The Party That Killed || Hyunlix

70 🕸️

Seungmin pov.
We were sitting against the wall, tired but unwilling to give up. The silence in the basement was heavy, as if the very space was absorbing all our thoughts. We both knew we should leave, but something kept me in place. There was something off about all of this.

"I don’t get why you don’t just want to leave, Seungmin..." Jeongin started, his voice a little weary, as if the questions were starting to overwhelm him.

"Because there’s something behind that wall," I replied, glancing at him but not taking my eyes off the place where the hallway had just disappeared. "This hidden wall wasn’t placed here for no reason. A basement with a hallway leading nowhere? That doesn’t make sense. There’s gotta be more. Either I’m scared, or I feel like we can’t walk away."

Jeongin sighed, tilting his head. "It really doesn’t sit right... But what if it’s just a trap? What if we’re just overthinking everything?"

"No, Jeongin." I clenched my fists on my pants. "There’s something to this. There has to be. What if it’s not a coincidence? Why did this wall just appear? Why does everyone have to keep quiet about it?"

After a moment of silence, Jeongin looked at me, his gaze showing that he had doubts too. But he still didn’t want to back down. "It’s not the best idea. What if we go in and it really is some sort of cult...?"

"And then what, you’ll run away?" I asked, cutting him off with a smile. "I’m not scared. How about you?"

"Damn, I don’t know..." Jeongin turned away, still looking for an answer. "But we need to be careful."

I stubbornly gritted my teeth, not allowing myself to turn away from the goal. "I know one thing—if we don’t check it out, we’ll regret it."

The silence in the hallway was almost overwhelming, and I could feel my heart racing, growing louder with each beat. Something in this situation was starting to unsettle me, but I couldn’t stop thinking that there had to be more behind that wall. If Chan was hiding something so important, it wasn’t so we could just walk away now.

"Jeongin, we have to do this. This isn’t just curiosity anymore... We need to discover what’s behind it."

I glanced at him. He seemed just as confused and a little mixed up, as if I might actually be right, but I could see in his eyes that something was changing—he was starting to believe what I was saying.

"I don’t know what’s behind it, but since we’re here, we can’t leave it."

I began to slowly approach the wall. My hands were shaking, but it only motivated me more. We started fiddling with the wall again, looking for some mechanism that might open it. In the background, I could hear strange, unsettling noises. It seemed like something was moving there, as if something... alive was on the other side.

I stopped, listening intently, but couldn’t make out anything specific. "This... This has to be some kind of entrance," I said more to myself than to Jeongin, though I knew he was thinking the same thing.

This place was alive.

And I... we... had to uncover it.

≈🎃≈

Jeongin pov.
I wanted to say something, but Seungmin suddenly took a step back, which struck me as a bit strange. At first, I didn’t understand what he was planning to do, but then his face twisted into a strange smile, and he said:

"It’s time for Plan B."

Before I could ask what he meant, he already gathered speed and, in one swift motion, ran straight into the wall. He literally crashed into it.

"Seungmin, what the...?"

I didn’t get to finish, because the wall suddenly began to slide open in two directions, and he fell inside, leaving me completely stunned. For a moment, I stood there in utter shock, then I couldn’t help but laugh. Seungmin was lying on the ground, looking at me with a displeased expression.

"Seriously?" I asked with a grin, walking over to him. "Was that your brilliant plan?"

Seungmin slowly got up, shooting me a murderous look, but despite that, I couldn’t stop laughing. I still couldn’t believe it had actually happened.

"You know, maybe I had a better idea, but I’m not going to explain myself," he replied with a slight smile, though he looked like he might kill me with a glance.

I just shrugged, still laughing, then nodded towards the open entrance, inviting him inside.

"Alright, let’s go. Something’s open now!"

Seungmin just sighed and followed me, still throwing me death glares. I had to admit, despite everything, he had a point—his way had something to it that couldn’t be overlooked.

The creak of my footsteps echoed in the cold, empty space. Everything around us looked like some secret laboratory, with rows of old shelves filled with strange books and other items that might explain why this place had been so deeply hidden. Seungmin, as always, immediately started checking every corner, and I allowed myself a moment to ignore him. I knew he would find something weird, something that would explain why this place was so important.

Then I heard his voice, full of surprise.

"Is... is that a brain?"

I started to turn around, wondering what he was talking about. When I approached, I saw he was standing by a glass tube, inside which floated something that didn’t look like any creature I knew. It looked like a brain... but not a normal brain. It was deformed, as if something that should never have existed was in there.

"Seriously?" I muttered, getting closer to take a look for myself.

I couldn’t believe something like this was here. It couldn’t be a coincidence. I stopped right next to Seungmin, staring at whatever was floating in the tube. It looked unnatural, as if it shouldn’t even be here.

"Maybe it’s just some kind of experiment?" I asked, though I wasn’t sure what to think. "But this... looks like it shouldn’t exist."

Seungmin stared at it for a moment, then replied in a tone that suggested something was changing in him.

"I don’t think it’s just an experiment..." he said, shaking his head. "Maybe he was really mentally ill."

I hesitated. I didn’t want to admit it, but I had a feeling we were starting to see the real picture of what had been going on. Maybe Chan really was on the edge of madness, and this place had been his last attempt to hide something that shouldn’t ever see the light of day.

"This... this is messed up," I added after a brief silence. "Really. I don’t know what to make of it."

I could feel my heart racing. I was beginning to understand why Chan didn’t want anyone to get in here. Why he’d gone to such lengths to keep this place hidden. This wasn’t just about some hidden basement or a weird compartment. This was something bigger.

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From what I’ve noticed, this book with Hyunlix and Minsung has turned into some kind of crime story. 😔