Chapter 51

'That was a productive day.'

An extra forty million. Best decision ever.

'Looks like I've found a way to make regular money on the side without drawing attention.'

Various options for spending today's forty million won sprang to mind, along with the new company facilities my promotion had opened up to me.

And one stuffed doll, having immediately noticed my windfall, was starting to drop subtle hints about what he wanted.

-Phew, all these outings over the past few days have left me feeling stiff. I could use a bath...

Bear with it. It's not like I can steal blood bags from a hospital...

-Of course. I can certainly bear it. I'm a good friend, after all...

Hmm. A bath in the Blood Bathtub was out of the question, but perhaps I could at least hand-wash him.

That was how I'd planned to spend the evening, making idle small talk with Braun.

Until someone threw my bedroom door open and barged in.

"You!!"

"...!"

It was Baek Saheon.

Why the hell was this guy, who barely ever left his own room, suddenly barging into mine without knocking?

But before I could call him out for his rudeness, I noticed the state he was in.

He was practically panicking.

"What the hell does this mean...! What have you dragged me into?!"

He was holding his smartphone, and on its screen was...

[Kim Soleum: Watch out for the serial killer]

A message I'd sent.

I had sent him another one on my way in earlier.

But here's the thing.

"I'm not the one who dragged you into it."

"..."

"You must have made the wrong choice."

-Mr. Roe Deer's 'coworker' picked up an object, and now he's about to die a gruesome death!

Baek Saheon's face went pale.

'Something must have happened just now, right on cue with my message.'

He wasn't dead yet, so he could contact the company or whatever and get it dealt with himself.

Anyway, I wasn't about to get mixed up in this and suffer for nothing. But just as I was heading out...

-Oh dear. Do you hear that?

-It seems time has run out for Mr. Roe Deer's 'coworker.'

"..."

What?

Hmm, hmm-hmm, hmmm, hmm-hmm-hmm.

I began to hear humming.

It was unmistakably coming from Baek Saheon, right in front of me.

But his mouth wasn't moving at all.

... In that case.

"Looks like you've got something you shouldn't have."

"..."

Pale-faced, Baek Saheon reached into his pocket and pulled something out.

A cassette tape.

On its old, grimy ivory casing, the title on a sticker had been roughly scribbled out with a pen.

Hmm, hmm-hmm, hmmm, hmm-hmm-hmm.

The humming coming from the tape grew louder and louder.

A very straightforward... signal.

-The time has come.

Time to run.

I immediately sprang up and ran out of the company apartment.

The problem was that Baek Saheon came scrambling after me!

"Get rid of the tape first!"

"I did! Out the window!"

Then stop following me!

-It's too late.

-Oh dear, Mr. Roe Deer... You've seen the object too. You've become entangled in this story. You're now part of the selection of victims.

-Though I suppose that's unavoidable for a talented guest with such a gift for entertainment!

Ha.

'Why couldn't this bastard Baek Saheon deal with it himself instead of making it my fucking problem...!'

I'd even warned him! He should've taken the hint and handled it! Was he really a Named Employee at a ghost-story company?

Curses rose in my throat. But I didn't even have time to swear, so I ran faster.

'Let's put some physical distance between us and it first.'

If I hadn't been completely sucked into the ghost story yet, getting some distance would usually help!

I sprinted away from the company apartment toward the bus stop.

Then I jumped straight onto an approaching bus.

BEEP.

As I tapped my card and boarded, I heard Baek Saheon tapping his behind me.

'Why is this lunatic following me?!'

Didn't he have enough of a conscience to spare the person who'd actually warned him?

On second thought, of course not. The bastard was a total sociopath!

Anyway, the bus doors shut, and it pulled away without incident.

"Hah."

"Hah..."

I couldn't hear the humming anymore.

I went all the way to the back and sat right beside the emergency hammer for breaking the windows. Just in case.

Baek Saheon seemed to hesitate, then sat close by.

"..."

"..."

It was a weekend, neither rush hour nor lunchtime, and there were only a few other passengers on the bus. Two or three near the front.

Baek Saheon checked our surroundings, then anxiously lowered his voice.

"Hey, you... How the hell did you know to send that message?"

"You?"

"... We agreed to speak casu... No, I mean... Right. Supervisor. How did you know?"

"How I knew isn't the important part."

I spoke to the wary Baek Saheon, fighting the urge to yell at him.

"What matters is how you came to have that thing."

"..."

If the bastard kept his mouth shut, I planned to get off at the next stop and take a taxi. I'd throw him out of the cab if that was what it took to keep him from following me.

But Baek Saheon spoke up, as if he'd uncannily sensed what I was thinking.

"... It was something we had at home."

Home?

"I inherited it from a relative. They told me to use it if I wanted to turn the tables in a crisis, so I've been carrying it around..."

-Ah, the oldest trick in the book. A family heirloom you thought was a symbol of protection turns out to be possessed by an evil spirit... Isn't that the very definition of a horror-movie cliché?

You could say that again.

I wasn't trying to get a rise out of him. I genuinely wanted to know.

"You work at a company that grades ghost stories, and it never occurred to you to have it examined?"

"... If the company decided it was useful while examining it, they might not give it back! I thought it all through."

"Doesn't sound like it."

"..."

"Try thinking next time."

"... Ah, yes."

Baek Saheon's face went through a succession of colors before he forced a smile so hard the corners of his mouth twitched.

He'd act like a sociopath and snap at people, only to suddenly acquire manners the moment he got scared. He really was completely transparent.

Anyway, I held back a sigh and assessed the situation.

A textbook opening to getting caught in a ghost story.

"For now, we'd better ride to the last stop, get off, and contact company Security—"

"..."

"..."

"... Wh-what's wrong, Supervisor?"

Something was off.

City bus stops were usually no more than three minutes apart.

So why was this bus...

Still driving?

-Oh dear. It's caught up.

I looked out the window.

... Fog was rolling in.

The scenery outside the city bus, which had been traveling along a pleasant four-lane road in Seoul, was already beginning to turn into a winding dirt road.

"...!"

I stood up.

The passengers up front had disappeared.

... The only person still there was the driver.

"..."

At some point, the driver had put on an old cap, pulled down low.

The sort of cap someone might have worn back when traces remained of an era when bus travel had been a formal affair.

Humming, the driver reached out with a gloved hand and switched on the radio.

CLICK.

And what came out was...

Hmm, hmm-hmm, hmmm, hmm-hmm-hmm.

The humming from the cassette tape.

"...!"

Hmm, hmm-hmm, hmmm, hmm-hmm-hmm.

The humming filled the bus.

The low-floor bus that had been driving through modern-day Seoul had somehow become an old-fashioned bus with rows of seats.

Hmm, hmm-hmm, hmmm, hmm-hmm-hmm.

"Don't look back."

It was already too late.

Baek Saheon gripped a handhold, his face rigid as he stared straight ahead. I kept my own gaze fixed forward, trying not to look too closely outside as the fog cleared.

The narrow trail turned into an old paved road.

The old bus rattled down the rough country road before finally slowing...

[This stop is 'Horizon Lodge.']

"..."

Our destination came into view.

Hmm, hmm-hmm, hmmm, hmm-hmm-hmm.

The humming now flowed from the radio in an unmistakably clear melody.

Listening to the jaunty, minor-key tune of a pop song of the sort popular in the 1980s and '90s, I looked through the opening doors...

[Horizon Lodge]

At a luxurious lodge-style mansion standing in the mountains, its sign written in elegant, old-fashioned lettering.

"..."

Ha.

"... Are you getting off?"

Yeah.

Though I really fucking hated it.

I rose and stepped toward the open door. Behind me, I heard Baek Saheon hurry off after me, muttering what sounded like a curse of his own.

The bus doors shut behind us, and it drove away.

Taking the humming melody with it.

"..."

"..."

Baek Saheon muttered, sounding somewhat relieved.

"At least we can't hear the song anymore, and the tape's gone, so we're better off than—"

"Check your pocket."

"What?"

"Put your hand in your pocket and check."

"..."

Baek Saheon stared blankly at me, then abruptly thrust a hand into his coat pocket.

And what came out was...

The old cassette tape he'd claimed to have thrown away earlier.

"...!!"

I caught his arm as he tried to throw it away again and pulled it down.

"It's too late now. Just get ready to go inside."

"Go in..."

"There."

I pointed at Horizon Lodge.

Once we'd come this far, running was useless.

We'd only waste our energy and suffer all sorts of hardships before ending up back at this 'setting of the story'...

'Better to go in early and at least get a handle on the situation.'

-Mr. Roe Deer, you're acting as though you know what lies ahead! Is this another story you already know?

Braun spoke up, having realized that I possessed a fairly broad knowledge of supernatural phenomena.

And... he was right.

'... Yeah.'

The keywords had come together.

A serial killer.

A trap using transportation as bait.

An object that kept returning to your pocket as though cursed.

And...

I raised my head and looked at our destination.

'... Horizon Lodge.'

* * *

Records of Dark Exploration / Ghost Stories

[And There Was Someone]

: A ghost story appearing in <Records of Dark Exploration>. Its Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau registration number is 1489PSYA.1991. Ra84.

A ghost story in which people are murdered one by one by a serial killer in a suspicious location cut off from the outside world. A variation on the classic closed-circle mystery novel and B-movie slasher.

A Torpor-class disaster that can be sealed with nine humans. The Disaster Management Bureau must recruit personnel through volunteers or conscription once every four years.

* * *

That was the identity of the ghost story I'd deduced through the same sort of analysis I'd used throughout my past few months of employment.

But there was one difference this time.

'Jurisdiction...!'

This wasn't a Darkness belonging to Daydream Inc.

It was a ghost story the government had contained, or would contain in the future.

Otherwise known as a 'disaster'!

What was the difference?

Its operating principles were fundamentally different from those of a conglomerate that sought to extract raw materials from Darkness for profit.

The government had created the Bureau strictly to prevent loss of life or extensive property damage.

That was the official justification, at least.

So the Disaster Management Bureau prioritized containing things that absolutely could not be left among civilians.

Meaning...

Someone would die. Unconditionally.

Whether you cleared it, got trapped, failed, or succeeded.

In every possible outcome.

'The moment you get caught in this, there's a guaranteed kill.'

Cold sweat trickled down my spine.

The government had determined that clearing this required someone to die, no matter what...

And I was about to walk straight into the middle of it.

Without even getting any points!!

'Baek Saheon, you goddamn bastard!'

I wanted to unleash every curse I knew at him and give his one remaining eye a black eye, but...

'That'd be a waste of time...'

"Excuse me, Supervisor!"

Ignoring Baek Saheon, I sighed and approached the lodge's front door.

Then, just as I took a deep breath and prepared to knock...

RING.

A bicycle bell sounded behind me.

I turned to see a bicycle coming to a stop in front of this isolated house in the woods, with someone riding it.

-Oh, another has arrived. Someone who picked up an object!

Indeed.

One more poor soul had been caught in this damned ghost story.

Suppressing a groan, I turned to look... and froze in surprise.

"...!"

A familiar figure was getting off the bicycle.

To be precise, I didn't know their face, but I recognized their outfit.

Dark clothes, a mask, and a hat pulled down low.

'... Salmon Market!'

Standing there was the person who'd bought ghost-story food from me at Gwanghwamun Station this very morning!