North x Northwest

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As Louisa walked out with Liloa, Charles, who was a year older than Liloa, glared at them. Charles knew better than anyone that Liloa’s sudden appearance had been undermining his authority as alley leader.

Feeling Charles’ eyes on her back, Liloa shrugged her shoulders with a strange sense of victory.

After a while, Liloa found herself standing in front of a villa along with the other children. She was the only one confused, so she had no choice but to speak up first.

“Where are we?”

Louisa whispered, squeezing her arm.

“…This villa has been empty for several years. But a few days ago, someone was suddenly seen digging around the villa’s ground…”

“…Whoever that is must be a madman…”

“…Maybe he was trying to bury a body?…”

“…So how many people has he killed so far?…”

“…Kyaaah!…”

The girls screamed in suppressed tones. It tempted the rest of the kids, who found the girls’ reaction interesting, to say something even scarier.

Charles approached Liloa amidst the noisy children.

“Now, Liloa. It’s your turn.”

Liloa looked up at the boy’s triumphant face.

“…What?”

The boy then stepped on the railing of the fence surrounding the villa.

“We all went in there. You’re the only one left.”

“Are you telling me to go in there?”

“Why, are you scared?”

“No.”

Liloa’s quick response was fuelled by her anger towards Charles’ sarcasm, but the truth was, she was indeed a little scared. Although the villa looked neat, it was also undeniably desolate as no one had lived in it for several years. Looking up at the magnificent blue-grey mansion, Liloa felt a chill creeping down her spine even though the sun was still shining.

Etienne, who was next to Charles, chuckled.

“Louisa was so scared that she struggled and dropped her bag. So, get in there and find your best friend’s bag.”

Louisa sharply retorted.

“That’s not fair! We all went in and came back together! How can you ask Liloa to go in alone?”

“Then go. Join her, just the two of you.”

Louisa flinched her shoulders and looked at Liloa. She held onto Liloa’s arm tighter but couldn’t hide the fact that her hands were shaking.

Liloa spoke out loud as she felt uncomfortable for no reason.

“Well, I’m not a coward like anyone else, right? I can go as far as I want on my own.”

“…What? Who is a coward?”

“I guess the one who gets the most upset by what I just said.”

Charles gritted his teeth and glared at her.

“Hmph!”

Liloa snorted and lifted her chin haughtily.

She then went to the railing and pushed her body between the rods. Her palms were sweating as she held onto the railing, and the further she squeezed herself through the fence, the colder her body became. When she finally made it to the villa’s property and looked back at her friends, she felt like she had been transported to another world.

She straightened her back while clutching the hem of her dress.

Everyone stared blankly at Liloa, not expecting that she would actually enter the villa completely alone. Meanwhile, Liloa only repeated to herself.

‘I only need to find the bag and then I can run out of there.’

Liloa knew what Louisa’s bag looked like. So, even if there were no lights in the villa, she was convinced that her friend’s white bag would definitely get noticed.

‘If I come back with the bag, Charles’ damned nose will flatten out. And once he gets discouraged, he won’t be unruly or bother the girls anymore.’

From the other side of the fence, Louisa stammered with a frightened face.

“…I, I dropped it in the ground floor hall.”

Liloa nodded her head and turned her body again. Although the weather was clear, the villa appeared to be shrouded in unknown mystery. The main building was a typical southern-style villa with three stories and a protruding façade, but its size was unusual. There seemed to be additional two-winged buildings and a garden with a lake in the back. And because no one had been to this mansion for several years, it was clear that whoever owned it was hiding something big.

Liloa swallowed her dry saliva.

She walked across the lawn cautiously enough not to let her steps falter. Meanwhile, Louisa was yelling at her from behind, telling her to stop and come back. But Liloa was determined and continued to move forward.

‘I can’t see anyone, not even a shadow of a person can be seen in any of the windows.’

Liloa similarly hoped she wouldn’t have to get any closer, but when she came to her senses, the entrance was suddenly right in front of her. As she calmly climbed the front steps, the sound of her shoes hitting the stone floor rang eerily clear in her ears.

Liloa pushed the huge door open. In contrast to what one would think of an abandoned ownerless house, the door opened smoothly without a single sound of the hinges.

As she had expected, it was pitch black inside. The only source of light came through the opening of the door she was standing in and the weak light split the floor of the hall in a straight line. Liloa’s eyes scanned the floor for Louisa’s bag, yet no matter how wide she opened the door, she couldn’t find it. In addition, as she didn’t want to step inside and her arms were short, there was a limit to the light she could take in.

Liloa realised she had no choice but to go inside.

‘What should I do?’

She was tempted to run away.

‘It feels like my legs can give out at any moment. But… I said I would bring the bag back. I didn’t say I would go in because I wasn’t scared… I knew it would be scary… But I shouldn’t run away just because it’s scarier than I thought. I can’t become an adult if I easily back down like that. My mother and father will be disappointed in me if I do, and it will be hard for me to accept that… Anyway, there’s no one here. It’s actually safer if there’s no one around, right?..’

Liloa held on to the doorknob before stepping into the darkness. As the wind blew through the gab of the door, the white cloth covering the massive chandelier swayed like a ghost. The window shutters were all closed, so if Liloa took her hand off the door and it closed, everything around her would be pitch black again.

Liloa quickly removed her two shoes and placed them between the door and the frame.

She then tread into the hall, tiptoeing little by little. She thought she had to be cautious because if the bag truly fell there, it could make her trip any moment. The marble floor without a single carpet made the soles of her feet cold. As the cold spread beyond her toes up to the tip of her nose, she heard a rustling sound from somewhere… Beyond the darkness… In a remote, invisible space…

Liloa suddenly raised her head. As far as she knew, there was only one being that could wander casually in the dark.

‘Could it be Mortu? Could it be that he came to scold me for coming into someone’s house without any manners? …Will he cut off my leg?’

At that moment, a candle suddenly burst out from the darkness. The faint light illuminated the face of the person holding it.

“…Who’s there!..”

“..!”

Because her opponent was sprinting towards her, the face illuminated by the flickering light appeared distorted. Liloa couldn’t even scream and remained frozen in place till a shattering shout rang in her ears.contemporary romance

“Why did you come in again?!”

She felt like all her blood drained out of her body and she couldn’t breathe properly. It was as if someone was strangling her. Her opponent’s strangely crushed face was approaching fast, but Liloa couldn’t run away or scream. Glued to her spot, she could only think to herself…

‘It’s Mortu! Ahhh! I’m going to die… I’m going to die…’

***

Liloa came to her senses when she heard someone muttering.

“…These kids… I can’t understand them…”

It was followed by someone clicking his tongue.

It came from a person with an unfamiliar yet beautiful voice. Liloa suddenly realised she was still inside the mansion. She felt the texture of the blanket covering her and smelled a strange scent.

‘Why am I lying here?’

Even while she was asking herself this, she continued to hear the constant complaints from her side. Liloa tried to slightly open and squint her eyes to try to look around her, but in less than a second, she was discovered.

“Hey, where are you squinting your eyes like that? Can’t you open your eyes right away?”

That ‘someone’ tapped the bed with an annoyed voice.

‘It isn’t Mortu. More like a regular person, a very young person at that.’

Liloa raised her upper body as a surge of relief flooded through her…

done.co