Chapter 162

Chapter 162.

2:30 A.M.

Exhausted staff drained from the base camp like a retreating tide. All except one, who stayed behind to prep the bathroom murder scene scheduled as the first shot tomorrow morning.

Even the bathroom boasted a small chandelier, elegant as anything, but in the dead of night even that couldn't do its job.

The staff member hesitated, then stepped inside.

"......"

An uneasy gaze dropped downward.

Across the checkerboard-patterned floor tiles, draped in a veil of pale light, thick lighting cables snaked and coiled in disarray.

'The power's off... right?'

Images of various electrocution accidents floated through his mind as he picked his way carefully. In the center of the bathroom sat a freestanding clawfoot bathtub with ornate lion-paw legs, sitting there alone.

"...The homeowner sure has classical taste...."

A strange chill prickled his skin, and he muttered that for no real reason.

'It's been feeling a bit cold lately. Maybe because summer's ending.'

He was standing before the sink to wipe away the fake blood from filming when--

SHHHHHHHHH--!

"Eek...!!"

Before his hand even touched it, water began gushing from the faucet like mad.

At first, rusty red water vomited out in torrents, then gradually cleared--but the stream still poured with ferocious force, filling the basin. The special effects team had done a water pressure test during the day, but

they'd definitely shut the valve tight before leaving...?

"J-Jesus... why is the pressure like this?"

The startled staff member gripped the cross-shaped valve and twisted.

"Why won't this...."

But the metal handle only spun uselessly, and the water poured harder. Splashing spray soaked his sleeves. He scrambled backward.

By that point, accumulated fatigue and irritation had paralyzed his reason. Even the peculiar fear of being left alone in this eerie space had transformed into anger.

"God, seriously...!"

He shouted sharply into the empty bathroom air.

"Is someone messing around?! Did the SFX team not clean up their equipment?!"

The echo of his shout rang off the high bathroom ceiling and faded.

"How did they even manage to--"

Drip.

"......"

As if someone had twisted the valve shut.

The gushing water stopped dead. Not a gradual decrease in flow, not even a clunk from the pipes. A suffocating silence blanketed the bathroom.

His outstretched hand froze cold above the valve.

"Uh...."

Coincidence?

It was possible that the aged plumbing's pressure had dropped at the exact moment he'd shouted. But the chill crawling up his spine couldn't be explained by that alone.

He opened his mouth, hesitant.

"Is someone... there?"

He never thought he'd be saying something this stupid with his own mouth.

"Some...one...."

No answer. Only the faint sound of mountain wind hitting old windows. Even as he told himself he was going crazy, assimilating into the horror film set, his trembling lips moved.

"If you're there... turn the water on."

One second. Two.

A suffocating silence passed.

'Of course it was just coinci--'

KRRRRRRSHHH--!!

"Gkh...!!"

Water exploded from the faucet with enough force to shatter the basin.

He sucked in a breath. It wasn't his imagination. In this sealed set with not a single camera, something with intelligence was listening to him and responding.

His legs nearly buckled on the wet tile, but what on earth was he thinking?

He continued the exchange.

"A-are you... going to hurt me?"

The water cut off.

"Th-then... where are you now? In the hallway?"

Silence. The water did not flow.

He asked.

"...Are you in this bathroom... here with me?"

SHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

The wall-mounted showerhead shuddered, and a far more violent stream than before exploded out. Ice-cold spray from both the shower and faucet simultaneously slapped his cheek.

"......"

In an instant, the air inside the wide bathroom froze like a walk-in freezer.

In the narrow gap between unlit lighting stands, behind the freestanding bathtub draped in darkness, or somewhere beyond the opaque wall of the firmly shut shower booth.

Something was there.

"...Th... the...."

His eyes trembled wildly.

He didn't dare turn his head to check his surroundings. His gaze was fixed only on the sink drain, where reddish(?) rust-water swirled down.

He squeezed out one last question.

"Are you... right now... standing behind me?"

If water poured at this question, the instant he turned around he would come face to face with it. He squeezed his eyes shut. Please, please don't come out.

And finally.

Drip.

"......"

The water stopped. Perfect silence.

'It's not there.'

"Haah...."

The breath he'd been holding finally burst free.

His rigidly locked shoulders dropped. He cracked his eyes open to check the mirror, but behind him there was only the dark corridor beyond the open door and a lone reflector panel. Nothing.

'R-right. Now. Get out. Turn around right now and run--'

Just as he steeled himself and tried to move his frozen legs.

From somewhere, instead of the sweet corn-syrup smell of the filming fake blood, a nauseatingly unpleasant stench rose--sharp enough to stab his brain. After a split second's deliberation, the answer that surfaced was 'rotting fish-water.'

No, wait.

'Fish-water...?'

Tap.

Just then.

A single drop of cold, sticky liquid fell on the nape of his neck.

"......?"

This was the second-floor bathroom of a classical villa; above it was nothing but the empty attic beneath a gabled roof. There was no structural reason for pipes to run overhead. Too cold and revoltingly unpleasant for a rain leak.

He froze stiff and stopped breathing.

Tap.

Tap-tap-tap.

Tap....

"Uh...."

This time, fat droplets began falling ceaselessly onto his crown and shoulders.

"Uh."

Only then did he realize.

It had never once lied.

A moment ago, he had only asked whether it was standing 'behind' him. He hadn't asked where or how it was positioned. From directly above his head, from the unusually high ceiling, a grotesque noise began.

Crack, drip.

"......"

He couldn't bring himself to look up.

But unluckily, the ornate antique mirror his gaze was locked on--at the very top of its discolored, mottled surface--

reflected a pale woman in a sopping wet dress, limbs grotesquely bent like a spider's, clinging to the ceiling chandelier and looking down at the crown of his head.

"...Ah."

No--not just one. One, two, three, four, five....

From between the reflected woman's lips, split wide as though torn, instead of laughter, bright red rust-water dripped ceaselessly--tap, tap--soaking the nape of his neck.

"...AAAAAAAAHHH!!!"

***

"......"
"......"

"That was too much."

The vampire chided the old Water Wraith.

"Living things are far more delicate than you think."

"Didn't seem like it."

"You mustn't use our General Manager as the baseline. At that level, be grateful they didn't die of cardiac arrest."

"Not my problem."

"How crass."

The vampire clicked his tongue and looked at the General Manager.

"You're sure this is acceptable?"

"To be honest, it's a bit different from what I expected."

"I thought as much."

It looked that way.

"Wouldn't my method be the cleanest, then?"

"Since the Drenched One's method is classic enough, most people should have some built-in immunity. The ghost confirmed through water or mirrors is a common trope, wouldn't you say?"

"And you'd bank on that? That's actually quite reasonable, General Manager."

"We should at least deliver the invitations."

Coco, watching the CCTV screen from inside the basket, swayed its tail gently.

"Coco. Deeply moved."

"Even during the tea party, it looked uncomfortable."

The Water Wraith added.

"Worrying about its future self, how touching."

"How touching indeed."

But surely the revival of Hoone mattered more than his future mental health?

"Hmm...."

The General Manager sipped his coffee and nodded.

"Let's proceed as planned."

"Can I be honest?"

"You may speak. You have the floor."

"This is kind of fun, friend."

"It is my pleasure."

This must be what friendship is.

***

The villa in Gapyeong that Seon-hae had secured was well-maintained but had some years on it. When the staff first arrived, they'd had conversations like:

"When was this place built?"

"I heard over twenty years."

"Twenty?"

"Twenty-five?"

"Why does it keep going up?"

Even so,

"It doesn't look it at all?"

"Water runs fine."

"Power's solid too."

It was a perfectly functional house.

"Most of all, it's grand."

"When I make money, I'm building a place like this in the mountains...."

"Can you even get a permit for mountain construction these days?"

"It's tough now, even with money."

Private land smack in the middle of a mountainside. A splendid villa built on it. The building's age only lent it a stately air; there was nowhere the crew would find uncomfortable.

"We're not staying here the whole time anyway."

"That's true."

Given the nature of film production, they weren't shooting every scene here.

"I'm going to re-check the placement and condition of the items we left out."

"I worked really hard to get this place~ If anything gets damaged, know that before the owner scolds me, I'll be scolding you."

Gyeong-yeon and Seon-hae were meticulous about such things.

Borrowed items and spaces were returned intact to the owner, with a show of gratitude. Even if overheated performances or unforeseen accidents caused damage, responsibility was shared--but for any other reason, clear discipline and penalties were enforced.

"We should be used to it by now, right? Let's not earn a reputation for shamelessness."

"Director... our ears are going to callus over...."

"Accidents happen when you're most comfortable. Listen to the Director."

"I'm taking photos right now, Director...."

"Don't forget to show Ms. Hong later."

"On a different note, sometimes the writer really does feel like an AI."

"Don't covet my personal Na○uWiki."

Which meant they knew the borrowed villa inside out.

Time passed quickly, and midway through the shoot:

"Um, Director."

"Hmm?"

"Here...."

One of the actors, who'd been whispering with colleagues, approached Seon-hae cautiously.

"There aren't, like, ghosts here, right?"

"Ghosts?"

"Since it's an old place, maybe accidents or...."

"I haven't heard anything like that. Why? Is something wrong?"

"Whether you'd call it a problem...."

The hesitant actor continued.

"The plumbing feels like it's going haywire."

"Plumbing?"

"I talked to some other actors, and apparently it's happened a few times."

"Sounds like there is a problem.... Sorry, I must have been sloppy with the inspection."

"It's not that, it's, um."

"Tell me. If something needs fixing, I'll call someone. Did anyone get hurt?"

"Nobody got hurt."

And so the story he heard:

"The water keeps running and stopping, on repeat."

"You know the sink heads and showerheads? Those."

"I woke up before dawn and went to the filming bathroom, and it was full of water. Next day it was completely drained. But nobody filled it...."

"I keep hearing dripping sounds from a sink. But thinking about it afterward, it's weird--I sleep in a tent, so why would I hear water? It wasn't even raining."

"One time I got so annoyed I yelled 'stop it,' and the water sound just stopped."

Actors and staff alike had been accumulating these accounts.

"Uh... this is just something I heard."

A colleague who'd been close to a staff member who'd taken medical leave a few days ago also spoke up.

"He said he saw a ghost. For real."

"For real?"

"A woman ghost hanging from the ceiling, he said...."

"Where did he see it? And why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Even he wasn't sure the next morning."

"You're usually not 'not sure' about something like that."

"He said he came to in his own tent, so he thought it was a nightmare."

"I'm going to lose my mind."

It could genuinely have been a nightmare. But by this point, even Seon-hae and Gyeong-yeon were uneasy. They, too, had thought 'hm, something feels off' a few times during filming.

'We just brushed it off as imagination.'

But the others didn't have nerves as strong as theirs. They were clearly sensing something wrong.

"......"
"......"

Gyeong-yeon looked at her Director.

"......"

"...Director...?"

"Yeah, give me a sec, let me call the property owner."

Director Seon-hae contacted the villa's owner and returned with unfortunate news.

"Apparently, during a rainy season years ago, trespassers who broke in got electrocuted in the bathtub...."

"Why didn't they tell us that beforehand?"

"They'd forgotten about it... The property manager came, relayed the news, called people to handle it, so it never really hit home for the owner."

"And you think that makes sense...?"

Gyeong-yeon then asked.

"...Is this something we can tell the people here?"

"Fuck, how should I know. What do we do now, Gyeong-yeon?"

"How can you ask me that, Director?"

"Hey, our movie must be destined for greatness if even ghosts are showing up on set."

"Nothing's been caught on camera yet."

Naturally, they couldn't keep it hidden. Beyond being a psychological defect, it meant the building's electrical and plumbing systems could be compromised.

They made a general announcement.

"I've been told the facilities were overhauled because of that incident. But given the situation, if there are no objections, let's just shoot the essential scenes and head down."

"The critical scenes are mostly done. Two or three more and the rest can be shot at a Seoul studio or another location. I'm planning to push the bathtub scene to later. Is that alright?"

There had been an unfortunate incident at this location. What you felt may not have been your imagination. It could be a facilities issue rather than ghosts, which means there's a safety concern.

"If anyone finds it difficult to stay nearby for the remaining filming period, we'll arrange separate accommodations. Please let us know by 2 PM the day after tomorrow."

"We did hold a blessing ceremony when we started, but... if it still feels wrong, we can call someone again. Not sure if that's proper, but your safety and comfort come first."

And so, when only the final shoot at the villa remained:

"It's a Water Wraith for sure."

"Excuse me??"

Do-hyeon dropped the bomb.

"But it's not aggressive. From what I can tell, it's not the actual electrocution victims. More like creatures that gathered because the deaths created a hospitable environment for Water Wraiths."

A few days ago, Gyeong-yeon would have stammered 'what do you mean.' But now:

"Oh my, why the sudden activity after being quiet all this time?"

"I was curious about that too, so I looked around a bit."

She had no choice but to accept reality.

"...Um...."

Gyeong-yeon asked.

"Is it... normal for Artists to... see ghosts and such?"

"Depends on the person, when it comes to seeing ghosts."

"No, I mean... yes. I see."

She was a civilian with no knowledge, so she couldn't say much.

"So why bring this up now...?"

"Have either of you heard of a Ouija board?"

"I already hate this."

She meant it.