Ghost Story Club

Chapter 114: Twelfth Ghost Story – Horror Movie Cliches (7)

Smack-

The heavy totem struck the ghost’s face directly.

For a moment, it flinched, but there was no other effect.

The ghost, with its disheveled hair fluttering, stretched out its hand and raised its nails as it charged forward, letting out a grotesque scream.

[Gyaaaaaaaaa-]

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

“Sunah!”

Sunah, who was about to run across the threshold and hug me, was caught by the ghost behind. Just as the ghost opened its jaw wide and about to bite her.

Ding-Dong ♬

Pause.

“Haa, haa….”

“Hick, hick……”

The ghost suddenly stood upright in front of us, frozen in the same posture it had been with its arms stretched and nails raised as if it had been about to pounce.

Ding-Dong ♬

The doorbell rang again.

Knock, knock.

Then the sound of someone knocking on the front door was heard.

[Excuse me, is anyone in there? It’s the police.]

Po, police…！

It’s actually the police…！

A single word flashed through my mind at that moment.

‘I’m saved.’

[Excuse me?]

Knock, knock, knock.

The ghost, which had just opened its jaws to bite Sunah, slowly turned its head toward the front door.

“Haa, haa….”

“Gasp, gasp… Police… Police…”

Sunah and I, holding each other tightly, took a moment to catch our breath and quickly assessed the situation.

‘If we can’t get the police’s help now, it’s over!!”

Having made that decision, I seized the opportunity while the ghost’s attention was focused on the front door and quickly ran across the floor, rushing to the front door.

“Joon! Be careful….”

I dashed past the terrifying figure of the ghost, swiftly making my way toward the living room.

Fortunately, the ghost was just staring blankly at the front door and didn’t pounce on me as I passed by.

Ding-Dong ♬

[Is there anyone inside?]

[Should we just go back?]

“There is! There is!! Just a moment!!!”

I shouted loudly and ran toward the front door, unlocking it with the key from my pocket.

Clang.

Creak-

“Oh, there really is someone. Excuse us.”

“Haa, haa…”

I’m saved.

Two male police officers, dressed in night patrol uniforms, stood in the apartment hallway and greeted me as I opened the door.

“Sorry for disturbing you so late at night. We received a report about a loud disturbance, so we stopped by while on patrol.”

“……”

“We heard screams, so we came to check. Are you home alone? Where are your parents?”

“Oh, they are not home. Haa, haa… A ghost, no, a strange person broke into the apartment……”

I opened the door wide and secured it with the door stopper, and gestured with my hand as if telling them to look inside.

The two police officers peeked inside, cautiously looking through the open door.

The orange sensor light on the shoe cabinet illuminated the ghost and Sunah standing still in their posture in the dark living room.

“That’s, that’s the strange woman. A robber… A robber. Please, take her away…”

“A robber?”

“Yes, a robber. A robber……”

“Hmm…..”

I turned my head while pointing my finger urgently. Fortunately, it wasn’t ‘it suddenly disappeared when someone else came!’ kind of development. The ghost was still standing stiffly in the same position.

Behind it, Sunah was nervously watching us, her face filled with fear.

“See, do you see it? You can see it, right?”

“Of course. We can see very clearly.”

The police officers standing in front of the door glanced at Sunah and the ghost a few times before finally asking me.

“But who is the robber here?”

“…Huh?”

“Are you talking about that one?”

The police officer pointed at the ghost, who was standing with its neck stretched out.

That’s who I meant, so I nodded quickly.

“Of course, of course. It’s that person. That person is the robber. Please arrest her quickly.”

The police officers tilted their heads for a moment and then exchanged a glance.

“She doesn’t look like a robber….”

“That’s right……”

These people are out of their minds.

Of course it wouldn’t look like a robber.

With its long neck, disheveled hair, and a jaw hanging loose almost touching the floor, it didn’t even look like a human…

The police officers’ reactions seemed strange, but still, I desperately thought that these people were my lifeline, so I urgently spoke again.

“Please arrest her, quickly. The screams and the noise, those were the sounds she made after barging into our house without permission and we begged her to spare us.”

“Really?”

Despite my desperate explanation, the police seemed strangely indifferent, giving off a lukewarm response.

“You’re saying that she barged into your house without permission and caused a scene, right?”

“Yes, yes, that’s right. That’s correct.”

“Can you prove that?”

“Prove?”

I was speechless, looking back and forth between the police and the ghost.

“She, She clearly looks suspicious! I told you, she broke into our house!”

“Yeah.”

As the police stared at it, the ghost lowered its head and scratched its hair.

Scratch, scratch.

“…Sure, she looks a bit suspicious, but this isn’t the old days. We can’t just arrest anyone because they look suspicious.”

“What?”

I was in disbelief, pointing my finger back and forth between the police and the ghost.

“She’s a robber! A robber! I’m telling you, she suddenly broke into our house and tried to harm us!”

“I see.”

The police officer extended his hand as if to calm me down, then craned his neck and asked the ghost standing in the living room.

“Excuse me. Do you have any ID or something?”

The ghost shook its head.

“Then you’ll need to come with us. Could you please come over this way?”

The ghost stomped its feet as if protesting and pointed its finger at me and Sunah.

“It seems like she’s asking the students to verify their ID.”

“Do you have something like that?”

I hurriedly nodded my head.

“Yes, yes. I do. My student ID and…”

“Is your home address written on it?”

“I, I don’t have my home address on it…”

“We need to confirm who the homeowner is before we can arrest her as a robber. If you have anything that can verify your identity, please bring it.”

“Okay, just a moment….”

In a hurry, I rushed past the ghost and Sunah standing in the living room, heading into my parents’ room and rummaging through my Mom’s dresser.

I grabbed a handful of documents, including the resident registration card and health insurance card with my family’s names on them, and rushed out.

“Here! Take a look! We don’t have any strange people like that living in our house!”

“Oh my, there’s a lot of…”

Soon, the police officers, who were comparing the family photos with the ghost’s face, pointed their finger and mistakenly singled out Sunah.

“What about that girl? That girl doesn’t live here either, right?”

“She….”

“Look here, this one.”

One of the police officers tapped the resident registration card with his finger.

“Lee Joon is the student’s name, and they’re the only child of the owners of this apartment. So who is the other one?”

“Gotcha~ Why are you lying like this?”

The police officer standing behind gave a sly grin.

I couldn’t understand who was caught and what lie they were talking about.

I briefly pushed aside the overwhelming sense of disbelief and stumbled as I answered.

“She’s, she’s a friend. She’s just a classmate who came to my house today.”

“Really?”

“The important thing is that she didn’t break into my house! A robber! Don’t you know what a robber means?”

“Hmm….”

Frustrated, I shouted with a hint of annoyance, but the police officers’ response was lukewarm and unconvincing.

Instead, they looked back and forth between Sunah and me with doubtful expressions.

“You two are not family, and you’re with a minor, yet you’re both here together in the middle of the night.”

“You, you don’t need to worry about that! And besides, I’m a minor too, so it’s not a big deal!”

The police officers shook their heads, then exchanged a few glances with each other.

Afterward, they casually brushed all my claims off, dismissing it with a flick of their hands.

“Well, we’ll be on our way now. It seems like it would be best if the three of you talk things out.”

“What?”

Feeling a surge of frustration, my voice rose in anger.

“I’m telling you to arrest her! She’s a robber! A robber!”

“Don’t yell at us, student. You’re still young.”

Soon, the other police officers turned away with a mocking tone.

“Ah, this is really frustrating… You can’t file a case with something like this, so just give up, alright?”

“Why can’t it be done? She broke into our apartment! Trespassing! It’s a criminal offense!”

“Do you have any way to prove that? Like, CCTV footage of the moment she broke in or something?”

“Who installs CCTV in an apartment! And I just confirmed that she’s not a resident of our house!”

“Then the girl behind her isn’t a resident either, so should we arrest her as well? Hmm?”

The police officers pointed at Sunah with a mocking smile.

“We’re not exactly sitting around with free time, you know. The case needs to be filed first before anything can be done… You can’t just accuse someone of being a robber without evidence. We’re leaving now, so it would be best if you three try to talk things thoroughly and resolve the situation.”

“We, We’re about to die here, and you’re leaving! Why should the victim have to prove that in the first place?!”

“Ah, seriously. This isn’t getting through to you. So, did she stab you two with a knife or something?”

“What…?”

My head spun in disbelief at that moment.

“So you’re saying that I have to be stabbed to death before you can investigate…?”

“Look, we can only act if something actually happened. Not to mention, she hasn’t stolen anything or hurt anyone. What do you tell us to do in that case?”

“How can you say nothing happened! It’s trespassing! That person is illegally breaking into our house right now! Arrest her!”

“Student, you’ve been shouting at us this whole time. Can you stop?”

The police officer frowned, clearly annoyed.

I raised my voice again, my face flushing with disbelief.

“What are your names? Huh?”

I remembered reading online that if the police are uncooperative, show a lukewarm attitude and don’t take the report seriously, you can force them to be more cooperative by threatening to file a complaint.

“What are your names! Tell me your name!”

Without warning, I suddenly rushed over to check their name tags, but the police officers shoved me aside as if to ask what I was doing.

“From what I can see, the student is also at fault. You should have clearly expressed your unwillingness for the robber to enter your house.”

“What the…!”

They’re trying to pin the blame on me!

I was about to curse out the police officers in front of me, even though a ghost was standing just behind me, but suddenly, I realized something.

※Horror Movie Cliché: The police are always portrayed as incompetent, never believing what the main character says. Instead, they just mock them and cause more frustration.※

Oh, I understand.

They were the ‘incompetent police’ cliché that often appears in Korean horror movies.

“Okay, look carefully. It’s not like I’m seeing things…”

I stood still, pointing my finger at the police officers as if telling them to look, then took a few steps back, moving toward the ghost that was standing there motionless and staring blankly.

“Look, here, the neck.”

“Oh, yeah, we’re looking.”

The police officers responded in an annoyed tone, speaking casually and voice filled with irritation.

“The length of the neck. Can you see it? Like mine. Like this. See?”

I stood next to the ghost and pointed at the difference, using my hand to compare the lengths directly.

“It’s different, right? It looks different. Does this look like a person? Huh? If you have eyes and aren’t blind, take a good look and see if this is even a human.”

“Mm, she looks like a person. Well, we’re leaving now, so good luck. Be careful, though, if you keep making noise, you might get a noise complaint.”

The police officers replied with a sarcastic tone and then shut the door behind them.

“Hey, wait a minute, f*ck! Don’t close the door-”

Bam.

The ghost even bowed its head slightly, as if greeting the departing police officers.

In the dark apartment.

A moment of silence passed.

Just as the ghost was about to raise its head again, I, unable to keep up with the situation, grabbed Sunah’s hand who was standing there blankly and ran toward my room.

“Sunah, let’s go to my room!!”

“Uh, yeah……!”

Soon, as if coming to her senses, Sunah scrambled to grab my hand and ran with me.

Finally, we quickly went back to my room and locked the door.

Click.

[Gyaaaaaaaaaaaa-]

The ghost, chasing after us, began banging on the door violently, as if it were about to break it down.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang-

[Gyaaaaaaaaa-]

The door creaked, making a grinding noise, and slowly began to split open.

Haa, haa…

What do I do now? What do I do now……

I held my head and screamed inside.

You f*cking Korean horror movies…

Because they keep using all of these frustrating clichés, like a cancerous plot development, I was suffering.

Who doesn’t know that police in horror movies are all incompetent?

Did they really have to forcefully cram that bullshit to poke me like this, using even the movies….

“People who create trashy, carcinogenic developments that have nothing to do with the story development should be executed….”

Still, I have to hold on.

Agree? Oh, agree. Boss? Oh, yes, boss.

“Joon! Come to your senses!!”

As I was almost at the verge of a panic attack with the ghost banging at the door, Sunah shook me to snap me out of it.

“There, there has to be a way! There’s always, always been a way….”

There was one way.

I could jump out of the window of my room right in front of me and commit suicide to go back in time.

Then, I could slowly think of a way again without the pain of being eaten alive by the ghost.

But that was the same as telling Sunah, who was left behind, to die.

Also, the 7th floor is an ambiguous height of only about 20 meters. There’s no guarantee that jumping down would definitely result in death.

“There is no… way….”

I muttered with my eyes tightly shut.

I should have just not used the ability, f*ck myself……

Unless we hunt down all the directors who made Korean horror films full of frustrating clichés and sentence them to death, there’s no way to get out of this situation.

At that moment when I was in a state of panic. Sunah looked up at me in the dark room, clutching my chest.

“Joon, I believe in you.”

Bang, bang, bang, bang-

[Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaah-]

“You will find a way. I know……”

She looked at me with unshakable trust in her large round eyes.

“…Sunah. Don’t believe in me.”

Someone like me… What’s so great about me……

“I believe you.”

Sumah’s small hands that were holding the fabric of my clothes gained strength.

“You’ll find a way, no matter what. Joony, you can do it. I believe in you.”

I clenched my hands tightly.

Gyeongwon, and Sunah too.

Why does everyone believe in me this much?

I held Sunah’s small hands, which were tightly gripping the fabrics on my chest.

It was warm.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang-

[Gyaaaaaaaaaaaa-]

Soon, the door began to rustle and tear off, creaking and making a grinding sound from the hinges.

“Sunah.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve found a way, but can you promise me one thing?”

“What…?”

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang-

Creak.

[Gyaaaaaaaaaaaa-]

The door was becoming ragged, with gaps widening as broken wood splinters flew away.

Grab-

I grabbed Sunah’s shoulder and forcefully pushed her toward the closet, whispering.

“Hide here.”

“Here…..?”

“Yeah.”

I opened the door and pushed Sunah’s back.

I whispered to her, curled up in the closet with her small frame hidden.

“No matter what happens from now on, you must never, ever come out of here. Promise.”

“…Joon.”

Sunah looked up at me with a face that was half fearful and half worried.

“Promise me. No matter what happens, you will never come out. Okay?”

“… Promise.”

Sunah nodded with a determined expression, then quickly hid her body inside the clothes.

After closing the closet door from the outside, I prepared myself to face the ghost that would soon charge in.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang-

[Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaah-]

T/N: The whole chapter in a nutshell-

Lee Joon: That’s a ghost! A ghost! Arrest her!

Police officers: Don’t be racist. Just because she has an unbelievably long neck, a disheveled appearance and broke into your house doesn’t mean she’s a ghost.

The ghost: Such dutiful police officers~