The silence that stretched following the last words made my blood run cold. My hands, which had been steady a moment prior, began to shake as my breathing grew rougher and rougher.
But as if that wasn’t bad enough—
The subject is experiencing emotional upheaval upon the discovery of the experimentation.
A new log manifested before my very eyes.
The book dropped from my hands.
I hastily looked around, asking Mr. Jingles to see if there were any cameras looking, but regardless of where I looked, there didn’t seem to be any cameras pointing at me.
This made my chest grow heavier.
A series of questions floated through my mind.
’No, it can’t be. It’s impossible. It makes absolutely no sense. This is the cult trying to mess with me. It can’t be!’
I started losing it, a constant ringing sound echoing through my mind.
Looking back down on the ground, I tried to reach for the book, but just as I bent down to pick it up...
A sudden pain jolted me out of my thoughts.
The pain pierced my mind as I held onto my head, spit flying out of my mouth as my vision turned blurry and I stumbled my way across the room, holding onto the sides of the shelves, but the moment I touched one of the shelves, as though it was made out of paper, it suddenly started moving.
By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late.
With a loud crash, the shelf fell and books spilled all over.
One shelf toppled into another, setting off a chain reaction as they collided one after another, collapsing before my eyes in a thunderous cascade.
I froze at the sight, aware of the chaos that had happened.
And it was also then that I was reminded of the side-effect of ’Luck Halo’.
My chest trembled as I looked around me.
I could feel something shift in the surroundings, and without second thought, I rushed in the opposite direction from where I came from, trying my best to find a way out. As I left, I tried to look for the book, but the chaos that followed made it impossible for me to do so.
The only thing I could do was grit my teeth and leave.
My mind still hurt, and my vision was blurry.
The lights were dim as well, making it extremely hard for me to see properly.
’Where should I go? What am I supposed to do?’
I could feel the place stirring to life.
Muffled groans and sounds filtered in all directions, most likely from those that had been startled by the noise, and I picked up my pace, dashing in all directions as I tried to navigate through the chaos.
And soon, a door appeared.
The moment I saw it, I didn’t hesitate.
I ran toward it with everything I had, my footsteps echoing sharply across the floor. The pain in my head flared up. It was sharp, and... unbearable, twisting my vision until the world warped around me.
The single door ahead blurred and split, shifting into three overlapping shapes that pulsed in and out of focus.
"Which...? W-which...?"
I didn’t even know as I crashed into the wall, my hands pressing in all directions as I tried to feel for the knob.
At the same time, I started to hear whispers.
The voices echoed around me, distorted and overlapping, as if the air itself was trying to speak. I strained to listen, to catch even a single word, but the sounds twisted together into an unintelligible murmur.
The hair at the back of my neck rose, and soon—
I finally managed to find the doorknob, twisting it and opening the door.
Without a second thought, I rushed out of the room.
But what greeted me on the other side of the door was darkness.
A complete and utter darkness that made me stop dead in my tracks.
’W-what...? Where is this...?’
I couldn’t think properly.
My emotions were a mess, and the pain in my head grew stronger by the second.
I didn’t know what was going on, but it was making it impossible for me to think or analyze the situation properly.
Light flared into my vision, exposing a large room before my eyes.
That was also the moment my mind blanked as a terrifying cold suddenly gripped me.
Trembling, I hesitated. But eventually, I reached for my pocket and took out a certain flip phone, dialing a number.
The line answered a few rings after. The rıghtful source is novelꞁire.net
As usual, the line was silent.
I knew that someone was listening.
And eventually, I spoke, my voice trembling as I looked around me.
Marked on the walls. To my right. To my left. On top.
"E-eyes, everywhere."
Drawn in dark ink, the markings stretched across the walls in long, uneven lines.
The ink shimmered wetly, as if it had only just been laid down, a thick, oily scent hanging in the air. It ran in slow, deliberate drips down the walls.
"They’re... looking at me from every direction. It’s all I can see. I... don’t know what’s going on, but there’s no way out for me. This is it for me."
Looking around, there was nothing.
The room was completely sealed from all sides.
Not a window or a door.
I didn’t know why, but I suddenly started counting.
"Nine, ten, eleven..."
I stared at each eye individually, feeling the throb in my mind growing increasingly painful.
"Thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three.."
The more I started to count, the more I started to feel a change in the surroundings.
The room trembled, a deep vibration rolling through the floor and up my legs. The air grew heavier... colder, as if something was forcing its way in. But regardless of where I looked, I couldn’t see a thing.
I was sure that something or someone was present. Watching me.
I started to shudder, a strong metallic scent filling the air.
And despite all of this—
"Fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty-six..."
I still found myself counting.
With every eye I counted, the presence in the room grew more prevalent, pressing closer... heavier, until it felt like the walls themselves were breathing.
I wanted to stop, but my mouth refused to listen to me.
I continued to count, each additional number seeming to grow in the sense of unease.
"Sixty-eight, sixty-nine, seventy, seventy-one."
I stopped, reaching the final number.
The surroundings turned completely silent.
It was in such silence that I heard it.
The soft sound of a breath as it brushed against the back of my neck, sending shivers down my entire body as I froze on the spot.
That was also the moment that images flashed inside my mind. The memories started to return to me, and my mind was suddenly brought back to the past.
During the final call, the hot breath ran down my neck.
The voice whispered back then.
That time, I didn’t have an answer.
But this time, I did.
The words flowed out of my mouth on their own.