“Miiirrr!!!! It’s really you, right? It is really you? You are not an illusion! Thank God! I don’t want to marry a ghooosstttt!!!” Raleigh hugged Mir. She couldn’t react because of two reasons. First, she was too stunned to react. She never expected him to suddenly hug her just as she came to him. And the second, she was too tired after running around avoiding the ghost’s attack.

“…” After a few seconds, however, Mir pushed him away. Well, she was surprised that he hugged her suddenly, but when his tears and snot touched her, she couldn’t help but feel a little disgusted, so he pushed his face away.

“Ah, sorry, but I’m so relieved… that ghost can show us illusion I thought you were another illusion of hers. But when you enter the barrier, I know you are not an illusion!” Raleigh explained with tears and snot still on his face.

“…barrier?” Mir asked. She didn't notice any barrier at all. She just walked into the barrier without feeling anything.

“Mm, I erected a barrier earlier so that ghost can’t attack me! But that also means I can’t move from this place. Fortunately, you come to save me!” Raleigh said.

“…how?” Mir tilted her head as she was confused. There was no chance for her to save him. She was not trained in any technique to banish ghosts. Earlier, she even ran for her dear life. She couldn't save herself, not to mention to save Raleigh.

“Eh, with your phone flashlight, of course. By the way, is it a night now? It’s too dark, I forgot to charge my phone and my flashlight died. Don’t you know how scary is it in the dark? It’s so scary that I can’t even feel my legs! Fortunately, you come at the right time! Now, we can have some light!” Raleigh said. If his tone was not serious, Mir would think that he was joking around to lighten the atmosphere. However, it seemed that he was serious, so Mir didn’t know what to say.

“…escape?” Mir asked.

“…I don’t think we can escape. I just hope she will be bored soon and leave us alone.” Although that would be impossible… was not something he would say out loud.

Mir sighed. For now, she should take a rest. She just walked for three hours to come to this amusement park. After that, she walked for almost an hour just to reach this huge open space from the entrance of the Doll Castle. Not only that, she also had to run from dolls earlier. And after that, she was chased by the ghost with the wedding dress. Naturally, she was dead tired and she wanted to sleep. So, she didn’t reply to him but instead, she sat down and decided to take a short break.

“Mir.” Raleigh suddenly called her. Mir raised her face to look at him.

“I’m sorry. It seems that we are all going to die because of my selfish whim.” Raleigh said with a bitter smile on his face. Mir shrugged and looked down again. She would never give up. Even though the chance was infinitely small, she wouldn’t give up. She wouldn’t give up. Not when both of her parents didn’t give up giving birth.

The most important thing, for now, was to gather her lost energy again. And so, she didn’t reply to Raleigh’s sincere apologies.

Raleigh also didn’t say anything at all. Not only he felt guilty, but he was also currently thinking. Even if he couldn’t live through this hell, he had to make sure that Mir could escape this place alive. At least, that was what he should do.

After fifteen minutes of silence with sometimes the wail of the ghost with wedding dress filled the silence, Mir heard something else. It was a cranky sound that she became familiar with after running from the entrance of the Doll Castle to this area.

“…Raleigh.” Mir raised her head and looked in the direction of the entrance. Naturally, she couldn't see anything at all.

“What’s wrong?” Raleigh raised his head and looked in the direction Mir was staring. He couldn't see anything either.

Mir had a bad premonition about it. So, she asked Raleigh. “…barrier, physical?”

“…no, it doesn’t protect us from physical attack… wait, the ghost can do physical attack too?” Raleigh was surprised as he stood up suddenly.

Mir also stood up as she nodded. “…dolls.”

Raleigh gulped as Mir reminded him of the existence of the dolls that filled Doll Castle. If dolls attacked them, they would have to run from the barrier to avoid them. However, that meant, they had no way to deflect the supernatural attack that came from the ghost of the woman in the wedding dress.

“We have to run.” Raleigh made that decision. Mir couldn’t agree more. Naturally, they had to escape, as fighting head-on was out of the question. Fortunately, she had fifteen minutes of a break earlier.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Right, Mir.” Raleigh tossed something at Mir. Mir caught it. It was a ring. A silver ring. The design was simple, but it was beautiful. It was beautiful, but Mir couldn’t understand why he gave her that ring.

“That is one of the treasures that I snatch… cough, I mean I bring with me. It is called Ring of Transcendent. That ring can help an amateur, even someone completely new, to control their spiritual power. All you need to do is imagine the spiritual power you have and imagine you can bend it to your will. Right, it is the power of imagination. As long as you have the power of imagination, you can use that ring easily.” Raleigh explained. He added, “Ah, if it’s difficult to understand, it’s like a superhero clad in a green costume. You know, he also has a ring similar to that…”

Mir didn’t know that superhero and that made it more difficult for her to understand but she didn’t tell him. Well, more importantly, she wore the ring. She didn’t feel anything different at all, however. She still couldn’t feel her spiritual power at all. Even though she tried moving her spiritual power... not that she understood the concept of spiritual power. But there was no time to explain it.

“…not working?” Mir raised her hand to show the ring.

“No, it’s working, you just don’t know it yet. Anyway, it’s really working!” Raleigh said as he felt the change in her spiritual power, although it was only a bit. It was as if Mir's spiritual power was water in a lake, and Mir just threw a small pebble into it, so it made a ripple. It was small, but it was a good sign.

Mir decided to trust him on this. They were in life and death situation, so, naturally, Mir believed he wouldn’t lie in this situation. Unless, naturally, he had a death wish. But looking at the weapon he pulled from his waist next, Mir knew that he still hadn’t given up yet. After all, he pulled out a handgun from his pocket.

“This is a special gun. It can compress spiritual power and shoot the compressed spiritual power at the target. The effect shouldn’t be too different than a normal gun that can kill people. Oh, if I hit people with the compressed spiritual power, they won’t die. They probably feel something like a rubber band hit them.” Which was kind of painful, but it wouldn’t inflict any harm, was what he didn’t say.

“Alright, so, here’s the plan. We are running to the exit. I shoot at the bride ghost. If she comes too close, you use your spiritual power to drive her away. Understand?” Raleigh said.

Mir nodded as she understood. However, she also noticed one problem that Raleigh might not notice. “…exit… where?” She asked that one problem.

“…”

“…”

“…alright, let’s revise the plan! We are going back to the entrance—”

“…blocked.”

“…alright, let’s revise the plan! We are going to run until we find the exit!”

“…dark?”

“…yeah, we can’t run aimlessly in the dark. But then, what should we do?” Raleigh slumped his shoulders dejectedly.

“…fight?” Mir suggested.

Hearing her word, Raleigh couldn’t help but chuckle. “…do you know how strong she is? She is so strong that even if I spent all of my spiritual power into this gun and shoot her at her forehead, it won’t do anything at all. That’s just how strong she is. There’s no way we can win against her.”

The cranking sounds of the animatronics came closer. Mir guessed they already entered this huge room. They had no time to think of a strategy anymore.

“…Raleigh.” Mir spoke as she grabbed his hand.

“…find the exit.” She put her phone and the camera in his hands. In exchange for that, she grabbed the handgun in his hand and pulled it into her little hand.

“…I fight.” She nodded at Raleigh. Before Raleigh could say anything, Mir already dashed out of the barrier.

“Mir!” Raleigh called her and stretched out his hand, trying to grab her, but she ignored him and she was slipping away. He knew he couldn’t help her by chasing after her. So, he decided to find the exit as soon as possible.

Raleigh wiped his face with his sleeves. After, he ran in the opposite direction. “I’m going to find the exit. That’s why don’t die before I find the exit…”

Mir didn’t know how to use the gun. She couldn’t manipulate her spiritual power and put it into the gun. However, what she lacked in ability, the ring should help her in that part. That was what she thought. That was why she ran forward while trying to imagine compressing her spiritual power into the gun. With the dim light she had from the phone Raleigh took with him, Mir prepared to fight the ghost of the woman in the wedding dress.

“YOU THIEF!!!” The ghostly figure in the wedding dress suddenly appeared in front of her face. Mir instinctively pulled the trigger before she aimed it. She didn’t aim at the vital part… but still, the ghost lost its left leg suddenly.

“AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!” The ghost shrieked. Mir thought the ghost would back away and attacked her from another angle. Well, she was wrong. The ghost raised her hand and choked Mir’s neck. The hands of the ghost were cold. It was as if the ghost sapped away all the warmth from Mir’s body with those pale, transparent hands.

“…ngh!” Mir tried to aim her gun again, but she felt a strong force that stopped her hands from moving. She couldn’t move her hands… no, she couldn’t move her entire body!

Mir closed her eyes, trying to manipulate her spiritual energy to attack the female ghost. But… that was not something she should have done.

When she closed her eyes, she suddenly had another vision. Mir understood instantly. It must be one of her power. To see what the ghosts who touched her saw a moment before their death. Or perhaps their strongest emotion that stopped them from moving on to the afterworld.

She was still in this room. Because it was dark, she didn’t know what kind of room it was. But now, looking through the memories of the female ghost, she noticed that it was a beautiful room. It was something that looked like a ballroom in fantasy movies. After all, it was a Doll Castle, so, perhaps they tried to make this ballroom similar to a ballroom in an ancient castle so it would fit the theme perfectly.

The ghost was one of the customers who enjoyed the ride. She was walking with someone else. Perhaps it was her partner. They were talking about the wedding plan they were going to have in a few months. It seemed the two of them were looking for inspiration by coming to this amusement park.

Just as they commented on ideas that might be put into their wedding, Mir suddenly felt a numb pain from her side stomach. She couldn’t help but look at her stomach. She was surprised to see it. A knife was protruding from her stomach. No, that was not quite right. She was stabbed with a knife. When she followed the other end of the knife, she saw a mascot’s hand…

She thought that she was going to die soon. But she never expected the mascot to be not satisfied with just that. The mascot pulled out the knife and stabbed her, over and over again. The others tried to stop the mascot. Well, they managed to stop him. After the mascot stabbed her eight times on her stomach and chest.

“…!”

Mir forcefully opened her eyes when she ‘died’ in the memories. She, now, understood the ghost. She died just several months before her wedding day. That was why she couldn’t accept it. That was also why she wanted to marry Raleigh. After all, after several years, he was the only man who came to this place and could see her...

…I understand… I understand, but that doesn’t mean it’s alright to kill me…