"Let me out! Let me out!" A horrible female voice inside the room kept screaming, growing louder until the entire nunnery could hear it. The voice was so chilling it made Stein and me break out in cold sweat. Thankfully we had run out when we did - who knows what might have happened otherwise.
"Little Boss, what the hell is in there?" Stein winced.
"I don't know," I said. "If I hadn't had that nightmare just now, I wouldn't have known there was 'something' under the bed."
After about thirty seconds of screaming, the "thing" suddenly fell silent. The room became quiet again.
"Is it gone?" Stein asked, turning to me.
Instead of answering, I crept to the doorway and peered inside. That's when I saw a woman in the room sitting before a mirror, brushing her hair strand by strand - except she was completely bald, making the scene utterly bizarre.
This matched exactly what Antonio had described earlier. I didn't dare enter the room again - ghost or not, I'd seen enough. I quickly pulled my head back.
"We definitely can't go back to that room. Where's Antonio? We should find Dreaming Nun once we're all together," I said. Only by locating Dreaming Nun could we uncover the truth about this nunnery and those nuns.
When Stein and I reached Antonio's room, we found him in the same predicament - his door secured with a large iron lock, presumably by QINGYIN to prevent our escape. Last time Antonio visited, he managed to flee alive. The nuns weren't stupid - this time they'd locked us in. Luckily Stein could pick locks, otherwise we'd be trapped. If we couldn't even leave our rooms, what chance did we have?
"Antonio! Come out!" I knocked hard several times.
No response came from inside. When Antonio failed to answer, I lost patience and told Stein to open the door.
Stein inserted his wire into the lock. In seconds, we heard a click as the lock released.
"Master, your previous occupation wouldn't have been chicken and dog theft, would it?" I gave Stein a thumbs-up.
Stein protested, "Don't frame me - I haven't done anything bad since learning this skill."
Just as I was about to push the door open, a voice called down from the roof: "Mr. Roger! Don't go in there! There's a ghost inside!"
Stein and I looked up to see a figure crouched on the roof - unmistakably Antonio.
"What the hell? How did you get up there?" I asked, tilting my head in confusion.
Antonio explained he'd been locked in but couldn't get out, so he climbed onto the roof and escaped through the tiles. With his skills, scaling a tiled roof was entirely possible.
"Hurry down, we've got work to do," I said.
Hearing Antonio mention a ghost, I quickly closed the door I'd been about to open. Apparently his room was haunted just like mine - in this eerie nunnery, anything could happen.
"Mr. Roger, come up here! Hurry! There are ghosts around you too!" Antonio insisted, refusing to come down and instead urging me to join him on the roof.
I was baffled and quickly scanned our surroundings. Only Stein stood beside me - where were these supposed ghosts?
"Bullshit! Don't scare me - get down here," I whispered harshly. What was he playing at? Possessed? Asleep?
"I'm serious," Antonio said, pointing at Stein. "Mr. Roger, he is one!"
I frowned. Stein, a ghost? Unlikely! Meanwhile, this roof-crouching Antonio - while sounding like our Antonio - remained faceless in the darkness.
"You're full of shit! I'm a living, breathing human! You're the ghost here - come down if you dare!" Stein retorted angrily.
Antonio snorted. "Cunning evil spirit! The real Antonio has been up here watching us the whole time. That 'Stein' behind you has been trying to grab me but failed."
Wait - could it really be fake? Without thinking, I took several steps back from Stein.
Stein grew more agitated. "Calling me a ghost? If you're human, why hide on the roof? You're the ghost sneaking around up there!"
Now they were accusing each other - Antonio claiming Stein was a ghost, Stein insisting Antonio was the ghost. Their bickering left me utterly confused.
Which one was real? This ghost was cunning - not only deceiving people but impersonating others too. Tricky indeed.
Suddenly, inspiration struck. "Ghost!" I shouted dramatically.
At this, Antonio immediately slid down slightly and reached toward me. "Mr. Roger, danger! Come up!"
Meanwhile, Stein yelled, "Little Boss, ghost? You run - I'll cover you!"
That settled it - this Stein had to be fake! What kind of real Stein would volunteer to cover me instead of running at the first mention of ghosts?
I kicked his ass and scrambled up to join Antonio on the roof.
After tumbling to the ground from my kick, the Stein-imposter struggled up and looked at me pitifully. "Little Boss...why kick me? I'm not a ghost - you've wronged me!"
"If you were really Stein, you'd have bolted at the word 'ghost.' Since when do you cover for anyone? What were you thinking?" I scoffed. Thankfully I knew Stein well enough not to fall for this ghost's trick.
"Fuck!" Stein cursed violently. His body suddenly arched and elongated, his face darkening instantly into a ghastly visage. The ghostly face bore countless slash marks, nearly flayed to the bone, while his translucent body floated ominously without touching the ground, appearing somewhat viscous.
"Damn kid, can't believe you saw through me! The old man's substitute got away!" the male ghost spat bitterly before transforming unwillingly into a wisp of black smoke and vanishing.
Holy shit! An actual fucking ghost! It had impersonated Stein to deceive me, probably planning to kill me when I let my guard down.
But what puzzled me was - why would there be a male ghost in this nunnery? Then I remembered - those men murdered by the nuns. Some male visitors who stayed overnight were brutally killed by the nuns. Having died so tragically, their spirits remained, haunting the place to find replacements.
The slashed face told the story - he must have been asleep when the nuns repeatedly hacked at his face with knives, torturing him to death. Just imagining the pain made me suck in a sharp breath through clenched teeth.
Clearly I needed to be extra careful. Besides the bald female ghost Antonio mentioned, this nunnery likely housed many male ghosts. One wrong move and I could become their substitute victim.
"The ghost's gone. Let's get down," I told Antonio, who nodded in agreement.
But if this was a fake Stein... where was the real one? Still in his room? We needed to find him.
As I prepared to climb down, two figures emerged stealthily from Stein's room, moving with such caution they made no sound. One held a lockpick wire - undoubtedly how they'd opened the door's heavy lock.
Squinting, I recognized the pair as... Stein and Antonio.
Wait - Antonio with Stein? Coming from Stein's room?
Which meant... this Antonio beside me was...