I study the map of the house's location.
"It's definitely in those woods. I'm telling you," Sehun says.
I frown at the large trees, not willing to accept that truth. I'm not an off-roader. "I didn't bring a flashlight."
He laughs. "It's the middle of the afternoon."
Woods always make me nervous. I grew up on concrete.
"If your map's right, then I know the house you're talking about . . . know of, anyway. It's one of those things that everyone dares each other to find on Halloween. There's an old tale about it."
"Oh, that makes me feel much better."
"It's just a bunch of ghost stories. Nothing to worry about. None of it's true."
He doesn't know it, but that's the worst thing he could have said. "What if we get lost?"
"We won't. I have a compass on my phone."
Cell phones. That's right. At least there's that. "Okay, but who lives in the middle of the woods? It doesn't seem natural."
I walk reluctantly. The moment we hit the shade of the trees, I shiver.
"It looks like there's an old trail headed in the right direction. See how the growth is younger over there?" Sehun points ahead and to the right at some short brush. "Also, I'm sure it wasn't weird to live this way when the house was built. It's not like they had paved roads then."
The idea of no paved roads only makes me feel more out of control. A bird caws, and I grab Sehun's arm. He slips his hand into mine, and I'm too consumed with nerves to analyze my feelings about it.
He stops to look at the ground around us. "If your map's right, I think it's up this hill."
"You're paying attention to which way we walked, right?"
"You know, it's pretty cute the way you're ready to punch Kai out in the middle of a hallway like it's nothing, but trees scare you."
"I'm not scared." Neither of us believes me.
"Then maybe I should tell you the story about this place."
My stomach twists. "Wouldn't bother me at all."
He puts on the dramatic voice he used to tell me that someone was pressed to death. "Legend has it, an old woman lived out here for hundreds of years. She wasn't ugly like in storybooks, but she had mean eyes. And she could kill you just by looking at you. She ate birds, and her house was filled with their dead bodies. Most of all, she hated people who were in love. Once in a while a young couple would wander too far out and would never be seen again."
Strangely, that made me feel better. "That's ridiculous."
"Yup. Told you it was."
"People actually believe that crap?"
"People believe a lot of weird stuff in Manyeo."
Through the trees ahead of us, a rundown two-story black hanok becomes visible. The windows are made up of tiny panes, half of which are broken. The trees press close to the sides and vines overgrow parts of the walls.
Every instinct I have tells me to turn around and go home. "You guys really like your black houses here."
"Yeah." Sehun scratches his neck with his free hand. "That's weird. It's not more than a mile into the forest."
"Why is that weird?"
"I've just never heard of anyone actually seeing it before, I mean, if it's only a mile in, it should be totally findable. I considered telling you before we started that it was most likely made up. But I didn't want to ruin the adventure of searching for it."
I have to force my body to continue toward the house. "So what are you saying?"
Sehun grins. "You must be good luck."
"Well, that would be a first."
"Wanna go in?"
"Not really. But we need to go to the second floor to look out the bedroom window to see the hanging location." My palm sweats against Sehun's.
"If you want, I'll go in and take a look, and you can wait here," Sehun offers.
"Yeah, that's definitely not happening."
We approach the front door, and he grabs the door handle. Very unfortunately, it unlatches. Why isn't this thing boarded up?
The door opens into a large, empty room with a fireplace at one end, like the one in my library. There is barely any light, and I step tentatively onto the creaky floorboards. It smells like decaying leaves. The strange thing is, it's too clean.
"I don't get it. This place has been abandoned for a long time, right? Shouldn't there be graffiti or garbage or something?"
"Maybe we're the first people to find it."
I don't buy it. "Let's just go upstairs and get this over with."
There is a narrow hallway to the left of the room. And in it, the bottom steps of a staircase are shadowed in dim light. Sehun heads for it and I stay close behind him, gripping his hand and trying to steady myself. The stairs groan under our feet. Sehun stops.
"What?" I ask reflexively.
"Nothing—just a broken stair. Be careful."
Behind me, a step creaks. "Did you hear that?" I ask as we maneuver around the broken stair. "The steps creaking when we were standing still?"
"Suzy, it's an old house. They make noises."
I'm not convinced. I look over my shoulder every two seconds. I don't know what I'm expecting to see, but whatever it is, I don't want to see it.
Reaching the top of the staircase, we find ourselves in another small hallway. There are two doors to choose from. Sehun drops my hand and heads for the one on the left. He opens it.
"It's too small for the master bedroom," I say from the hallway, not wanting to go in if I don't have to.
Sehun walks past me and toward the second door. The wood whines as he opens it, and I wrinkle my nose at the dusty, stagnant air. It's larger than the first room and has a broken bed frame and a few pieces of decrepit furniture.
Sehun smiles optimistically. "At least there's only one window in here. Makes it easy to figure out where to look."
I approach the shattered diamond-shaped panes. "And it also makes it dark."
"Look." Sehun points to the wall behind the bed. "Your name."
My muscles tighten. What did he just say? I leave the window. As I get closer to him, I notice the walls are covered floor to ceiling with writing, blurred under a layer of dirt. Near Sehun's finger are written Joohan and Sooji. All the blood drains from my face.
"That's not funny. Joohan is my dad's name." I knew shouldn't have come here.
Jaxon gestures at the room. "Suzy, did you see these walls? They're covered with names and crazy stuff. I'm sure it's just a coincidence."
"How do you explain that our names are together?"
"They're both really common names. I thought it'd make you feel better. This is the graffiti you were missing downstairs."
I look at the writing more closely. "No, this looks like the rants of a psychotic person who was locked in here for years. Let's find that hanging spot and get outta here."
I walk back to the window, my skin crawling. I want to get out of this place. The windowsill has carvings that look like bird feathers. I can't help but think about Sehun's ridiculous story.
Sehun joins me. "Okay, definitely wasn't expecting that," he says as he takes in the view. Over the tops of the trees, there's a small hill way in the distance just behind the pharmacy.
The Pharmacy? "No. No way. That's crazy."
He nods. "It's the only hill in sight. Everything else's flat. If the letter you found was right and you can see the hill from this window, that's the place."
I lean forward to get a better view of the forest, and place my hand against the weathered frame. A woman sobs, a deep rib-cracking wail. I turn around. My heartbeat pounds in my ears. "What was that? Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"A woman crying."
Sehun puts his hand on my lower back, and I jump. The walls with their writing feel claustrophobic. I can't stay here. I head for the door, not waiting for him. As my feet hit the hallway, the door at the end slam shut. I lunge for the staircase.
"Suzy, it's just the wind," Sehun says as he tries to keep up with me. I can hear him grinning.
I'm moving so fast, I'm positive I'm going to to trip. I ran through the room with the fireplace and swing the front door open. An amused Sehun follows me out. I shake my hands in front of me, trying to get the feeling of the hanok off me.
"Honestly," I say, speed-walking away from the awful place, "you didn't hear that?"
"Suzy, it was the bird."
I slow down a little and look at him. "Maybe."
"Definitely."
"Let's just get out of these woods. Worst place ever."
"Yeah, you're officially off date location duty."