Escaping the Mystery Hotel

[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 6

Current Location: Floor 1, Room 102 (Cursed Room – Mansion of Fear)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

“Unnniiiii! Uhuk, uhak…”

“Noonim! Are you alright? Can you see me?!”

Hearing all the crying voices, groans and screams filling the mansion and deafening my ears, I couldn’t settle myself down either. Songee was crying again like she did in the morning as if there were holes in her eyes, but others weren’t looking any better.

Why did this happen?

Around 2 hours ago, we weren’t expecting this to happen when noona walked into the study by herself. Regardless of how spooky the mansion was, we peeked inside from behind when noona was walking into the room and… we saw how calm, clean and comfortable the room appeared.

That was why we promised to talk to her about what she discovered after she left the study.

It was close to midnight but noona appeared to have no plans of leaving the room. We were anxious because of the thing that happened to Elena and had constantly been calling her name from outside.

“I’m busy!”

“It’s going to take a while!”

“You can go to sleep first. Let’s talk tomorrow.”

Like that, what we got in response was that she was busy and a temperamental reply telling us to stop bothering her.

In the end, we all gave up and decided to talk about it tomorrow because of how late it was. 

Besides, Jinchul-hyung and I were exhausted due to going outside in the middle of a storm all the way to the cathedral. Therefore, the two tired adults and the young Seungyub all returned to our respective rooms, with only Songee staying behind to wait for noona. And after about an hour…

A piercing shriek filled the mansion.

None of us were deep in sleep so we all raced out of our rooms. Songee was supporting Eunsol-noona with her arms while wailing out loud as if she was the one dying, and Jinchul-hyung was busy shaking noona’s body like he was trying to make her faint even faster.

A sharp pick, or perhaps a skewer.

That visually horrifying thing was penetrating through her neck. Blood was gushing out like a fountain and the mansion was constantly filled with screams.

Ahri, who had come by the time I realised it, was fidgeting while not knowing what to do and the butler tried wrapping a bandage around her neck but…

Everyone here instinctively knew how futile that was.

Which human in existence would be able to survive with a hole as thick as a finger going through the neck? She was somehow still alive thanks to the skewer having barely missed the arteries, but it was evidently just a matter of time.

It was then. Noona raised her arm and pointed at ‘me’.

How difficult would it have been to make such an articulate movement with a hole in her throat? I hurriedly ran over to her while swallowing the lump in my throat.

She wasn’t in the state to say anything, and couldn’t even turn her head towards me.

All she could do… was tightly hold onto my hand.

That appeared to be her last bit of energy and in less than 3 minutes, her body turned loose.

The mansion was filled with tears.

It was still not over yet. How many nightmares and tragedies did this mansion, and this hotel have in store?

Leaving everyone else behind, I returned to my room.

My heart felt like it was freezing.

I wanted to cry like Songee. I wanted to get mad like Jinchul-hyung. I wanted to shiver and hide like Seungyub.

But I couldn’t.

It was so evident that everyone else wasn’t in their right minds, so if I was also too busy crying, shouting and hiding…

Then who would survive until the very end and flip this tragedy into a happy ending?

That must be why noona held my hand at the very end.

Sitting down on the bed, I opened my fist.

Inside was a small piece of note. There weren’t that many words inside.

– Creak

[c cathedral, maid, bell]

Was that extra ‘c’ a mistake she made while writing down ‘cathedral’?

– Creak

In any case, I understood two of them at least. We’ve been to the cathedral, and there was only one maid in this mansion. But what did this ‘bell’ mean?

– Jiiiik

It would have been better if she was a bit more specific with her words if she was going to leave a dying message like this. However, judging from the extremely messy handwriting, she might have been in a big rush when writing this.

Firstly, it seemed that I had to decipher what this ‘bell’ meant.

And to prepare myself for the busy schedule tomorrow…

I had to go to sleep.

Elena died in the morning. Eunsol-noona died at night.

The mirror was busy creating a staring contest against myself; the clock had become a bloody mess for over 10 times; the dolls tilted their heads whenever there were people walking by and cups walked by themselves. It was a crazy mansion.

– Taarrrkkk! Sheeekkk!

But even so–

I had to survive until the end; to leave this mansion alive with everyone else; to regain enough stamina for the search and survival tomorrow…

I had to sleep.

– Kikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikik

“So please just shut the fuck up you son of a bitch!!!”

I stabbed the gap underneath the bed using the silver dagger in my pocket. Though I didn’t feel anything touching the tip of the blade, I heard something seeping out.

What it was that was under my bed and where it went off to… was something I couldn’t care any less about.

*

“Be honest here! Do you think I am a fool? Who doesn’t know you’ve been suspicious all the time since yesterday with all your grins!!!”

“Uhuk… Hyung, please stop. Ahri doesn’t know anything.”

I woke up due to the deafening roar echoing across the entire mansion.

What was going on this time? This mansion was just never quiet.

I quickly raced to the living room without even washing myself properly and found Jinchul-hyung with a deeply-flushed face bellowing at Ahri. The funny thing was that Ahri herself looked peaceful, while Seungyub was instead sobbing next to her.

Was Seungyub filming Romeo and Julliet by himself or something?

Regardless of Seungyub’s love, it was clear that we had to settle this chaos for the time being.

“Hyungnim. Please calm down. What is going on?”

Internally, I was a little worried that the excessively mad Jinchul-hyung might rage at me like a boar. Honestly, that would be quite scary…

Fortunately, Jinchul-hyung was rational enough to be able to tell apart his allies.

“You came right on time. I’m not shouting at this kid for no reason. Do you think I would have wanted to scream at a kid myself? I was going to complain to that freaking old man, but he just disappeared all of a sudden!”

“Grandpa didn’t disappear. I already said it. You can never see him in the morning because he’s busy cleaning the mansion and the garden.”

“What? Cleaning the garden in this storm? This kid; are you looking down on an adul–”

“Don’t you think I’m looking down on you because you’re stupid? I bet you won’t leave even in 10 years.”

?

What?

Just then, Ahri looked like a completely different person. Of course, she might have been upset because she was getting screamed at about something that was technically unrelated to her but… did she always have such a harsh tongue?

Her manner of speech as well as her voice were both completely different from her normal self. 

Even Jinchul-hyung was flabbergasted and dumbfounded instead of getting maddened by her words.

– Thud

“My apologies. I was worried because of all the storm and have been trying to search for a way out but… it seems that I had made everyone concerned because of that instead.”

The butler came back at an astonishing time and made everything extremely awkward. 

Even Jinchul-hyung who was going to complain to the ‘old man’ couldn’t hide his fluster when he was caught screaming at the old man’s granddaughter.

“And, Ahri. You hurry up and apologise to the guests. Let me apologise as well. She is still a young child, and must have gotten emotional in the heat of the moment. Please understand.”

How many people in the world, who had been screaming at the granddaughter in front of her grandfather, would be able to say ‘I cannot forgive this’ upon hearing that the child had just been slightly emotional? Jinchul-hyung wasn’t that thick-skinned at the very least.

“No… I wasn’t trying to get mad at the kid or anything. It was just that uhh… the things are, umm…”

It felt like the conversation would be lengthened endlessly. Because it wasn’t a productive conversation in the first place, I interjected.

“I guess everyone was a little agitated because of how things are at the mansion. Let’s keep it at that. So, Mr. Butler, did you find a way out? And I think you mentioned fixing the boat yesterday.”

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any other ways out, and I believe we must repair the boat as we previously discussed. May I please ask for your assistance? I have prepared the necessary tools already.”

“Well then. Let me change my clothes and–” Jinchul-hyung was about to add more words but I cut him off.

“I think you should stay here, hyung.”

Jinchul-hyung turned towards me with a flustered look on his face while I pointed at Seungyub with my chin. I was telling him we couldn’t leave Seungyub behind by himself in such a dangerous mansion and fortunately, he understood and gave a nod.

Of course, it was true that I was anxious to leave Seungyub behind by himself but…

More importantly than that, this hyung didn’t seem like he would be able to contain himself while travelling with the butler.

In addition, there was also something I wanted to hear from the butler ‘by myself’ if possible.

“I am also extremely embarrassed to have such horrible things happening on repeat. Kain-ssi, you are able to stay composed even in a situation like this, which makes me believe that your mental discipline must be astounding.”

“Well, it’s nothing as amazing as a mental discipline. I’m just thinking all day long how we can survive, and that’s how I’m keeping all the stray thoughts at bay.”

“That is what we call a mental discipline. Not something else.”

Was he talking down on Jinchul-hyung in a roundabout way for being unable to settle his emotions? I did not care about the butler and hyung’s war of nerves so I instead focused on my own question.

“Mr. Butler. Is there something related to a ‘bell’ in this mansion?”

“A bell? Hmm… I wonder where you heard that from.”

Should I be honest? No, it would be better to come up with a lie.

“Ah, I thought I heard the sound of a bell in my sleep. Maybe it’s because there have been ghosts and stuff roaming around the mansion…”

“The sound of a bell… I didn’t hear it, but the mansion has indeed suffered a problem because of a bell.”

“Could you please elaborate?”

“The cathedral you went to yesterday – there is actually a fairly remarkable bell there. The sound going off every morning and night used to be the specialty of our region. But… suddenly, Sir started to immensely detest that sound. He used to hold his head in pain whenever the bell went off in the morning and at night.”

“Hmm. Is that perhaps the reason why the mansion and the cathedral began to fall apart?”

“Yes, that is correct. Sir wanted to buy the cathedral to chase the people out all because of that bell but… I’m ignorant and do not know much about the lawsuit, but things didn’t go the way Sir wanted it to during the strife back then. However, in the end, the cathedral became half-wasted and there’s no longer anyone to ring the bell… so you could say Sir has achieved his goal.”

“Is that bell still inside the cathedral?”

“Of course. The bell belongs to the cathedral and Sir didn’t bother touching the bell which would no longer be rung by anyone. If you climb the ladder up to the top of the cathedral, there will be a small bell tower, and I believe the bell is still there.”

I found out two things.

Sir detested the sound of the bell. The bell was still at the top floor of the cathedral.

I was desperately racking my brain while combining the newly discovered pieces of information with the prior knowledge, and when I came to myself, I was already at the cathedral.