Exorcism and Demons? 4
Any decent-sized religious facility in Korea naturally had a basement. Expensive land prices didn't spare believers of God, so they had to maximize every inch of cramped space to fit more people and collect more donations.
They descended the stairs leading to the unusually spacious underground level compared to the building above and broke the lock on the tightly shut door. The rotten wooden door didn't even require much effort.
"Is it okay to just smash our way in like this?"
"It's fine. I got permission from the owner here. As long as we don't cause a fuss about reconstruction later, they said they don't care how we use it."
"Oh, nice guy."
"It's the power of money."
The construction company handling the reconstruction knew someone on this side, so they could slip in late at night without a detailed explanation of their intentions. They'd claimed it was just a quick look around for some shoot.
"Hey, let's move that chair in the center together."
"Yes, boss."
Hyeon-a, who'd set up the tripod for a good view, rushed over and shoved the long wooden chair aside. Dust piled up from years of neglect billowed up, coating their clothes.
"Demons in a church?"
"If it's an abandoned church no longer in use, God's gaze has probably faded away completely—that's my personal superstition that a demon might have moved in."
"What? So we could've just done this in the office."
"Doing that stuff in a place where people live is bad luck."
"Is it?"
The manager followed her arbitrary standards with an expression that said she got it one moment and didn't the next. What she was about to do would stand out blatantly to anyone watching, so an empty basement was perfect. No idea what the designers had in mind, but the basement had windows only near the high ceiling, out of reach and impossible to open easily.
"I'm starting soon, so film from way back there. Not sure what'll show up."
"If I edit this well and upload it, won't people go nuts saying you're making holy relics now too?"
Hyeon-a's offhand comment made her pause for a second. It might qualify as a relic, but one thing was certain: it would invite a heap of hassle.
Still, "No one believes in ghosts anymore—think they'll believe in relics? It'll just be creepy mummy arm sales."
"Hope so."
Hyeon-a pulled the camera back farther, eyeing the ominous blue chalk pattern on the floor. Seo-ah confirmed it captured everything: the circle, pentagram, and occult symbols straight out of horror movies or occult books, with the mummy arm placed atop it.
"Boss, could you explain to the viewers what that symbol you just drew means?"
"Meaning... it's got a ritual significance for inserting something a demon would like into an object? It's something I learned personally, so maybe no one else knows about it."
"You learned it separately? From that shaman grandma, maybe?"
"No, obviously a foreigner. You think foreign ghosts understand Korean if you keep yapping at them in it?"
"Foreigners in Korea should learn Korean. Heh."
She tossed in a joke to lighten the heavy silence, then watched the camera. As Hyeon-a shut her mouth, the quiet church basement grew chillingly cold and still, raising goosebumps.
"I'm starting now, so no matter what you see, do not open your mouth. Got it?"
"Yes."
She set a solemn, ritualistic mood, then immediately dropped a drop of blood onto the ring on the mummy's hand. She'd been taught that the caster's own blood made spells most potent—coming from the head of blood sorcery, it was trustworthy. Murmuring the incantation under her breath as instructed, white smoke seeped in from outside, impossible in a sealed room, and began pooling on the floor.
"As the agent of the evil god, I command: the gatekeeper who enters here and devours other evil gods shall descend..."
⟨ Summoning Ritual ⟩
No telling how the video would capture it, but from the black fog, a massive door creaked open, and a huge three-headed dog poked its head out curiously. She'd thought it might be a new one, but it was a familiar face. At its appearance, Baekho—who always just lay there—snapped his eyes wide and rose.
The three heads turned toward her, tilting repeatedly before lighting up with joy at the familiar soul scent.
-Grrrrr...
Spotting the massive tiger beside her, they growled throatily at each other. Baring teeth like they might fight any second, they sniffed instead, formed some weird rapport, and wandered off somewhere together. The gatekeeper hound's usual job was fetching escaped demons from hell. Maybe Baekho and it bonded over similar roles.
"Tch... this isn't supposed to happen."
She needed to trap the guard dog in the ring to sic it on the demon, but it had scampered off with Baekho. The hell gate shut, fog cleared.
Now she couldn't seal it in the object...
"Boss?"
"Huh?"
"Something go wrong? You froze up scary all of a sudden."
"Wrong... maybe. Not sure myself."
Redoing the ritual might just summon another one—no guarantee it'd enter the ring. She could handle one, but two or three? Experience said she'd suffer.
"If even you don't know after doing it, what now?"
"...What'd the video catch?"
"Nothing. Just some fog. Not worth uploading like this."
"Then edit out the ritual entirely. Just say we did something like this."
"Yeah. Scared the museum might sue over relic tampering."
With nothing visible and all momentum lost, they packed the camera and tripod. While erasing the chalk, she scanned around for the vanished duo.
"Let's go. We got half our goal done anyway."
"Okay."
Emerging from the soon-to-vanish spot, two animals—clearly griping about their woes outside—greeted her. Baekho, usually slumped with a weary face, looked vibrant for once. The huge dog beside it bounded over, tongue lolling like it'd found its owner—who was still down in the basement, mind you.
She couldn't let the employee see her tackled and rolled, so she stood firm, but it hugged anyway, slobbering her face.
-Woof!
Like the countryside mutt at grandpa's that went nuts once or twice a year when she visited.
-
The day before the ritual, she headed to their hospital. Cooped up without sunlight, they looked gaunt.
"Avoid lamb until the ritual. It lets them harm you and blocks them from entering our bodies."
"Aha."
At her mildly dubious look, he explained defensively. Ghosts and demons seemed like jokes to normal folk, so he avoided the topic. She understood, pulling a box from her bag.
"The relic we discussed. Couldn't verify authenticity."
"Most relics are like that. Hard for us to judge..."
Over a millennium, experience fighting demons—known and unknown—forged relics. Most modern ones verified during witch hunts. She didn't ask how; he didn't tell.
"...A mummy hand?"
"Yeah. Hand of Korea's first martyr. Borrowed from the museum short-term—damage it and we're in trouble."
"Hmm." Both looked awkward at the random mummy hand. It felt authentically holy, but how to use it in exorcism? They'd rung bells to repel, stabbed with blades for pain—successfully. Using saintly parts: brew byproduct tea or ingest. But practical issues abounded.
"How do we use this?"
"Beats me..."
The burden of returning it intact loomed, but blocking the demon first seemed wiser. Cross society would sort later issues.
"Thank you. We'll use it well and return it."
"Just don't break it. I had to force this out—I'll be in a bind."
"Noted."
His words rang insincere despite the promise. Priests with dark thoughts rewrote history, or so they said. Noting his unnatural gaze, she nodded, thinking payback later if needed.
"Can we film?"
"Afraid that's tricky."
Dragging disappointed Hyeon-a out, she noted the full moon that night. Time to wait.
-
-Yip!
She'd just have to pet that dog head plenty.