The next morning, the student was found in his room, the door wide open to welcome others.
His body was grotesquely swollen, like an overstuffed sausage, bloated from an allergic reaction.
The hiking club had been wiped out entirely.
“Aaaaaahhh!”
In just one day, an office worker and three students had become corpses, plunging the remaining people into total terror.
“It’s the inheritance! Someone’s killing people to take more of the inheritance, yeah?! I’m sure of it! They’re trying to silence us all so they can keep the tapes without any trouble!”
“That guy, the caretaker! That fucker was sketchy as hell! He looked like a psycho!”
“It’s a ghost! We’re all haunted! Ha ha ha!”
A middle-aged man shouted like a madman, then pushed past the others and ran outside.
“Argh!”
Ruuuumble.
Thunder resounded at just the right moment.
No, it wasn’t just thunder. There was another sound mixed in.
BOOOM!
“……!”
“W-What was that?!”
Startled by the deafening noise, everyone turned toward the window.
The civil servant murmured grimly.
“…A landslide.”
The landslide had conveniently struck again.
Swept away by the rushing debris, the deranged middle-aged man disappeared down the mountain slope.
AAAAHHHHH…!
His screams faded as he was buried in the muddy earth below.
Rumble… BOOM!
Thunder replaced the humming as it roared outside the lodge, lightning flickering across the stormy sky.
“……”
“……”
A suffocating silence hung over the frozen group of survivors.
Four people remained.
* * *
Night two.
The couple, who had spent the day scouring the lodge for a way to contact the outside world, returned to their room, panting.
They’d found no means of escape, but they had discovered something else.
“Hah, hah…”
“Fuck— Shut the hell up and breathe quietly, you moron!”
“Aaack!”
The husband, introduced earlier as the wife’s partner, shoved her head roughly before darting out of the living room and up the stairs to the second-floor hallway.
As he ascended, someone cautiously exiting their room happened to meet his bloodshot gaze, startled.
“Hey, you!!”
He was calling out to the office worker who had been communicating through written notes because of his sore throat.
Startled, he quickly fumbled for his notebook to write something, but the man standing before him was faster, shaking something in his hand.
“This, this gold frame…!”
It was the ornate golden picture frame that had been hanging in the living room.
Eyes wild, the man jabbed a finger at the text inscribed inside the frame.
Joyful Mealtime
The rabbit bakes in the kitchen
The deer is caught in the backyard
The pigeon is fattened in the bedroom
The lamb is sliced in the living room
“This is how people are being killed!”
“……!”
The man shouted, voice shaking as he pieced it together.
A person roasted in the kitchen, ground in the backyard, and bloated in the room.
“The lodge caretaker or whoever is messing with us! This could all be staged—maybe we’re being broadcast somewhere! Or maybe… no, they’re toying with us, that’s for sure!”
The employee widened his eyes, startled by the revelation. Seeing his reaction, the man grew even more convinced and raised his voice further.
“The next one is the living room! Someone’s going to get sliced up in the living room! I’m sure of it! We need to find a way out before it’s too—”
“Oh.”
……
Huh?
That was a response.
“Surprisingly observant. Braun.”
“Braun?”
That was the last word the man ever said.
* * *
“Awake?”
A throbbing headache greeted him as he regained consciousness.
“Mmph! Mmmmph!”
His voice was muffled—he realized there was a gag in his mouth.
He screamed as loud as he could.
“MMMMMMPH!!”
But the reason for his terror wasn’t just the damp, moldy smell of the basement he found himself in or the pitch-black darkness that made it impossible to see more than a few inches ahead.
It was the severed head lying right next to his.
Yes, just a head.
“Mmmph! Mmmmmmph!”
The pale, lifeless face rested on a silver tray mere inches from his nose.
He felt his sanity slipping.
Tears, snot, and cold sweat poured down his face as he desperately screamed for help, though the gag swallowed every sound.
“Hrrrnnph, s-sppph, mmmph!”
“Scared? Try to bear with it—I’m holding back too.”
A calm, composed voice responded from somewhere nearby.
The man rolled his eyes frantically, trying to distance himself from the head as he looked up.
And he saw him.
‘The office worker…!’
Dressed in black sweats, the younger man frowned as he gazed down at him.
Then, as if in disdain, he looked at the bloodied work gloves in his hand before letting out a sigh and slipping them back on.
Next, he picked up an axe.
“MMMMMPH!!!”
“Why is it that people always scream first, even when they already know what’s going to happen? It just tires everyone involved.”
“Mmph!! Mmmph!!”
“Let’s not waste our energy unnecessarily.”
He’s insane. freёwebnoѵel.com
This man—no, this monster—was the killer…!!
The captive wanted desperately to negotiate, plead, fight back, do anything to survive, but his bound body and gagged mouth gave him no options.
Tears streamed uncontrollably down his face.
“Hm, I think I’ve heard that physical and emotional pain can be alleviated a bit by screaming…? Or, well, something like that.”
The office worker’s voice was dry, his tone almost clinical as he inspected the blade of the axe.
The edge gleamed as it caught the dim light.
“Reasonable enough, I suppose. Still, I don’t find it particularly satisfying.”
He adjusted his grip.
The axe swung.
A gleaming arc in the air.
Thud.
Clang…
“……”
“……”
Silence enveloped the basement.
Kim Soleum lowered the axe and, with a slightly brighter tone, remarked,
“Almost done.”
Three people remained.