Chapter 3

“Ugh.”

The phrase ‘My body is screaming’ must have been made for moments like this.

I held my aching head and slowly opened my eyes.

‘Where am I?’

Just then, the memories from before I fainted came rushing back.

I had tried to escape with the girl who saved my life, but we failed and I was about to die.

Then a man appeared, opened the door, and destroyed the evil spirit.

So… is this the house of that man?

When I sat up, my dizzy vision cleared, and I could finally see the room around me.

Unlike earlier, the room was now bright. The furniture looked like it was made from expensive wood.

The bed I was lying on didn’t shake even though I had been moving around—it was very comfortable.

I was sure of one thing: I wasn’t dead.

‘What’s going on here?’

To understand the situation, I needed to leave the room.

But more than that, I was most worried about the girl who fainted earlier…

‘I also need to find out what happened to Alex and the others.’

I had too much to do. I couldn’t just lie here and rest.

Just as I was about to get up from the bed with my heavy body…

“That was really dangerous. You almost died.”

“I’m so glad Lily is alive. Sniff.”

I suddenly heard voices from near the window—there were four people standing together and whispering.

I was startled and almost screamed, but I held it in.

They didn’t seem to know that I was awake and just kept talking.

“She probably went to sleep now, right?”

“Yeah. She’s different from us—if she pushes her body too hard, she disappears.”

“Where does she go when she disappears? No, it’s fine. As long as she’s okay. Our Lily…”

A red-haired man added those words while sniffling.

A blonde woman next to him lightly hit his shoulder.

“Geez. Don’t you get tired of acting like this every time she disappears? She’ll come back safely, so stop worrying so much.”

“Still, why did she suddenly run out like that? We’ve always said—when evil spirits show up, we hide! That’s how we’ve survived until now. What did she think she could do in a child’s body?”

A child? As soon as I heard that word, I thought of the girl who had collapsed earlier. Maybe that’s why—

“Excuse me…”

I spoke quietly, but maybe my voice was too soft.

They continued talking among themselves without noticing me.

I took a deep breath and raised my voice a little louder this time.

“Excuse me!”

Their whispers stopped all at once, and all four of them turned to look at me.

I looked at the red-haired man who met my eyes and asked,

“I’m sorry for listening to your conversation, but about that child you were talking about…”

“What?!”

The man jumped back in shock and even fell over.

It looked a little funny, but I couldn’t laugh right in front of him.

I barely held in my laughter, cleared my throat, and spoke again.

“By any chance, were you talking about a girl around my waist height with black hair?”

But instead of answering me, they all quickly turned away from me.

“No way. What is going on here?!”

“Did she just talk to us? That woman?”

“How can she see us? This has never happened before.”

They huddled together as if trying to talk quietly, but I could hear everything clearly.

Maybe it was because their voices were raised in panic.

‘I get that they were surprised when I talked to them out of nowhere, but…’

Still, weren’t they overreacting a bit?

“Excuse me.”

I tried again, but they had gone back to whispering in their own world.

This wasn’t getting anywhere.

After thinking for a moment, I reached out toward the back of the woman closest to me.

And then—

“Kyaa!”

I screamed without meaning to because something unbelievable happened.

My hand went through her body!

Something like this—I had never seen or heard of before.

“Hey! You can’t just touch someone like that out of nowhere!”

The blonde woman pushed up her glasses in an annoyed way and stepped back.

As she moved, my hand, which had gone through her body, came out smoothly.

‘W-What is going on here?’

It’s impossible to put your hand through a normal person. So that means…

“Oh my, I think this woman has figured out what we are. What should we do?”

“What do you mean, what should we do? This is a chance we might never get again. Hey, miss. If you can really see us, would you talk with us for a bit?”

The situation completely changed from earlier.

Now I was the one stepping away from these suspicious people… No, maybe they weren’t even human.

And the more I backed away, the more they took steps toward me.

“What are you people?”

“Why are you asking when you already know? Can’t you tell by looking?”

The blonde woman smiled and shrugged.

“We’re ghosts that wander around this mansion. To be exact, we’re the spirits of people who died.”

“…”

“From what we heard earlier, you’re an exorcist, right? Then I don’t need to explain more, do I?”

The blonde woman gave me a wink and a sly smile.

Now, I had zero interest in talking to them anymore.

I quickly opened the door and ran out into the hallway.

I heard them calling me from behind, saying, “Wait, please!”

‘Yeah, right!’

Ghosts. They were the spirits of dead people.

I knew that sometimes people who die unfairly or have regrets stay behind as spirits.

I had seen signs of them before with a spirit detector.

But I never imagined I’d see one with my own eyes.

“Huff, huff.”

At the end of the long hallway, I saw stairs going down to the first floor.

The place still looked familiar, so I guessed I was still inside the mansion where the evil spirit had appeared.

I had to get out of here fast. The evil spirit’s energy was so strong, it felt like I was seeing things.

“You’re awake, I see.”

As I hurried, someone suddenly opened a door in front of me.

When I looked up at the familiar voice, I met his red eyes.

“You’re…”

“Seeing how you’re running around, I guess you’re feeling better. That’s a relief. I was really worried you wouldn’t wake up.”

“Thanks for saving me, but we can talk about that later!”

“What?”

I figured I could explain everything later. Right now, I had to take care of something urgent.

I grabbed the man’s arm and started running toward the stairs again.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“Sorry for dragging you without explaining. But this is really important!”

“If it’s about the evil spirit, I already dealt with it. It’s safe now.”

“No, it’s not safe.”

That, I was sure of. I shook my head firmly and continued.

“The evil spirit’s power is still here. If not, I wouldn’t be seeing those things…”

“What are you talking about? What did you see?”

The man stopped walking and pulled me to a halt with surprising strength.

I turned to him, ready to explain again—

“Miss? We’re really not evil spirits. Actually, that woman caused us trouble too. Just give us a moment to talk. You said you wanted to know about Lily, right? We’ll tell you everything, okay?”

The red-haired man, who looked kind, waved and walked toward us.

I gasped without meaning to and shook the arm of the man beside me.

“Look over there! Those people—they said they’re spirits!”

“What?”

He frowned and looked where I pointed.

‘Now he’ll believe me.’

But then his next words completely crushed my hope.

“There’s nothing there. What are you talking about?”

“What?”

I looked again down the hallway, but there really was no one there.

‘Where did they go? I swear they were just there!’

I checked the hallway over and over, but nothing changed.

I was so shocked I couldn’t say anything—until the man suddenly spoke again.

“Come to think of it, earlier you also mentioned something about a child. I want to ask you about that.”

He looked at me, and his red eyes darkened.

“Can you describe the child you said you saw?”

The desperation in his eyes was real.

“It’s really important to me.”

I could tell just by looking at his face—this meant everything to him.