I moistened my dry lips with my tongue and took a deep breath.

If I had to turn back, it would be my last chance. But there is a catch if I turned back- I would need to shave my hair as a part of the punishment for failing our dare.

My hands were clammy and it sort of grossed me out. Why should I even feel nervous? The rumours were all bull, weren't they?

Shrugging off my wild theories, I slipped my hands deeper into my jeans pockets, until my fingers curled up due to the lack of space. I let my eyes dart around the corridor once again until it rested on a heavily crafted wooden door. Something about the air in that abandoned building gnawed me... Though I hated to acknowledge that.

"Hey? Do you think it's a good idea to get into that wing?" The boy beside me spoke up for the first time after we stepped into that long corridor. "I feel a bit  awkward and nervous." He admitted, rubbing his palms together.

"So you are scared?" I flashed a grin, teasing him playfully. Even if I hated to accept it, I felt like running away too. But keeping a brave face, I took a glace at my watch. We had one more minute before the camera wired on us start recording. Oddly, just as the time neared, I saw Mark continuously rub his palms and arms. They were covered with goosebumps.
I frowned. Was he really nervous about this challenge?

The place where we were.. it wasn't anything less than 25ºC, but he looked like he was exposed to the cold chilly air. He was shivering.

"Um, I think we should head back." I nodded, taking his suggestion. I felt bad for him. He had started looking pale and feverish.  "Let's meet up with the others now and go together some other time." I said, taking one last glance at the dark wooden door, trying to memorize it.

There was something- something weird about it. It had some symbols carved on it from which I couldn't take my eyes off. Symbols that I couldn't identify, even though I was an amateur semiotician. 
But what caught my breath was the door left ajar. I was sure that neither of us moved any closer to the door and it was closed when I first saw it.

My eyes travelled to the floor to ensure that I wasn't imagining but the sight that welcomed my eyes froze me.

The layer of dust on the ground was swept along with door's base. The disturbance of the dust on the floor was fresh- but who stepped in here just before us? We had jumped over the old brick wall after making sure that no one was watching us, other than our group of friends. And so, I was pretty sure that we were the only two in the building. Yet again- the door was closed when we stopped in front of it. I was sure of it.

Fear gripped me with its long slender fingers. Literally. I could smell something rotting but I couldn't bear myself to look behind. What if there was someone?
I wanted to shrug off the fact that I did felt the fingers loosely hug my neck but- "Mark? Where are you going?" I asked in surprise as I felt the male beside me push me aside. "What-"

I never got the chance to continue my question though. He simply pushed the door wide open and stepped inside as if he knew where he was going. But on my case, before I could ask what he was upto, I heard heavy running footsteps with a gush of wind, right behind me. I involuntary whipped my head behind, only to find the corridor empty.

I started feeling cold. The sudden nausea made me want to sit on the ground. But I tried to stand straight.
I took my hands off my pockets and pushed the shirt sleeves up to see every single hair on my arm stand up. Just like Mar- oh no! Where was he?

Startled by the realization that he was somewhat inside that forbidden building made me feel sick in my stomach. I regretted being ignorant and not listening to what I was warned about.

'No, its just tales to keep nosy kids like us out.' I mouthed to myself and took a deep breath again. "Mark must have walked in because he realised that he was acting silly by being scared. Come on, Jackson. Just walk in." I said loudly and flashed my flashlight on the ground, following the fresh trail of footsteps.

I wasn't sure how long I followed the trail, but in the end, I stopped in front of another ajar door. Unlike the first door,  the second was painted white with ordinary square designs, covered with a layer of dust particles.

I took a deep breath again and ended up tasting the dust and stale flavour in my mouth. I was pretty sure that the camera fixed on my helmet had recorded all my facial expressions which would surely cause me embarrassment later on.
Sighing lightly, I grazed my fingers over my nape before calling out my companion's name again. "Mark? Are you here?"

At the lack of verbal response, I stepped inside the room. I stepped in just in time to see the him trip over the foot of a low table. I winced lightly and pitied him for the fall.

I walked towards him and crouched down. But just as I was about to reach out to aid the boy, the room we were in grabbed my attention.
Why a nursery in the building? 'Wait-' I chewed my lip at the alarming situation. I wasn't sure where I was in the building. I never looked around to see where I was heading to, except following the tracks blindly.

I looked up again and noticed how to pale yellow wallpapers were peeling out that revealed glowing symbols peek out from behind. Why were they glowing in the first place?

"Ugh.." A husky groan snapped me out from my train of thoughts. Oh dude!

"Are you okay?" I slowly asked as I took his arm to pull him up.

"Yeah.." he grunted in reply. "But my ankle-" He didn't continue because we both stilled at the sudden draft that the expanse of our face.

I wasn't sure what triggered it, but just as the draft fell, I started hearing a music box playing twinkle twinkle little star. Not a really good rhyme to listen to in the darkness.

It freaked me out. Any sane person would have ran out, the moment he or she would have discovered that the door moved my itself, in the beginning. 'But damn it. Damn my ego.' I hissed to myself and looked at the boy, rubbing his forehead.

"Damn it. Well, hearing the nursery rhyme here is surely freaky, uh?" I spoke up, trying to ease the atmosphere. "I seriously need to find the source and smash it for making the noise and startling me." I ranted with a dry laugh.

"Jack.." Mark whispered my name. The expression that ran through his face scared me. "Jack.. the room is dead silent." He whispered and sat up. "But how did we end up in this room? Weren't we at the corrid-"

I could hear him speak but I couldn't process what he said anymore. There was a man behind, near the door. His arms were crooked and his face was twisted. It was what I saw from the reflection of Mark's specs.

I quickly turned around to find the occupied space empty. I must have been hallucinating, I told myself. The preserved air in the hospital might have mixed with the components of the old medicines in the air must be the reason why I felt lightheaded at that moment. But being curious as I was, I turned back to the questioning yet worried face of Mark. But that was not what I was looking for. The man disappeared- almost to my relief.

Maybe it was too early to be relieved. I let out a loud scream and pull the poor guy up, along with me as I dashed out of the nursery. Mark struggled to meet my pace with his hurt ankle, but the new reflection I saw from his specs told me that I had enough of adventures.

I couldn't even dare to blink my eyes because the moment my eyelids covered my vision, I saw the dark slender figure in the hood with pitch black eyes on the ground,  crawling to us from behind, in a inhuman speed. His skin was pale grey and black thin lips presed into a firm line. Though I couldn't really see him anymore, I felt terrorized. I was in agony.

"Jack! JACKSON! Slow down!" I heard him yell. Instead, I ran faster.
We were on an unfamiliar corridor. There were old light bulbs dangling from the ceiling which illuminated the whole corridor where the doors were covered with glass panes, but was least of my worries. All I wanted to see was a route to escape.

"!!" I yelled. Probably Mark must have noticed it too because he he running faster than before with a terrorized look on his face.

The man in the hood was crawling on the left side of the wide corridor. I could see his back view on the reflective surface of the glass pane on the right and long foggy finger prints on the left. 
I hated how my mind could process all these scary tiny details at that very moment.

"What the is that thing?!" Mark yelled. A ing demon, I wanted to yell back but my throat was dry. At least not for long, I comforted myself.

I could see an old window at the end of the long hallway and thanked heavens for such a paradise. 
Probably Mark had the same idea too, because I suddenly found myself being led by him towards it.

Luckily, only the window frame remained, giving us an easier access to jump out.

'Thank you, Lord.' I praised in my mind as we held each other close and jumped through, head first. 
Though our fall was from three floor above, the old tarps dumbed at the corner absorbed the shock and cushioned our fall.

The last thing before passing out of fatigue that quickly caught up with me was the fading shadow behind the crumbling window. I had enough of the adventures.

》》》

We were discharged from the clinic a day later after our friends rushed in to our aid. They had witnessed how we jumped down. But none of the remaining boys saw anything suspicious after our fall. Unfortunately, it triggered some sort of resentment in me. Why us? Why was that only Mark and I saw the man in the hood?

Mark was visibly shaken. Yet, he tried to put on a brave face. He knew that we both saw exactly the same thing.

On our way out, we did enquire  about seeing anything suspicious and tried throwing some hints about the haunting. Nada. Nope. Nothing.

No response were heard relating to what  we wished to know. No one had a clue. And it became a secret between us.
We didn't want to be called freaks, though one of the friends teased us with a similar word because of our easier way out. The others were worried, though. Yet, they concluded that we were whimps but wanted to show something bold. Thus, our slick move of jumping down the window.

They don't have to know.

After all, we did earn some money from our dare. And they had our recorded videotape as the proof.

But still. They don't have to know. I am still scared. 
 

"Anyway.. I want to say that you guys were brave." Youngjae, one of the boys spoke up after all of us sprawled over his living room, a week later.

"Yeah. Though we all were a little creeped out to come closer to that building." Someone else from the group commented which gained a few nods of agreement.

We had watched all three videos, that we captured over several times. One from the handycam that Mark held and the remaining two from from our helmets. And to their untrained eyes, our actions looked pretty normal. Or you could blame the camera and its poor quality.
But Mark and I, we both saw how our iris visibly dilated, now and then, throughout the video.

It was a proof that the creatures from different dimensions were lurking around us.

I gazed over the other others as the corners of my lips slowly curled up into a bitter smile. Ignorance. It was indeed blissful. I wished that that day, I was in that living room exactly like the others. Unaware of the reality and continue my life in the absolute air of ordinary.

"Come on. Let's conclude this particular video with a two minute message from Jackson and Mark to add to the video before posting it on YouTube!" Yugyeom, JB's younger cousin suggested as he took the small video camera. He then tossed it to Mark, gesturing him to take a self record of both of us together.

I wanted to stop them. Couldn't they see that he was reluctant to capture a video after what happened in the hospital? Yeah. Inexperienced people were indeed dumb.

Mark looked at me once more and gulped. There was a silent scream of fear in his eyes, yet he opened the flap and twisted the recorded viewing screen outwards.

Seeing the he was not going to move from the couch, in front of the television, I walked towards him and took the camera from his hand. Plopping up, messily beside him, I raised the camera with its lense facing us. After dealing with this particular clip, I promised myself that I would never ever EVER touch another camera again.

Letting out a deep breath, I nudged the male beside me with a forced smile and pressed the record button after raising it a little over our head, focusing on our face. "Hey there! I'm Jac-"

I wasn't sure why my voice faltered. Mark grew paler than sugar and felt the hair raise on my neck. But I could point out what was bothering me.

But unfortunate, Mark seemed to know what exactly was his fear. His eyes were trained right on the corner of the living room, behind us and at first, I didn't understand what was the problem. All I saw was the shadow of the tall lamp, or the only lamp in that room, casted on the wall behind.

But again, then what was shining over our face from the left?

I looked at the lamp on the left and felt my face drain. The shadow.. it was on the right. 

I slowly lowered the camera and tilted the lens up as I watched the deep shadow grow more bolder, by every second that ticked by, I stared harder at the little screen.

Voices were talking. The boys were talking. But they all sounded so far off.

All that I could hear was my own heartbeat and the blood rushing through my ear.

But the moment I saw those haunting thin lips and black hollow eyes, I heard my heart stop.

My heart stopped.

Yeap. So- what do you think?

Comment your thoughts.

I'd love to hear them :)