*Present*
"A reaper?" Minho echoed. "They kill humans?"
"No," the girl replied. "They don't actually kill humans. More specifically, they'll get rid of anyone, who isn't dead, co into this world. It's not a place for the living."
She peered out through the door's cracks to make sure that the skeletal creature was gone.
"They're not usually patrolling around," she murmured. "They rarely show up. It was probably because they've sensed sothing powerful."
"Are there more of them?" Minho asked. His voice was almost a whisper.
"Yes, but in this building, there's just one," she explained. "It doesn't co out often unless there's a troublemaker in the realm. There has been so sort of disturbance lately. It seems that soone had opened a portal to the real world and now that you're here, I can see that they've succeeded."
"I need to get to Gayoon," he said. "She's alive just like I am! I have to get to her!"
He was about to open the door when the girl's cold hand stopped him. "Do you know your way around this place?" she asked in a cool tone.
"We're on the ground floor," Minho stated. "I have to get to the fifth floor-"
"It's not as easy as climbing the stairs," she sighed. "You really think I'm the only spirit around here? There are many other spirits here and not all of them are friendly."
Minho thought about her words for a while. She was right. He had no idea about the dangers they might face while saving Gayoon. He did not even know how to go back to their world.
"Salt," he muttered. "We'll need salt. I've seen an exorcist use salt on a spirit once."
He recalled how Shinjin had used salt to keep the CCK's spirit at bay. But would it work on the spirits in this world?
"It might work," the girl confird. "Other than that, there's one more thing you'll need."
"What's that?"
"Peach blossom leaves," she stated. "The salt is in the kitchen across the hall. This world is built exactly like the school in the real world so you'll find items here which have the sa properties as the ones in the real world. If the salt works on spirits here, then so will the peach blossom leaves."
"Why peach blossom leaves?"
"Peach blossom are considered to be holy and pure," the girl explained, pressing her ears against the door. "It is used in traditional healing thods to calm the soul. It's so pure that it can keep away spirits and cuts through reapers. It's not much but effective enough to keep them away for a while. There's one tree right outside the kitchen. You can gather so of the leaves."
She tried to listen through the door. "I think the coast is clear," she said. "Let's go."
Quietly sneaking out, she peeked both ways to check the hallway before ushering him to follow her.
"Try to be as quiet as possible," she warned. "The reapers are blind but they have excellent hearing. They don't have a sense of direction but will destroy anything that cos in their way. So be very careful."
"Where's the kitchen?" Minho whispered.
"We'll have to cross the reception area and head south until we see the cafeteria," she said. "That is if the place remains still."
"What do you an?"
"Sotis, these halls change," she explained. "It's a loop, you see. One minute you're walking in the garden but within the next second, you'll find yourself in a hallway. This place keeps on shifting to confuse the spirits."
Minho was ntally noting down everything he was learning about the strange world. They were walking down an empty hallway which was looming around them dangerously. Just like the classroom they had left behind, the place was too quiet. Minho never realized it before but the world he lived in was always lively, full of sounds. He was so absorbed into making money and raising his family, that he never appreciated his surroundings much.
But now that he was in another world, he was beginning to realize how much he missed out on. The sounds of his family mbers laughing, the cries of the insects when he went camping with Gayoon or the trinkets of cutlery whenever they had dinner. He suddenly missed all of those things in that cold, dreary world. Even their footsteps were silent.
They passed the long hallway and reached a reception area. It was exactly like the real one in Minho's world. There was a receptionist's lounge in the front with a notice board behind it. A sofa was placed at a corner for people who waited in queue while a water tap was placed next to it. The walls were painted in shades of purple and orange while the furry maroon rug looked spotlessly clean. It was the sa as the lobby in the real school.
Only difference was the lack of people.
"What's your na?" he asked the girl in an attempt to make small conversation. He was sure the world was playing with his mind because the silence was making him uncomfortable by the minute.
"I don't know," the girl admitted. "I can't rember my na. All I rember is that I woke up here and am dead."
She said it in a matter of fact way as if it no longer bothered her.
"This girl...Gayoon...why are you so adamant on saving her?" she wondered out loud. "Is she your girlfriend?"
"She...she is," Minho replied. "And also the mother of my child."
The girl looked at him for a while. "You must love her a lot," she stated. "To follow her all the way to this world...it takes a lot of courage to do what you did."
Love? It was an alien word to him. Was it love that he felt for her? Could he even fall in love?
As he repeated that word in his mind, Gayoon's bright smile flashed in front of his eyes. Even in his imagination, he was dazzled by her warmth. He was not sure of what love was, but for a mont there, he was sure that he would give up all his wealth if he could see her smile once more.
Suddenly, the girl stopped in her steps and pulled Minho to the side. Both of them ducked under the receptionist's table.
"Is it another reaper?" he whispered.
"No," she replied. "Look."
She pointed at the door which led to another hallway. It flew open and a cold gush of wind ca through it. Minho shivered but not in cold. He was shivering in fear.
A group of people began to slowly walk out of the entrance. There were n, won, old and young people in the mix but sothing was off about them. They were staggering in a slow motion, their sullen faces devoid of all life and emotions. So of them were grunting while others gaped stupidly around as if trying to rember where they were. Their eyes were sunk so deep into their pupils that it seed that they had no eyeballs. Instead, their eyes were completely black. The people...no...those things were probably blind. So of them sniffed the air but they could no longer breathe. Their back was hunched while their arms hung on their sides.
"Those spirits are the mindless ones," the girl inford him. "They don't rember their nas but the eternity in this abyss has destroyed their minds. They no longer think nor do they know what they're doing. In this place, they're just existing like an empty shell."
"Then why are we hiding from them?" Minho asked.
"They might be mindless, but that doesn't make them any less dangerous," the girl sighed. "If they touch you, they'll suck out your soul and make you like one of them. I told you, this place has many facets of spirits. These are not the friendly ones."
"What category do you fall into?" Minho asked curiously.
"Naless," she replied. For the first ti that night, he noted a hint of sadness in her tone. "People are beginning to forget , so my na has been erased. If they completely put out of their minds, then I, too, will beco a mindless spirit."
She was staring at the ghostly army which was walking towards the other end of the room with no sense of direction. Minho pitied the girl for her impending fate. Living an eternal existing without a na or sane mind was a punishnt worse than hell. If monsters like CCK and Park Seungjo got the easy way out, then he shuddered to think what the spirits in the World of the Dead might have done to deserve such a fate.
"Life is unfair," he muttered.
"So is death," the girl added. The ghost army had disappeared but the girl made them sit for a little while longer in case if they ca back.
"I think they're gone," she finally said. "Let's go and get the materials."
She motioned him to follow her and they set off towards the kitchen.
Minho was feeling ominous. As he stepped into the kitchen corridor, he could not help but glance back at the Mindless who had disappeared on the other end. Did Gayoon really see these kinds of spirits all her life? Do the people really leave once they die?
For the first ti in life, he really had no answers.
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