Ghost Story Club

[2019, May 3rd | Friday, 01:17 AM]

[Lee Joon: Number of Attempts – 2]

[Ghost Story Points: 102]

[Causality Rate: 17%]

When I opened my eyes, I was in my bed.

I looked to the side and saw Sunah’s small back.

Sunah was looking into the living room through the crack in the door.

“…Sunah.”

“Shh.”

As I got up from the bed calling her name, Sunah put her finger to her lips.

Following Sunah’s gaze, I listened carefully and looked toward the living room. The faint sounds of someone groaning could be heard coming from the direction of my parents’ room.

The sound was like ‘Uugh’, or ‘Keuuugh’, the weak groaning sound of a woman, as if in pain.

Sunah, who had been cautiously watching through the crack in the door, soon approached me carefully without making a sound.

“Joon, stay still here. I’ll go check it out and come back…”

“Wait a moment.”

I grabbed Sunah’s arm as she was about to leave the door.

In the previous time period, while I was sleeping, Sunah must have gone to check on that alone, got caught by the ghost and couldn’t come back, so she hid in my Dad’s study.

“…We have already died once and the time has turned back. Don’t go out.”

“…..!”

Sunah opened her large eyes wide.

She turned to me and asked hesitantly.

“…How did we die?”

“We were caught by the ghost and tried to run away… but died.”

I whispered softly into Sunah’s ear in a small voice, being careful so that the ghost couldn’t hear.

“We can’t win if we just fight with that thing. Let’s find a way to deal with it first.”

“Yeah…..”

Sunah nodded nervously and showed an understanding expression.

“Alright. Then keep watch and keep looking out into the living room. I’ll think of a way.”

“Okay…”

Sunah tiptoed back to the door and looked outside through the crack in the door, keeping watch to see if the ghost was coming.

For now, it seemed like the ghost was lingering in my parents’ room, but we couldn’t let our guards down.

I quickly turned my phone on and checked the KakaoTalk messages Gyeongwon had sent but I hadn’t had the chance to look at earlier.

As expected, there were traces of Sunah secretly checking the KakaoTalk message window, as the messages were shown as read.

I glanced at Sunah’s back for a moment, but it seemed like she was pretending not to know.

I quickly checked the KakaoTalk message from Gyeongwon.

[Ahn Gyeongwon: Prez, don’t be fooled. Yoon Sunah is a ghost.]

What?

I looked up again and glanced at Sunah.

Her small figure was peeking out through the crack in the door.

I slowly stepped back.

In an instant, many choices flashed through my mind.

Unlike my Dad’s study or my parents’ room, where the windows were connected to the balcony, my room’s window opened directly to the outside.

If I jumped from there, I could kill myself and go back in time.

But when I thought about it carefully, even if I went back in time, it would have been just a little while ago.

The current checkpoint was probably set a few minutes ago, at 1:17 a.m.

As soon as I woke up, Sunah was right there guarding the door, so there was no way to escape.

No, wait a minute. I don’t understand.

Why is Sunah a ghost?

We’ve been together since the first time we contacted each other, so when did that happen?

Does that even make sense?

I checked the rest of the KakaoTalk messages.

[Ahn Gyeongwon: Prez, don’t be fooled. Yoon Sunah is a ghost.]

[Ahn Gyeongwon: You have to be careful about that kind of scenario too. There are so many clichés in horror movies where, and according to them, the real culprit was the friend you’ve been running away with all along.]

※Horror Movie Cliché: A friend plays a prank to surprise you.※

I was surprised, you punk…

I brushed my chest and sighed in relief, then checked the rest of the KakaoTalk messages.

[Ahn Gyeongwon: Actually, I’m more concerned about the cliché ability that the Prez activated than the ghost itself.]

[Ahn Gyeongwon: It’s not like it’s something that happened once or twice with Prez. And you’ll find a way after dying a few times, but I think you should be careful about that cliché ability.]

[Ahn Gyeongwon: Because in horror movies, clichés are usually situations that are disadvantageous to the main character.]

… Many situations that are disadvantageous.

What does that mean?

[Ahn Gyeongwon: Death flags or scenes that hint at the main character’s death. They are overwhelmingly more common in horror movies than in other genres.]

[Ahn Gyeongwon: For example, a line like, “I’ll go check and be right back, you wait here.” In other genres, it might be an ordinary line, but in a horror movie, if that line comes up, it’s a death flag. The character who says that line will definitely die afterward.]

‘… So that’s what it means.’

Sunah almost died again just now.

Indeed, clichés are scenes that appeared in other movies and subtly copied from them and then repeated like a formula.

If it’s a cliché in teen movies, there would be a lot of content like the main character eventually growing up, or the friends eventually reconciling.

And if it’s a cliché in a horror movie, a ghost will appear out of nowhere, making the theme completely different.

In horror movies, bad endings where everyone ends up dying are far more common than happy endings, especially compared to other genres. The clichés often revolve around sudden jumpscares or intense situations.

‘… Damn. It was a mistake.’

Now I couldn’t even cancel the ability until the situation ended by exterminating the ghost.

I cursed inwardly as I continued reading the next KakaoTalk messages.

[Ahn Gyeongwon: I’m going to send you a list of clichés from horror movies that I’ve organized in my own way, but as I expected, there aren’t many good ones.]

[Ahn Gyeongwon: I have no idea how to make use of that ability, so Prez should take a good look and use it as a reference. Prez is good at cooking existing ingredients, after all. This is all I can do for you.]

Below that were the clichés from horror movies that he had organized, listed in a chart-like manner.

“Hmm…”

※Horror Movie Cliches※

1. Horror Movie Cliché: Being left home alone on the day of the incident for whatever reason.

2. Horror Movie Cliché: The key never works on the first try when you’re trying to escape.

3. Horror Movie Cliché: The initial jumpscare turns out to be nothing special.

4. Horror Movie Cliché: At the very beginning of the situation, an ominous object is discovered that hints at an incident.

5. Horror Movie Cliché: Noticing something suspicious but ignoring it.

6. Horror Movie Cliché: Instead of staying together that could raise the chance of survival, the group always scatters around.

7. Horror Movie Cliché: The lights don’t turn on.

8. Horror Movie Cliché: Your friend tries to play a surprise prank on you.

9. ……

10. ……

‘F*ck… There’s nothing helpful…’

The only thing that appeared to be a bit helpful was.

[26. After a lot of running and hiding, calling an exorcist or shaman to perform an exorcism or ritual and finally getting rid of the ghost with difficulty.]

This was the only one.

‘…An exorcist or shaman?’

Where am I supposed to call someone for that in the middle of the night.

It’s 1 a.m….

….Wasn’t Teacher Jang Hwaeun from a family of shamans…? Maybe I can contact them…

I thought about it but soon shook my head.

In the middle of the night, at home.

With both time and space limited, the methods I could use were too restricted.

I tried to somehow connect the materials I had collected in various ways, but it was an unsolvable problem to use this guy’s list of clichés in a good direction.

‘No. It’s useless.’

I turned off my phone in frustration.

As Gyeongwon mentioned, most of the clichés in horror movies where ghosts pop out only hint at bad events.

The moment I was about to say that there was nothing I could do and that we had no choice but to solve it ourselves,

Sunah looked back and whispered.

“Joon, hide! It opened the door and is coming out!”

I quickly opened the closet door and hid myself between the clothes.

Sunah also crawled under my bed and hid in a hurry.

I hadn’t locked the door because I was worried it might make a sound.

As I crouched down with my knees up to my chest in the dark, narrow closet, I soon heard the sound of someone approaching from the living room.

Sliid… slid… screech… screech…

The sound of someone walking with a very narrow stride, their footsteps brushing against the wooden floor.

I remained completely still in the darkness of the closet, my body tense and stiff, not even a hair moving.

Soon, the ghost entered the room and stood at the door.

Sliid… slid… screech… screech…

“Cough… Ugghh… Keuugh… screech…”

The ghost walked around, groaning painfully as if choking in the air.

The sound was coming from above.

It was as if someone was banging their head against the ceiling while walking around.

“Keuugh… Ugghh… Keuugh… screech…”

Sliid– slid– screech– screech–

The sound paused for a moment at my desk, but soon it slowly moved back toward the door.

It seemed like it was going out again.

☏ ♬ Ring!!!!! ♬ ♬ ♪ Ring!!!! ♬ ♪ ♪ Ring!!!!!! ♬ ♪ Ring!!!!!! ♬ ♪ ♬

At that moment, my phone in my pocket blared at full volume, ringing like crazy!

I hadn’t even touched it, but suddenly the speaker of the phone was turned on, and my Mom’s voice yelling at the top of her lungs echoed around!

[Joooonnnnyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have you had dinner!!!!!!!!!!! Joooonnnnyyyy! Mom is at the funeral!!!!!!! I think I’ll be late!!!!!!!! Joooonnnnyyyy!!!!!!! Joooonnnnyyyy!!!!!!!]

※Horror Movie Cliché: While hiding, the phone suddenly rings loudly, and even though you frantically try to turn it off, the person on the other side keeps talking without realizing the situation.※

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!”

In an instant, hearing the sound of the phone, the ghost let out a monstrous scream and rushed toward the closet!

Bang!!!! Bang!!!! Bang!!!! Bang!!!! Boom!!!!!

Sunah immediately crawled out from under the bed and shouted at me.

“Joon! Run away!”

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.”

Sunah pushed the ghost away from me before rushing toward the living room.

Immediately, the ghost spun around and changed direction, running toward Sunah and stretched out its hand to grab her.

Thump! Bang… Screeeeeech…

[Gyaaaaaaah….]

The sound of the two of them moving farther away and toward the balcony was heard.

Sunah, in a desperate attempt to flee toward the balcony, dodged the ghost somehow by moving toward the window and then to my parents’ room.

I, who had been watching through the gap, hurriedly opened the closet door and stood up. But no matter how hard I wracked my brain, I couldn’t think of what to do.

‘F*ck, f*ck… What should I do….’

In the current situation, the only suspicious item was the ‘♠️’ shaped totem on the dresser in my parents’ room.

I didn’t know for sure, but I thought perhaps trying to break it or throwing it away might solve the situation.

Having made that decision, I rushed into the living room and quickly assessed the situation.

Boom! Bang…

[Gyaaaaaaa.]

Sunah burst out of my parents’ room, and the ghost, chasing her, stopped dead in its tracks when it saw me standing in the living room before approaching me.

“Hick…!”

“Look here, you idiot!”

Sunah grabbed a chair from the dining table and hurled it toward the ghost.

The ghost was hit with a thud and stumbled back a little. Then it quickly turned its gaze away from me and charged toward Sunah again.

[Gyaaaaaaa.]

“Haaak, haa……”

Sunah hurriedly ran toward the opposite direction and rushed into the kitchen balcony to escape again.

There was a window there that connected to my Dad’s study.

I wonder if she was thinking of circling around again to shake off the ghost.

‘Now is the time…!’

As the ghost chased after Sunah to the kitchen balcony to catch her, I quickly took the chance to rush into my parents’ room and opened the drawer of the dresser.

Then grabbed the spade-shaped totem from earlier and took it out.

“This, maybe this can…!”

Thinking that it might be one of those cursed objects from that suspicious religious organization, and perhaps breaking it would solve everything, I swung with all my strength and struck it to the edge of the dresser.

“Haaa, haaa. This, really…”

But the totem was made of a hard, jade-like material, and not even a scratch appeared on it.

Sunah, who had once again shook off the ghost by circling around my Dad’s study, came running towards me, gasping for breath.

“Jo, Joon…!”

“Sunah!”

[Gyaaaaaaaaa.]

Behind her, the ghost was running with its hands outstretched, its head scraping along the ceiling.

At this point, feeling like I had nothing to lose, I threw the totem at the ghost with all my might.

“Eeeeeeeee! Please let this work!!”

Whoosh-

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