Lately, my life had grown as monotonous as a hamster wheel.
For the ghost's errand, I went nowhere but home and the addresses, back and forth, and I had already covered 3 of the places written on the slip. When Min-seo first told me this was yangbap, a folk ritual for passing a curse along by using a person, I had wondered whether to just charge straight into Kim Hyun-woo's house, but I didn't act on it.
'Haa. I'm tired. Should I rest for a bit at the drowsy-driver rest stop?'
I pulled the car into the rest stop for a moment, tipped the seat back, and gently closed my eyes.
"All... of them were shamans' houses...."
I muttered to myself. All 3 of the addresses the ghost called the Idler had given me were shamans' houses. So this address in North Jeolla I was headed to now was very likely a shaman's house too.
I didn't know what it was trying to do, but a ghost cursing people.... It was clearly nothing good.
After parting with Min-seo, I had been curious about the ghost called the Idler and searched it online for a bit, and it said it was a being that brought pain and misfortune upon people.
'Well, it's not something I need to worry much about.'
It meant they had given a ghost a grudge deep enough to get themselves cursed, and now was no time to be worrying about other people. I still had 3 more hours of driving ahead, so it paid to catch even a little sleep.
***
This address was a place better known by the name Baemsagol. When I arrived at dawn, it was still dark, and the place gave off an air eerie and secluded enough to give the old horror show Hometown of Legends a run for its money.
They didn't seem to be open for business yet, so I hesitated in front of the gate for a long while, and then the gate suddenly opened, and a woman who looked to be in her forties came out and threw a whole gourd dipper of salt at me.
"Ugh!"
"Get away from here this instant!"
I froze on the spot, dumbfounded, and the woman, even angrier, raged and showered me with curses.
"What has this crazy jerk dragged along with him?!"
"No. I just came to get my fortune told...."
This time didn't look like it would be easy. Every time so far, saying I had come to get my fortune told had gotten me safely inside the address, but today was different. Glaring at me with venomous, gleaming eyes, the woman showed no intention of letting me take a single step through the gate.
"You vicious thing! You sent three people to their graves, and now you come for me!"
Her words stung. I had never believed in this kind of thing, but her tone, so uncannily knowing that I had stopped by other places first, made me falter and back away.
BANG!
I was taken aback when the woman finished cursing me out and slammed the gate shut.
'What now?'
I couldn't go back like this, and I hadn't even arranged anywhere to sleep tonight. And the woman's last words bothered me. I hadn't really thought about what happened after the curse was passed along. I hadn't had time to think, either.
'Why am I even worrying about this?'
They were strangers with nothing to do with my revenge, but I had already accepted the request. It was a shame, but I didn't know what disadvantage might come my way if I failed to complete it, so I couldn't just not do it. Besides, I had finished all the earlier ones, and only one was left. Penalty aside, I couldn't stop now. I had been turned away, but I had to get inside that house somehow.
"I don't need permission to go in anyway, do I?"
The wall looked fairly high, but the gate, an old wooden one, looked flimsy. If I played it right, I thought I could pry it open and get in. When I first carefully took hold of the handle, the gate opened all too easily with a heavy creak.
'Did something like black smoke just... come out of my hand? Or am I imagining it?'
I was sure the woman had locked the gate tight, but the moment I touched the handle, it slid open. Whether this was a coincidence or something else, I didn't know, but the mission was to go into the address and come back out, so I promptly stepped through the gate.
THUD—!
When I moved one step inside, black smoke rose like a heat haze from under my shoe with each step. So I hadn't been imagining it. The same smoke that had come from my hand puffed up with each footstep.
"You wretch! Dragging that filthy thing in here!"
At the furious bellow, I stopped in my tracks without thinking. I wondered if she would report me for trespassing, but this couldn't count as a residence. It was plainly a commercial space, a place of business.
"Calm down. As I told you, I came to get my fortune told, and the gate was open...."
[At last, he's in. I'll snuff out the last bitch's breath.]
For a moment, I glanced around, wondering if I had misheard.
"Keuk! You... vicious thing. After devouring people like that, you come back again."
The woman screamed at the top of her lungs at the empty air, then clutched her throat as if she couldn't breathe. I couldn't see anything, but it looked as if she were talking to someone.
[Now die. Die. Die. Die.]
"Keuheok! Cough. You bastard who ought to be drawn and quartered. I should never have let you get away back then. Gack!"
The voice came again, and the woman coughed up blood and collapsed. At the commotion, two young women and a man who had been inside the shaman's house came running out and looked back and forth between the woman coughing up blood and me.
'Don't tell me... it's going to kill her right here?'
If someone died in front of me, there would be more than one or two things to deal with, starting with a police investigation and statements. I was sweating bullets, worried things would get complicated, when the three rushed to the woman.
"Mother! Hurry, get this thing off her!"
"Bring the talismans and the salt!"
[Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die.]
They seemed to be novice disciples, trying something to save the woman, but the ghost's voice rang dankly in my ears. It grew louder and louder, and the words came faster. The faster they came, the more blood gushed from the woman's mouth like a fountain, and her eyes rolled back until her black pupils vanished and only the whites showed.
"Mother! Stay with us! You can't let go!"
[Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die.]
At the sight of the woman, who really looked about to stop breathing, I backed away little by little. Getting dragged into a hassle was the last thing I wanted.
[Kyahahaha! I've finally killed them all!]
"Cough...."
Along with the ghost's gleeful laughter, the woman let out one last labored breath and let her hand drop to the floor. Her eyelids were slowly closing, too.
'Ah. This has gotten messy. It never happened right in front of me before.... I'd rather not see a horrible sight like this.'
Unlike the others so far, the ghost had executed this target on the spot, right before my eyes, and at that I quietly shut my eyes tight. Ghosts really didn't care about the living at all.
"Is this 119? Someone has collapsed. The address is...."
I knew she had already stopped breathing, but I hadn't checked it myself, so I reported her as being in critical condition. When I gave the address, they answered that they were dispatching right away, and I casually put my phone back in my pocket.
"You! Why did you bring this bastard back?!"
I looked blankly at the young woman clutching the dead woman and wailing.
"Murderer! When the police come, I'm telling them everything!"
"I didn't do anything. I didn't lay a finger on her."
The corners of my mouth twitched in disbelief. Even I think it's rude to laugh in front of the dead. I had no intention of mocking her death. But at the word "murderer," a hollow breath escaped me.
Even if there were CCTV here, there was nothing at all that could pin me down. After coming in through the gate, I had stopped right on this spot and not moved a single step closer to the woman, and I wasn't carrying anything that could serve as a murder weapon. I had nothing in my pockets but my phone and my car key.
"Because of you! Mother! Sob...."
"What on earth did I do to deserve this?"
Curses and souls and the like couldn't be proven by science anyway. There was no way the police would believe some nonsense about a person being killed by a curse, so I played dumb.
The 119 crew arrived right away, and after she was pronounced dead, the police came and took a preliminary statement. It was a small country town, so I got out of the police station safely without losing too much time.
In front of the police station, I ran into a man who looked like one of the novice disciples and bowed to him out of courtesy.
"I don't know what you've stepped into, but the area around your soul is black."
"Is that so. Then I'll be on my way."
If he said the area around it was black, that meant my soul itself still wasn't stained, so it would act as an attractive quality that whetted the ghosts' appetite. I had no intention of trading on it, but I was relieved it seemed fine to use as bait.
"Get out before it's too late. Trade with ghosts and you'll fall into hell."
"I'm already in hell."
I tossed him a light sneer and headed to where I had parked the car. Telling someone already in hell that he would fall into hell. Even as I walked, I had to cover my mouth at the laughter bursting out.
[Mission complete.]
Just like after the first test, I sent Min-seo the message and started the car. To get back up to Seoul, I had to drive a solid 4 and a half hours again. Trying to force myself to forget what I had just seen, I opened my eyes wide so I could focus on driving.
'Best to shake off anything this unpleasant fast.'
The moment I took the wheel, Min-seo called, and without a moment's rest, a meeting with her was set for as soon as I got up to Seoul. The quick response was nice, but I asked out of curiosity.
"But why did you have me take a test instead of making the trade yourself, Min-seo?"
-I got found out right away. When you get up to Seoul, let's meet at that motel.
At the words "found out," I thought of the man who had told me, as if it were advice, that the area around my soul was black, and I shut my mouth. It didn't quite make sense to me, but the gist was that the shamans had caught on that Min-seo had come on an errand, and she hadn't been able to get in.
I wasn't particularly curious why the Idler had made the request, but when she said I would have to write a report later, I pressed the call-record button. It wasn't even a company, and I was filing a report to a ghost. It was absurd beyond words.
To sum up: those shamans had pried the Idler off a person it had possessed and tried to exorcise it. It had escaped by a hair just before the exorcism, slipped into the market to hide, waited for a chance at revenge, and then requested this cleanup.
'Now it's come to this: I've ended up being used even by ghosts....'
It was simple. If I didn't want to be used, the only way was to climb to the position of the user as soon as possible.
-That's the end of it. Write up your report and bring it.
"Yes. I'll arrive around 2 p.m. I'll see you then."
Having spent a whole five days on the second test, I was getting a little anxious. It had been a while since Sang-min told me the old woman's hospital was on Jeju Island, but I hadn't been able to go.
[Nightmare Trust, Bank of the Dead]
Vault password : *****
I had found this phrase written secretly on the inside of the notebook's cover, so I had to figure out how to use it. I never would have imagined there was a bank even inside the Ghost Story Market.