Though he was curious about the people around, Ivan silently following right behind the priest, ignoring the people he passed by. When the priest walk passed people, they would warmly greeted him as if they had known each other for a few months now.

Initially, Ivan thought the people were the same type of person as the priest, but upon leaning closer to eavesdropping while not exposing himself for the act, he diminished such thought soon after. There's nothing unusual in their conversation, it's just utterly nonsense that anyone would talk about when they came across their friends on the street.

A few minutes later, Ivan and the priest finally arrived in front of an elevator and unhurriedly, steps inside as the latter press down a single button on the menu at the side, prompting the elevator's door to close down as it slowly moving downward.

While the elevator was moving, the priest suddenly opened his mouth and ask Ivan, breaking apart the silence in the small space of an elevator.

"Do you believe in god?"

"...No. Well, to be exact, I was, but now I'm a fully-fledged atheist for reasons I couldn't tell, sorry."

He had secretly prayed to god many times in the past, hoping that his family would return to normal like how it was back in the days, however, nothing change.

The helpless he felt at the time is truly something that he still remembers to this day.

Of course that isn't the only reason he stopped believing in God. As could be expected, there's no need for him to go out of his way to tell the priest of that ever since he is still wary of the latter.

"That's indeed a shame."

The priest shook his head as he replied with a disappointed tone. If Ivan ever look back at the priest, even a glance would do, he would have surely noticed a flicker of light passing through the latter's eyes. It was only a few years later that he came to regret his decision in following the priest here.

It was only a few minutes later that the priest couldn't help but opened up his mouth once again.

"Do you believe in the supernatural existence, such as ghosts and the likes?"

Ivan raise his brows upon hearing the question from the priest. The priest must have hates the silence permeating in the elevator so he couldn't help but asked weird question like that instead of talking normally like any sane person would under the same circumstance. But then again, he's a priest.

Nevertheless, Ivan decided to humor the priest since he also dislike the silence since it makes him feels more uneasy for an obvious reason.

"Though I haven't met or saw them personally, I do actually believe that they exists."

The idea of them not existing just because one haven't seen any of them is pretty unbelievable in his opinion.

No matter what one opinion is in regard to this topic, supernatural events is still happening all over the world, after all. Though most of them are mostly hoax, done by the internet people, there's still the possibility that some of them are actually real encounters with an entity from another dimension.

The strangest things of all is, why the hell whenever one has an encounter, their recording camera is absolutely terrible. Even if it's a real encounter, no one would believe it with such a low quality picture. This unfortunately also happened to be the same for aliens. 

It just felt weird that such godly events would mostly appeared in those terrible camera despite how much it has advanced in the last ten years. 

Nevertheless, Ivan considered himself to be lucky since he never experience such a thing in his life. In most horror stories, things didn't end well if people have met such encounters after all. He is still young and have a big dreams he wanted to accomplish.

Upon hearing his words, the priest nodded his head in an understanding manner and said, "Good. It should be easier for you to accept the truth later on then."

"What do you mean by that?"

Before Ivan could inquire the priest for the latter strange phrasing, the door of the elevator finally split apart and the appearance of a long straight hallway entered his eyes. Without wasting time any further, the priest immediately stepped out of the elevator while Ivan follows him closely not too far behind.

Not gonna lie but, walking in a long straight hallway behind the priest feels somehow unnerving for Ivan. Heck, it would be stranger if he finds everything about the whole situation normal. After all, He doesn't have such a strong nerve to stay calm in this circumstance.

One couldn't blame him for being nervous when one considered that he was currently in unknown place. He had never travel too far from his home. Of course it also partly his fault since he decided to follow a creepy man who claimed to be a priest on his own free will. 

Each step they took, it echoes through the silent hallway like a calm sea before a storm. 

Before long, they finally arrived as Ivan immediately scan his eyes at the double-door in front of him. No matter how much he stare at it, it appears that there's no strange runes, or weird talismans pasted on it as he initially thought. It's just a normal double-door.

"Everything here is just as what it looks like, the inside on the other hand... you would have to experience it yourself, go ahead."

And as if the priest understood what he was thinking inside his mind, the priest muttered with the same creepy smile on his face before stepping to the side as he urged Ivan to walk ahead, giving him permission to enter the room on his own.

Though the priest's action raised a few suspicions in his mind, Ivan didn't let it get to him as he confidently put his hand on the door's handle and twist it.

If the priest had wanted to harm him in the first place, he would have surely done so by now and Ivan wouldn't be able to fight back with his meager strength. Ivan was, after all, just an average college student.

Of course there are still possibilities that whatever behind the door would kill/restrict him upon opening the door, or that the priest has other nefarious intentions in mind. 

Basically, he has no way out and the only way for him is to go through it to the very end. Whatever will happen, shall happened.

Actually, it didn't matter much to Ivan if they wanted to killed him or anything like that, but he still couldn't help and getting worried about what would happen to his mother if he also left this world. If he was all alone, no one would care if he died. But things changed when he has a family member to take care of.

He shouldn't forget that her current mental state had already raised a few alarms in his mind. What would happen if her only son also disappeared from her world? The first thought that crossed his mind is that his mother would choose to suicide upon finding out about his unfortunate death.

The only reason he had been studying so hard so far is because he wanted to make a better place for her. At least for now, he didn't want to die, but he didn't have a choice in this circumstance. With that thought in mind, Ivan slowly push the door opened with determined eyes.

The moment he stepped into the room however, Ivan's entire body was suddenly overwhelmed by a familiar feeling.

In the past, during the time he was still suffering in his studies like the other students, Ivan had spent a whole week of the night cramming knowledge in preparation for the incoming exam. The highest sleep time he could get was only around 2-3 hours. It was the most hectics month of his life.

At the final exam, Ivan's appearance look not much different than that of a zombie with dark circles and bloodshot eyes. Though his friends were worried at first and advised him to take care more of himself, he stubbornly insisted that he's fine. 

And literally the next day, which is Saturday, Ivan spent the entire weekend doing nothing else but sleeping like a log. Of course in reality He did does something other than sleep, which consists of eating, shit, and lastly, bathing. 

Nonetheless, because he mostly spend the times on sleeping, it isn't wrong to say he spend the entire weekend on sleeping.

And just like that, two day passed. 

After having so much rest that his body desperately asked for in the past week, Ivan felt so refreshed that not even a speck of dark circle was left on his eyes anymore. 

It isn't an exaggeration to say that he was brim with a positive energy, so much that one would mistaken him as a bright college student!

Basically, that was the same feeling he currently felt the moment he breathe into the spacious room. 

Ivan couldn't help but let out a satisfied sigh along with a real smile on his face. Even his tense shoulders has evidently relaxed due to the experience he just had.

He only awoke from his strange state after the person seating on the chair in a not so distance from him coughed thrice.

The man himself didn't even know what the actual reason for him to suddenly act like that! No, perhaps this is what the priest was hinting about. And so, Ivan doesn't feel as much embarrassed as he initially thought he would. Or rather, the fierce-looking man ahead of him may have help him in recovering his sense.

"Welcome, Ivan. It's good to see you."

"Umm, thanks?"

"I know that you must be very confused right now, just as anyone else would considering your situation. But don't worry as I shall explain to you right now, everything there is of the truth."

Ivan couldn't help but gulped a mouthful of saliva upon noticing how serious the man in front of him had became. Just his tone alone spoke volume of the situation. Truth? What kind of truth is he talking about? Is he going to make me join his dubious religion afterward? These nonsense of thoughts quickly plaguing inside his mind, but Ivan didn't voice out his opinion, which prompted the man to start talking.