Reborn as a Prophet in a Horror Movie

#152Reader Mode

#152

“Does she really have wings? Did you ever see them?”

“Are you kidding?” Kira shot him a look that questioned his sanity. She leaned back against the grimy wall, rolling the cigarette between her fingers. “It’s just bullshit crazies say when they’ve lost touch with reality.”

“Right,” Johan murmured, though he still looked intrigued. “So, who is she, then? What does she do?”

“Do? Hell if I know. Never asked.” Kira’s gaze drifted past Johan, unfocused for a moment as she sorted through hazy memories. “We know each other from this online forum. We don’t exactly trade life stories. I don’t know what pays her bills, but I know her ‘hobby.’” The word dripped with sarcasm. “Dragging her little fan club around to dumps like this.”

She flicked ash onto the floor with practiced indifference. “She posted about this place last week. Does this whole dramatic entrance thing wherever she goes, leaves these rambling, cryptic reviews nobody can understand. That’s why I wanted to check it out myself first, get the real vibe.” Kira paused, then fixed Johan with a penetrating stare. “What was your friend’s name again? Seojun? Sounds exactly like someone who’d be following after Luciel. She did mention meeting someone here… Said he had that eye, right? The one supposedly ‘carrying within it the star of utmost darkness?’”

Hearing that extremely flowery description, Johan actually stopped, blinking at her in disbelief.

“‘The eye carrying within it the star of utmost darkness’?” he repeated slowly.

“Don’t look at me like that!” Kira snapped. “Those aren’t my words. That’s pure Luciel right there.”

She made a disgusted growl in the back of her throat, physically cringing from the phrase she’d just had to speak aloud. Seeing she was about to spontaneously combust from embarrassment, Johan smoothly changed the subject.

“Alright, alright. But even if Seojun is meeting this Luciel person, why would he just take off with her? He’s not exactly the spontaneous type. He doesn’t deviate from his plans without a good reason.”

Johan still looked doubtful. The haunted house made sense—that was for the teddy bear, he got that much. But after? He’d thought he had Seojun’s road trip mapped out, but Kira’s confidence was making him doubt himself.

“Isn’t your friend into all that occult stuff too? The only reason I keep bumping into Luciel is because we’re both active in this paranormal community.”

“Occult stuff? Not really his thing,” Johan said, shaking his head. “Jun’s more into old school splatter and slasher flicks. And anyway, he’s usually super shy with strangers.”

“Horror is horror to Luciel, doesn’t matter what subgenre,” Kira said with a shrug. “Besides, she knows literally everyone. You’d be surprised how their paths might have crossed. And trust me, it doesn’t matter how shy your friend is—Luciel steamrolls her way into people’s lives to become friends whether they want it or not. She’s chaos on legs. If Seojun ran into her, guaranteed he’s been dragged into whatever bizarre mess she’s cooking up.”

“Friends, huh…”

Johan chewed on that thought for a second. Honestly, just friendship wasn’t bad. Kind of nice, actually. Leaving romance out of it, having more friends around could only be a good thing, right?

Kira rubbed the back of her neck, head ducked slightly. A few strands of purple-dyed hair fell forward.

“Anyway, if your friend is the person Luciel’s meeting up with, I’ve got a good idea where they might head next. There’s an official meet for our forum members in two days. My guess is they’ll show up there together. You could tag along with me, if you want?” She paused, then added dryly, “You’re covering your own expenses, though.”

She ground out her barely-smoked cigarette against the wall, leaving a dark smear.

“Really? That’d be amazing! Thanks, Kira!” Johan’s face lit up, the excitement obvious.

Seeing him practically bounce on the balls of his feet, Kira seemed to shrink into herself a little. She hunched her shoulders, squatted down, and started taking photos of the teddy bear with her phone, swiping through them with a critical eye. After a moment, she glanced up at him.

“Hang on,” she said, frowning slightly. “Couldn’t you just text your friend and ask where he is?”

“Ah, well, I was hoping to surprise him, actually,” Johan admitted. “Show up unexpectedly, if possible. Hey, any chance you could message Luciel? Just to confirm if Seojun’s with her?”

“Yeah, sure. Guess I can do that.” Kira nodded easily, either too drained from being trapped in that fifth room or simply unbothered to refuse. Despite her prickly exterior, she was surprisingly helpful.

They talked for another few minutes before exchanging numbers. Johan added his contact to her phone, feeling cautiously optimistic about the situation.

“To be honest,” he found himself saying, “I’m not super sociable. Haven’t really made many connections since I left my hometown.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Kira replied, nodding slowly. “It’s tough, leaving behind everything you know.”

“Oh, but I did make friends with Ragey.”

“Ragey?” Kira arched an eyebrow. “Seriously? That’s… quite a name. Makes you wonder what her parents were thinking.”

“Yeah, well,” Johan shrugged. “I found her tied up in a gas station stockroom. She was screaming for help, so I let her out.”

Kira stared at him. “That’s… definitely one way to meet someone.”

“Right?” Johan smiled faintly. “We didn’t know each other long, but there was something real there. A proper friendship.”

He handed Kira’s phone back and carefully took the teddy bear from her, gently tucking it into his pocket. They walked down the hallway, filling the silence with small talk. Kira glanced around at the peeling wallpaper and dust-covered rooms, clearly unimpressed.

“This place is such a letdown. All that hype about a famous haunted house, and it’s just nothing special. Boring. I was actually looking forward to it, but there aren’t even any mirrors…”

“What do you mean, no mirrors?” Johan asked, confused.

He hadn’t experienced any of the spooky stuff people talked about online, but he was certain he’d seen a mirror. Just an old, ordinary-looking thing. But “Madison” had insisted it was special, that it held some kind of unusual power.

Kira walked beside him, hands stuffed in her hoodie pockets, scowling. “You haven’t heard? Oh, right, you said you weren’t here for the paranormal stuff. There’s this urban legend about a ‘Red Room’ in this house. That’s what I came to check out. The room I got trapped in is supposedly where the legend started. Except instead of red, it was just pitch black.”

“The Red Room? I’ve heard about that,” Johan said. “But isn’t that supposed to be the second room from the stairs on the second floor? The room you were stuck in was the fifth one.”

“What?”

Kira, who’d been absently chewing on her burnt-out cigarette, stopped walking. The cigarette fell from her mouth as her expression shifted from confusion to disbelief. She pointed toward the last room at the end of the hallway—the sixth one.

“You’re telling me they don’t start counting from that end?”

Johan rubbed the back of his neck, looking slightly embarrassed for her. He gestured back the way they’d come, opposite from where Kira was pointing.

“I think you counted the rooms backwards.”

“So the room where I was trapped…” Her voice trailed off.

Johan figured honesty was better than sugarcoating it. “Yeah, it’s just an old abandoned building. The door was probably jammed shut from the rust.”

“Fuck. Seriously?”

Kira’s face flushed with embarrassment and frustration. She turned and kicked the wall hard, muttering under her breath. Johan made a mental note to be grateful for whatever rusty hinge had earned him some unexpected goodwill earlier. He waited until her anger subsided before speaking again.

“So, uh, speaking of weird stuff… did you happen to see someone named Madison back there? Taking a shower, oddly enough? Kind of hard to miss.”

“Who?”

“Madison. In the bathroom…”

Johan’s voice faded as he turned to look back at the room that, minutes ago, had been releasing clouds of steam from beneath its door. Now the bathroom door stood wide open, revealing a completely different scene. The clean water and wet floor were gone. Instead, the place was destroyed—tiles cracked and broken, dark mold creeping up the walls, and what remained of the fixtures was shattered beyond recognition.

Kira leaned past him to look at the wreckage, then gave him a skeptical glance, her eyes moving between the filthy bathroom and his face.

“You’re telling me someone was showering in there?”

Johan stared at the now bone-dry and decrepit space, completely devoid of what he’d seen moments ago. A small, almost private smile touched his lips.

“Forget it. It’s nothing.”

“Whatever,” Kira said, rolling her eyes. “So you mentioned a mirror? In the Red Room, right?”

She bypassed the dark bathroom and headed straight for the second room, moving with complete confidence. The dark makeup around her eyes seemed to catch what little light there was, highlighting her sudden enthusiasm.

Watching her ready to charge in, Johan felt his smile falter. Madison’s body was still lying inside that room. His blue eyes darted nervously around the dim hallway. Crap. If he’d known Kira would turn out to be this helpful, he would’ve put more effort into dealing with Madison’s body properly. If Kira found her now, Johan would be her first suspect. Definitely wanted to avoid that.

“Luciel wouldn’t shut up about this room online,” Kira said, completely unaware. “Going on about voices crying for help in her dreams, blood spurting everywhere. Typical internet creepypasta stuff.”

Before Johan could come up with any way to stop her, Kira pulled the door open. Unlike the stuck one she’d been trapped behind earlier, this one swung open easily.

The room was empty of what Johan expected.

The bags still sat on the drawer, pills scattered across the floor, the mirror hanging in its place. Everything looked untouched. But the body? The one that had collapsed there earlier? Gone. Completely gone.

Kira stepped into the room, scanning the space with sharp eyes. She approached the mirror carefully, angling herself to avoid her reflection, then crouched down and touched a spot on the floor before picking up one of the small pills. After a quick glance, she dropped it back down with a sigh. Her expression was hard to read—relief or disappointment both equally possible behind her intense frown.

“Knew it was bullshit,” she muttered. “Blood spurting everywhere like a fountain? Yeah, right. Like someone magically cleaned all that up.”

Still grumbling, she walked back out with the same determination she’d entered with. She gestured toward the bags with a quick nod.

“What about that stuff? Could be your friend’s? Maybe he left it?”

“Not Jun’s. Not the bag he usually carries, and it’s really not his style…”

“Huh. Okay, whatever.” Kira shrugged. “I’ve seen enough of this dump. You done? Let’s bail.”

Johan nodded, glancing past her into the empty room. A slight smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

“The world’s full of strange surprises, isn’t it?”