"Huff… Huff… Finally, I'm here. But now what?"
It took Hina several minutes before the open ground of the stadium came into view. The black-hooded goons still pursued her, though their pace had noticeably slowed.
It was as if they were certain she couldn't escape anymore.
"Fuck… pick up the call, damn it!"
Her cellular network showed full bars, yet she couldn't connect to the police station. Ever since the chase began, Hina had tried calling them about fifteen to twenty times. Each attempt ended in failure. If not for the fact that her message had gone through the group chat, she would have believed these hooded creeps had jammed her signal or something.
"There's no point wasting your breath. We're not here to harm you. We came with a proposition."
One of the hooded figures stepped forward, extending his right hand as if inviting her closer.
Hina felt a deep sense of revulsion toward the man. She instinctively took a few steps back, physically repulsed by his presence.
"Haaah, is it because of the hoods? Well, I can't exactly show you my face. But you have to believe me. I'm here with a proposition, a deal. I have no ill intentions."
"Yeah, that's right. You followed me in the dead of night with six people just to give me a proposition. Yeah, I call that bullshit. How about you stop acting coy and tell me the real reason? Even if I'm going to die, at least let me know… why?"
The hooded man let out a long sigh and shook his head. He glanced at his still-extended hand for a second before slowly lowering it.
"Well, I understand your confusion and caution. Commendable, really. But we have our reasons too. We can't exactly show our faces to the police. If we came during the day wearing hoodies, we'd instantly be suspects."
"And now I'm screaming for my life. That doesn't exactly help your case, you know."
"You didn't actually scream, by the way."
"Shut up! Who am I gonna scream to? Those scary-looking people over there? I'd rather die than ask them for help."
The hooded man chuckled. "Nice. Besides survival instincts, you've got a sense of humor. All the more reason to invite you to the team."
"Invite me to a team? What team?"
Hina was struggling to keep up with the absurd flow of the conversation. One moment, she was running for her life. The next, she was in what sounded like a job interview.
Her weekend had been spent getting tormented by a ghost in a haunted mansion, and now, just days later, she was apparently being recruited by a group of shady, hooded people.
What on earth was happening with her life? The thought made her head spin.
"Unfortunately, I can't share any more details until you join us. If you want to know, you'll have to take an oath first."
"That's just bullshit. What is this, some credit card scam? Oh, you'll get the subscription for free, just give us your credit card information~ We'll totally inform you before the expiration date~ Trust us~
"Yeah, I'm not falling for that crap. If you can't even tell me who you are, then I'm out. So please, leave me alone and let me go home. I've had a tough weekend. I need some sleep."
Though Hina was maintaining a tough exterior, her body was trembling. She had clasped her hands behind her back to hide the sweat. On top of that, she was having a hard time maintaining eye contact with the hooded man.
The man didn't speak for a good two minutes. He simply stood there, watching her. Perhaps he was forming the web of his next words to trap her.
"I know what happened this weekend, Miss Hina. In fact, what happened is the very reason we're pursuing you."
Hina's eyes widened at his words. It took an enormous amount of self-control to stop herself from collapsing right there.
"W-What do you mean? W-Why would you know that? Are you a s-stalker?"
The hooded man shook his head. His voice shifted from the neutral tone he had used before to something softer.
"Even though you went to the haunted mansion with your friends, you were the only one brave enough to enter the Terror Mansion without any equipment.
"Your friends stayed together in groups, yet you were the only one who ventured all alone."
Hina's mind began to freeze with each passing second. She kept recalling the very moment she had tried to forget.
The moment when someone had called her name. When she was still on the ground floor. That 'dead' voice was crystal clear in her memory, as if someone were whispering in her ear even now.
But what truly shattered her was his next line.
"And to top it all off, you were the only one who was targeted by a vengeful spirit yet remained unscathed."
Hina's self-control finally broke. Her body went limp, and she collapsed to the ground, staring up at the hooded man with wide, terrified eyes.
A normal person might have brushed his words off as nonsense. But the fact that he knew every detail of what happened that night made her believe him, made her react so extremely.
"W-Why do you know all that… spirit? Vengeful spirit? Targeted? Am I going to die because of a spirit? Did you all come to help me, exorcize the spirit perhaps?"
For a fleeting moment, she forgot the disgust she felt toward the man and clung to a shred of optimism. If what he said was true, maybe she could get help, maybe she could finally be free of that spirit.
Sure, she had a friend who claimed to be an exorcist, but he was a fraud. He didn't even believe in spirits. Asking him for help would have been meaningless.
But.
Life wasn't a fairytale.
"Hahahaha, that's funny. Because I'm here to do the exact opposite."