The Party That Killed || Hyunlix

60 🕸️

Seungmin nearly slammed the door when he crossed the threshold of his house. His heart was racing as if it were trying to escape from his chest. The echoes of the conversation he had with his friends still rang in his ears. Their words came back to him like a boomerang, unnecessary, cold, and full of doubt. "It's impossible," "We don't believe you," "This sounds like something out of a movie." As if he were really lying, as if he were making some kind of silly game out of it. As if everything he had been through made no sense at all.

He quietly closed the door behind him, not wanting anyone to hear him. He collapsed onto the bed, not caring that the clothes he was wearing were dirty. He grabbed a pillow and pressed it to his face, trying to suppress the anger rising in him like a wave. He couldn't hold it back.

In an instant, he felt all his emotions surface. Tears began to flow from his eyes, but he couldn't stop them. Anger, helplessness, despair. Everyone had let him down—his friends, those he trusted, who couldn’t see the immense weight he was carrying. And he had no one. No one he could trust, except himself.

"Why don't they believe me?" he whispered, not sure if he was asking himself or those who had turned their backs on him. What could he do to convince them? How could he show them that what he was saying wasn't just made up?

He lay there for long minutes, breathing deeply as if trying to calm his pounding heart. Thoughts swirled in his head, but none of them brought comfort. All he felt was emptiness and a sense of loss. He couldn’t deceive himself any longer. What he had experienced was real, and his friends weren't ready to accept it.

"I can do this alone..." he repeated in his mind, even though he had no idea where to start. But he had to do something. He had to fight.

Tired and resigned, he closed his eyes, trying to push all the thoughts out of his mind, even if just for a moment. His body longed for rest, and despite the chaos in his head, he couldn't resist any longer. A moment later, despite the tears, anger, and helplessness, he fell asleep. He felt his eyelids growing heavier until he drifted off in silence, too exhausted for anything more.

≈🎃≈

Seungmin stood in the middle of a dark, empty room he didn’t recognize. The walls were chipped, and the floor was covered with a thin layer of dust. He felt a strange tension, as if something was about to happen. Suddenly, in the corner of the room, a light appeared—a delicate, flickering glow like a candle flame. He cautiously moved toward it, taking careful steps.

As he drew closer, he saw a desk. On it was a notebook filled with notes, and beside it lay a pen. But what caught his attention was a small black USB drive that seemed to emit a faint glow. He reached out to pick it up but heard a sound behind him—a soft whisper.

"Not now..." The voice was low, almost inaudible.

Seungmin spun around, but there was no one there. When he looked back at the desk, the notebook and the USB drive had disappeared. Instead, a mirror appeared, and in it… his brother, Jungmin. Jungmin looked at him seriously, as if he wanted to say something but couldn’t.

"Jungmin?" Seungmin reached out toward the mirror, his panic growing.

His brother’s reflection nodded, as if trying to convey something, and then suddenly the mirror cracked with a loud snap. Seungmin stepped back, shielding his face from the shards, but then he woke up with a sharp breath.

He was lying in his bed, the room silent except for the ticking of a clock on the wall. His heart was pounding, and his hands were slightly damp with sweat. He stared at the ceiling for a moment, trying to calm his breath.

"What did that mean..." he whispered, sinking back into his pillow.

≈🎃≈

Seungmin flipped through old notes, still unable to shake off the anxiety that gripped him after what he had discovered in his dream. Even though he didn’t fully understand what was happening, he had no doubt—what Jungmin was doing had to be related to the cult, and that USB drive, which had to exist, was key. Seungmin’s gaze drifted to a messy shelf full of books, papers, and small items that reminded him of Jungmin.

He searched another drawer, his fingers gliding over old papers and broken pens, but nothing he found was of any significance. His thoughts were elsewhere, more focused on what he might discover—on what he needed to find. Finally, he came across something hard, which slid out from one of the books at the bottom of the shelf. It was small, dark, a USB drive.

Seungmin couldn’t believe he was holding what he had been searching for. He quickly took it from the shelf and turned it over in his hand. There were no markings on the outside—nothing that could reveal what was inside. It looked just like a regular USB drive, but Seungmin knew it couldn’t be just any object. He felt like he had just found something that was about to change everything.

A sudden chill ran down his spine. He froze in place, staring at the device, feeling a growing unease. A vague thought crossed his mind—like something in the air had shifted. Something was watching him. The darkness in the room seemed thicker, and the silence more oppressive.

"It can't be..." he thought, turning quickly toward the door. It was closed. He looked out the window—nothing. He turned his gaze back to the room. Standing still in the same spot, he felt as though someone was still standing in the shadows, watching him. He started to panic, but quickly closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "It’s just my imagination," he tried to calm himself. He wanted to dismiss the feeling, but he couldn’t.

He decided not to let fear show. He plugged the USB drive into his laptop, feeling his heart race faster. The laptop screen lit up, and a list of files appeared before his eyes, all encrypted. "This isn’t normal..." he thought, glancing at the screen.

There was nothing obvious on the USB—no recognizable file names. Instead, there were folders full of complex names that made no sense. And then he saw something that stopped him—one folder clearly stood out from the rest. Inside it was just one video.

When he clicked the file, a message appeared: "To play, enter the password."

"Password?" he thought, staring at the message on the screen. Before he could do anything, he felt that same sensation in his head—as if something was watching him. He looked toward the door. Nothing. Though there was no one there, he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was close, and that what he had just found had something to do with danger. Something sinister.

He began looking for any clue about the password. He searched through other folders but found nothing that could help. Frustrated, he lowered his head, but at that moment something caught his eye. On one of the papers on his desk was a letter that seemed like part of a code. It had to be some kind of sign, something that was meant to guide him forward.

"What does this mean?" he wondered, trying to piece together the puzzle. But nothing seemed to fit. The password became his new obsession. He had to figure out how to decipher it.

The boy closed the laptop and stood up, feeling exhausted not only physically but mentally as well. "This can’t just end like this," he thought, as the tension in his body grew. He looked again at the USB drive he was holding in his hand and promised himself that he wouldn’t rest until he uncovered what was hidden in that document—what made someone want it to remain a secret so badly.