WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 305: Room 204, Mission Room - ‘Hotel Cinema’ (27) (Many Illustrations)
──────
- Kim A-ri
--- Click!
“I didn't expect a complication like this...”
Thirty minutes after entering the third story, I realized the house was locked. Not only were the doors leading in from outside locked, but so were the doors leading out from inside.
It didn't seem like supernatural power was involved. The parents had probably simply locked up before leaving. They must have wanted to keep their twelve-year-old son from going outside just because he was bored.
I gave up on leaving and walked around the house, trying to figure out what might happen, but it wasn't easy to reach a conclusion. This was an incredibly wealthy home. The parents were gone, and only a child remained.
Even realistically, it was an ideal situation for crimes like burglary or robbery. Once supernatural variables entered the picture, there were far too many possibilities. Just as my head began to hurt from imagining endless scenarios, a keyword came to mind.
‘Toys.’
At the coffee shop, Cha Eun-pyo had said his parents gave him far more toys than usual instead of holding a New Year's party. The couple who had just gone out had said that the very phrase ‘the living room in Kevin's room’ indicated a bourgeois space, and that they had stocked it with all sorts of things Kevin would like.
On my way to the living room in Kevin's room, I spotted the cat sprawled on the floor, yawning. The golden retriever with the gentle expression had been following me around, tail swishing, ever since earlier.
Did these animals have roles too? Who knew.
When I reached the living room, I began opening the gift boxes one by one. The first contained an incredibly cute pink elephant doll.
“Make cookies with Dollyphant?”
The pink doll came with a tea set, and the side of the box read, “Enjoy a delightful tea time with Dollyphant!”
What kind of gift was this for a twelve-year-old boy? Didn't his mom just buy something she liked herself?
Thankfully, the second gift looked like something a twelve-year-old boy might enjoy. The box was filled with a toy Thomas train with a human-like face painted on it, along with LEGO-like toy rails.
“‘Lay down tracks for Thomas and his friends!’ Huh...”
The moment I opened the third box, I got angry and kicked it away.
“Hey! What kind of gift is this for a kid? Do both of you want to get scolded?”
It was a clown doll that screamed, ‘I'm ominous!’ just by looking at it. Despite his grotesque appearance, his name was Happyhappy.
I had no idea why anyone would make something like this, but what kind of person would buy one and give it to a twelve-year-old? Were they trying to make their child cry? Or did Kevin have extremely strange tastes?
The toys made me uneasy. The clown doll especially became more unsettling the longer I looked at him. Didn't he look exactly like the kind of thing that would start wriggling around, grab a knife, and come after me the moment I turned my back?
Still, I didn't know what to do. Doing nothing made me anxious, but destroying the dolls made me anxious too. Who knew if they would get angry and attack just because I tried to destroy them?
In the end, I put them back in their boxes and sat blankly in a chair.
“At this rate, I'll die without doing anything.”
Something was definitely going to attack me, but since I didn't know what it was, I had no idea what to do.
Would criminals attack from outside? Would the cat rolling around on the floor suddenly turn into a man-eating cat? Was the suspicious clown doll the problem after all?
...It didn't take long for the answer to reveal itself.
* * *
「Kevin! We'll begin the New Year's party just for you!」
A loud noise suddenly echoed throughout the entire house!
The moment I looked up, wondering where it was coming from, the whole house began to shake. Then a miracle began unfolding before my eyes!
The corridor widened and stretched out.
The ceiling rose, and chandeliers appeared everywhere.
Columns that had never existed before rose up all around me.
The mansion, already enormous to begin with, expanded to the scale of a palace in an instant. Any Korean who had worked their whole life and still struggled to buy a one-hundred-square-meter home in Seoul would have seen this sight and called it a miracle from the Creator.
As the person witnessing it firsthand, my heart felt like it was about to burst!
What the hell was about to happen that all this nonsense had to come first?
I clung to a cabinet beside me and waited for the shaking to stop. When I barely managed to regain my balance and looked up, all the toys had vanished.
“What the hell now-”
「Happyhappy! Kevin, we're playing tag now!」
「Thomas is departing! Please clear the way so I can lay down tracks!」
「Dolly dolly! It's tea time! Good children, come up to the second floor.」
This was insane! What was I supposed to do?
--- Thud!
Heavy footsteps came from behind me. I turned around in shock and found the grotesque clown doll, now far larger than Kevin.
“We're playing tag now! The rule is touching the back!”
“...Touching the back?”
“Now, begin! Kevin, shouldn't you run? Run right now!”
The moment I heard the words “Run right now!” I instinctively turned and ran like mad!
I leaped over carpets my feet sank into, ran across marble so slippery it was infuriating, rushed into my room, and shut the door leading to the living room behind me-
--- Bang!
“Happyhappy!”
Happyhappy's right hand, the clown doll's white-gloved hand, began forcing the door open. I threw my full weight against it and barely forced it shut, then ran toward the window.
Wouldn't it be better to jump out? Better than staying in this mansion filled with monsters-
“Why is this window so sturdy?”
I couldn't get outside. Then I heard the wooden door beginning to splinter.
“Happy!”
The chilling laughter nearly froze my whole body. Then an unexpected helper appeared.
“Woof! Woof!”
Suzy, the golden retriever that had been confused by the mansion's sudden transformation, saw their young owner in danger and found the courage to charge Happyhappy. The moment Suzy bit down with all their strength, Happyhappy's knee burst apart and stuffing flew everywhere.
It wasn't as sturdy as I expected? Well, he had originally been a doll, so maybe that was obvious.
Seeing that, I grabbed a golf club hanging on the wall and was about to approach Happyhappy when-
--- Riiip!
Cute, brave Suzy became a lump of flesh that had once been a golden retriever.
The thought of charging in disappeared the moment I saw that monstrous strength.
“Suzy, I'm sorry!”
I changed direction and ran toward the first-floor hall.
「Dolly dolly! It's tea time!」
What was I supposed to do? Keep running forever like this? No. There was no way I could outrun monsters like that at a child's pace. If Suzy hadn't stepped in just now, I would already be dead!
What had the rule been again? Touching the back?
While running toward the hall, I turned around just in case. Happyhappy, who had been charging after me while smashing everything in the way, suddenly stopped.
Happyhappy and I stared each other down. Happyhappy began moving quickly sideways, trying to find an angle to reach my back!
This was it! The command to “run right now” at the start had been a trap.
Since the rule was touching my back, if I ran with my back exposed, Happyhappy only needed to rush straight at me. But if I faced him like this, he couldn't see my back, so he couldn't charge at me immediately.
Slowly, slowly, I backed away. Happyhappy moved from side to side, trying to reach a position where he could see my back, then soon frowned.
“Kevin! That's cheating! Are you really going to act like that?”
“...”
“Then I have no choice but to get ‘rough,’ do I?”
Get rough? Was there another phase?
The next moment, Happyhappy's mouth split open, and both his arms began stretching out!
What was he trying to do-
「Thomas is departing! Please clear the way so I can lay down tracks!」
--- Screech!
“Kyaah!”
A train burst into the mansion's magnificent hall, extended its long legs, and flung Happyhappy away. As Happyhappy rolled across the floor and let out a strange scream, the spider body beneath Thomas watched me.
...What was that now?
The Thomas train that had been among the toys earlier? No, where had his human face gone? Why was there only a spider body left?
And what was that just now? Had he shoved Happyhappy aside? Was it because Happyhappy had blocked the way when he needed to lay down tracks? Did they show no mercy to each other either?
Countless questions swirled through my head. Then Thomas extended his long spider legs behind him, pulled out rails, and laid them down in front of him. The tracks suddenly stretched out toward me-
“Damn it, again!”
--- Ping! Piiing!
With a blaring sound, Thomas began charging at me!
Looking at those disgustingly extended spider legs, I was too afraid to even imagine what would happen if he caught me.
「Dolly dolly! It's tea time!」
Should I call this fortunate?
True to being a train, Thomas couldn't move anywhere without rails. He had to lay down tracks to approach me, so I could keep escaping by watching where the tracks were being placed.
Inside the bizarre mansion, a spider-legged train laid rails as he chased me. I rolled across the floor without even a moment to catch my breath, and Thomas shot past me.
Then I heard a chilling sound behind me.
“Happy happy!”
“Fuck, seriously!”
A chilling sound tore through the air. Sharp nails sprang from Happyhappy's stretched-out hand and flew toward my back.
I turned again and faced Happyhappy head-on. Happyhappy stopped briefly when he couldn't see my back this time either, but a playful smile spread across his face.
“Kevin! Let's play together now!”
Happyhappy's rubbery hand began moving around behind my back.
How? Did I have to run again? Even if I ran, could I move faster than this monster? What the hell-
--- Screech!
The moment I heard Thomas's horn in the distance, I realized there was only one way left to escape Happyhappy.
Thomas wasn't a train that only attacked me.
He would attack Happyhappy without hesitation if he didn't get out of the way!
I turned and stepped onto the rails Thomas had laid when he passed me moments ago.
「You dare step onto my rails!」
Thomas began reversing with an angry shout. At the same time, Happyhappy's expression twisted as he backed away to avoid being hit by Thomas.
...But what was I supposed to do now?
If I stayed on the rails, Thomas would run me over and kill me. If I stepped off them, Happyhappy would stab me to death. Was I going to die by train or by the clown doll's nails? Those were my only choices?
What kind of-
--- Bang!
Neither happened. A third being burst through a wall in an instant and shouted loudly enough to shake the entire mansion.
「Dolly dolly! I called you three times! Three times, and you didn't come! Is Kevin a bad child?」
“...”
「Dolly dolly! Bad children must be punished! Take this!」
The last thing I saw before losing consciousness was the furious elephant doll's enormous forefoot.
* * *
- Theater
Everyone stared at the screen with their mouths hanging open. The footage showed the furious elephant doll, Dollyphant, trampling Kevin first, then Thomas and Happyhappy, because they had ruined the party.
Then Ga-in, unable to understand one thing no matter how hard he tried, spoke.
“How the hell did a twelve-year-old boy survive that absolute mess?”
Footnotes:
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