In the quiet woods, twenty-four people walked slowly along a dark path.
The mottled stone path still held traces of yesterday's downpour. Puddles had collected in the potholes, reflecting the group's inverted figures as they advanced. Laden with bags big and small, they arrived before a desolate manor.
The manor's architecture was thoroughly vintage, its stone walls traced with moss.
It was dusk. The molten-gold afterglow of the setting sun spilled over the lush treetops, filtering through the gaps in the leaves to fall upon the students' faces, which were brimming with youthful, vibrant energy.
"Club President, it's almost night! I can't wait to gather some material! Let's show those damn trolls online who's boss!"
Kanagawa Yume pulled out a clipboard and a blank notebook, her eyes glinting with excitement.
All the members of the Occult Club were here. Having gathered right after school this Friday, they had followed their club president to the so-called haunted manor that was all the rage on the supernatural forums.
According to the rumors, anyone who got too close to the manor was never heard from again, vanishing without a trace.
Although they were members of the Occult Club, most of them were staunch materialists who didn't actually believe in ghosts or spirits. They were just here for the thrill and to document a story that would give their online followers the creeps.
After all, what's more powerful proof than living witnesses?
Besides, spending a couple of days in a haunted manor with your classmates sounded like a blast. They could even play games like hide-and-seek at night. It was the perfect club activity—exciting, and best of all, free.
The vast darkness, the unfamiliar rooms of the mansion, the pillars reeking of rust, the air thick with the stench of decay.
It was terrifying and thrilling. Even though they knew there were no real ghosts and that they were perfectly safe, their primal fear of the unknown still made their hearts pound, giving them a rush of excitement they could never get at school.
"Alright, alright, let's do a roll call before we go in," the club president said, ever the responsible leader. "Everyone, check if anyone's been left behind."
A minute of calling out names confirmed it: all twenty-four, including the president, were present and accounted for. No one was missing.
"Okay, everyone's here! Let's move out!" the president shouted, pumping a fist in the air, her eyes full of anticipation.
"Yeahhh!!"
The energy of high school students, when not channeled into studying, could make any fun or exciting activity a hundred times more lively than anything a group of jaded, burned-out office workers could muster. The difference was night and day.
Creeaak!
It took seven or eight girls working together to finally push open the five-meter-tall gate. The rusty iron groaned in protest, a mournful sound like the shrill cry of a newborn.
Clouds of dust and clumps of cobwebs rained down. Looking inside, they saw only pitch darkness; none of the evening's golden light penetrated the interior.
Outside, the world was bathed in brilliant gold; inside, it was dark and deathly still. It was like the world of the living and the dead, sharply divided.
"Damn, this gate is heavy! The original owner of this manor must have been loaded. Probably died hundreds of years ago, otherwise the place wouldn't be so run down. A real shame. It took us twenty minutes just to walk from the entrance to the house. Bet we could clean it up and sell it for a few hundred million! But if they were so rich, how come they didn't have any kids to leave it to?" Kanagawa Yume quipped eagerly.
"Didn't the forums say this place is haunted?"
"Haunted manor, haunted house, who cares? It won't be in two days, I guarantee it!" Kanagawa Yume declared, still brimming with confidence. She was the first to step inside. The next second, she couldn't help but wrap her arms around herself and shudder.
"Holy f**ing sht! Why the hell is it so cold?! Is this place even meant for humans?"
"...Yume, try not to swear so much," the president reminded her.
"Got it, Prez. No problem, Prez."
A moment later, her foot plunged through a hole in the floorboards, her long leg sinking deep.
"What the hell?! What kind of shoddy-ass construction is this? I could scatter rice on the ground and a chicken would peck out a better floor than this!"
"..."
The other Occult Club members were used to it. Kanagawa Yume was quite a looker—with her long, straight black hair, she could have easily passed for a cool, aloof campus goddess, as long as she kept her mouth shut. It was a shame she had one.
The rumor was that her name was originally just Yume. She was Estonian but had grown up in a small city in China before transferring to the Japan, and she could never kick her habit of cussing up a storm.
Such a gentle, beautiful face, all gone to waste.
Teachers and classmates had all tried to correct her bad habit. It was no use. You just couldn't stop her.
It was carved into her NAD. What's NAD, you ask? Kanagawa Yume's self-invented version of DNA, of course.
The members filed into the house. A cold wind immediately swept through, making everyone tense up and pull on their jackets.
"Prez, should we clean the place up before sunset? This house is pretty old-school. It'll be hard to clean without electric lights after dark," a member suggested.
"No, let's go to the second floor first," the president said, revealing her plan. "The ground floor of a house like this is usually the living area; the bedrooms are on the second floor. Let's get the bedrooms clean so we have a place to rest when we get tired from playing later. We can just crash. We'll clean the first floor with flashlights after the sun goes down."
They had come well-prepared: portable chargers and flashlights to last everyone two days, thin blankets, snacks and drinks, utility knives, lighters, all sorts of games... they'd even brought candles for atmosphere.
The candles probably wouldn't be needed. With phones and flashlights, who would need candles for light?
However... the president glanced at the layout of the first floor. The sconces on the walls weren't completely rotten; in fact, they looked surprisingly well-preserved, almost clean. It looked as if a candle had been burned halfway down in one of them not long ago.
But judging by the state of the door and the dust everywhere, it was impossible that anyone had been here recently.
Not overthinking it, the president led Kanagawa Yume and the other members toward the second floor.
But when they reached the staircase, they were shocked to find the stairs were gone.
"No stairs? How is that possible?"
"From the outside, this place clearly has five floors! How could there not be any stairs?"
Murmurs of confusion spread through the group. The president took a look and said calmly, "Maybe they were destroyed. See, there's still one step left. That proves there used to be stairs here. They're just gone for some reason."
Just then, Kanagawa Yume spoke up.
"Goddammit! Some little bastard did this on purpose. Burning the bridge after crossing—absolutely disgusting. Spits."
With that, she made a show of spitting, a rather unladylike gesture, and kicked the remaining step hard.
"Prez, what is Yume talking about? What's a DJ?"
"You're asking me?" The president shot the questioner a bewildered look.
As a native of the Japan, she found many of Kanagawa Yume's antics baffling, not least of which was her endless, ever-changing arsenal of profanity. She almost never repeated herself.
People from Shenzhou were truly a force to be reckoned with.
The president glanced up toward the unseen second floor and shook her head with a sigh. "Since we can't get to the second floor for now, let's just clean the first floor."
The group left the staircase area, returned to the main hall, and took out their cleaning supplies. Most high schoolers have had cleaning duty, so as long as no one slacked off, they worked with surprising efficiency. The sun was still halfway above the horizon when the first floor was spotless.
But then, something strange happened.
At the back of the hall, they discovered a long corridor. Its far end was completely invisible; even a flashlight beam couldn't penetrate the darkness, as if it were a void that swallowed all light.
But no one paid it much mind. Most of their attention was focused on the rooms along the left side of the corridor.
"One, two... seven, eight... nine."
"There are nine bedrooms, but the last one is chained shut, and our tools can't pry it open. There are twenty-four of us, so we can split into groups of three per room. Go ahead and team up. Anyone left over can form the last group."
The president did have some management skills. She knew that the more reserved, introverted members wouldn't actively seek out partners. Putting them together would actually create a better atmosphere for them.
The president watched as everyone began to form their groups. Suddenly, her gaze shifted to Kanagawa Yume.
What was Yume up to now...
The president looked over and saw Kanagawa Yume staring thoughtfully at the candle sconce on the wall next to a door. Then, Yume twisted the rusty wooden handle, opened the first door, and found an identical sconce inside.
But strangely, the candle inside was lit.
How weird. How could a candle light itself in a place no one had visited? They'd been in the manor for hours and hadn't seen anyone. It was impossible for someone to have slipped past them all to light a candle.
And what's more... the candle was perfectly whole. It didn't look like it had been burning at all.
"Well, well, well, how magical. Gotta write this down and post it on the forums, hehe."
Kanagawa Yume happily took out her clipboard and notebook, quickly jotting down her observations. For a web novel writer like her, inspiration was crucial. If she had to come up with everything herself, she'd rather be back in Shenzhou doing science exams.
High school life here in the Japan was a lot more relaxed by comparison. Well, not as carefree as she might have imagined, but still.
"P-Prez! Look! Wh-who's that!"
A girl pointed with a trembling finger at a masked figure standing at the end of the corridor.
The stark white mask had several sunken black holes for eyes and only a small slit for a mouth. Dressed all in white, the figure looked like a mourner paying respects to the dead.
The masked figure stood motionless. Suddenly, all the candles beside the corridor doors flared to life, burning with a steady flame.
"What happened? Who lit the candles?"
"It wasn't me! They all lit up at once!"
The group stared in terror at the masked figure, so much so that they completely overlooked the truly paranormal event that had just occurred.
Unlike the first eight steady flames, the candle at the far end of the hallway flickered wildly. Its flame danced as if pinched by an unseen hand, causing the masked figure's shadow to look like a living person being torn and pulled apart by a ghost.
"Who... who are you!" the president finally shouted, mustering her courage after a long hesitation.
The next second, another masked figure, dressed identically, appeared behind the first. Its shadow, cast on the wall by the flickering flame, was also being torn and pulled apart, just like the first one's. The second figure copied the first, standing eerily still, its tiny eyeholes staring at the group.
"What kind of half-assed prank is this? Trying to scare me? You picked the wrong damn person!"
Kanagawa Yume stormed over, furiously ripping off the person's mask and white sheet.
It was one of their own.
"Haha, Prez, looks like we scared you guys, hahaha."
"Yeah! I saw you all standing there, frozen! You thought we were real ghosts, didn't you? Hehe, you guys must've been terrified when I popped out from behind her, right?"
The identities of the two masked figures were revealed: they were just two of their fellow club members.
Instantly, everyone let out a sigh of relief. For a moment, they thought they'd actually run into a ghost.
Kanagawa Yume's suspicions vanished as well. The candles inside were probably lit by them. But who lit the ones outside? Maybe they had set it up with a spark beforehand, just waiting for the candles to light themselves?
"You definitely gave us a scare," the president admitted, the tension finally leaving her. "Having two strangers acting weird in the house is pretty creepy. Good thing Yume's got nerves of steel, or we might have actually run for it."
As for the two pranksters, they were dragged back by a fuming Kanagawa Yume.
"Looks like the sun's set... er, almost."
Through a high, sealed window, they could faintly see the world outside.
No one noticed that the candle outside the ninth room had returned to normal, its flame no longer flickering. One of the chains locking the door had loosened, but it had made no sound.
In the firelight, the shadows at the feet of the two returning pranksters were gradually shrinking.
Krk... krk...
Limbs snapping, spines bending, heads being severed, ripped away along with their blood vessels.
Their shadows were entangled by something like a spider's web, dragged up to the ceiling, and devoured by a massive, spider-like shadow.
Crunch...
The shadow lurked in the darkness, unseen by all.
Soon, the spider molted, transforming into the shape of a human shadow...
Kanagawa Yume glanced back.
The president asked, confused, "What's wrong, Yume?"
"Nothing. I just thought I heard someone eating a chicken leg and crunching the bones."
"You're overthinking it. But speaking of which, everyone's hungry. We can use the last bit of daylight to have a barbecue," the president suggested, arranging for people to bring out the food that needed to be cooked on the first day, along with the grill, seasonings, and other supplies.
Before long, the fragrant aroma of grilled meat filled the air, drifting throughout the manor grounds.