The Attendant in the Horror Game C16

Chapter 16

And at last, Jade discovered the source of the eerie sound. Something was floating in midair.

“What the hell is that…?”

Suspended in the air was a mop—though only the head remained, its handle missing. But this was no ordinary mop. Dozens of thick, white, threadlike strands dangled from it, writhing and twisting like jellyfish tentacles.

Sasasak, sasasak—

The threads wriggled constantly, tangling and untangling over and over. The faint, shivering noise Jade had heard earlier came from those strands scraping against the floor.

It almost felt as if each thread had a will of its own. The sound resembled that of countless snakes slithering across the stone floor.

Srrrk, sasak—

A soft, frictional whisper joined the sound—an eerie hiss that made Jade’s skin crawl all over again.

The mop, as though aware of Jade’s gaze, suddenly clung to the wall. The frayed ends of the strands looked like fingers, scraping up the dust and grime stuck to the surface.

It moved grotesquely, sliding along the wall before dropping down with a sasasak sound and vanishing swiftly from sight. Dust and filth clumped together and fell to the floor as the strands swayed in the air like ribbons dancing in a breeze.

“Wait—hey! Hold it right there!”

Jade dashed after it. A normal person would have fled from such a horrifying sight, but Jade was not easily frightened. Once he had seen the source of the noise with his own eyes, fear was replaced by determination.

More than that—he had a goal now. He had promised himself he would treat this villa as his healing retreat.

This was his healing house, one he had cleaned and tended with his own two hands. There was no way he was letting some filthy, ghostly creature roam freely through it.

Sasasasak—

Perhaps realizing it was being chased, the mop sped up. The sound of its movement was like that of a broom sweeping violently across the floor. It darted from the fifth floor down to the third, turning corners with alarming agility. Though it had neither eyes nor ears, it moved through the villa like it knew every inch of the place.

“Stop right there!”

Jade charged down the stairs, chasing it with all his strength. Luckily, his fever had fully passed; otherwise, he would never have been able to keep up.

Saaak—

The end of the hallway was a dead end. Cornered, the writhing strands froze for a moment—but only for a moment. Then, like a cobra lifting its hood, the tendrils rose up, poised to strike.

The sight was grotesque—like Medusa’s head, or a massive spider preparing to ensnare its prey. The mop swelled slightly, as if trying to intimidate him.

“You little—!”

But what Jade felt wasn’t fear. It was fury.

Because it had run away from him? Because it was something bizarre and inexplicable?

No. What truly enraged him was something else entirely.

They were on the third floor. Not the fourth or fifth—but the third. The very same floor where Ian’s room and his own were located. The floor he had spent the most effort cleaning and maintaining.

And now, this sentient, self-moving mop was oozing filth—wet filth—across all his hard work.

“You—!”

The mop seemed to be absorbing dirty water, the ends of its threads dripping thick, grimy drops onto the floor—drip, drip—forming small puddles.

“No way…”

A dreadful realization struck him. Jade spun around and looked down the hallway.

His intuition was never wrong. In his rush to chase the mop, he hadn’t noticed the trail it had left behind—a long path of sludge streaking across the corridor. It had been leaking the entire time.

Even Hansel and Gretel couldn’t have left such a consistent trail of crumbs. All his cleaning had gone straight to waste.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Unable to contain himself any longer, Jade exploded in anger. He lunged forward at the offending mop, determined to catch and punish the thing that had ruined his spotless hallway.

“You bastard!”

He grabbed hold of it with both hands, clutching the writhing center of the mop’s body—its tangled strands.

“Kiiieeeek—!”

The mop shrieked in a distorted, high-pitched voice, twisting violently in his grasp. But Jade, fueled by rage, refused to let go.

“Kieeek—!”

His hands slipped from the sludge covering the mop. It was slick and slimy, threatening to slide free. Before it could escape again, Jade slammed the tangled mass down onto the floor.

Splurt—

The sound was wet and disgusting. His shoes and the floor were instantly splattered with filth. The mop flattened out like slime, then darted away again at blinding speed.

“If I catch you, I’ll destroy you—!”

Fury blazed in Jade’s eyes. As he sprinted after the vanishing mop, the sasasak noise echoed down the corridor.

Just as he passed Ian’s room, the door clicked open. Jade spun around at the sound.

“Myang?”

“What’s going on?”

Ian stood in the doorway, staring blankly at him. From the room next door, Soondol peeked out, tilting his head curiously.

“Ah, Young Master…!”

In the brief moment Jade turned to them, the mop vanished completely—no trace of it left. His shoulders slumped, exhaustion washing over him. Sweat soaked through his clothes from all the running.

“Myang-myung…?”

Soondol frowned, swishing his tail as he inspected the trail of grime on the floor. Then he sniffed it—only to recoil, wrinkling his face in disgust.

“Kaak…!”

Apparently, the stench was unbearable. He waved his little paws furiously at the air, as though trying to claw the smell away. The entire corridor was thick with a foul, musty odor. Soondol circled Jade, clearly wondering what on earth had happened.

“The hallway…”

Ian, too, stared at the dirty water dripping and streaking along the floor. His gaze followed the trail from start to finish, finally landing on Jade.

“It wasn’t me!”

Jade shouted indignantly.

“I—I know.”

Ian stammered, taken aback by Jade’s teary-eyed frustration.

Of course, Ian knew Jade wouldn’t have dirtied the hallway. He had seen him just minutes ago, cleaning the lower stairwell.

Lately, Ian had developed a strange habit—watching Jade from afar.

He’d realized not long ago that he had gotten too close to Jade too quickly. That closeness could be dangerous. He needed to maintain his guard.

After all, the uncle who had abandoned him in this villa had once been close to him too. His cousin, Cain, had been the same. And now, both of them were the ones who most wished for Ian’s death.

Uncomfortable.

Ian found closeness with others unbearable. Especially with servants—hadn’t every one of them despised him? Jade might seem friendly for now, but that would pass soon enough.

Worse, whenever Ian was near him, he felt… strange. Some instinct told him that Jade was dangerous.

That was why Ian deliberately kept his distance. Still, watching Jade work from afar had become an odd sort of pastime.

It wasn’t because he liked Jade. It was simply because, in this dull, silent villa, Jade was the only source of movement and noise—the only spark of life breaking up the monotony.

Jade was relentlessly diligent. From dawn till dusk, he was constantly on the move. He cleaned, repaired, and scoured the villa for anything useful.

He even gathered mushrooms of various types, bringing some variety to their otherwise monotonous meals.

In barely a week, the villa had changed completely. The lamps burned brighter thanks to fresh oil, the patched walls no longer let in the wind, and even the furniture had been sorted and repaired.

Jade had collected broken furniture and branches from the snowy woods, stockpiling enough firewood to keep the fireplaces burning day and night. The entire villa was now warm for the first time in years.

Whenever there was no work to do, Jade found work. He truly lived up to his own claim of being a born housekeeper.

And so Ian watched. Every day, Jade took on new tasks, finding ways to busy himself. Ian found it both foolish and fascinating—no one else had ever been so stubbornly industrious. Even when he clicked his tongue at the man’s foolishness, his eyes couldn’t help but follow him.

Sometimes Jade muttered strange things to himself while cleaning. Ian couldn’t always hear, but occasionally, when the distance was short, the words reached him—like today.

“I’ll make sure Ian eats the bread I bake myself.”

“When you’re young, you need to eat properly.”

Jade had scrubbed the staircase as if at war with it, muttering those words.

Food, to Ian, had always been nothing more than fuel—something to fill his stomach. He had never had a favorite dish, nor anything he particularly disliked. Yet hearing that, he had found himself curious about the taste of Jade’s bread.

Because of that overheard line, Ian had fled back to his room earlier, unable to continue watching. Jade kept awakening feelings Ian had never wanted or needed to feel. It unsettled him.

So he didn’t need to see to know—Jade would never splash grime across the floors he’d worked so hard to clean. It was unthinkable. And even if he had, he’d only be making more work for himself.

“You might not believe this. I know it sounds insane,” Jade said, running a hand through his hair, voice rising slightly with frustration. “But I’m telling the truth. There was some crazy—no, some weird thing in the villa! It looked like a mop, but it was moving on its own—like an animal!”

“Myang? Myang, myang.”

Soondol clearly didn’t believe him, circling Jade with suspicion written all over his furry face.

“Myang. Myang.”

“I swear it’s true!”

The little creature finally patted Jade’s back in pity, which only made him speak more heatedly.

“It moved fast! It came down from the fifth floor to here in an instant—crawling along the walls and sliding through the corridors—!”

Jade pressed a hand to his forehead, still trying to process what had happened. After a moment of thought, Ian spoke quietly.

“That must have been… the mop ghost.”

Footnotes

1. “Mop ghost” (대걸레 유령) — A supernatural entity within the villa; a twisted remnant of the game’s horror design. In the Blood Night universe, many ordinary cleaning tools or objects can become haunted after absorbing residual curse energy.