Dillan walked silently along the road. His flashlight was still turned off. The only sounds he could hear were the chirping of crickets around him and the sound of his sneakers hitting the pavement. Fernan had told him that Lot 2 was just ahead. Dillan noticed that streetlights were only installed near the apartment and Lot 1. But the path he was taking now was surrounded by tall walls and trees. He checked the time on his cellphone again. He still had ten minutes before midnight.
Tak…Tak…Tak…
Dillan suddenly stopped when he heard another sound that seemed to be footsteps. But when he stopped, he could only hear silence.
“Did I hear it wrong?” he thought.
He started walking again, and once more, he heard another set of footsteps from behind. Dillan swallowed hard and tried to clench and unclench his hands as they began to turn rigid. He felt a cold presence but didn't look back and continued walking while his eyes quickly searched for the Lot 2 sign, hoping he would see it soon.
“Psst!”
Dillan’s heart skipped a beat when he heard the hiss. Based on the sound, it was only a short distance behind him. His gaze shifted to the pavement as he checked his shadow; at the same time, he was also looking for another one, but he saw nothing.
“Psst!”
This time, it was closer. However, Dillan's eyes and mind were working faster. He was trying to locate the signage of Lot 2. He knew that aside from himself, there was no one else who could be walking in that area, so he knew that whatever was following him wasn't human. In his mind, he cursed the To-do list notebook again for giving him a job that required him to offer flowers and light candles at midnight.
Dillan felt a sense of relief when he saw the Lot 2 signage in the distance.
He quickened his pace, but when he was already close, he suddenly sensed a presence beside him. Dillan unconsciously held his breath but didn't look at it. In his peripheral vision, he saw the figure of a man looking at him. It simply walked alongside him while keeping its gaze in his direction. Dillan's heart was pounding hard, but he pretended that he still couldn't see it.
“Psst!” It was somewhat prolonged, and he could almost hear the echo and coldness in its voice.
Then he felt something gripping his right hand and heard a sinister laugh.
“Kekeke…”
He instinctively pulled his hand, but the grip just became tighter. Dillan still refused to look at the entity pulling him. He clenched his fist and made another attempt but the entity had no intention of letting go.
“Ah, f*ck this ghost!”
Then Dillan felt a hot sensation on his wrist. When he looked at it, he noticed that the bracelet-like tattoo wrapped around it seemed to be glowing in the dark. Then his attention was also drawn to the pale hand gripping his wrist.
“NO!”
He raised his head to where the sound had come from, but the ghost was already turned to smoke. Dillan didn't waste any time. He immediately ran toward the gate of Lot 2, took out the keys from his bag, and tried to insert the Lot 2 key into the keyhole. He made two attempts before he successfully opened the gate. Dillan immediately closed it behind him and leaned on it to calm his nerves.
When he observed his new surroundings, he was greeted by a spacious lot full of evenly spaced tombs. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the paint used, but even under the moonlight, the colors of white tombs stood out in the darkness.
The lot was vast. If he had to compare it to something, it was as large as their school cafeteria in UV. Dillan inspected the tombs nearby and all he could see were dried flowers and melted candles on top of them. Aside from the tombs, the area was surrounded by what seemed to be wall compartments with space to place candles and flowers on each one of them. Some of them had gravestones while the others were still vacant.
Vrrt…Vrrt…Vrrt…
He took out his cellphone and checked the time—it was midnight.
Dillan was still recovering from what happened earlier, but he didn't have much time to rest. If an entity had followed him to the cemetery, it wasn't far-fetched that something might be waiting for him outside. He couldn't help but look at the tattoo on his wrist that he had first noticed when he woke up as the apartment's caretaker. He wanted to know what was special about it and why it had affected the ghost earlier.
He quickly took the candles from the plastic bag and placed them with the flowers he took from the garden. Whatever happened, his first salary depended on this, so he had to do his best.
Ding!
Dillan was startled by the sound and looked at the notification on his cellphone. He was slightly stunned when he saw an app on his cellphone that he was unfamiliar with and didn't remember installing. When Dillan opened it, two to-do lists that he needed to complete that early morning appeared before him, and he saw that the box beside the task of offering candles and flowers at the grave had already been checked.
“Ha…Thank goodness.”
He took several breaths to calm himself and sat on the grave where he had lit the third candle. Then his gaze landed on the name and year of death on the gravestone.
Amir Lopez58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKQcWXvZdoh
Born: 1958 — Died: 1968
He couldn't help but calculate the age of the person buried there.
“Ten years old?”
He also noticed the year of the person's death, and if he counted it, it had been fifty-eight years ago. As far as Dillan remembered, graves were only prepared for tenants when they decided to permanently leave the apartment. That meant the apartment could be very old and that many tenants had lived there.
Dillan was somewhat curious, but that wasn't enough for him to look into the details of the apartment's tenants unless he needed to. He might even read something he wasn't supposed to know.
When Dillan had rested enough, he took another deep breath. His mind immediately cleared up and began processing what he should do if he happened to leave the cemetery gate. He slowly pushed the gate open and peeked outside. Just as he expected, a short distance from the lot, there were ghosts floating in the air. Their appearance made his skin crawl when he noticed that there were more of them than before. Dillan decided to pretend that he couldn't see them. He didn't know if he had simply been lucky earlier or if there was still something he needed to know about his tattoo.
He already knew the way, and if he just ran straight, he would immediately see the entrance to Lot 1, where Fernan was. He took several breaths and silently counted in his mind as he slowly closed the gate.
One… Two… Three…
Click!
Dillan sprinted, keeping his eyes straight ahead. He had already said several prayers in his mind, and along with the adrenaline rush, he felt as though he was running faster. It wasn't long before he saw Fernan in the distance, quietly standing at the entrance of Lot 1.
Dillan caught his breath when he stopped in front of Fernan. But when he raised his eyes, the ghost was smiling at him. Dillan raised his right hand before speaking.
“Fernan, please, don't smile at me with your face and clothes covered in blood.”
When Fernan heard that, his face returned to normal.
“Sorry, boss.”
“Let's go back to the apartment,” he said after catching his breath. Dillan didn't look back and started to walk toward the apartment.
When Dillan had gotten some distance away, he didn't notice that Fernan hadn't left his position yet.
***
Fernan stared at Dillan’s back. He made sure that no malignant ghost was ahead before he turned around and looked at the figures there. His eyes stopped on a man who was also looking at him. It was the ghost who had followed Dillan earlier.
Before the other group of ghosts could move, Fernan suddenly disappeared from his position and quickly appeared in front of the man, grabbing him by the neck and lifting him into the air.
“Ugh!”
When the other ghosts saw this, they immediately disappeared. Fernan coldly looked at the man hanging in the air and spoke without emotion.
“Just because you're dead doesn't mean there aren't other ways to make you disappear for good.”
The ghost struggled, but Fernan had no intention of letting him go yet.
“EEEK!!!”
Fernan tightened his grip around the man's neck before quickly slamming him against the pavement.
“F-forgive me…” the man said with difficulty.
Fernan's eyes remained emotionless as the man continued struggling on the pavement.
He gave him a cold smile before letting go. Once the man was freed from his grip, hhis body turned translucent before disappearing.
“Fernan…”
Fernan stood when he heard Dillan's familiar voice. He then disappeared like smoke and appeared in front of his boss. He found Dillan standing a few meters away from the apartment’s entrance waiting for him.
58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFbIZ6vT9JM
58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNMV5Egnokb
and then Add to home screen.