༺ Seoul Forest Story (4) ༻
The Reaper wore its usual indifferent expression. However, right now, It seemed to have a slightly sour expression. Oddly enough, this familiar sight only reassured me further.
After coming down the stairs, the Reaper frowned at the pig statue in front of it. Now, I was sure that the giant burning steel pig statue really had the power to attract.
After a while, the Reaper scanned its surroundings as if looking for something. When it saw me, it suddenly appeared right in front of me before I could even blink my eyes.
Even though I was well aware that it normally haunted the research institute, I never thought it could do something like this. Seeing how easily it ignored distances and obstacles, I realized that the institute’s containment room was just a formality…
“Reaper, you’ve come!”
I picked up the Reaper and hugged it tightly. Not only was I glad to see it, but also felt a sense of relief, knowing that I would survive now.
The Reaper was not a terrifying being that could bestow death like the public thought, it was actually highly intelligent. So, it was capable of at least informing the research institute of my location and leading them to rescue me.
“I was scared, Reaper. Someone was killed just a few hours ago. She was a woman who played the violin. To think she was killed after she came all the way to a place like this…”
“Can you hear that scream? I don’t know what kind of Object it is, but I know it is terrible..”
The Reaper, nestled in my arms, just raised its head and looked at me. Curiously, the fact that the Reaper was an Object that couldn’t communicate, instead of making it difficult to talk to it, actually made it easier. Oh Yerin claimed that the Reaper understood her words, but I was not too sure about that.
“I think that pig statue is the cause. I became certain that it was a dangerous Object after smelling that delicious aroma. I feel like I’d run to the pig statue if I weren’t trapped in a cage.”
Even now, when I looked at the other prison-like rooms, I could see many people reaching out towards the statue through the bars. They paid no attention to the Reaper’s extraordinary presence, and just stretched out their hand towards the pig statue.
“I want to ask you to call some people to rescue me, but that pig statue is a problem. After all, I have no idea what phenomenon that pig statue causes.”
Before I knew it, the Reaper had shifted its gaze away from me and was looking at the basement’s entrance that was beyond the bars.
‘Is there something there?’
The Reaper, who could not speak and always acted out of curiosity, was in many ways similar to a cat. The Reaper was often curious about occurrences like this, And every single time, it would disappear before long. I should probably ask it to call for help quickly.
“Reaper, will you please call the lab and ask them to rescue me? You can call the people from Sehee Research Institute, can’t you?”
Despite my earnest plea, the Reaper still looked at the entrance.
“Heuk.”
I held my breath as the sound of a heavy stone door being dragged reached my ears. The old man is here! Wait, is it really the old man?
After all, the shadow cast by the flickering lights revealed a strange figure.
A figure whose shadow looked more like a stick insect than a human approached, rustling through the stone dust.
The face of the figure finally became visible,it was clearly the face of the old man who frequented this basement. However, apart from its face, nothing about his body was similar to what I remembered.
The old man’s face dangled from an elongated snake-like neck, looking more like an insect’s appendage than a human head.
What followed the neck, that stretched for over a meter, was a monstrous body that resembled a spider with even longer limbs, crawling on the ground.
I forgot how to breathe at that moment and hugged the Reaper tightly.
What is that, what even is that!
Wha-what should I do?
The old man, who was swinging his neck like a whip to look around him, finally stopped and looked at me. A wide grin stretched across his distorted face.
Help me!
***
There was a suspicious spot that made me wonder why I hadn’t found it before despite thoroughly searching the house and knowing that a basement existed.
The spot had a stone statue which was riddled by scratches, as if it had been opened and closed countless times, and a candlestick that seemed to serve as a switch.
As I hung from the candlestick, the heavy stone statue shifted with a grinding sound, revealing a passage leading to the basement.
As the stone statue moved out of the way, the underground passageway emerged like the gateway to hell. It was a dark passage, filled with the constant echo of a woman’s screams. The screams only solidified my conviction that this really was the place where Sehee was being held captive.
I went down the stairs covered in stone dust, just hoping that those screams weren’t Sehee’s.
When I reached the bottom, the scene that welcomed me was far worse than I expected.
Prison cells were lined up around a giant steel pig statue that was surrounded by piles of black, charred bone fragments.
The most unsettling thing was the smell that filled the basement. Even though it smelled like the aroma of delicious food, I couldn’t quite put my finger on what kind of food it came from.
Normally, if people were to smell a delicious aroma, they would be able to tell what kind of aroma it was. For example, they would know whether it was the smell of a sour fruit or the smell of newly-baked bread, but this smell didn’t have that kind of a specific feeling to it.
This smell was closer to the smell of burnt coal, but given the fact that it felt like a delicious aroma, this seemed to be a phenomenon related to an Object.
Furthermore, a lot of people in the prison cells had seemingly lost their minds. Their eyes were wide open, and they just repeatedly made meaningless gestures towards the pig statue. It just strengthened the suspicions of this phenomenon being the work of an Object.
Fortunately, Sehee was locked up in one of the prison cells. Seeing her genuinely happy expression, it was clear to me that she had gone through hard times. As soon as I entered her cell, she rushed towards me and hugged me tightly.
Sehee held me in her arms, her expression filled with relief. She then recounted what had happened so far and gave her analysis of the current situation.
As I listened to her, I thought about the best course of action to rescue her.
Should I tear open the bars and lead Sehee out?
It’s obvious that once I break the bars, Sehee would also be captivated by the smell of that pig statue. So it’s impossible to take her out. Even now while we were talking, her gaze kept drifting towards the pig statue, so it was clear that she would be unable to resist when there were no bars.
Should I call for help?
It was unclear whether they would be able to defeat the monster man who owned this house. Killing a monster with just cold weapons in the Seoul forest where guns or bombs cannot be used? It would be impossible. Even if it were possible, the best course of action would be to drag another Object to defeat it, but that would simply take too long.
Maybe because I had spent too much time searching the house, or maybe because the thugs outside weren’t enough to stop it, but I suddenly heard the monster man enter the house.
Through the soundproof walls of the basement, faint cries of ‘A rat has come in! A rat!’ could be heard.
I could sense the monster man getting irritated after discovering the footprints I had left behind, so I guess it was only a matter of time before it would rush into the basement.
As I looked toward the entrance, the grinding of stone against stone echoed through the basement. Sehee, startled by the sound while speaking, quickly hugged me as hard as she could.
Light footsteps reverberated through the stairs. Considering that the monster man was over 3 meters tall, its footsteps were surprisingly subtle.
In the dimly lit basement, the shadow of a monstrous figure appeared. It was a grotesquely skinny, mummy-like figure with elongated limbs and neck. As its head appeared in the passage, its twisted features were so bizarre that they startled even me, who had been waiting for it to appear.
Sehee hugged me harder and harder, as if she wanted to squeeze the life out of me. The moment reached its climax when the monster suddenly popped its head towards Sehee, its face contorted with a bizarre smile.
When I peeked from inside her trembling arms, I saw her close her eyes and repeat, ‘It’ll be okay.’
“Ohh, so you are the rat, huh?”
The monster man sneered, revealing rows of teeth as sharp as scythes.
However, when it saw me getting out of Sehee’s arms, its expression became puzzled.
“You!”
The monster’s elongated limbs and neck suddenly shrunk, as if it were trying to hide his head.
“Who are you? Why has an object like you come to a place like this?”
The monster, who had taken the form of an ordinary old man, couldn’t hide his surprise and shouted hysterically.
“Is it her? Are you here because of her? If so, take her out quickly, quickly!”
In this world, there are two kinds of Objects: Objects that feared me and Objects that didn’t. The monster man seemed to belong to the former category—an Object irrationally afraid of me, even when I didn’t do anything.
But this old man, lying down on the floor while waiting for me and Sehee to leave, seemed to be too intelligent to just be scared.
I turned towards Sehee and decided to ask about her opinion at that moment. However, her eyes were full of curiosity, as if her fear of the old man had subsided because of its unexpected behavior.
“Reaper. What did you do? Why is he like that?”
While Sehee made a fuss, a change occurred in the old man’s body who lay sprawled on the floor. His limbs were getting longer as soon as I looked away from it.
Is he trying to surprise me while I can’t see him?
The old man’s arms extended, stretching all the way to my feet.
It was strangely repulsive to watch it grow without making any sound.
Strangely enough, whether it was humans or Objects, they always mistakenly believed that I saw with my eyes, like a human.
