Ch.62062 – Mountain Lodge of Horror 3

# 062 – The Cabin of Horror # 3

Dr. Ji clicked his tongue while looking at Yang Juhui’s palm.

A free opportunity to touch a pretty high school girl’s palm.

I probably would have clicked my tongue too if I were him.

I should try reading my girlfriend’s palm someday just to hold her hand.

As I was thinking this, Yang Juhui quickly pulled her hand away.

“Ugh, get lost. Seriously.”

Yang Juhui showed obvious disgust, but in contrast, Yu Dahui seemed interested.

“Are you a feng shui master? Or a fortune teller?”

Yu Dahui had an unusual interest in feng shui for someone her age.

Dr. Ji chuckled.

“No, nothing that fancy. I just travel around the country looking at land, performing rituals, checking burial sites for people. That’s how I make a living. Anyway, kids, you shouldn’t mess with talismans on the mountain.”

Dr. Ji scolded us.

He also seemed to enjoy talking, as he continued to spout TMI.

“This Gaeryong, actually, it’s not a place where people should live. There’s a spiritually massive underground water vein flowing beneath this land. It’s like building a house on the ocean. That’s why they could only build one subway line, and people go missing and die.”

Didn’t Teacher Hong Miri say that Yeongji High was built on a water vein?

But Dr. Ji was saying that not just Yeongji High, but the entire city of Gaeryong was built on a major water vein.

“Still, when there was a good guardian shaman in the old days, such things happened less. But you…”

Dr. Ji’s eyes turned toward me.

“But you look familiar somehow.”

“…Me?”

Dr. Ji took my hand.

Was he reading my palm?

“Student. What’s your name?”

“I’m… Ha Yeongwon.”

“Oh my. Oh dear. I don’t know if it was your father or mother, but they gave you the wrong name. You’ve been lost because of your wrongly given name. Is your name really Ha Yeongwon?”

“…What?”

“Or maybe, would you like to change your name? I also do name creation. I’ll give you a discount. Names are important. These days, even nicknames need to be chosen well.”

Dr. Ji.

I thought he was just a quack, but could he actually be skilled?

Or was he just guessing?

But whatever the case, what mattered was that I was greatly flustered.

As Dr. Ji said, my original name wasn’t Ha Yeongwon.

Until I lived in Seoul, I had a different name.

But my father, who was a famous pastor, caused a major scandal that made the news.

As a result, he went to prison, and the fallout affected my mother and me too.

It was exactly like guilt by association.

Even after graduating elementary school and throughout middle school, the label of being a criminal’s son always followed me.

Things only quieted down after I came to Gaeryong and changed my name.

That’s why I didn’t make a big deal out of being bullied by Kim Geonho’s group.

I was afraid someone might recognize me if I caused problems.

Compared to the contemptuous looks I endured for three years in middle school, Kim Geonho’s bullying was child’s play. Maybe that’s why I could endure it.

However-

Dr. Ji’s eyes seemed to recognize me somehow.

They were similar to the way people looked at me in Seoul.

Since he said he traveled around the country, he must have been to Seoul too.

Maybe that’s why he knew me.

I decided to pretend I didn’t know what he was talking about.

“Mister, I don’t believe in palm reading.”

“Actually, I don’t believe in it either. I don’t believe in ghosts either. I’ve never seen one. But just because I haven’t seen something or don’t believe in it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Have you been to Africa?”

“Africa? No.”

“But you know Africa exists, right? Even though you’ve never been there. It’s the same thing. Palm reading, fortune telling, feng shui, physiognomy! These are all statistics and science accumulated over a long time. They exist regardless of belief.”

He’s definitely a quack.

I got nervous for nothing.

Dr. Ji stuck close to us like someone who finally found people to talk to after days of isolation.

It seemed like he planned to follow us. As I was thinking how awkward this was, Yang Juhui, who never held back her words, said to Dr. Ji:

“Mister. We need to hike, so please go away. Stop being annoying!”

It seemed somewhat rude, but it perfectly expressed what I was feeling.

However, Dr. Ji was quite skilled at handling this.

“I’m just going the same way as you. You’re going to the cabin, right? I’m going to the cabin too. Since Gaeryong lost its guardian, it’s become a playground for all sorts of shamans. Look at that. Some amateur set up a small shrine over there.”

There was a small tent-like structure on the hiking trail.

Peeking inside, I saw eerie broken Buddha statues and deity figures.

“Be careful. Among shamans and mediums, there are many bad ones. Don’t touch or handle anything carelessly.”

“Kyaak!”

Yang Juhui, who had been examining the shrine, screamed.

I wondered what happened, but there was a spider on Yang Juhui’s shoulder!

Yang Juhui hated spiders.

“Hold still.”

I carefully removed the spider from Yang Juhui’s shoulder with my palm.

It was a huntsman spider.

One of the larger spiders you can find in Korea.

“Did you get it off? Did you get it off?!”

“Yeah.”

“Ugh! Spiders! I really fucking hate them!”

Anyway.

The path to the cabin was full of traces of burned talismans, bells hung on trees, and five-colored strings attached to trees.

It was like a practice ground for shamans.

If the hiking trail is such a mess, the officials should clean it up.

As we walked, we finally arrived at the closed cabin.

It was a house built on flat ground.

Its size was similar to a storage shed for PE equipment.

A creaking sign that read “Ramen, Rice, Bottled Water” made it quite eerie.

“So. Why did you come here?”

Dr. Ji asked me.

I wasn’t sure what to say, so I decided to ask him instead.

“What about you?”

“Me… that’s a secret. Anyway, kids. Don’t touch anything. Especially don’t touch talismans. And don’t even look at talismans written in black ink.”

Dr. Ji took out a water vein detector and began examining various spots.

He acted as if he didn’t care about us and just did his own thing.

We decided to do our own thing too.

Bong Jiyeon asked:

“…So what do we do now?”

Bong Jiyeon thought we came to this mountain simply for hiking.

The same was true for Yu Dahui.

Only I, Jeongseok, and Yang Juhui knew the details.

But was it just my feeling, or did Bong Jiyeon’s expression look a bit off?

Flash-!

At that moment, a blinding light flashed.

Rumble-rumble-rumble!

There was also a thunderous sound like something compressed exploding.

# # #

Swoooooosh-

Heavy rain began pouring down as if a hole had opened in the sky.

“What the hell? The weather forecast definitely said it would be clear today.”

Jeongseok was greatly surprised as he looked at the rain pouring outside the cabin.

We were all equally surprised.

Sudden rain?

Boom, rumble-

Lightning and thunder struck mercilessly.

It was barely noon, but the world was as dark as evening.

Yang Juhui, who was looking at the sky, said:

“It seems like a sudden shower. We can’t go outside now. If we go out in this state, we’ll slip and fall to our deaths. The rocks and steps will be extremely slippery. Let’s wait until the rain stops.”

Yang Juhui was right.

This cabin was located on an expert hiking course.

Going down rocky paths wet with rain would be too reckless.

That’s when it happened.

“Hey, Bong Jiyeon. What’s wrong with you?”

Jeongseok checked Bong Jiyeon’s complexion.

I wondered what was happening, and saw Bong Jiyeon sitting on an old chair in the cabin with a frown.

“You…”

Yang Juhui approached Bong Jiyeon and took off her left sneaker.

When she removed the sock too, Bong Jiyeon’s swollen, red ankle was clearly visible.

“Hey. What’s this now? Did you get hurt today? Bong Jiyeon, you’re really something else. If you were in this condition, you should have said something earlier, you idiot.”

“This isn’t from today, it’s been like this for a while. It just gets like this when I overdo it. It’ll be fine if I put on some pain relief patch and rest.”

As far as I knew, Bong Jiyeon had quit track and field after injuring her ankle.

Was that injury not completely healed yet? It seemed the condition had worsened after she ran around the mountain, feeling competitive with Yang Juhui today.

When I frowned with concern, Bong Jiyeon got angry instead.

“…What! I don’t smell!”

Huh?

I didn’t say anything about smell.

Now that she mentioned it, I started to become conscious of it.

Jeongseok took out a spray pain relief patch from his bag.

“Bong Jiyeon. I’ll spray this for you.”

Tsssss-

After spraying the pain relief on her ankle, Bong Jiyeon’s expression improved a bit.

“Hoo. Ha. Hoo.”

Bong Jiyeon breathed through her mouth like a pregnant woman doing breathing exercises.

However, unlike Bong Jiyeon’s improving ankle condition, the rain was getting heavier.

Swoooosh-

It was so heavy that we could barely see outside through the window.

Yu Dahui, who was looking outside through the window, asked:

“I wonder where Dr. Ji went? With rain like this, he should be taking shelter inside.”

That was true.

With rain pouring like this, where did he go?

I thought he would return soon, but even after quite some time, there was no sign of him coming back.

A quiet cabin.

Two boys and three girls.

When we closed our mouths, only the sound of rain could be heard.

The atmosphere was quite eerie.

“A cabin in the rain. Feels like a ghost might appear.”

Jeongseok muttered quietly.

Jeongseok was fine otherwise, but he had the strange habit of wanting to mutter scary stories when he felt scared. I suspected he was definitely a masochist.

“Isn’t it a bit cold?”

Yang Juhui shivered.

Looking around, Yang Juhui discovered a stove pit in the center of the cabin.

There was no stove.

Instead, there were plenty of discarded magazines and papers.

Whoosh.

Yang Juhui used her lighter to set fire to the papers, creating a makeshift bonfire.

Since there were dry logs in the cabin, keeping the fire going wasn’t difficult.

“Making a fire like this feels like we’re camping! I have beef jerky, should we grill it?”

Yu Dahui took out beef jerky from the bag she had brought.

Yu Dahui was cheerful even in this situation.

Come to think of it, I had never seen Yu Dahui scared.

Does Dahui not fear anything?

Anyway.

We shared the food we had brought.

Jeongseok boiled water in the mess tin he brought, and we all ate cup noodles together. I’m not exaggerating, but it was so delicious I could cry.

I’ll never forget today.

Even in this situation, it’s enjoyable.

That’s when it happened.

“Ugh. Uweeeek-“

Bong Jiyeon started vomiting.

Even while we were all sharing ramen, Bong Jiyeon alone hadn’t eaten anything.

What could be wrong? Jeongseok asked:

“Hey, Bong Jiyeon. What’s wrong?”

“You guys… Don’t you smell anything? This stench!”

Smell?

What smell is she talking about?

I sniffed around.

But apart from the smell of rain, ramen, and a faint smell of pain relief patch, there wasn’t anything I could call a stench. However, Bong Jiyeon was almost on the verge of fainting.

“Actually, I’ve been smelling it since we started climbing the mountain. A really terrible smell. It’s hard to explain what kind of smell it is… I’ve smelled it before, ugh… It’s really strong in this cabin!”

“Hey, is it your sweat smell?”

Yang Juhui asked.

But Bong Jiyeon shook her head.

“No. Can you really not smell this? Ugh… Ah, even breathing through my mouth is reaching its limit.”

I remembered that Bong Jiyeon had been sensitive to smells since halfway up the mountain.

What smell could she be talking about?

Just in case, I sniffed around like a dog.

Then suddenly, an indescribably sharp smell hit my nose.

“Ugh, shit.”

There was a smell.

Really.

A smell was truly reverberating through this cabin.

Why did I only notice it now?

“Ugh.”

It was a smell that made me want to throw up everything I just ate.

As I dry-heaved in the corner, Yang Juhui and Jeongseok also started dry-heaving.

“Fuck, what is this smell really?”

“Ugh… I’m dying. Open all the windows!”

We opened the windows wide to ventilate.

Rain poured in heavily, but we didn’t care.

Among us, only Yu Dahui remained calm.

“……”

Yu Dahui silently made a fist and knocked on the floor.

Knock knock-

Knock knock-

I wondered what she was doing, and noticed there was a spot where a strange sound came from when she knocked.

Thunk thunk-

It sounded as if there was an empty space beyond.

Yu Dahui pulled hard on the carpet covering the floor and discovered a square iron door installed in the floor.

Creak-

The iron door was firmly locked with a padlock.

But Yu Dahui brought a nearby brick and hit the padlock repeatedly until finally, with a clunk, the old padlock opened.

Creeeeak-

Yu Dahui opened the iron door that led to the floor below.

At that moment, black things began crawling up.

Spiders and centipedes.

“Ahhh, shit! Fuck!”

Yang Juhui jumped up and clung to me.

Swarms of spiders and centipedes were gushing out from the floor like a hot spring!

Yang Juhui was almost crazy with fear as she forcibly climbed onto my back, pressing her large chest against my back.

“Spiders! Chase them away! Hurry!”

Chase them away?

The spiders and centipedes showed no interest in us and escaped through the open windows.

Seeing this, Yu Dahui said:

“They’re escaping. After being trapped in there. There must be something down there that the insects are afraid of.”

Yu Dahui, truly fearless, went down the stairs to the basement.

Click-

When she shone her phone light, we could see a rectangular space of about 4 pyeong with red talismans stuck all over. They were red papers with black eye shapes drawn all over them.

It looked as if countless eyes had sprouted on the walls of the room.

And in that room full of talismans, there was a travel suitcase that someone seemed to have abandoned. It was a very large item with wheels, and its zipper was half open.

That was clearly the source of the stench.

“Huk!”

At that moment.

Bong Jiyeon fell backward almost convulsively and began trembling.

Bong Jiyeon’s eyes were filled with fear, and she was sweating profusely.

“That… that…”

Bong Jiyeon seemed to have lost strength in her legs and crawled up to the first floor.

We also felt a chilling sensation and went up to the first floor with Bong Jiyeon.

“That… bo-body… it’s a body… ex-exactly like my sister…”