Chapter 54

[10. If you're caught, then you're the next one who's it.]

"How dare you!"

Peter Pan screamed at the intruders wreaking havoc inside the story under his control.

But Hwi-yeon didn't hesitate.

She swung the hooked whip the Teacher had given her.

Used carelessly, it was a vicious weapon that could just as easily tear into its wielder or anyone nearby. But Hwi-yeon handled it with remarkable skill.

With practiced control, she sent the whip snapping toward the monster.

The sharpened hook bit into its flesh—

and tore straight through.

The severed tentacle fell away, and the students dangling from it crashed to the floor.

Su-myeon had hoped they would immediately get up and run.

Unfortunately, neither of them moved.

"It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!"

Caught off guard by the sudden wound, the monster reeled backward.

Behind it, Wendy staggered back as well.

"...!"

Then the window beside them shattered with another sharp crash.

A lantern came hurtling through.

It struck the monster and burst, splashing oil across its body.

The flames caught almost instantly.

Within moments, Peter Pan was engulfed in fire.

"Hot! Hot! I don't want this! Mom! Dad! Save me! Save me!"

Peter Pan screamed and thrashed wildly.

Wendy, who had been standing directly behind him, was caught by the massive creature's flailing body and knocked to the floor.

She was pinned beneath it.

Yet not a single scream escaped her.

Su-myeon had no time to worry about Wendy.

Enraged, Peter Pan stretched one arm toward him, the limb extending to an unnatural length.

BANG! BANG!

Keeping as calm as he could, Su-myeon fired at the approaching palm.

The bullets hammered into it, knocking the hand back and tearing it apart.

Through the ragged holes in its flesh, dangling tentacles dripped clotted black blood onto the floor.

"Why? Why? Aren't we together? Why? Outside is dangerous. It's even more dangerous out there!"

Its mangled hand clawed frantically across its enormous body, trying to extinguish the flames.

But the more it struggled, the farther the burning oil spread.

Soon, fire covered nearly its entire body.

The nauseating stench of burning flesh filled the hallway.

It was nothing like the familiar smell of meat cooking over a fire.

Some instinctive part of Su-myeon understood immediately.

This was what burning human flesh smelled like.

He forced himself not to think about it.

Pitch-black soot smeared the walls in every direction.

The grotesque monster thrashed amid the flames, letting out miserable, broken groans.

"........"

Hwi-yeon's gaze fell on the two motionless students who had been caught in the inferno and were now burning along with it.

CLATTER.

Could they still be saved?

As though declaring the question meaningless, something small fell from the monster's body.

A key.

It landed on the smooth hallway floor.

There was no need to wonder what door it opened.

Su-myeon pushed through the waves of scorching heat.

The key was hot enough to burn his palm, but he grabbed it anyway and shoved it into his pocket.

"Teacher!"

There was only one person who could have thrown that last lantern.

When Su-myeon shouted, several heads cautiously appeared beyond the hallway window.

The Teacher had hurriedly brought the students who had been hiding in the auditorium over to the school.

Five unfamiliar pairs of eyes stared at Su-myeon.

Their gazes shone with innocent hope and expectation.

Su-myeon swallowed hard.

Then he beckoned urgently.

"Hurry!"

As the students began climbing through the hallway window, Su-myeon's attention shifted elsewhere.

Something was trapped beneath the monster's charred flesh.

"Ugh....."

Wendy.

She had been caught beneath Peter Pan's body.

One side of her face was red and badly scorched.

"Are you all right?"

Su-myeon approached cautiously as she continued to groan.

Only one thought occupied his mind.

What if she left this place too?

Cheshire became nothing more than a doll outside the story.

Then what would happen to Wendy, who appeared human, if she crossed over?

"Do you want to come out with us?"

There was no way to know until they tried.

And perhaps because Wendy had always looked so utterly normal—like an ordinary, innocent student—Su-myeon couldn't help feeling sympathy for her.

He didn't want to abandon her here.

He could tell himself as many times as he wanted that she was merely a being born inside a story.

That there was no reason for him to care.

But he did.

Because Wendy thought.

She spoke.

She felt.

Just like anyone else.

"I... I can't go...."

Her trembling eyes turned toward him.

Then she corrected herself.

"I won't go...."

There was a clear difference between can't and won't.

And Su-myeon didn't miss the significance of her correction.

He slowly widened the distance between them again.

Wendy raised her head and met his gaze.

A beautiful face.

A frail figure crushed beneath the body of a gigantic monster.

And yet—

an inexplicable chill crept down Su-myeon's spine.

"But all of you are going to leave...?"

Blood seeped through the tears in Wendy's clothes and pooled beneath her.

But it wasn't red.

It was pitch-black.

A revolting, unnatural black.

Su-myeon backed away another step and gestured toward the students who had entered the building.

"......Everyone, go...."

He waved urgently.

By then, all five students from the auditorium had climbed inside.

10. Escape Method10-1. At present the only exit confirmed with certainty is the roof, and nothing else.

    Exactly as Su-myeon had written in the rules.

    As far as he knew, the rooftop was their only way out.

    And now that he had the key, all they had to do was reach it.

    Su-myeon gestured toward Hwi-yeon.

    "Go get the people in the infirmary first."

    He never took his eyes off Wendy.

    Something was about to happen.

    There was no time to waste.

    Hwi-yeon understood immediately.

    True to her quick instincts, she didn't waste precious seconds asking questions.

    She gathered the students and led them away.

    "I... I don't want people to be trapped here...."

    Wendy murmured in a strangely vacant voice.

    Her body, still pinned beneath the enormous mass of flesh, twitched.

    "Oh dear."

    Cheshire, who had been quietly watching the entire scene, finally spoke.

    There was laughter in his voice.

    So you know what this is.

    The thought crossed Su-myeon's mind.

    He didn't bother asking.

    By now, he could instinctively tell what was happening as well.

    A being inside the story had managed to preserve its sanity.

    And now that sanity was beginning to crumble.

    Wasn't what came next obvious?

    "But...... I don't want to disappear either.... I want to go back. I can't go back...."

    "......Wendy...."

    "Don't call me that! My name is ■■■■■■!"

    Wendy, who until now had always seemed fragile and gentle, suddenly screamed in a harsh, ragged voice.

    The sound tore from her throat with an eerie resonance.

    She shouted a name—

    but the pronunciation was utterly incomprehensible.

    Then her body began to change.

    The skin of the figure sprawled across the floor stretched and sagged.

    Flesh twisted.

    Bones warped.

    Wet, grotesque sounds filled the hallway as her body reshaped itself.

    Su-myeon raised a trembling hand and covered his right eye.

    "........"

    Wendy's once neat, ordinary appearance was being hideously transformed into something monstrous.

    "I don't want to become bad, but I don't want to disappear either, I want to go back, I can't go back...."

    With absurd ease, Wendy shoved aside the enormous corpse that had been pinning her down.

    Then she rose.

    Stiffly.

    Like a zombie from a movie.

    Her movements were grotesquely unnatural, as though invisible hands had seized her joints and were hauling her upright by force.

    "So in the end... couldn't none of you leave?"

    The moment Su-myeon heard those words, he stopped trying to hold his ground.

    Wendy's transformation had created a brief opening.

    Her body continued to mutate with thick, sticky sounds.

    For Su-myeon—

    that opening felt like his last chance.

    ***

    CRASH!

    The violent sound of the infirmary door being smashed apart echoed through the room.

    Han-su lay flat beneath a bed, holding his breath.

    There were only so many safe places to hide inside the infirmary.

    Not everyone could conceal themselves properly.

    So Han-su had deliberately chosen the worst hiding place.

    Beneath the bed.

    A space where movement was severely restricted.

    But also the front line.

    If an enemy entered, he would be the first one in position to attack.

    "........"

    Han-su remained motionless as the footsteps drew closer.

    Please.

    Just keep walking.

    But the footsteps stopped directly in front of the bed.

    Han-su tightened his body, ready to burst out by force if necessary—

    then hesitated.

    The shoes in front of him looked familiar.

    A moment later, the person bent at the waist and peered beneath the bed.

    "......!"

    "Why don't you check your messages! I thought you weren't here!"

    At Su-myeon's irritated voice, relief flooded through Han-su.

    At the same time, Ha-min, who had heard him, immediately flung open the cabinet where he'd been hiding and burst out.

    "Su-myeon...!"

    "Hurry! Follow me!"

    Su-myeon shook the key in his hand for them to see.

    Just the sight of him doubled the relief surging through Han-su.

    And Su-myeon wasn't alone.

    Hwi-yeon stood outside the doorway, holding the vicious hooked whip.

    Apparently, she had simply smashed the locked door apart with it.

    "Wh-what is this?"

    Geon-su stared at them in bewilderment.

    Not only were they unharmed—

    somehow, they looked even more dangerous than before.

    And there were five unfamiliar students standing in a line behind them in the hallway.

    "Get to the roof! Now!"

    There was no time to explain.

    Wendy had finished transforming.

    And she was charging down the hallway toward them.

    Bones protruded from her back like wings, stretched over with membranes of raw flesh.

    The wings were so much larger than her actual limbs that it didn't look as though Wendy were controlling them.

    Instead, it looked as though the parasitic wings were dragging her body along.

    Her arms and legs hung limp, almost corpse-like.

    The wings moved in their place, crawling across the floor and walls, bracing against every available surface to propel her forward.

    Su-myeon took the stairs two and three at a time.

    Then he stopped.

    "Su-myeon!"

    "Go!"

    Ha-min called out in alarm, but there was no real alternative.

    Wendy was crawling up from the floor below.

    Every movement was violent enough to make the ground tremble.

    Su-myeon watched the backs of the students climbing the stairs ahead of him and tightened his grip on the gun.

    BANG! BANG!

    Bullets might be small.

    Their impact wasn't.

    Su-myeon aimed at the bony framework of the wing braced against the stair railing.

    The bullets struck.

    Wendy lurched sideways and collapsed.

    She was still gaining ground little by little.

    But that was fine.

    All that mattered was reaching the third floor.

    And beyond that—

    the roof.

    We just have to get that far.

    They had already passed the second floor and were heading toward the third.

    Yet Su-myeon's unease kept growing.

    He had fired the gun whenever circumstances demanded it.

    He hadn't counted every round.

    But surely, by now....

    CLICK.

    "......!"

    A chill raced across Su-myeon's entire body.

    The trigger pulled against nothing.

    The timing was so perfect it almost felt deliberate.

    He pulled it again.

    CLICK.

    Again.

    CLICK.

    No matter how many times he squeezed the trigger, bullets weren't going to appear out of nowhere.

    He was out.

    Damn it, why is it only the useless things that have any realism!

    "Are you out of bullets?"

    Han-su understood immediately.

    Ha-min, who had already sent his friends ahead, climbed back over the railing to Su-myeon's side as well.

    A wing shot toward Su-myeon.

    Ha-min swung his baseball bat into it.

    "Su-myeon! The roof is right above us!"

    They were almost there.

    All they had to do was open the door.

    Leaving the rear to Han-su and Ha-min, Su-myeon sprinted up the remaining stairs.

    Suddenly, he remembered what had happened at the Ellis Hotel.

    Back then—

    he had run first.

    For his own survival.

    But.

    "Get out! Quickly!"

    This time was different.

    If only for one simple reason.

    He was the one holding the key.

    Standing before the exit, a single step away from escaping the ghost story, Su-myeon held the door open and shouted.

    Hwi-yeon was the first through.

    Ian, still unable to move properly, was on her back.

    One after another, the students passed through the doorway and escaped.

    "Hurry!"

    THUD!

    At that moment, Ha-min and Han-su smashed apart the remaining wing bones Wendy had been using to brace herself against the ground.

    A tremendous crash came from below.

    Wendy, who had been crawling up the stairs, tumbled backward.

    Su-myeon felt a flicker of relief.

    "Get over here!"

    The moment they saw Wendy fall, Ha-min and Han-su sprinted upward.

    Both of them made it safely through the rooftop door.

    Now—

    only one step remained between them and reality.

    "You come on! Hurry!"

    Geon-su was the last one left behind.

    He stood there staring out across the campus.

    Perhaps deciding Wendy alone wouldn't be enough, students began emerging from classrooms all across the third floor at her call.

    One after another.

    Then dozens.

    A mass of students rushed toward the rooftop like a swarm of zombies.

    There was no will in their movements.

    No life.

    "What are you doing!"

    Su-myeon urgently grabbed Geon-su by the clothes.

    But something was wrong.

    Geon-su remained rooted to the spot.

    No matter how hard Su-myeon pulled—

    he wouldn't move.