The Next Life (?? ?? ???)

The Artefact

Lily's voice shocked me back to reality, and judging by Yerim clutching her chest, it had had a similar effect to her. "The camera broke down shortly after. That's the last piece of footage it picked up."

Already knowing how Wendy would react to this, I turned to her to prove my suspicions right. Her eyes had not left the monitor screen even after the video had stopped playing. She stared into nothing, as though looking at something behind the screen. Or something in her head.

"Was there anything amiss when you arrived the next morning?" Sooyoung asked Lily.

"Right." She dashed past us, between Yerim and Ildo, to grab something from one of the shelves in the backroom. She held it up to us, offering each of us a good look. "We found this left on the counter yesterday. Other than that, and the door being unlocked, nothing."

"Did you call the police about it?" Joohyun asked. To which Lily responded with a scoff.

"What are they gonna do? Yeah, I called them. They thought it was a prank, and told me to focus on running my business instead of dabbling in analog horror."

As Joohyun and Lily spoke, I examined the item left on the counter. It was some sort of jewellery, a golden metallic locket with a long chain loop. I held it by the chain, the locket twirling beneath it. Yerim came up next to me and grabbed the locket lightly, examining it as well.

"Oppa, isn't this that thing from the other day?"

"Hm?" Way to be specific.

Holding the locket closer to me, she pointed at a spot in the metal where something was engraved. I had to squint to see it, but the realisation hit me like a truck.

"It is. It's the sigil that was etched onto the counter in the tent bar."

"And the one on the door to the ghost prince's room at Tee Hotel," Seulgi added, leaning in to add to the observation. She and Yerim had looks of fascination and curiosity on their faces, but they paled in comparison to the unease the artefact now gave me. That symbol could only mean trouble. Although she hadn't seen the sigil carved into the counter at the tent bar, Jisoo had still reacted like a deer in the headlights while in there, and lashed out at me. And then there was that whole fiasco with the Prince.

My spiralling thoughts were cut off by the sound of Lily's voice, raised slightly to address all of us. "So, er, do any of you know what that thing was?"

"Yah," Yerim nudged Ildo, "Anything?"

Ildo cleared his throat, adjusting his leather jacket. "It looks like some sort of demon, though I'm not sure what kind."

"Oh, it's no demon," Wendy spoke up for the first time since before watching the video, drawing the collective attention of everyone in the room. "That's a Rasetsu."

"A what-setsu?" Lily voiced her confusion.

"That thing from the gas station?" Sooyoung asked. "What is it, exactly?"

Being friends with Wendy for years, I knew, but she was probably the best suited to give the explanation.

She took in a breath, rubbing her arm. "Back at the home, my caretaker used to scare us with stories of a shapeshifting monster to get us to behave. They take the form of whoever they last killed, and they're smart. Not just your regular mindless killing machine. They'll hunt you down for weeks, learning your daily routine, making you more and more paranoid until they finally get you. There's no way of stopping them. The only thing you can do is lock your windows and doors and pray."

~~~

After deciding that there was nothing more that we could do, and Somi was gone, Lily thanked us with a free lunch despite the investigation being relatively fruitless. For the trouble of coming in the first place, she'd said.