Inside Park Manor • SKZ horror au

Chapter 8

Minho - ???
Changbin - Turning
Hyunjin - Dead Turned
Jisung - Turned
Felix - Turning
Jeongin - ???

    Chan stared at the list, trying to make sense of what everything meant. He waited for Seungmin to add something onto his name but he didn't.

    "That's everything I know about the others," Seungmin said with a shrug, tossing the pen he used to the floor.

    "Why is your name the only one that has 'alive' next to it? Does being turned mean that you're dead?" Chan asked, barely scratching the surface of all the questions he wanted answered.

    "Mine says 'alive' because I haven't been turned yet and have no plan to be. Also, being turned does not mean that you're dead. As far as I know, being turned grants you immortality as long as you're inside the manor," Seungmin explained, staring at the wall as he talked. "I haven't seen Jisung since I arrived so I don't know how it's affected him, but it can affect people one of two ways."

    Seungmin abruptly opened the door to the storage room, checking around outside before coming back in and closing the door behind him.

    "Just checking for Father. Anyway, the first way that it can affect you is that you'll look completely human unless you're attacked or choose not to be. Father, Mother, and Hyunjin were affected like that. Hyunjin turned into that monster because he was forced to, but he still did it on his own will. The second way is the way that it affects most other people. From what I've seen, most of Father's other victims have immediately turned into monsters like Hyunjin."

    "How do you know all this?" Chan asked, his mind reeling from the horrors that the others had to endure for so long.

    "Father left his experimenting log down here. It has almost everything you need to know in it. I would give it to you but he hid it," Seungmin said apologetically.

    "That's fine. Can you help me with something?" Chan said as he handed over the map of the manor. "Do you know where the exit to the building is and where the others are?"

    Seungmin studied the map for a while, seeming as if it had been the first time where the manor had been put into this form for him.

    "I don't know where the others are but I can tell you where the exit is and the rooms where Mother and Father are most active."

    "That helps just as much."

    Seungmin picked the pen up off the ground, circling a few things on the map. In the end, 'entrance hall', 'garage', 'kitchen', 'Mother/Father's room', and the entire third floor were circled.

    "Mother and Father are most active in the circled rooms so be extremely careful when you go through those areas. I'm sure you're wondering about Grandma, but the thing about her is that she doesn't do much. She's in a wheelchair and how she gets around is beyond me but you can walk by her and she won't so much as look at you."   

    "I'm guessing the exit is in the entrance hall," Chan said, pointing to an extra, smaller circle on that part of the map.

    "Yes. Except you can't just leave when you want. I overheard Father and Mother talking about a horse imprint on the door. I don't know much more than that," Seungmin said, his body suddenly going rigid.

    The room fell quiet, the creaking of the ladder the only sound. Even the machines running had gone quiet in the presence of whoever was descending the ladder.

    "I smell fresh meat. Care to come out and introduce yourself?" A male sing-song voice called out.

    Seungmin shoved a CD case into Chan's empty hand and pushed him towards the door.

    "Take this with you and run! Don't let Father see you!" He said in a hushed whisper.

    Chan didn't have a chance to protest when he was pushed out into the basement, once again on his own. Father didn't sound like he was moving very quickly, the soft clicks of his shoes sounding far away. Even though he sounded far away, Chan didn't want to take any chances.

    He quietly rushed through the room with the holding cells. Hyunjin was gone, having sensed Father's presence himself. Chan continued through the room which, at the end, gave him the option of two rooms to go through. One door had a bloody handprint on it, and the other had a snake hanging from the doorframe. Neither of them looked inviting, but he chose the one with the snake.

    Quickly shutting the door behind him, he was greeted with yet another furnace room. However, this one was covered from floor to ceiling in the same disgusting black substance in the holding cells. Now that he thought about it, it looked like Hyunjin's skin when he came out of the incinerator.

    "Oh god, please don't tell me this is all skin," Chan muttered to himself, maneuvering around what looked like pillars of it spread out across the room.

    "Someone's been messing with my stuff," Father's voice called from right outside the door. "Hyunjin, one of your friends has come to save you! Why don't you say hi?"