Chapter 24
The two women looked around with startled faces, then collapsed onto the floor in shock.
I almost followed them down. That is, until a ghost hiding above the elevator came down and shook its head vigorously, stopping me.
Just then, a droopy-eyed ghost floated over and circled around me. It had a smug, proud look on its face.
‘Thank you,’ I mouthed to the ghost gratefully. The ghost jumped up and down happily in response.
The unexpected cuteness eased my tension. I felt my strength drain away.
Only then did I come to my senses and reach out to Lady Sutherland and Erica.
“We should go down first.”
As I was helping the two of them up to leave, something like a black lump suddenly popped out from the rooftop entrance.
“Oh? Is that Blackie?”
Erica questioned. As she said, the black cat had blue eyes.
I’m not sure whether its real eyes are blue or yellow, but it does seem to be Blackie.
Blackie had some kind of string in its mouth, with a glass bottle attached to the end.
“What’s that?”
Lady Sutherland asked.
Tap tap tap tap—
As Blackie walked towards me, a nearby ghost convulsed and trembled before fleeing down the building.
Regardless, Blackie carefully set down the glass bottle string it was carrying in its mouth.
[I told you to wait. You got involved in the ghost story before I could stop you.]
“Well…”
I was at a loss for words. Blackie looked up at me silently for a moment, then sighed.
[Don’t relax yet. The ghost story isn’t over.]
“What? If it’s not over, then…?”
[I’ll tell you how to seal it. From what I see now…]
Blackie looked me up and down. He thought seriously for a moment, then spoke with a confident tone.
[I think you can do it.]
“What do you mean?”
“Yeah, what are you talking about, Melody? Can you understand what the cat is saying?”
While I was talking with Blackie, Erica’s question came from beside me.
“I’ve never seen someone talk to a cat before.”
Lady Sutherland added.
Only then did I realize that they couldn’t understand anything Blackie was saying.
‘Can only I hear what Blackie is saying?’
I looked at Blackie with a troubled expression.
I hope I’m not really going crazy.
[Hurry, Melody. We don’t have time.]
In the end, I had no choice but to get up at Blackie’s urging.
“Girls, it’s best if you stay here until it’s safe.”
Erica and Lady Sutherland immediately reacted to my words.
“What are you saying, Melody? What are you going to do? That crazy woman from earlier might still be wandering around in there.”
“Erica’s right. Let’s wait here until someone comes. It’s safer here, isn’t it?”
I don’t know how to explain this to them. To think that I’m the only one who can understand what Blackie is saying.
‘Could this be related to my regression?’
But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that for long.
Because the ghost story wasn’t over yet.
“Alright, girls, follow me, and don’t ask any questions. Can you just trust me and follow without asking anything?”
At my question, Erica and Lady Sutherland exchanged glances for a moment before nodding.
The uniform regulations of Saint Gloria’s Private School require shoulder straps and a blessed cross necklace.
That’s why I’m still wearing the cross necklace blessed by the Pope.
I clutched the glass bottle of holy water Blackie had brought and my cross necklace tightly in my hand.
[Melody, let’s go.]
Blackie said, walking ahead proudly. I’m not sure who the owner is here.
‘No, wait. Was I ever Blackie’s owner in the first place?’
I may have given him a name, but Blackie isn’t my pet.
Anyway, I followed Blackie, opened the rooftop door, and entered the building.
Opening the door and coming down the stairs, I could see the 7th floor corridor and elevator.
The inside of the building was different from usual. The walls and floor were covered in red blood.
I hesitated for a moment in shock, but I saw Blackie fearlessly walking ahead.
[Evil spirits are different from ghosts. They’ve corrupted and lost their original souls, becoming pure ‘evil’. So they can’t come to ‘this world’ without a medium. The medium exists in both ‘the other world’ and ‘this world’. So you just need to find the medium, wherever it is. Find it and destroy it.]
I recalled the conversation I had with Blackie earlier, trying to calm my trembling heart.
But,
Crack—
“Eek! What did I step on?”
“It’s just a twig.”
Erica calmly pointed out in a flat tone in response to Lady Sutherland’s scream.
I couldn’t help but let out a short laugh.
Observing them so far, each of my friends had distinct personalities. Lady Sutherland is honest with her emotions and tends to be dramatic. In contrast, Erica is cool-headed and dependable.
Right. Let’s do this. I need to protect my friends.
My strengths are quick reflexes and mental fortitude. If we combine our strengths, we should be able to get out of this situation somehow.
“By the way, where are we exactly? It’s the dormitory, but it doesn’t feel like the dormitory.”
Erica muttered in a tense voice.
I was about to explain the situation but closed my mouth as a sudden thought occurred to me.
How could I tell her that we need to “find the evil spirit’s medium connecting the other world and the real world” from now on?
To say that, I’d have to explain that I can communicate with Blackie.
Even I don’t know why I can talk to Blackie or what Blackie’s true identity is, so how could I explain this to others?
I wouldn’t believe it myself.
In the end, I decided to maintain my silence.
So Blackie and the three of us went around the seventh-floor corridor, trying to open doors, but none would open.
“Strange. All the seventh-floor dormitory doors are locked.”
The corridor was eerily empty, without even anything that could be considered a medium for evil spirits.
“Should we go down for now?”
Everyone nodded in agreement to my words. We stood in front of the elevator and looked at each other hesitantly for a moment.
“We probably shouldn’t take the elevator. Do you all agree?”
“Yeah. Let’s use the stairs.”
Erica replied to Lady Sutherland’s words.
Have the two of them reconciled?
At least it seemed unlikely that Lady Sutherland would laugh and say there’s no such thing as ghosts like she did earlier.
As we were reaching the sixth floor…
Tap tap tap tap tap!
We heard the sound of someone quickly coming down the stairs behind us. We turned around at the chilling sound.
A woman with long, dangling hair was coming down the stairs in a bizarre posture from the top of the staircase.
“Aaaaah!”
Lady Sutherland screamed and ran down the stairs.
Thanks to her grabbing onto us, Erica and I had to run down the stairs too.
Past the sixth floor, fifth floor, fourth floor, third floor.
We kept going down and down the stairs.
After passing the third floor, we stopped counting the floors, thinking we must be close to the first floor.
Cold sweat ran down my back.
Far from finding the medium, we were busy being chased by that thing.
The bizarre woman was still chasing us down the stairs.
We finally saw an end at the end of what seemed like never-ending stairs. It seems we’ve arrived at the first floor.
‘Huh? But there’s no lobby?’
There was no lobby on the final floor we arrived at.
There were no numbers indicating the floor, just a long corridor stretching out.
Tap tap tap tap tap!
But as we kept hearing the woman coming down the stairs, we became urgent.
“Th-there! Let’s run over there!”
At the end of the corridor Erica pointed to, we could see a room with an open door.
There was no need to think long. We all brightened up and ran towards it. Blackie also hopped along, following us.
Eventually, we entered through the open door, hurriedly closed it, and firmly locked the lock.
Bang—
A loud noise came from outside, as if someone had crashed into the door.
🐈⬛
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