201 Game of Courage 2 (1/2)
The place was dark and along the hallways, creaking sounds of who knows what accompanied the eerie and unceasing whooshing of the wind could be heard. All of it was seemingly amplified by the silence reigning all around them.
It had been some time since they started exploring the place. Her friend Yuki began to live stream their walk, from time to time talking with her followers through the platform's chatroom to update them of their progress and also fill in some stories regarding the place.
”... So before I forgot, I remember mentioning a grandma ghost haunting this place aside from the white lady nun.”
And then the girls braved the chilling atmosphere of the dorm's interior, trying to make fun of each other's reactions to some spooky noises and passing wind.
”They said the old lady will show up somewhere in the garden seated on an old wicker chair.... and will start to talk to you about her husband whom she buried alive in that garden when she was younger due to cheating....”
'Hmm?'
While everyone else joked about the cheating part, the part-time lady detective scrunched up her nose and furrowed her brows. Footsteps resounded from the distance, most likely half a dozen meters away from their location. Her companions might have missed it since each other's voices were preoccupying them, but not Wendy. She barely restrained herself from looking that way.
All this while, she didn't believe that ghosts were what they should watch out for.
And it seemed her wariness did not prove to be tomfoolery.
'As expected, somebody has made it his lair.' The girl mused to herself with a dark expression, thinking some prankster or criminal lurked somewhere in the cluster of shadows. Her right hand grasped the phone inside her jacket's pocket, powered it on and clicked another button thereby depending on her memory.
'The station is fifteen minutes away from here...' She was not a local but before they entered the premise, she checked her map how far the police station was from here. That was how she came up with that estimate.
No matter if those footsteps were from a ghost or not, better be safe than sorry. It was still not attacking them, but who knows when it would lose its patience or sanity.
'We have to leave this dorm now.'
With a smile on her face, she said, ”Guys, I think we should leave now. Half exploring it should be good enough.”
”Eh? We haven't been to the bathrooms yet.”
”Also the gardens. All we explored are the vacant rooms and corridors. We found nothing there so far.”
Her eyes met Anda's, seemingly asking,
'... What else is there to find in this godforsaken dorm?'
The live streamer laughed.
”Lol, one of my commenters said the greatest beauty is scared. They want to come here to cheer for you.” And then the woman laughingly flashed her phone's camera to Wendy's delicate but expressionless face.
”It seems our Wendy is not as tough as we thought her to be.”
The girl in question: ”...”
... When she genuinely only wanted to bring them out of danger zone... Why did she get this kind of replies?
She inwardly sighed.
Didn't this bunch know that if she was only not worried about their safety, she would have simply stayed at home, sleeping? Who the effin' muffin wants to come to this dangerous place and play a game of courage against loose criminals disguised as ghosts or spooky beings?
She lamented.
For some reason, she missed that mute wannabe who did not give her real headaches as these girls did. At least that guy was only pissing her off with his face subconsciously.
She picked up her phone and thanked the deities in heaven that this abandoned dorm at least had some signal. After typing a bunch of words on it, she meaningfully looked at the scared expressions of the real scaredy-cats who also looked down to their phones to check what she group-messaged them.
A second later, they began exchanging inexplicable gazes. Their faces paled.
”I-I think it's indeed time to go. My parents texted me to go home already. S-sorry guys.”
”Me too...”