Kai...

Dammit Ailee! That girl just had to make me dance in front of everyone. Even though I danced as y as usual, I still wasn’t all that pleased that Ailee made me do it, if I didn’t have a soft spot for that girl, I might’ve made her choke and die on her own food.

I plop myself on my bed and I start to close my eyes, the dancing contest left me a bit tired, though it was nothing but a friendly battle, I always play like I’m playing for a prize.

The library…

What?

The library…

Who’s talking?

The library Kai…

“Who’s there?” I open my eyes and sit up.

The library…

“What library? This place doesn’t have a library.”

Find it… the library…

“You want me to find a library that doesn’t exist?” I wasn’t trying to be sarcastic.

The voice didn’t speak again but I had this gut feeling to find that hidden library. Even though I wasn’t sure why or who wanted that library to be found by me. I’ll just wreck the place anyway.

To satisfy this gut feeling and whatever that voice wanted―which I couldn’t tell whether it was a girl or voice―I had to see this invisible library.

As I exited my room and walked down the hallway, Gikwang was coming up.

“Oh, Kai-shi. I thought you were going to sleep.”

“I think I left something in the living room, I’m just going to check.” I passed him.

“Well, okay then…” I heard him muttered.

“Hey, hyung.” I turned around. A question just popped into my head.

“Yes, Kai-shi?” He turned with a smile.

“Does place have a library or something similar that you know?” I asked.

“Huh? A library or something similar?” Gikwang thought for a while. “Not that I know.”

I turned away, disappointment coming in. “Oh, well, thanks anyways hyung.”

“But!”

“But?” I slowly turned around. Bookshelves. "In fact,” he started approaching me. “It has the most number of bookcases. A total of 6 in one room.”

“Can you take me to it?” I asked.

“Why? Are you a bookworm?” He asked with a smug smile. It kind of annoyed me.

“Not exactly a bookworm, but not exactly a book hater either. I just need to…” I was contemplating whether or not to tell him the truth; he might not even believe me.  

“Just need to..?”

Think! Think!

“I just want to explore. I don’t exactly like staying in the same place for too long,” I paused, wait; there is one, “aside from my bed.”

Gikwang then broke into a smile and started laughing a bit. “Well, I can understand that. Sure, I’ll take you, just follow me.” He then turned and headed down the hallway.

I followed him in silence. Then my thoughts came back to the very reason why I’m out here and not sleeping in my bed right now.

“Here we are!” Gikwang exclaimed. He gestured to the white door beside us. “I know it was quite short but hey, things are getting shorter and shorter these days.”

I ignored what he said after that and twisted the knob. The door gave an eerie creaking sound before it was opened completely.

The room was dark except for some moonlight seeping in from the only window in the upper right. At both sides of the walls, there were two bookcases on each side, and one bookshelf on either sides of me. But what was creepy about this room was a portrait covered up with a large white cover.

“What is that portrait covered up?” I pointed at it.

“Ah, well, Old Lady Ra said that that portrait was a portrait made during the years back but it’s been damaged, and there’s only some of it still there, so Old Lady Ra covered it up so it wouldn’t get damaged anymore.” Gikwang explained as looked through some books.

I began looking around me, the room was decorated with a dark color and the floor was clean. And when I looked the cloth covering the portrait, the cloth didn’t look that dusty, like it was changed just very, very, recently.

“Hyung.” I called him. “Has anyone been here recently besides us? Are we even allowed to be here?”

“Well, me, Hoya, and Sunny know about this place, and you’re allowed to go in here as long as you put everything back where you found it.” He said as he put the book he was reading back in its place.

“Why aren’t you turning on the lights hyung? Isn’t it better to read in the light?” I asked as I just noticed we haven’t the lights yet.

“Oh, well, this room’s light broke yesterday and the repair man is a bit busy so he should fix the light by tomorrow.” He began searching the next shelf.

I turned my attention back to the covered portrait. “Well, I can guess we aren’t allowed to take out the cover or touch the painting?” I looked at the portrait more and could make out a pattern on its frame.

“Yup. Old Lady Ra strictly forbids anyone from removing it. I once tried taking off the cover but Old Lady Ra caught me and gave me a warning. But if I ever do it again, I might not be so lucky. She was actually really scary at that time…”

I ignored what he said after that. My thoughts started coming back to this portrait and the voice. Could this place be the library the voice wanted me to see? If so, what does the voice want me to find?

“Hyung. What are the mostly themed books here? Do they all belong to Old Lady Ra?”

“Well, from what I know, most of these books are fiction books from the past, history books, I saw a few modern fiction books, and I think I saw some inspirational books…. Hmmm…  I think there was this one book that was very strange.”

“What was so strange about it?’ I asked. Maybe that’s the book the voice wants me to find.

“Well,” He paused, I saw a distant look in his eyes, it made me think like there was something he shouldn’t say. “For starters, the book was smaller than all the other books. It’s the smallest one here. But other than that, the pages were very old, yellow, and full of cracks and would break if you’re not careful.” He opened another book. “But the strangest part was that it seemed more like a diary than a book.”

My breath shortened and I faced him with a look of uncertainty. “Hyung, do you know where that diary is?” Maybe it was the diary the voice wanted me to find.

“That diary isn’t here anymore. After I found it, and read a little, Old Lady Ra removed some of the books here to make room for some new books she either kept in storage or books she actually bought.” His face turned dark, he must’ve enjoyed some of the books that were thrown away.

“Hyung, what did she do to the books she removed?” I asked as my attention fixated at the portrait again.

“She burned them all. I saw her burn the books very early in the morning. When I asked her about it, she said things that wouldn’t benefit you or things that upset you should burn.”

That was strange of Old Lady Ra. Even in her terms. Then my eyes moved downwards, below tha painting and saw a small, wooden stool. I bent down to take a closer look and saw that there was dust on the chair, but there was a spot where there was no dust. It was a small rectangular-shaped free dust hole. Judging from the amount of dust accumulating, this was made not too long ago.

“That’s where the diary was. Old Lady Ra actually burned everything just yesterday. A strange woman she is, isn’t she?” Gikwang hyung was behind me, but since the diary isn’t here, I can only think of one other thing the voice wanted me to do in this room.

I stood up and stretched out my hand. My hand grabbed the white cloth. “Sorry hyung.” I whispered.

“Kai-shi! What are you doing? Old Lady Ra will kill us! She might let you pass, but I don’t think she’ll let me!” He tried stopping me by lunging, but I stopped him by putting my hand right in front of his face, only an inch apart. Gikwang looks at me like a madman, and his hands trembled.

“Hyung, I need to do this.” Before he could respond, I took out the cloth and set it on the ground.

At first I was confused, the portrait was completely empty, it had some shredded parts and a few holes but I only saw a mixture of black and red.

“What the―”

The moon was covered by the night clouds, only a few light was entering the room, and it made it harder to see in here.

But suddenly, words started to appear as the room got darker. Words in blue to black started to appearing, from Korean to English, to completely foreign languages. Most of the words were like liar, cheater, lies, devious and a bunch of other negative words.

My adrenaline kicked in, my heart started racing, and the room started changing color. From a dark color I couldn’t tell to dark red walls.

I heard Gikwang yelp or scream behind me and curse a bit.

I was going to yell to get out when I heard movement in front of me.

I turned around and saw the supposed empty portrait now had someone in it.

A girl with long, curly, dark brown hair that was covering her face so I couldn’t see her eyes, but I saw the twisted grin that we call .

I heard painful sounds coming from the painting, and soon, the girl started moving.

Gikwang feel on his and screamed. I would’ve done the same if my body was listening over the trembling and fear coursing through me.

The girl moved her left hand forward and the unimaginable happened.

Her hand got out of the painting, Gikwang screamed louder this time, then the girl’s other hand came out, then her head, then her upper torso, soon, her upper torso lay limp on the ground, while the bottom half was still trying to get out. She was wearing a light blue dress covered with spats of blood.

I swear I almost thought the girl from ‘The Ring’ came here.

Then the girl weakly tried to get up. But she looked so weak and fragile.

“You… shouldn’t have…………. Come…” here voice was weak and barely audible, but I was close enough to hear it.

Then, I hear three simultaneous screams behind me. I snap my head behind me and saw Ailee, Sunny, and Hoya by the doorway, all their faces in complete terror. And I also saw Erin faint just as she saw the scene before her.

“Now……. It’s too………..late…….” the girl said as she was almost completely out of the portrait.

Well, I guess it was a bad idea to let my neighbor's cousin to play with me because it only delyaed this so I apologize to all my readers!

Thanks again to all my readers and subscribers!~

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