The civil servant and I pressed our backs to the wall and looked down the hallway ahead.
At Class 1-5 at the very end of the corridor, the one we had escaped from.
And then, when I finally saw it too.
Flicker.
A mannequin-like figure appeared at the far end of the corridor.
‘…Three?’
There was one more now.
Two boys, one girl.
The two who had come out of the classroom were covered in blood, smiling this way, while the remaining one stood still in a clean uniform.
When the lights were on, they just looked like grotesque, vividly lifelike wax figures, or people taxidermied inside a photograph.
But every time the lights went out.
Flicker.
They appeared farther forward.
Again and again.
Even if we moved farther back.
Flicker.
Only as far as the emergency flashlight’s beam reached.
They stopped again, closer than before, their forms revealed beneath the light.
They didn’t fall behind.
Flicker.
“……”
The moment the flashlight battery ran out.
I could imagine this standoff ending too…
‘Ha.’
Even as I moved my feet slowly and carefully, that image clung to the back of my neck.
In the end, we only stopped once we reached the very end of the corridor—a dead end.
And then.
[Ding— dong— dang— dong]
“……”
[A fatal accident has occurred in Class 3-2.]
Fuck.
[The deceased student is Park Chaea…