LOVEPHOBIA

The Test of Courage (Pt.-2)

Areum followed the sound deeper into the forest, her senses heightened by the anticipation of discovery. The foliage grew thicker around her, casting long shadows that danced in the fading light of dusk. With each step, her heart beat faster, a mixture of excitement and apprehension coursing through her veins.

Behind the bushes, she found some of the staff of the school dressed as ghosts, vampires, and a lot more things. They were all huddled around one of the staff dressed as a female ghost who seemed to be in pain. She approached them. "What happened here?", she asked one of those staff who was dressed as a witch. "One of our members who was supposed to play the part of a ghost got the runs. We are seriously in trouble now! We have been looking for a replacement but so far no luck!", the staff said with a panicked voice.

Then an idea struck her head, she asked Areum, "Can you play her part as a ghost?". Areum was nervous. 'Ghost, huh? Well, I hate being in the dark... I guess, I can't be of any use to them' she thought to herself. "I don't think I'm fit for the role... sorry!" Areum politely tried to decline.As she started walking away, she heard those staff speak in distress, "Ah! What should we do?! Now that everyone's paired up, no one would want to do this! And we came up with so many strategies too! If there aren't enough of us, it'll mess up the timing of our scare tactics! I mean, we didn't have enough ghosts to begin with! At this rate, our big test of courage is gonna be so lame!! Oh, man! What are we gonna do?!" the staff secretly glanced at Areum to see if she changed her mind after this.

Areum stopped walking, sighed, and then said, "Fine, I'll do it... Just don't leave me alone in the dark..."

She was dressed as a ghost. The staff thanked her for taking this up. One of the staff reassured her saying, "It's alright, you have to just stand at a place and have fun scaring people!", he laughed to lighten the mood. Areum just sighed, shaking her head. She was given a flashlight.On the other side, Cha came back after talking to Lee for a while and saw that Areum was missing. He looked around everywhere but couldn't find her anywhere nearby. He called out her name, "Areum?"

Back in the forest, Areum was being taken to her designated spot by one of the staff. As they reached the place, the staff who came with Areum dashed to his own spot and left her alone over there. "WHAT? EY! Wait! No way! I'm staying here alone?" Areum shouted to the staff but the staff went far away and Areum was left all alone now.

All of the staff shouted to each other, "The test is about to start!" Areum knew that she had no way out of this anymore now. She tried to calm herself down by telling herself that she had a flashlight if anything went wrong. But to her surprise, when she turned on the flashlight, no light came out. She tried tapping it to make it work but then realized that the batteries in the flashlight had died. Now she was all alone, in the middle of the forest, in complete darkness!

She was shivering and sweating profusely. She still kept on trying to reassure herself but it didn't work anymore. She kept on telling herself while shivering, "I-I-I'm fine! I'm fine! I-I'm not scared! I'm not s-s-scared! I can't see them but there are people all around me! I'm not alone..."Suddenly, a lizard-like creature passed by her leg, and as soon as she felt that, she screamed at the top of her lungs "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Finally, after a while, she stiffly sat in a corner. "Why is this happening to me? Isn't there anyone who'll save me now?" She said to herself.