The Eldritch Files

Chapter 26: Chapter 24: Run Faster

"Waaah..."

"Why are you all ganging up on me...?"

By the third slap, the boy with the buzz cut finally remembered to cry. Han Su’s ferocious expression was a nightmare the likes of which he’d never seen, scarier even than the monsters upstairs. After all, the monsters didn’t single him out for a beating.

"You hit me, you hit me..."

"You’re so done for! When my dad comes to rescue me, I’m not gonna let him save you! I’m gonna make him bury you in the garden..."

"..."

"Then I’ll just have to give you another taste of a working man’s discipline..."

Han Su’s anger flared. He kicked out again, deliberately holding back his strength to make it hurt without causing serious injury. He then chased the boy with the buzz cut, sending him scrambling around the cellar.

The boy’s sharp, childish cries shattered the night’s silence, causing an uproar. In the chaos, other children in the crowded cellar were stepped on or accidentally kicked. For many, the pent-up fear finally became too much to bear.

The suppressed commotion erupted all at once. A cacophony of crying and shouting echoed through the hollow cellar, so loud that even Han Su found it jarring.

THUMP, THUMP!

But the chaotic noise had alerted someone—or something—outside. The sound of heavy footsteps approached quickly.

BANG!

The small door was suddenly thrown open, and a ball of firelight flooded in from outside.

A tall, dark figure loomed behind the flames, letting out a hoarse, wheezing sound from its throat as if warning the children in the cellar to be quiet.

Some of the children were frightened into silence, but Han Su immediately stomped hard on the foot of the boy with the buzz cut. He let out a great wail of pain, and the cellar, which had just started to quiet down, descended into chaos once more.

The monster outside the door saw that the children, far from quieting down, were now screaming even louder. It seemed to grow angry. A rattling wheeze emanated from its chest, mixed with the clatter of metal.

The light moved rapidly closer into the cellar. Only then did it become clear that it was a lantern, held aloft on a long pole.

It seemed to want a better look at who was making the noise, but it was also a way to intimidate the children.

As long as the lantern wasn’t shining on them, the children dared to keep crying. But once the light was in their faces, they all began to shrink back in fear, terrified the monster would use it to burn them.

But at that very moment, Han Su, who had been observing silently from within the crowd, suddenly dashed up the stairs.

His small figure scrambled up the steps, using both hands and feet, his form a flickering blur in the firelight.

Outside the door, the hunchback holding the lamp was stunned. He rushed to pull the lantern back, wanting to see which little brat dared to climb up, but he had vastly underestimated Han Su’s speed.

He reached the top of the stairs and the small door faster than the hunchback could retract the lantern.

Reaching the top first, he faced the massive, intimidating shadow outside the door. Without a moment’s hesitation, he dove low and rolled.

He slipped right between the monster’s legs and into the living room. The hunchback guarding the door was clearly astonished. He hastily grabbed the lantern he had just taken back and turned to shine it on Han Su’s location.

But to his surprise, as he turned, he saw that Han Su hadn’t run. The boy was standing calmly right behind him.

SMACK!

The instant the hunchback turned, with perfect timing, Han Su raised his hand and struck it hard.

He was just a nine-year-old boy with little strength. He couldn’t win a tug-of-war against this tall hunchback. But all he needed to do right now was knock the lantern from the man’s hand.

It was incredibly simple.

The lantern fell, spilling oil. The flame followed, igniting the thick carpet on the floor.

This bunker was ancient, showing signs of former glory. The carpet was thick, but after being used for a very, very long time, it was caked with dust and therefore highly flammable.

This was something Han Su had confirmed the first time he was kidnapped and brought here.

WHOOSH!

The flames leaped up almost instantly and began spreading in several directions. Even the hunchback, who had been about to grab Han Su, was taken aback.

The spreading fire on the carpet separated Han Su from the hunchback. Through the dancing flames and smoke, the hunchback saw an eerie expression on the face of the small boy, who looked to be less than ten years old.

He only took a few steps back, his expression strangely calm, but then he suddenly opened his mouth and let out a childish, urgent shout:

"Run! The teacher’s here to get us!"

"The main door is open! Teacher, wait for me! Teacher, wait up!"

"..."

The scene was so bizarre it sent a chill down the hunchback’s spine. ’Has this kid lost his mind?’

But then, realizing something, he turned his head in shock to look toward the cellar.

No, it was the children downstairs who had lost their minds.

There were a few clever ones among them who had seen Han Su charge up out of the cellar but hadn’t followed. They guessed that such an act would most likely get them killed by the monster.

But they hadn’t expected to hear his joyful shouts instead of screams of agony.

His voice was so genuine, as if he really saw the teacher, as if the teacher was about to close the main door and this was their last chance.

And so, they began to scramble desperately up the stairs.

They scrambled over one another, pushing and shoving, their small bodies bursting with incredible strength.

Even if a few were smart enough to be skeptical, the rest were enough to cause a stampede. Besides, when even the clever ones saw everyone else believing it, they lost their earlier composure.

The boy with the buzz cut, the one who’d been hit, was crying in a panic, pushing and shoving. "Let me go first! I order you to let me go first!"

But no one paid him any attention. He was pushed back again and again until he fell flat on his bottom, where he sat kicking his legs and wailing.

The carpet was on fire, the small door was open, and the children were rushing up.

The hunchback didn’t know how this chaos had erupted in a single instant. He only felt panicked, like he didn’t have enough hands to deal with it all.

He tried to rush over and grab Han Su, but more children were already pouring out of the cellar behind him, shouting and crying as they ran for the main door. They looked like a flock of panicked lambs, scattering left and right.

He couldn’t worry about Han Su anymore; he scrambled to catch the other children.

As for Han Su, he glanced at the heavily locked main door of the bunker, took a deep breath, and turned toward the spiral staircase nearby. He started up it, heading toward the monster on the floor above.

CREAK, CREAK...

The spiral staircase was old and dilapidated. The loose floorboards creaked as he climbed, but the chaos on the first floor masked the sound.

Neither the hunchbacked monster nor the children who had just run out of the cellar saw Han Su go upstairs.

In the dark, his young face was taut with tension. He controlled his small body with an almost exaggerated level of willpower and skill, moving with the agility of a monkey. In just a few steps, he had already darted up to the second floor of the bunker.

Looking up, he could only see the second-floor floor under the dim wall sconces. It was covered with a Crimson carpet, rotted and moldy in many places, which gave off a suffocating smell.

Doors leading to unknown places were set into the walls. Warm light seeped out from the cracks under some of them.

The moment Han Su reached the top of the stairs, he opened the first door on his left. He had already tried it when he’d escaped to this spot before; this was the only door he could open.

When he rushed through the door, he saw the room was filled with all sorts of shelves caked in dust and grime.

On the shelves were glass vessels of various shapes. Some were empty and covered in cobwebs, while others contained a dark brown viscous fluid.

Strange-looking organs seemed to be floating in the fluid.

Han Su kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, as if deliberately trying to avoid looking at anything, and walked directly toward the room’s windows, aiming for the one on the left.

But as he passed a particularly large shelf, a moan from within it made him unable to resist glancing to the side.

On the shelf was a glass vessel connected to various pipes and machines.

The vessel was filled with a green liquid. The girl with the ponytail was submerged naked inside, with all sorts of strange tubes inserted into her body. She couldn’t breathe, but she appeared to be conscious.

When she saw Han Su walk past her, her eyes shot wide open. A stream of bubbles escaped her mouth, and her struggles seemed to intensify.

Han Su could see the pleading, the pain, and the despair in her eyes, but he didn’t stop.

He knew the girl with the high ponytail would be fine. In two days, she would appear perfectly unharmed at the "Night of Rapture."

He just quickly moved past the metal shelves, rushed to the window opposite the door, and skillfully opened the rust-covered window before slipping out.

Inside the vessel, the ponytail girl watched in despair as Han Su appeared and then vanished out the window. Finally, she grew still.

Only her eyes remained fixed on the direction he had disappeared, her lips moving slightly.

It was as if she were saying, "Well then... you’d better run fast..."