FPIH Chapter 1 (Part 2)

The dormitory was a ten-story building. From the third to the tenth floor, it was divided into male and female dormitory sections.

Jiho’s room was Room 810 in the women’s dormitory, located at the very end of the eighth-floor hallway. Fortunately, the emergency staircase was right next to her room.

 

Dormitory 8th Floor Layout

Now that she had made up her mind, Jiho grabbed the doorknob without hesitation.

That was when she heard a scream.

The scream rang out like a blaring siren—long and piercing—before cutting off just as abruptly as it had begun.

Immediately after, other sounds followed in quick succession, overlapping in a chaotic rush.

The sounds of footsteps pounding against the floor, bodies colliding with walls, an eerie, irregular dripping noise, and a chaotic mix of curses, screams, and sobbing all seeped through the walls and door into Jiho’s room. It wasn’t just one or two people.

“Aaaaahhhhhh!”

“Let go of me!”

“Kyaaahhh!”

“What the hell is this?!”

“Mom… ugh….”

“F***! You son of a b****!”

“Ji-yeon!”

“Uwaaahhhhhh!”

“Please, please save me! Why are you doing this?!”

The noises were coming from the hallway.

Jiho couldn’t breathe. She was frozen in place, her hand still gripping the doorknob, trembling like a leaf in the wind.

One by one, the sounds began to fade. Soon, the hallway fell into complete silence.

As if touching something burning hot, Jiho yanked her hand away from the doorknob. The terrifying sounds from before were horrifying, but this silence was even worse.

She couldn’t grasp what was happening. Why were so many people in the hallway screaming and begging for their lives?

Jiho squeezed her eyes shut before forcing them open again. She clenched and unclenched her shaking right hand several times. That’s when she remembered the announcement.
‘A terrorist attack? The people who made that announcement are working with the ones in the hallway? Are the students being held hostage…?’

But no matter how much she thought about it, Jiho couldn’t figure out why terrorists would take over a normal university dorm. It was a prestigious school, sure, but there were even more well-known national universities just a few subway stops away.

After agonizing over it for a while, she decided to take a look outside to assess the situation. If terrorists had already taken control of the dorm, hiding in her room wouldn’t make a difference—she’d be caught eventually.

Click.

Jiho cautiously turned the doorknob and cracked the door open just enough to fit two fingers through. Pressing her body against the doorframe, she peeked into the hallway.

“……!”

Even though she knew she had to be careful, she almost gasped out loud.

What she saw was beyond comprehension.

A cow with light brown fur and small horns was lazily strolling down the hallway, flicking its ears. Its massive body had initially blocked her view, but as she looked more closely, she realized it wasn’t alone.

Rabbits, foxes, deer… A bizarre parade of animals that had no business being in this situation. The fragile grip she had on her sanity was slipping again.

『Attention, residents of the 8th floor of the women’s dormitory.』

The announcement blared once more. Jiho struggled to keep her mind focused, hoping—praying—that the broadcast would give her some clue about what was happening.

『The demon on the 8th floor of the women’s dormitory is “Marbas.” Thank you.』

The broadcast cut off.

‘That’s it?’

Jiho was so dumbfounded she could hardly believe it. She felt the urge to scream out of sheer frustration. Irritated, she yanked at her ear.

‘A demon…?’

The word was so absurdly out of place that it only added to her confusion.

She glared at the cow swishing its tail as it walked away, then closely observed the rabbit scratching its ears mid-hop and the fox twitching its ears attentively as it strolled.

No matter how long she stared, they didn’t look like demons at all. The setting was bizarre, but other than that, they seemed like perfectly ordinary animals.

Her view was limited through the small crack in the door, so she had no choice but to open it a little wider and cautiously lean her head out.

‘What is that…?’

A black-maned lion caught her eye.

It was immediately clear that this wasn’t a normal animal. Its head was that of a lion, but its body was that of a massive, muscular human male. Aside from its pitch-black mane, its skin gleamed in a golden hue.

The sheer strangeness of it made it impossible for Jiho to look away. Her heartbeat pounded in her chest like a drum.

‘A costume? Maybe he’s just wearing a lion mask?’

She swallowed dryly, again and again. Whether it was a demon or a human, there was no way something that looked like that could be normal.

The demon, Marbas, stood at the center of the long, straight hallway. The animals roamed leisurely along the corridor. The entire floor was eerily silent, aside from the soft tap, tap of paws and hooves against the floor.

Just as Jiho managed to tear her gaze away, she locked eyes with someone.

Through the slightly open door of Room 820, a female student was peering out—just as Jiho had been. Her dark eyes met Jiho’s directly.

Jiho observed the girl warily at first but soon relaxed her expression.

‘She looks familiar.’

They weren’t acquaintances, but Jiho had seen her before—passing by in the dormitory hallway a few times. The girl had an unusually youthful face, making her seem younger than twenty.

The student also seemed to recognize Jiho. She blinked once and gave a small nod before mouthing something in an exaggerated way.

Jiho tilted her head. She couldn’t quite make out what she was saying.

The girl repeated the words twice more, but Jiho still didn’t understand. Finally, she added hand gestures—pointing at Jiho first, then forming an “OK” sign with her fingers.

‘Ah! She’s asking if I’m okay.’

Jiho finally understood.

After a brief hesitation, she nodded.

The girl from Room 820 nodded back, then pointed toward the emergency staircase.

The stairwell was close—just two long strides away.

‘She’s thinking the same thing as me.’

Since the emergency exit was nearby, using it to escape the dorm was the most logical and reasonable choice.

The girl gestured between herself and Jiho, then pointed at the stairs again.

‘She wants us to go together?’

Jiho glanced cautiously at Marbas. The demon still stood in the middle of the hallway.

She looked back at the girl. Despite her youthful appearance, her clear eyes held a steady determination that somehow felt reassuring.

Both emotionally and rationally, Jiho knew that having a companion was better than being alone. There was a saying—Even a sheet of paper is easier to carry when lifted together. Escaping would be much easier with someone else.

Jiho was about to nod in agreement—but then, she hesitated.

‘Something feels… off.’

A strange sense of unease crept up Jiho’s spine.

She turned her head back to the hallway.

‘Where is everyone else? What happened to the people who were screaming earlier?’

If they were dead, there should have been bodies. But the hallway was eerily empty. Something felt terribly wrong.

Jiho quickly shook her head and crossed her arms in an ‘X,’ signaling No. She needed to observe the situation a little longer.

The girl from Room 820 nodded.

Jiho was just about to think, She understood me, when—

The girl suddenly kicked open her door and bolted into the hallway.

She had completely misinterpreted Jiho’s signal as I’m not going with you instead of Don’t go out.

‘No!’

Jiho frantically waved both hands, not daring to shout in fear of alerting Marbas. But the girl didn’t look back. She dashed forward.

She reached the emergency exit in just two strides and grabbed the door handle.

But the door didn’t open.

“……!”

The girl froze in shock. Jiho, watching from her room, was just as stunned.

‘Why is it locked?’

The emergency stairwell was supposed to be accessible at all times—it was meant for emergencies. There was no reason it should be locked.

With growing urgency, the girl fumbled for her dorm key card and tapped it against the card reader.

Nothing.

The reader didn’t even beep or flash. It was as if the card wasn’t recognized at all.

The girl yanked at the handle again, but the door didn’t budge.

The girl from Room 820 turned pale as a sheet. She quickly spun around, trying to run back to her room.

But Marbas was already standing right in front of her.

“Hhk.”

Jiho involuntarily sucked in a sharp breath. Realizing her mistake, she immediately clamped both hands over her mouth.

Marbas reached out toward the girl. His golden hand resembled a human’s, but his black nails were thick and razor-sharp, like those of a predatory bird.

With one hand, Marbas grabbed the girl’s head.

Crack. Snap.

A grotesque sound echoed through the hallway as her body started to contort unnaturally.

Her form warped as if she were a character in a malfunctioning game. Her bones jutted out, pressing against her skin in unnatural lumps.

Then came the scream—an ear-splitting, bone-chilling shriek that scraped against Jiho’s eardrums.

And just as suddenly as it had begun, it all stopped.

The eerie noises, the convulsing body, the twisted flesh—all of it ceased in an instant.

The girl’s body sagged lifelessly. Then, from the top of her head down, she split in half.

A gray-furred wolf emerged from within.

The shed skin melted away into nothing.

‘This can’t be real….’

Jiho watched the entire scene unfold through the tiny crack in her door, too paralyzed to move, too afraid to even breathe. She didn’t dare shut the door, terrified that even the slightest noise would give her away.

The gray wolf gave a single leap, then, with the vacant expression of a wild animal, began wandering down the hallway like the other creatures.

Jiho’s trembling gaze swept over the animals in the corridor.

‘Then… those animals… were originally students from this dorm?’

Even at a quick glance, there were well over ten animals. Now Jiho understood where all those screams and chaotic noises from earlier had come from.

Marbas turned away without hesitation, calmly walking back toward the center of the hallway.

That was when Jiho locked eyes with him.

Despite having the head of a lion, his gaze was anything but animalistic. It was intelligent—calm and analytical, yet chillingly indifferent.

A shiver ran from Jiho’s toes all the way up her spine.

Marbas had clearly noticed her, yet all he did was twitch his nose slightly before resuming his walk. His black mane rippled with each step, like a mirage in the desert.

Jiho barely managed to suppress the gasp threatening to escape her throat, keeping her trembling breath in check as she watched his retreating figure.

“…The announcement was right.”

The thing in the hallway wasn’t human. It was a demon.

Nothing else could have possessed such a horrifying ability.

Jiho hurriedly locked the door. But a flimsy wooden door didn’t feel secure enough. Her frantic gaze darted around the room until she spotted the shoe cabinet.

Without hesitation, she shoved the shoe cabinet against the door and pressed her weight against it.

Even so, she felt no relief.

Her breath came in short, erratic gasps, as if she had just finished an all-out sprint. Her vision swam.

The shock was so overwhelming that she couldn’t even cry.

‘Did they turn into animals? Or… did they die?’

One thing was certain—

The girl from Room 820 had lost herself. She was no longer a living person.

The grotesque sight of the girl’s body twisting and convulsing lingered in Jiho’s mind. Her agonized screams echoed relentlessly in her ears, refusing to fade even when she shook her head.

She had just been a normal college student. Just another young person in their early twenties, like any other on campus…

‘Why would they do something this horrific…?!’

Jiho trembled with rage at the sheer cruelty of the demon.

At the same time, a cold realization settled in.

‘Marbas saw me. I could be next….’

She clenched her right hand into a tight fist. Her nails dug into her palm, but she felt nothing.

Consciously, she forced herself to open and close her hand repeatedly, trying to regain control of her thoughts.

‘I have to stay calm. I must stay calm.’

If she wanted to survive—if she didn’t want to become one of those animals—she had to keep her composure.

Jiho repeated an old saying in her mind: Even if you enter a tiger’s den, you’ll survive if you stay alert.

After an immense effort, she finally managed to regain a shred of rationality.

She pulled her smartphone out of her pocket.

[Remaining chances: 5]
[Relationship with Go Pyeonghwa: Strangers / You do not know each other yet.]

If a demon had truly taken over this building, then maybe the strange changes in her phone were also its doing.