𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐗 ✓

18: DINGY QUEITUDE

"Oh, lately it's so quiet in this place
So darling, if you're not here haunting, me,
I'm wondering whose house are you haunting tonight?
- Oh, Lately It's So Quiet"

...

The room they were in seemed to be alive, its walls pulsating with an eerie energy. Suddenly, a low, guttural growl filled the air, causing Dani and her children to shrink back in terror. The source of the sound revealed itself as the floor beneath them began to crack and crumble, revealing a deep, dark abyss below.

With no other escape options, Dani gathered her courage and made a daring leap across the crumbling floor, managing to land safely on the other side. Seojin and Sejin followed suit, their small hands gripping hers tightly. They found themselves in a narrow hallway, its walls adorned with faded family portraits that seemed to stare back at them with accusing eyes.

As they cautiously made their way down the hallway, they heard whispers coming from behind the closed doors lining the corridor. The words were indiscernible, but the voices held a haunting familiarity. Dani couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched, constantly tormented by unseen forces.

The bricks began to deteriorate and scrape away, cracking apart. The enamel seemed to transmogrify into skin and peel away, revealing a rotting and decaying wall beneath. The fissures widened and spread throughout the home like spiderwebs. And some of the fissures were pitch black, while others were a strange red, as if the house was bleeding. In reality, blood began to flow out of the house's walls, staining the hardwood flooring as it ran down the peeling paint. Then fractures appeared all over the floor, snaking all the way around the home.

Soon the furniture started to fall apart and the appliances started to fail. Half of the lights flashed and sparked, while the other half remained off.

In an instant, the fridge doors burst open, revealing a gruesome sight. All the food inside was spoiled, crawling with worms, maggots, flies, spiders, and other insects. The shelves were coated in slime, as the food decayed and attracted more creatures to feast upon it. Even the cupboards were barren, falling apart from within, despite being empty. There was no unspoiled food anywhere...

Shivering at every nuisance gravelling through, Dani felt suffocated. It had started about an hour ago and nothing made sense. With the horrendous call of help making, its way, the three had been hurdled in the living room with an unseen force of fear. She held her twins close to her as she dived for the phone ringing the same number, "Jonghin! There's someone here—Aaaaah!"

Before she could finish her sentence, the counters shattered with a thunderous force. The ceiling above them became crisscrossed with black lines, causing debris to rain down upon them. What was once ceiling material soon transformed into cinders and ash, coating the floor in a fine powder that carried the scent of burning.

Dani's consciousness faded as a crust of plaster fell from above, striking her head.

The call fell dead with utterances of fear and tragedy from the other side. Life was in sense a fearsome reign.

__

At the Kim household, late-night pacing was far from a rarity. A scant 12 steps demarcated the north and the south ends, a distance his father would tread countless times. However, his restless energy ebbed away, leaving him feeling lost. Mental clarity eluded him as his thoughts clashed together, his vision losing focus.

The clash of his thoughts reverberated in his skull. They jumbled together like a tangled ball of string, making it impossible for him to separate one from the other. Each step he took seemed to lead him further into a haze, blurring his vision and clouding his judgment. It was too much for his little mind.