The Horror Mountain Lodge #3
Dr. Ji clicked his tongue as he examined Yang Ju-hui's palm. The chance to freely touch a pretty high school girl's hand. I probably would've clicked my tongue too if it were me. I should try reading my girlfriend's palm later just to hold her hand. Right as that thought crossed my mind, Yang Ju-hui yanked her hand away.
"Ah, get lost. Seriously."
Yang Ju-hui made no effort to hide her disgust, but Yu Da-hee, on the other hand, looked intrigued.
"Uncle, are you a feng shui master? Or a shaman?"
Yu Da-hee had an unusual interest in feng shui for someone her age. Dr. Ji soon let out a low chuckle.
"Nah. Nothing that grand. I just wander around the country, check the land, perform rituals, and read graves for a living. Anyway, students—don't go touching the talismans on this mountain carelessly."
Dr. Ji scolded us. He seemed to enjoy talking and kept spilling unnecessary details.
"This Gaeryong, you see, is actually land where people can't live. There's an enormous spiritual water vein flowing beneath it. It's like building a house on the ocean. That's why only Subway Line 1 could be built here, and why people keep disappearing or dying."
Hong Miri had also mentioned that Yeongji High sat on a spiritual water vein. But according to Dr. Ji, it wasn't just the school—the entire city of Gaeryong was built over a massive water vein.
"Still, back when there was a proper local shaman, these incidents happened less often. But you..."
Dr. Ji's gaze shifted toward me.
"You look familiar."
"...Me?"
He quickly grabbed my hand. Was he trying to read my palm?
"Student, what's your name?"
"I'm... Ha Yeong-won."
"Oh dear. Oh dear. I don't know whether it was your father or mother, but they gave you the wrong name. A wrong name brings loss. Is your name really Ha Yeong-won?"
"...Yes?"
"Or what—have you ever thought about changing it? I do naming too. I'll give you a discount. Names are important, you know. These days, even nicknames matter just as much."
I'd thought he was just a quack, but maybe he actually had some skill. Had he guessed correctly? Either way, the important thing was that I was deeply unsettled. Just as he said, my real name wasn't Ha Yeong-won. Back when I lived in Seoul, I had a different name. But after my father—a famous pastor—caused a massive scandal that made the news and landed him in prison, the fallout hit my mom and me too. It was textbook guilt by association. Even after finishing elementary school, the label "son of a violent criminal" followed me all through middle school. Only after moving to Gaeryong and changing my name did things finally quiet down. That was also why I never escalated things with Kim Geon-ho's group, no matter how much they bullied me. I was terrified that stirring up trouble would make someone recognize me. Compared to the contemptuous stares I'd endured for three years in middle school, Kim Geon-ho's harassment had been nothing more than childish pranks. Maybe that was why I could endure it.
Still, Dr. Ji's eyes seemed to recognize me somehow. The way people in Seoul used to look at me. Since he traveled all over the country, he must have been to Seoul too. Maybe he really did know who I was.
I decided to play dumb.
"Uncle, I don't believe in palm reading or anything like that."
"Honestly, neither do I. I don't believe in ghosts either—I've never seen one. But just because I don't see or believe in something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Have you ever been to Africa?"
"Africa? No."
"But you know Africa exists, don't you? Even though you've never been there yourself. It's the same with palm reading, four pillars, feng shui, physiognomy—these are all statistics and science built up over centuries. They exist whether you believe in them or not."
He really was a quack. I'd gotten nervous for nothing.
Dr. Ji clung to us like someone who hadn't spoken to anyone in days and had finally found an audience. It looked like he planned to follow us the whole way. Just as I was thinking how troublesome that would be, Yang Ju-hui—who never held back—spoke up.
"Uncle. We're hiking, so please leave us alone. Stop bothering us!"
It was a bit rude, but it perfectly expressed how I felt. Dr. Ji, however, was quick on his feet.
"Our destinations are the same anyway. You're heading to the mountain lodge, right? I'm going there too. Ever since Gaeryong lost its guardian shaman, this place has become a playground for every kind of shaman. Look over there—some talentless hack has set up a little shrine."
A small tent-like structure stood along the trail. Peeking inside, I saw it filled with creepy, broken-headed Buddha statues and deity figures.
"Be careful. Plenty of shamans and mediums are malicious. Don't touch or handle anything carelessly."
"Kyaaak!"
Yang Ju-hui, who had been peering into the shrine, suddenly screamed. A spider had landed on her shoulder. She hated spiders.
"Stay still."
I carefully brushed the spider off her shoulder with my palm. It was a tiger spider—one of the larger species found in Korea.
"Did you get it off? Did you get it off?!"
"Yeah."
"Ugh! Spiders! I hate them so much!"
Along the path to the lodge, we passed traces of burned talismans, bells hung from branches, and five-colored strings tied to trees. It felt like a training ground for shamans. If the trail was this messy, the officials really should clean it up.
Before long, we arrived at the closed mountain lodge. It was a simple building on flat ground, roughly the size of a sports equipment storage shed. The creaking signboard reading "Ramen, Steamed Rice, Mineral Water" gave off an eerie vibe.
"By the way, why did you kids come here?"
Dr. Ji asked me. I hesitated, then turned the question back on him.
"What about you, uncle?"
"Me... that's a secret. Anyway, don't touch anything. Especially the talismans—don't even look at the ones written in black ink."
Dr. Ji pulled out his water vein detector and began scanning the area, acting as though we were none of his concern. We decided to focus on our own business.
Bong Ji-yeon asked, "...So what do we do now?"
She still believed we'd come here just to hike. Yu Da-hee thought the same. Only Jeong Seok, Yang Ju-hui, and I knew the real reason. Was it just my imagination, or did Bong Ji-yeon look unwell?
Flash—!
A blinding light burst across the sky.
Kwarururururung!
A thunderclap followed, like something compressed had exploded.
# # #
Shwaaaaaaaa—.
Thick rain poured down as if the sky itself had torn open.
"What the—? The forecast clearly said it would be clear today."
Jeong Seok stared at the downpour outside the lodge, visibly flustered. We were all just as shocked. Sudden rain. Kwarung, kwarurung—. Lightning and thunder crashed mercilessly. It was barely noon, yet the world had turned as dark as dusk.
Yang Ju-hui looked up at the sky. "It might be a shower. We can't go outside right now. If we try, we'll slip and die. The rocks and stairs will be way too slippery. Let's wait until it stops."
She was right. This lodge sat on an expert-level hiking course. Descending rain-slicked rocky paths would be reckless.
Then Jeong Seok spoke up. "Hey, Bong Ji-yeon. What's wrong with you?"
He studied her face. Bong Ji-yeon sat on an old chair inside the lodge, frowning deeply.
"You..."
Yang Ju-hui approached, pulled off Bong Ji-yeon's left sneaker, then her sock. Her ankle was red and badly swollen.
"Hey, what the hell is this? Did you hurt it today? Bong Ji-yeon, you really are something else. If it was this bad, you should've said something earlier, you idiot."
"It wasn't today. It's always been like this. It just gets worse when I push myself. A pain relief patch and some rest will fix it."
I remembered she'd quit track after injuring her ankle. Had it never fully healed? Running around the mountain earlier must have aggravated it. When I frowned in concern, Bong Ji-yeon snapped at me instead.
"...What! I don't smell!"
I hadn't said anything about smell. Now that she'd mentioned it, I couldn't stop thinking about it.
Jeong Seok pulled a spray pain relief patch from his bag. "Bong Ji-yeon, I'll spray this for you."
Chiiik—.
After he sprayed her ankle, her expression eased slightly.
"Hoo... ha... hoo..."
She breathed through her mouth like a woman in labor. Meanwhile, the rain only grew heavier. Shwaaaaa—. It was so thick we could barely see outside the window.
Yu Da-hee, peering out, asked, "Where did Dr. Ji go? He should come inside to wait out the rain."
She had a point. Where had he disappeared to? I assumed he'd return soon, but time passed with no sign of him.
The lodge was quiet. Two guys, three girls. When we stopped talking, only the sound of rain remained. The atmosphere had turned distinctly eerie.
"A mountain lodge in the rain... feels like a ghost might show up," Jeong Seok muttered. He had a strange habit of voicing scary thoughts whenever he got nervous. I was pretty sure he was a masochist.
"Isn't it cold?"
Yang Ju-hui shivered. She looked around, spotted the old stove pit in the center of the lodge, and gathered discarded magazines and papers. Whoosh. She lit them with her lighter, creating a makeshift campfire. Dry logs were scattered around, so keeping the fire going was easy.
"Now that we've got a fire going, it really feels like camping! I brought beef jerky—should I grill some?"
Yu Da-hee pulled beef jerky from her bag. Even in this situation, she stayed cheerful. Come to think of it, I'd never seen her scared before. Was there anything that frightened her?
We shared the food we'd brought. Jeong Seok boiled water in his mess tin, and we ate cup ramen together. It tasted so good I almost cried. Today's events... I really wouldn't forget them for the rest of my life. Even in this mess, it was kind of fun.
Then—
"Uwek... uweeek—"
Bong Ji-yeon started gagging. She'd been sitting there the whole time without touching any food. What was wrong?
"Hey, Bong Ji-yeon, what's wrong?" Jeong Seok asked.
"You guys... don't you smell that? This stench!"
Smell? What smell? I sniffed the air. All I could detect was rain, ramen, and a faint trace of pain relief spray. Nothing that qualified as a stench. But Bong Ji-yeon looked ready to pass out.
"Actually, I've been smelling it since we started climbing. It's really intense. Hard to describe... I've smelled something like it before. Uwek... It's coming from inside this lodge—super strong!"
"Hey, isn't that just your sweat?" Yang Ju-hui asked. Bong Ji-yeon shook her head.
"No. You really don't smell it? Uwek... Ah, I can't even breathe through my mouth anymore."
I remembered how sensitive she'd been to smells halfway up the mountain. What on earth was she picking up? I sniffed around like a dog. Then an indescribably sharp odor hit me.
"Argh, shit."
There was a smell. A real one. It was thick in the air. Why had I only noticed it now?
"Uwek."
It was so bad the ramen threatened to come back up. When I started dry heaving in the corner, Yang Ju-hui and Jeong Seok joined in.
"Fuck, what the hell is this smell?!"
"Eu... I'm dying. Open the windows!"
We flung the windows open for ventilation. Rain poured in, but we didn't care. The only calm one among us was Yu Da-hee.
"......"
She silently clenched her fist and tapped the floor. Knock, knock—. There was a spot where the sound came out strange. Thud, thud—. Like the space beneath was hollow. Yu Da-hee yanked the carpet aside, revealing a square iron hatch set into the floor.
Creak—. It was locked with a padlock. She grabbed a nearby brick and smashed it until the old lock gave way with a clunk.
Kiiiiiik—. She lifted the hatch. At that moment, a swarm of black things poured out. Spiders and centipedes.
"Argh, shit! Fuck!"
Yang Ju-hui leapt up and clung to me. The bugs were gushing out like a fountain. She practically climbed onto my back, pressing her chest against me.
"Spiders! Get them off! Quick!"
But the spiders and centipedes ignored us completely, fleeing through the open windows. Yu Da-hee spoke calmly.
"They ran away. They were trapped down there. There's something inside that scares them."
Without hesitation, she descended the underground stairs. Thud—. Her phone light revealed a small rectangular room, about four pyeong, covered wall-to-wall with red talismans. Each one had countless black eyes drawn on it—like the room itself was sprouting eyes. In the center sat an abandoned travel suitcase, large and wheeled, its zipper half-open. That was clearly the source of the stench.
"Hurk!"
Bong Ji-yeon suddenly convulsed and fell backward, trembling violently. Her eyes were wide with terror, cold sweat pouring down her face.
"Th... that..."
Her legs gave out. She crawled up the stairs on all fours. The rest of us, covered in goosebumps, followed her back to the first floor.
"Th... that... it's a torso... bo-body... it's... the same as... my sister's..."