Chu Siyan tottered behind the trench coat guy as silently as he could. Somehow, it felt like he would disturb the man if he walked any louder. His curious eyes looked around, absorbing their surroundings as they proceeded. On the ground floor of the fraternity, there was a door right beside the kitchen area that had never been mentioned during the tour. He was kind of curious about what was inside.
"Do you think that's a storeroom, a pantry, or a creepy basement? I bet it's a creepy basement. After all, we're in a scary ghost-infested level," he mumbled, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
Seeing his small act, the trench coat guy raised a brow. "You seem cheery."
"Well, I am. 'Cause I got my first-ever tattoo. Look." He held up his wrist.
The man took a quick look and nodded.
It was a simple wooden-frame door with a brass doorknob that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in quite a while. Chu Siyan hesitated to touch it.
The trench coat guy slightly nudged him aside and opened the door. "Scared?"
He was actually not scared at all. He hadn't touched the doorknob because it had been such a long time since he had seen such a dirty surface. Chu Siyan didn't bother explaining himself. Instead, he busied himself observing the inside of the room. Since it was tucked away in a dark corner of the house, it didn't receive much light. He couldn't see much.
"Ah, my trusty torch." He untied it from his waistband loop and switched it on.
The dim light illuminated the place. There were a couple of wood-stained stairs leading down to the basement. There was even a small light bulb down there with a string hanging from it.
"Told you it would be a basement," he grinned up at him.
He could vaguely spot a small smile on the man's lips. "Switch it off. Save the battery."
"Oh."
Since they had already seen the end of the stairs, they decided to switch it off and walk down while holding the railing. Even a single step on the wooden floorboard creaked loudly, as if it were going to snap beneath them. Jun Siwoo didn't seem bothered by any of this; he walked in confidently.
This gave Chu Siyan a bit of confidence. He followed the man down into the dingy, dark room. His fingers touched something wet on the wall. He simply sniffed it.
'Irony stench... it's blood…'
His heart rate went up a little.
"There is blood on the walls," he exclaimed.
But there was no answer to his call.
"Trench coat guy… Woo-hoo. Answer me…" He glanced around.
Sighing, he took out his torch and switched it on. To his surprise, he was all alone. There was no one else in the room except himself.
"Trench coat guy?" He walked farther in and switched on the small bulb.
Golden-yellow light illuminated the dingy space. The basement was quite spacious, with a lot of things piled up in one corner. A few of the suitcases had even been knocked over, with their contents scattered across the floor.
He picked up a piece of clothing. It was a pretty yellow summer dress. He flipped it around until he found a tag. It was from a famous brand. On the tag, he noticed a small letter painted on with nail polish.
"P? No one's name starts with P. Maybe it's the dead ghost's clothes…"
Just as he said this, he felt a small breath against his neck.
Unintentionally, he stiffened.
Someone was behind him.
'I didn't hear any footsteps at all.'
No. Something was definitely behind him.
He closed his eyes. It was most probably the ghost named 'P.'
He slowly glanced back.
To his surprise, he didn't even see a shadow of the ghost. Only a strong, bloody stench remained close to him.
"This girl likes to run away… I just wanted to see her face… What's wrong with that?"
He placed the dress down and walked around a bit. Even though he thought this, he knew for sure that his heart would have stopped if he had met that ghost face-to-face. He was so used to pretending to be strong for his brother. Even in this unfamiliar environment, he still kept up that act.
Inside, he was trembling badly.
The fear lasted only for a few minutes. He shook it off and walked around bravely. His eyes spotted something shining in the corner. He crawled through the assortment of clothes and picked up the object that was hiding behind another suitcase.
It was a golden-framed photograph. It was most definitely a picture of the senior fraternity members. There were eight people in the picture.
"Eight… so four are not here? Tilly mentioned that a few of them left the fraternity… Maybe only three or two of them died."
A chilling wind hit the back of his neck once again.
He hurriedly glanced back.
Once again, there was nothing.
He quickly rubbed the goosebumps off his arm. "Is there a rule or something that ghosts can't appear ahead of time? Maybe they're only allowed to spook people and not hurt them." He shrugged and held up the photograph.
"You found something?"
A husky voice startled him.
He stepped back slightly, hugging the photo frame. "Ah, trench coat guy. Where did you run off to? I thought you got eaten by one of the ghosts."
The man frowned. "Trench coat guy?"
"Yeah…" Chu Siyan slightly blushed. He had been addressing him as the trench coat guy in his head, and in his surprise, he had accidentally called him that aloud. "I don't know your name…"
"Jun Siwoo." He said it curtly and gestured toward the picture frame.
Chu Siyan held it up to him. "Hi, Jun. I'm Chu Siyan. You can call me Siyan."
"Hmm."
Jun Siwoo looked at the picture for a second before handing it back to him.
"You find anything while you were looking around?"
"Four pieces of luggage. Two were stained with blood. The girls were killed in their rooms by an unknown killer. Their bodies are missing." He said it briefly and matter-of-factly.
Chu Siyan gaped at him. "You found all that just by looking through some luggage? You're brilliant, Jun."
Jun Siwoo cleared his throat and handed him an old newsletter. It looked like a college-edition newsletter that would have been distributed to students.
On it was a picture of two girls.
The story of their murder was clearly explained.