episode_0006

A night covered in thick darkness.

The yard of a shaman’s house with a flag fluttering in the wind.

It’s already a gloomy atmosphere, but the only people here now are children.

“Joohyuk sits in the yard. All you have to do is sit straight on the mat over there.”

“Ah, okay.”

From the moment he came out of the shrine, Joo-hyuk seemed to start feeling sick again.

Joo-hyuk, whose complexion was not good, did as Sarah instructed and sat down on the mat with his butt down.

“Jinwoo. You are holding on to Joo Hyuk. All you have to do is hold on to Joo-hyuk so he can’t move while the object bite is in progress.”

“Okay.”

I walked up to Joo-hyuk and tightly held his shoulder as he sat down. Then Sarah brought a bowl full of soybean paste soup and placed it near Joohyuk. The smell of savory soybean paste soup wafted out and tickled the tip of my nose.

Kitchen knife.

Smelly miso soup.

These were all items needed when biting off a ghost.

“Sera, let me ask you something. Are you trying to stimulate the ghost possessed by Joo-hyuk with the smell of soybean paste soup? Because ghosts are usually hungry, they are fascinated by the smell of food.”

“That’s right.”

“The kitchen knife is used to drive away irritated ghosts. You spin the kitchen knife above your head and throw it towards the front door, right?”

“That’s correct. Do you know much about biting an object? I guess I heard a lot about it somewhere?”

Biting an object.

It was a ritual to irritate a ghost with the smell of food and scare it away by threatening it with a kitchen knife. As expected, the moment the ritual began, Joo-hyuk, who had been possessed by the ghost, responded.

“I’m hungry.”

Joo-hyuk, who smelled the soybean paste soup, suddenly muttered to himself.

However, Joo-hyuk’s voice was completely different from usual.

“I’m hungry… .”

Joo-hyuk’s voice became thinner, as if he was imitating a woman. Joo-hyuk, who always had a rough voice, suddenly started imitating a woman. It was creepy, but there was no time to be scared.

Because right now, Joo-hyuk was about to throw his head towards the soybean paste soup in front of him.

━━Poof!

I quickly grabbed Joo-hyuk’s neck. He put his arm around his neck to prevent Joo-hyuk from touching the soybean paste soup. Anyway, my role was to catch Joo-hyuk.

“Hold on tight!”

Sarah shouted sharply and brought the kitchen knife close to Joo-hyuk’s head. The moment a kitchen knife was pointed in front of him, Joo-hyuk started screaming and struggling. The scream he was making now was also an imitation of a woman.

“Aaaa!!”

Joo-hyuk’s screams imitating a woman rang out in the yard.

Sarah twirled the kitchen knife above Joo-hyuk’s head. I don’t know how many times my heart sank every time I turned the kitchen knife in a circular motion. The eerily shining kitchen knife narrowly grazed Joo-hyuk’s head.

“Go away! No, if you leave, I will slit your head with a large knife and throw you away!”

A whopping 10 times.

This was the number of times Sera turned the kitchen knife while reciting the spell to defeat an evil spirit. All this time, I felt like I was dying holding on to Joo Hyuk. Since the child was already very large, it was difficult to hold him for a long time.

“Go away!”

The act of twirling the kitchen knife is over. Sarah threw the kitchen knife towards the wide open gate. The kitchen knife flew in a parabola and snapped! It fell on the yard while making a sound.

“Keep holding on! You have to throw the knife again.”

You have to throw the knife again.

A successful attack was only possible if the knife on the ground was pointing towards the gate. If it was pointing in a different direction, it meant that the possession had not yet been lifted. The first kitchen knife Sarah threw was pointing toward the inside of the house.

━━Hwiik!

Sarah retrieved the fallen kitchen knife and threw it toward the front door again. This time, the kitchen knife pointed in the wrong direction. Even though he was clearly trying to point towards the gate, his direction was changed by an unknown force.

“That’s it! I threw it right!”

This was when the process of retrieving and throwing the kitchen knife was repeated five times.

Finally, the kitchen knife bouncing on the ground pointed precisely toward the gate.

“Huhhh… !!”

At that moment, Joo-hyuk, who had been imitating a woman, finally came to his senses. Finally, my original voice came back and I stopped struggling. Of course, I haven’t relaxed yet. I couldn’t tell with my own eyes exactly how the situation was going.

Has the possession been lifted or is it still there?

I had to ask Sarah directly about seeing ghosts.

“Sera! What happened to the guest?”

“Joo Hyuk kicked it out of my body. The attack was successful.”

“Well, then it’s all over? It means that the possession has been lifted.”

The possession has been lifted.

So does that mean the exorcism is over?

The yard, which had been noisy due to the sound of swords and screams, became deathly quiet.

The yard was filled with silence, as if everything had ended.

It was when I took my hand off Joo-hyuk’s body and felt relieved.

Sarah, who was staring blankly at the front door, suddenly spoke.

“The possession has been lifted, but it seems too early to be at ease.”

“What, what?”

“We chased away the ghost. However, there is no guarantee that the evicted ghost will not return. Because biting a ghost is, after all, a ‘ritual to scare spirits.’”

A ritual that scares you?

When I thought about it, biting a ghost was not a ritual that extinguished spirits. It was just a ritual to scare them away. This means that if the fearful guest who was kicked out harbors a malicious heart, he can return to this house at any time.

“Are you saying the guest is coming back?”

“I hear it coming back. I think it’s coming towards us. You’d better be mentally prepared. This time, the ghost will definitely appear in front of us.”

In the dark yard, Sarah looked at the wide open gate and spoke briefly.

“Ghosts are coming.”

At that moment, the iron gate rattled violently. A strong wind blew, causing the trees near the house to shake eerily. I couldn’t calm down as I stared at the front door. So doesn’t that mean that a ghost will appear before our eyes now?

ghost.

Until just three weeks ago, ghosts looked like pitch black shapes to my eyes. Because the ear gates were still closed, it was impossible to see the ghost clearly. I thought it would end with me seeing the same pitch-black shape this time.

The prediction was wrong.

That night I saw a ghost straight in the eye. I ended up seeing a ghost, not just a pitch-black figure.

━━Tap!

A girl could be seen beyond the wide open gate.

It was a girl with a terrible appearance, with broken arms and legs.

It’s not like it’s standing still. The girl had turned over and was crawling on the ground with her bent limbs.

“Ah, ahhh… !”

That was the appearance of a ghost.

Her face was the same as Eunseo, who died 10 years ago.

I never thought I would see the true form of a ghost here.

It felt like the ear gates in my body had opened a little. It was thanks to experiencing psychic phenomena next to Sarah.

I was more nervous than ever.

I didn’t even have time to express my thoughts.

━━Sleep! widely! Slurp! widely!

The girl ghost immediately crawled on the ground and entered the yard. The sight of it turning over and crawling towards us, dragging its back, was truly fantastic.

“Jinwoo.”

At that time, Sarah called me.

“There is a way to completely chase away ghosts. Just pick up the kitchen knife again and scare them while reciting a spell. If you scare the ghost enough to feel fear, you will be able to chase it away.”

“You mean I can scare you with a kitchen knife?”

“The fact that he came back to my house means he’s not scared yet.”

Sarah pointed to a kitchen knife that had fallen in the middle of the yard.

And then, unexpected words came from Sarah’s mouth.

“Why don’t you try scaring the ghost once?”

me?

Are you telling me to scare the ghosts when they see me? I was very nervous because this was the first ghost I had ever seen in my life.

“Yes, you can do it, right?”

“Of course I can do it. But you said you wanted to see a ghost. If you want to see ghosts, don’t you also have to know how to exorcise them?”

If you want to see ghosts, you have to know how to exorcise them?

If you think about it carefully, this is true. If you go around seeing ghosts without the ability to exorcise them, it would be perfect to die.

“What do you want to do?”

Sarah looked at me and smiled.

“You’d better decide quickly. Are you going to step forward yourself, or are you a coward and leave everything to me?”

“Ugh… !”

Sarah was right next to me urging me on. There was no time to hesitate. Even during this time, the girl ghost was crawling towards Joo-hyuk at high speed. The girl ghost has not yet given up on having Joo-hyuk as her companion in the underworld.

“Okay! I can do it!”

I hated being a coward. I clenched my teeth and ran forward. I picked up the kitchen knife that had fallen and aimed it at the girl ghost crawling around the yard.

“Mm, stop! No, this is not it! Go away! No, if you leave, I will slit your head with a large knife and throw you away!”

I recited the spell as I was told, but the girl ghost did not stop crawling.

Before I knew it, the girl ghost came near me.

While breaking out in a cold sweat, I instinctively swung the kitchen knife towards the girl ghost. But it was a meaningless action. The kitchen knife I swung just passed through the girl’s ghost like a phantom.

“Ka, the knife just passed through!”

The kitchen knife passed through the girl’s ghost’s body in vain. Even though I cut my body, there is no feeling at all, as if I was cutting through thin air. Sarah, who was watching from behind, shouted to me.

“Of course I will pass because I am a ghost! It’s not swords that scare ghosts! It’s the energy of the person holding the sword! Shout out the spell as if you’re really going to kill me!”

It was complicated, but what Sarah asked of me was clear.

The purpose was to scare the ghost with a spirit that seemed like it would kill him, with a sincere desire to live.

━━Let’s play together! let’s play together!

In the blink of an eye, the girl ghost came right in front of Joo-hyuk.

The girl ghost grabbed Joo-hyuk’s arm with a blood-covered hand.

“Ugh!”

Joo-hyuk, who was caught by the arm while trying to run away, screamed. If I left it alone, I would be possessed again. What happened at the crosswalk today flashed through my mind.

The sound of a truck horn blaring loudly.

Me and Joo-hyuk almost died on the crosswalk.

The moment I remembered what happened, anger surged through my head. I couldn’t bear it because I hated that ghost who almost killed a person and still behaved viciously.

“Park Eun-seo… !”

I called the ghost’s name. Only then did the girl ghost turn her head and look at me.

“If you harbor resentment and become a ghost, just disappear into the underworld! Do you think you can do anything? Because I died because I harbored resentment! Do you think it’s okay to harass living people at will? You bastard who ate this concept!”

The girl ghost stopped shaking Joohyuk. Then he continued to look at me with an expressionless face. It was a creepy sight, but I didn’t back down. Rather, he shouted in a voice filled with evil.

“Go away! No, if you leave, I will slit your head with a large knife and throw you away!”

Whether you are a grudge-bearing ghost or something else, you have no right to go around killing people at will. Are you so deep in resentment that you can’t leave this world? So what should I do! Why do we have to suffer helplessly like dead people’s toys?

He approached the girl ghost and aimed the kitchen knife in his hand.

After reciting the spell to the end, I looked at the girl ghost. This time, the spell worked because it was filled with the right emotions. The expressionless face of the ghost slowly distorted.

I could feel it at that moment.

That this ghost was scared.

He was frightened by my energy holding the knife.

I made eye contact with the terrified ghost and spoke softly.

“Get away from my friend right now. Before I kill you.”