[The Price of a Stolen Soul]
The talisman resting in my palm was a lump of sickening, alien malice.
A strip of yellow paper, no wider than a finger joint.
On it, grotesque red characters, vivid as fresh blood, seemed to writhe and squirm.
“Where the hell do you even get something like this?”
I focused my strength into the hand holding the talisman.
I needed to suppress the ominous power contained within it.
But at that very moment.
Whoosh—!
“Well, look at that.”
A sharp, searing pain shot through my palm, as if it had been pricked by a heated needle. When I hastily pulled my hand away, the skin was scorched a deep, angry red.
Sssss.
“Still, you’re no match for me.”
“Aaaargh!”
As I healed my scorched hand right before his eyes, Park Seonju’s husband recoiled in sheer terror, tumbling backward as if he’d seen a ghost.
Park Seonju, on the other hand, stared blankly at the ashes of the talisman, her voice trembling as she asked, “Is it... is it really true that my child’s soul has been stolen...?”
It wasn’t a simple question. She seemed to know something.
“You knew?”
Sure enough, when I pressed her, Park Seonju’s shoulders began to shudder.
“Nightmares... I kept having nightmares...”
She began to ramble incoherently about the dreams she’d had. In them, a red rope would snare the tiger she had been raising with such care, dragging it toward a black jar. Behind the jar, a shaman dressed in white mourning clothes stood, smiling in a way that made her skin crawl.
“W-what do I do?”
Hearing her story, my thoughts grew complicated.
What is this?
For one thing, I know absolutely nothing about sorcery. I never believed in shamans or curses to begin with. But the sorcery had clearly taken effect.
That left one lingering question.
“Why would a shaman bother stealing the soul of a fetus?”
Unless there was a deep-seated grudge, there was no reason to go out of their way to steal the soul of an unborn child with whom they had no connection.
Just then, a terrified voice leaked from the lips of the husband, who was still huddled on the floor.
“Yeom-mae...?”
Yeom-mae?
I crossed my arms and looked down at him. His lips began to quiver.
“I-I don’t know anything, really.”
“You used a pretty professional term for someone who doesn’t know anything.”
As I stared at him with suspicious eyes, he hastily added, “I heard it’s when they kidnap someone else’s child and starve them... feed them just enough to keep them from dying.”
The man’s face turned deathly pale as he continued his explanation.
“Until the child is so withered that they’ll lunge at anything that looks like food...”
“Why?”
“To lure the child into a bamboo tube with food. And when the child crawls inside...”
The man swallowed hard. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead.
“They stab it to death with a knife. Then the soul gets trapped in the bamboo tube, and they use that to curse people... That’s what Yeom-mae is.”
Finished with his explanation, the man hung his head and trembled violently.
It was far too detailed for someone who claimed to know nothing.
When I looked at him with a skeptical gaze, he stammered out an excuse.
“It’s a common trope in webtoons and dramas these days...! That’s why I remembered it! I really don’t know anything else! Besides, our child hasn’t even been born yet...”
I shook my head at that.
A soul always shines brightest at the very beginning of life.
“If this Yeom-mae thing is real, then they stole the highest-quality soul available.”
“B-but isn’t Yeom-mae supposed to be done on living children?”
I shrugged.
“Times change, so the methods of sorcery must change too. Everything follows trends these days.”
I looked at my fingernails and added, “Anyway, to have something like this happen to you. It’s truly unfortunate.”
Park Seonju’s face stiffened. She seemed flustered by my sharp tone.
“I-if there’s no soul, then our child... what will happen to our child?”
I gestured toward Park Seonju’s belly with my chin.
“It’ll just be a lump of meat.”
“Ah... Aaaah...”
As soon as I finished speaking, Park Seonju collapsed.
“Honey!”
The man screamed and rushed to her side, but I simply stood with my arms crossed, watching the two of them.
That was when Jina, who had been standing beside me, tugged at my sleeve.
“The baby didn’t do anything wrong.”
Jina was right. Even if I despised this woman, the baby in her womb was innocent.
“Tsk. Fine.”
I looked at the unconscious Park Seonju and her panicked husband and said, “Wake her up.”
“Y-yes! Yes!”
Slap, slap.
“Ugh...”
As the man lightly tapped her cheeks, Park Seonju came to.
“O-our baby.”
Upon opening her eyes, she crawled across the floor and clung to my legs.
“Please, I beg you, save our child...!”
I looked down at her with an expressionless face.
“You, Park Seonju, you are a sinner. Just as your child is precious to you, why didn’t you realize that other children are precious too?”
“I was wrong. It was all my fault...!”
“I do not forgive your sins.”
Forgive Park Seonju, who ignored her duties as a teacher just because she pitied her own child? Not a chance.
And so, I looked her straight in the eyes and delivered my verdict.
“Your child’s life will be preserved. However, this is not forgiveness; it is a judgment passed upon you. Your child shall be the greatest joy granted to you, and at the same time, a mark of atonement that will never fade for as long as you live. In the laughter of your child, learn the weight of the tears you ignored, and in your child’s first steps, remember the time of the other child you cut short. As you raise your child, you will spend the rest of your life realizing the price of your sin and the magnitude of the grace you have received.”
The child Park Seonju is saved for will become her mark of shame.
“If you understand, answer me.”
“*Sob*... Yes.”
Park Seonju barely managed to nod. I turned my gaze away from her and asked, “The talisman, where did you get it?”
“M-my mother got it for me a few months ago.”
The husband answered.
“Call her. Right now.”
“Yes!”
He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed in a panic.
Beep, beep...
But only the mechanical sound of the connection tone rang endlessly from the speaker.
“J-just a moment. I’ll try calling again.”
He tried again, but the other party still didn’t pick up.
“Mother, please... Please, pick up.”
Now, it seemed the phone was turned off entirely, as it didn’t even ring.
“M-mother must be sleeping because it’s so early. I’ll keep trying!”
The fourth time, the fifth time.
As the number of calls increased, his face grew even paler.
It was the middle of the night, so it was possible she was just asleep, but...
When coincidences keep piling up like this, they become destiny.
The timing was too perfect.
I spoke to the two of them, who were pacing anxiously.
“We don’t have much time. If the soul separates from the body completely, even I can’t do anything. Is there anywhere else you can check?”
The two of them shook their heads with desperate expressions.
It was a truly hopeless situation.
“Can you see it?”
[No. I only felt a terrible energy; I didn’t see where it was connected. And after you suppressed it with your power, Jinwoo, I can’t feel that energy anymore.]
I glanced at Driver Choi, and he shook his head as if to say he didn’t know either.
“This is a problem.”
That was when.
“Oppa, collective intelligence!”
Jina, who had been listening quietly, suddenly raised her hand and shouted.
Collective intelligence.
The moment I heard those words, I understood immediately.
The perverts whose lifelong wish is to see a ghost.
The internet specters who have mastered every occult and superstition known to man.
If it were them, they might know the source of the talisman.
I pulled out my phone without hesitation. After all, I had agreed to help on the condition that I turn on the stream.
“Stream ON.”
100, 200, 300 viewers.
As soon as the stream went live, the viewer count began to skyrocket like crazy, ignoring the fact that it was the middle of the night.
I watched the pouring chat for a moment before getting straight to the point. Every second was precious.
“Cut the chatter and listen carefully to what I’m about to say. Does anyone know of a shitty talisman that looks like it was drawn with blood on yellow paper?”
“Ah.”
Feeling unnecessarily embarrassed, I scratched my head. Even I thought the question was a bit stupid.
“Right, my explanation was garbage. I’ll ask again.”
I changed the question immediately.
“Name every shaman or fortune teller known to be effective regarding pregnancy, childbirth, or children. List them all.”
Perhaps it was a proper question this time, as useful information began to pour into the chat.
While all sorts of information was being posted in a jumble, the viewers’ opinions gradually seemed to converge on one place. Then, finally, a chat message caught my eye.
‘They got pregnant, but eventually it was a stillbirth.’
It wasn’t just about blessing them with a child. It was a one-sided transaction. The method of a predator that harvests the purest soul while pretending to grant life.
This is it.
“Jina.”
I pointed at the screen.
“Give that person who posted that chat manager privileges.”
“Oh, okay!”
“Tell me in detail.”
Soon, chat messages highlighted in blue began to fill the screen.
Brass Bowl Granny—what a shitty naming sense.
“Taebaeksan Brass Bowl Granny, huh...”
I turned my head to look at the couple. The husband’s eyes went wide, and he shouted, “That’s it! She said her mother got the talisman from there!”
But then he muttered with a hollow expression, “Taebaek is at least a three-hour drive from here...”
Three hours...
That’s too far. It’s not just a matter of distance. Does the person practicing sorcery not have eyes to see the future? The moment they realize I’m coming, they’ll either set a trap and wait, or hide like a rat. Besides, there isn’t much time left before the soul completely separates from the body.
In that case...
I looked at my phone and opened my mouth.
“Listen carefully to what I’m about to say. Are there any of you living near Taebaek?”
The chat room stirred at my words.
“Go to the shaman’s house known as the Brass Bowl Granny right now. Pretend to be customers. Make up anything—you can’t have children, your business isn’t working out—and stuff their pockets with plenty of money for the fortune-telling fee.”
I paused to catch my breath and added, “It doesn’t matter how much it costs. You’ll get the money back from the Brass Bowl Granny today anyway.”
The chat room exploded.
◈ For those going to the site, verify yourselves on the gallery. I’ll cover your taxi fare.
“It’s a matter of a baby’s life. Until I arrive, use your money to block that shaman bitch’s eyes and ears. Don’t let her get away.”