A couple of hours after Jeffrey's apparent disappearance, Shaun, who already had a hunch that something was amiss before, was now completely certain that Jeffrey had encountered some danger. Therefore, after locating one of the spirits, Shaun quickly followed it and was about to communicate with the ghost when his hand accidentally touched its figure.
Without warning, Shaun was plunged into the past memories of the ghost, who had been a mere child of ten years old before his death. The boy's family was too poor, so his parents had sold him to an evil wizard, who performed cruel experiments involving black magic on the poor boy. Eventually, the boy died after being tortured by the wizard in a sinister ritual to summon the dead.
Waking up from the trance consisted of the ghost's past memories, Shaun's face was full of tears and his heart ached with pity.
"Gosh! I didn't realise that the reason why the actions of these ghosts were so childish was because they were mere kids before they died," thought Shaun. "In order to free their spirits, we have to find that wicked wizard."
"Wait, is it just me, or does that wicked wizard look somehow familiar? Where have I seen a familiar face before? But how is that possible? Surely, the wizard must have died several hundreds of years ago." After some thorough examination, Shaun suddenly realised where exactly he had perceived a similar appearance to the wizard. "Mr. Park! He looks almost identical to the wizard! I have a hunch he's up to no good. But I'll need solid proof before I start accusing him."
Therefore, Shaun sneaked into the staffroom and managed to obtain a set of uniform. Pretending to be the new bell boy, Shaun enquired for Mr Park's room at the reception, claiming that he had a parcel to deliver to the latter's room. After obtaining the keycard from the receptionist, Shaun knocked on the door of Mr Park's room, which had a "Do not disturb" sign hanging. After waiting for some time and no one answered, Shaun knocked again. Again, no answer.
With his heart pounding deafeningly like a stampede of buffaloes, Shaun swiped the keycard and the door opened elegantly. Upon entering the luxurious hotel room, Shaun first noticed a pungent smell of dust. Then, he discovered where the smell came from - piles and piles of old books.
"I've got no time to lose, he'll probably be back soon," thought Shaun as he quickly inspected the piles of books. At first, the ones on the top of the pile appeared to be nothing extraordinary - old magazines, novels, newspapers. Nevertheless, as Shaun arrived towards the bottom of the first pile of books, he started to notice that the theme had gradually begun to alter. Little by little, the genre moved from Korean history to ancient books about black magic. Then, at the very bottom of the pile was a handwritten manuscript that seemed to be dating back several hundreds of years ago. Taking in a deep breath, Shaun flipped open the manuscript and discovered diagrams and detailed descriptions written in ancient Korean Hanja about a resurrection ritual.
"Place the piece of jade soaked with the blood of the deceased on the heart of the mummified corpse and recite the following spell, the deceased will rise and become the living dead," read Shaun. "Oh no! I'm not an expert in Taoist rituals, I've got to consult Blythe about this."
At that very instant, Shaun perceived the swiping of the keycard and the door of the room slowly opening behind him.
~To be Continued~
No comments:
Post a Comment