After being away for three years, I was now experiencing incredible confusion. In all my life, this was the first time I had ever entered this building.
However, I was even more puzzled by the two people I'd seen earlier. They chatted casually, and their behavior looked completely ordinary while everyone else was panicking because they couldn't leave the village and were trapped here indefinitely.
I finally began descending the stairs slowly. I deliberately softened my footsteps because I was afraid the two of them would notice me. I had a feeling the place they were headed for held something hidden from the villagers.
At the bottom of the stairs was a very long corridor, one that looked like a cave—like a Dutch cave—with cement-coated walls that were incredibly smooth.
There were also several five-watt lights glowing inside the corridor, so I had no trouble seeing my surroundings as I entered.
“I had no idea there was a long corridor like this,” I thought.
I moved forward slowly. A narrow corridor would usually echo every footstep, so I couldn't speed up at the time.
Besides, the corridor floor looked extremely muddy. Countless drops of water dripped down and pooled below, making noise whenever I took a quick step through the corridor.
“Could Dad have gone into this corridor?”
“Because there might be other people besides those two who know this corridor exists,” I thought.
I kept thinking and trying to connect everything that had happened in the village—the incident that had happened to me last night, which had left me unconscious in the Mandala family's territory at the far end of the village.
And then there was this corridor. I had only just learned that there was an underground passage beneath this building.
I continued walking through the corridor. However, it seemed I'd lost track of the two people who had entered it, because the corridor now branched in several directions, leaving me unsure which way to go.
The long corridor ended in a small room containing three separate passageways. The room wasn't very spacious, and it looked dusty, as if it hadn't been used in a long time.
“Where am I supposed to go now?” I said, confused.
I began to hesitate when the corridor I was following split in two. I was afraid of making the wrong choice and ending up unable to get home, just like Dad, who had been missing for several days and still hadn't been found.
I thought for quite a while in that place. Then, from the far-left corridor, I heard a knocking sound, like someone tapping on an iron door. The echo carried all the way to where I stood.
I immediately decided I had to take the corridor on the left. I turned around and headed back toward the passageway beside me.
Whoooosh
A cool breeze suddenly brushed against me the moment I entered the corridor. I found it strange and wondered where the wind was coming from.
But as I went deeper, I saw several small air vents that extended all the way up to the surface. I could even see sunlight shining through them, though I had no idea what was above.
I kept walking and noticed that the corridor looked slightly different. It seemed to be an old passageway, because the concrete covering the walls had begun peeling with age. Even the ground beneath my feet looked worn away by water dripping from the vents above.
To make matters worse, the corridor I was following twisted and turned. In several places, large rocks jutted out from the walls and blocked part of the passage, forcing me to turn sideways to get through.
The longer I walked, the stranger my thoughts about this place became. The atmosphere that suddenly changed so drastically at night, along with this hidden underground place where Mom had said Dad disappeared that morning, made me increasingly certain that something was being concealed. I just didn't know what.
After walking for ten minutes, I suddenly stopped when I saw a large, dull iron door at the far end of the corridor. Its edges were rusted, and huge bolts covered its surface.
“Why is there an iron door inside this corridor?”
The door appeared to be closed, but for some reason, I could hear several people talking behind it. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but I was certain the two people I'd encountered inside the building had gone through that iron door.
I finally backed away several steps and watched the door from a distance, trying to keep far enough away that the two people I was following wouldn't notice me.
Their voices were muffled as I listened to the people behind the iron door. But one thing was certain: their conversation sounded extremely serious, because I couldn't hear any laughter or joking.
Before I knew it, half an hour had passed. I was still standing there, keeping my distance from the iron door, when the slow squeal of it opening suddenly startled me. The rust had given the door a distinctive sound that made me jump.
Creeeeak
The iron door opened, though not all the way. Perhaps because it was an old door, it could only open a quarter of the way. Even so, I could tell that the two people I'd followed had come out through it.
Then—
“Why are the people who took me home yesterday inside that room?”
I was suddenly shocked. The people who had found me unconscious yesterday and carried me home together were now emerging from behind the door, talking with the two people I'd followed from the building.
I was so shocked by what I saw that I suddenly stepped into the puddle right in front of me. The splash echoed all the way to the people standing by the iron door.
Splash
The people who had been chatting immediately turned toward where I stood. Their relaxed bodies tensed with alertness, and one of them suddenly slapped the shoulders of the two people I'd been following.
“Hey, you two didn't bring anyone else here, did you?”
The two people merely shook their heads. They were convinced that they alone had entered the place and that nobody else had come with them.
“IF NO ONE CAME WITH YOU, THEN WHAT WAS THAT SOUND? GO CHECK IT OUT—THERE MIGHT BE AN INTRUDER IN HERE!”
The person who had asked them suddenly grew angry and ordered the two of them to investigate where the sound had come from.
Seeing them from a distance, I panicked and tried to run away as fast as I could.
THUD THUD THUD
Apparently, the echo of my footsteps through the corridor was clearly audible to all of them. One of them even shouted that there really was an intruder who knew about this place.
“THERE'S THE INTRUDER! HURRY UP AND CATCH HIM!”
Everyone inside the room suddenly ran after me. I had no idea who they were or why they had gathered in a corridor like this. For a moment, I even wondered if Dad might be among them and had disappeared with the group.
I ran through the corridor in a state of complete panic, my heart pounding furiously.
Eventually, I reached the room with the branching corridors—the one I'd passed through earlier.
My thoughts raced. If I ran toward the exit, I was afraid they would find me immediately because that corridor was straight and had none of the twists and turns of the one I'd just come through.
So I decided to enter one of the passageways I hadn't explored yet. Without thinking twice, I ran into the corridor on the far right side of the room.
I tried to hide in one of the passageways until things were safe, certain they would chase me all the way to the exit.
But my plan didn't work. When they reached the center of the branching corridors, one of them shouted that they should search every passage, including the one where I was hiding.
I'd initially wanted to stay hidden in that corridor, but I finally decided to go deeper into it.
Panic and fear consumed me. I had no idea what would happen to me if those people discovered me.
Besides, whatever they'd been discussing behind the iron door sounded extremely serious—something no outsider was supposed to hear.
I kept running through the corridor, a passageway just as old as the one on the far left that I'd entered earlier.
But then—
Screech
My steps suddenly stopped when the corridor transformed into a stone passage that was completely dark. There wasn't a single light. I had no idea what waited inside that darkness, but one thing was certain: I was trapped between two choices, and neither was in my favor.
Should I surrender myself to them, or force my way into the darkness, not even knowing where this corridor ended?
I glanced over my shoulder and heard their footsteps drawing closer and closer. In the end, I decided to run forward and plunge into the darkness, even though I had no idea where the corridor would take me.
In my panicked state, I ran through the dark. Several times, I tripped, and the rough stone walls scraped my skin on both sides.
I heard their footsteps stop. Perhaps they were experiencing the same thing I was.
But it seemed what I'd done was a mistake. As I ran with all my strength through the darkness, I suddenly fell into a chasm I hadn't seen because of how dark the corridor was. My body tumbled several times, and I felt excruciating pain.
Until finally—
SPLASH
My body suddenly plunged into a pool of stagnant water, a slow-moving current like an underground river flowing somewhere beyond my sight.