Chapter 118

As Father grabbed the Seojodae, the candles flickering atop the altar extinguished all at once. Smoke scattered chaotically along with the scent of paraffin, and a piercing scream echoed from somewhere.

Startled, everyone turned their heads toward the sound. The scream, which had been difficult to track from a distance, grew progressively clearer. It meant whatever was making it was getting closer. As the sound began to resonate through the path they had just traveled, the group began to panic.

The path to the altar was a dead end. If they went back, they would run straight into the owner of that scream. Realizing they were cornered with no way to escape, panic set in.

They had to find a way out or a place to hide. They began searching the surroundings frantically, looking for anything. Then, Theo noticed something—a set of drag marks beneath the altar.

Theo stared intensely at the altar and the marks. As if something had clicked, he shouted, “Over here! Help me!”

Requesting help in a loud voice, Theo began pushing the altar recklessly without explanation. The others, momentarily frozen by his odd behavior, soon noticed the drag marks beneath the altar and rushed over to help him push.

The altar, which looked heavy enough to be immovable, began to budge bit by bit as the five of them pushed with all their might. Soon, a small hole that had been concealed by the altar was revealed.

Theo lay flat on the ground and peered into the hole. The cavity, where only pitch-black darkness resided, looked just large enough for one person to squeeze through. They couldn’t see what was inside or what lay on the other side, but this hole was the only path forward.

There was no time to hesitate, yet it was true that their bodies didn’t want to move first. As Theo hesitated while lying in front of the hole, Father, holding the lantern, volunteered to take the lead.

Father crawled into the hole, followed by Holanghee and Noquia. Blaine sent Theo in first and took up the rear.

Just as the five of them filed into the hole, the owner of the scream arrived at the altar. It was the Bride. Her eyes remained closed as before, but her face was twisted with rage, and black pupils and blood-red irises wildly over the crimson bridal spots on her face.

The Bride trembled violently as she looked at the empty altar. Letting out a sob-filled scream, she began to smash the altar indiscriminately.

Having escaped to the other side of the hole, the group raised their lanterns, tense in the face of a darkness where they couldn’t see an inch ahead. No matter where they shone the light, there were no windows or doors.

Dismay washed over everyone’s faces. Then, they looked up at the ceiling. The ceiling was wide open, stretching upward into endless darkness, with small rods and planks embedded sparsely into the walls to serve as handholds.

The sides were blocked, and the top was open. In other words, they had to climb. They stared blankly at the ceiling until they heard the spiteful screams echoing from beyond the hole, which sent them scurrying toward the walls in terror.

While searching for any rods or planks within reach, they discovered a single sheet of paper stuck to the wall. They raised their lanterns to illuminate the paper, and letters appeared under the flickering flames.

[Do not make a sound for the sake of the dead.]

After checking the sentence on the paper, everyone looked toward the hole simultaneously. The Bride was surely a “dead thing.” That meant they could avoid her if they didn’t make a sound.

It felt like a small relief, a tiny breath of air. However, even if they knew how to avoid the Bride, they couldn’t stay here forever. Everyone looked back at the wall. One by one, they began to scale the wall, searching for places to grip and step.

They had climbed perhaps two meters from the floor when a digging and scratching sound began to echo from the hole connected to the altar. Turning pale, everyone looked down at the hole and soon spotted the Bride crawling out like an insect.

The sight was so grotesque a scream almost burst out. Rapidly crawling out of the hole, the Bride stood up and scanned the area. Hanging less than a meter above her head, the group held their breath and watched her with eyes full of terror.

The Bride only looked around her surroundings; she did not look up. She simply wandered the corners of the room in the darkness, letting out spiteful, weeping sounds.

Finding nothing, the Bride sat in the middle of the room and wailed sorrowfully, as if she were harboring a deep grudge. Then, she crawled back out through the hole.

Once the Bride vanished, everyone finally released their suppressed breath. Their breathing was so violent it made their chests heave, and some even forced their hands over their mouths, fearing the Bride might return.

Theo was clinging to a rod like it was a lifeline, his eyes squeezed shut. He had likely kept them closed from the moment the Bride crawled out of the hole.

“Hyung.”

A low voice called out to Theo. Only then did Theo open his eyes, meeting Blaine’s gaze as he looked at him with concern.

“Are you okay?”

At the question filled with worry, Theo didn’t answer but instead creaked his head down to check the floor. The Bride was nowhere to be seen. His expression crumbled instantly with relief. When Theo swayed while gripping the rod and looked like he might fall, Blaine called out to him urgently and moved as if to cross over the planks. Theo quickly waved him off, signaling him not to come.

“I’m fine. I think the tension just snapped.”

“A-are you really okay? If it’s too much, you can give up now…”

“No, I’m fine. Really.”

Theo shook his head and looked up. The ceiling still felt miles away. Swallowing a sigh, he wiped his palms—damp with cold sweat—against his clothes and gestured upward to the others with his chin.

“Let’s go. We can’t hang here forever.”

With that, he began to scale the wall with nimble movements.

He wasn’t sure how many stories they had climbed, but he knew they had been ascending for a long time. Finally, the ceiling came into view. He wondered if it was a dead end, but when he pushed against the surface within reach, sand and dust rained down along with the groan of rusty hinges.

The trapdoor opened, and a cluster of bluish light poured in. Even that dim light felt blindingly bright; Theo squinted and turned his head away from the glare as he crawled out of the hatch.

They emerged into a space lined with red pillars and surrounded by traditional Korean folding doors. After a quick scan of the surroundings, Theo reached down to grab the hands of those following him.

Noquia watched the three people ahead of her climb out one by one. When it was finally her turn, she reached for the trapdoor. “Noquia.” Just then, someone called her name.

“Huh?”

Noquia answered instinctively and looked down. But she realized too late. There was no one beneath her. At that same moment, a warning flashed through her mind:

[Do not answer things that are not human.]

Noquia moved desperately to scramble out of the hatch, but before the eyes of the group, a massive hand snatched her, and she vanished into the darkness.

Scrape, scrape. The sound of something being ground echoed. Noquia, who had blacked out, slowly opened her eyes. She saw a pitch-black ceiling draped in shadows.

As she stared blankly at the ceiling, she felt a glow beside her eyes and turned her head. She saw a brightly lit traditional Korean floor lamp. The area around the lamp was faintly visible.

White powder was piled in heaps across the floor, and in the dimly lit corners, she could see small, fist-sized lumps.

“Where am I…?”

Noquia frowned deeply, realizing she was in an unfamiliar place. She hurriedly looked around, but she couldn’t tell where she was.

She tried to get up to escape, but her limbs wouldn’t budge.

“?”

Bewildered, Noquia lifted her head to check her body and screamed in spite of herself. She was lying on a thick floor mattress, and countless arms sprouting from the floor were pinning her limbs down.

“What is this?! Let go!”

Noquia began to struggle with all her might. However, the arms holding her limbs didn’t move an inch. Her eyes darted frantically around the room, searching for a way to escape, when a sound from the ceiling made her head creak upward.

In the ink-black darkness, something was moving slowly. It looked as if it were huddling in the shadows to avoid the lamp’s light. Suddenly, a wave of terror crashed over her. She was drenched in fear. The dread radiating from this unidentified entity was beyond imagination.

“H-help me! Guys! Is anyone there?!”

Terrified, Noquia began to scream for help. Simultaneously, numerous hands erupted from near her head, fixing her skull toward the ceiling and forcibly prying her eyelids open.

Unable to close her eyes or turn away, Noquia was forced to face the entity moving on the ceiling. She thrashed and screamed incessantly.

Then, the being huddled in the dark began to descend slowly. It was a hand. A hand so massive it seemed to fill the entire ceiling.

As it descended, its ten fingers moved in grotesque directions, sporting long, overgrown nails. Then, right in front of Noquia’s eyes, it began to grind its nails.

The skin-crawling scrape, scrape sound rang in her ears, and the nail dust began to pour down onto her unclosing eyes.

“Aaagh!”

A piercing scream of terror and agony rang out. Tears began to stream as the debris fell into her eyes. As she rolled her eyes in a desperate attempt to avoid the fallout, Noquia saw the white powder piled on the floor. In that instant, she realized the truth.

It was the nail dust that hand had ground away. And those things piled in the dim corners were five-colored pouches—the very same pouches she had seen hanging from the straw ropes on the ceiling earlier.

Her skin crawled. The terror made her feel as if her hands and feet were curling inward. Her mind was filled only with the desire to flee this horrific place. But the hands restraining her did not vanish, and Noquia was forced to lie there, watching the nail dust rain down into her eyes that could not close.