Follow me || Red Velvet & Seulrene

Chapter 23

A high-pitched scream escaped Wendy's mouth. Seulgi screamed too, meanwhile Irene hid herself behind her. Chae stumbled to the back and flinched. And Mina just stood still.

"Why you screamin'?", the calm one asked and peeked again in the open corridor. Seulgi was still trembling, ready to run for her life. "I don't wanna die!", Irene howled while she was glued to Seulgi.

A long sigh filled the room and Mina approached them, holding a grey hoodie in her hands. "Nothing more than a hoodie. See?"

"NOTHING MORE? THERE IS A TON OF BLOOD! WE ARE GOING TO DIE!" Wendy screamed hysterically and threw her hands in the air.

"Don't ruin the tension Son Wendy!", Chae now scolded at her.

But things could be more unfortunate as Irene suddenly fainted behind her back.

"Look, your stupid panicking let her pass away..." Chae rolled her eyes and stood up.

"Omg is she dead?!", Seulgi now yelled and figheted around with her hands.

"No."

"Should I do mouth-to mouth-resuscitation?!"

"Calm down Seulgi she will wake up in a few minutes..." They all gathered around the unconscious girl who was lying in Seulgi's arms.

"What if she won't...?", Wendy whispered.

"Wendy shut the fuck up", Chae and Mina glared at her. But Seulgi was focussed on Irene's closed eyes. She shut down her eyelids too. The scared feeling spread in her body.

Please wake up. Please wake up. Please wake up.

please, please, PLEASE!

"My head...", a soft voice echoed in her mind. With surprise, she looked down and saw the raven-haired girl frowning.

"And you wanted to protect our scared Seul here...", Chae chuckled and they all sighed in relief.

After Irene regained her energy, they inspected the bloody hoodie. There was no doubt that it was one part of the school uniform since the emblem with the big eagel was printed on the front.

"Do you think it is Jisoo's?", Irene asked with a trembling voice.

"I don't know. But if Ryujin and Tzuyu got in here too, it could be also of them. Or Minho..." Wendy took the hoodie and pulled it into Chae's pink bag.

"But either way the person had to use this door too. Maybe from the other side, but this means we are on the right track." They all nodded.

"So, you mean we should continue?", Seulgi questioned and bite her lip. She didn't want to. But with this evidence, they surely had to.

"I think so. Let us just hope this thingy doesn't have to mean something..."

They increased their pace while they were walking though the column. Behind the door the trail became a bit bigger, that's why Wendy was now helping Irene with walking.

But the corridor seemed to have no end. Besides, it got darker and darker, definitely nothing to support the already existing suspence.

"Do you think the school knows about this?", Seulgi asked.

"Honestly, I don't trust this school anymore.", Chae mentioned.

"I think Anold Priston had a reason to build this, and it could be that Jisoo knew about this too. But the school? Whouldn't it be a bit negligent to give students an access to this complex?"

Seulgi agreed. She would definitely talk to Bang Chan after they got out.

"And another emblem. We should be at the entrance of the northern tract right now." Wendy told Mina as they reached the end of the trail.

"Just one question. Imagine that Ryujin and Tzuyu are here too. How in hell did they got all the combinations right? That's almost impossible if you don't know about this 'the-emblems-are-placed-everywhere-in-school."

"Wow Chae, that's the first senseful sentence you contributed this whole trip", Wendy replied which a fake impressed face. "But really. How should they have done this?"

"Try out every combination?" Mina shrugged.

"Have fun...", Irene now spoke out.

Mina fixed her and raised her eyebrows: "Two squares and eight sticks which can be ordered diagonal, vertical and horizontal. You can leave out on sqare and four sticks. Multiply eight with two, the result with three for each direction and see-."

"48 combinations", Seulgi calculated.

Mina opened the wall and walked through it.

"If you don't have hobbies, you can try this combinations out..." Chae stated.

They went into a big room, or better said into a hall. Seulgi tilted her head to the top, seeing the ceiling with pipes and fans in metallic colours. "This looks like maze runner", she breathed out.

She crossed the hall with Mina to the door on the other side.

"And now?", the blond-haired asked.

"You are the one who is supposed to know the code. Or combination", Seulgi laughed.

Mina stared at her with eyes that could surely see through her soul. "Don't know. I have never been in the northern part."

Slowly, Seulgi's smile began to fade. Mina was right. They have never been in this sector of the school. Nobody had ever been.

"Then try all combinations out."

"Impossible. Wanna try out every of this thousand items?" She pointed at the box next to the emblem, filled until the top. They sighed.

"Guys!", the voice of Wendy echoed in the hall. "Face the ground y'all!"

Immediately they obeyed and looked to the grey beton floor. At the first sight, they didn't notice something suspicious. Only after some seconds of staring, Seulgi got what Wendy was trying to convey.

If you looked to the top-left-handed corner of the hall to the floor, you could see the start of a sentence, written with white colour. If you wanted to read it all, you had to go along the four walls. The writing was tiny. But big enough to read.

And that was exacly what they were doing now.

"Category: Dexterity", Irene started to read out. "Location: northern tract. Abilities you need to success: intelligence, clear mind, stamina. Welcome: I'm Arnold Priston, the author of this instruction you are reading right now. Probably this is your first time in my paradise and you don't know what to do. No need to worry. I raised my students to smart people, so you won't have a problem. If you are hard-working... But I am sure my students are! After you push the button next to the entrance, the game will start. As always, you play against me. Still questions? Fine! Let's start!"

Seulgi started to tremble after Irene has ended. Especially as she saw the carving next to the 'door' with a white button.

"He is dead, right?", Irene silently checked out.

"If he doesn't have the Philosopher's stone, yes. Should I press it now?" Chae waited for an answer.

"We have no other choice."

"Then let's go." And with that, she pressed it. And it happened... nothing.