Gaeryong Cabin of Terror #2
It was my first time hiking after getting older. I'd honestly thought it would be easy, but it was way harder than I'd expected.
"Huff, I'm dying. Hey, slow down a bit!" I called out to the group ahead, asking them to adjust their pace. Yang Ju-hui and Bong Jiyeon were practically racing each other up the stairs and over rocks. Both of them were athletic types who loved moving their bodies, so their stride was nothing like mine or Jeong Seok's, who preferred sitting still with a book.
"Hey, Yeong-won. Let's rest for a sec." Even Jeong Seok, who'd been gritting his teeth all the way to the midpoint just to impress Bong Jiyeon, finally collapsed. The two of us dropped onto a boulder halfway up the mountain, and Yu Dahee approached with ion drinks from her bag.
"Tired? Want me to carry your bags too?"
Yu Dahee had kept pace with us, yet she didn't look tired at all. Who knew the girl who got driven to school every day would be this sturdy? I thought she was supposed to be a literature girl. Anyway, we decided to rest at the midpoint. We still had to find that "rock site," after all.
While we were rummaging around the rocks, some middle-aged women in sun visors who looked like they were on their way down called out to us.
"Look at these young kids hiking!"
"Aww, how cute."
"What are those boys doing lying around? Get up and keep going!"
A mixed group of high schoolers hiking on a Saturday morning during finals season really wasn't a common sight. We were probably the only ones doing it. Jeong Seok and I spread out a mat among the women drinking some mystery beverage and ended up getting fed kimbap while casually fishing for information.
"Ma'am, do you know where the rock site is?"
"Rock site? I've heard of the mineral spring, but..."
"Never heard of a rock site... Maybe you mean the cabin?"
"Gaeryong Cabin? Right, there's tons of rocks around the cabin!"
Hikers tended to be nosy in a friendly way. They chatted with strangers and shared food without hesitation. Maybe they were just healthy extroverts. The important thing was that we'd gotten some useful info.
Soon Yang Ju-hui came back down with Bong Jiyeon, who'd gone ahead earlier.
"Hey, why are you guys sprawled out here?"
Yang Ju-hui, with her ridiculous stamina, couldn't understand normal human limits. Even though she'd already gone up high and come back down, she didn't look tired at all. Bong Jiyeon, on the other hand, was clearly struggling.
"Haa... haa..."
Bong Jiyeon couldn't hold back anymore and yanked her windbreaker zipper open, chest heaving. Her eyes flicked toward Yang Ju-hui with a hint of inferiority. We regrouped at the midpoint. It was 10 a.m. The sun wasn't high yet, and the weather was still cool.
"Look! A squirrel!"
On the path toward the cabin, Yu Dahee pointed at a tree. A squirrel was darting around on a branch, its tail flicking wildly from side to side. Yu Dahee looked delighted, like a little kid.
"Look at its stripes! So cute! Think it'll come if I feed it?"
She tore open a small bag of nuts and held it out. The squirrel fearlessly scurried over and picked an almond from her hand. Do animals recognize pretty people too? While I was still surprised, Yang Ju-hui, who'd been walking beside us, suddenly shouted.
"Wah!"
The squirrel bolted at the loud noise. Turns out Yang Ju-hui didn't just chase stray cats—she liked scaring squirrels away too. Maybe she just hated animals in general. Yu Dahee frowned.
"Hey, you made the squirrel run off."
"Don't keep feeding wild animals. Haven't you heard it ruins their instincts?"
Yang Ju-hui smirked, the corner of her mouth curling in that mischievous way. I was reminded once again that she'd been a delinquent. Delinquents were supposed to be rotten. But Bong Jiyeon, another former delinquent, immediately scolded her.
"That crazy bitch. She's always been like this around animals. Total psychopath."
Bong Jiyeon usually took Yu Dahee's side. Rich people really were popular. Everyone liked the rich, after all.
# # #
「700m to Gaeryong Cabin」
The slope was getting steeper, and the nice stairs had disappeared. One wrong step and you'd go tumbling straight down.
"Whoa, these students are tackling the expert course."
"That's what youth is for—suffering while you're young."
The gear on the adults climbing the mountain looked more professional than the earlier group. Jeong Seok, checking his phone, spoke up.
"Looks like the path to the cabin isn't recommended for beginners."
That seemed to be the case. A man in sports sunglasses coming down the mountain must have overheard us.
"You kids heading to the cabin? Nothing there anymore. Gaeryong Cabin closed years ago. Too many accidents, people getting hurt, so they shut it down completely. Won't find anything even if you go."
The cabin was closed? It was shocking news, but in a way it only strengthened our reason for going. A cabin shut down because of frequent accidents...
"This smells."
"What! I didn't even sweat that much! It's not my smell!"
Thud! Bong Jiyeon punched me in the side. It was supposed to be playful, but it hurt like hell. While I was clutching my ribs, the sunglasses guy spoke again.
"If you do go to the cabin, make sure you're down before sunset."
"Why?" Yu Dahee asked.
The man thought for a moment, then answered simply.
"Once it gets dark around here, you can't see a damn thing."
Fair enough. It was still only 10 a.m. We had plenty of time and planned to descend before sunset anyway, so it wasn't a problem. With that, we continued toward Gaeryong Cabin. The trail was rough, so our pace was slow. We probably wouldn't arrive until after 11.
Then Yang Ju-hui spotted something.
"Hey, look at this. There's a metal stake. Isn't this one of those things the Japanese supposedly drove into Korean mountains to cut off their energy? Japanese people are seriously shady."
She frowned, then snickered. I'd heard stories about stakes in mountains too, like urban legends. But Jeong Seok shook his head.
"I've heard that's just an exaggerated rumor. Supposedly they're leftover survey stakes from after the Korean War, not from the Japanese colonial period. This is probably the same thing. Construction waste."
He yanked the stake out like he was showing off for Bong Jiyeon. It came out surprisingly easily—about 1.5 meters of rusted metal—and something about it felt off.
"What the hell is this?"
Wrapped tightly around the sharp end were what looked like pieces of paper. I spotted strange writing all over them. Talismans. Someone had covered the stake with talismans and driven it into the ground. It was bizarre. Yu Dahee, who'd been quiet from exhaustion, suddenly cried out in alarm.
"Put it back! Right now!"
"O-okay."
Startled by Yu Dahee raising her voice for once, Jeong Seok quickly shoved the stake back into the hole. But for some reason it wouldn't go in the way it had been before. It wouldn't sink deep at all.
Clang! Clang-clang!
"...It's not going back in?"
Jeong Seok looked genuinely flustered. Yu Dahee spoke with a serious expression.
"I read about this in a feng shui book. There's a ritual where you drive pillars into cursed land to sever its energy. This must be one of those. You should never pull something like this out carelessly."
Jeong Seok's face went pale in seconds. He was a coward, after all. Caw, caw, caw, caw—suddenly the crows started crying. A chill ran down my spine.
"Jeong Seok! Let's put it back! Hurry! Hammer it in!"
Jeong Seok and I struggled to drive the stake back down, but it felt like we'd need a giant mallet. It wouldn't go in even 30 centimeters, like there were rocks everywhere underground. The ground itself was rejecting the stake.
...The rock site!
The words flashed through my mind. Yu Dahee's face was colder than I'd ever seen it.
"I don't know for sure, but that stake definitely has some kind of ritual meaning. Since we pulled out a stake driven into cursed land, a normal method might not work..."
Oh, shit... Did we just get cursed or something? That bastard Jeong Seok! While I was thinking that, someone shouted at us.
"You brats! What do you think you're doing? What the hell are you doing?! Aigoo, this is bad! This is really bad!"
I turned to see a man standing there. He wore an expensive-looking hiking outfit and held two golden rods in his hands. They looked like dowsing rods for finding underground water veins.
"Aigoo, you kids! What are you doing pulling out pillars like that?!"
"...Who are you, sir?" I asked.
The man answered.
"Me? They call me Dr. Ji. More importantly, what were you thinking pulling that out?! Don't they teach you in school not to touch other people's things? Especially things with talismans on them!"
His voice was grating. He pulled talismans and a bell from his pocket, shook the bell, and lit the talismans on fire.
"I'll do a temporary suppression ritual, so all of you give me money! I don't do this for free! There has to be a price, or the ritual won't have any power!"
Money? He wanted money? While Jeong Seok and I were digging through our pockets, Yang Ju-hui clicked her tongue.
"Suppression ritual, my ass. Hey, you guys. Are you really that weak? Give it here!"
She snatched the stake from our hands and drove it straight into the hole. What Jeong Seok and I couldn't manage no matter how hard we tried slid in easily under her grip. We were shocked. So was Yu Dahee. Even Dr. Ji looked stunned.
"Whoa, that's impressive. Miss, you must have shaman blood. The ground around here is so spiritually hard that they call it the rock site. Even the old Gaeryong shrine shaman supposedly struggled when driving these stakes."
Dr. Ji grabbed Yang Ju-hui's hand and examined her palm. She yanked it away in disgust, and he looked even more surprised.
"Whoa. I've never seen palm lines this full of killing intent before. If you'd been born a man, you'd have the hands of a general who could become president. But as a woman... I've only seen something similar once in my life. Student, what's your mother's or grandmother's name?"