NOVEL NEXT – Chapter 27
The cold night air wrapped around my entire body. The fog wriggled like a living creature, obscuring our vision.
At the moment when the faint moonlight barely illuminated the ground in front of us, a figure with no lower body slowly approached, scraping against the asphalt.
At first, only a simple silhouette was visible. The fog was so thick that only the outline of the figure was vaguely discernible.
But as the figure drew closer, its horrifying appearance became clearer.
A flat, smooth face. A face as empty as white porcelain. It was completely devoid of eyes, a nose, or a mouth.
Below, it wore something like gray work clothes, but it was severed at the waist. The severed part… no, thanks to Leon’s keychain, that part was fortunately pixelated.
The sound of scraping against the ground echoed through the quiet night air. Every time the pale, long-nailed hands scraped against the cold asphalt, a horrifying sound, like metal being scratched, could be heard.
‘I’m going crazy…’
Every hair on my body stood on end. A cold chill ran up my spine.
Anyone would know that in such a situation, you should run. But my legs felt glued to the ground, unable to move. Fear had frozen my entire body.
Glancing to the side, Kang Hana’s face was as pale as a sheet of paper. I could see her lips trembling. Her usual composed demeanor had completely vanished.
“Jeong, Jeongwoo…”
Kang Hana called out to me in a trembling voice. Her hand tightly gripped my arm. Her fingertips were as cold as ice.
“Back… slowly…”
She whispered. But at that moment, the dragging sound grew closer.
Scrape… scrape…
The sound of asphalt being scraped was accompanied by dark blood staining the ground.
Suddenly, the last note from Deputy Lee Seong-ho came to mind.
-P.S., If anything happens, smile.
But how could anyone smile in a situation like this? A face frozen in fear was far from smiling.
Even when I tried to lift the corners of my mouth, they wouldn’t move, as if frozen. My heart felt like it had risen to my throat. The sound of my heartbeat echoed in my ears.
But then, something happened.
As if it had noticed us, the lower-body-less ghost suddenly stopped moving. It tilted its head slightly, then, like a predator spotting its prey, it swiftly changed direction and began charging toward us through the fog.
‘Smile… I have to smile…!’
I quickly pulled out the yellow emotion spray from my pocket. I had brought it for situations like this.
First, I sprayed it into Kang Hana’s mouth, then into mine. A sweet lemon flavor filled my mouth.
Instantly, my mind cleared. It was like clouds parting and sunlight pouring through. Dopamine surged, making my whole body tingle, and laughter burst from my lips.
“Hahaha!”
“Hehehe!”
Our laughter echoed through the foggy air.
At first, it was awkward, but as the spray took effect, natural laughter erupted.
Surprisingly, the ghost stopped moving. The lower-body-less ghost tilted its smooth face slightly, as if sensing something was off.
Soon, the ghost disappeared into the fog. The sound of its lower body dragging and the dripping blood grew fainter.
“Ha… ha…”
We barely managed to stop laughing and catch our breath. Kang Hana’s shoulders were still trembling. Her hand still tightly gripped my arm.
“Are you okay?”
I asked. Kang Hana slowly nodded. But her face was still pale. Beads of cold sweat had formed on her forehead.
“Thank you. If it weren’t for you, Jeongwoo, I would have been in real danger.”
She continued in a trembling voice.
“Should we keep going? In that fog… there’s still…”
She was right. We couldn’t continue through the fog where the horror entity was running rampant. Moreover, it felt like we had been walking through the fog for an hour.
When we first entered the village, it hadn’t even taken 20 minutes. Wandering for an hour on a path that should have been short was clearly strange.
“It’s better to head back to the village.”
We hurriedly retraced our steps. With every hurried step, it felt like the sound of scraping asphalt was following us.
When we arrived back in the village, a commotion erupted from the community center. Screams and the sound of something falling. The sound of shattering glass mixed in.
“What’s going on?”
Rushing over, a shocking scene unfolded. Two D-class personnel were foaming at the mouth, rolling on the floor. Their bodies twisted in convulsions, a horrifying sight. Shattered cups lay at their feet.
I quickly ran over and turned their heads to the side to prevent them from choking on the foam.
No one knew what had happened. They had just gone to the bathroom and returned, only to start convulsing immediately.
“Does anyone have a first aid kit?”
A member of Moon Jinwook’s Team 3 pulled out a first aid kit from their bag and began bandaging the wounds.
The Team 3 leader and Cheon Seungsoo approached us. Their footsteps echoed through the silent community center. Cheon Seungsoo’s expression was unusually tense.
“Are you back already?”
His voice was mixed with concern and confusion. The flashlight’s beam illuminated his face, revealing beads of sweat on his forehead.
Kang Hana shook her head. She still seemed shaken from the earlier terror. Her voice trembled.
“We couldn’t go further because of the fog. And then…”
She hesitated, as if unsure how to explain what had just happened. Cheon Seungsoo and the Team 3 leader’s gazes fixed on her.
“…a ghost with no lower body appeared. A faceless… thing…”
At her words, Moon Jinwook’s face turned pale. He wiped the cold sweat from his brow with the sleeve of his suit jacket. It seemed he had fully realized we were trapped here. His wristwatch glinted in the cold moonlight.
“This… what is this…”
Moon Jinwook muttered. His voice trembled. None of his usual composure remained. The reality of being completely trapped in this village seemed to weigh heavily on him.
“Everyone, calm down.”
Cheon Seungsoo spoke. His voice remained steady, as if he had anticipated this situation or had already prepared for it.
“For now, it’s late. We should visit the shaman’s house to the north tomorrow morning. Right now, everyone needs rest.”
Everyone agreed with Cheon Seungsoo’s suggestion. But no one looked at ease. The fact that we were trapped in the village weighed heavily on all the staff.
As we walked down the hallway, the quiet conversations of Team 3 members reached our ears.
“…Are we all going to die like this?”
“Quiet. Nothing’s certain yet…”
Their expressions were dark. Having experienced the D-class personnel’s convulsions and the fog incident back-to-back, they seemed mentally and physically exhausted.
We returned to the house we were staying in. The old wooden floor creaked under our footsteps. The house was filled with darkness. When we shone the flashlight, dust sparkled in the light.
“I’ll go wash up first.”
Narae said quietly. Even she, who had been silent until now, seemed shocked by what had happened.
We cooked ramen for dinner. Normally, we would have slurped it up noisily while chatting, but today everyone ate in silence. The tense expressions of each person were reflected in the steam rising from the hot ramen.
Occasionally, the sound of wind came from outside. The sound of raindrops hitting the window mixed in. It seemed it had started raining at some point.
“If we had encountered a horror entity outside in this weather…”
Moon Jinwook muttered. His words trailed off, but everyone understood what he meant.
After finishing the meal, we went to bed. But there was no way anyone could fall asleep easily. Staring at the ceiling, I replayed the events of the day in my mind. The lower-body-less ghost, the convulsions of the two D-class personnel, and the secret of this village that Byeon Dae-sik had mentioned…
Moon Jinwook’s snoring could be heard. He had fallen asleep as usual, but unlike before, there were occasional sounds of him tossing and turning uneasily.
It felt like someone was watching us in the darkness. The sound of rain continued outside the window.
Looking at the clock, midnight was approaching. The deep of night, when everyone was asleep.
Suddenly, a strange sound reached my ears.
-Kagome kagome. The bird in the cage. When, oh when will it come out?
At first, it sounded distant. But it gradually grew closer, until it was as clear as if it were right next to my ear. An unknown song slithered into my ears like a snake.
At that moment, my entire body stiffened. I was paralyzed. My eyes were open, but my body wouldn’t move. I could barely breathe. It felt like a huge rock was pressing down on my chest.
Thunder rumbled again. In the flash of light, I saw a woman thrashing around the room. Her figure, illuminated by the moonlight, was eerie.
-At the dawn of the night, the crane and the turtle slipped. Who is behind you?
Her hair was disheveled, and she wore a white mourning dress. She seemed to be searching for something, rummaging through the room. She felt the walls, shook the wardrobe, and scraped the floor. Black water dripped from her hair.
‘Bite… bite my tongue…’
I tried to bite my tongue to wake up, like in a nightmare. This had to be a dream. If I could just regain consciousness, it would all be over.
But at that moment, the woman seemed to notice my movement and sharply turned her head.
Her pale face came close to mine. Skin as white as death, darkness where her eyes should have been, and a grotesquely upturned mouth.
-Can you see?
At that moment, a chill ran down my spine.
I barely managed to bite my tongue.
Waking from the dream, I gasped for breath and looked around.
The other team members were still deep in sleep. Moonlight streamed through the window, faintly illuminating the room.
After a dream like that, there was no way I could fall back asleep. Especially since that last question kept echoing in my mind.
見える… Can you see…
What was it that I was supposed to see? And why was it in Japanese?
In the end, I spent the night wide awake, filled with fear and questions.