The moment my bare feet touch the floor.
I feel it.
The grip of the rubber-coated stairs and the anti-slip nubs jutting up along them.
And the water pooled between them.
We're climbing the stairs now.
The moment the stairs ended and I stood in front of the door leading to the pool, I realized acutely how complacently I'd been thinking all this time.
To be honest, I'd thought we could simply hide.
I'd gained this power called 'Submergence.'
And a pool would surely have restrooms or a staff lounge or somewhere like that.
I'd thought that by shifting positions and using 'Submergence' appropriately, we could hold out for an hour or so.
But.......
That glass door leading to the pool.
The sight beyond it is truly.......
"We have to go in th-there......?"
The woman staring at Ryu Do-ha with a face that couldn't possibly believe it.
The reactions of the others were no different from hers.
Even that Jang Seo-yun woman, who's come a little unhinged, is standing there blankly at the overwhelming sight beyond the glass door.
I think.
We're f*cked.
Hold on, it was supposed to be CnR, wasn't it?
Cops and Robbers in a swimming pool, wasn't it?
"How is that CnR?!"
The woman's desperate cry.
Not one of us is together enough to even think of covering her mouth.
You want to know what state the pool is in?
.......
First of all, the pool's floor, the walls, and the ceiling are all made of a transparent material like glass.
A pool made of glass.
Hearing only that, it might sound beautiful, mystical even.
But the problem is what lies beyond that glass.
Floor or ceiling, above or below, beyond the transparent walls there is another swimming pool.
An unreal sight of pools repeating endlessly, like the infinite reflections in an elevator's mirrors.
The difference from mirrors being that those countless pools are not merely reflected images but spaces that each exist individually.
And.......
.......
Haa.......
In every one of those pools a massacre is taking place right now.
Lift your head even slightly and you see it.
People in white swimsuits being torn to shreds, surrounded by beings in red swimsuits.
Their despairing faces are vivid through the transparent ceiling.
Conversely, lower your head even slightly and a similar scene comes into view.
Beyond the transparent floor, people crawling desperately away, flailing arms and legs shortened by what's been torn off them, and beings in red swimsuits following slowly after them as if savoring the amusement.
And those screams leaking in through the glass door.
At this gruesome scene taken in through eyes and ears, everyone has gone blank.
This much alone makes it hard to keep hold of your mind, and it isn't even over.
The blood all those countless people are shedding is gathering into the pool we have to enter.
From below, red blood flows backward as if ignoring gravity, passing through the transparent floor and pouring in, and from above, pooled blood breaks through the transparent ceiling and falls in drops.
The blood that flows in that way then runs like a snake, as if it had a will of its own, and piles up steadily in the basins of that pool we have to enter.
A pool with ceiling, floor, and walls all stained with blood.
That pool where all three basins are filled with bright red bloodwater.
That was the place we had to go now.
"Is this what a Ghost Story is normally like?"
At the words that came out of me without meaning to, Ryu Do-ha's head slowly turns.
She looks at me.
The composure she'd had until now had entirely vanished from her face.
"No, this is a first for me too."
"A first? You said you were an expert! You said to trust you!"
That woman, shrieking at the top of her lungs.
Seeing her with that much energy in a situation like this, she may have the strongest mind of any of us.
As for me.......
Honestly, I can't face it.
Can we really hold out an hour in that space?
No, if we hold out an hour, will they really let us out of there?
"The one saving grace......."
With a face that suggested nothing was a grace at all, Ryu Do-ha continued.
"is that I don't see any Cops."
Cops......?
When I look beyond the glass door again, as she said, there are no Cops in sight.
The pools beyond the ceiling and beyond the floor are full of Cops in red swimsuits, but in the pool we have to enter, they aren't there.
"If we have to go in anyway, we have to go in now."
"You really mean for us to go in there?"
The woman, nearly sobbing now.
When Ryu Do-ha answered firmly that she did, the woman sinks to the floor.
"Hold your mind together."
Ryu Do-ha pulled her back to her feet.
"If even one person falls into panic, the survival probability of the entire group drops dramatically."
"You think I want to be like this? It's blood, blood! And those screams......."
"Shut your mouth."
At the chill in Ryu Do-ha's voice, the woman hurriedly shut her mouth.
"We don't have time to be talking like this. You see that restroom over there."
Beyond the glass door, a restroom located no more than a few steps away.
"First we go there. And Do-yul."
"Yes."
"Using that power of yours. We move in secret."
When I nodded, Ryu Do-ha looked at the woman again.
"Understood?"
When the woman barely managed to nod, Ryu Do-ha opened the glass door and looked around.
After confirming there's nothing there, she looks back at me.
"Take Miss Seo-yun and the lady over first, then come back."
"And you?"
"To use that power of yours together, we have to hold hands, right?"
"We could just all hold on like this and go together......."
"There's still too much about your power that's unclear. What if someone who couldn't take your hand sinks into the water the moment they get to that space?"
"......."
That thought hadn't occurred to me at all.
In a sense, this power called 'Submergence' moves us to another dimension while I hold my breath.
If, as she says, I held my breath and lost my grip on someone's hand by mistake?
What would happen to that person?
Jang Seo-yun held her hand out to me.
With a look that seemed faintly excited.
At which the woman watches for her cue and holds her hand out too.
When I glance toward Ryu Do-ha, she nods that it's fine.
I took Jang Seo-yun's and the woman's hands and drew in a deep breath.
When I let out the breath I've been holding, my rippling vision returns to normal.
"Cough, cough......!"
"Be quiet!"
At my words the woman only mimes covering her mouth and keeps on coughing.
Honestly, I want to just dump her outside.
Before we set out, I'd been about to use 'Submergence' right away when I added a word, just in case.
That it would feel like being submerged in water.
And yet over that short distance to the restroom she writhed around so much that I nearly lost my grip on her hand.
No, now that I think about it, I should have just let go.
Then I'd have learned more about this 'Submergence.'
"Mr. Do-yul?"
Jang Seo-yun's voice calling me.
She's looking at me.
"Aren't you going?"
"I am. I'll hurry and bring Miss Do-ha too."
When I got up, Jang Seo-yun took hold of my hand.
"Can't I go with you? Up to three people at once is fine anyway, isn't it?"
"Why you, kid? You stay here with me!"
"Ma'am. I'm not a kid."
"What?"
"It's been years since I became an adult."
The woman is visibly flustered by the unexpected response.
"And."
Jang Seo-yun crouches to bring her eyes level with the woman sitting on the floor.
"If you have any conscience, please keep your mouth shut."
"Wh, what?!"
"I haven't forgotten that you abandoned us and left earlier."
"But you said it was all right......."
"Frankly, would you be all right if you were me? So......."
"That's enough."
When I cut in, Jang Seo-yun looks up at me.
"And I'm going to get Miss Do-ha alone. She said it herself earlier. If even one person falls into panic, the whole group's survival rate drops."
"......."
"So stay here and keep the lady calm."
The woman looks at me with a face saying, 'You want her to keep me calm?', and Jang Seo-yun glares at the woman with displeasure.
Leaving the two of them to it, I came out of the restroom.
Being alone actually settles my mind.
Beyond the passage, there are still no Cops to be seen in the pool.
'Still, just in case.'
When I hold my breath, I feel a vibration in the back of my left hand.
The compass needle begins to rotate and the compass gives off a faint light.
The moment my vision ripples.
I went through the passage and out into the pool.
Barely twenty meters or so to the glass door at the pool entrance.
The electronic clock mounted on the pool wall catches my eye.
Time Remaining
[ 01 : 00 : 00 ]
The time still isn't counting down.
'Does everyone have to be inside?'
For now I set the other thoughts aside and hurried my steps.
When I opened the glass door, I could see Ryu Do-ha leaning against the wall.
When I exhale again, my vision returns to normal.
She must be used to it now; she isn't startled in the slightest even though I appeared out of nowhere.
"Nothing happened?"
"No. Let's hurry."
When I hold out my hand, she only stares at it.
"What's wrong?"
"Do you believe in what they call a 'hunch'?"
A hunch?
What is she talking about now?
"A feeling. No clear grounds for it, but it strangely grates on your nerves."
"Why bring that up all of a sudden?"
"I don't believe in them."
"......?"
"From when I was little I heard a lot that I had good hunches. If I felt something would turn out a certain way, it always did."
"Is that like a shamanic gift?"
Ignoring my question, Ryu Do-ha walks toward me.
"So instead I decided not to believe in hunches. Trusting a hunch with no grounds at all can make you fall hard."
Standing in front of me, she raised three fingers.
"There are three clear grounds."
"Why are you suddenly doing this?"
"First, the state of that pool."
The state of the pool?
"You see, a Ghost Story normally begins as a rumor."
"......."
"Spoken or written, it spreads through many people, so it gradually shifts into a typical form."
"And?"
"So usually, if you think about the trend or the source of the story, the answer often comes out unexpectedly easily."
The typical mold, and the source.
I found myself looking beyond the glass door.
'This place is inside a Ghost Story too, isn't it?'
In that case it is a little strange.
"The state of that pool is too alien."
She's right.
Because a Ghost Story usually arises from places we ordinarily go, from the anxieties and fears people ordinarily hold.
Several transparent pools stacked on top of one another?
Even without much interest in Ghost Stories, it's a description I've never once heard.
"Which means this place is somewhat different in character from the Ghost Stories I normally resolve. I suspect this place may be somewhere that touches the source of the Ghost Stories I usually see."
"The source of the Ghost Stories......."
"And second."
She raised her arm in front of my eyes.
Five distinct punctures marked on it.
"Why are there no injection marks on your arm?"
"......."
Ryu Do-ha had already noticed.
That I'd come in without submitting blood.
And the fact that she hadn't touched that point means she'd needed clearer evidence.
"I don't think you're carrying any bad intent. If anything......."
Her eyes look straight into mine.
"It sounds like I'm reversing myself right away, but my feeling is that you're a good person."
"......."
"That's why, even with clear grounds in front of me, I'd been leaving it covered for now."
"I really am......."
"But after seeing that pool, I can't keep it quietly covered anymore."
She takes one more step toward me.
"And last, the third."
Under her gaze I swallowed dryly without meaning to.
"That you're the witch's son."
Witch.
Right, in the end it's my mother again.
"What exactly are you plotting?"