
Demons Unite

By Dongbaek Sasang

Copyright 2018

Public Domain

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Table of Contents

Deep In The Adirondack Mountains

Disappearing Students

Rural Renfrew County

Final Resting Place

Death Delivery

Legend Of The Torosdal

Deep In The Adirondack Mountains

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4
Chapter 1

T

o this day, nobody believed this story, but it needs to be told for various scientific and humanitarian reasons. When I was just a young man in the early 1990's, I had been working for a small engineering company based in California. After many years of working for the company, putting in long twelve-hour days and weekends, the company was finally starting to expand its operations. The company had a big project in New York that needed a senior technical engineer on site. Naturally, as a young man at the time without a family, I jumped at the opportunity to live and work in New York City. I packed my bags and flew to New York City the next month. I arrived in the city and moved into my new apartment in Soho. Shortly after, work started on the development project in the Upper East Side. The city was remarkable, although dangerous back then. This was during Mayor Rudy Giuliani's plan of aggressive policing when he was trying to clean the city up. Regardless, I was always a little paranoid coming home from the subway after a late night at the office. Before I knew it, I was settled into my new life in New York City.

Summer soon turned into fall, and the project slowly wrapped up. The project came in under budget and under cost. My seniors were very pleased indeed. Actually, the project manager was so happy with my performance; he invited me to come spend some time at his private cabin deep in the Adirondack Mountains with some colleagues. He explained the Adirondack Mountain range was bigger than all the national parks, including Yellowstone Park. The size of the park is 6.1 million acres, 1/5th the size of the entire state of New York; almost eight times the size of California's Yosemite Park. I had gone camping in Yosemite before, and I highly enjoyed the experience. I thought it would be rude to turn down his offer, so I accepted. Nevertheless, I thought it would be a nice little vacation, and I would be able to do some networking there. The Project Manager explained the group would start hiking on Wednesday, and they would arrive at the cabin by Saturday. The cabin was so remote, a person couldn't even get a car within thirty miles of the cabin. The rest of the way would have to be hiked, but there was one minor problem. I wasn't officially finished with my duties for the project until Thursday. This meant, I had to hike for three nights by myself. Three nights in the wilderness of introspective relaxation seemed very appealing, so this was not a problem.

On Friday evening after work, I left the office late and went home. Occasionally, looking behind my shoulder to see if anyone was following me like usual. I gathered all my camping supplies, a heavy-duty winter sleeping bag, tent, matches, food, water and started the four-hour drive from New York City. I got out of the office very late that night and didn't end up getting on the road until 7 p.m. The drive was about four hours long and was very scenic. Lush forests, long meandering mountain ranges, and oddly shaped lakes could be seen throughout the entire journey there. The highway soon transformed into a small dirt road with dark forests on either side, and the crunching sound of gravel being kicked up from the car could be heard. The sunset gradually cast flurries of orange and red into the horizon, as the day was all but done. It soon became pitch black in all directions, and a million galaxies illumining the sky could be seen. After many hours of driving, I arrived in a small town on the border of Vermont, and realized I needed to find a place to sleep for the night. According to my tattered map, this town was the closest place I could leave my car before getting on the trail. The town gave the illusion of an old country western village that would be seen from an old cowboy movie. There were countless old wooden dilapidated houses, all of them abandoned. Their front yards all had wild plants growing with long uncut grass. The streets were broken and cracked, next to similar looking sidewalks. The streets were desolated, and the place clearly once had life but now was barren. An eerie feeling crept into my stomach, this place just made me feel uneasy. Something just wasn't right there.

As I approached an intersection in my car, there was a small bed and breakfast accommodation. I was ecstatic to find a place to stay, so I didn't have to sleep in my car on that brisk autumn night. I drove into the parking lot, parked the car, and entered the small wooden Victorian style guest house. As I opened the creaky door, a small bell jingled, and an elderly man slowly got up from the backroom.

"Are there any available rooms tonight?" I asked.

"Yes, we do," he slowly replied as he shuffled from the backroom. Something was off about this guy.

"Perfect, I will stay here only one night, and I will make my way for the mountains at first light tomorrow," I mentioned as the old man stumbled behind the front desk.

"Of course, they all do. Why else would you be here?" he started laughing as he fidgeted with some small keys on the wall, labeled with room numbers.

"It would seem like this town has seen better days. How long have you lived here?" I said uncomfortably, trying to make the situation less awkward.

"My whole life in fact. This place was once a bustling town believe it or not. Back in the 1950's they had a few garnet and zinc mines in the area. The population was big, and It continued to grow for a decade. Then, one day the mines all closed due to the prices of Zinc and Garnet dropping so damned much. The effects on the town were terrible. Alcoholism, poverty and family abuse. Half the town just packed their bags and left everything behind, _even their_ _children_." He spoke with a strange look on his face that made me feel uncomfortable. I thanked him and went to my room for the night. I barely slept that night, something about that old man's story made me uneasy. Something about this place was off. From my window, a crescent moon dimly lit the long and winding mountain range. A cool breeze came through the window, and little goose bumps appeared on my arm. But not because it was cold.

Chapter 2

The next morning the old man let me keep my car in his parking lot for a week, as long as I gave him a hefty tip. I quickly gathered all my camping gear and marched towards the looming mountain range. It projected a long shadow over the small deserted town. I walked through the decrepit town, and the road started to become inclined. As I was walking through the boarded-up houses, the face of a ragged person appeared in the window and quickly ducked out of sight. My eyes must have been playing tricks on me. That house was clearly condemned; who could possibly be living there? Eventually, at the top of the village the beginning of the mountainous area could be seen. The last of the broken-down houses in the village came into view. They lingered around the circumference of the mountain. An old rock stairwell appeared with thick trees covering it. That pathway had not been hiked in ages.

The trail had beautiful, lush woodlands with sprawling wildlife. Occasionally a large glacial lake was visible, with lengthy streams flowing outwards from the edges. The path straddled up and down the mountains and in-between valleys. Around sunset I managed to find a small clearing in the woods, which would be perfect for spending the night. These trails were too dangerous to be navigating at night because some of the paths went alongside cliffs. Also, large boulders needed to be climbed. I pitched my tent, made a small fire, and sat there thinking about life and the world. Everything was very quiet, except for the sporadic crackling of the campfire; it was completely serene. Suddenly, noises began, as if something was circling around the campsite. The noises were coming from the forest outside the clearing. I shrugged it off as a curious animal. It was circling around, just outside the illuminated area from the campfire. From my previous camping experiences, strange noises at night were a common occurrence, so I wasn't worried. I entered the tent, zipped it up, and soon fell asleep. Throughout the night, I was awoken to strange noises. It was almost as if a person was speaking, but too softly to understand, or maybe they had a strange accent. I could not quite tell. When I got up to investigate, whatever it was ran away.

At the break of dawn, I was back on the trail through the winding mountains, and I stopped at a lake for lunch. After lunch, I followed a stream about five miles towards the cabin. I had a map, and a compass to guide me towards the cabin. I hiked all day, and around dusk found a nice forested area to camp for the night. I had just finished making the camp fire when it started to lightly snow. Once again, the sound of something circling the camp fire could be heard, except this time there were multiple animal noises. I was scared; it could be a pack of wolves. One wolf is not a problem, but a _pack is_. Luckily, I packed a small revolver in my bag, in case I ran into a bear or wolves. The loud sound of the gun would scare them away if needed. Later that night, when I was asleep in the tent, once again the sound of leaves ruffling, and twigs snapping could be made out. As well as the same talking sounds from the night before. The strange thing was, the voices almost sounded _human_. It was like two people were communicating but in some primitive language. I noticed the shadow of figures appearing on the wall of my tent. They were cast from the barely surviving campfire. The silhouette of a four-legged creature lurking outside the tent, slowly materialized on the wall. It looked like a Coyote. I reached in my bag, and I grasped the wooden handle of my gun. I slowly pulled back the hammer on the gun until it snapped into place. I held the gun with both hands, and slowly squeezed the trigger. I was aiming for the shadow cast on my tent wall from the fire. The gun went off and exploded with a large crash. I missed the Coyote, but they ran off.

Chapter 3

In the morning, the snow was melting, but I could faintly make out the shape of footprints. They were too big to be a Coyotes, yet they faintly resembled a human. I continued along the pathway and noticed what seemed to be handprints in the fresh mud outside my tent. Once again, I became paranoid. I was always a little paranoid. It was nothing too severe, but certain things triggered it. A strange look from a co-worker, a police officer driving behind me, recent crime in my neighborhood. I tried to calm myself down, there had to be a perfectly logical reason for this. Maybe a hiker fell at this point and made a fresh hand print. I took a few deep breathes and continued the trail through the lovely mountains. Tonight, would be my last night before reaching the cabin the following morning. I packed my camping equipment, and headed back to the trail. After a few hours of hiking alongside a rugged cliff, I decided to take a break. I sat on top of a huge boulder and drank from my water canister. In the distance, a large forested mountain side sprawled endlessly. Unexpectedly, a small figure emerged on the distant peak of an adjacent mountain. It looked like a hairless wolf, but it was too far away to be clearly seen. By the time I looked through my binoculars, it was out of sight. I must have been hallucinating. I knew your mind plays tricks on you when you're alone in the woods. I stumbled back on the trail and nervously gathered myself together. By dusk, I once again found a clearing on top of a mountain. This would be my last place to camp out. The view was extraordinary, miles of untouched rugged beauty. I exhaustedly dragged myself into a small clearing with a forested area encircling it and began collecting kindling.

Just as I lit the camp fire, I heard the noises _again_. Leaves were ruffling, and branches were snapping in the woods outside the glow of the camp fire. The paranoia exploded in my mind; I ran into the tent and reached for my revolver. I waited. I could hear the noises getting closer. I _shakily_ clutched my revolver, and softly pulled the hammer back, until it clicked into place. The creatures were getting closer, until all went silent. Voices began to talk, but it sounded like some sort of gibberish language. Swiftly, an eye appeared in the hole in my tent, where I shot at the previous night. It was not the eye of a wolf, but the eye of a _human_. Suddenly, two fingers came through the hole, and tore a huge opening. The beasts revealed themselves to be human, but more like animals. They had wild looks upon their faces, unclothed, and feral in nature. They were soiled and hairy creatures with scars all over. They were human, but walked on four legs, with a spine that curved towards the ground. They had long unkempt hair running from their head, to the bottom of their backs. Filthy and missing teeth, appeared in their savage, salivating mouths. They appeared hungry. The first one lunged through the hole, and went straight for my neck. I smashed the beast in the head with the but of my gun, and the gun fell out of my hand. The other beasts entered and started gnawing at my legs. My legs were thrashing about, trying to land a blow on the monsters. They growled in a freakishly human voice, as they lunged at me. I laid on my back, and frantically searched the left side of the tent for my hunting knife, as they painfully bit into my legs. The feral human I just hit, was getting back up when I felt the handle of my hunting knife. I thrust it forward, and stabbed the beast in the leg; it let out a mighty shriek. The remaining two animals were startled, and I bolted out of the tent. They gave chase, as I ran towards the campfire. I grabbed a flaming log from the fire. I shook the torch in their faces, but they were unfazed. One lurched forward trying to bite my arm, and I impaled him in his side with the flaming end. It let out a large cry, and it ran off into the bushes. The flame was reduced to nothing but a smoking stump, yet the other creatures was still relentless. I threw the stick in the other direction as a distraction, and dived back into the tent for my gun. As the creatures followed, I pointed the gun towards them, and pulled the trigger. The gun clicked without firing. It was jammed! Without warning, more howling could be heard in the distance, and the feral humans started to quiver. They seemed paralyzed in fear. I sprinted out of the tent into the dark forest; this time the beast did not give chase. I found the closest climbable tree, and went right to the top. I could still see the campfire and surrounding area, but I was outside the visibility of it. The howling continued, and about five or six wolves came running into the camp site, but the feral creatures were gone. The wolves rummaged around the campsite. They seemed to pick up on the fresh blood scent, and scent of the others. They began to track the creatures that attacked me, and disappeared into the night after them. I remained in the tree all night, and when dawn came, I sheepishly climbed down from the tall tree. The sun was just starting to rise from the horizon, it was at the point of limbo between night and day. I walked softly on the wooded ground, expecting to be ambushed at any time. This time was different though, there was nothing. I quickly gathered my equipment, and got back on the trail. I jogged the remainder of the way with my gun and knife in hand; little did I know I would never be the same again.

Chapter 4

I eventually made it to a gigantic lake, and followed the right side, until I came to the cabin my co-workers were staying at. As soon as I entered the camp grounds, everyone enthusiastically greeted me, and proclaimed I was some sort of hero for spending three nights alone in the wilderness. They would never discover what truly happened that day.

"Johnny, you're a hero! we never thought of you as some kind of Steve Irwin!"

"Yeah, how did you make it _all_ the way to the cabin, without getting eaten by a bear or snake!" My drunken co-workers burst into laughter, as they sipped on whisky, and chugged beer. Soon after, more people swimming in the lake emerged to greet me.

"I went camping in California before." I sat there quietly, and was barely able to speak.

"And so humble too! Never a braggadocios type of guy!" the group erupted in laughter again. Then, I saw my boss approaching me, and he asked to talk to me in private. We began to walk over to a secluded side of the campsite.

"John, we had an government official visit the campsite last night," he had an uneasy look on his face.

"wha... why?" my stomach began to feel uneasy.

"Are you aware the pathway you took is a civilian restricted area? The official wanted to know if you were part of our group, and of course I said you were not." A worried look could be seen on his face.

"There must be chemical contamination from the mining days," I tried to say, without revealing my lie.

"What did you see John!" he franticly said.

"Nothing... nothing strange at all," I said.

"Very well John," he began walking back to the campsite.

The rest of the time spent at the cabin was uneventful. I decided not to tell anyone about what happened. They would all think I'm crazy. I could imagine them all sitting around the water cooler at work, slapping their knees laughing about how John went crazy. I would be the laughing stock of the company. I would probably be fired. My supervisor actually paid for a chartered helicopter, which picked us up, and dropped us off at a parking lot, where everyone was parked. My supervisor drove me to the small town where I parked my car, and we said our goodbyes. Before I left, the old man stumbled out of the guest house to greet me, and he asked me if I saw " _them_ ". As he laughed at me in a raspy manner. I told him, I didn't understand what he meant, as I hurried to my car and peeled out of the parking lot. When I got back to New York City, I went to the central library, and did some research on what I saw. Historically, there has been many scientifically studied cases of feral children. They are children abandoned at a young age, and were raised on their own in the wilderness or by animals. Sometimes they are taken in by wolves, or other animals, and closely mimic their behaviors. They turned out more beast than human. There was a famous case of a girl named Oxana Malaya from the Ukraine, if you're interested. I also looked up some old newspapers from the town. Apparently, after the mines closed, the economic devastation was so horrible, children were just abandoned in the woods, and left to fend for themselves. That was over forty years ago though, and those feral children I saw in the woods looked young.

###

Disappearing Students

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 1

"Danny, another student has gone missing today!" my best friend Adam yelled at me.

"What the heck is going on around here," I shouted.

"Dunno man, rumour has it Mr. Rubouski is kidnapping children at our middle school and selling their kidneys in Thailand," he answered.

"Living in a town as small as ours, I think somebody would have seen something and told the Sherriff by now," I replied.

"Yeah, you're right, kids are probably just coming down with that Mono thing," he said.

"Well, the bell is about to ring, so let's go to class now," I said as we walked down the hall.

Adam was my best friend, couldn't find a better friend than him. In fact, our parents were friends before we were even born. They always joked we met inside our mothers' bellies. He'd do anything for me, and I'd do anything for him. He was a true friend, through and through. During Mrs. Donaldson's class, I could see something was bothering her. She usually was all bright and jittery, as she taught us about American history. But today something was clearly eating away at her. Then, in the middle of class, Spencer, whom the kids call Spazzy Spence due to his ADHD, blurted out.

"Mrs. D, is it true that Mr. Rubouski is stealing children and sending them to Thailand?"

"That's nonsense Spencer, and you should apologize to him for even mentioning something so absurd within these walls! I personally know Mr. Rubouski. He's a man of family and God. Students are just getting sick with something. I'm not sure exactly why. Now let's get back to why America entered World War Two," she said, scolding the students. She seemed to be bothered by something. I think everyone in class that day knew Mrs. D. was lying through her teeth, and something crazy was happening in our little sleepy town, yet nobody had any idea why.

The rest of class was boring, dragging on until the end of the day. Finally, the last bell rang, and like always, Adam and I hopped on our daily school bus ride back home to the other side of the county. It was a fairly long bus ride, about forty minutes long to be exact, so there was a lot of time to mess around with my friends. We passed through the center of town, actually more like one small strip of shops for a few blocks. As we passed by the old antiques shop, I noticed the front door was smashed, and it had police tape put up in front.

"I figured it out for real this time Danny boy! The guy that killed the old Asian woman running the antique store is on a murdering spree. That's why the students are going missing!"

"Wait, so that's what happened to the antique shop. I was just wondering about that?" I replied.

"Yeah, some guy went in the middle of the night to rob the place, but the poor woman was sleeping in the back room, and he killed her," Adam answered as he fidgeted around in his seat.

"So, that crazy guy has been killing all the missing students?" I gasped.

A nerdy looking kid from the seat behind chimed in. "Actually, he was brought into custody immediately after the incident. He's currently incarcerated in the county jail awaiting pre-trial. The silent alarm was triggered when the man broke through the front door. The woman actually lived in the apartment connected to the back of the store. Apparently, it was one of the most horrifying crime scenes the investigators had ever seen."

"Thanks for the news poindexter, but you really shouldn't be eavesdropping on us," Adam was annoyed.

"Sorry," he replied.

"So, I guess I'm wrong again. But man, that woman was strange, she couldn't speak a word of English. Nobody knew where in Asia she was from, and she had all these weird ritual objects in the back." Adam whispered in my ear. The bus then stopped, and we both got off at our stop.

Chapter 2

The next day at school was business as usual, but I could see Adam was sneaking around, almost like he was getting to the bottom of this whole situation. During lunch in the cafeteria, he pulled me aside, so we could talk with some secrecy. He told me that he had been sneaking around the school snooping on people. The son of a gun, really hid in the bushes outside the principal's office, and heard a conversation with one of the missing student's parents. He was able to do this because the principal's office window was open, and on the main floor. Adam heard the Mom of the student say her daughter received a text message from the number 444 4444, and after that she hasn't spoken a word to anyone or barely moved. They're trying to get her admitted to a mental hospital, but don't have insurance. She also said something about her being in some sort "catatonic state." But we didn't know what that word even meant. Adam said it sounded like they were trying to figure something out, like if a student was bullying her type of thing. The weirdest thing was the text message she got from that number, didn't even have any words or anything. Adam was clearly freaked out. He explained everything he heard from the parent, and we ate lunch together, not even saying anything to each other. The rest of the day passed by, and Adam and I were back on the same bus, in the same seats, at the same time. As I was watching the corn fields pass by through the bus window, I noticed poindexter sitting behind us again.

"Hey, I'm sorry for teasing you on the bus yesterday and calling you poindexter," I felt bad for what I did.

"It's ok, I get it a lot. By the way my name's Chris."

"Nice to meet you Chris. I have a question for you. Do you know anything about the number four?" I needed information, and he would be the best person to get it from.

"Well yes, it's considered a very unlucky number in China. They don't use it for elevators, addresses, or phone numbers. If you even say that number in front of a person, they will probably never talk to you again. Also in rural China, the murder rate is almost zero because if you kill somebody, everyone believes they will come back, and haunt the peasants in the village. The only way to not get possessed by the demon is to play dead. According to the legend, the demon is so horrifying, even one view of it, and you'll enter a vegetative state for the rest of your life. The human brain just can't handle that magnitude of fear and trauma," Chris confidently explained; as he touched the center of his glasses, while pushing them closer to his face.

"Well, good thing ghost aren't real," Adam murmured. But everyone was quiet for the rest of the bus ride. In the distance, I noticed a large storm was rolling in just as we passed by the old antiques shop.

Adam and I got off the bus at our usual stop, and said our goodbyes as we parted ways. By that time the storm was just starting to slam down with full force, and boy, was it big. I got inside my house, just before I got totally soaked to the bone. I walked over to my room, and started doing my math homework because we had a big test tomorrow. I laid out my book, pencil, eraser, and phone on the desk, and began to study. After finishing the first chapter in the textbook, I heard my phone vibrate. Adam must have replied to my message. I needed help with question four. I opened the message on my phone, and it was blank, nothing. Why would Adam send me this? As I looked at the sender; I dropped my phone in complete fear. A burning feeling entered my stomach. The lights flickered as thunder crashed in the background. The number that sent the message was 444 4444. There was nothing I could do. If I told my parents a ghost was coming for me, they would never let it go. I would be hearing on my wedding day how, as a teenager, I was scared of ghosts. Or worse, they would send me to some sort of religious camp in Puerto Rico, to finish the rest of my schooling because I was possessed by the devil. I decided to just go to bed, and forget about all this. It was getting late, and I was exhausted. Besides, ghosts weren't real, and Adam was probably playing a joke on me. The fool probably found some App in the Playstore that changes the way your phone number appears, so he could change his number to anything. I wasn't going to be fooled by this, and I was the one that usually pranked the crap out of Adam, but this was pretty good. I laid in bed, dosing off to the sound of rain splashing against the window in patchy waves. The occasional flash of lightening, lit up my room like it was day time for a split second.

Chapter 3

I suddenly woke up, the alarm clock said 204 a.m. Somebody was at my door. I played dead. I didn't open my eyes or move. I was almost paralysed in fear regardless. The door slowly opened, as I was trying not to open my eyes or move. Something was entering my room, and I heard a clacking sound. I couldn't take it anymore. I was going to open my eyes and scream for my parents.

"Danny, sorry to wake you up. I'm just checking the light switch to see if the power is off in the whole house, or if it's just one blown fuse. I hope I didn't scare you darling." My mom chuckled softly, and I was highly annoyed. I pretended I was sleeping, and didn't hear her. My mom can be annoying sometimes, and I was quite embarrassed. I instantly went back to sleep, but I was soon awoken again. I came out of my sleep to a strange noise. There was a shuffling in the corner of the room, but this time it wasn't my mom. Soft footsteps creeped closer, and closer towards my bed. My heart started banging against my rips, as if it was trying to escape. The only thing I could do was lie in bed with the covers across my chest. I was motionless with my eyes closed. The soft steps were almost right next to my bed, and I heard the floor gradually creaking beside me. A cold breath sprayed across my face terrifying me; 'it' was within inches of my uncovered face. Drops of cold saliva dripped onto my face, making it harder and harder not to move or open my eyes. I heard something next to my head. Then, I felt something touch my ear. It got right next to my ear, and slowly chanted gibberish. It was like, if somebody was quietly speaking in tongues into my ear. I couldn't take it any longer. At any moment, I was going to open my eyes, and see what was in front of me. It took its leathery cold hands, and stroked the side of my face as its long dirty nails, slightly scrapped my face. The demon made a raspy sound, as it chattered its teeth. It seemed as if, it was thriving on taking its next victim. The fiend then tightly grasped my wrists and quietly hissed "Look at me!" It had a drawn-out tone of voice and spoke in a strange accent. A hard object started to press into my chest right above my heart. I felt light flashing outside my closed eyelids. I couldn't take it anymore; I was going lose this game. I opened my eyes and let out the most blood curdling scream known to man. The first thing I saw was my mom jump up. She was standing at the light switch, turning off the light.

"Baby, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you like that! The power just came back on, and I left the light switch on in your room by accident. I didn't want to ruin your sleep, since you have a big test tomorrow. What were those weird noises you were making in your sleep?" she seemed like she heard the noises too. It had to be real.

"I don't know mom, but regardless, you've scared the heck out of me, so I'm going to sleep on the couch in your room tonight!" I was barely able to keep myself calm. I was trying not to shake as much as possible. "Ok honey," she said. That night, I did not sleep for even one second. The thought of whatever that thing was kept me awake the whole night. Anyone of us in this small town were fair game at that point.

Chapter 4

The next morning as I went to take a shower, I noticed a long scrap running across my face, where that thing touched me. Unfortunately, it wasn't a nightmare. It was a real nightmare. Right before I left for school that morning, the phone rang, and I heard my mom talking with Adam's mom on the phone. Something happened to Adam last night, maybe he wasn't so lucky. I quickly shovelled my cereal into my mouth and ran out the door to catch the school bus. I couldn't stop thinking about why such a horrible thing would happen to our little farming town. When I arrived at school for first period class, Adam's seat was empty. I shuffled towards my desk and sat down as the bell rang.

"Mrs. D.! Mrs. D.! Is it true that Adam was kidnapped too? Is that why he's missing today?" Spazzy Spence blurted out in his usually uncontrollable fashion.

"Shut up!" I burst out. I was furious.

"Stop it! Stop it you two!" shouted Mrs. D. as she ran out of the classroom and slammed the door. The faint sound of crying could be heard outside the door. She soon entered back into the classroom.

"He's sick, just like all the other students," she said with no emotion, as she took out a tissue from her pocket and wiped her eyes.

"Class, open your math books to chapter five. It's time to review fractions," she muttered, trying to bring herself together. Everyone in the classroom could tell Mrs. D. knew something about what was going on. But she could not tell us. Why else would such a good teacher get so upset over this? Mrs. D. never showed anger or sadness, and always acted professionally. Halfway through class, somebody tapped my shoulder, and passed me a note. "Meet me behind the large trees in the schoolyard at lunch," was neatly written on the paper with the signature of Chris at the bottom. As I walked through the schoolyard the kids were all just sitting around in groups with worried expressions on their faces. Nobody was playing, there was only hopelessness and fear in the schoolyard. I could see Chris standing behind the group of trees at the back of the playground.

"It is much worse than I could have imagined," he paused as he looked down. I could see his hands shaking.

"It visited my sister last night, and she won't talk to anyone or get out of bed," Chris said, holding back tears.

"I spent the whole morning before school researching rural Chinese customs and traditions, and apparently there is something we can do to fix this," he went on to say.

"What! I will do anything!" I shouted.

"It won't be easy."

"Just tell me!" I yelled.

"We need to proceed with what's called a forgiveness ceremony at the site where the transgression occurred," he confidently revealed.

"What does that even mean? Can you speak English!" I cried out at him.

"To put it simply, we need to break into the Chinese woman's shop at 4:44 a.m., and do a séance, a kind of ritual to beg for forgiveness for our town. It's the only way to lift the curse on all our friends and family. Please be strong, a lot of people are depending on us," he explained to me as he pushed up his glasses.

"Ok, meet me in front of the shop at 4 a.m. tonight," I suggested, and he agreed. "Tonight, would be the night, we try to fix this insane mess," I said. The rest of the day at school, I just sat in my seat starring at the clock. I watched the second hand slowly budge to the next slot, as if it was struggling to move forward. The bell rang, telling everyone it was the end of the school day, and we all crowded in the hallway, making our way towards the buses. I sat down in my usual seat on the bus and watched the fields go by like always. When we made our way into the center strip of town, I noticed a few black vans parked along the street. It seemed very out of place in our rural community. As we drove past the woman's shop the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I could feel somebody was watching me.

Chapter 5

Around eleven p.m., I went to bed making it seem like everything was normal. I didn't want to let my parents know something was up. I ended up just lying in bed waiting for what seemed like years to pass. Finally, around three I slowly got out of bed fully dressed to leave the house. I walked very carefully all the way down to the basement. I stepped away from the center of the stairs, so they would not creak and wake my parents up. I approached our small basement window, opened it, and pulled myself out onto the front lawn next to my house. I left my bike next to the side of the house yesterday after school. I got onto my bike, pushed the petals as fast as they could go. The street lights started flickering as I rode past them. I felt an eerie chill run through my body. The road to the center of town was nearly pitch black and had farmland on either side. As I was riding my bike along the rural, vacant road, I saw little flickering lights in the center of the road. I came up to a cow laying on the middle of the road. When I got closer, I could see lit candles surrounding it. It looked like some type of sacrifice with lines drawn around it in a star pattern. Suddenly, I heard the chattering of teeth, my heart skipped a beat. I heard the same gibberish from the creature the other night. My heart started pounding, and I got out of there as fast as possible. After biking a few miles, I stopped my bike. I wasn't strong enough to do this. I was just a kid, but I needed to do this for Adam. Soon enough, I arrived at the small downtown strip of our town. "Pssst," Chris whispered from an allyway close to the woman's shop. I walked into the ally, and saw Chris holding a big black backpack. We locked up our bikes in the dark alleyway, and began to walk out. Swiftly, I felt a hand grab me and throw me against the wall. A police car slowly passed by.

"Close call," Chris said.

"You can say that again," I answered as Chris grasped his black bag.

"I brought everything we need to perform the ritual in the bag," he assured.

"Ok," My hands were shaking, and I got really nervous. Chris' head poked outside the alleyway, and he signalled the coast was clear. We dashed down the block into the alleyway behind the woman's shop. Behind the store was a small, unlit, dirty courtyard. There was a large wooden door with a strange, red pattern on the door. It looked like it had some traditional Asian pattern carved into it. There was a golden circle with five dragon heads in an X pattern. Rapidly, the dragon's eyes began to glow a deep purple color. We both jumped backwards. "Keep calm," Chris said under his breath. The glow soon faded. Chris pulled two thin metal sticks out of his backpack, and began to jiggle them around in the door knob. After a few minutes of fiddling with the door handle, the door just popped open. There was a pitch-black hallway leading into the main shop area that could be seen. The shop had old wooden floors that creaked, as we slowly crept in. Chris pulled out a long candlestick and struck a match to light the candle. The main area of the shop still had police tape wrapped around a small area in front of the counter. The walls were dirty and brown and lined with dusty tall shelves. The room vibrated and stopped. Then, it happened again.

"Chris! I'm leaving!" I quickly turned toward the back door, and Chris grabbed my arm.

"Be strong. We need to do this for Adam, my sister, and our whole town," he looked visibly shaken as well, but he put on a brave face.

"Chris, do you see that?" A small, dim-lit orb floated by us and started moving towards the cellar.

"Follow it!" he said, and we began to go down a wooden spiral staircase into the cellar. The cellar was cold, moist and pitch black with a short ceiling. The candle light made freaky shadows through the small stone room. Old cobwebs could be seen, while cockroaches scattered away from the candlelight. The orb gradually landed on the ground in the middle of the cramped cellar. Without warning, the door at the top of the stairs slammed shut, and the room vibrated again. Little bits of dust stone fell from the ceiling, and made little cracking noises as they hit the ground.

"We will do it here," Chris said, as he set up a small board with letters on the ground.

"What are you doing?" I paced back and forth.

"This is how we will communicate with 'it'." He set a rectangular piece of wood on the floor. The board had all the letters of the alphabet on it. "It's called an Ouija board." He was digging through his backpacking looking for something. He pulled out a small piece of wood with a clear glass circle in it. He put some stubby candles around the table. Clutching the lighter, he started lighting them one by one and drew a star around the table. His hands were shuddering and sweat dripped from his face. The board jerked and startled us. "It must be possessed," he said. He put the little piece of wood on the board. It moved towards the letter S and stopped. Then, it moved to the letters A,C,R,I,F,I,C, and E.

"Sacrifice!" I shrieked. Chris' face turned white as a sheet, and he did not say a word.

"This is worse than I thought," Chris was deeply thinking about something.

"According to the legends, the restitution will be an eye for an eye, a life for a life," he softly said. He was slightly weeping.

"I'm not doing it; I want to live," I firmly said. In that moment, I realized that, even though my life was boring and meaningless. I wanted to live, experience, and achieve anything I wanted to. Strangely enough, at that point, I wanted to live so bad. It seemed like I had taken life for granted, and not actually lived my life. Ironically, I needed the threat of my life to be taken away to realize this.

"But, you'll be a hero. This will give your life meaning and accomplishment." Chris was trying to convince me to do it. He looked scared, and not willing to do it himself.

"The orb's moving!" I shouted. The room shook again. The orb went into the wall, and a dark blue portal opened. The portal swished and bulged in a mix of dark blue colors. "One of us needs to go in there, or both of us, and our whole town will be doomed," Chris stated, as he started freaking out.

"Ok I'll do it," I hesitated. If it saved Adam, I will do it. If it will save my family, I will do it. If it saves our town, I will do it. A tear rolled down my cheek, and I said goodbye to the world, I have come to known. If my parents knew, they would be proud of me. Adam will get to live a happy life. Marry, have children, work a nice office job. At least I did something for somebody else. Not just living to serve myself.

"I will share your story with the world; I promise," Chris was bowing his head down towards me. He put his hand on my back and said, "I am honored to meet you." I took a deep breath and readied myself to experience the end of my short life. I walked towards the portal, when I heard teeth chattering behind me. The light sound of gibberish and speaking in tongues could be heard. Quickly, something clawed me from behind and threw me on the floor. "It's here!" Chris yelled. It wrapped its hands around my neck, and I felt long nails digging into my throat. "Don't look at it! Don't open your eyes! It's disgusting!" Chris screamed. Its cold breath blew into my face and drops of freezing cold spit fell onto my face. I was going to pass out from fear. The beast choked me and yelled "look at me," over and over in an unhinged voice. I knew If I looked at it, I would be cursed. "Help me Chris!" I gasped, while being choked. But Chris didn't reply. Maybe he ran out of the room, or maybe he was instantly cursed by looking at it. This was the end of my life. It put its face inches from mine. I could feel the chilly air coming from it. Its nails dug deeper into my neck, and its fist gripped tighter. I started flailing my arms around trying to punch it as hard as I could. I felt my senses fading when Chris started screaming like a warrior running into battle. Something exploded and a large gust of wind blew towards the portal. I grabbed onto the stone floor to avoid being sucked in and everything went black.

Chapter 6

When I came to, it was dawn. The first light of the day was shinning into the building. I was confused. Was I in heaven? After a moment, I realized what Chris did. He ran into the portal and sacrificed himself. I honestly don't know if I would have followed through with it, but Chris became a true hero that day. I ran upstairs and out of the building. I made it home right before my parents woke up. I heard the phone ring from the other room. My mother gasped, and she started crying.

"Adam's normal again!" She burst into my room, wiping tears from her eyes. I let out a sigh of relief, the ritual had worked. I gathered my books and got ready for school. Adam wasn't on the bus that morning. When I walked into school, Adam and everyone who had gone missing were sitting in their normal seats, like nothing had ever happened. "Adam!" I ran over and grabbed him. I had my best friend back. I was practically crying.

"I have so much to tell you since you left," I was sobbing.

"You'll have to tell me all about it, I can't remember a thing after passing out that night." He was still drowsy and kind of out of it. After explaining everything to Adam, the full whole story in detail, he was completely shocked, and deeply grateful for what I accomplished. Although, the real hero was Chris. We never saw Chris again after that. His parents reported him missing, and believed it was some sort of kidnapping incident. We built a memorial shrine for Chris in the forest behind our school. We told all the students, what he did for the town, and he became a bit of a folk legend. Some say he went straight to heaven for his sacrifice. Oh, and the next day while we were on the school bus. We saw a new store open in the same location of the haunting. It was some kind of African Voodoo antiques store.

Rural Renfrew County

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 1

W

hen people think of Canada, they usually think of some type of utopia, free, safe, and socialist. Well, to be honest it has two of the three qualities, at least from my experience. I was born and raised in a small place called Palmer Rapids, located in rural Ontario. I'm what you would call a country girl through and through. I always loved living in a place that has more animals than people, and where there are at least a few kilometers in-between neighbours' plots of land. The closest town of about five hundred people is Barry's Bay. I work there as an administrator for the township, but that's a good forty minutes' drive from where I live, and that's ok, because it's a beautiful drive to work. There are lakes, rivers, and forests, as far as the eye can see. Some of the nicest lakes and rivers in the world are in my area. My side of town is almost untouched nature, except for the rare house. My job wasn't so hard, I guess you could say it was your average office job, the ideal nine to five. It allowed me to have a steady income with job security, and it was not easy to find work in the area. I spent many years unemployed before landing my job. Most people are working in small retail businesses, or construction jobs. All the young people ended up leaving the area. They all moved to the city, or at least a bigger town to find work. The country life was the life for me; I would never consider moving to a big city like Toronto that just wasn't for me.

It all started one cold October night when I thought I heard a knock at the door. I went down two sets of my old creaky stairs to the first floor and opened up the large wooden Victorian Era door to find, nothing. It was dark, and I couldn't really see anything or anyone. My house backs onto a large forest of pine trees, and the occasional maple tree, for lord knows how many kilometers. My front yard is also made up of dense forest that has a large gravel driveway, leading out about 200 meters, to a small unpaved road. After that, the road leads a few kilometers in either direction to the next house, and eventually connects to the 515. I walked outside, it was a chilly autumn night, and I could feel the cool breeze on my exposed arms which caused little goosebumps to appear. Like always, there were more stars in the sky, then grains of sand on all the beaches in the world. I checked the back of the house, and there was nothing but the sound of crickets and a small glow from the moon shining eerily on the trees. The noise was nothing but a branch hitting the side of my big old house. Why would I be worried? There is virtually no crime in the area, in fact there is about one O.P.P. officer in the whole region. I quickly went back inside the house, and soon went to bed. Strangely that night, I woke up having a nightmare as if something startled me awake, but I can't remember exactly because I was half asleep.

Chapter 2

A few days later, I forgot all about the other night, and it was laundry day just like every other Wednesday. As I hung up all the clothes to dry, I noticed something very strange. All my panties were missing. The first thought that came into my mind was, it was Johnny. Johnny's a guy I was seeing at the time, that lived in Barry's Bay. He was a funny guy, but also had a caring side to him as well. He had to be playing a joke on me. I quickly ran to the phone and called Johnny.

"You're so hilarious stealing my underwear," I laughed aloud.

"What?" John's voice sounded taken aback. Johnny was surprised.

"Johnny, all my underwear are missing. I know you're playing a prank on me," I giggled as I laughed.

"Julie, I'm not playing a joke on you, I swear to God! I'm coming over now," Johnny said frantically as he hung up the phone. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up as I waited for him. Johnny arrived about forty-five minutes later, and calmed me down. After all Johnny was a very calm and composed man, and I knew I would be safe with him that night. There was a knock at the door.

"Johnny!" I ran to him and hugged him.

"What the heck is going on?" he yelled.

"I dunno, my underwear is all missing."

"I didn't do it I swear," he said in a serious way. We thoroughly went around the old three story Victorian house checking everywhere, and locking up all the windows and doors. The place was as secure as the old Kingston Penitentiary. Then, we decided to call the police because we couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. As the police arrived at the house Johnny greeted them anxiously. "Officer, I don't know how to exactly put this... but my girlfriend's underwear is all missing." Johnny looked embarrassed as he kicked some stones off the front porch.

"What do you want us to do about it." The tall built officer glanced at his partner hiding a smile and holding back laughter.

"Office please help us, I'm scared," I desperately let out.

"My apologies ma'am, but we get this kind of situation often. People can be forgetful, and misplace things, many random things tend to happen. You'd be surprised. Wind blows clothes off the line, animals steal bright shiny clothes, washing machines tear things to shreds, and people misplace things. If you need any assistance in the future don't hesitate to call us again." The officer calmly finished up and glanced at his partner for agreement. He handed us his contact information. Then, they walked towards their squad car, got in, and drove away. That night to take the edge off we had a few drinks together; well, I had more than a few. It was the only thing I could do to take my nervousness away.

The next morning, I woke up at 7 a.m. like always, and gave Johnny a kiss goodbye and watched him get into his car. He drove out of the long narrow driveway surrounded by trees. Johnny worked for the local utilities company, so he often worked different hours, or was on call depending on the situation. He was a good man, and I knew one day that we would get married and start our own family. I went into the kitchen, and poured myself some cereal. As the little banging of cereal hit the plate, I noticed the peanuts were gone. Why would Johnny take all the peanuts if he was allergic? He must have taken them for a co-worker or something, as I mentioned before he was often very thoughtful of others. The following weeks were very uneventful and dull, as life can often be very slow out here in the country side.

A few weeks later, the phone rang, and I picked it up, but nobody responded; I heard just breathing into the phone. I slammed the phone down. I started to nervously sweat. The phone rang again. I slowly picked up the phone to hear Johnny's voice.

"Hello."

"Johnny don't ever do that again," I screamed.

"Do what?"

"Oh sorry, there was some problem before with the connection when you called," I apologized.

"Let's go to Barry Bay tonight. There's a lake festival going on," he replied.

"Sure, I'm coming to your house now," I said.

It was a beautiful night in the small town of Barry's Bay. The small community was gathered in the tiny downtown celebrating the annual summer festival with face painting, busking, magicians, and a small stage set up on Opeongo line. We walked down Dunn St. towards the Chapel, and down to the tiny dock on the river. He rented a small boat for us. We stepped on the wobbly boat and puttered down the Madawaska river. It was a warm summer night, and thousands of stars reflected in the still water. Johnny stopped the boat, and then howling of wolves could be heard in the distant mountains surrounding the river.

"Will you marry me?" Johnny said as he opened a box with a golden ring inside containing three diamonds with rubies in-between.

"Of course!" I replied with tears in my eyes.

"We are going to have a great family and life together." Johnny whispered as we held each other and, looked into the night sky. We slowly drifted towards the dock on Island lane, and docked our boat. We decided to go back to my place that night.

Chapter 3

When we arrived at my house, I put the key in the deadbolt, and turned the key. Nothing happened. The deadbolt was already turned open.

"Johnny!" I screamed and ran to Johnny.

"It's ok, you left your house in a rush. You forgot to lock the deadbolt. Don't let this ruin our perfect night." He assured me as he put his hand on my back.

"Ok," I reluctantly replied, but in my gut, I knew something was wrong. We entered the house quickly as it started to rain and began to celebrate our engagement with some Crown Royal and James Ready 5.5%. I was so nervous, but the alcohol took the edge off.

In the morning, my boyfriend gave me a kiss before he left for work, and I slept late into the afternoon. I woke up to a pounding headache. I must have drunk way too much last night, J.R. and Crown Royal apparently don't mix together well. Regardless, it was a Saturday, and that means I ain't working. Johnny had to go to work because he works for the local utility company, and there was supposed to be a storm coming in. I rolled around in bed for a few hours, nursing my hangover and playing on my phone. I got out of bed and stumbled towards the window. Sure enough, I saw a behemoth of a storm rolling in in the distance. The clouds were dark as night and marching forward like an army into battle, with flashes of lightening too far to be heard. Soon enough, like a typhoon the rain slammed the house like gun fire and tree branches began to snap. These kinds of storms always make me feel uneasy. I went downstairs into the kitchen to get some food, when I realized I left the radio on from last night. Suddenly, the radio station changed from its regular show. "This is an emergency broadcast from the R.C.M.P. to inform you that an escaped prisoner from The Ottawa Carleton Maximum Security Prison may be in the area. Detectives working on the case have found evidence this morning that leads them to believe the escapee is in Renfrew Country. People in the townships of Rockingham, Latchford Bridge and Palmer Rapids should immediately lock all their doors, and not answer the door for any strangers whatsoever. The convict is six feet tall, Caucasian, large build with black hair, dark brown eyes and is convicted of murder, rape and torture." My heart started racing, and I started to sweat and hyperventilate. It was getting late into the evening; it was completely dark outside already. I need to call Johnny _right_ now. When unexpectedly, a big flash of lightening lit up the kitchen like it was day time, followed by explosive thunder, and the power went out.

The house was completely pitch black, and my heart started beating like a jackhammer. Warm sweat rolled down my face, and I couldn't see anything. I knew there was a flashlight in my bedroom. I slowly walked upstairs following the banister, blind as a bat, feeling my way to the room. The stairs creaked as I walked up them. I felt around on the desk and opened the drawer. The flashlight was there, and I turned it on. I found a note by Johnny on my nightstand. I must have been too hungover to notice it. It said. "Sorry, I have to work late tonight, and there is going to be a massive storm, so after work I'm going straight home. Call me tonight. Also, you should be careful of leaks tonight because I could hear banging in the attic last night. There must be a hole in the roof causing a draft," the note read. My body froze in fear as another blast of lightening illuminated the room followed by roaring thunder and howling wind. I went to the basement to check the fuse box. I flipped the switch up and down but nothing happened. Abruptly, I heard somebody walking down the stairs from the floor above. I turned my flashlight off. Mabye, it really was a person walking down the stairs, or maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me. I turned my flashlight off and quietly went back upstairs. I was going to get my gun just in case. I made it into the closet on the ground floor and grabbed my father's 30 ot 6 big game hunting rifle. My father left in the closet because he was hunting in the forest behind my house last weekend. I pulled the bolt up and backwards and watched a huge round enter the chamber. Then, I pulled the bolt forward and down. It made a "tsik tsik" sound, just as another strike of lightning crashed into the forest behind my house. I noticed upstairs, there was a faint light coming from the third-floor office. I crept up stairs ready to fire, slowly turning the corner, trigger in one hand flashlight and forestock in the other. But there was nothing, except my laptop opened on the desk in my office. That's strange, I don't remember turning on my laptop. As I approached I could see there was a message open on Microsoft Word written on the screen it said, "I'm going to enjoy this." Quickly, a large figure lurched out from the shadows. I fired the gun, but the round hit the ceiling, and he smashed the back of my head, fracturing my skull as I fell to the ground. I was fighting to remain conscious when a bag was put over my head. I heard a sinister voice mutter. "I like it when they fight." Ropes were bound around my limbs tightly. And In that moment, I realized how much I wanted to live. I was only 28 years old. I never really emotionally connected with a man or got married, or had kids, or got promoted at work, or showed my family how much I truly loved them. It was a feeling of meaning, in my otherwise existentially void life, and it took the moment of death to realize it. It was such a startling irony. After that, all I could remember in my concussed state was multiple gun fire going off.

Then, a man removed the bag off my head. It was a police officer, and the body of the man was laying beside me. Murky dark blood, and a large machete lay next to his body. The officer screamed. "Are you alive? You may be the luckiest person this world has ever seen!" The officer was amazed at the timing. The power lines and phone lines had been cut to the house. Johnny discovered this, and called the police. He tried calling me and the signal was dead. He confirmed it with the local utilities company. Obviously, with the convict in the area; he came rushing here to save me. The criminal must have been living in the attic for days, while I was in the house. He was waiting, watching, and deviously calculating when to kill me. He must have entered the house the night I heard something at the front door. He was also the person who stole my panties! I was then rushed to the hospital and put in intensive care for a week, while John slept by my bedside. I never really recovered mentally after that. I have been in and out of psychiatric care hospitals ever since the incident, suffering from paranoia, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. People are always watching me and trying to kill me. I can't leave my bedroom because of my crippling anxiety. and I wake up every night screaming. Start living your dreams now because you won't realize this, until it's too late.

###

Final Resting Place

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8
Chapter 1

"D

ong Chim!" A student ran up behind Joe.

"Ahhh, what the..." Joe cringed, like he had just been sexually assaulted. Just then, his co-teacher ran into the room.

"Joseph, is everything ok?" she said in fluent English with a Korean accent.

"That student just stuck his fingers up my rear end!" Joe announced in a shocked manner.

"Minsu ya elo wa!" The student got out of his seat, and walked to the teacher avoiding eye contact. He stuck out his hand, and the teacher hit it with a wooden stick. The boy whimpered and returned to his seat. It appeared he learned his lesson, not to 'Dong Chim' the teacher.

"I'm very sorry, Joseph. Students in Korea like every country can be active sometimes. I will call his mother. I know it's your first day, so keep working hard, and you will become a great teacher soon." She confidently walked around the classroom and the students straightened up, and were silent. "Thanks," Joe replied as he was gathering himself together. The rest of the day was better, but Joe was in over his head to say the least. Finally, the end of the day came, and with it the last bell rang. Joe got up out of his desk and walked through the dark hallways of the large community center. The large windows on each floor, showed a cluster of apartment buildings densely packed together. Some of them lit up sporadically. He dragged his feet through the large empty hallways of the 3rd floor and noticed a large crack running through the side of the staircase. His commute could have been the shortest in the world. In fact, it only took thirty seconds to get home. All he had to do was walk through the parking lot to the dorm behind the school. Joe put his small plastic trinket onto the small scanner, located next to the locked door, and it said something in Korean, and unlocked the door. Joe continued to walk through the parking lot noticing how dark the mountain was behind the school. This is because his school was on the side of a mountain, right where the mountain hiking pathways begin. You had to walk up a steep sidewalk to reach the school. The school grounds were also on a steep incline. The school was on the lowest level. The dorms on a level above, and there was an even larger hill behind the dorms. If you walked out of the front door of the school you needed to walk up a small incline to reach the second flat level the dorms were on. Joe entered the kitchen and living room area of the dorm. The sound of frying mandu and noodles emanated into the air, as a dreary Joe walked into the room. He was wondering what he had gotten himself into coming to this strange country, to try a profession he had no experience or education in. Furthermore, Joe was lacking confidence and self-esteem. He pulled out a chair and sat down on the dinner table and laid his head into his arms.

"Cheer up Joe, it was your first freaking day," a co-worker said as he massaged Joe's shoulders.

"I can't do this, I'm not a good teacher. I'm not cut out for this," Joe conceded.

"You should have seen Mike's first day, a kid crapped his pants, and tried to clean it up with his bare hands. There was poo everywhere," all the co-workers burst into laughter.

"Yeah, you'll be fine Joe. In a few weeks, you'll get the hang of things, and it will be a breeze. Did you get the dreaded 'Dong Chim'? that is a bizarrely Korean thing for sure. The kid locks his fingers together and points out his index fingers. Then goes straight at you from behind. It's ok man, really, you're not the first, and you won't be the last. It's almost like a rite of passage," a female co-worker added as she was cooking nearby.

"I need to go to bed. I'm still jet lagged from the seventeen-hour flight here," Joe was very sleepy indeed.

The next day Joe woke up feeling better and more importantly less exhausted. He stumbled into work around 11 a.m. His classroom was very bright, the wall was completely glass which looked down into the town. It was a very nice view of an urban setting juxtaposed with nature. Large mountain ranges surrounded the town, and it had a river running through it. There was an stunning view from the school, which was perched on the mountain. The classrooms had big whiteboards and velcro patches around the walls, where you could put laminated pictures and words. Joe was sitting at his desk lesson planning and preparing for that day's classes. The manager knocked at the door.

"Hello Joe, can I come?"

"Sure," Joe stood up out of his seat and acknowledged her.

"Tomorrow, we have new teacher arriving, from South Africa. Please kind to him and helping." She was struggling to speak English to her best ability, as she was part of the office and not one of the teachers.

"Yes, I will do that Mindy."

"Sure sure sure," she replied often like that.

The bell rang and did its little cutesy jingle. The kids ran into the class room like flood water breaking a levee. Joe began to doubt himself again that he could be a teacher, or that he could succeed at anything. The classes soon finished and most them were disasters, but it's expected when your new at teaching in a strange country, where the kids can't understand you. At the end of the day Joe picked himself up again and headed to his dorm room. His dorm room was nice. It had a balcony which the whole town could be seen from, as well as a nice bathroom, spacious bedroom, T.V. and desk. He hooked up his internet and skyped his parents.

"Mom, I'm coming home," he sounded defeated.

"Stop it Joe, it's your first week. Just give it a chance. How are you supposed to handle a job back in Michigan, if you can't even handle this job? You never worked a real job before, so get used to it, life's tough," she was never easy on Joe.

"Ok Mom, I will try my best to handle a real job for once, instead of quitting all my minimum wage jobs like before. The job market is pretty bad back home, and I did just graduate not that long ago." Joe sighed and tried to muster up some strength to put on a good show for his mother.

"Good, I'm glad to see your attitude changing. Also, I'm not paying for your flight home, you're on your own now buddy. You're an adult now, but I'm here for you, and your father is too. We love you, so keep your chin up," she said.

"Ok Mom, I love you too, see you later." Joe felt better after talking to his mother. He kind of missed her already.

Regardless, if he succeeded or not, he was stuck in Korea for at least six weeks. This is because in Korea you get paid monthly, and the first pay was irregular, so he was going to have to wait for at least six weeks. He wasn't going anywhere even if he was desperately afraid.

The next day, Joe was starting to get into the rhythm of the class schedules, meetings, lesson plans, but more importantly his sleeping pattern was starting to adjust. The day went like the last few days, a disaster, but this day was a little less disastrous than previous ones. Clearly, Joe still didn't have the confidence yet to command the classroom. Soon enough, the end of the day came after an active day of teaching all those rambunctious elementary students. Once again, Joe walked through the empty, dark corridor and stopped at the huge, bulging window located in front of the staircase. He glanced at the large apartment complexes located through the town and saw all the little lights reflecting off the swelling river. When Joe walked into the dorms, there was a guy sitting on the couch watching T.V.

"Hey, are you the new guy?" Joe had a confused look upon his face.

"Ah yes, that's me. My name's Peter nice to meet you," he gave a friendly greeting to Joe.

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Joe. Wow! You're a petty buff guy." Joe seemed very comfortable around Peter. Joe didn't usually warm up to people quickly. He was curious to know how a person with such light features could be considered "African". Joe secretly wished he could be as blond and strong as him.

"Yeah well in the town I'm from we grow them big. You farm, and avoid getting eaten by wildlife. It's the Boer way!" He had a confident way of speaking, as well as a slight charm about him.

"So, you're an Afrikaans native speaker?" Joe curiously sat down on the other couch across from Peter.

"That's right, also I'm a registered teacher in South Africa and majored in English Education."

"Great, maybe you can show me a thing or two about how to be a good teacher?" Joe kind of fidgeted as he asked for help.

"Sure, no problem man, but I'm going to bed right now because I'm deadly exhausted. Where is my room?" He inquired with an exhausted look about him.

"It's at the end of the hallway, on the second floor right next to my room." Peter got up and slowly shuffled down the hallway towards his room and called it a night.

Chapter 2

Joe woke up the next morning nice and early to natural sunlight creeping into his room. He sauntered over to the balcony and opened the door. A blast of hot air burst into room. Summers in Korea were rather hot and tropical like, much hotter than Michigan, that's for sure. The view from his balcony was gorgeous, mountain peaks and vast flowing rivers could be seen far off into the distance. Maybe Korea wasn't so bad after all. It was safe and the people here were nice, but a little shy, especially to foreigners, maybe because they had little experience with them. There was a knocking at the door. Joe ran to the door and quickly opened it up. "Hey, tonight let me treat you to a real South African 'braai'. I woke up super early today because I'm still on South African time, and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. There was a supermarket around our school that has a bunch of different meat. I found a few different grills in the storage room. We can do it on the main floor patio." He excitedly said, as he dropped large bags of meat on the floor. Joe was more than happy to accept the offer.

In the evening, Joe and Peter both got off work at the same time. They completed the worlds shortest commute to the dorms behind the school and began to set up the barbeque. They set up three big barbeques and loaded them with coal and briquettes. Peter had prepared well for their 'braii'. They had Korean style duck, pork, and beef. Soon the meat started to sizzle and crack as drops of grease hit the red embers.

"The view's not bad," Peter added, as he flipped some meat and poured them some beer and soju. soju is rice liquor Korean people love dearly. It comes in a little green bottle and costs a buck; Korean people drink it with meals.

"Yeah, the apartment complex along the river and the lurking mountains way out in the distance are really scenic. I have never seen anything like this," Joe said.

"Agreed, I have seen a lot of amazing landscapes and animals in South Africa, but never anything like this either. Have you ever climbed the mountain behind the school? It looks like we can just enter a mountain trail from the other side of the school grounds." He took a big bite of a tender piece of duck.

"We can, and we can have a 'braai' on the mountain too! We'll just bring one of these little grill grates and put coals under it." Joe stood up and stared at the mountain.

"Agreed, let's do it this weekend. Joe, have you noticed anything strange about the students here?" Peter suddenly changed the topic, and things got serious.

"No, why?" Joe had a surprised look on his face.

"Oh nothing, the students just seem super superstitious here. If you try talking about ghosts and stuff like that, they immediately go silent and look super freaked out. They all completely believe in ghosts, and I can't figure out why." Peters face looked very tense, and Joe didn't say anything. They finished eating and put away everything.

On Saturday Morning, Joe got up and knocked on Peter's door. Joe and Peter gathered all the hiking materials they needed and grabbed some coal, meat, and a small grilling grate. They exited out of the back door of the dorms. Behind the dorms was a small almost vertical hill that led up to a forested area which was undeveloped, and from there it was mountain, and mountain only. The boys climbed up the small shrubby hill almost slipping down a few times, but eventually found a way up. When they got to the top of the hill, they were almost on par with the third floor of the dorms. However, they could see onto the top of the school's roof because the school was situated lower on the school property. The school was about three quarters up the mountain, and even the school grounds themselves were on a steep incline. The boys found a patch of flat ground at the top of the hill, surrounded by local Korean people's gardens. They were growing various types of vegetables. They noticed a beaten pathway running along a ledge with a rope hanging off a tree. They climbed up the roots of the tree holding the rope to pull themselves up to the top of the elevated pathway. When they reached the top, they walked for few minutes. They decided to look for a spot to make a grill, just off the pathway, right behind the school. They went off the pathway and down into the brush and found an open area that wasn't covered in trees. There was a small hump adjacent to a small stone ledge. "Let's make it here," Peter proclaimed. "Here we shall build the barbeque," he said. Joe agreed because it was literally five minutes from the dorms, yet secluded enough. They began to dig a small hole inside the lump of dirt and set up some rocks around the fire spot. They stuck a large rock into the top of the dirt pile. As soon as they started making a fire, they noticed somebody walking around them above the pathway. They immediately stomped out the fire, and put it out. The man came down into the brush. As he got close they noticed, he was an old Korean man. They started to freak out because old Korean people were notorious for scolding people. The man approached the lump of dirt, and just started losing it. He was screaming and pointing at them, of course they had no idea what he was saying. He just kept saying "jeoju," "jeoju," "jeoju." The boys stood there looking at the ground. Joe happened to notice something a little strange. Below the area they were standing on was held up by carefully crafted rocks to form a ledge. All the pieces were carefully put together to form a wall holding up the area in the clearing. The man finally started to calm down and a tear rolled down his face. Unexpectedly, his face turned white as a ghost, and he just bolted out of there, like he had seen the wrath of God himself. Joe and Peter looked at each other and ran down the mountain, jumping off the roped ledge and sliding down the small hill. They ran into Peter's room, slammed the door, locked the door knob and deadbolt.

"What the hell just happened?" Peter was pacing around the room.

"That guy went crazy! Maybe we're not supposed to make fires on the mountain, but why would he get so emotional about it?" Joe sat there with his hand on his head.

"Oh no!" Peter sat there with shocked look on his face.

"That wasn't a lump of dirt!" Peter said.

"It was a grave!" Joe completed the thought.

"How do you know for sure?" Peter inquired.

"When the guy was going crazy, I looked down and saw that somebody had built a perfect stone ridge around the area," Joe explained.

"Exactly, and why else would the elderly man get so heated over that?" Peter agreed.

"I hope we don't get arrested and deported for this," Joe said in a worried way.

"Let's go back tonight and fix the grave, clean it up, and pay our respects." Peter seemed to have figured out how to fix this insane situation.

"We'll go back tonight, nobody will see us," Joe decided. Around two ante meridiem, Joe and Peter snuck out the back entrance of the dorms from the second floor and stealthily went up the hill. They brought flash lights with them, but did not want to alert anyone to the fact of what they did. Luckily, there was enough moon light, so that they could find the pathway and shimmy up the rope. "The spot we went off the path way should be around here," Peter said. They went down the small rim onto the flat and brushy area. They began to search for the grave. Abruptly, Joe let out a gasp. Peter came running over to Joe to find him pointing a flashlight at an empty grave. Peter had to hold Joe up because he was nearly passing out from fear. "It's impossible!" Peter let out, but they both damn knew, it was the exact same spot they were earlier that day. The hair on the back of their necks rose and little goose bumps formed on their arms. Something here was seriously deranged. "Let's get out of here right now!" Joe was shaking uncontrollably. They both looked at each other, but didn't even need say anything. It was clear they were both thinking the same thing. When they got back to the dorms, they decided not to talk about this ever again. To Just pretend like it never happened, and to deny they were ever there. It wasn't them, and they have no idea what you're talking about.

Sunday morning, Joe woke up very early because he was having some night terrors. He went down to the first floor to make some coffee. Peter was already there. Nobody else had woken up yet.

"How did you sleep?" Joe asked as he pushed the button on the coffee machine.

"Terrible, I kept having this dream where something was stalking and chasing me," Peter said very softly. Joe dropped his mug on the ground, and it shattered into a million pieces.

"I had the same dream too," his face looked catatonic.

"What was that old man saying, something like 'jeoju'?" Peter was fidgeting with his hands.

"It means _curse_ in Korean. I looked it up last night in an online dictionary." Joe slowly walked upstairs to his room and did not leave it the whole day.

Chapter 3

The next morning, Joe woke up nice and early and went to his classroom to start lesson planning. Peter abruptly came into his classroom, shut the door, and closed the blinds. "last night I saw something on your balcony. It was wearing a long dark robe with a large hood covering its face. It was trying to look into your room!" He was talking very quietly, shaking as he spoke. He genuinely looked terrified.

"Peter! What the hell man! It's not funny! This whole situation has freaked me out unbelievably. The last thing I need right now is this crap!" He was beyond irate that Peter would pull something like this on him. Peter left the room without saying anything. At the end of the day Joe, like always turned off the computer and tidied up his classroom. As he left the classroom, he noticed something at the end of the long dark hallway. Two glowing red blotches appeared to be floating there. He froze. As his night vision started to function, he could make out the shape of a large figure wearing a dark robe with its face covered by a large hood. The figure slowly took a step forward. Then, it took another step forward. Rapidly, the figure stormed down the hallway at incredible speed. Joe stumbled backwards, almost tripping over his own heel. He ran into his classroom, slammed the door, and closed the blinds of his door. He threw his desk in front of the door and sat with his back against the desk. He passed out with fear, and woke up on the floor the next morning. The bright morning sun was blasting through the huge glass wall of his classroom. The clock on the wall said six ante meridiem. He opened the door and peaked out in both directions to nothing but sunshine coming from the large window in front of the stairs. He ran to Peter's room and frantically banged on the door. Peter opened the door, grabbed Joe, and pulled him in.

"I'm so sorry Peter!" Joe was nearly crying.

"So, you saw it too?" Peter's face was sullen.

"Yes, it appeared at the end of the hallway when I finished work. I holed up in my classroom the entire night," Joe explained.

"Last night, I was smoking on the balcony and a black mist appeared behind me. Something grabbed my neck from behind and started choking me. I was able to toss it over my shoulder and run inside." Peter lowered his shirt and pulled off a bandage to show a flesh wound. "Thankfully, my friends and I used to practice Krav Maga on the farm. I have also wrestled larger beasts before." Peter was trying to put on a tough face, but Joe knew nobody could handle this situation.

"Peter, we got other problems too. Mindy came into my classroom yesterday to inform me that the next two weeks the schools going on vacation."

"Also, the rest of our co-workers are going to Japan together for the summer holiday," Peter chimed in.

"I don't have enough money to buy a plane ticket home," Joe said.

"Same," Peter replied.

"Meet me in my classroom before work finishes to plan our next move," Joe suggested and Peter agreed.

The entire day at work Joe couldn't concentrate, the lingering fear and shock would not subside. Joe's last class finished and the end of the school day bell rang. The sun was starting to go down. Peter came into the classroom and shut the door and locked it behind him. They put a large teacher's desk in front of the door.

"Everyone's gone; it's just me and you. Everyone left for Japan, and the office started their vacation early." Joe trembled as he spoke, while Peter looked calmer and composed.

"What the hell is this thing!" Peter was looking out the window in anticipation.

"I don't know."

"We need to hunt this creature, just like I hunted wild animals in South Africa. What's scarier a lion or this thing? Peter tried to put on a brave face.

"That thing," Joe was clearly petrified.

"I made a plan. First, we make a small fire in the barbeque with a wooden stick placed into it, like a torch. Then, I throw gas onto it, and you take the stick out and light the creature on fire. You will sit under the first-floor balcony, and I will be waiting on top with the gas. When it approaches, I will pour the gas onto it from the second-floor communal balcony." Peter seemed to have planned this out before. The two of them proceeded to remove the barricade from the door and peaked out from the door frame. "The coast is clear. Let's go," The two of them ran down the stairs and dashed towards the dorms. At the last security door, Peter grabbed Joe and pushed him to the side of the door, hidden from sight. Peter silently signaled for Joe to peak his head to the side of the glass door. In view, were two red glowing eyes on top of the hill, looking at the parking lot. "It's here, let's go out the front entrance," Peter said. They ran out the front door and booked it around the side of the school to the dorms basement exit. The school was a floor lower than the dorms, but the dorms had three entrances on different floors. Peter set up on the second-floor balcony behind the school overlooking the parking lot. While Joe got the barbeque into position and lit the fire with a large stick hanging out of the circular, black metal-bowl. It was only a matter of time before, ' _it'_ made an appearance. They were both into position and ready on standby to execute the plan. After about one hour, the boys began to get sleepy when in the parking lot a tall robed figure appeared. Two red glowing eyes, could only be seen. As it approached, the silhouette of a tall and scrawny person wearing a long black robe with a baggy hood covering its face appeared. In both of its skeletal hands, it was carrying a lengthy pole with an axe blade at the top. The blade was bulky and fanned out, but gradually got leaner as it extended towards the handle. There was a triangular spike mounted on the top, and the back side of the blade protruded like a razor-sharp, metal claw. Joe began to freak out, he was fighting his natural instinct to flee. As _it_ got within twenty meters of him, it stopped. Gradually, it got darker and darker until it could not be seen anymore. A few monuments passed by. Abruptly, Peter started screaming from above. "It's up here!" Joe immediately grabbed the homemade torch from the barbeque bowl and sprinted inside the dorm to the second floor. He burst open the door and saw, the creature __ swinging the massive halberd over its head. Peter was lying on the ground, and rolled out of the way as the creature thrust down the halberd. The possessed halberd cleaved the ground, just missing Peter. Little pieces of tile and concrete flew everywhere. The monster was dripping like it was wet; it appeared Peter had drenched him in gasoline before getting thrown on the ground. Peter screamed. "Do it Joe! Now!" Joe froze. He couldn't move at all, even though he had the perfect opportunity to strike it. The beast __ turned its hood over in Joe's direction and took a few paces forward, until it was in front of Joe. It raised the halberd over its head again, to take another mighty swing. Joe dropped the torch on the ground in fear, he was a deer caught in the highlights. It appeared Joe was done for. Rapidly, Peter got up and leaped into the air, heroically tackling Joe out of the way. The halberd smashed the floor again scattering little pieces of concrete in all directions. Peter leapt to his feet, and dove for the torch, sliding across the floor. He slid far enough to grasp it in his hand. The monster then held the halberd in a defensive thrusting position. Not allowing anything to get even close to it, without getting fatally speared. Joe got up and took cover like a poltroon. As soon as Peter got up, he would be fatally struck. Peter saw the jerry can of gas knocked over by the railing of the balcony. He whipped the torch in that direction, it spun like somebody throwing an axe. The monster attempted to smash the torch out of the air, just missing it with one long swing. The torch landed on the far side of the large balcony, next to the Jerry can and instantaneously exploded. A small orange burst of fire lit up the night sky for a few seconds and subsided back to where the jerry can was. Only a small flame was still burning where the torch landed. The ghost was flailing around on fire, and its halberd was dropped on the floor. When the weapon hit the ground, it promptly turned into dust. The ghost was thrashing about and started running towards the balcony railing making a strange gasping sound. It fell straight down to the parking lot below. Joe and Peter ran down the stairs to the parking lot. But, when they got there, all there was on the ground was a pile of black dust and a large burnt area around it on the pavement. Joe felt disgusted with himself at his apparent cowardice, and Peter looked like he did not want to say anything to Joe. Joe was just happy to put this behind him. They went to their rooms locked the doors and got some much needed rest.

Chapter 4

The next morning, Joe and Peter woke up early and met in the common area. Joe was feeling much better; he believed this nightmare was finally over.

"Man, I'm so sorry Peter..." Joe was looking at the floor.

"It's ok. Nobody's perfect, and people just crack sometimes." Peter seemed to understand the situation.

"As soon as I get my first pay cheque, I'm pulling a midnight run."

"Me too, but for now, let's make the best of it."

"Do you wanna get some lunch in town?" Joe suggested.

"Sure," Peter happily obliged. The two of them walked to the front door of the dorms. Joe put his trinket next to the door, and it unlocked. They walked down the road, leading up to the mountain, and took a bus to the town center. The town center was small but very dense. It had a main strip of low rise buildings filled with restaurants, singing rooms and bars. There was also a small bus station that had buses streaming in and out to all parts of the country. Town buses zipped through the main strip on both sides, and people were going about their daily lives on the crowded sidewalk. Joe suggested that they eat at 'Kimbab Chungook'. They entered the small hole in the wall restaurant on the main strip, took off their shoes, and sat on the floor. Joe reached for a box on the knee-high table, carefully taking off the lid. He pulled out a set of chopsticks and spoons. The menu had about fifty different items that were all uniquely Korean food. Various types of Kimbap, fried rice, soups, and noodle dishes could all be purchased for cheap price. Joe decided to get the 'Jaeyook Deopbab', and Peter ordered the 'Jeongshik'. When they were ready to order, they pushed a little red button attached to the table which set off a small doorbell like sound from the back of the restaurant. A woman came running up to them, and they awkwardly pointed at the menu and tried spit out the few Korea words they knew. The ajjuma in the back quickly whipped up their meals, and brought them out, still sizzling on the plate. They ate their meals with pride, as if they had defeated the devil himself. After they finished their meal, they pooled their money together and paid for the meal. Peter suggested that they walk around the main strip and see what was around the area. They began to walk behind the bus station, and Joe couldn't help but wonder why there was so many motels for such a small town. In one of the many alleyways, Joe noticed a sign saying "철학원." Joe barely was able to read the Korean letters, but just made out the words. In fact, Korean was so easy to read, Joe was able to learn the basics in a few weeks before coming to Korea. He read a great Korean king once said. "A wise man can acquaint himself with Korean before the morning is over; a stupid man can learn them in the space of ten days." He recalled his co-teacher telling him that Korean people would actually go to the "철학원" to name their children, seek marital advice, or career guidance, but the practice was rapidly fading. However, in Joe's town the practice was alive and well. "let's go in and see what the person says about us." Joe was enthusiastic for a new experience, and something to take his mind off the previous horrors. They walked into the dark alleyway. They saw a small staircase leading into a basement. They walked down the creaky wooden staircase into a dimly lit room with strange artwork, and exotic items hung around the room. An old Korean man sat in a wide oak desk in an extravagant leather chair. He spoke surprisingly well in English. They sat down at the table, and Joe explained their situation and the events that had occurred

"This is very troubling indeed." The man was very calm and calculated.

"So, wait! It's not over? Can you help us?" Joe was sitting very forward in his chair. His voice cracked in desperate fashion.

"You have been cursed indeed." His facial expression did not change at all from its emotionless state.

"Are you going to help us or what?" Peter jumped in.

"Can you help, yourself?" he quipped. Joe and Peter did not respond.

"To lift the 'jeoju,' you will need to take the following steps. Firstly, you will need to visit a temple of the 'Three Crown Jewels'. Then, you will need to make an offering, and retrieve the supplies for the 'Purging Ceremony'. Lastly, you will need to perform the ritual at the point of the curse. It is simple, if you complete these tasks, then the curse will be lifted. Until then, they will keep coming." The old man slightly grinned in a cynical way manner.

"What do you mean?" Joe said frantically.

"That is all I can say," the old man then went back to reading a book and writing on a small notebook. Joe and Peter got up and left, as their consultation was over. They went to a nearby computer cafe "P.C. Bang." Joe did a quick search on the internet. He found out that the 'Three Crown Jewel' temples are the three master temples of Korean Buddhism. Chosen for their ancient history and geographical beauty. Each representing the Triple Gem, also known as the 'Three Refuges of Buddhism'. After scouring Naver Maps, he caught a huge break. One of the 'Three Crown Jewels' temples was located just north of their town. Actually, the temple Haeinsa was located twenty-five kilometers north of Hapcheon, but they would need to hike through the mountains to reach the temple. Joe and Peter both agreed to set out for Haeinsa and through the Gayasan mountain range tomorrow. On the way home, they stopped by an outdoor camping store and picked up a tent and some camping supplies. It would be a few nights hike through the mountains to reach the temple. When they returned home, they barricaded themselves in Peter's room and agreed to take turns sleeping, so somebody, constantly could be on guard. Nobody was around to help them; the place was completely vacant. They couldn't even dial 911 if they wanted, neither of them knew what their address was in Korean, and the operators probably don't speak English.

"So, I mapped out the route we will take first thing tomorrow. It will take us, maybe two nights to reach the temple. I used to do this kind of stuff all the time back in S.A." Peter seemed to know what to do.

"Great, because I was never the outdoorsy type of guy," Joe exhaled a sigh of relieve.

"Here, take this hunting knife," Peter demanded. Joe reached his hand out and accepted the knife.

"I'm going to bed now." Joe laid out a small mat on the ground, and he nodded off. The last thing Joe saw was Peter standing guard.

Joe opened his eyes. He was heavily asleep, until that moment. He thought he heard something in the hallway. The wind was fierce that night, and the balcony door was slamming shut repeatedly. He looked around for Peter. He saw Peter lying in his bed. He must have dosed off on guard duty, and thus never woke Joe up for his turn. He heard something in the hallway approaching the door. There were lumbering footsteps. Joe was lying on the floor. Joe felt vibrations on the floor each time the creature took a slow step forward. He decided to play dead and not make any noise. It was too risky to wake up Peter. He might startle him and make a lot of noise which would alert, lord knows what is walking around the hallway. Joe heard _it_ approach the door. He heard fast, high pitched squeaking sounds outside the door. Almost like a squeaky engine belt. Then, claws scrapping down the thick metal door could be heard. Peter got up, and Joe signaled him to be quiet by putting his finger straight up over his mouth. High-pitched squeaking and chattering could be heard. They both sat there, paralyzed in fear. They both heard hefty footstep thumping away from the door. They felt the room slightly vibrate for every step it took. It appeared to exit out of the second-floor balcony. Joe sat there watching Peter. They both waited until the sun came up before saying anything.

"What the hell was that Peter!"

"I don't know, I don't want to know, let's just get on the road,civil" Peter said sternly. Joe opened the door and to his horror saw three large claw marks leading down the door. There was some fur at the base of the door, and the hallway reeked of a pungent, feces like smell. Joe and Peter promptly left the dorms. The sun was just rising and they walked to the city center to catch a town bus to the outskirts of town. They entered onto the small bumpy old bus, and it took the long and winding journey to the last stop in the country side. While riding the bus, there was barely any signs of civilization. Just some rice patties clustered around the side of the road with the occasion traditional Korean farm house. There were ample small, mountainous hills scattered throughout the landscape. Eventually, a towering mountain range came into view. The bus stopped at the base of the mountain, and they got off the bus. The bus drove to the end of the street and turned around to make its way back into town. They walked up a small dirty road that went towards the mountain. The road started to incline. They could see more rice patties on either side of the road and little hanok house that looked like they had no electricity or plumping. The road got steeper and steeper until they had reached the base of the mountain where civilization ended.

Chapter 5

The mountain range seemed boundless and intimidating. They entered a rocky dirt path flanked by trees which engulfed the view of outside the mountain. Joe's bag was heavy and bulky. He started feeling tired immediately, but they had enough supplies to camp for a few days comfortably. Peter was leading Joe with a map and compass because neither of them had bought a cell phone yet. Peter was charting the direction. "We'll have to follow this ridge for a few days, if we can make good time. The temple is in a rather secluded area in the range." Peter said as he marched forward. Joe did not respond because his mind was racing. Joe was having trouble comprehending what he had gotten himself into. He just wanted to go home and never come back. The trail was very beautiful. It had many exotic types of trees and plants that Joe had never seen in North America. Moreover, there was large streams spewing out from various location in the mountain, meandering towards the bottom. They also encountered occasional reservoirs of water. They stopped at a mineral spring to take a rest and drink some water.

"Peter."

"Yeah."

"How do you do it? Like you know, stay strong all this time."

"Life will never be easy for the ninety-nine percent. Life will be full of trials and tribulations. It's how a person handles them which makes them a man." Peter looked into the sky.

"I guess you're right. It's just I thought my life would be different you know? My parents told me to go to university, and you'll get a good job. I did that, and now I'm unemployed and in debt up to my eye balls. How can the richest country in the world be so poor?" Joe pondered.

"Well it's inherent in the capitalist system to be honest. If you look at the beginning of capitalism in England, it was just rich and poor. The rich exploited the poor because they controlled the businesses. Then, things gradually got better, and people became middle class, so they were content. But now, things are reverting back into the beginnings of capitalism. The rich are allowed to exploit us, and we are powerless. The politicians who can fix these problems _are_ the rich class, and don't care about us. We allow companies and politician to exploit us. We work for free as interns at companies, and then keep voting in the politician bought by those companies. We choose not to vote, and not to care, and not to protest. We did this to ourselves."

"Wow, that deep. How do you know this?" Joe had a curious look on his face.

"I studied sociology in university, so we talked about this stuff often. We learned about the history of capitalism dating back to nineteenth century Britain. Well, at the end of the day you were born in America. You at least have an opportunity. Millions of people are born into poverty in developing countries, and it's literally impossible for them to ever find any opportunity." Peter said.

"Yeah, it's all in perspective," Joe realized.

"Let's keep moving, we don't know what's out there hunting us," Peter commanded.

"Peter, what was that thing last night," Joe looked scared.

"I don't know, and I don't want to think about it. Let's keep moving."

The rest of the day they kept moving at a good pace and the sun soon started to go down. At that time of the year the sun would set very late in the evening and the weather was very warm and comfortable. It was the point of dusk, where it was literally in-between day and night. Dark trees appeared surrounded by a shadowy blue hue. "Peter did you hear that?" Peter was silent because he heard something as well. The sound of enormous flapping wings could be heard. It made a pronounced "Woosh" sound, over and over. Peter grabbed Joe and threw him behind a boulder. Joe got a glimpse of the beast as it flew over them, but he could not make out, exactly what it looked like. The same screeching from before echoed through the air. Joe grabbed Peter and pointed towards a nearby cave. They ran into the small entrance of the cave and hid in the rock wall of a ledge. They set up their sleeping bags and tried to get some shut eye. Joe didn't really sleep at all that night; He was too focused on the strange noises of the night.

At the crack of dawn, Joe opened his eyes to the first light of day. According to Peter they had made exceptional time yesterday and would be able to make it to the temple by nightfall. They got back onto the pathway and starting hiking as fast as they could. Joe was constantly looking above the canopy to see if the creature was following them. They only stopped for a brief lunch at a mineral spring. After a long day of hiking, they were nearly at Haeinsa. The sun started setting again. It was the same time as yesterday at dawn when the beast came. The time, when night and day are stuck in limbo. They heard it again; the 'Whooshing' sound of two large wings, resonating in the distance. They were baffled, and terrified to get a glimpse of what it possibly was. Joe's imagination went wild. "Run Joe! We're almost there!" Joe started sprinting as fast as he could, while Peter trailed him. In-between the peaks of the mountains, a complex surrounded by a stone wall could be seen with candle-lit lanterns around the perimeter. "That's it!" Joe screamed. Joe could see Haeinsa getting closer and closer. Joe and Peter swiftly stopped, and they teetered on the edge of a crashing slope. The temple was just below them. At that moment, Joe heard the creature land in a clearing about fifty feet behind them. It made a booming sound as it touched down, and the ground slightly vibrated beneath them. The trees were ruffling, and branches were snapping. It was sprinting full speed through the forest, in their direction. They both looked at each other and ran down the hill in the dead of night. Joe was bolting full speed down the hill when he tripped over his feet. He went tumbling down the hill and lost consciousness.

Chapter 6

Joe opened his eyes slowly. Joe was unsure of his surroundings. Maybe he was dead and in heaven. He must have been eaten by the creature when he was passed out. He soon realized he was in fact alive. Just with a little bump on his head and some scratches around his body. He was lying on the floor on a thin mat. His pillow was a small block of wood with an indent for his head to rest on. The room was completely wooden. The floor was ancient looking with long pieces of wood running up and down the floor. The room itself was very narrow and stretched out. The ceiling sloped up towards the wall and down towards the adjacent wall. It had wooden rafters painted in dark colors in rectangles. The one wall was solid wood, with paper windows that were opaque, but he could tell it was early morning. The other wall was very interesting indeed. It was a large wooden shelf with multiple levels. They seemed to contain a plethora of wooden blocks. Joe reached into the bookshelf and pulled one out carefully. It was some sort of Buddhist scripture written in Chinese. He cautiously put it back into the spot. He heard a door slide open and looked over his shoulder. A procession of monks entered the room at the end of the hall. They sauntered towards him in formation. A man stood in the center of two other monks. He was wearing a blossoming white gown with a reddish-brown fabric draped around his shoulder covering the left side of him. He approached Joe and put his hands flat together in front of his chest and slightly bowed down towards him. Joe awkwardly put his hand out and the monk lightly shook his hand.

"Welcome Joseph, I am the Master Reverend of Haeinsa," he said in a warm and friendly manner.

"Joseph, I see you are awake and recovered. We knew that you had not suffered too severely."

"What is this room?" Joe said.

"I see you have been acquainted with the most sacred room in all of the Korean peninsula. You truly are in the 'Janggyeong Panjeon Complex.'" Joe still was not thinking straight from his small concussive like blow to the head. He was taken aback and overwhelmed by the situation.

"This room holds the 'Tripitaka Koreana' Woodblocks. The entire Buddhist scripture is carved into wooden blocks contained in these shelves. Eighty-one thousand, three hundred and fifty to be exact. They have been housed since thirteen ninety eight and declared a UNESCO World Heritage site as well. I'm surprised you would disturb them seeing how this kind of action has already caused you so much trouble."

"My apologies." Joe sincerely said. He was starting to think straight again.

"It is no problem, but you have greater problems to deal with."

"Can you help me please?" Joe wreaked of desperation.

"You can kill one, but another will take its place. You can't end this until you complete the 'Purging Ceremony'. We will provide you with the materials you need, but we will not accompany you to the site of the provocation. For that is far too dangerous, for one of our own." He explained his conditions.

"How did I get here?"

"We have heard from our intelligence gathering mechanism about your situation. We were expecting you to come here eventually. But we were not sure if you could make it here _alive_. You have truly beaten the odds making it here; however, you have unconditionally released the beasts of hell. If one is able to defeat, the 'Revenant of Revenge', then the 'Monstrosity' will be unleashed. And if that is defeated, more will come. It's a never-ending cycle."

"How did I get here?" Joe inquired.

"The monster's presence alerted our watchmen that you were probably in the area. We had our monks on high alert. We saw you and Peter coming down the mountain. We grabbed you two at the bottom of the hill and rushed you into the safe quarters. Haeinsa is within itself a safe zone. No demon or evil spirit shall ever enter these premises. Crown Jewel temples are inherently protected from evil." He explained with much authority.

"Where is Peter?" Joe suddenly realized.

"In Daegu, we had to take him to a larger hospital in a city. He suffered a broken leg but will make a full recovery. At the present time he is safe, but for how long we cannot tell. The task at hand is up to you to achieve. The fate of both of you, is in your own hands. You may stay here another night and participate in our culture. Tomorrow morning at first light you will set off.

"Thank you Reverend."

Joe spent the rest of the day wandering around the sprawling complex. He read about the history of the Hasina and saw firsthand the artifacts, ancient structures, and history. He took solace in the fact he was safe and sound. Around dinner, he was escorted to the dining hall. He entered the dining hall and noticed the walls were large murals of traditional Buddhist artwork. The one wall had a picture of a dragon boat at sea with a lavish oriental roof. Inside there were many white robed men wearing black cylindrical hats with a thin black brim around it. The front and back of the boat had two abnormally tall, statuesque people standing upright. They had yellow and red draping gowns decorated with lotus flowers. They both held intricately decorated staffs. The end of the room was a show case of three golden Buddha statues. Cushions on the floor were lined up and down the hall in two rows. Joe found a seat in between two people. The food was vegetarian and consisted of multiple Korean side dishes known as 'banchan'. Everyone ate in silence. Everyone was dressed in baggy grey shirts and pants. Joe finished his food and was escorted in silence to his sleeping quarters where he was given a mat, wooden pillow, and thin blanket. Once again, he did not sleep very well.

In the morning, he was woken up by a man carrying a candle stick and escorted to the "Yebul Ceremonial Service." He found a spot in-between multiple lined rows of people. Suddenly, they began to bow to the floor and rose up repeatedly, while chanting. Joe tried to fit in as much as possible and follow what everyone else was doing. They must have bowed over a hundred times. When Joe finished, he was escorted into the main gates of the complex. The Master Reverend was there with a grave look upon his face. He handed Joe a small wooden box. It had a piece of paper with a hand drawn boarder of lotus flowers. The paper was completely filled in Chinese hanja characters, and signed by the Master Reverend. Furthermore, it had a few sticks of incense and some ancient coins. "As you make your formal apology burn the paper, while the incense is lit and make the formal offering." The reverend instructed. He also pulled out a bulky, oddly shaped axe-dagger. The handle was short and wrapped in black leather. Above the handle, one side stuck out like a little dagger. The main part of the steel weapon jutted out in a sickle formation pointing up and curving back towards the handle. The opposite side of the sickle was a fat triangular spike sticking out. "This will aid you on your journey. We acquired this ancient weapon from our Buddhist counterparts in South Africa. It is an ancient tribal weapon that was used in African warfare. It is rumored that this particular weapon defeated a powerful Zulu warlord. Wield the 'Hunga Munga' wisely, and you will defeat the unholiest of beast." The Master Reverend put his hand on Joe's shoulder and watched him exit the compound.

Chapter 7

Joe exited from the main gate of the compound and instantly had flash backs of the previous night. His head was feeling much better. Thankfully, he did not have a severe concussion. He started to recognize his whereabouts. He noted the large mountains flanking the temples position. He could see the flattened grass and plants running down the hill, and knew that is where he had entered from. He climbed up the hill with his heavy backpack, and axe-dagger tightly gripped in his hand. When he got to the top of the hill, the path way the creature had chased them through was apparent. There was a huge hole blown through the bushes. Trees knocked over, bushes trampled, and rocks strewn about. There was also the stench of feces still lingering in the area. Joe knew that he would soon come face to face with the "monstrosity". Joe continued on the pathway remembering the way they originally came from. He was constantly thinking about if Peter was ok. He recognized the various rock formations, and cliffs that they had passed through on the way there. The trail was full of lush trees and bushes. Occasionally, Joe could see through the tree canopy, and he saw picturesque rocky mountainous views. Joe had been walking all day and soon realized it was impossible to make the trip in one day. He stopped for a quick meal on a boulder. He devoured the rice and Kimchi instantly. He knew he would be in the fight of his life that night. Joe continued along the trail going up to the top of peaks and back down. The trail followed multiple mountain peaks all connected together. He would climb all the way to the top of the mountain peak and then climb down to connect to the next mountain. He was sweaty, to say the least. The sun began to set and revealed the first signs of darkness. Joe knew it was only a matter of time. Joe found a small clearing in the forest and prepare the battleground. He collected some brush and lit a fire with some matches. He needed to see the battlefield. He cleared out sticks and rocks, basically anything he could trip over during the battle. He set up his tent and waited. A few hours passed by, and still no sign of the beast. Joe nodded off slightly, in a false sense of security, maybe the beast would not show that night. Suddenly, Joe heard the high frequency pitched echoing again. The sound of enormous flapping wings rocked the surrounding trees like a helicopter landing. The same horrendous smell shot into his nostrils. The beast circled the area a few times before pinpointing its target. The beast came into sight and slowly made its landing. It landed with a large thump and dust rose around it, seemingly causing a mini earthquake. The mighty beast had an extensive wing span with broad arms and shoulders. Long jointed bones sagged below the arms, connected by a dark leathery skin to form a wing. At the end of the wings it had two elongated fingers with big, crooked, cone shaped nails. It had a third digit similar to a thumb that stuck out, without a joint. The skin on its hands were pale pink. Its feet were three wrinkly, hairless, long digits with spiky nails. The legs were furry like a bear, and the knees pointed behind the creature. The opposite way of a human. The abdomen was oblong and Woolly. The head of the beast was the most frightening of all. It clearly distinguished what kind of beast it was. It had a dark fleshy snout that stuck out with a flat nose. The nostrils flared up into two triangular points with thin pink skin. It had a stretched open mouth with little teeth scattered through its mouth and no tongue. Red saliva was pouring out of its mouth. It had two beady, little black eyes, and two wide extended ears like a bat. It lurched forward, and looked around. It was bipedal like a human, but walked in an extremely hunched over fashion. It took a few steps forward scanning the area. It looked toward the tent, and sensed Joe was in there. It dashed toward the tent, and jumped using its wings to gain extra height. It landed on the tent with its wide feet, and started slashing the tent to shreds. Clawing and ripping it to pieces with its mouth. But Joe was nowhere to be found. He was hiding in a tree nearby the clearing watching everything in horror. The beast was angry and let out a huge screech. It flew up into the air and came crashing down to the ground, vibrating the surrounding area. It was rampaging around the clearing, scattering everything around. Joe started to tremble. He knew it was only a matter of time before he was detected. The beast stopped and pointed its huge ears towards him. It took a step towards Joe. It was walking in Joe's direction until it was nearly right under Joe. He was silent and did not move an inch. The beast looked up at Joe, and they clearly made eye contact. Joe knew it was time to face his fears or perish into history. He leapt off the branch he was sitting on and slammed down the axe-dagger with both hands towards the beast. The weapon cleaved into the beast, and due to the impact, the axe-dagger went flying. He rolled as he hit the ground and quickly jumped to his feet. The beast let out a roar, and Joe could see the axe-dagger lying next to the beast. The beast was injured badly; its left arm was hanging by a thread, and green liquid was oozing from the hole. The dangling arm fell off. The beast was only staggered for a moment before it became even more enraged. The 'monstrosity' looked Joe straight in the eyes, while slamming its jagged teeth together. The beast immediately charged. It was sprinting full speed towards Joe. Its feet made a large thumping sound every time its foot slammed the ground. For once in his life, Joe found courage to take on the beast, even weaponless. He prepared himself to take on the one-armed beast with his bare hands. Instantly, he remembered the small hunting knife Peter had given him. He reached into his cargo pants thigh pocket. He grabbed the small knife out of his pocket and opened it up. He ran towards the beast. Joe ran straight into the beast holding the small knife over his head. In a matter of seconds, they collided like two asteroids smashing into each other. Joe was knocked back and couldn't see what happened in the darkness of the night. Joe was slightly winded but snapped out of it quickly, due to the adrenaline. He staggered to his feet, to once again saw the beast shrieking. Joe could see the knife lodged into the beasts left side. Abruptly, the 'Hunga Munga' started to glow a pale blue aura, as if some African spirit was guiding Joe to victory. Joe ran past the beast as it reached out with its remaining arm to try to capture Joe. Joe knelt down to pick up the blade in his hand. As soon as he picked up the blade he felt huge claws dig into his back and smash him down. A roar came out behind him, a roar of victory. Joe was lying down on the ground with the weapon in hand. The beast was closing in on a final blow, to finish Joe off. Its mouth was dripping red liquid. It raised its fist into the air and struck towards Joe. He just rolled out of the way. He was right next to the side of the beast. He grasped the 'Hunga Munga' as tightly as he could, and struck the ankle of the beast. It sliced its foot straight off and green blood sprayed from the severed limb. The beast dropped to the ground and was no longer mobile. It could no longer walk or fly. The beast was still thrashing and clawing at Joe with its arm, even while immobilized. Joe darted towards his backpack, picked it up and ran away. He left the steadfast beast there to die. He just kept running and running until the sun came up. He decided to take a break on a tall boulder to gather himself. He could see outside the mountain range. Little square fields, like a quilt painted the vast fields below. Then, it hit Joe he was almost at the village they started at. Joe in fact had made incredible time. He was so amped up after defeating the beast that he had jogged the trail all night long. After a few more hours of hiking he started his slow and painful descent down the mountain. He nearly slipped off the rocky and narrow pathway at time, but made it out alive and well. He walked through the small farming village with traditional Korean houses and eventually reached the bus stop. After a short wait, the old village bus rolled up. He got into the back seat, and as the bus driver went into first gear, the bus jerked forward and backwards a few times.

Chapter 8

"Joe!" Peter screamed as he saw Joe walk into the front door of the dorms.

"Peter, are you ok?" Peter was sitting there on the couch and appeared to be in good spirits. He was wearing a small cast around his foot.

"What happened?" Joe gasped.

"All I remember was running down the hill, slipping and breaking my leg. At the bottom, I was immediately picked up by few Monks and carried into the main gates. They then arranged to have me picked up and taken to the hospital in Daegu. I just arrived back this morning."

"I got the materials we need for the 'Purging Ceremony'."

"That's great news to hear. Did you encounter that thing again, I doubt it right?

"I did in fact see it again, and we got into a little scuffle." Joe explained everything to Peter in detail. The room he woke up in, the ceremonies he participated in at the temple, the axe-dagger, and of course the great battle he partook in with the monster. Peter was so proud, and astounded that Joe had accomplished that all on his own. Joe was pondering to himself if Peter could have even accomplished such bravery.

"Wow man, I don't even know what to say. I'm almost in disbelief that you pulled that off. You have come such a long way, in such a short time." Peter had a look of pride on his face.

"Thank you, Peter, but there is still work to do." Peter grabbed his crutches and hobbled onto his feet. The two of them headed for the exit of the dorm. Joe had all the materials in his hand to perform the ceremony. The sun was just starting to set as Joe helped Peter up the small hill. "Not as easy as it used to be right?" Joe joked with Peter as he pulled him up to the top. They walked past the small local garden and headed towards the ledge with the rope. Once again Joe had to help him up the robe. "Right about here." Peter said as they went down the ledge. They searched around for a few minutes, until they found the grave. There was still a large hole in the ground with a heaping pile of dirt surrounding the grave. Joe examined the coins as he pulled them out of the box. The gold coins were shaped like a lotus flower with a small square cut out in the center. Each side of the square had a Chinese character next to it. There were three of them, and each had different Chinese characters. Joe carefully and respectfully placed the coins in the center of the open grave. He took out the incense sticks from a small, discreetly marked wooden box. He placed them sticking up in front of the grave. He lit them. A mild soothing smell rose above them. He took the piece of paper, and placed it neatly in front of the incense. Joe struck another match and put the flame to the corner of the paper. Joe and Peter both did a formal bow to the ground and quietly said their prayers of forgiveness. When they rose, the sun had fully set, and it was pitch black on the mountain. The paper had burned unusually slow, almost like a candle. When the last flame of the candle diminished, a plethora of orbs surrounded the grave. Each orb then turned into a revenant like the one they had encountered before. They all surrounded the outside of the grave with Joe and Peter on the inside. They were all wearing long black robes with baggy hoods. Their faces could not be seen; If they had any to begin with. Skeletal hand hung from their loose sleeves. Each was holding a large medieval weapon a Bill, a Harlbard, a Flail, a Mace, a Scimitar, a Falchion, and a Battle Axe. Joe looked at Peter; they both were sweating profusely. Neither of them moved an inch. Then, the ghost of a man gradually appeared in front of the grave. The man was wearing a dark blue hanbok with an intricate golden design in the center and stepped forward. They both bowed down to the floor and apologized. When they got up, the man stood directly in front of them. He then did a small bow, just slightly moving his head forward. He then turned his back to them and walked into the grave. Everyone hastily vanished, and in a blink of an eye, the grave had magically been reconstructed back to its original form. They were completely vindicated. Joe and Peter went back to the dorms and never talked about it ever again. Joe ended up staying until his first pay check and swiftly pulled a notorious midnight run. This is where an employee, just packs their bags, and gets on a plane home without telling anyone in the company. One day, the employee does not show up for work, and the employer has no idea where they are, and has no way of contacting them. Joe never heard from Peter after he pulled his midnight run. He assumed Peter did the exact same thing too. But of course, this was just supposition and conjecture on Joes part. Joe did some soul searching in South East Asia on a backpacking trip after he received his first pay check. Everything is very cheap there, so he could go on a small vacation before settling down into a teaching position in Japan.

"Joe, we will be truly sorry to see you leave after working here for two years," the manager said.

"I'm so sorry Mr. Aki, but it is time for me to move on in life. I was accepted to a master's degree at a state school in the United States," Joe said confidently.

"Your mother must be so proud."

"Yes, she is. Thank you."

"You have come a long way Joseph. When you first came here we did not know how long you could last at this company. We are amazed at what you have become."

"Thank you for the opportunity here. I have really found my passion and direction in life through this company. I will be sad to say goodbye to everyone, but like I said it's time to move to the next stage of my life."

"I believe you will be a great teacher in America one day." The manager gave him one last handshake and saw him off.

"Thank you," Joe said as he got into the cab. His co-workers lined up in front of the school to say goodbye. They all bowed down and said work hard in Japanese. Joe was soon on his way to the airport to start his new life back home.

###

Death Delivery

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 1

"Doctor, the patient appears to be showing signs of consciousness!" she yelled to somebody in the hallway. Thumping footsteps quickly entered the room.

"My God! We never thought we'd see the day," I heard the doctor say.

"How long has it been? Let me get the chart," the woman said.

"It's been two years. I have been personally treating Daniel the entire time," the doctor exclaimed.

"How could he have possibly survived that? Let alone regain consciousness again," the woman observed.

"This is truly an achievement that medical science has never seen before. No doctor in the world would believe somebody..." Suddenly, a person ran into the room heavily breathing and interrupted him mid-sentence.

"Doctor, we have a Code Blue in the IC unit. We need you immediately for surgery," the man said frantically.

"let's go!" he said and hurried footsteps could be heard leaving the room.

Who am I? I'm Daniel something, Espina! That's right. I'm starting to remember the events that led me here. I can't really open my eyes right now; apparently, I've been in a coma for two years. Let me try to remember what happened. Two years ago, I was a college student and needed to get a part time job because my parents couldn't help me that much with my tuition. My family was never well to do but worked very hard. They loved and supported me the best they could. I was just entering into my freshman year of college for computer science, so I had to get a fulltime job while being a fulltime student. Sucks, I know, but not everyone has it easy in life. I applied everywhere in the city but couldn't find anything. This was right after the financial collapse of 2008. Every part-time job opening had a stack of overqualified people applying. The only place that gave me a call back was this crummy little pizza place in the center of the city. The areas it served were very dangerous neighborhoods. I should have never taken that job, but I had to. I could use my dad's car and the late working hours worked perfectly with my morning school schedule.

My first day on the job the place already struck me as being a bit sketchy. The owners were these rural, hick-type people, definitely not from the city; from what I could gather in the interview. They seemed to be watching me through the cameras and never talked to me face to face. I could see the cameras following me and moving towards me in the shop. In fact, I never even saw them once after the interview. Everything went through one of the other employees, at least I thought he was at the time. He told me his name was 'Willy,' but for some reason I thought it wasn't his real name.

"Hi, I'm Danny, nice to meet you," I introduced myself on the first day of work.

"Willy," he muttered. He was wearing a pizza stained wife beater that hadn't been washed in ages from the look of it. He had pale-skin, a bald head, and scruffy stubble covering his uneven jawline. Quite overweight too, seeing how his gut sagged over his belt. This guy was really creepy.

"Have you met the owners here?" I inquired.

"Listen kid, we don't ask questions round here, yuh do what yer told. Do yuh want to drop out of school cause yuh got no money? Do yuh want to live yer life working a crap job for no pay" he was really riled up.

"No sir."

"Then yer gonna deliver to any place I tell yuh. The ghetto, the countryside. Yer gonna deliver a pizza to North Korea if I tell yuh."

"Understood," I said.

"Here's a little piece of advice. Get a gun, yer gonna need one cause they got em." He scratched his backside and went back into the kitchen to prepare pizzas.

Every shift, it was like they were testing me. Seeing how far I would go to deliver their damn pizzas. They sent me to ghetto apartment blocks, rife with crime and violence. Every time you opened a door you had no idea who was going to answer, and what crap they were going to try to pull. I got an order from the notorious apartment complex people called 'Aleppo.' Why did they name it after a Syrian city you may be asking? Because it's akin to a war-torn city in Syria, obviously. I rolled up into the parking lot. I manually locked each door and triple checked the handles to make sure they were all locked. I entered the lobby of one of the towering buildings. There was no security, and the hallway lights were barely functioning. Everything was filthy. When I got to the elevator, it was of course broken. It looked like it hadn't been functioning in a while. I entered the stairwell, and as I walked up the stairs I even witnessed a few drug deals going down, "bloody paradise," I thought to myself. I looked away and didn't make eye contact with anyone, but I could tell what was happening. I got to the 4th floor and found the door. I sheepishly knocked on the door.

"Whad ya'll want? Three-sack or eightball," a voice said from behind the door.

"Pizza's here, sir," my voiced cracked. The door opened a crack with the lock and chain still latched. The door shut again. I could hear him unlatching the lock from behind the door. A large man dressed like a thug appeared, and lifted his shirt to reveal a gun tucked into his waistband. I handed him the pizza. "And your wallet too," he demanded with a smile. This guy wasn't joking around. He was the real thing. He could have had me murdered right there, and had my body never found again. I gave him my wallet, and he shut the door. I quickly left the apartment, but didn't flee to make it obvious. I was an easy target, but couldn't show it. Anyways, the weirdest part was when I got back to the pizza shop, Willy could have cared less about the pizza. Even stranger, he gave me _more_ company money to use when the customers needed change for an order. Pizza drivers at this store weren't allowed to use their own money, and we are only allowed to carry a small amount of change. Oddly, Willy didn't give a damn about the loss of an order, or company change. He kept saying, "It's more important that you follow orders." I would expect this little mom and pop pizza place, not only to take that out of my pay cheque, but also screw me on wages every chance they got. But they didn't? Why?

Over the next few weeks, we'd keep getting orders from sketchy places, and sometimes I would get robed or run out of the neighborhood. And strangely enough every time I came back empty handed with payment for the pizzas, as well as company change getting stolen, Willy or the owners never really cared. He would always say, "It's more portant that yuh follow orders. Always follow em." I could have been stealing the company change every time, or giving away pizzas, or just selling them and keeping the money. Those people were not only crazy, they were dumb as rocks too. Anyhow, I didn't care because I always got paid on time, and it was the correct amount, so it didn't really matter.

I came into work one day just like any other work day. The evening rush came, and fortunately I did not get robbed or beat-up even though I delivered to some pretty bad neighborhoods that night. It was getting late and any moment Willy was going to come in and tell me to go home. It was well past midnight.

"Danny, we have one last delivery of the night. It's a very special delivery, so yuh need to follow orders zactly how I say. Remember if yuh can't follow orders, yuh can't work here no-more, and if yuh can't work here, yer ain't going to school. And if you ain't going to college, yer a loser the rest of ya life." My heart dropped, and I felt a strange feeling in my stomach. My family immigrated here from Central America, and worked themselves to the bone to provide a better life for me and my sister. I saw the life they sacrificed for us, and I had to make them proud by getting a good job and living a stable comfortable life. I guess, I will just follow orders like he has engrained in me.

"This delivery is very special, and the house is a little outside city limits in the countryside. Do zxactly what they tell yuh. Yuh hear me? They our most portant customers. If yuh don't listen to them, yer fired," he said in a serious tone.

"Understood," I said.

Chapter 2

I put the address into my GPS. "Damn it's in the middle of nowhere," I said to myself. I began to drive and got on the highway. Slowey, the city light stopped shinning, and I was outside city limits. The highway finished, and I got on to a small dirt road with no street lights whatsoever. I could only see little farm houses spread miles apart. It seemed impossible to find the address of the house written somewhere in the pitch-black night. As I was driving past farmland, I saw the address written on a mailbox with reflective letters. "Nice, the GPS was right. Let's get this delivered and get out of this crazy little town. This place is giving me the creeps," I said to myself. I pulled up a long gravel driveway with wheat fields on both sides. The sound of crunching rocks underneath my tires could be heard.

After a few minutes of driving up the long driveway, I came to a little farm house with no lights on, but I could see candlelight glowing from the windows. Fields of wheat or something surrounded the property. "Who are these people?" I said underneath my breath. I parked in front of the house and sheepishly walked up to the door. I lightly knocked on the door, and the door just opened. I don't know how, but it just opened, and I walked in. The small house was old looking and rundown. It had old-style decorations and outdated furniture arranged around the house. It also had that old person smell lingering about. I could see a deer head mounted in the living room around dingy wallpaper. There were two old people slumped over in wheelchairs sitting at the dinner table in view from the door. There were candles sitting on the table to light up the house. I could barely see anything. They had white stringy hair and wrinkly faces. They must have been at least eighty years old and looked a bit senile. The man had this weirdly shaped piece of meat on his plate.

"Come here, boy. Come here boy!" the old woman was so excited to see me.

"Ya, come here boy. We're starving," the old man chimed in too. They were kind of fidgeting around in their wheelchairs.

"That will be 19.99 please," I said politely. "You don't need to tip; that's ok."

"No no no no no, first, you need to sit down and join us," they said in unison. I really didn't want to join them; they were weird as hell, and everything about the situation was screaming run away. But I had to, because Willy would fire me if I didn't 'follow orders,' with these 'special customers'.

"Uh, OK, but I really need to get home soon?" I said. I did not like the looks of anything in that place. I was going to leave as soon as possible.

"It's OK, you really don't need to worry about that," she said. What did she mean?

"Wow, you look so healthy, your body must be in good condition," the old man said as he picked up his fork and knife. He began cutting the meat on his plate.

"Uh, no more than your average person," I laughed. I was trying to joke around to lighten the mood, but nobody was laughing but me.

"Eat my boy! This will be a meal you will never forget," the old man said in a creepy way.

"Why?" I was so freaked out.

"What does a liver do?" he inquired.

"I don't know exactly. Maybe it cleans your blood or something. _Why_?" I said again. They wouldn't answer though. I picked up a piece of pizza and took a bite, so I could leave ASAP.

"What do your kidneys do?" the old woman said with a strange smile on her face.

"I don't know. Why are you asking? I'm not a doctor," I laughed awkwardly. I was about to leave at any second.

"Life is such a shame. Your organs, all they do is get worse and worse. You'll understand when you're our age son," he said as he took a bit of the meat on his plate.

"I guess you're right. Why are you not eating the pizza?" I said.

"I don't eat that crap. Only my wife does," he said as he started eating some strange meat on his plate. "I love liver and onions!" he said with a big smile on his face.

"Cephus! You can't eat another one of those! How many times do I need to tell-"

"Shut up! I can do what I please! Darlene honey, don't worry. We have more here now," he said.

"Ok, thanks guys. I have to get back home now," I got up and started walked to towards the door. The old man struck a match a few times, and lit a large candle on the table with his shaky hands. The shadow of a towering figure standing in front of the door appeared with the new candle light.

"Sit back down son, or Wesley will get all agitated and violent. He always does that," the old man laughed. I went back to the table and sat down.

"Who's that?" I frantically replied.

"Our son, of course, but he's a dumb-dumb and has severe gigantism." The person standing in front of the door was like seven feet tall, and the outline of him looked more like an ogre than a human. I couldn't see what the person looked like aside from the silhouette.

"Sit down, stay while. Anyways, what were we talking about again? Oh, right, organs! They're amazing, aren't they? They make your body young again! They taste delicious! And if you send them overseas you can get a damn pretty penny for them." In that moment I cracked. I got up, picked up the chair, and threw it towards the front window. It smashed through the window, and landed in the front yard. I ran into the living room towards the window. I heard, "get him Wesley!" coming from behind me. I jumped off the couch in front of the window and cut myself on the broken glass in the window frame but made it out of the house OK. I fell into the front yard bushes. I ran to my car. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my car keys. I fiddled for a second getting the key into the door, and unlocked the door. I got into the car, locked the doors, and put the keys into the ignition turning the key. The lights turned on to reveal Wesley standing right in front of the car. He was more of an orc than a human. His big head was bald and his teeth stuck out of his face. His eyes were uneven on his face flanked by a long-crooked nose. The old car stuttered but wouldn't start. Something was disconnected while I was eating. Wesley let out a large wailing sound and smashed his hands on the windshield. He violently smashed his fists over and over again like an animal. His fists became all bloody, and he let out a mighty wail.

The windshield cracked all over the place. He kept smashing the windshield until there were little holes starting to form. The windshield held up though. He lumbered towards the door and pulled so hard on the door handle it ripped right off. He was right next to me standing next to the driver's side window. He punched the window full force and nothing happened. He pulled his fist back one more time and slammed his fist right through the side window. Glass shattered all over me and, I closed my eyes. I felt a huge fist grab my shirt and drag me out of the window. He threw me on the ground and starting pummeling me while wailing in a monstrous way. The last thing I remember was hearing the old man laughing and being carried downstairs into some sort of makeshift operating table.

Chapter 3

The nurse walked into the room, and I finally open my eyes. "The FBI wants to talk to you," the nurse said. A man dressed in a black suite soon came in. He showed me a badge that confirmed he really was an FBI agent.

"What do you remember Daniel," he said as he sat down next to my bed.

"Nothing," I said.

"Daniel, I don't know how to tell you this but, you have been organ trafficked. The pizza place you worked for was part of an international organ trafficking mafia. Luther and his family were all in on it. The old couple in the farm house were Luther's parents," he calmly explained.

Who's Luther? Willy? I was confused.

"That's his alias. Unfortunately, you're not the only victim here, but you're lucky to be alive. The family was using the pizzas store as a front to recruit people for their organs. They would sell them abroad for up to a hundred grand for a liver alone. Over the past two years we have been building up a huge case against the whole family. The night you went missing your mother called the police shortly after 230 a.m. She figured you were kidnapped or shot dead in a rough neighborhood delivering pizzas. The police traced the last number that called into the pizza shop to the small country house. Sadly, it took them several hours to locate and make contact with the farm house. By the time they rescued you it was almost dawn, and your organs were never recovered. They immediately transferred them from the premises, and you were left to die. We found several graves in the back of the house. According to the police report, the police were attacked by a giant man which they shot to death in self-defense. By the time they got to you. Your liver and kidneys had been removed and could not be found. You're lucky to be alive though. Truly. Also, we need you to testify in court. We may be able to speed up the transplant process, if you can help us with testimony," he confided. I looked down to see a huge scar on my chest and machine hooked up to me apparently keeping me alive without organs. "We have you on a donor waiting list, but unfortunately people typically don't donate their organs so you may need to wait up to 10 years for the right match. Only if people would donate their organs after they die. They don't need them anyways."

Legend of the Torosdal: The Menace of Rural China

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 1

"Don't say a word. It's trying to come in," Li Na whispered from under the table. Her face was white as a ghost.

"Please, please, tell me this a joke," tears were falling down my face. I have never been so terrified in my life. I can't believe this.

"It's going to kill us," she said. You could see the fear on her face. The round door-handle slightly turned half a rotation, and it tried to stealthily enter. The door slightly pushed forward and jerked to a stop from the various locks and latches. Then, it knocked on the door. The knock was ever so slight. Like a meek and docile old woman was politely asking permission to enter. Li Na and I were silently weeping. We couldn't say a word even if we wanted to. Then, it just started freaking out. It started pounding the door, and the door shook violently. I could hear the creature thrashing around frantically behind the door. The latches and chains bounced back and forth on the large wooden door. It was enraged. It was going to break in one way or another; it was only a matter of seconds...

***

My story is a sad one, like most millennials nowadays. I had graduated with a double major in English and Psychology. I looked for a career for over a year, but really couldn't find anything better than minimum wage. I just got so fed up with the whole situation. It's even harder for women to make it in the work place too. A lot of people don't realize that. My parents told me to go to university at all costs, and I did. But here I am, working minimum wage living in debt and poverty. My parents were no help either. Apparently, I was the failure of all the sisters because my oldest sister got married and became a stay at home mom popping out three children. My other sister got a job as an accountant. I had an after-university-life crisis because I realized I just wasted a 100 grand in debt and 4 years studying a useless degree. It hurt getting no sympathy from my parents; especially when I had friends straight out of high school start as tradespeople installing pipes making 70 grand a year downtown. And here I was 22 years old a 100 grand in debt with a degree that made me unemployable for the only jobs I could get. The whole system is a sad joke. After a year of sending out resumes every day and not even getting one call back, I decided to just screw the idea of the whole 9 to 5 mundane office job and actually live my life. I would travel and explore and find an exotic boyfriend. The idea sounded good to me. I sent my friend a message who went to teach English in China after university. She told me that she was having a blast. She said China was a very safe country, and the people were very friendly and curious to talk to her. Also, the food was phenomenal, and their traditional culture was fascinating. She sent me a link to a portal website, and I applied to a recruiter to get me a job in China. A week later, I heard back from the recruiter who said she could get me a job in Hunan Province right away. It looked like a really good deal. The pay was pretty good, and they were going to pay for my flight ticket. Also, I would be working in a public school. Maybe I could have a career in education or something I thought. Maybe this could turn my life around. I honestly didn't care where I ended up. I was down for a crazy adventure and a once in a life time experience. I was going to find myself abroad and be happy.

I signed the contract and flew out the next week to start teaching at a rural public school in China. I was really nervous because I had never travelled to Asia before. I was not an outgoing girl either. After a long and tiring journey around the world, I finally transferred into Hunan Province through a small regional airport. I was sitting on the bench in the airport checking my bags when another 'western' looking person came up to me and started talking. I had my guard up. Why did this strange guy want to talk to me? He asked me, "what the heck" I was doing in Hunan. I told him I was English teaching and he said, "you should be careful." He told me he was fluent in Chinese, and his German financial company sent him there to "look into" some potential investment projects. He told me Hunan was completely rural and undeveloped. Basically, a great opportunity for investments and development projects for his company. He picked up a local newspaper sitting next to us and turned to the ads section. He pointed to these distinct Chinese characters written on the paper and said they were "hitman for hire." He explained the region was so poor and underdeveloped they actively recruit hitman and send them out everywhere in China from Hunan. I was pretty freaked out and wanted to leave China, but he assured me it was just the part of the criminal underbelly of the region and China was a very safe and warm country. Also, people in Hunan were famous for their hospitality and generally very nice people. I just thought every city has a dark and dirty underbelly that nobody really sees or thinks about. I just tried to forget about what that guy told me and focus on the good parts. I saw my fair share of craziness living downtown during university. So, I could probably handle China.

I soon figured out how to get a cab into town to find my apartment. I gave the cab driver a printed-out address in Chinese. I had no clue what anything said. He read it and mumbled something in Chinese. He looked at me excitedly and said, "USA? USA?" He seemed very excited to meet somebody from America. He couldn't speak more than few words of English, but he was very friendly and open to Americans. I'm glad regardless of whatever government beef our two countries had we as people could embrace each other with open arms. It made me feel safe and welcome in China. We finally got into the small town after about an hour drive. It was ok because I could see the taxi meter price was a little under 30 bucks. I heard everything was cheap in China, but wow to experiencing it like that was something else. He drove over a small wooden bridge into town. The town was utterly beautiful like something out of National Geographic cover. Words could not explain what I saw the first time entering the city. There were these red traditional-style houses with pretty Chinese roofs all lined up along the river tucked away between the mountains. There were these short flat-roofed red boats drifting along the green river. It looked like green tea; I almost burst out laughing.

At that moment I felt like I found a piece of heaven. The river passed under a lavish traditional bridge that looked like one of the gates you see when entering a local China Town in your city. It was a remarkable scene, and for the first time in a while I felt joyful again.

In front of my apartment was Mr. Yang the principal of my school. I could see he was a tall, handsome and in-shape man dressed very professionally. He was very kind and helped me get into my apartment to show me how everything worked. He said, "I looked like a good teacher" and showed me exactly how to get to our school. It was very convenient to get to work; it was just a short walk from my apartment. My apartment was on the 2nd floor of a low-rise building and had new furniture and appliances despite it being an old building. Everything was looking good so far. The next day, I went to school and met Li Na for the first time. She said, "Wow you're so beautiful with your bright eyes and white skin." She helped me a lot in the first few days of work and we would often get dinner together after work with plenty of girl talk.

After a few months on the job, I was starting to settle in and everything was going smoothly. I was really enjoying China, the food, culture and people were great. But one day when I was walking to school this old man with a long white beard was screaming "Torosdal, Torosdal, Torosdal!" Because of all the commotion he was making, another villager ran and grabbed him from behind covering up his mouth. He then dragged him into a nearby house. This was a big deal because in China the elderly are highly respected. The old man really scared the villagers with what he was saying. I had no idea what 'Torosdal' was, but I thought he must have been a crazy drunk guy or something, embarrassing the villages pride and honor. I was anxious after seeing that; it looked like he was kidnapped.

I quickly got to school after being freaked out by the old man incident. I knocked on Li Na's door and walked in. She was sitting at her desk busy lesson planning, and I asked Li Na what is 'Torosdal.' As soon as I mentioned that word, she jumped out of her seat and pushed me to the wall "Never say that word, ever!" she said sternly. She was really freaked out and you could see it in her eyes. "Where did you hear that word?" she franticly said. I told her what happened, and she calmed down, but never told me what was going on. She just said, "Don't ever say that word again!" and I left the room to go to my classroom. After that episode, Li Na acted normal towards me, but you could see something was not quite right with her. Actually, everyone in the village seemed to be on edge from then on. Children weren't playing outside anymore, and people weren't going about their usual business. Something was scaring the crap out of everyone in the village, including me.

Chapter 2

Over the next few weeks, everyone in the whole town seemed to be acting _even_ more strange. Everyone was just on edge. On my way to school, or when I went grocery shopping, I could see everyone was looking over their shoulders and rushing around nervously. I must remind you that this was a small town. People were usually moseying around like they had nothing better to do, but something was different. People were acting funny, and it wasn't because of me. Over the next few days I tried to talk to Li Na but she was really avoiding me, and every time I tried to talk to her she would act very standoffish and too busy to chat. It was weird because we were good friends outside work. I was actually feeling pretty down about the whole situation. I thought she was a good friend of mine that I could really trust. All she said to me one day was, "Don't come to school tomorrow. It's your day off." And something seemed really off about the way she said it too. I'm good at reading people, and she was definitely hiding something from me. When I was leaving school that day, I noticed the principal was going around to every window and meticulously checking the locks and putting boards up over every window. As I walked by him he said, "Maybe there will be a typhoon tonight." He sort of nervously chuckled to me, but I could see his anxiety. A maintenance worker was walking around to every door and double checking each lock and ticking off a box on a clip board. I was really freaked out by everything that was going on. I was going to run home and lock myself in my room that night right after work. I didn't know why everyone was acting so sketchy. I was unfamiliar with Chinese culture and confused by it. This whole situation was escalating fast. I really didn't know what to do. I felt really worried. Walking home that night the whole village was eerily quiet. Everyone's lights were off, and nobody was on the dusty little streets. There were no street lights in the town, so the only light was the moon illuminating the night sky. It seemed like I was the only person alive in the town. Something serious was going on, but I didn't know what.

I rushed into my apartment building and locked all my doors. Then, I raced over to shut the curtains and turned off the lights. I checked the weather forecast; it was supposed to be a full moon with clear skies. Bizarre. I waited an hour sitting next to my bed in lock-down mode. I don't know why I was doing it. I was just doing it because everyone else was doing it, and I was terrified. The sun was just starting to set, and the sky was lit up with orange and yellow textures peeking through my curtains. I crawled over to the closet and shut the door and hid myself under some blankets. Another hour passed. The sun light peeking under the closet door was gone. I heard a knock on my door. It was a quick and rapid knock with a very shallow sound. I went silent in fear. Was somebody coming to kill me. The knock came one more time. I heard a voice from behind the door. "It's Li Na open the door it's an emergency." I ran to the door unlatched the deadbolt, and slid the chain lock out of the slit as fast as I could. Li Na ran into the room slammed the door behind her and relocked everything quickly. "I'm so sorry," she was weeping frantically. "It's just we didn't know if it was real," she said. "The legend of the curse said if a full moon ever lands on the 4th day of the 4th month of the Lunar Calendar the Torosdal will come and ravage our village! The elders have confirmed its true, it's happening tonight!" I started crying as well. We were going to die without delay. She went on to explain the reason for the ancient curse. During the Jin Dynasty Emperor Wudi declared all of Hunan to be under his reign. The people of Li Na's village all rebelled against his Taoist law. The villagers put of a fierce resistance towards his rule but eventually lost to his large military. The first-born son of Emperor Wudi was killed in the battle to retake the town and was buried on the mountain next to the village. The legend said Emperor Wudi had the Changsha occultist curse their village. The story has been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years. The village elders had come to a consensus the day the Torosdal will seek revenge for Wudi's son is the 4th day of the 4th month of the Lunar calendar. Which was that night. The villagers have been fearing this day for almost a thousand years she went on to tell me. She finally said we needed to get to the school, or we were dead. The thing would find and kill us. I peeked out the window. The tiny streets were lifeless. Every little wooden house lined up along the street had its lights out. I think we literally were the only people left in town. Our plan was to run directly to the school. She said, "I stole a key to get into the school. It's the safest place for us to hide. People were originally going to hide in the school, but everyone just left the town instead. I couldn't leave you behind. There's no way out of town for us!" She was right; there was only one bus out of town in the morning, and she didn't have a car. Apparently, there was no room left in the bus for anyone. The rest of the people drove out of town leaving Li Na behind. We needed to leave my house quick. My hands were shaking with fear, and I had this heavy feeling in my stomach. We slowly unlocked the door of my apartment without making a sound. We checked the hallway; it was empty. We ran down the concrete stairwell out the front door and made it to the street. I pulled Li Na beside me towards a back-alley behind the wooden traditional houses on the street. I saw the alley many times on the way to school near my apartment. The narrow alley ran behind the houses and connected to their open backyards with fences in-between. Suddenly, we heard it. We both stopped dead in our tracks. We heard the sound of a long drawn out wail similar to a bull echoing in the distance. Then grunting, and heavy breathing with snorting. Li Na grabbed me and pulled me into the closest back yard of one of the houses. We ran across the small yard to the back door of a random house. Luckily, the door was open to the house, and we fell to the floor under the back window to hide ourselves. Fortunately, the town was small enough that people didn't lock their doors, but the wooden house had only one big room with a large window facing the back yard. There wasn't anywhere to hide. The house was rectangular and decorated with red ornaments and traditional pictures on the walls with some Buddhist items scattered around the house. We were both horrified at the sound of that creature.

Li Na slowly crawled over to the back door and locked the deadbolt and slid the chain lock across the metal piece. She slowly crawled back to where we were laying under the window. The window was very big, so we were trying to stay under the window sill, so we wouldn't be seen. We didn't have time to move anywhere else in the house and couldn't afford to make any more noise. Then, we heard another sound. It was walking around the alleyway. Each foot step it took there was a distinct stomping sound like the thing literally weighed a ton. Each time it took a step you could feel the vibrations in the house. I thought everything was going to fall over in the house. The steps got closer and closer until it reached the houses backyard. The noises stopped. I had to see what it was doing; we couldn't just sit there like the prey we were. I crawled to the corner of the window and poked just an eye above the window still and that's when I got a glimpse of the most horrifying creature imaginable. It was a massive towering beast. Its skin was a dark red hue with matted dark brown hair hanging from its body. Its skin looked like raw hide. It had massive hooves for feet with a slit in between. The upper body was gargantuan and muscular like the biggest body builder you have ever seen was a shrimp in comparison. The beast was nearly as tall as the house we were in. It had two black round animal eyes filled with rage. Its head was narrow and extended at the front with a big snout at the front. Its mouth was long and full of jagged teeth with filthy saliva dripping from them. Its tongue was lashing around in its mouth as it stomped around. Two thick horns were lodged in both sides of its head that curved in front of it like twisted spikes. The Torosdal was a monstrosity! It jerked its head towards the house, and I ducked down and signaled to Li Na we needed to hide. I was so afraid it might have seen me; I couldn't forgive myself for doing that. The problem was the house was a one floor house with no basement. There was nowhere else to hide. I tucked myself between two chairs against the wall, and Li Na crawled under the kitchen table. We heard the footsteps approaching the house. The stomping vibrations were getting stronger, as it meandered towards the house. Every step it took caused the pictures and ornaments to rattle and shake. The sound of low pitch wailing, and deep breathing lingered in the silent night. The sound of deep exhalations echoed in the alleyway. It was right in front of the rear entrance of the house. The round door-handle slightly turned half a rotation, and it tried to stealthily enter. The door slightly pushed forward and jolted to a stop from the various locks and latches. Then, it knocked on the door. The knock was ever so slight. Like a meek and docile old woman was politely asking permission to enter. Li Na and I were silently weeping. We couldn't say a word even if we wanted. Then, it just started freaking out. It started pounding the door and it shook violently. You could hear the creature thrashing around frantically behind the door. The latches and chains bounced back and forth on the large wooden door. It was enraged. It was going to break in one way or another; it was only a matter of seconds until it smashed its way in. I heard it take a step back, and with one fast motion is shattered a gaping hole where the door was supposed to be. Pieces of wood blasted all over the house. Pieces were hanging from the wall and the roof sagged over the hole. It was furious and paced around the room smashing holes through the walls crushing everything it stepped on. Plumes of steam came from its nose when it exhaled. It stood next to the table. It knew someone was under there. It ripped up the table sending it flying across the room, and Li Na laid there exposed and vulnerable. It raised its large fist in the air to begin pummeling her, when I heard some Chinese men screaming in the alleyway. Rapidly, the house lit up with glowing bullets flying through the wooden walls in just about every direction above us. Little chunks of wood were scattering everywhere throughout the house. Automatic gunfire rang out from the direction of the alleyway. The bullets were ricocheting off the hide of the Torosdal, and some were penetrating only skin deep. You could see the little glowing specs in the demons. The beast roared as men ran toward the house to take on the beast. A man entered the room wearing dark clothes with tattoos on his arms. The man was yelling at the beast as he shot it with his pistol. The beast was unfazed by the bullets. The Torosdal causally walked over to him and swiftly picked him up and whipped him right out the window. He crashed through the window and glass shattered everywhere into the backyard. The man didn't get up; he was out cold. A second man bolted into the house. He looked just like the first guy same clothes same tattoos. He aimed his Uzi right at the chest of the beast. Gun shots rang out rapidly while it jerked around in his hands and stopped. It was out of bullets. The monster's face tensed up in anger, and it easily picked the man up with one hand and tossed him at the wooden wall. The impact was sp hard the wooden beams shattered as the man went through them, and he laid motionless in the front yard. Long pieces of wood were strewn about the yard.

Three men entered with swords and hastily started hacking at the Torosdal, but the swords barely cut the skin of the beast. The swords just clanged off its leathery hide. A man ran full swing at the beast and slashed at its arm. The sword came to a full stop and the man jerked backwards. Little neo-green blood oozed out of the slice like a papercut. The Torosdal let out a roar and made two massive fists. With its mighty hands it slammed both of them on the head with the bottom of its fists. They both crumbled to the floor mortally wounded. The third man bolted away in fear. Finally, a man was standing in the door frame welding a long dark sword. It started to glow a faint blue hue. The sword was unforgettable. It was wide and lengthy with a brown hilt and blade. It had eight Chinese characters in pairs of two running down the blade. It looked majestic, even royal.

Chapter 3

The Torosdal immediately picked up a bulky dresser and launched it at him; he dove out of the way just in time before being crushed by it. The dresser smashed the wall and splintered into pieces.

He ran to the beast and slashed him on the arm and neon-green blood burst from its bulging arm muscle. This sword was able to damage the monster. The Torosdal grabbed the man around his neck and in the blink of an eye the hand fell from its wrist and the monster screamed. The man had chopped off its hand with lightning speed. Neo green blood was spraying out of the wrist like a fire hydrant.

The Torosdal bent forward and rammed the man sending him flying across the room. His sword went soaring to the other side of the room. The Torosdal came running toward the man to deliver a death blow while he was screaming against the wall. I leapt toward the heavy sword and hurled it in the man's direction. I looked up and saw the beast standing still over the man. The back of the sword was sticking out the back of the monster. He slowly pulled out the sword and cleaved the head straight off with one mighty swing. The monster dropped to the ground and the whole house began to collapse from the impact. Me and Li Na ran out of the large hole in the wall right before the house collapsed. When the dust cleared, the man who saved us was standing in the backyard facing away from us. His long silhouette rested across the yard. He had scruffy facial hair and unforgettable, thick tattoos of Chinese characters running down his arms like the other men. He turned around and bowed towards me. "We may be monsters ourselves, but this is our village. Nothing can take that away from us. We will always be the rulers of this town." he softly said. Li Na later told me what he said in Chinese. He turned his back to us and causally strutted down the alleyway. He threw the large sword over his back and started laughing and said, "Thanks Chun Jun." He slowly disappeared into the dark night, and we never saw him again. We didn't have time to talk or reflect on what just happened. We both just ran quickly to the school and locked ourselves in the security room. We ended up staying the night in the school on edge the whole time. We didn't say a word to each other. We didn't know what else would happen that night, but luckily nothing eventful happened. The next morning, I took a bus to Guangzhou and went to the airport. I got a stand-by ticket back home. It was pretty rough when I first got back. I had to work nights bartending and days attending lectures and studying in the library. Eventually, I did get my professional teachers license and found my vocation in life as a teacher. I learned life is a struggle and hard work, ambition and persistence will always pay off. My time in China made me realize how much I loved teaching and gave me the courage to move forward in life. Li Na and I had kept in touch over the years, and she even came to visit once, but we never dared say anything about the Torosdal. Now I can see why Chinese people are so superstitious. lastly, after doing some research over the years I realized from those distinct character on that man's arms that those men were likely local Chinse hitmen. Most of the hitman in China have those same distinct tattoos running down their arms as the men that night. The images are burned into my mind still to this day. Also, even more crazy was the information I found about that sword. After doing some thorough research in the Asian Studies section of the university library I found pictures of the sword that killed the Torosdal. It's called 'Chun Jun' from an ancient legend of the Sword of Majesty. I translated some new articles from the local online paper in Hunan. The translation was pretty poor but from what I gathered 'Chun Jun' was stolen from the Hunan National Historical Archives but was later recovered anonymously. Lastly, according to a website that shows lunar calendar dates the next 4th day of the 4th month will be in 20 years. Who knows what could happen.

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