I avoided looking directly at the CCTV screen and gave a polite nod to the sergeant.
“Thank you for allowing me to see this. Then, sir, I’ll be on my w—”
“…Restroom.”
“……?”
“The person you’re looking for. He went into an old, unused men’s restroom down there…”
“……”
“And he hasn’t come out. Not in the whole week since.”
I did my best not to peek at the CCTV screen.
It seemed the security sergeant had already skimmed through the footage showing the abandoned restroom on B2 on his own.
“That restroom, want to check it out…?”
“I don’t have clearance to enter the basement levels, sir.”
“I’m going though…”
Of course. Because it’s your job, sir.
Wouldn’t it be great if you just went and found him on your own…
“Come on, let’s go. Let’s just say you’re a new hire in the Security Team.”
Sir?!
“No, really, you don’t have to—”
“Let’s go…”
Nooo!!
* * *
How did things get to this point, I wonder.
‘He even got me a uniform and everything.’
Now I was in the maintenance elevator, wearing the navy-blue Security Team jacket used by regular guards.
The absurdity of the situation was making my head spin.
‘I let myself get talked into it…’
– It’s fine. People from the Field Exploration Team pitch in for support work sometimes too…
That’s punishment duty, isn’t it?
Anyway, I somehow verified that entering the basement wouldn’t cause any big issues, even if this got out.
And I’d even contacted D-squad to officially process this as support duty, so I shouldn’t get in trouble…
Guess all that polite socializing paid off.
‘Still, this is so disorienting.’
All this just to get my hands on a Bloodbathtub.
After going this far, even if I don’t manage to pull the full fifty million, Braun had better recognize my efforts.
Ding.
The elevator door opens.
Basement 2.
It sounds like any other elevator ding, but for some reason, it has an ominous ring to it. And as the doors opened, what’s revealed was…
A hallway lined with ordinary office doors.
“……”
Why… were there offices down here?
‘Shouldn’t this floor have safety equipment or facilities…?’
The hallway was dimly lit, eerily silent, with opaque glass doors all around.
Offices labeled A, B, C… nameplates marking each door.
The security sergeant whispered,
“Don’t open any doors…”
“Yes.”
Even if he hadn’t said so, there was no way in hell I’d touch anything here.
I just kept my eyes on the security sergeant’s back, following him slowly.
And then—
– Mr. Roe Deer?
“……!”
– To think you’d wear such a worn outfit just to bring this Braun a gift! I’m deeply moved, but it pains me as well. Does my friend have to do such menial work?
Touching words, really.
But, hold on a second.
‘…How are you even talking to me?’
The ‘Good Friend’ could only talk and move within the boundaries of a creepypasta… which meant only one thing.
I was already inside a creepypasta.
“Ah, we’re here.”
The security sergeant stopped in front of a door with a faint, pale light seeping out from it.
“I’m going to open it…”
“Wait—”
But before I could say anything, he opened the restroom door.
Ka-chak—
With a burst, the flickering light inside revealed the room beyond…
“……”
‘This, crazy—’
The restroom was smeared with dark red.
It looked like an artery had been sliced open, spewing deep crimson all across the mirror like blood.
I froze completely, unable to even scream.
Then, the smell hit me, and my mind jolted back to awareness.
‘There’s barely any metallic smell.’
That’s not all blood.
And it doesn’t smell like regular ink, either. This is…
‘…Traditional ink from an inkstick?’
Tap, tap.
Braun was tapping from my pocket.
‘Warning.’
My senses snapped back to attention.
The security sergeant, scanning the restroom, reached out his hand.
“Don’t touc—”
Poke.
“Huh…?”
Oh no.
The moment his finger touched the ink, the dark red liquid began surging like a wave within the restroom.
“……!!”
I tried to turn and run immediately, but the thick, dark liquid shot out like countless hands, grabbing my legs and pulling me down.
AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!
‘Fuck fuck fuck…!’
I barely managed to keep from falling, landing awkwardly as the ink splashed up to my jaw. Bile rose in my throat.
I turned my head, desperately trying to grasp the situation, and caught sight of the source.
“The scroll!”
A vertical scroll was stuck to the restroom mirror, its center slashed open, with blood-like ink being sucked into the hollow center.
In other words, my feet were being dragged toward it as well.
As if something alive was pulling me… Wait, alive?
And blood-like?
‘The Bloodsucking Cutlery…!’
I pulled out a fork and jammed it into the floor.
The gleaming silver fork trembled, then hungrily began absorbing the surrounding ink.
“Ah!”
It’s working!
But, a small dessert fork couldn’t hold back this much ink.
Ting—
The utensil was flung away.
‘Fuuuck!’
And just like that, I was dragged into the scroll.
* * *
Gaaasp!
I lifted my head.
Through the darkness and blurred vision, I saw wallpaper with an old, cracked pattern.
An unfamiliar place.
‘…An abandoned house?’
My breath got caught in my throat, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the gloom.
And… and…
I realized something.
What I was looking at wasn’t wallpaper.
Talismans.
The walls, all made of rotting wood, were covered in crumbling, worn-out talismans.
“……!”
The air was heavy, pressing down on my shoulders, with an eerie tension filling the dark, cold room.
…Something’s wrong.
I felt like a rat that had crawled into the wrong place, in the wrong way.
“……”
I clenched my trembling hand.
But there was nothing there.
‘…It’s gone.’
The Bloodsucking Cutlery had vanished.
Cold sweat broke out as I took slow, deep breaths to avoid hyperventilating…
“Excuse me…!”
I nearly passed out.
“There, over there! Are you… the police??”
I lifted my head.
I wasn’t alone in this dark, abandoned house.
Small figures huddled in a corner were staring at me.
They were… children.
‘Middle school uniforms.’
The trembling students called out,
“Please save us! W-We touched this weird drawing, and now we can’t get out!”
T/N:
With the recent change to Braun’s name spelling, I was also thinking of making a minor change on Soleum’s name. I thought about this early on, (like literally chapter 1) but I doubled down on it and now it’s just bothering me.
So basically, the Korean ㄹ consonant is both R and L—kind of in the middle—but our MC’s name pronunciation is closer to R than it is to L.
Is it okay with you guys if I change our MC’s name spelling to Soreum? Or should we just commit to Soleum given that we’re 30+ chapters in lol
Let me know in the comments!