InsaneJournal

Lily wakes in her brother’s room, in her brother’s bed, surrounded by the scent of her brother’s cologne. She feels Mateo next to her - his weight on the mattress and the warmth of his body, and Lily thinks about nuzzling into his side and burying herself in him to drown out everything that reminds her of Adam.

She’s about to, when she catches a glimpse of something in the corner of the room. It strikes fear in her at first. A cold, prickling sense of dread runs down her skin as she stares at the familiar figure and expects a fucked up, distorted face. But it’s illuminated by the blue glow of his cell phone, and it is thankfully, heartbreakingly normal.

Lily sits up.

“Oppa.”

“You’re awake,” says Adam Lee, his voice is just like she remembers - warm, with a hint of a smile. He looks just like she remembers - with color and life in his cheeks and his eyes like they’re full of secrets and inside jokes. He shifts, puts his phone back in his pocket and gestures behind him, where their father’s old go board is sitting atop the desk. “I’ve been waiting for you to wake up. Play with me.”

No.

Lily hated playing go, and so did her brother. Every puzzle, every match game with the oppressive weight of their father’s expectations.

“Is this a dream?”

“Am I a ghost?” Adam counters. They both know the answer to that is no.

“Why are you here?”

“I already told you why I’m here, Lee Baekha. Play with me.” Adam reaches over his shoulder, raps the wooden base of the board with his knuckle.

“I don’t want to,” Lily whispers. She doesn’t want to play. She doesn’t want to leave the bed. She doesn’t want to know what happens if she leaves the security of the comforter. She can’t shake the memory of what he looked like the last time she saw him in this room.

“We’ve lost our chance, anyway,” Adam answers, looking past Lily. She turns her head to follow his gaze and sees Mateo, awake, sitting beside her. “Hi, Mateo. I wish we’d been able to meet sooner.”

Adam stands and begins to walk toward the bed and, in her periphery, Lily can see Mateo straighten and reach out for her brother’s hand.

Lily is stricken with panic.

What happens if Adam comes over here? What happens if he takes Mateo’s hand? What if this isn’t a dream? What if it’s something else? What if it’s something worse? What if his face looks different when he gets here, his skin stretched over his skull and his eyes just empty, black sockets? Lily reaches out and grabs Mateo’s arm like a comfort and a warning. Her nails dig into him the closer her brother gets to them. She squeezes her eyes shut.

When she opens them, she’s lying in bed, in the dark; and she hears Mateo wake next to her.


You’re in the stairwell. It’s dark, save for a dim light casting heavy shadows down from its source, somewhere at the top of the stairs. You start walking, but you notice that there are no doors, there are no floors; there are only stairs.

You’ve been walking for a while when you feel something behind you. The presence is sudden and ominous, and you start to walk a little bit faster. Whatever’s behind you matches your pace.

You start to run. You turn your head as you do, to try to catch a glimpse of your stalker in your periphery, and you see nothing but darkness.

You’re slow; so slow, like you’re fighting the gravitational pull of something behind you. Why are you so slow?

Just when you think that it’s over, that the shadow’s going to catch you, you see a door at the top of the stairs. You keep going, you push yourself a little harder, try to push yourself a little bit faster than that achingly heavy gait.

Finally, you reach the door. But when you open it, instead of your floor, instead of your apartment, you run into an unfinished wall - un-boarded and hollow. From between two beams, you see Polaroid Guy, grinning at you with that familiar, unsettling, self-satisfied smile.