Eternal life

Chapter 38

They got to the shaman's home. It was a close call, when they run in the narrow alleys and passed the police few time. Nevertheless, they made it to safe place. They rushed in and each of them started to calm their breath, as shaman closed the door and leaned on it.

'Tae-joon. Stop touching things.' She said to the possessed body. He immediately dropped the thing he had in hands.

Young Saeng calmed his breath. 'What now?'

'We have to find that place.' She approached the table and took the sheet of paper, where whole description of the goddess was on. 'Look at it again. Maybe something will come do your mind.'

He grabbed the page. 'I told you I don't know how to read it...'

Shaman took out some old map. 'But you can look at it. Check, maybe it covers.'

They started to compare the sign and look for it, but nothing was matching. Shaman took another maps, but the result was indifferent. When she took one pile, from the middle of it another piece of paper fell. It was a leaflet of the open-air museum, where Young Saeng met the weird man for the first time. It reminded him, that he actually had some fun there, with Aeri. He smirked.

'Why you're smiling?'

He picked up the brochure. 'It reminded me of something...' Suddenly he opened his eyes widely and the smile left his face. He gasped. 'I saw this sign there!'

'What is that?' She took the piece of paper from his hands. She remembered, that she visited that place year ago. Weird, that such a thing was in between the things not touched through past decade.

Young Saeng was thrilled. 'It's a museum, near Wonju! I-I saw it on one signpost! I wondered why I can read all the description, but not this one!'

'Then we're set. Let's go. Tae-joon, if you'd be so kind and drop those bells, please.' The teenager did as he was asked to.

'How we'll get there? We left the car at Jisoo's house!'

'Who said I don't have a car?'

They got going and left the house. Around the corner a car was parked. It was red and small, definitely went through something in the lifetime. It's produce date might've been from another century.

'When was the last time you've drove this?!' He hit the roof of the car and one window came down.

She scolded him with her look. 'Last Wednesday. It may look bad, but I won't throw it away, because it still works. Get in.'

When they were in the car, Shaman turned the key. The engine coughed, but did nothing. She slapped few times in the dashboard, tried again and succeed. She smiled at them. 'It need some time, but when it's on the way – there is no other like it.'

They set out.

***

They were on the highway. All the cars were overtaking them. Young Saeng tried to close the window he accidentally opened earlier, but he couldn't, so he left it open, to get some fresh air. It was a middle of the night and he has got really tired because of all the things that happened today. He closed his eyes. Tae-joon was sleeping in the backseat.

Shaman hit snoozing Young Saeng, so he opened his eyes. 'Don't sleep. If you fall asleep, I will also.'

He yawned. 'I can't even. After I closed the eyes I saw her reddish eyes...'

'Then let's talk. I'll answer the question, that you've asked once before.'

'Which one? I was ignored so many times...'

'About the girl.'

Young Saeng corrected his sitting pose, knowing that story coming from shaman won't be boring. She continued. 'So as far as I remember I told you about the rules of ghosts. Right?'

He nodded so she spoke again. 'If those are not obeyed, it equals slow transformation into a vengeful ghost. Usually I don't even scare the ghosts with them, I just mention to not get near living humans. The reason why they stayed here are various. In example Tae-joon there...' She looked into the rear-view mirror, which showed him sleeping.

'...He has a twin, or maybe had? Whatever. But unfortunately Tae-joon died in accident before his brother. They made a promise they'll leave this leave this world together. So he waits for him. At the nurse house I asked him to play with the kids. He's not really strong supernatural being, even though he's been here for six years already. Ghosts slowly accumulate the energy and he got enough of it to throw a teddy bear into the air. But that's good. He'll definitely fulfil his promise and won't go vengeful.'

Young Saeng turned around to look at sleeping boy. He felt uncomfortable around him. He knew, that the soul inside was calm and benign, but still – the face he wore caused so much pain. 'Why he's sleeping?'

'New body's fault. So that's his reason to stay. But those may vary: there're people which want to go to their favourite band concert last time, some want to eat the dish they eaten ten years ago and some want the drama to end. But they are also those, whose stay is powered by evil purpose. They want to catch their partner on affair, they want their enemy to fall and break their legs. They're driven by a revenge.'

He looked back at the driving shaman. 'And you fulfil those wishes?'

She waved her hands. 'No can do. We, special society, also have rules. And in the first place is always no harm to living people, even when they're clearly at fault. It's not our business to judge. So usually we leave them as they are, maybe trying to change their mind. Their anger quicken their energy growth. In no time they're in ability to possess and destroy things. When they're strong enough to execute their revenge and harm someone – they're already lost. They go fully vengeful. The team from higher-ups show and they have it covered.'

'And Aeri...'

'She's under control of the deity. I guess they're powerless here. I hope so. Back to the girl. Her name is Seohyun. She died 2 months ago, suicide.'

Young Saeng opened his mouth wide. 'But she's so young...'

'She came from good family. But had another preferences than most of the people. She preferred girls.' Young Saeng let quiet 'oh'. 'Yup. So she had a normal family, everyone loved each other, etc.. Her mom is a member of some religious society. Seohyun was going to meetings and prayers with her family, it was perfect. She and her mom were really close. So the girl naturally felt, that she can tell her mom about what concerns her, right? Well, she was wrong. Nice meetings slowly turned into a brainwashing trials, where the main executioner was her mom. They thought they can change her and in the result they destroyed her so much she took her own life.

The woman made from herself a victim in all of this. All of the people sympathize with her. Of course she hid the reason, blaming it on some bullies or the hardships with education... I don't remember... But she's a centre of attention right now, while she's not even sad after her death.'

'That's so cruel... What's her, the girl's, wish then?'

'Seohyun recorded with a hidden camera what they done to her. She want that to be revealed. She want other people to hate her mother, so she'll feel the same thing as Seohyun did...' Suddenly shaman hit the driving wheel hard, making Tae-joon in the back jolt. 'Ugh, why I did agree...'

Young Saeng tried to comfort her. 'But that's justified! What bad can happen?'

'Are you a God to make that decision? No, right. I'll be in trouble after this... I don't know, what may be done, never done this before. But rules are made for something...'

He tried to smile, while pointing at his face. 'Maybe helping me will even those deals?'

'I'll pray for that.'

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