Reborn as a Prophet in a Horror Movie

#160Reader Mode

T/N: 2/2

#160

“What… what just happened?”

Luciel’s voice came out softly, so different from her usual confident grand tone that Seojun almost didn’t recognize it. But he wasn’t really paying attention. His mind was racing.

Lights. If there were lights, that meant power. But this place was supposed to be abandoned…. just an old factory with nothing but rust and decay.

The thought hit him like ice water. He rushed to the door and grabbed the handle, pulling hard.

Nothing.

The door was completely stuck, like something had sealed it shut from the outside.

Then he heard a voice from the other side, muffled but clear enough. His heart jumped with hope.

“Luciel! Lucy!”

It was Brown.

“Brown, we’re stuck! The door won’t open!” Luciel yelled back, her voice cracking with panic. She started hitting the door with her fists, the sound echoing off the steel.

“Get back from the door!” Brown shouted.

Seojun didn’t hesitate. He grabbed Luciel’s shoulders and pulled her away just as—

BOOM.

The whole door frame shook from the impact.

Another crash. Then another.

The door still wouldn’t move.

Then everything went quiet.

A pained groan came from the other side.

“Brown, stop! You’re going to hurt yourself!” someone else called out. “Wait, hang on. Is this thing actually running? That’s insane!”

“Exactly,” Brown grunted. “Which is why we have to—”

“Luciel! Luuuuciel!”

A high-pitched scream cut through the air, desperate and panicked. Seojun jumped. For a moment, he pictured some crazy person on the other side, scratching at the door like an animal, and he felt his skin crawl.

But then he knew who it was.

Dennis.

“I—I’m coming to save you!” Dennis yelled.

What came next was a bunch of scrambling sounds, then a series of pathetic little thumps against the steel door. Nothing like the way Brown had been hitting it. The door didn’t even shake. After a while, the thumping stopped and turned into quiet, broken crying.

Seojun felt his own panic rising. He started pacing around the small room, feeling trapped, like he needed to find a way out but there wasn’t one. He had to do something, anything. Just standing there was driving him crazy.

But moving around actually helped.

It cleared his head a little.

He bit down on his lip hard enough to taste blood, using the pain to focus. Then he pressed his palm against his burning, watery eye, letting the pressure calm him down.

Okay. Stop freaking out. Think.

Seojun took a deep breath. The air felt thick and stale, like breathing through an old cloth, but it was better than nothing.

He pulled out his phone.

The screen lit up his face. No signal.

Of course.

Seojun made an annoyed tsk and moved next to Luciel, slapping his hand against the cold metal door.

“Brown!” he shouted, his voice bouncing off the walls. “Call 911! We can’t get any signal in here! Check the manager’s office for a key!”

Seojun wasn’t really surprised about the no service thing. He’d been hoping it was just because they were stuck in this freezer, but he should have known better. Things never worked out that easily for him. It just proved what he’d already figured:

They were on their own.

Time for Plan B.

The journal. Just a few minutes ago, they’d been looking through it together, whispering about its secrets. He was pretty sure he’d seen something about a key. Maybe not for this door specifically, but it was something to go on. And right now, anything was better than nothing.

Getting help from anyone nearby isn’t going to happen. There’s nothing around here. Even if someone drove all the way to town, just getting there and back would take forever.

A muffled voice came from outside. “Still no signal out here either! That’s weird…”

That was the final nail in the coffin. Next to him, Luciel was staring at the door like she was willing it to open. Her voice came out so quiet he could barely hear her. “Dennis… please. Get us out of here. Please.”

From outside came a broken cry. “You’re all useless… damn it! Luciel! Luciel!”

Dennis sounded like he was losing it.

“Just leave him, Brown,” someone else said, probably McCullan. “We’ll go. It’ll be faster than trying to get him to do anything.”

Then came some kind of heated argument. Seojun pressed closer to the door, trying to make out what they were saying.

“…Dennis, just find the office…”

“…I’m not leaving her!”

Brown must’ve told Dennis to go look for the key and Dennis said no. Is he just being difficult, or… is he still jealous? Seriously? Right now?

Unbelievable. Luciel was stuck in here, and Dennis was making it all about him.

What a mess. Whatever was going on in Dennis’s head, he wasn’t helping. Actually, he was making things worse.

Outside, Brown’s voice changed—more serious now. He was done messing around and ready to take charge.

But Seojun couldn’t hear what the new plan was.

Dennis had completely lost it.

He was screaming now, yelling Luciel’s name over and over, his voice getting rough and doing absolutely nothing against the steel door.

The crazy wailing finally stopped, and then came two quick knocks on the door.

“Luciel!” It was Brown, still sounding comforting even now. “McCullan and I are going to look for the key! Dennis is staying here. Seojun, I’m counting on you to take care of her.”

“Got it!”

Seojun listened to their footsteps getting farther away, the sound of their shoes on concrete fading until all he could hear was Dennis still pounding uselessly on the door. Not exactly comforting.

He looked over at Luciel.

In the darkness, he heard a quiet sniffle. Then her voice came through the silence—still trying to sound dramatic but somehow both tough and soft at the same time.

“Fear not, my Eye of Utmost Darkness. Brown shall return and deliver us from hardship and suffering. He does not lie.”

The way she said it was so sure… those dark burning eyes full of absolute faith. And somehow, even though they were both trapped, she was the one trying to make him feel better.

A strange ache bloomed in Seojun’s chest.

Luciel was definitely odd. All her dramatic way of talking, her weird charm—it was all pretty odd… but she was genuinely good. Just simply, completely good. It was something he hadn’t expected and didn’t really know what to do with.

He bit his lip out of habit more than anything. The pain didn’t even register. Not when this weird, warm feeling had started spreading through him.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Dennis’s banging had turned into this annoying, never-ending beat. More irritating than helpful. Then again, everything Dennis did seemed to make things worse rather than actually help.

“Come on,” Seojun said quietly, gently pulling on Luciel’s arm.

They moved away from the door and found a spot in the far corner where the noise wasn’t as bad—just a dull, annoying thumping in the background. Sitting in the dark with their shoulders touching, they waited.

Worried about killing his battery, Seojun put his phone back in his pack. It wasn’t doing any good in here anyway—better to save it for later. Luciel still had hers on, the light jumping around nervously as she moved it across the room.

When the light swept past her face for a second, he got a quick look at her profile. Under all that bold makeup, she looked really young.

Seojun looked away, staring down at his knees.

He let out a slow breath.

A little puff of white fog appeared in front of him.

Even though he’d felt the machine running earlier, Seojun had been telling himself this wasn’t actually a working freezer. He had good reasons. When they first walked in, the place didn’t look anything like cold storage. And even now, with Luciel’s phone lighting everything up, it didn’t feel like a freezer.

It was dirty. Full of junk. Just another forgotten room with a bunch of random stuff.

Not a place meant for freezing anything, especially not people.

“Oh,” Luciel whispered.

Her light had stopped on a pile of metal cans in the corner.

Seojun looked where she was pointing, and his stomach dropped.

The cans had been ripped open. They didn’t have food in them.

They were packed with broken glass—sharp pieces sticking out everywhere, catching the light like fangs.

This wasn’t just garbage.

Someone had put this here on purpose.

He and Luciel looked at each other, both understanding immediately without having to say anything.

They moved closer together, trying to stay warm, though it wasn’t really helping. The cold wasn’t just touching their skin anymore. It was getting through their clothes, into their muscles, all the way down to their bones.

Neither of them had much fat padding. No extra weight. No bulk.

Just thin bodies and growing fear.

Seojun’s teeth were chattering so hard his jaw hurt. Next to him, Luciel got up on shaky legs, then suddenly dropped to the floor without saying anything.

“Luciel!”

He rushed over, his heart jumping, thinking she’d passed out. But then he stopped.

She wasn’t unconscious.

She was doing push-ups.

Push-ups? Right now?

It made no sense. It was completely absurd.

Her form was terrible—her back was sagging, her arms were shaking with every movement. Her twin ponytails kept hitting the dirty floor as she struggled through each one. She looked like someone who’d never exercised in her life. But within seconds, she was sweating like crazy.

And it was actually working.

Seojun just stared, completely shocked, until he saw the sweat running down her face in dark, dirty streaks. He hurried over and knelt down next to her, gently helping her sit back up. Her whole body was shaking now—not just from the cold, but because she was completely exhausted.

Seojun dug through his bag and handed her a spare pair of latex gloves.

Her fingers wrapped around them, still trembling. “Th-thank you…” she panted, leaning against him as she tried to catch her breath. She was breathing hard, her face red and sweaty.

“They’re not really warm. Just thin latex.”

“Y-yeah. Still… th-thank you.”

Luciel struggled to pull on the blue gloves, then looked up at him with this huge smile that almost caught him off guard. For a second, she looked completely innocent—like all the dirt and cold and weirdness of everything that was happening just rolled right off her.

Seojun looked down at her, and his face did something he couldn’t quite name. Not really a smile. Not sad, either. Something between the two.

Without saying anything, he took off his bomber jacket and put it around her shoulders. She started to argue, her hands coming up to protest, but he gently pushed them back down.

Luciel gave in, mumbling more “thank yous” as she finally put her arms through the sleeves.

But he wasn’t done.

He reached into his bag again and pulled out a small pink canister, putting it in her hand.

She looked down at it, confused. “What is this?”

“Pepper spray. For protection.”

Seojun paused for a second. Was this really the right time to talk about it? The thing they’d both been trying not to think about?

Yeah.

It was now or never.

He crouched down so they were at the same level. Her big, dark eyes met his.

“Getting stuck in here? Okay, maybe that could be an accident. But the freezer turning on while we’re inside?” He shook his head. “That doesn’t just happen.”

Her eyes got even wider.

Seojun made sure her fingers were wrapped tight around the canister.

“And our phones losing signal? They worked fine when we got here. That’s not just bad luck.”

In the shadows, his dark eye looked almost threatening. Ominous.

“Someone locked us in here. They’re trying to kill us.”