Chapter 20: The Shaman’s offer

What was going on? I woke up in an unfamiliar room.

“…Ugh…”

My head spun. I couldn’t process my surroundings.

“Huh…?”

Something brushed against my hand on the bed.

“…Clothes…?”

A jacket. Familiar. Like I’d worn it many times.

“…My jacket…?”

I remembered. The jacket I’d lost. At the bar.

“…What…?”

I looked around…

“… “

…and froze. My entire body locked up. My eyes darted around the room, taking in the…

“…What the…”

…photos. My photos. Covering every wall, the ceiling… Not just scattered, but meticulously arranged, organized by year, like some kind of… shrine.

“…This isn’t funny…”

I curled up on the bed, a shiver running down my spine. The room radiated a chilling aura of obsession. Fear gripped me.

“……”

I looked for a door, a way out, but…

“…What the…”

…the room was windowless, lit by a single dim bulb, the walls closing in, suffocating me. There was no door, no escape.

“… “

My legs trembled, refusing to cooperate. I sat there, huddled on the bed, paralyzed by fear.

Slide

“…Haa…”
“Aaaaaaaaaah!!!”

Someone brushed my hair aside, their breath hot against my neck.

Crash

“Ow! What—?! When did you—?!”

Hyeji. She’d been crouching behind me, silent, unseen.

“…I’ve been here a while. Since before you woke up.”
“…What… What is all this…?”

I scrambled back, putting distance between us, my eyes wide with fear.

“…Why… Why are you doing this…?”

Why the photos? Why this room? Why kidnap me? Was this… was this what everything had been leading to?

“I told you.”

My legs trembled, threatening to give way. Hyeji stood up, walking towards me.

“…It was too hard.”

She knelt beside the bed, her hand covering mine.

“…Waiting for you… wanting you… hoping you’d forget and move on, that you’d welcome me back with open arms, with new memories…”

She leaned closer, her body hovering over mine.

“…I couldn’t wait.”
“…What… are you talking about…?”

Her gaze was intense, predatory.

“…Don’t you understand? I still like you. I want you. I want to smother you with my love…”
“Ugh…”

She gripped my arms tightly.

Flop

“How could I live without seeing this cute face? Without smelling your sweet scent…?”
“Sob…!”

She pushed me down onto the bed, her face close to my neck, inhaling my scent.

“…I’ve wanted you since… since I first saw you… At first, it was just… infatuation… Then affection… Then love… Now… I don’t know…”
“………”

Terror choked me, my face numb, my eyes unable to meet hers.

“…For five years… I’ve been obsessed with having you… While I was away from you… I almost went crazy…”

She seemed to have gathered her thoughts. Her voice softened, her face drawing closer.

“…No…”

She leaned in, as if to bite my neck.

“…I think I am crazy.”

She pinned my legs with hers, her hands gripping my waist and the back of my neck.

“…Ugh…”

Grab

I blocked her. I had to.

“…Please… Hyeji… I’m begging you…”

Tears streamed down my face, my vision blurring. I was terrified.

“Let… Let go of me… Please…”

I needed to escape. Hyeji wasn’t safe anymore. No, she’d never been safe. I’d been fooling myself, thinking she was. I should have pushed her away, kept her at arm’s length. This was my fault, my weakness.

But…

Squeeze

“Hngh…!”
“…You…”

Hyeji wasn’t letting go.

“…You’re pushing me away again…”
“It hurts! Hyeji, my back…! Ahh…!”

Her grip on my waist and neck tightened.

“…I’m not going to hesitate anymore… I know… I can’t have you with… that innocent affection…”
“Ugh… Ahh…!”

I couldn’t escape. Like an ant trapped in a spiderweb, I was caught, helpless, waiting for the inevitable.

Release

“Haa…”
“…If you want to push me away… go ahead.”

She let go.

“…No one knows where you are. And you know… who you need to impress right now…”

She gestured towards a photo on the wall. A photo of me crying. She pressed it.

Click

And then she left.

“…Haa… Haa…”

I touched my neck, where her hand had been, and slowly sat up.

“……”

This was wrong. I had to escape. If I left now, Hyeji would be waiting. Or maybe she was watching me, like in those photos.

I didn’t know what she was thinking anymore, but I…

“…Ugh…”

…I was terrified of her. I felt like she was squeezing the life out of me.

I had to get away.

****

“…Help me.”
“…Still as helpless as ever, I see.”

The fox, trapped in her non-human form, stood before the shaman, unable to cross the threshold.

“…I had no choice.”
“You always say that, you incompetent, murderous fox.”

The shaman stood outside the gate, her gaze fixed on the fox.

“…”

The fox glared at the shaman, who simply smirked, twirling her gohei.

“…I should have exorcised you long ago. But I owed you a debt…”
“…”

The fox’s tail drooped, her head bowed.

“…Saving my daughter once… How many times are you going to—… Haa… Nevermind… Which human child have you entangled yourself with this time…?”
“…How is she?”

The fox asked.

“…Running a small fortune-telling shop. She’s older than me now… A sad sight, really.”
“…I envy your agelessness.”

The shaman glared at the fox.

“…You’re immortal yourself, so don’t complain.”
“Let’s not fight amongst ourselves, shall we?”

The small talk continued, until…

“…Are you really going to save her?”
“…”

The shaman asked.

“Wouldn’t she be better off… broken by that girl, than with you…?”
“Shut up.”

The fox snarled.

“…I said… shut up…”
“…I didn’t say anything.”

The fox’s head remained bowed, her mind seemingly elsewhere.

“…I… I know…”
“…”

She finally spoke.

“…I know… I need to… consume human lives… to survive…”

The unavoidable truth. To live as a spirit, she had to kill.

“…So you finally admit you’re a monster.”

To keep the ones she loved by her side, she had to take their lives.

“…You selfish fox.”
“…”

Yet, she still craved love.

“Your selfishness has already ruined so many lives. My daughter… and that nameless girl… And it will ruin this one too.”
“…”

The fox remained silent, her head bowed.

“You should have known your limits. You’re not just foolish, you’re reckless.”

“…That’s why I saved your daughter.”
“…You ungrateful wretch.”

The fox brought up the Spirit War, decades ago.

“…Those fools brought it upon themselves—”
“Tell that to my daughter.”

The Spirit World, a reflection of the human world. The shaman’s daughter, destined to follow in her mother’s footsteps… The radical Exorcism Faction, determined to cleanse the world of spirits, even their own kind, to enrich the human world… A devastating war that left countless spirits dead, including the exorcists themselves.

“…It was luck.”
“…Don’t make me repeat myself.”

The fox had saved the shaman’s daughter from the spirits who wanted to sever her connection to the Spirit World.

“…How is the mirror?”
“Shattered. That’s why we’re here.”

The war had ended with the destruction of the Spirit World. The surviving spirits, forced into the human world, were cursed, struggling to adapt.

“…Couldn’t it be repaired?”
“…That foolish girl…”

The shaman had sacrificed herself to free her daughter from the path of a shaman, allowing her to live a human life. But the shaman, unable to forget, unable to die, was cursed to wander the human world, guiding lost spirits, forever separated from her daughter.

“…Enough. This is going too far. You’ll kill that child.”
“…It’s your fault.”

The shaman had never intended to refuse the fox’s plea. They were bound by a shared past.

“…Is there… a way… this time?”
“…I don’t know.”

The shaman asked if there was a way for the fox to be with Semin without killing her.

“… “

The fox hesitated, then…

“…I couldn’t see the future.”
“… “

She spoke,

“…I couldn’t see… what would happen to Semin… if she stayed with me… There was nothing…”
“… “

The shaman listened intently.

“…Perhaps…”
“You think… her presence might neutralize the curse?”

The shaman understood.

“But you were planning to kill her anyway, weren’t you?”
“… “

The fox’s intentions were clear.

“I know a thing or two about having someone you love stolen from you.”
“…You know, and yet…”

The shaman smiled.

“Yes, I’ll help you.”
“……..”

The fox was surprised. They’d tried this before, decades ago, and failed.

“…Did you know… a part of my daughter’s spirit resides within that child?”
“…What…?”

The shaman revealed a painful truth.

“When I severed my daughter’s connection to the Spirit World… a fragment of her spirit broke off… I only recently realized it… but… it was Semin.”

“You’ve fallen in love with the same child again, you foolish fox.”
“…Haa…”

And then the shaman offered a solution.

“So I’ll lend you my strength. It’s been a while since I stretched my legs… Use that girl, the one who stole your Semin, as a sacrifice.”
“…What…?”

A way to neutralize the curse, perhaps.

“Offer your last kill in exchange for your Semin’s life.”
“… “

A single, desperate gamble.

“…Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet.”

The shaman wasn’t finished.

“…You need to find her… before it’s too late…”

There was still one crucial hurdle to overcome.

“…If you want her to survive.”