2 Demons

THE GROWLING OF THE ENGINE WAS the only sound in the endless road. The wheels slid across the gravel and the peeling blue paint of the car bathed in the light of the peeping moon.

"I was going to give you this once we got home but here it is. Your birthday present!" The woman, her mother, in the passenger seat chirped, her features dim with the lack of light and handed the little girl in the back a medium size box wrapped in purple paper and finished with a bow. The man in the driver seat, her father, looked in the rearview mirror and smiled seeing the spark of joy that appeared on the child's face.

The little girl whose hair was tied in two pigtails took the box that was handed by her mother. She took of the lid and took out thing that was inside. It was a miniature figure of a carnival ride, the ride where the horses went up and down. Upon turning the lead a melancholic tune began to play. The soft melody blended in with the silence that had settled upon opening the gift. "Do you like your present?" He asked, looking back for a split second before turning to look at the road before him. "Yes, I really like it!" She smiled widely, revealing that one of her teeth was missing. He laughed lowly and looked towards his wife. She gave him a reassuring look and tight lip smiled. As the silence over took the ride, the only thing still playing was tune from the music box.

There wasn't a car in miles, the road that seemed endless and there was only three of them. Suddenly, the street lights went out, one by one. It went eerily quite. The only light produced by the headlights. He clutched the steering wheel hard and his knuckles went white. A looming shadowy figure suddenly flew before their car. He tried to maneuver the car to avoid it but instead lost car and that car flipped.

The glass in the windows broke in mid air and glistening shard flew. Pieces of glass embedding themselves in their bodies as blood prickled at an agonisingly slow pace. The car landed upside down and left them hanging. Multiple nick nacks from the car where shattered on the road and surprisingly the girl wasn't hurt as much. A single drop of blood visible on the cuff of her white sleeve. But her parents weren't that lucky, blood covered their bodies. The lonely tune that was still playing gave the scene an eerie feeling. She opened her eyes, that were subconsciously shut, when she heard the groans and grunts that were coming from the front seat.

"Ji A..." Her mother's voice was heard, barely above a whisper. She looked around desperately when she heard footsteps. Two pair of feet appeared alongside the flipped vehicle. "Please help me." She cried out towards them to no avail. This time she screamed the same thing a little louder in hopes to draw attention. When no one came, she fiddled with the seat belt until it opened and she landed on her knees. She crawled towards where her parents bodies were hanging only by the support of the seat belts. Tears that had sprung in her eyes without her consent sparkled. The two figures that were standing bent down and she saw their faces and what she saw was shocking, it was the duplicate image of her parents, her parents that were covered in blood at that very moment. She did the only thing she could do at the moment, she screamed.

Her eyes shot open. The room was a minimalistic room with a few modern decorations. Her father's eyes followed her as her mother looked at her from the open kitchen. " You're up." Her father's voice made her look towards him. "I'm glad it was all a dream." She said with a pout, her chubby cheeks red. Her mother walked from the kitchen with a tray of fruit, her father leaning forward to get a piece. "Alright, let's have some fruit." Said her mother. She quickly sprung up and hugged her mother, "Mom, I love you. I love you so much." She said, almost crying. "What had gotten into you. You were just asleep." He mother replied but hugging her nonetheless. She turned away from her and turned towards her father, "I love you Dad. I love you a lot." She hugged the just the same. "Okay, I love you too, Ji A." He said, releasing her from the hug. "Did you have nightmare or something?" He asked, caressing her hair. "I don't even want to think about it." She said and sat down beside him.

She picked up the musical box and turned it to activate the tune that it played. Her soft smile morphed into a frown as she saw that one of the horses was missing a head. She looked towards her sleeve to see a drop of blood. The nightmare was replaying in her head like a broken cassette. On the news, "This evening, a fire broke out at Sungjin Market in Samho 2-dong Seoul. Many individuals lost their lives." She looked up concerned at the low laughter at was resounding from the figure next to her at the words from the television. "The fire broke out at 7pm and engulfed three houses before it was extinguished." She looked towards her mother who had fork in her with a pineapple, she too was laughing but a bit muffled as she was chewing.

The laughter had gotten almost maniacal as the people on TV cried for they had lost their loved ones. She was sure there weren't her parents, now she just needed to be sure. "Mom, I'm hungry." She said, her lips in a pout. "Do you want some fruit." She asked, pushing the plate of fruit forward. "No." She replied. "I want some walnut cakes." She said again. Her mother's duplicate, stood up and made way towards the food cabinets. "Where the walnut cakes..." She muttered under her breath.

She came from her seat on the couch towards the imposter. There was little holder that held all the knifes and scissors in the house, from that she picked one pair of scissors and hid it behind her back. "I think we're out." She said, looking back at her after checking the white wood drawers. "Can I get you some more tommorow?" She asked with a smile on her face. "We don't have walnut cakes. I'm allergic to walnut and had to be hospitalized before." She said with a straight face. "Right, I forgot." The imposter tried to recover from the obvious mistake. "That's not possible. My mom's a doctor." She said quickly, knowing that her statement gave away that she knew that they weren't her real parents. The fake mom neared her and put a hand on her head, "I made a mistake because I was too tired." Said she. Before anything else could be said, she stabbed the imposter with the scissors.

"You're not my mom." She said over the screams of the stranger. "Ji A..." She whimpered, for a second she really acted like her mom. "Where's my mom?" She screamed. The imposter thrust her hand forward and grabbed her throat in attempts to choke her, "I am you mom!" She snarled. As the pressure was building she kicked the imposter and crawled under the table. The other fake from the living room had gotten up and was now pushing chairs apart to reach her. The female imposter was screaming at her to come out from underneath. They had almost reached her but she slid to the other side and escaped towards her room. She ran as quickly as she could while trying to look behind towards the man that was rushing to catch her. She slammed the door as soon as she reached her room, and positioned the book case and table in front of the door.

"Ji A. Let's talk." His sickly sweet voice could be heard, trying to lure the girl to him. She sat in front of the book case with her knees folded. She was shaking and couldn't do anything to make it stop. "You're a good girl. Right, Ji A?" He asked from the outside the door, the sound of scratching evident. The door knob started to move, it shook violently until it came of the light blue door. A hand with sharp claws and burned skin pushed itself into the hole where the door knob used to reside making her gasp loudly.

It moved around, hoping to catch the trembling child. Suddenly, it took out the hand. His pushed his face to look through the giant hole. "Look at this wench." He moved aside so that she too could see through the hole. Then, they began banging the door. Ji A, who was sitting in front of the heavy book case began to shake. Animalistic whimpers could be heard from outside, too scared that they'll come in, she moved to the other side of the room, sat down and covered her eyes with her small hands.

She felt someone standing near her but it wasn't those two who were outside, no, this one gave off a coming aura. She removed her hands to look up at where she presumed the figure was standing. It was man, wearing a suit and supporting a red umbrella on his shoulder. Only few of his features could be spotted under the small bit of moonlight that was streaming through the cracked window. "Are you... Ah Eum?" His coarse voice asked hesitantly.

He held out his hand, which emitted a wave orange glow. When nothing happened he sighed, "No. You're not Ah Eum." After he said that, he bent down near her. One of his eyes glowed yellow with a single black slit. "Forget whatever you saw tonight. If you don't..." He said. He leaned near her and said something.



And as suddenly she wasn't crouching in her room with a strange man with glowing eyes but near a upside down car. Police sirens we're heard and people talking.

"This is Yeou Gogae on Road 144. A vehicle has rolled over. There's blood on both the passenger and the driver's seat." She was surrounded by emergency service vehicles. An officer talking into his walkie and others inspecting the unusual scene. "There's a lot of blood. However, there are no bodies."  She walked towards the flipped car and bent down to see if there was any sign of her missing parents. "Mom. Dad." She cried, it was like a dam had been opened. "Yes, there's on survivor. A little girl." She stood up calling out to her parents once again, but even the nine year old knew that her parents were far from safe.

"Are you okay?" One of the officers asked her. "I can't find my parents" she said, tears staining her cheeks. "Please find them for me." She almost screamed. In the far distance was the same figure that had, quite literally, saved her life, still in the same stance with his umbrella over his shoulder. He, annoyed, sped away from the scene. "We'll find them for you. Don't worry." the officer said. "Do you remember what happened? Were you alone from the start?" The other officer began to ask.

The only lingering question, what happened that night in       Yeou Gogae.