~Chapter 91~
The Gatekeeper Ghost
When asked who was oppressing them, the mannequins gave that answer.
When Damien asked if they had seen any living people besides us recently, they replied they last saw one three days ago.
“Who is this gatekeeper ghost? Where is it?”
At that, all the mannequins began trembling violently.
The mannequin leg that had been answering us shook madly and barely managed to write:
[Can’t say]
[We die]
Damien’s eyes flickered with a stirring curse as he looked down at it.
“Damien? What is it?”
“I want to try binding them for a moment.”
“Huh?”
Before I could even finish speaking, Damien’s curse tendrils stretched out toward the mannequin.
Thick, black, sticky threads wrapped around it like snakes, completely hidden from outside sight.
A moment later, Damien withdrew his curse, and the mannequin was released, unharmed.
“…There’s no mark of submission.”
Last time with the “New Groom Curse” John, once Damien’s curse swallowed another, it left a mark showing submission. After that, Damien could freely control it and sense everything about it.
But this time, even after swallowing, the mannequin curse did not submit to him.
“That means it’s already bound to someone else. Most likely, this ‘gatekeeper ghost.’”
“Curses can bind other curses?”
“Yes. But to do that, the dominant curse must have devoured an enormous amount of fear.”
Turning back to the mannequins, Damien added coldly:
“Then it must be a truly vicious one.”
He spoke clearly to the mannequins gathered around.
“If you help us, we’ll free you from that gatekeeper ghost.”
The mannequins jerked in shock.
“Once freed, if you promise not to harm people, you may leave as you please. And if you have nowhere to go, we’ll prepare a place for you.”
The mannequins shook fiercely up and down.
The one that had been communicating with us began drawing circles nonstop.
“Then it’s a deal.”
Damien asked, “Where is the gatekeeper ghost?”
Screams echoed.
“Aaaahhhh! Uwaaaaah!”
A man, tied up tightly, rolled his eyes back and screamed like mad. Watching him, the face-doll ghost grinned with madness.
[Good. Fear more.]
Stretching its body out from the heavy wooden exit door of the haunted house, the doll frightened the man even further.
“P-please! Spare me! Aaaahhh!”
This creepy doll, embedded in the exit of the Liez Haunted House, was known for suddenly jumping out when people thought everything was over—grinning horribly.
The curse inside it was called:
The Gatekeeper Ghost.
She hadn’t always been like this.
She was once a normal haunted house doll that terrified people as the final scare. Her twisted face left the deepest impression, and many said she was the scariest part of all.
The creators loved her for it. Back then, she was happy.
But one day, a creator muttered:
“Isn’t it about time we replace her?”
That shook her to the core.
As the years passed, visitors already knew about her. Their fear dwindled.
She rusted. No matter how much maintenance was done, she couldn’t compare to the new machines.
“We’ll have to scrap her and put in a new one.”
Fear of being thrown away and rage at the creator who betrayed her consumed her.
She absorbed the grudges of other scrapped machines, evolving into a curse. She killed her first creator.
The horror of the witness who saw her blood-soaked, grinning face became her fuel. She grew stronger.
Transferred to new creators, she pretended to be just a normal machine.
Eventually, she was placed at the Liez Festival Haunted House. Coincidentally, she was once again stationed at the exit.
There, she devoured the fear of visitors endlessly—until she grew strong enough to create her own paradise.
A world where everything was a haunted house.
Where fear never ceased.
Where even old, rusting machines like her could forever continue their role.
She ruled that paradise.
She kidnapped the weakest and most fearful visitors, binding them in front of her, forcing their eyes open with glue so they couldn’t look away.
Then she feasted on their fear.
Now, she crouched in wait, her long snake-like neck stretching out, preparing to devour even more fear.
But something disturbed her.
The humans she had bound in other haunted houses were being released. Someone was interfering.
And then she felt them—the man and woman she had seen earlier.
The woman’s fear was immense, which was why she had targeted her. But both of them gave off an unsettling aura.
She decided to strike again.
When the two reached the final course, she dropped the iron bars, trapping the man in darkness and leaving the woman alone.
[Kyaaaaaaa!!]
Her neck stretched unnaturally long as she lunged for Ruby.
But at that moment—
Crash!
A black, blood-drenched tendril pierced through the iron bars, bending them like wire.
It coiled around her throat, crushing it mercilessly.
[W-wait! Stop! Please, stop!!]
It ripped her from the wooden door she had been fixed in for months.
She crashed to the ground, rolling in tatters.
The woman knelt in front of her. A white light flared from her hand, searing one strand of the ghost’s hair into ash.
[Hiiiiek!!]
The Gatekeeper Ghost trembled. That light burned like hellfire.
“Where are the others you captured?” Ruby asked coldly.
Behind her, Damien stepped out from the twisted iron bars.
The ghost froze—because in his eyes writhed curses far beyond her comprehension.
[W-what are you?! What in the world are you two?!]
The reason for her terror was simple:
From these two, she could not feel even the slightest trace of fear.
