Whenever I close my eyes, I always recall the story of those days.
It’s hot. An unbearably hot heat wafts down.
Someone had set the apartment on fire.
My mother and I, attempting to escape, had stopped on the apartment stairs and were sitting there, looking at each other.
For a rather terrible reason.
"…Son, our son."
Mother, muttering so, held me tight with a face dripping blood.
And the sound of someone's footsteps slowly approaching that mother.
Reflected was the figure of a young boy who could do nothing but tremble.
A nightmare that has tormented me for ten years.
And I still remember the day when that was not a nightmare, but reality.
"Mo…m…?"
My mother's breathing slowly fading.
But her still-warm body caused cognitive dissonance within me.
"…Son."
Mother calling me in a strained voice.
At that, unable to answer at all, I hugged her tight.
Then, the sensation of a hot liquid touching my stomach.
Blood was surging out from a hole pierced in her abdomen.
"Do you want to live?"
"…!!"
"No… you have to live… you can't stay here, son…."
Mother, speaking so, released the hands that had held me so tightly.
I still remember.
Her face, gripped by fear, yet trying somehow to maintain a smile.
"I raised you without a father… and now, now I can't be by your side either, so I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… Forgive me. Sion… Mom loves you so much."
Mother, speaking so, stroked my head with a hand sticky with blood.
I looked at her and shed tears.
"Go, son."
Mother, speaking so, pushed me.
"If you want to live, run."
Falling from Mother's hand, I ran like mad, dashing down the apartment stairs like mad.
I didn't care how many times I tumbled.
The only time my footsteps briefly stopped was...
-Shlaaack!!!
-Kwahahaha!!!
The sound of something being plunged into and pulled from someone's body.
And when the mad man's laughter was heard.
Because I knew exactly who had fallen victim to that man, I cried like mad.
Mother, who had become someone I could never see again.
Even now, the emotions and heat of that day are vividly conveyed.
* * *
I had a nightmare.
"…The hell was that…?"
A nightmare of being eaten by something.
Not the usual nightmare of that day, but a dream of being devoured by a strange monster.
Looking at the full-length mirror beside me, I saw myself drenched in cold sweat.
"…Some messed-up dream."
As the details slowly faded, I came to my senses, took a shower, put on a shirt, and stopped in front of the front door.
"I'm off, Mom."
The figure of Mom, whom I can no longer see.
Looking at that fixed image inside the photo frame, I felt a strange emotion.
An omen that something was about to happen.
It was ominous, but it was always like this when going to school.
Because people are scary.
Teachers, classmates, all of them are so scary it's unbearable.
Because human malice knows no end.
The closer I got to school, the more I felt as if my heart was slowly being squeezed.
'It's worse than usual… is it because of the nightmare?'
A feeling that my body instinctively rejects this place.
To the point where the thought *I want to live* crossed my mind unbidden.
But I brushed it off lightly and checked my phone.
[Collection of Urban Ghost Stories.]
Reading urban ghost stories puts my mind at ease.
I guess it's because it makes me feel as though I'm not the only unfortunate one in this world.
Well, some might call me gloomy, but it's my only hobby since I've built walls between myself and people, so I have no intention of quitting.
"…Not even that scary."
It wasn't scary at all.
As expected, the scariest thing in this world is humans.
While scrolling intently like that.
An interesting story caught my eye.
[Title: Strange Phenomenon Stories Spreading Recently.]
[What is a "gwai"? It refers to phenomena or entities of unknown nature.
This includes objects or monsters from urban legends, but recently there have been eyewitness accounts of such things going around.
The scary thing is that these posts are being deleted one by one.
Like someone is controlling things from behind—pretty creepy, right?
Well, believe it or not.]
"……."
In an instant, cold sweat enveloped my entire body.
Was it because the story seemed like something I knew?
The cold sweat became even more palpable, and my hands began to tremble slightly.
Especially, I felt a burning pain in my left arm.
"What the… hell."
My breathing grew rough. I turned off my phone and hurried toward school.
Anxiety was overwhelming me, but it would be fine.
As always, I would be fine.
* * *
Sweating cold sweat, I flung open the school door, and as always, there were kids looking at me with strange eyes.
"What…?"
"What's with him, did he run here?"
"Hey, eyes down, you crazy bastard. If you meet his gaze, you'll burn to death too."
"Hey, it's I Sion. Don't go near him."
The children, saying so, turned their eyes away from me as if warding off bad luck.
Seeing that, I let out a small sigh.
"Ah……."
Nothing had happened.
Except that my name was being used like some kind of curse.
It was the same life without a single friend for the six months since entering high school.
If there was anything fortunate, it was that at least I wasn't suffering physical bullying.
They didn't hit me or send me on errands, but it was a bit lonely.
Letting out a sigh, I sat in my seat as always.
My seat in the farthest corner, where no one sat beside me.
I walked quietly and moved there.
Sitting down, I blankly looked out the window.
Fatigue washed over me.
My body trembled slightly as if warning me not to sleep, but I closed my eyes.
It must have been because I was tired from the nightmare.
Slowly closing my eyes, I felt the voices of my classmates gradually fading.
I'll just sleep a little, and get right back up.
With that thought, I closed my eyes.
And when I opened my eyes again.
"…Huh?"
All the desks except mine were overturned.
Chairs were scattered about haphazardly, and more than anything, what was strangest was.
"The Taegeukgi…."
The Taegeukgi with the yin-yang symbol.
However, the yin side on that Taegeukgi was stretched to an excessive degree.
The red was almost invisible.
Red lights were flickering in the hallway.
"A… nightmare…?"
A bizarre feeling enveloped me.
'Is this a nightmare…? The nightmare from this morning?'
I didn't know. My head was just spinning.
A scenery that seemed like something I had seen somewhere was simply sprawled out.
"……."
Slowly rising from my seat, I headed toward the teacher's podium.
"…Register?"
The word for attendance book had changed to "register."
Names written entirely in red.
And among those names.
[I Sion I Sion I Sion I Sion I Sion I Sion I Sion]
I couldn't see any name except my own.
My name painted in red.
A chill ran through my entire body.
"…!!"
-Thud!!
Startled, I dropped the register on the floor.
Then, a sound spread throughout the school like an echo.
"Mad, mad, mad."
Red lights.
The memory that comes to mind when seeing them is only one.
"Haa… haa…."
A feeling of my body paralyzing from rising PTSD.
My thoughts slowly numb, and my body stiffens.
The only thing rising in my head is one thing.
I want to live.
No, I have to live.
For Mom.
For Mom who sacrificed herself, leaving me behind that day.
"If you want to live, run."
Recalling Mother's last words, I slowly opened the classroom door.
I had a premonition that I had to escape from here somehow.
-Screeeeech
-Bang!
Forcing open the door that wouldn't budge easily as if it were old, a loud noise echoed along with dust.
"What an unnecessarily loud noise…."
Terrified, I muttered so and stepped out into the hallway.
-Tick, tiditick
-Crackle, crackle crackle
In the hallway, I heard the sound of red lights flickering and, for some reason, sparks flying from broken lights.
I could instinctively tell that no one was there.
If so.
"…Then, who's playing the piano?"
Why was the sound of a piano coming from the far end of the hallway?
I didn't know anything.
That's why it was so terrifying.
I had thought humans were the scariest.
But now that I was in this situation, I began to long for people.
A space similar to usual.
It was the moment when the school, already an anxious space, became dyed in horror.
Of course, nothing would be solved by staying still like this.
"First… let's move."
For now, I had to move.
To survive.
I slowly moved my steps toward the central staircase.
And then, someone's voice.
"Stu…dent…?"
"…!!!"
I flinched in surprise, but it was definitely a person's voice.
But why.
"…My left arm…?"
Why was my left arm trembling so much?
As if my body remembered something.
The uneasy feeling wouldn't disappear.
I considered going back into the classroom, but.
-Rattle, rattle, rattle!!
"It's locked?"
It was locked.
A situation where it seemed only the classroom I had exited had its door open.
But the voice was coming from the place I had left.
"…Who… are you?"
I cautiously asked the other party's identity.
Because it was definitely a person's voice.
But something was strange.
"Stu… dent… safe… here… here… here… here."
"…?"
An old man's voice came forth, but he couldn't speak properly.
Carefully looking toward the end of the hallway, I saw light.
It was that of a flashlight.
As my gaze slowly rose, I saw the security guard's uniform.
For a moment, I thought I wasn't alone, but.
"I… Sion… student… found you."
The security guard saying so was lacking something.
"His… head… is missing…?"
"If you want to live, run."
It was the moment Mother's words flashed through my mind.