♡ TL: Khadija SK
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When James tapped the floor and confirmed the ominous sound, William quickly turned off the machine and tried to move it.
He thought he had turned off everything, but one thing remained— a small body cam he had attached to himself. From the moment it fell, it had been recording everything that happened afterward.
William realized this fact when the paramedics lifted Ian up and then picked him up to lay him on a stretcher. As his clouded mind became clear, he recalled his last memory.
When he opened his eyes again, the first thing he saw was Ian standing in front of him, looking at him.
He answered Ian’s question instinctively. He had dialed 999 on his phone to call for help. After that, his memories were unclear.
However, he somehow felt that what had put him in this state was moving away from him.
When the police said that all five people had been rescued, he asked who had been saved.
A kind paramedic provided the names: William himself, Camilla, Rob, and Ian. Unfortunately, James had passed away.
No one mentioned Colin. Though William vividly remembered Colin being dragged into the darkness, people claimed he wasn’t there. They suspected he might be hallucinating.
As he struggled to get up, William realized the existence of the body cam he had attached to his chest. The camera, meant to capture a more vivid scene, wouldn’t last longer than an hour. However, it must have clearly recorded Colin descending underground. And the darkness that swallowed him and Ian as well.
If he could show this, they would believe that he was telling the truth. Struggling, he fumbled with his chest to remove the memory card from the camera. As he was about to hand it over, the stretcher he was on suddenly shook violently, and his body was thrown upward.
“Kugh!”
With pain, his hand lost strength, and the memory card he had been holding fell to the ground.
Still, he thought it would be fine—he could ask someone else to retrieve it for him.
But no one listened to him. Not during transport, not at the hospital in Edinburgh, and not even after coming to London.
What drove William the most insane wasn’t the police, but the teammates who had been with him.
“What are you talking about? Colin? He never came down. He disappeared up there.”
Camilla, Colin’s lover, shuddered and said she never knew he was that kind of man.
“Colin didn’t come down. He abandoned us. The rescue call? The signal suddenly connected, so we used that. I don’t remember who made the call. Anyway, I’m quitting. Colin’s gone anyway…”
Rob muttered, avoiding eye contact. And then…
“Mr. Ian Aylesford said he doesn’t wish to meet you.”
William tried to reach Ian, but the response came not from him, but from Aylesford’s lawyers. That was still better than James, who had passed away—he couldn’t contact him at all.
In the meantime, the police handed William items recovered from the scene. William frantically searched for the memory card he had dropped, but it wasn’t among them.
“Is this everything?”
“Yes. Is there something else you’re looking for?”
When the officer asked, William felt her gaze on him.
She stared quietly, but carefully—like a beast assessing its prey. There was a deliberate caution in her demeanor.
About to mention the memory card, William shut his mouth.
Not long after being transferred to London, Camilla came to visit him.
“Camilla, Colin did come down. You were there, screaming for help and crying!”
“William, don’t talk about Colin in front of me anymore. He’s nothing but a coward.”
Camilla, who believed her lover had abandoned her, replied coldly.
“I can prove it. I have evidence that Colin came down!”
“What evidence?”
“It’s…”
He just had to say the memory card was still in the basement, and ask her to retrieve it.
But seeing Camilla’s gaze, William fell silent. Strangely, the darkness he had seen in the basement seemed to linger in her eyes.
William awkwardly changed the subject. But during the conversation, Camilla repeatedly tried to figure out what he was looking for, while constantly praising Ian.
“He’s completely changed after the accident. Before, he treated everyone like his servants, honestly. But now he apologizes first and, more than anything, he’s become so dignified. Polite, even. I ran into him by chance after visiting the police station, and I wouldn’t have recognized him if he hadn’t spoken to me first!”
Even before the incident, Camilla had always admired Ian’s wealth and status. But she had never praised him like this…
After Camilla left, William contacted Rob. Rob didn’t seem thrilled to hear from him but didn’t hang up either.
The mood changed when Ian’s name came up.
Rob, in typical apathetic fashion, continued the conversation as though it was a bother—until Ian’s name was mentioned. Then, his tone became excited.
“I met Ian yesterday. His lawyers were with him, and he said he takes some responsibility for what happened. He even asked what compensation I wanted. I jokingly said, ‘Could I get a job at an Aylesford company?’ And he agreed. My parents are so proud of me now!”
Listening to Rob’s excited tone, William couldn’t bring himself to talk about the last memory he had of Ian.
And this morning, Ian, who had been avoiding William’s calls, finally reached out.
“I heard from Camilla. You said you have proof that Colin was there.”
Ian’s call should have been welcome news.
William wasn’t hoping for compensation or anything of the sort. All he wanted was the memory card, which must still be under the mansion.
For Ian, retrieving it would be nothing. His employees would dutifully carry out his orders for him.
“Ah, well…”
But at that moment, William recalled what he had seen—the image of Ian being helplessly dragged into the darkness, right after Colin.
Colin, who was dragged into the darkness and disappeared.
Ian, who was also taken by the darkness but somehow came back.
Camilla and Rob both said Ian had changed. William felt it too—the Ian he was speaking to now wasn’t the same person he had once known.
“…I think I might’ve been mistaken.”
“Mistaken?”
“I guess I was just shocked that Colin abandoned us. Maybe it’s because I spent so much time with him—not as much as Camilla did, but still. Even right before we went in, he was so excited, talking about future projects with the network. He said only good things lay ahead…”
Ian, who had been listening in silence, suddenly asked,
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
“What do you mean, the last thing?”
“Before the police came. What’s the very last thing you remember?”
“Uh, well…”
William carefully chose his words.
“You were asking how we were going to get out. I remember that, but after that, my memory’s blurry. I was in so much pain… I wasn’t really in my right mind.”
“Alright. Got it.”
William expected the call to continue, but Ian abruptly cut him off.
“See you soon.”
“Ian? Ian!”
He called out urgently, but only the steady beeping of a disconnected line answered him.
For the rest of the day, the uneasiness wouldn’t go away. Then, by coincidence, Jin-ah Troll came to visit him. Unlike the others, she listened to his story all the way through.
She didn’t seem to believe everything he said, but the fact that she listened at all was a relief.
More importantly, she was the owner of that mansion.
“It’s your mansion, so you’ll need to visit it again at some point. Please, just look for the thing I lost. If you need to hire people to search, I’ll pay for everything. Just find the memory card.”
At William’s offer, Jin-ah gave a faint, bitter smile.
She had no desire to visit the Kno-Dearg Mansion ever again. But the police said there would be reasons to go back there several more times.
“If I end up going, I’ll look for it. I can’t promise a specific timeline, though.”
Jin-ah answered as she rose from her seat.
“I need to get treated too. I’ll be going now.”
“Thank you for coming, but… have you met Ian by any chance?”
She had. Just a few hours earlier, in fact. She had even received help from him.
“Yes, I have.”
“What did you think? I’m sure you realized what a lowlife he is. The day he came back from meeting you, all he talked about was your… chest. What’s the point of attending a prestigious school if you lack the intelligence to act refined? But then, how could he change so suddenly…?”
Jin-ah agreed that Ian had changed—anyone would see it after meeting him even once.
It wasn’t the kind of change that could be dismissed as simple maturity. It was as though he were a completely different person with the same face.
Jin-ah considered saying something about Ian but glanced at her watch. It was truly time for her to leave.
After offering a polite farewell, Jin-ah exited the hospital room. A nurse had asked her earlier to let her know once the visit was over, so she headed down the hall toward the service desk. She pushed open the door to step out into the corridor.
“Here you are.”
Someone stood blocking her path.
Jin-ah slowly lifted her head.
There he was, exactly as he had appeared earlier that morning—Ian, smiling calmly as he looked at her.
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Here come the troubles (─.─||）
I don’t have a good feeling about Ian showing up at the hospital (-_-;)・・・
