Yaksha Chapter 3

Anri slowly lifted her head, drenched in cold sweat. A pitch-black shadow stood tall in front of her.

 

“W-what is this…?”

 

It was the black earthbound spirit trapped at the outdoor pool. Its form was even clearer than when it had been at the pool, enough now that she could discern it was a tall man.

 

The aura surrounding the shadow unmistakably belonged to an evil spirit. Just standing face-to-face with it made her hair stand on end. The grudge held by its soul was deep, and its power overwhelming.

 

“Why are you here…”

 

“Who the hell are you people?!”

 

At that moment, a resounding shout echoed from the first floor, drowning out Anri’s muttering. She flinched in shock and sprang up from the cold floor. It was definitely An Yul’s voice.

 

“Oppa?”

 

Immediately after, An Yul’s desperate scream rang out. She hurriedly stepped toward the door, but the black spirit instantly blocked her path.

 

“Get out of my way!”

 

Anri quickly reached out toward the door. Her hand passed through the black spirit and clutched the doorknob tightly.

 

She managed to open the door halfway, but with a sudden bang, it slammed shut roughly. The spirit was holding the door and slowly shaking its head. Anri looked up at it with wide eyes.

 

“What are you doing?!”

 

The spirit pointed toward the inside of the room with its finger, as if telling her to stay put. Then, it passed through the door and disappeared from Anri’s view.

 

“No! My brother, never…! Aagh!”

 

Another painful scream from An Yul echoed up from the first floor.

 

“Rina… Run away right now!”

 

“Run away, my ass, you idiot!”

 

Anri clenched her teeth and yanked the door open. She no longer cared about the black spirit’s warning. Her only blood relative was in danger—how could she possibly run away alone?

 

As she rushed down the stairs, she covered her mouth with both hands to muffle her scream. Unknowingly, she collapsed mid-way on the staircase. A man was lying at the bottom of the stairs.

 

It wasn’t An Yul. Trembling, Anri blankly stared at the pool of bright red blood gathered under the man’s waist.

 

From beneath his torn dress shirt, blood-soaked intestines had spilled out in a heap. The corpse was so gruesome, she couldn’t believe a human could have done it.

 

The black spirit had killed this man. Otherwise, there was no way to explain such a grotesque condition of the body.

 

As Anri trembled and stepped around the corpse to reach the first floor, a terrified scream rang out from the direction of the garden.

 

“P-please save me!”

 

The sound of shattering glass followed. Another man, thrown from the garden, crashed through the window and was hurled onto the living room floor. Anri screamed instinctively and curled into herself.

 

“O-Oppa…?”

 

Holding her trembling hands tightly together, she slowly turned to look toward the garden. There was another man at the outdoor pool. Like the others, he wore a black suit, and his legs flailed in midair as he floated above the ground.

 

The man’s face had turned pale, like someone being strangled. The black spirit was lifting him into the air, strangling him.

 

As Anri slowly stepped backward toward the kitchen, something brushed against her foot. She flinched and looked down.

 

A limp hand lay on the wide spread of blood. It was An Yul’s hand. He lay collapsed in the center of the kitchen, his eyes gently closed.

 

“No…”

 

The moment she saw the kitchen knife deeply embedded in his chest, her heart dropped. Bursting into tears, Anri fell to her knees in front of him.

 

“Oppa…”

 

“Don’t move.”

 

As she gently shook An Yul’s cold body, something cold touched the nape of her neck.

 

She didn’t need to turn around to know what it was. It was the sharp edge of a blade. An unidentified man was pressing a knife to her neck.

 

“Y-you people… What the hell are you…”

 

Anri mumbled in a trembling voice. The man pressed the blade against her neck, then lightly patted her stiff shoulder with his other hand.

 

“Your skills haven’t dulled. Dragging all those small fry here was worth it.”

 

The man added with a pleased tone.

 

“I’d just been waiting for the ghost’s attention to turn to the small fry… Thanks to that, I finally get to kill you.”

 

Anri stared blankly at An Yul’s corpse as tears fell steadily from her eyes.

 

“You… you knew I could see ghosts?”

 

“It’s not just seeing them, is it?”

 

The man playfully poked her neck with the tip of the blade, chuckling. Anri hunched her shoulders at the sharp pain that pricked her skin. Seeing her brother collapsed before her, tears burst forth again.

 

“You… I’ll never forgive you.”

 

The moment she bit her trembling lip hard, the pressure of the blade against her neck grew stronger.

 

“Raise your head.”

 

Tears streaming down her face, Anri slowly lifted her head. The man’s face reflected clearly in the glass cabinet across from her.

 

The man, unlike the other intruders, wasn’t wearing a black suit. He didn’t cover his face with a hat either.

 

He was dressed in a casual polo shirt and dark blue jeans, and his build was as burly as a bear.

 

The man was also staring intently at Anri’s pale face reflected in the glass display case. His bloodshot eyes were filled with resentment and hatred toward Anri. He murmured, letting tears fall like Anri had:

 

“I thought you went to Macau or China……”

 

The blade pushed in deeper than before through her trembling skin. She felt a hot stream of blood running down her shoulder. Startled by the excruciating pain, Anri gasped sharply.

 

“I didn’t think you’d run away to Singapore.”

 

With a snort, the man gripped Anri’s shoulder tightly with the hand not holding the knife.

 

“Don’t be too resentful.”

 

“W-Wait…….”

 

“This is the price of betraying Lord Ryu.”

 

A low chuckle echoed from behind her. Then came an intense pain at the nape of her neck. The strength in her legs gave out, and her body became heavy, as if crushed by a boulder.

 

Anri felt a shock like her heart dropping and squeezed her eyes shut. With a snap, something seemed to tear near her neck.

 

“Farewell.”

 

The moment the man shoved Anri’s body to the side, the sound of glass shattering was heard again. A black specter flew in like the wind and hurled the man standing behind Anri toward the wall.

 

But it was already too late. Anri blinked her hazy eyes slowly. The sensation of hot liquid running down her chest gradually faded.

 

Even the pain was becoming faint. The burning agony disappeared, and her vision narrowed.

 

“Yul……? Rina! No!”

 

Somewhere, Emma’s scream, mixed with sobs, was faintly heard. As darkness fell over her eyes, her mind drifted away. She felt the black specter slump weakly beside her.

 

She wanted to lift her heavy eyelids and look at the black specter. She wanted to say thank you for helping her. But she had already lost too much blood.

 

“……Oppa…… Em…ma……”

 

Anri whispered faintly, then lost consciousness.

 

***

 

“No!”

 

Anri suddenly shouted and woke up from sleep. Her eyes snapped open, but her vision remained pitch black. A soft and plush blindfold was covering her eyes.

 

Panting heavily, she tried to piece together her confused memories. Horrific scenes flashed through her mind like a lantern slideshow.

 

As soon as the Chinese character tattoo was completed, the earthbound spirit of the outdoor pool appeared before her eyes, and that spirit sequentially eliminated the unidentified intruders who had broken into the house.

 

But An Yul had already been killed by the intruders, and Anri too had been attacked by one of them, slowly losing consciousness.

 

‘This is the price of betraying Lord Ryu.’

 

Remembering the man’s tearful voice gave her goosebumps all over. Anri tore off the blindfold forcefully and sat up.

 

It wasn’t the home of An Yul and Emma—it was an unfamiliar room.

 

“What is this place……?”

 

She looked around the room, furnished with charming little pieces of furniture, and turned her gaze toward the window. Through the opposite window, she could see laundry in various colors hanging over the railing.

 

The distance was close enough to clearly see the curtain patterns and stains on the opposite balcony. It was different from the mansion where, upon opening the window, a bright blue sky and a luxurious garden were the first things to be seen.

 

“Where on earth is this……?”