Braun’s not here.
“W-What is this?”
“Thi, this person, he… moved!!”
With the silver coin inside the plushie missing, had the ‘Good Friend’ ritual been nullified? Or was it simply that, since this was a dream, it only looked like an ordinary doll…?
‘Stop it!’
Trying to figure things out isn’t the priority right now! Snap out of it!
You’re inside a ghost story!
“Take a look over here!”
I quickly turned my head.
In one dim corner of the classroom, someone screamed. It was the person who had been poking at the ‘student’ that had sat stiff and unmoving at a desk, like a wax mannequin.But that wax-like mannequin…
“Over there!”
…was gone from the desk.
Following the finger of the pale-faced person pointing nearby, I saw it.
[Sekwang Technical High School]
The vanished ‘student’ was now standing at the back door.
Holding the door.
Expressionless.
Turning his gaze across the classroom.
“……”
“W-What is this? You’re kidding, right?”
No response. No movement.
“Hold on a second.”
A brave individual approached and waved a hand in front of the face of the ‘student’.
The ‘student’ didn’t even blink. He simply stood frozen in place in front of the back door, perfectly lifelike.
“He’s not breathing. This thing isn’t human—it’s a mannequin.”
“But how could a mannequin suddenly move? Maybe it’s some kind of advanced illusion to make it look like he’s not breathing?”
“Right, this must be one of those hidden-camera things like on variety shows or YouTube.”
No.
Of course, there were no cameras here, nor was there a production crew waiting to startle people for entertainment.
Instead—
[Ding- dong- daeng- dong-]
[Students of Sekwang Technical High School, your graduation ceremony will begin shortly. Please gather in the auditorium.]
“Graduation ceremony…?”
The announcement was cheerful, clear, and fitting for a school setting.
“Should we go? It’s kind of interesting.”
“Hey, aren’t we back to looking like we did in high school? Wow. What kind of dream is this?”
Some of the group, having decided this was nothing more than a dream, chatted without any tension.
It made sense. So far, nothing truly terrifying had happened.
‘They don’t feel the gravity of the situation.’
After all, they had reverted to their high school selves. And who wouldn’t feel good about turning back the clock?
A school at night may often serve as the backdrop for ghost stories, but with a group of people and a touch of moonlight, it could even feel romantic.
However…
“Hey, this mannequin student? Take a closer look.”
One person approached the unmoving ‘student’ by the back door.
The ‘student’ was pointing a hand backward.
“It looks like his hand is signaling something…”
[For heating and safety, we will now close the automatic curtains and adjust the lighting.]
“It looks like he was about to lock the door.”
BANG.
The curtains slammed shut.
“Whoa!”
“Ah, that startled me!”
With a deafening sound, the automatic curtains closed, plunging the classroom into darkness for a brief moment.
Blink.
After a delay, the lights in the classroom turned on.
“Oh, thank goodness.”
“Looks like they were just adjusting the lights… Wait, what?”
Blood was pooling on the beige classroom floor.
“What… what is that?”
Following the trail of blood upward, everyone’s gaze landed on a person.
One person from the group was slumped near the back door, neck twisted completely backward.
A grotesque amount of blood poured from the impossibly angled neck, seeping into the cracks of the flooring.
Eyes, wide with shock, seemed to suggest it was a fate that was never once anticipated.
“AAAAAAAHHH!!”
“Ughhhh! Aaaargh!!”
It had begun.
========================
Dark Exploration Records / Ghost Story
[In the Shadow of Darkness]
: A ghost story featured in <Dark Exploration Records>
: Daydream Inc. identification code – Qterw-()-62
: Disaster Management Bureau registration number – 2845PSYA.2016.하53
According to the story, reading the infamous text file before falling asleep causes you to awaken in Sekwang Technical High School at night, where you are pursued by inhuman entities until your death.
All civilian attempts to locate the real Sekwang Technical High School have failed, and it is understood to be a place that does not exist in present-day Korea.
========================
Right.
The only escape from this nightmarish ghost story is through death.
To leave this school at night, there is no other option but to die.
And… as with all too many ghost stories, where inhuman entities feature prominently, this one has become a horrifying cliché.
“Th-that person!”
One of the people screaming raised a trembling finger to point.
At the ‘student’ still frozen by the back door.
But there was one significant difference.
“His hand… it’s covered in blood.”
“……”
The crowd turned their stiff, horrified gazes toward the ‘student’ again.
And they confirmed the fact.
On the inside of the curled fingers of the ‘student’, as if trying to hide it, blood was smeared along the fingerprints.
“……”
Their eyes shifted back to the corpse.
Behind the corpse’s grotesquely twisted neck, there were bloody marks… shaped like fingers.
“Aaah!”
“Mom! No, no, no! Aaah!”
And then again.
Blink.
The lights flickered.
The ‘student’ of Sekwang Technical High School doesn’t move as long as someone is watching him.
But the moment no one’s eyes are on them—
In the blink of an eye, when the classroom lights brighten again—
He’d move.
Inhumanly fast.
The person who had been pointing at the mannequin was gone.
“Ack!!”
Found on the floor, body shattered below the chest.
Thud.
The lifeless arm that had been pointing fell to the ground limply.
“Ah…”
“……”
“Aaaaaaaahhh!!”
Panic, fear, and hysteria erupted.
“N-now! We have to attack it now! Someone close to it, just hit it!”
“F-Fuck! Why are you yelling at me? Why don’t you do it yourself!?”
Blink.
“Hieek!”
Another corpse appeared.
One of the shouting people was impaled on a desk, hanging upside-down.
Only the lower half of their body remained.
“……”
“……”
In the terrifying silence, the remaining people turned their heads.
The ‘student’ by the back door was now staring intently at them.
A strange smile crept across his face.
“……!!”
“Eeeeeek!”
“R-Run! Get out of here!”
“Open the door, now!”
The group rushed toward the front door, avoiding the ‘student’ blocking the back door.
But… it was already too late.
“Over here—aaaargh!!”
The person who opened the front door collapsed in shock.
Standing in the doorway was another smiling ‘student’.
[Sekwang Technical High School]
This female student, with neatly trimmed bangs, wore the same name tag.
“Just go around them!”
“Move, now!”
The group ran past the smiling student.
And again—
Blink.
The student by the front door disappeared from my sight.
“Aaaaaaaahhhh!!”
…The hallway filled with anguished screams.
One by one, the screams faded.
“……”
“……”
And then, silence. Suffocating silence.