Chapter 27 :

<27>

"Su, surely this isn’t some kind of movie shoot, right?"

"Do, don’t talk nonsense."

Although Kim Sung-ju said that, he simply couldn’t believe the unbelievable scene unfolding before his eyes.

"We shouldn’t be standing around like this—we should call the police! Damn it, it’d be stranger if they didn’t think I was crazy!"

Muttering like that, Kim Sung-ju picked up his phone. But at that moment, ‘it’ changed first. Its body suddenly bubbled like the surface of boiling water—then burst.

“Ah!”

Such an absurd thing happened that a foolish sound slipped from Kim Sung-ju’s mouth as he held up his phone. The creature that had slaughtered so many people suddenly exploded.

Fortunately—if it could be called fortunate—the monster wasn’t dead. It had merely burst the blood from its body. Now much smaller than before, it had shrunk to almost human size. For a moment, the monster wore a sorrowful expression and looked down at its own body.

"Ah, AAAAAARGH!"

An intense thirst returned. No matter how much it consumed, it returned to the same state. A thirst that felt as if it would split its throat apart, and a hunger like a hole being drilled through its stomach. The agony was too violent to put into words.

"UAAAAAAH!"

‘It’ suddenly screamed and leapt into the river. In the end, Kim Sung-ju could do nothing but stand there blankly with his phone in hand until ‘it’ disappeared into the currents of the Han River.

* * *

A gray Pride stopped in front of the old U.S. military warehouse. Originally white, the car was so caked in grime that one had to wonder if it had ever been washed since leaving the factory, naturally prompting onlookers to check the driver’s face.

The man who stepped out of the Pride was a middle-aged man wearing a worn beret. Though he looked like someone who did day labor at construction sites, worn down by life, his skin was strangely pale.

He shut the car door and strode into the warehouse.

"Hey. Thought you were dead since you hadn’t shown up in so long."

The old man smoking in front of the warehouse greeted him familiarly. The middle-aged man glared at the old man and tapped his bag twice.

"Looks like you’re still alive without going senile."

"If I went senile, a lot of people would lose out. So, what did you bring today?"

"Something good."

The middle-aged man replied in a sarcastic tone and went inside. With the power completely off, the warehouse was pitch-dark without a trace of light. But when the old man followed and flipped the switch, a mercury lamp flickered on with a high-pitched whine. Revealed under the dim light were several fairly large machines.

"No customers lately, so I had the power off. You, and Jeong-jun too—business has been slow these days."

"Hm. Then it’ll take some time to get it on standby."

Unlike home appliances, this machine did not start running immediately just because the power was turned on. As the old man prepared to check it, he raised his hand and pointed to the office beside the warehouse.

"While you wait, sit in the office and make some coffee."

"You think I’m some coffee shop waitress?"

"You don’t look like a waitress—you look like a construction plasterer. Don’t say things like that. It’s horrifying, truly horrifying."

The old man shook his head exaggeratedly while inspecting the machine. The middle-aged man then walked toward the office. Even calling it an office was generous—it was a modest room with only a desk, a built-in cabinet, a field cot, and a 14-inch rotary television across from it.

"They say a moment’s choice determines ten years? Guess it’s about time to retire."

The middle-aged man muttered an old Goldstar advertising slogan as he turned on the TV. Light filled the dark room. The first thing heard was the rapid speech of an excited male reporter.

"This is insane!"

The beret-wearing middle-aged man glared at the TV as if he might smash it at any moment. On the old television casting a bluish glow inside the dark building, a pale-faced reporter frantically explained the situation.

In the background behind him, the riverside park along the Han River was stained with dark crimson blotches. Though only blackened bloodstains were visible beyond the small screen, it was enough to imagine how horrific the incident had been.

"Damn it!"

He ground his teeth. The tragedy on the screen was not something a human could commit.

'But such open slaughter?'

One of the unspoken rules all vampires kept was to conceal that they were vampires. At night, they were indistinguishable from humans, and that was precisely what separated them from mere monsters. Like needles hidden in a haystack, they concealed their identities among humans and freely carried out blood-drinking—that was the nature of vampires.

But if they roamed the city like mindless beasts, sucking the blood of everyone they saw and devouring them, they would simply be exposed as blood-drinking monsters and killed by humans.

Then what could have caused such an act? Proper vampires would never do such a thing, and even an outsider cut off from the group would not act without thought. A naturally occurring vampire? Yet from the reporter interviewing survivors, they claimed to have seen a gigantic monster. A vampire that transforms into a monster? Then again, if vampires exist, it would be unreasonable to assume there are no werewolves or other creatures.

"Whatever it is, we can’t just let this slide."

The middle-aged man muttered with a hardened expression and sat on the field cot. At that moment, the old man appeared at the entrance.

"Hey, Deok-yeon. The machine’s ready. Hm? What’s this?"

"Ah, old man. Take a look at that. What do you think it is?"

Song Deok-yeon showed him the carnage displayed on the TV. The old man shook his head.

"A vampire."

"How can you be so sure?"

Song Deok-yeon asked with a probing look at the old man who had drawn such a simple conclusion. The old man shrugged.

"What else could a monster like that be, if not a vampire?"

"That may be true. But won’t this become a big problem?"

"It will. A big one. All the vampire hunters in Korea might come swarming in. There’ll probably be vampires trying to handle it among themselves too."

"The military and police will show up too. What a mess. Crazy bastard. What the hell is that thing doing? If it wanted to die, it should’ve died quietly on its own, why…"

Song Deok-yeon trailed off with a troubled expression, then suddenly raised his head as something occurred to him.

"Well, that’s that… shall we talk business?"

Old Ju said so and extended his hand to Song Deok-yeon.

* * *

After changing into his work clothes in the employee break room, Kim Sung-ju checked the time. There was still plenty of time left. After the horrific incident yesterday, he’d been out of sorts—but perhaps because of that, he had slept surprisingly well. He came out to the worksite, adjusted his cap, and checked the upper pocket of his work uniform. As expected, the cigarettes he’d left yesterday were still there.

"Whew. Maybe I’ll smoke one."

He put a cigarette in his mouth and stepped outside the building. Just then, he saw Se-gun entering the parking lot.

"Huh?"

Right before his eyes, Se-gun’s bike smoothly turned and came to a stop at the front of the lot. The blue off-road bike was a Honda XR-250. He had definitely been riding an RX-125 before, so Kim Sung-ju could tell the motorcycle had changed overnight.

"Hey. Changed your bike?"

"Ah, yeah. Bought a new one. It’s not registered yet, but… it should be fine."

Se-gun removed his helmet and shook his hair once. The blue Honda XR-250 had been bought with cash at the used market, but it ran beautifully, suggesting it had been well maintained. Se-gun parked the bike and headed to the break room to change into his work clothes.

In truth, now that he had earned a large sum of money, there was no need for him to come out for work like this for the time being. But even as a part-timer, he needed to fill out at least a month; otherwise, he was worried it might cause trouble. Watching the section chief’s behavior made him wonder why he should even care, but Se-gun was not the type to easily neglect his responsibilities.

"Ah, I was at the riverside park yesterday."

Kim Sung-ju glanced at Se-gun’s face as he spoke, but Se-gun showed little reaction. Even though the entire city of Seoul was in an uproar over the incident, Se-gun had no interest in newspapers or broadcasts, so he still hadn’t heard about it.

"Huh? The riverside? Why?"

Frustrated by Se-gun’s response, Kim Sung-ju thumped his chest.

"Hey! You didn’t even watch TV yesterday? It’s absolute chaos right now!"

"Huh? Ah, sorry. I really didn’t see it."

Se-gun answered like that and came out wearing his work clothes. Kim Sung-ju then eagerly explained what had happened the day before.

"You punk. A whole bunch of people died yesterday. Right in front of my eyes! Just thinking about it makes it hard to swallow food even now. Ugh…"

"Then starve to death. So… what was it? Someone spray people with a machine gun at the riverside or something?"

As he slipped cotton work gloves onto his hands, Se-gun asked in a teasing tone. Kim Sung-ju spread his arms wide like a child and spoke excitedly.

"Not that—a monster! A huge humanoid monster pounced on people like a rabid dog!"

Even as he spoke, Kim Sung-ju shook his head as if his teeth were chattering. It was fortunate he hadn’t seen it clearly while fleeing on his inline skates; if he had directly witnessed the monster devouring a human, it wouldn’t have ended with merely losing his appetite.

“……”

Se-gun’s expression suddenly hardened. Misreading that look, Kim Sung-ju hurried to add more explanation.

"Hey, I know I sound insane. Damn it! If someone said this in front of me, I’d think they were crazy too, so don’t look at me like that! I’m serious! I almost wish I were crazy!"

"No… I believe you."

"Ah, what I’m saying is… huh?"

Sung-ju was instead taken aback that Se-gun believed him so easily. Se-gun shrugged.

"So. Where did the monster go?"

"Th-that, I don’t know."

"Damn. That’s bad."

Se-gun clenched his teeth, recalling the habits of vampires he had learned from Song Deok-yeon. If something made such a public spectacle, the vampires themselves would not simply let it go. If there was an unspoken rule between vampire hunters and vampires, it was that both lived in the shadows. Under no circumstances could the conflict between vampires and hunters surface openly. That monster had blatantly shattered that rule.

‘Well, someone like me—a beginner—won’t need to step in, right?’

Se-gun thought about the bloodstains he had seen in the alley near Uijeongbu Station.

‘From the Han River to Uijeongbu… that’s too far.’

Vampires could ride subways or buses after sunset, so their range of movement was hard to predict. But this one was in monster form. Even if it could transform, it would likely remain near the area where the incident occurred. However, Se-gun’s thoughts halted the moment he saw a truck entering the gate.

"Damn."

Regretting why he had come here despite having already made plenty of money, Se-gun pressed the conveyor belt’s power switch.

* * *

The city was being dyed red by the sunset. Was it because it sensed the sun falling? ‘It’ opened its eyes.

"Krgh!"

Rising slowly, it looked around. Two gas cylinders were stacked nearby, along with a dust-covered oil stove, a chipped baduk board, and various clutter. It seemed to be the basement of some building.

‘Come to think of it… was this the basement of a senior center?’

‘It’ groped through its hazy memories.

Suddenly, the image of a human corpse surfaced in its mind. The sensation was so vivid it felt as if someone had torn the body apart and thrown it at him. The disgust of having its entire body bathed in the blood of a human split in two—no, beyond disgust, a terror that surpassed it—coiled around ‘it’.

"Krghhhhhh!"

But the scene flashing through its mind—wasn’t that pitiful human someone it had killed itself? Remembering the previous night when it had slaughtered and devoured humans with its own hands, it clawed at its hair and howled.

"Khgh!"

More than revulsion, fear surged through it. All living beings must continually consume something to survive. Grass, insects, meat… and of course, among that meat were humans. No— for ‘it’, humans were practically a staple food.

Though the thought of human flesh made its body tremble with disgust, saliva inevitably pooled in its mouth. Then ‘it’ condemned itself for desiring humans—no, for desiring blood and human flesh—and sank into even deeper loathing. Yet that thought always shifted from ‘hatred toward oneself for eating human flesh’ to ‘human flesh’ itself.

Red saliva dripped from ‘its’ jaw. At that moment, the sunset faintly hanging in the western sky completely vanished into darkness. Night had begun.

"Krghhh!"

‘It’ rose to its feet. The rational mind that had despised itself until the sun went down vanished without a trace, replaced by the sinister desires of the night that once again dominated its consciousness.

‘It’ smashed through the door and burst upward.

Thud!

But the moment ‘it’ burst out, it collapsed beside the senior center building under the pale glow of a mercury lamp. As if waiting for that exact moment, a sharp, hardened projectile pierced through ‘its’ throat.

"Kaaagh!"

Slumped beneath the mercury light, ‘it’ clawed at its own throat with its nails to pull out the embedded shard. Crimson blood gushed out uncontrollably.