Money Loving CEO's Detective Lover

Chapter 216: World of the Dead (8)

"LOOK OUT!" 

The girl's scream snapped him out of his reverie and on an instinct, Minho leapt forward. The scythe missed him by mere centimeters and he fell on the ground. 

The reaper towered over him, raising its scythe again but the girl jumped in between and slashed the peach blossom stem at it. The reaper let out a shrill cry of agony and retreated outside. 

"We've got to get out of this room!" the girl exclaimed. "It's gonna return any moment and it might bring reinforcements!" 

Minho did not need to be told twice. He scrambled to get up and together, they ran out of the kitchen. Behind them, they could hear the clanking of several chains. Several skeletal reapers were on their tail, toppling over one another to reach the human within their grasp. 

The sight was far more gruesome than anything Minho had ever seen in his entire life. The reapers were running as if they were one entity, screeching and howling. They were fast yet clumsy in their movements.Some of them fell over during the chase but the others stepped on them, squishing the bones. Dry blood burst out of the skulls but the other reapers kept on chasing Minho and the girl, not giving up their pursuit. They tugged and pulled at each other, determined to get the human at any cost.

"Don't look back and just run!" the girl yelled at him. "Shit!" 

The reapers were fast and were getting closer. Minho gasped, running out of breath. He was usually a fast runner but he doubted he could outrun the things chasing them. The cold air was swirling around them, quickly catching up to the intended victims. 

"Don't let your mind drift!" the girl ordered. "The moment you do that, you'll get trapped in another memory loop!" 

"Huh?" 

"JUST RUN!" 

But he could not run much longer. One of the reapers almost caught him with its bony hand but the girl swooshed the branch at them, making them back off for a few seconds. 

"There's an intersection coming up!" the girl yelled. "You know what to do!"

Did he? He was not sure anymore but he must rely on his instincts. This was no math problem he could figure out with the help of logic. This was a matter of life and death. As soon as the intersection came up, he exchanged a brief glance with the girl and simultaneously, they jumped sideways. The reapers, who were blind, charged ahead without noticing that their intended victims had moved out of the way. Minho panted, trying to catch his breath but did not dare to make a noise. The reapers might change course if they heard noise and he did not have the energy to run.

They waited until the howls disappeared and the deafening silence descended on them once more.

"Are you alright?" the girl asked after a while.

"No," he admitted. 

"Good," she said. "You know, it's still not too late. You can return home if you want. Why are you risking your life in this miserable place for a woman?"

"I'm not going to leave her alone here," he said without hesitating. "Last time, she had to endure a lot of hardship because of me. Compared to what she had gone through, this is nothing really!"

"Seeing mindless souls and blood hungry reapers is nothing?" the girl echoed. "Aren't you scared?"

"Living humans are scarier," Minho stated. "The reapers are programmed to kill so that they could protect this world. But humans, they're the worst. At one moment you'll get sympathy while the very next moment, the person you trusted would stab you in the back. And some dismember you for fun."

As he said those words, Minho was surprised that he actually meant them. The reapers did not scare him at all. Even the bizarre sight he was was nothing compared to what Lee Shawn or CCK had done. 

"She's too important to me," he finally confessed. "I can't let her stay here. Not when she still had a lifetime left to spend with me and our daughter."

"Is she your wife?" the girl asked curiously.

"No."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

The girl did not understand human emotions at all. It had been so many years since she had any herself. The dead world did not do that to her. When she woke up there after her death, she was already an emotionless doll. She suspected that her feelings and willpower were killed in the real world. Death was an escape for her, something she accepted gladly. Perhaps, that was one of the reasons why she managed to keep her sanity.

But seeing this strange man in front of her, the girl wondered what it felt like to feel those emotions again. Did she have friends who loved her? Dear ones who wanted to see her again? She doubted it and for the first time in years, she wished that she could find someone who would remember her.

"I envy you," she confessed. "That you're able to feel such things for someone. The woman you're in love with is very lucky."

"Love?" Minho repeated. The girl slightly frowned.

"You still don't get it, mister?" she asked. "It is very obvious from your expressions and actions. You're not here out of duty. If that was the case, you wouldn't have jumped into the portal without a thought. Yet, you did. You entered this world knowing nothing but only with a single determination to save that woman. If that's not love, then I'm afraid, I don't know what else it is."

Minho was distracted by that word. Love? Him? Was it possible for him to fall in love?

Then he recalled the moments he had imagined with Gayoon. Yes, he wanted all those. He wanted her to stay with him and Jina. He wanted to see her bright face every time he returned home. The month he had ignored her was a miserable one for him and he did not have the heart to go through another day without talking to her. Gayoon had become such an integral part of his life that it was almost impossible to imagine that he had a life before she came along.

"Looks like humans are also unsure of their own feelings," the girl guessed. "If you don't want to lose her, it's best you figure out your feelings for her before you leave this world. Otherwise, it'll be too late for you and you'll be stuck in a hell worse than this."

"Is there a hell worse than this?" he wondered.

"Yes," the girl answered. "There is. And it's in our own lonely minds."

Minho did not ask her to elaborate because he knew what she meant. With that, she stood up and said, "Let's go, mister. You need to save your lady love."

He gave her a little smile and followed her. She was right. He must save Gayoon.

.

"So we'll need to open the portal long enough for Jina to pass the message to Minho," Junho stated. "That he can open the door from the other end. But how will he do it?"

Shijin had a large book in front of him which he brought from the trunk of his car. It was a record he had made over the years about the different types of things he had learnt through the exorcisms. The World of the Dead was a phrase which had popped up many times and he had written down some of the testimonies from different spirits but never paid any attention to them.

"There was one spirit which had some information on Transporters," he murmured. "It was an exorcism I did back in the year 2000. There was this spirit which was taking its host through different portals. The spirit was not dangerous but the person he had possessed was someone he had loved when he was alive. So, he took over his beloved person's body after death in an attempt to take her to the World of the Dead with him."

"Now that I think about it, this spirit might have gotten help from this same one we're dealing with," he concluded. "The one helping Seungjo. Mister A. After the exorcism, the person who was possessed remembered the ordeal very clearly. She said that the spirit used to point at a random spot in the air and concentrated really hard until he could pierce the air with his nail to open a portal while repeatedly chanting the word 'Patentibus'. But it needed a lot of concentration."

"Can Jina do it?" Junho asked.

"I can!" Jina claimed. "I can concentrate hard!"

"But what's the guarantee that the portal she'll open will lead to Minho?" Junho frowned. "What if she ends up opening another doorway?"

"We can try to make her concentrate on her father and with his image in mind," Shinjin replied. "And she can chant the phrase."

"What does patentibus mean?" Junho queried.

"It means 'open' in Latin," Shijin stated. "The spirit was commanding the portal to open."

Just then Jaewan came in running. 

"The school's party is over," he announced. "Everyone went home and I had my manager lock down this building for us. No one will disturb us."

His eyes met Junho's who nodded. Jina was quietly listening to the old men but her mind was already trying to concentrate on the image of her dad. She finally shut out all noise and began to relax her mind, free of all thoughts. 

It was time to unlock her remaining abilities. After all, the lives of her parents were on stake.