‘Where is it?’

Laila opened yet another door, not knowing how many she had opened so far, and looked inside.

It had almost the same layout as the room she had just checked. A bed, wardrobe, drawer, and nightstand. The only difference was that this room had a large framed picture next to the bed. It depicted a sheep with three horns sticking out its long tongue.

“Where are you hiding?”

Laila shouted as she flung open the wardrobe and lifted the sheets hanging down from the bed, but like before, it was empty. Only her angry and tired voice echoed hollowly.

“Is this your rule?”

When Laila shouted, a giggling sound was heard from somewhere in the air. It sounded like something enjoying scratching a wound with tiny claws.

Don’t get angry. Laila took a slow deep breath. Losing your temper means falling for its game.

But I’m already falling for it. Laila thought. Or was it a thought? Was it someone else’s voice? It was hard to tell anymore. She didn’t even feel like trying to distinguish.

What does it matter anyway? Maybe she would turn into a skeleton here, forever opening wardrobes unable to find a little child in this strange place.

It might be easier that way…

“…No!”

Laila slapped her own cheek hard, forcing strength into her fingertips that were about to go limp.

She had repeated this so many times that her once pale cheek was now red and swollen. It looked awful, as if she had been repeatedly slapped by someone with a bad habit.

This time she must have hit too hard, as she tasted something salty at the corner of her mouth. After checking if she could clench and unclench her fist, Laila wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and went out into the hallway.

There were only three rooms on the second floor. Yet Laila had already opened more than twelve doors. She had lost count halfway through, so it might have been twenty or thirty doors she had opened.

Rooms with nearly identical layouts, similar furniture. But the girl was nowhere to be found. The rooms always looked the same, yet there was always one thing different. Things like the wallpaper, picture frames, mirror sizes, or window shapes.

But regardless of the room’s structure, the only places a girl could hide were in the wardrobe, under the bed, or under the dressing table.

Still, Laila couldn’t find a single strand of hair, and she was on the verge of going mad with anxiety. Every hair on her body stood on end and her skin itched.

—Are you giving up?

Laila jerked her head up at the sudden voice. She felt something move somewhere in the air.

“This is cheating!”

—No, it’s not.

She could almost see the image of a child tilting its head this way and that. Imagining that nonchalant attitude made her even more furious.

“You’re hiding your appearance, this isn’t hide-and-seek!”

—You just can’t find her.

A giggling laugh followed. Laila frowned deeply, then parted her lips.

She just said ‘her’. Laila muttered inwardly. ‘Her’ means… is there another child in this house besides the girl?

—That’s not a girl.

A gasping breath escaped Laila’s lips. Without realizing it, she spun around in the middle of the room, looking up at the empty air. She could see nothing but yellowish stains and grotesque calla lily patterns that looked like beast muzzles.

“You mean it’s not the child from earlier? What do you mean it’s not a girl?”

—It’s not human. You’ve fallen for it.

“Fallen for what?”

—A trap.

Silence fell. Laila rushed out of the room, panting heavily. It was the same corridor as before.

No, had it gotten longer?

Furrowing her brow, Laila carefully took a step. There was a creaking sound and… behind the railing overlooking below, there was a door. A door that hadn’t been there until just now.

This door was different from the others. It looked as if it alone had withstood over a hundred years in this strange house.

The corners were full of mouse bite marks and rot from moisture, and yellow, dangerous-looking mushrooms were growing in the sharp crack that ran from the top to the middle.

Laila bit her dry tongue as she looked down at the doorknob. The once clean and shiny doorknob was now covered in scratches. It looked like it had been struck repeatedly with something sharp or hard.

The moment she touched it, Laila felt a dull pain. It was as if a large piece of metal had struck her solar plexus and stomach simultaneously. All thoughts disappeared at once, and only the word ‘pain’ flickered in her mind like a lamp running out of oil.

“Ugh…!”

Laila quickly pulled her hand away from the doorknob and retched. Bile rose up and it felt like her entire stomach was turning inside out.

If there was any consolation amidst the shock, it was that the pain that seemed about to pulverize her entire body had disappeared without a trace. But another kind of pain engulfed Laila.

It wasn’t physical pain. What Laila felt momentarily, that pain was fear. Extreme fear had hurt her as if it were a real disease.

Laila’s gaze returned to the doorknob. She was afraid to reach out. If she grasped the doorknob, she would feel the same pain—fear—again. And something even worse might be waiting inside the room…

But what difference would it make?

She bit the tip of her tongue as hard as she could. As the sharp pain passed, her consciousness that was about to become hazy returned. Like a patient with arthritis, Laila carefully clenched and unclenched her hand before grasping the doorknob. She felt a deathly pain.

No, this isn’t real. Laila gritted her teeth and turned the doorknob. This is a memory left here. This is the ‘core’.

There was a creaking sound. The rusty doorknob that hadn’t budged before moved slightly.

“Come out…”

The door was stiff and wouldn’t open even when pushed. It felt as if something was blocking it from behind. Laila put her whole body weight against the door, clenching her molars. There was a clunking sound.

“Come out… right now!”

There was a loud bang. It was so loud it made her ears ring.

Something must have exploded. Laila thought. As her consciousness was about to fade away, her body was thrown through the doorway as if spilling over.

Fallen on the floor, the room’s interior came into Laila’s view one by one. A small bed, washbasin, wardrobe. Wallpaper with daisy flowers.

It’s a child’s room. Laila thought. A room where a child lived. Probably the child in the portrait…

Just then, the door of the wardrobe standing opposite Laila opened askew. The hinges made a chilling sound as they rubbed together. The inside was empty, but the wood grain looked severely warped. It looked as if it had been endlessly scratched with something.

Laila slowly got up. She felt a bit dizzy, as if she had hit her head wrong, but there was no time to worry about that.

She approached the empty wardrobe and opened the door wide. Then she examined the inside with an astonished expression. There were scratch marks everywhere. Literally everywhere…

‘Strange.’

Laila’s eyes blinked quietly. Besides the scratch marks, something felt unsettling.

She crouched in front of the open wardrobe door, then stood up, then gently placed her hand on the marks.

Like measuring a child’s height, Laila’s gaze slowly dropped down as she bent her knees in an awkward posture.

It can’t be. Laila thought. How could someone do such a thing…

Her trembling fingertips slowly entered the wardrobe.

As she felt along the edge of the wardrobe’s bottom panel, something sharp pricked her fingertip. Laila pulled out her hand and saw a droplet of blood forming, then pushed her upper body almost entirely into the wardrobe.

“…This can’t be.”

The bottom panel wasn’t fixed to the wardrobe. It was covering it like a lid and a thin gap could be seen. Nails were driven into the front edges on both sides.

Laila stepped back while breathing heavily, then kicked the wardrobe door with her foot. With a bang, the thin door fell off helplessly. A long rectangular darkness grinned at Laila.

She placed one foot against the back wall of the wardrobe and lifted the bottom panel. The rotting wood made cracking sounds as it broke.

Laila tore away the wood, heedless of her hands becoming covered in splinters. When a hole finally opened, Laila carefully looked down.

A black floor could be seen. It was exactly the size of the wardrobe. Small, thin bones were scattered on it.

“This can’t be…”

Laila reached out towards the bone fragments. At that moment, a girl with braided hair suddenly appeared behind her.

“You found the wrong one! You lose!”

The child pushed Laila with unbelievably strong force. Laila’s body was instantly crumpled into the small hole, and the wardrobe door that had been torn off slammed shut with a bang.

Then complete darkness swallowed Laila.

Eustar, leading his men, arrived near the sink and tested how far they had to go before the sink disappeared. After repeating the same process a few times, he found the limit where the sink didn’t disappear and drew a line there with his scabbard.

“We can see the sink from here.”

The men nodded. As he said, the sink could be seen from inside the line. A perfectly round hole, so quiet and so black that it naturally evoked terrible imaginings.

“We need to draw out the energy source that created the sink first. Only then can we find Miss Kristrad.”

Rogardis said.

“But Elder Eustar, isn’t it a problem that the sink’s energy source… doesn’t stay here?”

“I’ve thought about that too. It’s true that unlike other ghosts, it’s moving around here and there like a monster, playing ‘tag’. But whatever comes out of the sink eventually has to return to the sink. In other words, if we throw something into the sink that’s more interesting than it becoming the ‘tagger’ and chasing people, it might be drawn back here by the sink’s desire.”

“So that’s why you brought this.”

Rogardis said, looking at the giant heart of the monster Echeneides. The disgusting gray mass now lay limp inside a box filled with a special solution.

Eustar nodded.

“This is just the first and secondary bait. Let’s hope we can find the most important bait. Before it’s too late.”

He looked around at his men.

“Throw the heart into the sink.”