For My Daughter
For our daughter...
In front of Jun-hee loomed a rather large warehouse. Unlike the other derelict structures, this one had at least kept its original shape, and he now stood before its door. What could a place like this have been used for? The entrance was a massive steel sliding door several meters across. The metal had rusted to a sickly reddish hue, and right in the center was a mark that defied easy description.
He pushed the light from his phone closer, studying the corroded surface with narrowed eyes. The mark looked like...
"Claw marks... it seems."
Just as the words suggested, they resembled the gouges left by a beast. Yet their scale made it impossible to imagine any ordinary animal responsible. Among all the creatures Jun-hee knew, even those native to South Korea, none could have left marks like these. They looked as if a giant tiger had raked its claws across the steel.
Thud! Thud-thud!
A heavy clamor erupted behind him. Jun-hee flinched violently and spun around. Once again, something had streaked past, slipping through the darkness with unnatural speed. There was definitely something there. And it was no stray cat. Something else was stalking him, watching from the shadows.
His face bone-white, Jun-hee swept his gaze across the silent, abandoned factory grounds once more.
"Hoo... Hoo..." His breathing grew sharper, more desperate. Thick beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. His entire body was already drenched.
He turned back toward the warehouse and peered through the narrow gap where the door stood slightly ajar. The interior reeked of long neglect. Dust lay in thick drifts wherever the phone's light fell. A foul mixture of mold and some deeper, stranger stench wafted out, like the metallic reek of stagnant water from rain puddles or melted snow.
Jun-hee hesitated for a long time amid the revolting odor, then forced himself to step inside.
The space was far larger than it appeared from outside. Perhaps it had once stored massive rebar; jagged pieces of the stuff lay scattered everywhere, their purpose long forgotten. Tall steel shelving units rose into the gloom, most of them empty.
He moved deeper. The air grew thick and stale. The faint drafts that reached him felt colder now, unnaturally so.
But what truly terrified him was the sensation of unseen eyes and the coppery smell of blood riding the breeze.
Something was in here with him. Something was watching.
His trembling worsened until the phone's light jittered wildly across the walls. He pressed forward anyway, steps faltering as though his balance might fail at any second.
He had just reached the center of the warehouse, surrounded by the skeletal rows of shelving, when it happened.
A deafening BANG shook the air.
"Huk!" Jun-hee froze mid-step, then whipped around in panic.
His eyes widened in pure terror.
The door that had been open was now shut tight. Worse, its inner surface was covered in dense clusters of enormous claw marks.
The shock was so great he could not draw breath. No scream would come. His body felt locked in ice.
Clack...
A heavy, deliberate presence sounded behind him.
He jerked toward the noise and thrust the light in that direction, but nothing was there. Then another presence stirred on the opposite side. He spun again, catching only a blur of motion before it vanished into the dark.
Swallowed by the oppressive blackness, he could do nothing. Terror crashed over him like a wave. His mind went blank, every thought bleached white. He was drowning in fear.
A severed electrical wire dangling from the ceiling began to creak and sway, as though something had brushed against it. Between its swings, a larger silhouette flickered through the shadows and disappeared again.
Another presence closed in from behind. Shaking like a leaf, Jun-hee slowly turned.
"Huk!"
The scream tore out of him as his legs gave way. He collapsed backward, landing hard on the concrete.
And there it was: a figure staring at him with bulging, horrifying eyes.
With violently trembling hands he lifted the phone. The light shook so badly it looked pathetic. He forced the beam onto the silhouette before him.
It was... no, the person stood there vacant, as if their soul had already fled. No aura of life remained. Their hair hung wild and tangled like a witch's. The clothes were filthy, torn in countless places, and dark stains that looked like dried blood soaked through the fabric.
"W-who... are you?" Jun-hee stammered, voice shaking.
Then it came.
The voice was horribly familiar. Jun-hee felt a desperate spark of hope pierce his fear. His throat had tightened so badly he had to cough several times before he could force the words out.
"S-surely... it can't be... So-yeon?"
The woman gave a slow, slight nod.
Jun-hee's confusion only deepened. She looked so ruined. What could possibly have happened to her? This broken figure bore almost no resemblance to the wife he remembered.
He rose at once, intending to rush to her, but his body locked up. The memory of what had happened at the apartment flashed through his mind. Suddenly he wasn't sure. Was this truly So-yeon? Or was it something else wearing her face again? A ghost trying to lure him in?
"So-yeon? Are you all right? Is there... anything I can do to help?"
"That... that..." Her voice was barely a whisper, utterly drained of strength. It did not sound like the voice of any living person. It was sunken, pitiful, like something already dead.
She spoke again.
Now that he thought about it, she had begged for his help every time she called. But what exactly did she want from him?
Jun-hee licked his dry lips, cast a nervous glance at the surrounding darkness, and asked again.
"How do you want me to help? If it's something I can do, I want to. I really do. Just tell me. And where is So-hee?"
"So-hee?"
"Yes! Our daughter! Where is she?"
"Ahh... daughter... yes. We had a daughter. Our most precious daughter..."
So-yeon called his name once more and slowly lifted her head. As her face became clearer in the light, all color drained from Jun-hee's cheeks until he looked like a corpse.
It was unmistakably his wife's face. The same features he had known for years. But the suffering she had endured had destroyed her. Her eyes were bloodshot, ringed with deep shadows. Her once-pale skin was filthy, streaked with grime, and covered in wounds. Tear tracks cut dark paths through the blood and dirt on her cheeks.
Looking at her, he cried out.
"Tell me! So-yeon, how can I help? What do I have to do to save you and So-hee?"
"Yes! For So-hee..."
The words hit him like a physical blow. Jun-hee could only stare at her in stunned silence, face frozen in shock and horror.
So-yeon began to cry. Bloody tears slid down her ruined cheeks as she continued the monstrous request.
"What... what did you just say?"
For a second he was certain he had misheard. Of course, if it were true, if his death could truly save their daughter, he would accept it without hesitation. But suddenly the young priest's words echoed in his mind.
Those killed by a tiger become its puppets. Such beings are called changwi. To pass on to the afterlife, a changwi must lure another soul in its place.
Did that mean So-yeon was asking him to die in their daughter's stead because the girl had become a changwi? But could he even trust her? Was the woman standing before him truly the wife he had known?
Jun-hee stood frozen, mind reeling, lips opening and closing without sound. He had no idea how to answer her terrible request.