A Dark Level

                                    

                                          
CHAPTER 13: 
Narrator’s POV
— I don’t even know how to start explaining, guys, but I saw the monster. The one that was spying on you, Haerin.
Minji said as she looked at her friends after all the reunion and hugs, after they had been separated.
— You saw it up close? How did you escape? 
Haerin asked, curious, while the girls listened carefully to what Minji had to say.
— I followed my dad’s voice, but it wasn’t him, it was that creature, the one from the street. It lured me into an empty space, and all I could do was run and find a door by pure luck.
Minji replied, as she looked at the beach, where they were now, talking all together again.
— There has to be a reason why we’re here.
Hanni said, approaching and trying to think of something that could help in that situation.
— The creature was completely strange, but something seemed to bother it when I decided to go against my negative feelings.
Minji replied, looking at Hanni and dropping her heavy backpack on the ground.
— What do you mean? 
Danielle looked at her and asked.
— I had a lot of negative feelings, it’s complicated to explain everything to you now, but in the end... I needed to see my dad. I was sad and scared. The creature seemed to take advantage of that.
Minji replied, sitting on the sand next to Hyein, who was attentively observing the conversation of the older girls.
— Since we came to this place, it seems like the more negative emotions we have, the stranger things we see.
Haerin said and looked at Danielle, as if she had remembered something. Then, she continued her reasoning and said:
— Some time ago, when we were in the pools, the water was dark, but I could swear there was nothing in it. But as soon as we entered, that creature appeared     
She finished and sighed.
— If there’s one thing I don’t want right now, it’s swimming. But do you mean that thing formed in the water due to our fear? 
Hyein asked Haerin, recalling the creature in the water and shivering slightly.
— Haerin and I have swum enough in this place.
Danielle said, shaking her head, also remembering when she and Haerin crossed the room at the command of the talking flowers and almost drowned.
— I see, so this place feeds on our fear.
Hanni said, sighing and pacing irritably, then continued: — Damn it! We’re being played for fools! In the end, we should have just stayed calm.
— No, I feel there’s more to it. We came here for a reason, and we need to get out of here.
Haerin was determined to face whatever it was.
The girls fell silent, each thinking of a solution, a way to escape this nightmare.
The waves gently broke on the shore as Haerin and her friends digested the words they had just exchanged. The air felt heavy, as if the very environment was waiting for something.
The silence was unsettling, until a distant sound of something dragging caught everyone’s attention. Hanni, more cautious, was the first to lift her gaze.
— Did you hear that? 
She asked, looking at the building that held the door to the pools.
Before anyone could respond, a metallic sound echoed across the beach, coming from a tall, old building near the sea. The ancient door they had passed through earlier, now rusted, creaked open on its own. The girls exchanged glances, tension growing in each of them.