just stop making such a  fuss out of everything."

 

"Taemin's dead , you know that! They found her mask at the Lake!" Key yelled while flipping the room upside down.

"WHAT?!" Minzy cried ," Taemin's dead?!"

"What does that have to do with the masks?" CL looked at the frustrated key running and crawling around the room pushing and flipping everything he sees.

"I don't know , I just have a feeling that these masks...." Key stopped everything he was doing and sat there , suddenly blanked out.

" Maybe Victoria or Top put them away." Cl suggested.

Right then, Victoria and TOP walked through the door. Both of them said they know nothing about the masks when asked.

Everyone looked at everyone else , where did the masks go?

"Minzy , you stayed in the room ever since that night , how can you not know where they are?" Top looked at Minzy suspiciously . She's the one that loves playing tricks on people ,perhaps she hid them somewhere.

 

"Please, what time is it? If I did hide it , why would I not tell you guys at this point?" She stomped her legs on the ground, and it immediately shot up again as she yelled in pain.

" When we left the room , you didn't leave right?" CL asked.

"Do I look like I can?" Minzy pointed at her ankle. " Not after you guys left ,I did sleep for about half an hour."

"You really didn't hear anything?" Victoria pressed.

Minzy shook her head.

Key stood up , " Nobody took it , it must be......" He covered his mouth in a hurry ,looked to the right , looked to the left as if other than the 5 of them there was another person at the scene.

 

He didn't need to say anything , everybody knew what he was talking about, and all of them shuddered --Pen spirit!

The dorm was silent for a while.

It was Minzy's laughter that broke the silence , "Oh come on , stop scaring ourselves! what pen spirit , did Taemin have a fight with Krystal? He must have been mad and suicided. I mean, why else would he fake that call? and the masks , Maybe its the other students who came in and took it for fun."

 

Everyone looked at Minzy , speechless.

Minzy's laugh died down and turned into a frown ," Stop looking at me like that , Its not me that killed Taemin."

 

Victoria replied quietly ," who would ever dig their own eye out before they suicide?"

"WHAT?!" CL , Key , and Minzy's mouths opened in surprise and horror.

Top bit his lower lip once ," Me and Victoria just came back from Krystal's. Krystal said Taemin's right eyes were dug out , that's horrifying! There are a lot of people who are brave enough to suicide , but people who are brave enough to dig their own eye out......."

 

"AH!" Key screamed and fell to the floor. He held his head in terror as he grabbed blindly and desperately at the bed.

 

"You're saying , that Taemin's death is exactly like that of the art student in his story?!"CL looked at Top , bewildered.

"Right." Victoria nodded, answering the question for Top.

Once again , the Dorm was a dead silence.

After Key was finally able to breath properly , his body continued to shake violently , with a low voice he said ," Pen spirit is coming , Pen spirit is coming."

 

"Does..does Taemin's family know?" Cl's eyes turned red , breathing turning difficult by the minute.

Key looked up with tears continuously rolling down his face ," Taemin doesn't have a family."

"What?!" everyone cried in unison.

"5 years ago , his house was caught on fire , killing both of his parents, he was the only one left........." Key stopped , focused on trying to breath properly.

 

Everyone knew that Key and Taemin had once been the best of best friends, to the point that others will day Key's Taemin's mom but later on , because of an athletic rapper student , Choi Minho , they almost turned into enemies. Although they didn't , their relationship drifted apart. The reasons were unknown .

 

Which is the reason why other than Key, no one else knew. Everyone was shocked silent , taking some time to absorb the new information.

Everything makes sense then. The reason why Taemin has multiple personalities would be from the shock of losing bot parents to a fire.

After a while , Minzy let out a sigh ," Who knew Taemin's life was so sad , Key , why didn't you tell us earlier?"

"He didn't let me." Key was still busy swallowing tears and trying to catch his breath.

" If its like this , then Taemin suiciding makes sense. He wanted to die so he told everyone to make a story up , secretly telling us how he would die ,and then suggest playing pen spirit and then dying like his own story." Minzy explained.

 

"Its our fault ,We were so scared we didn't pay attention phone call on meeting Krystal at the lake, who in their right mind would go to the lake to meet up!" Top yelled at himself angrily.

"What happened has already happened , let's hope Taemin rests in peace." CL drew an imaginary cross on her chest.

 

"I still feel like, everything is not as simple as that.." Key said quietly.

 

"Well what else could it be?Did someone know Taemin's story beforehand and then murdered him after tricking him outside?Key, we know you're easily scared, but no one would go out to the lake in the middle of the night unless they don't want to live."Top sighed and sat down on a random bed.

An uncomfortable air still lingered and the smell of blood and decaying flesh seemed to find their way into the dorm or , perhaps their minds but everyone managed to convince themselves that Taemin has indeed suicided by the next morning.

 

Except Key.

He refused to believe that everything was just as simple as that , but too bad no one believed him...