Surviving in a School of Ghost Stories

Chapter 29

 

“What are the conditions for becoming a medium? In the case of the elevator ghost story, it was the ghost Anna Belouille. Can a person become a medium too?”

“People, ghosts, and even objects. Everything that exists in this world can become a medium. As long as there’s a correlation with the evil spirit.”

“Then do I need to disappear from this world? Like Anna Belouille?”

He simply denied my question.

“You may be a medium, but you’re also the only being who can destroy them. You just need to destroy them yourself.”

Why did such a strange ability suddenly appear in me, of all people?

Is it because I came back against the unstoppable flow of time?

“Ah, don’t feel sympathy about destroying them. The Chesswind Village ghosts seem to have been unable to sleep here for 100 years. They probably desire destruction more than anyone.”

People who were bound to this land for 100 years… How lonely they must have been.

I couldn’t imagine how they felt, unable to sleep or be liberated.

I know that the Chesswind Village people are no longer ‘people’.

But I remembered how much they cared for me during that time, so I was concerned.

I nodded and asked the student council president,

“What should I do?”

“Listen carefully to what I’m about to say.”

The student council president explained what we needed to do from now on.

We start by holding holy water in our mouths.

“What’s the meaning of holding holy water in our mouths?”

“There’s no particular meaning. It’s to protect our bodies. If we’re targeted by them, we might get possessed.”

I listened to the explanation and shared the holy water with him, holding it in my mouth.

He pulled out a necklace hidden under his clothes. It was a cross necklace.

I closed my eyes while holding the cross with him.

‘Will this be effective? It’s not like it’s magic. Chasing away evil spirits with this…’

Then, I suddenly stopped thinking.

‘Is the appearance of evil spirits any more believable?’

I should stop thinking.

The next moment when I opened my eyes, surprisingly, we were standing in front of a gravestone.

As he said, we were able to escape from the coffin by following his instructions.

As I looked around the gravestones in a daze, the student council president patted my shoulder.

When our eyes met, he nodded.

‘Begin.’

I could understand what his eyes meant without him saying it.

I could see skeletons gathering behind the student council president. They were approaching us.

“If you don’t destroy them, you’ll be devoured. The love of non-humans is harmful to humans.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them. From now on, I had to steel my heart.

Pitter-patter.

It’s still raining. Skeletons were rising over the lined-up gravestones.

I need to end this damn ghost story.

As discussed with the student council president beforehand, I quickly scanned the names written on the gravestones.

They were all familiar names. The village chief, old housekeeper Bucky, Uncle Victor, Sophie, and so on.

How did the gravestones of the Chesswind Village people end up here on Gloria Island instead of on the mainland?

Rumble— Crash!

Lightning struck, and my vision flashed.

And I saw a woman appear and disappear in front of a distant gravestone.

Startled, I sat down without making a sound. I almost forgot I was holding holy water in my mouth and nearly screamed.

I gathered my wits and scanned the surroundings.

The skeletons that had popped out of the dirt of the gravestones were all quietly watching what I was doing.

Behind me, the student council president was still blocking other skeletons from approaching me.

I anxiously scanned the epitaphs. Surely the ghost causing the ghost story must be among these.

Rumble— Crash!!

Lightning struck again.

My vision flashed, and once again, a woman appeared and disappeared in front of a gravestone.

She was closer than before.

I felt my mind going blank, but I tried hard to stay calm.

Because I had a strong premonition.

That this woman was the ghost I was looking for right now.

Crash—!

As lightning struck again, this time the woman was standing right in front of me.

The woman, who had brought her face close to mine, leaned her forehead against mine.

Blood tears were flowing from the eyes that were staring intently at me.

“…Give…me…give…please…”

For a moment, I felt goosebumps all over, my hair standing on end.

But when I calmed down and listened to the voice again, it sounded familiar somehow.

‘No way…!’

Madam Ranart?

Belatedly, I realized this woman was a young Madam Ranart.

The young Madam Ranart was leaning her forehead against mine, shedding bloody tears.

Rumble— Crash!

As lightning struck again, she disappeared from before my eyes.

“…ere…live…you”

I heard the voice again near my ear.

Startled, I turned my head, and this time, the young Madam Ranart appeared on my left.

She looked like she had something she wanted to tell me. She seemed very urgent and desperate.

“.ecalp peed a ni si ehS”
[“She is in a deep place.”]

This time I heard the voice clearly. It was a reversed sentence. As I was quietly watching her lips to figure out what it meant,

“Run”

“A”

“way”

The young Madam Ranart said.

Eventually, she grabbed my shoulders and embraced me, and when I came to my senses, I was trapped in a dark, narrow space.

It was a coffin again. This time I was alone.

I was frozen stiff, still holding the holy water in my mouth. I couldn’t move my body, trapped in the narrow coffin.

I tried knocking on the ceiling, but it didn’t budge at all.

Feeling despondent, I thought deeply.

What were the chances of the student council president finding and getting me out before I fainted from lack of oxygen?

A silence that made my ears feel stuffy engulfed me. I couldn’t hear any noise at all.

Scratch.

It was around then that I heard a strange sound.

Scratch scratch.

It sounded like nails scratching wood, or like someone biting their nails.

The problem was that this time too, the sound came from below my feet.

‘Don’t look.’

The student council president had said that. Just don’t look, he said.

‘Right. Just don’t look.’

Just as I was making that resolution, I felt a cold sensation on my leg.

Someone had grabbed my calf.

‘This is driving me crazy.’

I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them.

The cold sensation started climbing up from my calf to my thigh.

Unlike when I was with the student council president, not looking in that direction was completely useless.

This won’t do. I need to assess the situation at least. Extremely tense, I slowly lowered my head.

To check what was down there.

The moment I lowered my head, I made eye contact with a woman clinging to my legs.

It climbed over my waist, past my stomach, and up to my head, meeting my gaze.

The woman’s face was right in front of mine.

The woman, who had been looking down at me while stuck upside down on the ceiling, spewed blood onto my face and kept saying something.

“Soul… alone… save…”

The woman kept muttering incomprehensible words.

When I finally came to my senses and looked at the woman again, I could hear what she was saying.

“It’s dangerous here, Melody.”

When I closed my eyes and opened them again, Madam Ranart with a normal face was looking down at me.

It was Madam Ranart in her younger years.

With a face full of regret, she reached out and stroked my cheek.

I wanted to answer, but speaking with the holy water in my mouth was impossible.

The evil spirits on this island will put you in danger.

Madam Ranart kept telling me.

“Go back. Give up on your brother.”

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Thank you for reading! ♡