Chapter 19: Main Character (V)
Bam. Pow. Bam. Squelch.
The sound of bone meeting bone and flesh meeting flesh reverberated through the crimson-lit halls. Soft whimpers accompanied the kicks and punches as a girl lay in a fetal position, trying to protect herself from the relentless barrage of attacks.
As it continued, her groans echoed through the halls, yet her attackers remained relentless. She could only bear the pain, the stinging sensation like a trail of glass being applied all over her becoming even more pronounced, amplifying the agony. Yet there was some kind of warmth that fought against the night’s chilling cold. By now, Cha Hwa Rim’s lotus and butterfly tattoos were melting and morphing, moving across her skin.
The pain from the barrage seemed to bring about a fragment—something that lingered on the very tip of her memory.
The long crimson halls quickly morphed and settled into a small cubic space, where much older women took turns kicking and punching the woman curled in a fetal position. Cha Hwa Rim could feel the taste of copper and the scent of iron flood her senses. The struggling tears that had made her vision unclear slowly receded before a woman with a bulky frame knelt next to her.
She was steeped in roughness. The woman crouched beside Cha Hwa Rim before wrapping her hands around her neck and lifting her up, choking her. Cha Hwa Rim was now barely conscious as she felt the possibility of death coming for her. Then, suddenly, she was thrown to the other side of the room.
The woman slowly walked over to Cha Hwa Rim before dragging her by the hair and pulling her before another woman who was surprisingly soft and beautiful, yet covered in ink.
Cha Hwa Rim felt her gaze grow weaker and weaker as her blurry vision settled upon the nameplate on the prison uniform.
Kang Min Ah.
That was her name.
The bulky woman immediately took a reverential pose as the woman continued with whatever she was doing, barely sparing a glance at the almost-dead Cha Hwa Rim.
Cha Hwa Rim lay on the ground, barely able to breathe through the pain.
The beautiful woman covered in tattoos suddenly spoke, her eyes barely leaving her book.
"Do you feel wronged or unsatisfied?"
Cha Hwa Rim could barely process the words through the mix of pain and haze, unable to make sense of them, let alone respond.
"If you feel wronged, then do something about it," the woman suddenly said as she closed the book and walked toward the bleeding Cha Hwa Rim.
She now stood merely inches away from her, looking down on Cha Hwa Rim like an eagle looking upon a chick before she crouched beside her and continued.
"Tell you what. If you feel wronged and want to change, there is a simple solution. Beat me up."
The woman spoke almost as if taunting Cha Hwa Rim.
Cha Hwa Rim could barely look at the lean woman now hovering around her. She felt a mixture of fear and anger. What had she done to deserve such rotten luck? The more she thought about her world before this, the more anger she felt, and soon enough it turned into anguish.
Maybe she should just let these people finish the job for her.
"Are you done?"
The female voice began again, barely grazing her ears.
Right now, that beautiful yet fierce gaze was only inches away from her. Cha Hwa Rim remained silent.
The woman looked straight into Cha Hwa Rim’s eyes.
"Weren’t you angry before? Why have you decided to be a coward?"
The woman then turned away from Cha Hwa Rim after witnessing her blank eyes.
"If you want to die, then at least do it brilliantly. In this world, being weak is a sin, but being a coward is even more unforgivable."
Those words seemed to bring something back into focus as Cha Hwa Rim thought about her life before coming here.
She was just a high schooler before all this, living in a family of four.
But now...
"Get up," the female voice spoke to her again. "Only by beating me will you ever get a say."
She spoke as she prepared her body for a fight. It was clear that she was familiar with brawls.
Indeed.
Cha Hwa Rim felt her fire reignite at those words. How could her parents’ deaths be in vain? And what about her little sister?
"In this world, being weak is a sin, and only through strength will you have a chance to have a say."
The memory immediately shattered as the room turned back into the long crimson hall.
The barrage of attacks continued upon the small girl’s body, yet as it did, the glass-like slithering across Cha Hwa Rim’s skin came to a stop. In its place, a blazing heat began to radiate from her core. The moving ink slowly took on another shape as the tiny girl transformed into a taller, more mature-looking woman, her Hanseung Academy uniform shifting into something entirely different—a black leather jacket, black leather pants, and a black top that barely covered her skin.
A powerful wave of energy erupted from her, repelling the students who had been stomping on her only moments before. She now stood with intimidating tiger tattoos adorning her skin, her eyes blazing with fire, her once-soft expression now fierce.
She wiped the blood from her lip before turning.
"Who the fuck dared to lay hands on me?"
The woman looked back at the students who had been beating her only seconds earlier.
-------
It was now a quarter to seven, the eerie crimson lights flooding the small room of stalls as their glow bounced off the huge mirrors, reflecting the images of Cha Hwa Rim and Im Nari standing face to face.
The sound of running water echoed in the background as Cha Hwa Rim tried to think of a conversation starter. After all, she needed Im Nari to remain in that area for a little while before she could achieve her real goal. But how could she stall for time?
"Why did you give me that note?" Cha Hwa Rim began. It was a gamble, but maybe it could work.
"What?"
"The note telling me I shouldn’t have come here."
Im Nari visibly tensed.
"I..." she began, but when she saw those sharp, cold eyes piercing through her, she relented.
"You have seen it. The school is cursed."
"Do you mean the game?"
"Yes. You have experienced it for yourself. The game is alive and bloodthirsty, asking for sacrifices."
"I see."
"...If that is all, can I leave now?"
"Do you not remember me?"
"What?"
"Do you have no memories of Cha Hwa Rim?"
"You just transferred today. How would I know you?"
Cha Hwa Rim went silent.
Seeing that Cha Hwa Rim had fallen silent, Im Nari turned toward the door and began walking toward it. But before she could leave—
Cha Hwa Rim spoke.
"Do you want to be free?"
"Free?"
"Of the game, I mean."
Im Nari stopped the moment she heard those words.
"...We are powerless against the game. It has a supernatural hold over us, and if we don’t play..." She paused. "The empty desks speak for themselves."
"I have a way."
"What?"
"I have a way to stop this game."
Im Nari’s hands clenched slightly as she turned back to look at Cha Hwa Rim. Her eyes burned with something inexplainable, her face becoming a complex sea of emotions.
"Do you think we haven’t tried?" she said as she walked briskly toward Cha Hwa Rim.
"You only arrived, so maybe you are not familiar with the situation we are in. But as for us... as for me..." Her voice trembled. "I have lived through this nightmare for days, barely able to survive every harrowing, twisted game. We tried everything—to analyze the app, to delete the game, to get rid of our phones. Yet all of our attempts only brought about more deaths, pain, and despair. It’s better to... just play the game. Maybe then you can survive to see tomorrow."
"But I am serious. I can break—"
"Just stop it."
Im Nari cut her off before turning to leave the room.
"It’s a ghost."
Cha Hwa Rim quickly spat out the words.
Yet Im Nari didn’t stop, only continued moving forward.
"Nari... I am a shaman."
"What?"
The word escaped her lips as she stopped inches from the exit.
Seeing that hesitation, Cha Hwa Rim pressed on, carefully moving toward her.
"The reason I came to this school was for an exorcism. Otherwise..."
Im Nari remained silent as she contemplated those words before speaking again.
"Why should I believe you?"
"Because... because I am your best friend."
"Best friend? I barely know you."
"You have simply forgotten for now, but I know you. I have known you for a long time."
"It seems we have nothing to talk about."
Im Nari spoke as she prepared to end the conversation.
Just then, a draft of wind blew their way, the door suddenly closing by itself.
"It’s time."
Cha Hwa Rim’s expression turned serious as the eerie atmosphere descended into a chilling coldness.
She returned to the mirror before biting into her finger, drawing blood. Then she began to chant and dance, her foot stomping in a familiar rhythm as her dripping finger traced something across the surface of the mirror.
The air suddenly became heavy as a howling wind swept through the area. An eerie malevolence descended, threatening to crush Im Nari, yet a warm energy slowly emanated as Cha Hwa Rim continued to chant and stomp toward the mirror, entering an altered state of consciousness.
Within that state, her patron deity gave her the next instructions. She would concentrate the two energies that had been slowly filling the area toward the mirror.
As she did, the butterfly tattoos and lotus flowers that had now fully bloomed began to glow with a beautiful light.
Im Nari was left dumbfounded by what she was witnessing when, suddenly, the silhouette of a woman began to form within the mirror, its surface covered with letters written in blood. The image was unclear, as though it were made of mist, standing there and staring back at the dancing Cha Hwa Rim and the frozen Im Nari.
Then, suddenly, the surface of the mirror began to crack as the energy channeled through Cha Hwa Rim warmed the area.
The woman immediately became agitated, leaping from the mirror as though she intended to attack Im Nari. Yet her illusory body simply passed through her without causing any harm.
But the moment it did, a flood of memories came rushing back as though an unseen fog had finally lifted.
Im Nari remembered her life before being trapped within the instance.
She remembered her best friend.
Cha Hwa Rim.
The illusory ghost shrieked for a moment before bursting into countless speckles of light and disappearing.
After it was over, the exhilarated Cha Hwa Rim gradually returned to a state of calm, her chanting and dancing ritual slowly coming to an end.
"Did we do it?" Im Nari asked, approaching her friend.
Cha Hwa Rim turned to her phone before looking back at Im Nari and shaking her head.
"It seems the ritual was unsuccessful."
"Not completely," Im Nari said. "I seem to have recovered my memories."
"Really?"
Before Im Nari could answer, she was already running toward her.
She embraced Hwa rim tightly, tears she hadn’t known she was holding back now falling freely. Cha Hwa Rim could only let her melt into the embrace, though she soon felt her heart quicken, prompting her to gently push herself away and turn their attention back to the app.
"Can you tell me everything that happened to you?"
Im Nari thought for a moment before speaking.
"After you opened the door, a blinding light engulfed you, making you disappear. I was left confused as to what had happened. Immediately after you disappeared, I could feel something in the darkness. It felt like the darkness was somehow alive. As the light from the door slowly grew dimmer and dimmer, I became scared of being left behind, so I jumped in, only to find myself in our classroom with a teacher teaching and the students acting like everything was normal."
"I see. Was there anything out of the ordinary?"
"Well, at first, no. Everything felt normal. The first school day continued as usual... well, for the earlier parts of the day, it did. That was until, at the end of the day, a female student suddenly jumped from the roof, ending her life."
She paused before continuing.
"After that incident, the app appeared, but it wasn’t activated until two days later. That’s when the first Skeletons in the Closet game began."
"You said the first game took place two days after the incident. What about the others? We’re currently on the fifth game, aren’t we?"
"Well, the games seemed random. At first, I thought they were taking place on prime-numbered days—after two days, then five, then seven. But then the tenth day arrived, and that..." She trailed off.
"Honestly, I was just trying to prepare myself for the horrors of the game. Every day, living on edge, not knowing if you were going to die... it was driving me into insanity. It has been twenty-three days since this nightmare began, and I just wish it could all end."
"This is definitely the work of an evil spirit."
A determined fire lit Cha Hwa Rim’s eyes.
"I will definitely defeat this spirit. But for now, we need to know how it works so that I can figure out how to exorcise it. Can you tell me the rules of how the game works?"
Im Nari flinched at those words before taking a slow breath and beginning her explanation.
"The game usually begins at 6 p.m. and ends at 6 a.m., taking a total of twelve hours to be completed. It runs through two distinct stages. The first is allocated six hours and has two phases: the investigative phase and the authentication and voting phase.
"In the investigative phase, the players work toward learning about the other players’ secrets, or skeletons as the game calls them. Here, you have to attack and defend against the revealing of skeletons. Whenever a secret has been revealed, you receive a tattoo, as you can tell by your skin, though yours seem very elaborate. Usually, it’s just a skull tattoo.
"When all your secrets are revealed before midnight, you immediately feel a compulsion as your bones crunch and your blood splatters, causing you to die a horrible death.
"The game also gives various roles, each with different abilities for how one can uncover secrets."
"Like Investigator and Prosecutor."
Im Nari stuttered for a moment before continuing.
"...Yes. Those roles possess special abilities that differ greatly, but all of them revolve around the revealing and protection of secrets. They all work differently, and more often than not they require a certain amount of Reputation Points.
"The game allocates twenty Reputation Points to each player when it begins. Ten are your standard Reputation Points, while the other ten are reserved for voting, whether up or down.
"Reputation Points are very important. They can heal, they can defend, they can even save you from the Hunters after midnight. But the only way to increase or decrease them is through voting.
"When your Reputation Points reach zero, there is a possibility of becoming Marked. I’m still not sure exactly how that happens, but it most often occurs when one or more of your skeletons have been exposed and your Reputation Points have fallen too low.
"When you become Marked, you become that game’s sacrifice, able to appease the Hunters for that session. Otherwise, when there isn’t a Marked player, the Hunters pursue those whose skeletons have been revealed, usually depending on how many skeletons have been exposed.
"The Hunters are relentless until they have feasted upon at least one person whose skeletons have been exposed."
"What if there are no skeletons exposed?"
"That’s not possible. The game makes sure of it. If no skeletons are exposed before midnight, people begin dying gruesomely at random until a skeleton is exposed. Then the Hunt, which is the second stage of the game, begins. That is what is referred to as authentication."
"I see."
Cha Hwa Rim quietly digested everything that had just been shared with her.
"It seems I am today’s sacrifice," she said in a flat tone.
"I... I’m sorry."
"It’s okay. It’s not your fault."
"But... but it is. I already had two of my skeletons exposed, so when I saw my chance... I exposed yours."
"What do you mean?"
Im Nari slowly took out her phone and revealed the screen to Cha Hwa Rim.
The role Investigator sat there on her character card.
Cha Hwa Rim stared at it for a second before simply nodding, without the slightest hint of anger.
"What is done is done. I will not die today. In fact, I will break this curse."
That was what Cha Hwa Rim had said before escorting Im Nari back to the dorms.
But now it was midnight.
The halls were empty.
She couldn’t help but feel afraid. Yet even through that fear, she bit it down. She had to find the anchor for this curse. Once she achieved that, as she had promised, everything would return to normal.
At least, that was what she hoped.
The air around her suddenly became heavy as the sound of whispers echoed through the wide, crimson-lit halls.
Then, suddenly—
It attacked.