Sungyeol POV

"Is it just me or does this seem weird to you?" I asked Myungsoo as we suspiciously stare at the open door that seemed to beckon towards us.

Shrugging his shoulders, he gives me his staff so I can use it as a walking stick.

My abdomen still hurts when I move a certain way and my whole body was sore, but I was slowly gaining my mobility back.

"I lost my gun when I was attacked by those monsters." I sadly said as my mind began to imagine what kind of horrors lay in wait inside the house.

Reaching behind him, Myungsoo unclips a familiar looking gun and hands it to me.

When I look at it's handle, it has my initials engraved on the side.

"Whoa! You found it! Thanks!" I said in pure delight. Pulling the cartridge out, I count how many bullets I have left before slamming it back in.

"I have 6 bullets so I can at least take down 6 monsters." Is it even possible to shoot a ghost?

Swinging the lantern towards the dark house, Myungsoo motions for us to start. Trying to use my dominate hand, I realize that I can't pull the trigger because of the pain from the bite. I'll have to use my non-dominate hand.... Our chances of surviving this seem to be getting slimmer.

When we walk up onto the rickety porch, the stairs screamed underneath our weight.

As we slowly step inside the house, a warm eery glow lights the whole room while the door slams shut behind us and clicks just like the gate outside.

"What should we do now?" I turn to ask Myungsoo, but he was gone! Beginning to panic, my eyes scan the whole room before landing on his slight figure. His head is tilted as he reads words off of a rusted plague.

On further inspection, I noticed a torch with flames the color of vomit was lit underneath the plaque. When I walk closer to Myungsoo, I begin to read what the plague says outloud.

Murder, murder on the wall. Who is the one who killed them all?

Accept or Decline

"What?!" I exclaimed as I kept reading the words over and over again.

"Oh no.....No!" I yelled at the plaque as if it will go away. "Please tell me this isn't a haunted house." I looked at Myungsoo with pleading eyes as he looked back at me with amusement.

"I hate ghosts..."

Tapping me to catch my attention, Myungsoo shows me his notepad.

Should we wait for the others or accept?

"I would rather decline..." I sighed.

Smiling, Myungsoo scribbles some more words on the pad of paper.

That wasn't given as an option.

"Fine! Then let's get this over with....we can't leave this house to tell the others because we are locked in. And we don't know how long it will take for them to get here. Who knows...they might be playing the game already."

So...accept?

I nod my head unwillingly. Letting out a breath that I didn't know I was holding in, I watch in suspense as Myungsoo turns to the plague.

Pressing where the word Accept was, his finger seems to sink through the plague. With a click, the wall that the plague hung on flipped revealing a dark room inside.

Abother small torch illuninates a piece of paper that was labeled the Rules to the Game. Every official game in Aurora have these binding contracts that have to be signed before every game is played.

My eyes quickly scan over the rules like an expert as I look for certain words that every gamer should avoid.

At the bottom of each set of rules is where the player has to decided how much they think the prize is worth.

Winners receive the prize and losers receive the punishment.

The funny part is that the rules are set so that you can "choose" your punishment. It makes the game more "fun" ...right? Nope, it's just morbid in my opinion.

Passage to the Tribe =

                              [Disembowlment] [Beheading]

[ Skewered]
[Burned Alive]
[Blue Curse]

X___________________

"Wow, such exciting options to choose from!" I said with fake excitment as I rolled my eyes.

"Which would you prefer, Myungsoo? Disembowlment or Beheading? Oh, look! They even have your favorite: Burned Alive!" I said sarcastically while Myungsoo's eyes twinkled at my humor.

"What kind of idiot friends does Sung-kyu have?! Because this is twisted!" I said in frustration.

While I was venting, Myungsoo chose a wooden tile for both of us and tapped it into place.

Passage to the Tribe = [Blue Curse]

         [Disembowlment]
[Beheading]
[ Skewered]
[Burned Alive]

X______________________

Instead of leaving a pen to sign the contract like a normal person, game leaders leave a small knife.

Taking the silver knife that was offered, Myungsoo and I both pricked our fingers before rubbing our bloodied thumb prints on the line.

After signing the form underneath with our thumbprints, our blood melts into the paper as the Rules of the Game paper disintegrated before our eyes.

Begin in 3......2......1.......Start.

A female voice seemed to say. When she said "Start " the whole house flashed as we were bathed in a suspiciously welcoming light.

Silence covered the place once again. For some reason, the room felt even more creepy when the lights were turned on compared to when they were off.

The blood of a certain murder's victims cry out for retribution through these very walls. But one certain cry can be heard above the rest. The blood of the Prince who was the first owner of this house instructs you to find the one who killed him or else....you will eventually find out how he met his death.

Myungsoo lets out a heavy sigh as he mouths "Escape House" to me.

"This guy is very...theatrical." I mutter as we begin to search the room we were in. While Myungsoo looks through a desk full of messy paper, I decided to see how big the room we are in extends. Finding the nearest wall, I graze my hand over it as I walk around the room. Built in the 19th century, the walls had cracks sprawled across it like a two year old had taken a crayon and scribbled on it.

Feeling a droplet hit the top of my head, I look up to see that a part of the ceiling was dark from the moisture. The ceiling must be leaking from the storm. While I was staring up at it, a couple drops hit me in face which I brush off with the sleave of my shirt.

"Aren't Escape Houses played in the dark?" I ask Myungsoo as I continue walking around the room. Myungsoo just shrugs as he has now moved onto the computer on the desk. Unfortunately, he hasn't got passed the password yet.

Almost making it across the room, I notice a door that was hidden from obvious view. Jiggling the handle, I frown when I see that it is locked.

There might be a paperclip on the desk that Myungsoo is searching through.

Retracing my steps, a couple more drops hit me on the head again as I wave down Myungsoo.

Tapping Myungsoo on the shoulder from his concentration, I ask him if he has seen any paperclips. When he turns his head, he almost falls out of his seat in horror. Reaching his hand out to the desk to brace himself, he places his other hand over his mouth.

Breathing heavily, he points to my face and mouths to me a question. Confused, I had to motion for Myungsoo to write down his question for me. I really need to learn sign language.

Why are you covered in blood?!

Blood?! Feeling moisture dripdown my forehead, I wipe it off witht the palm of my hand. "It's just water." I said as I showed him my palm.

Taking my wrist, he turns my palms toward me revealing a sticky red substance on my hand.

"Wah!" I yelled as I jumped back. Feeling the top of my head, it was caked in blood and part of my sleave was covered in it.

"Where did that come from..." I mumbled as I tried to remember. "The ceiling!" I yelled as I ran back to where I thought the ceiling was leaking. When I got there, there was a red puddle on the floor.

Looking up, the ceiling seemed to be drenched beyond its ability with moisture.

Myungsoo squints up at the ceiling in confusion. Before he could say anything, I get a weird feeling in the pit of my stomache.

Looking back up at the ceiling, I react faster than my thread of thoughts as I take a hold of Myungsoo and push him out from under the ceiling.

Just in time too.

The ceiling began to crumble and large pieces fell to the ground into tiny particles.

Now I am not only covered in blood but also white powder called wallboard from the ceiling.

Checking on Myungsoo to see if he is okay, I get up from the dusty floor and try to brush myself off. Helping Myungsoo up, I turn to the powdery mess and see something that wasn't part of the ceiling.

I take a step to look closer but Myungsoo grabs my arm and shakes his head.

"Don't get closer." he mouths.

Confused,  I take a slight peak at the object and see a small machine that resembled an ornamental music box.

"How long do you think that's been up there?" I ask even though I really didn't want to know.

Myungsoo shrugs his shoulders before pulling me away from the music box and towards the computer.

Suddenly, he stops and stares at me with another look of horror.

"What? You look like you see a ghost. " I joked but when Myungsoo was still paralyzed, I got a creepy sensation on my back.

Yelling and waving my arms, I squeeze my eyes shut as I turn around. But when I opened them, I didn't see anything.

Rolling his eyes at my antics, Myungsoo grabs my ear and points to the music box.

"Listen" he mouthed

Clamping my mouth shut, I turn to where he was pointing.

At first I couldn't hear anything but then a soft lullaby could be heard.

As if drawn to the tinkling of the chimes, we both began to step closer to the musicbox.

Then suddenly, an airy voice begins to join the musicbox as we were fully mesmerized by now.

The whispery tenor begins to sing louder as the words to the song seemed to bind our feet to the ground and our hands to our sides.

The soft and yet mournful words of a youthful love that flickered like a flame on a candle until it was snuffed out.

As the singing voice grows louder, I could almost hear in the distant the sound of someone screaming.

I know that voice

But who?

I can't seem to remember anymore...

But then another scream was heard which shattered the mesmerizing dream I was in.

The face of a beautiful girl with thick wavy hair and an adorable smile fades into my mind as I finally recognize the voice.

Meera!

Shaking my head, I am thrown back into reality. And in front of me was Myungsoo and his weapon pointed right at me. His eyes are glazed over as if he is sleepwalking.

Then I noticed that my arm was pointed towards Myungsoo with a gun in my hand.

The music is trying to get us to kill each other!

I try to move my arms but they seem to be bound by an invisible spell.

Squeezing my eyes closed I tried to come up with an idea before Myungsoo spears me with his weapon or I shoot him with a silver bullet.

Using my voice, I begin to sing against the melody as I was able to cover some of the singer's voice as well which weakened the spell.

"I tried to move away from you
I tried to run far away from you
But I'm swept by you again..." 🎼

With as much effort as possible, I manage to free both of my arms.

In relief, I drop my gun and cover my ears as the Singer's voice is drowned out to a muffle.

I slowly regain control over my arms but my feet are still bound to the floor like heavy shackles making it impossible to stop Myungsoo from stabbing me.

Beginning to sing a song of my own, I was able to cancel out all the noise.

"After the farewell that couldn't be finished
Farewell and farewall." 🎼

Myungsoo!! Cover your ears!!" I yelled.

My voice seemed to awaken him from his dream. Slowly he lowered his weapon as I tried to sing above the lullaby.

"The follish regret which is left to me
I couldn't forget you, I couldn't erase you...." 🎼

When we were able to break free from the charm, the music stopped as if knowing that it no longer held power over us.

"That...was scary."

He nods his head in agreement as we collapse to the ground. We both exchange a tired smile as we try to catch our breathes.

Suddenly I am reminded of how I was able to break free from the spell.

"Meera!" I yelled as I sat back up
"And she was screaming which means she is here somewhere....but she is in danger!"

******

I wrote this
chapter at night and I started to creep myself out when I was editing it. I actually had dead bodies in this chapter but got too scared so I took them out. Oh, and guess which song I used?  :) did you guys like this turn of events? Please tell me what you think.< 3