He had personally checked and closed everything himself because he didn't want any intruders. Could it be that someone was already living here? The window that was open in the kitchen came to his mind. Considering this was almost an abandoned house with the previous owner only visiting the place a few times in a year, there was a good possibility that someone was taking shelter here.
He should be able to catch the intruder since he had just seen them in front of him. Lim Soohyun tried to get up from the bed, but he absolutely couldn't move. Not a single muscle moved. He could only move his eyeballs; that was the limit. Not being able to do as he wished made his chest tighten as if a sudden pressure had come to rest upon it.
He did find the situation interesting as this had never ever happened to him before, but he was almost like a living corpse. He couldn't even call out for help...
"...."
All Lim Soohyun could do was stare at the doorway unblinkingly. He kept staring and staring into the darkness until the shadows seemed like they were moving closer to him somehow. As if someone was also staring at him from the unlit corridor, but the one on the other side could definitely move, unlike him. Lim Soohyun was aware he was starting to feel fear of the unknown. It would definitely be a different story if he was not immobile or paralyzed right now.
He didn't enjoy the fact that he was entirely vulnerable to whatever was out there. He should at least be able to yell out a safe word...no?
At that moment, as he was completely immersed in watching the corridor out the door, the darkness slowly reached out in his direction. No, it was a hand, but it was black. A black hand was placed on the floor, coming from the darkness, and then another one came as if someone was crawling on the floor on all fours. A head with long hanging hair also revealed itself from the dark. The creature resembled a woman's form but a bit distorted with thin bony limbs, and everything was black as it was a shadow itself.
As a human, it was only natural for Lim Soohyun's heart to beat and stop with fear at the sight, but he was also one to take pleasure from it. The black woman twisted her stick arms, her bones creaking as she slowly crawled towards the bed. To him. Petrified, Lim Soohyun could only stare at the woman intensely even if he didn't want to. The woman, who was slowly creeping towards him, abruptly picked up speed and, forgetting to struggle, started to run to him.
Lim Soohyun came face to face with the long hair of the woman. He must've screamed because the next second he opened his eyes and found himself sitting on the bed, panting as cold sweat dripped down his face. He could move his body and even blink. He scanned the bedroom, which was the same as he last remembered before he fell asleep. There was no one in the bedroom. Not believing it for a moment, Lim Soohyun checked under the bed and flashed his phone's light into the dark corridor too. There was really no one here other than him, and it had been half an hour since he fell asleep.
"Sleep paralysis? Was I hallucinating?"
Well, haunted houses had their benefits too. For someone who had never had sleep paralysis in his life to be able to get it on his first night in the house. Could it be that deep down he was a little scared to be here alone?
"But it was fun."
The thrill of just knowing you live in a haunted house is unmatched by anything. No video games, shows, movies, books, animations could ever hold a candle to experiencing it yourself physically and mentally. And that's how Lim Soohyun knew he had to keep living here. He hadn't decided if he wanted to really live in an isolated land where he couldn't even order takeouts or groceries, but after experiencing such a titillating sensation, he knew he had to.
Lim Soohyun slept the whole night peacefully after that. A feat maybe only a few would hold other than him. Actually, he didn't even want to wake up and sleep in more, but the alarm he had set for his work bleeped right into his ears. Lim Soohyun could not sleep after being woken up like that. He deleted the alarms set up for his work resentfully and got out of bed at 7 in the morning, feeling groggy. His whole body was aching for some reason.
"My age is finally getting to me..."
As a thirty-year-old man, Lim Soohyun knew he already had one foot in his grave while the other tried to support him through his leftover life. Obviously, this was the fruition of living on a single foot now. Stretching his body out painfully, Lim Soohyun's eyes fell on the bed. Next to his phone was a pink capsule ball that wasn't there last night when he went to sleep again.
"....It's real?"
Picking the capsule ball, Lim Soohyun mumbled out to himself.
"Looks like I don't have a choice but to get another capsule ball? Why would it mention the promotion and points? They're useless. Just say you get another one!"
Complaining but still happy to receive another one, Lim Soohyun took the capsule ball and his phone, skipping the stairs to downstairs. Since he had decided to live out here, he needed to clean the place.
"...Fuck."
Standing near the front door of the house, Lim Soohyun couldn't help but curse seeing how much cleaning he had to do. The house was too big for a single man to live in, but he also had to do it.
"Let's start with the first floor then."
Carefully putting the capsule ball on the dining table, he picked out a playlist of two hours full of classic rock songs, blasting it on a high volume because he had no neighbors that would come knocking down his door. Only an insane person would clean for hours in silence by himself.
And as we wind on down the road, our shadows taller than our souls.
Enjoying the music, Lim Soohyun very carefully and gently rolled off the sheets from the furniture. He would just stuff these somewhere; it's not like he had a use for them. Apparently, the previous owner had been too scared to take anything from this house.
"He must be really rich. This furniture can be sold online for a good price."
He had also given him the house for cheap; it was almost the same price as his apartment in Gangnam. Such a steal. Lim Soohyun was starting to feel guilty as if he had robbed a good kid. The previous owner was also the grandkid of the foreign family that built this house for themselves. Surprising no one, no one in his family wanted the house and had dumped it onto him. He was truly a pitiful soul.
The cleaning Lim Soohyun did was half-hearted as he swept the stuff he didn't want under the rug and only cleaned what he knew he would use and needed, like gathering all the utensils and crockery into a cabinet, only keeping a few pieces for himself, but this was sufficient for now. He had no idea how long he was going to live here. If it got boring one day, he would just abandon or sell this house as it also wouldn't have any use for him.
After cleaning for exactly two hours, Lim Soohyun laid at the dining table with one leg on the chair as he ate the cup of ramen he had packed in his suitcase. He glanced at his phone screen ringing an unsaved number. This was the number of the previous owner, which he had yet to save.
["... hello."]
As Lim Soohyun was drinking the remaining soup from the cup, he heard a gloomy 'hello' from the speaker of the phone. He put the cup and chopsticks down on the table as he spoke back.
"Yunho. Why are you speaking in such a low voice? Got a cold?"
["That's not it...why would you call Mr. Soohyun if this is related to the house? I have nothing to do with it now."]
"That's mean, Yunho. How can you act like this? It's only been a day since you sold this house to me."
Lim Soohyun spoke in a sulky tone, but he was smiling as he lifted the phone to his ear.
["I have a feeling it's related to the house...look, I already told you it's super haunted so you wouldn't come complaining to me later."]
Yunho sighed from the other side. It was as if he was deeply burdened and just wanted to rid himself of the house, never hearing about it again. Well, unluckily for him, Lim Soohyun did want to ask him something related to this house as he was new to living in a haunted house while Yunho had more experience than him here.
"I only want to ask one thing. When you stayed here..."
["I never stayed in that house. I'm not crazy to go living there. No, I don't think you are... I'm just not brave enough to do it, alright..."]
Not even letting him finish his words, Yunho started rambling about this and that. Lim Soohyun had to cut him off as he blurted it out loudly.
"Is it normal to feel like you're being watched in this house?"
["....."]
Yunho went quiet as an object when he heard the question, and then he groaned as if he was really over it.
["I don't know! Stop asking me about the house!"]
"Who else was here then? You were the only one."
He wasn't going to mention it to Yunho, but it was difficult to ignore. He even turned around to glance in corners and behind him. The feeling of being watched, and from closely too. It was unsettling, to say the least.
["Uh...are you in the house right now?"]
"Yeah."
["Let's set up a date to meet up later...I don't want to talk about it over the phone."]
"Sure."
Lim Soohyun had just replied when the call was cut off. He threw the phone back on the table. Even now, he felt like someone was standing behind him. He wanted to turn around and see, but he also knew there wouldn't be anyone there. All he could do was try his best to ignore it. He still needed to clean the upstairs bedroom and mop the floors.
".....I should've just picked up a cleaner and brought him here."
But then again, who would willingly come and clean a haunted house? Too lazy to move just yet, he eyed the pink capsule ball on the table nearby.
Should I open and see what's inside now?