Chapter 32.3
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, Iāll be on my wā”
“ā¦Restroom.”
“ā¦ā¦?”
“The person youāre looking for. He went into an old, unused menās restroom down thereā¦”
“ā¦ā¦”
“And he hasnāt 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 outā¦?”
“I donāt have clearance to enter the basement levels, sir.”
“Iām going thoughā¦”
Of course. Because itās your job, sir.
Wouldnāt it be great if you just went and found him on your ownā¦
“Come on, letās go. Letās just say youāre a new hire in the Security Team.”
Sir?!
“No, really, you donāt have toā”
“Letās goā¦”
Nooo!!
How did things get to this point, I wonder.
āHe even got me a uniform and everything.ā
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.
āI let myself get talked into itā¦ā
ā Itās fine. People from the Field Exploration Team pitch in for support work sometimes tooā¦
Thatās punishment duty, isnāt it?
Anyway, I somehow verified that entering the basement wouldnāt cause any big issues, even if this got out.
And Iād even contacted D-squad to officially process this as support duty, so I shouldnāt get in troubleā¦
Guess all that polite socializing paid off.
āStill, this is so disorienting.ā
All this just to get my hands on a Bloodbathtub.
After going this far, even if I donāt 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, whatās revealed wasā¦
A hallway lined with ordinary office doors.
“ā¦ā¦”
Whyā¦ were there offices down here?
āShouldnāt this floor have safety equipment or facilitiesā¦?ā
The hallway was dimly lit, eerily silent, with opaque glass doors all around.
Offices labeled A, B, Cā¦ nameplates marking each door.
The security sergeant whispered,
“Donāt open any doorsā¦”
“Yes.”
Even if he hadnāt said so, there was no way in hell Iād touch anything here.
I just kept my eyes on the security sergeantās back, following him slowly.
And thenā
– Mr. Roe Deer?
“ā¦ā¦!”
– To think youād wear such a worn outfit just to bring this Braun a gift! Iām 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.
āā¦How are you even talking to me?ā
The āGood Friendā could only talk and move within the boundaries of a creepypastaā¦ which meant only one thing.
I was already inside a creepypasta.
“Ah, weāre here.”
The security sergeant stopped in front of a door with a faint, pale light seeping out from it.
“Iām going to open itā¦”
“Waitā”
But before I could say anything, he opened the restroom door.
Ka-chakā
With a burst, the flickering light inside revealed the room beyondā¦
“ā¦ā¦”
āThis, crazyāā
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.
āThereās barely any metallic smell.ā
Thatās not all blood.
And it doesnāt smell like regular ink, either. This isā¦
āā¦Traditional ink from an inkstick?ā
Tap, tap.
Braun was tapping from my pocket.
āWarning.ā
My senses snapped back to attention.
The security sergeant, scanning the restroom, reached out his hand.
“Donāt toucā”
Poke.
“Huhā¦?”
Oh no.
The moment his finger touched the ink, the dark red liquid began surging like a wave within the restroom.
“ā¦ā¦!!”
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!!
āFuck fuck fuckā¦!ā
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 meā¦ Wait, alive?
And blood-like?
āThe Bloodsucking Cutleryā¦!ā
I pulled out a fork and jammed it into the floor.
The gleaming silver fork trembled, then hungrily began absorbing the surrounding ink.
“Ah!”
Itās working!
But, a small dessert fork couldnāt hold back this much ink.
Tingā
The utensil was flung away.
āFuuuck!ā
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.
āā¦An abandoned house?ā
My breath got caught in my throat, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the gloom.
Andā¦ andā¦
I realized something.
What I was looking at wasnāt wallpaper.
Talismans.
The walls, all made of rotting wood, were covered in crumbling, worn-out talismans.
“ā¦ā¦!”
The air was heavy, pressing down on my shoulders, with an eerie tension filling the dark, cold room.
ā¦Somethingās wrong.
I felt like a rat that had crawled into the wrong place, in the wrong way.
“ā¦ā¦”
I clenched my trembling hand.
But there was nothing there.
āā¦Itās gone.ā
The Bloodsucking Cutlery had vanished.
Cold sweat broke out as I took slow, deep breaths to avoid hyperventilatingā¦
“Excuse meā¦!”
I nearly passed out.
“There, over there! Are youā¦ the police??”
I lifted my head.
I wasnāt alone in this dark, abandoned house.
Small figures huddled in a corner were staring at me.
They wereā¦ children.
āMiddle school uniforms.ā
The trembling students called out,
“Please save us! W-We touched this weird drawing, and now we canāt 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 ć¹ consonant is both R and Lākind of in the middleābut 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!
Siptea
Yikes there’re children in this creppypasta now?!
lynniee
for some reason everytime soleum says fukkkk i just hear shiballll in my head lmaoooo