Haunted House Experience
The cold night wind sliced through the park, carrying with it the sharp tang of fear and something far worse.
“Just what the hell… is going on here? What is that thing? And who are you, exactly? What are you chasing?”
Detective Oh Su-hyeok’s voice came out in ragged bursts, but the words were steady. His eyes burned with stubborn resolve, the kind that refused to look away even when the truth threatened to shatter everything he believed. In this impossible situation, his gaze screamed one thing: he needed to know.
Lee Hwan hesitated, unsure how to explain. A chill gust swept between them, rustling dead leaves across the path.
“You know something, don’t you? Those things… the ones that can’t be explained by science. You understand them. What are they? What did I just see? What the hell is happening right now… and who are you really?”
“Even if I told you the truth, you might not believe me. You might think I’m insane.”
“No. The old me probably would have. But not anymore. Lately… yes, lately, things have been happening that I can’t explain. This case isn’t the first. Before this, there was the abandoned factory. Then that child who vanished from the hospital and reappeared just as suddenly. And even before that, strange incidents kept occurring. The higher-ups always covered them up, smoothed them over… but honestly, these things have been going on for a long time. Things that common sense simply can’t accept.”
Oh Su-hyeok looked genuinely tormented. His body trembled faintly. He was afraid. Afraid of the truth he couldn’t define, afraid of the powerlessness that came with knowing such horrors lurked between the seams of ordinary life. Whenever these thoughts surfaced, he felt as if he himself were losing his mind.
“It feels like… these inexplicable events have been happening more and more often lately. I didn’t know how to process it. But this time it wasn’t just hearsay. I saw it. I saw that… that unspeakable, horrific monster with my own two eyes. How could I not believe after that? If anything, I feel like I’m the one going crazy. Would I really call someone else insane? Actually, someone already told me once. They said there are things in this world… things that ordinary people like me don’t need to know about. Things that science can’t explain. And what I saw tonight is clearly one of them.”
There was no choice but to believe now. Ordinary logic could no longer contain what was appearing. These entities were causing incidents. Yet he knew nothing. It felt like he was endlessly chasing the tail of events without ever reaching their source, like slamming his head against bare ground again and again.
Oh Su-hyeok wanted the truth.
“I want to know the truth. I don’t want to stay in the dark like this. I don’t want to helplessly gloss things over. Even if it sounds completely absurd, please… can you teach me what you know?”
Even nonsense would do. He simply needed something solid to organize this nightmare around.
“Father! You clearly know something, don’t you?”
“Hmm… well…”
Lee Hwan wore a troubled expression. He let his gaze drift across the quiet, dimly lit park before offering a bitter smile. At last, his tightly sealed lips parted.
“I don’t know who told you, but… they weren’t wrong. It’s true. In this world, events that science cannot explain happen more often than people realize. And the beings that cause them… well, they are entities that ordinary people don’t need to know about. Entities that are difficult to discover in the first place.”
“Like this one…?”
Lee Hwan nodded with grave seriousness.
“Yes. This one too. I still can’t be certain of its exact identity. But one thing is clear: it is a man-eating monster that devours people. It also has the ability to wear the skin of those it consumes to hide its true form. It’s an extremely troublesome creature. We must catch it quickly before it continues its human hunt.”
“H-hunt…?”
“If we leave it alone, it will simply look for new prey. Another victim whose skin it can steal.”
As expected, Oh Su-hyeok struggled to accept the reality before him. His face had gone deathly pale. He wiped cold sweat from his brow with a trembling hand and scanned the dark park once more before turning back to Hwan.
“Something like that… it really exists? In this day and age? In an era filled with advanced science… can such an absurd monster truly exist?”
“They adapt to the changing times by hiding themselves even deeper. Some imitate humans perfectly and live among us, concealing their true nature. Of course, there are dangerous ones like this. But surprisingly, not all of them are evil. Not every one of them is bad.”
“Th-that means… even among the people I know… my neighbors… there could be… those kinds of monsters?”
Another bead of sweat slid down his forehead. His eyes, fixed on Hwan, swirled with deep shock. The truth he had finally accepted brought waves of horror and disbelief. Somewhere out there, even now, a monster might be wearing a human face.
“Where on earth do these monsters come from—”
At that moment, not far away inside the park, a woman’s scream tore through the night.
“Kyaaa!”
Oh Su-hyeok flinched and instinctively whipped his head toward the sound. Lee Hwan launched himself in that direction without hesitation. There was no time to stand around talking. They had to stop it before another victim appeared.
Oh Su-hyeok clenched his jaw and broke into a run after the strangely powerful man. He needed to see it for himself. He needed to confirm whether the impossible beings this man spoke of truly existed in this world, and if so, what he was supposed to do about it.
“W-wait! Wait for me! Damn it! Just a second!”
It was the exact moment Hye-jeong regained consciousness.
An icy wind, cold enough to raise gooseflesh, swept over her naked body. Even while unconscious, the chill had made her shiver. The freezing air finally forced her eyes open, and the moment they did, she saw the grotesque monster before her. A scream burst from her throat on pure instinct.
“Kyaaa!”
The creature jerked its head around in irritation and lunged forward, clamping a brutal hand over her mouth.
“Be quiet… if you don’t want to die…”
The voice was nothing like a human’s. It was low, rasping, like something scraping at the inside of a throat. It sounded like the growl of a savage beast.
Terror crushed Hye-jeong’s entire body like a lead weight. She couldn’t even breathe properly. All she could do was tremble like a leaf in the wind.
The monster slowly withdrew its hand from her face. Its anxious eyes darted around the surroundings. It looked extremely agitated, as if terrified of something, as if being hunted. It seemed determined to hold its breath and hide until the current crisis passed.
Whoosh…
Once again, an icy wind swept over them. The trees around them shuddered.
Hye-jeong could not believe what was happening. How was she supposed to process this? What exactly was the thing in front of her? Her mind refused to organize itself. The entire situation felt like nothing more than a nightmare.
If not for the biting cold that clawed across her skin, she might have convinced herself it was all a dream. The being before her was neither human nor animal. The skin it had worn to imitate a person had burned away completely. This horrific form, neither human nor beast, must be its true appearance.
It was emaciated to the point that its bones showed through, its dark, desiccated skin stretched tight over them. Its eyes were sunken deep into their sockets, making it look exactly like a corpse that had just crawled out of a coffin. The pupils glowed with a beastly, yellowish light. A strange metallic stench of blood clung to it.
Her body wouldn’t stop shaking.
Ah… please, if this is a dream, let me wake up soon.
Just then, the monster cautiously lifted its head. Its restless, anxious eyes continued scanning the area. She could see the sunken orbs trembling within their deep sockets.