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"when there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth."
— George A. Romero —
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[ 3RD PERSONS VIEW。]
Donghyuck felt tingles in his heart as the joyous sound came from the Choi's house filled then with absolute warmth. It has been so long since he heard soft and beautiful melodies of the piano, not that he never heard them in school or so, but something felt different from the way the musician played the instrument.
He was sure enough that the musician was Haruka, as Jisung said earlier about how they walked with Haruka on their way to Renjun's home.
However, what they were talking about right now didn't really bring joy to them. Seated on the red carpet of the Huang's residence, circling as they all hugged their knees closer to their bodies, a hint of fear in everyone's eyes as Renjun continued to talk about the known copycat ghost in Jinhae-gu.
It was a horror story that sparked everyone's interest as they said it was based on true events. No one's even going to kid about it, they even heard short stories about the infamous imitator from their parents.
Like what Ahn Yura has said before– copycat ghosts can alter time, pictures, even memories of the people in town. These copycat ghosts are like lost people, finding a place to stay and that is to revive a long lost dead.
It started around the year 1996, when the imitator made its first appearance, literally changing everyone's perception. People became more anxious, they even tried leaving the town, but there was one way to solve it. That was to ignore this copycat's existence, although there was said to be another way, only more dangerous than to ignore.
Every three years it would come back, haunting people's lives as it tried to become one with the townspeople. It tricked people into believing that a once deceased person didn't even die in the first place, with its abilities to imitate and blend in well, it wasn't a surprise that people bought it well.
"But that doesn't mean it can't be stopped," Hanmi uttered, crossing her arms as she rests her chin onto the palms of her hands. "all we have to do is to ignore right?"
Renjun scrunched his nose, scowling at what she had just said, "Well, according to my research... during the years the imitator was present, bad things could happen."
"How bad?" Jisung shuddered at the thought.
Grimacing, Renjun looked away from the piece of paper he wrote the notes on, "People become crazy–"
"How crazy?!" Jisung shot up from his seat making Donghyuck hiss at him.
"Quiet down, will you?"
Cheeks flaring in embarrassment, the youngest sat back down with a pout, "S-Sorry... It's just that– thinking about it, we're actually messing with something supernatural here!"
Renjun coughed forcibly, grabbing their attention again as he sighed, "This information was strictly closed off by the police, but only to teenagers that's it." he tossed the old newspaper into the middle of their circle, "I found this in our attic, apparently, people have tried attacking others– in hopes to find the copycat ghost and well... kill them once again."
Lihua froze, her whole body trembling as she inched closer to her cousin, "K-Kill...?" she worded out slowly, swallowing the lump in her throat, feeling lightheaded from the information.
Chenle scoffed and eyed the newspaper, "This happened every three years, right? Since 1996?"
Jaemin hummed, picking up the bundle of gray old paper, scanning the old typings he nodded, "Yup. The last one should've occurred... 2017..."
2017? A dreadful year for everyone as all they could bring up was the infamous kidnappings that happened during summer.
Right, now they could remember what was the active subject last year in summer, it was definitely the rumored copycat!
Although, this news was mostly hidden to children and teenagers as adults wanted it far from their ears. But that exactly took the wrong turn today, everyone was well aware of the copycat ghost now.
"So... that means..." Hanmi furrowed her brows, trying to connect the dots.
"Those kidnappings had a reason– they were to find the true copycat!" Chenle gasped and shook Lihua who was about to pass out, absolutely taking everything in at once was a bad idea, especially for an easily frightened girl like her.
"But- that doesn't make sense!" Renjun huffed, "The ghost was never found!"
Everyone stiffened, craning their heads towards Renjun who had opened an even bigger dilemma. He was partially right, most of the population in Jinhae-gu was now doubting the assuring news in 2017; what if the copycat ghost was still around?
"Then that explains why... they are targetting Haruka..." Jisung's frown deepened, feeling sad that a newcomer to this town had to be treated that way.
"It's because Haruki died, they believe that Haruka is pretending to be Haruki." Donghyuck stated before snatching the newspaper from Jaemin's grasp, "There were around six announced victims of the child kidnapper... those children come in an age range of six to seventeen, girl or boy it didn't matter, what mattered was–"
"–finding the dead to keep it dead." Renjun finishes Donghyuck's sentence, his teeth gritted as he seethed.
"It obvious that the dead hasn't been found, maybe that's why Haruki was killed... she's the first victim of the child kidnapper!" Chenle clenched his fists, wanting to throw a punch at whoever suspected Haruki, however, this theory couldn't be exactly proven right.
"But the kidnappings happened a year ago, the kidnapper can't just come again like that!" Jaemin pointed out.
"No wait– there could be another reason why she was killed. Like was she said in her letters, she felt like she was being observed, that meant someone was watching her make a move." Renjun shook his head, "She could've known something about the dead person!"
Gasps filled the air as they heard the sound of the piano coming from the Choi's. It had stopped a while ago when they saw Mrs. Choi come back from work.
Now it was back, and the melody went darker than usual. Known to them that Haruka had a thing for converting her emotions into music, something must've happened just from the way she played the piano.
"If only Jeno was here, maybe he knew something..." Renjun grunted and punched his own thigh, "After all, his brother was involved in the child kidnapping."
