He looked at the man in front of him, his lips quivered in fear as his whole body shook with terror. His watery eyes met with the man’s sinister ones - eyes as cold as ice, glinting with thrill as he looked down at him. A big mistake. Panic overwhelmed him as the horrifying fear of getting murdered at this very moment by the hands of the man he trusted dawned on him. His tears flowed harder and snot began to run down his ashen face. The rotten smell wafted through the air and devastating horror made him retch up a thin stream of vomit.

 

“Please...” he begged, collapsing on his own vomit as he clasped his hands together. “Please don’t kill me!” He could feel a warm liquid flowing between his legs - something he would be very ashamed if he wasn’t in this situation. “Please! It’s me! You know me!”

 

He pleaded again and again for the man to let him go, desperately clawing at him, begging to spare his life. He dared to look up again, hoping the man had a bit of humanity left in him.

 

A creepy, distorted smile spread across the man’s face as he swung back the glass bottle in his hand. That’s when it struck him that the man enjoyed seeing him grovel at his feet.

 

中

 

A 32 year old restaurant owner found dead, mutilated in an alley a mile away from her home. She was last seen alive leaving her home at 1 in the morning.

 

Jongdaë's focus was locked on the blurry images of the crime scene shown on the television. The censorship did nothing to hide the gory mess behind it. The whole place was dyed red - the path, the grass, trees, everything was covered in red.

 

Police found a playing card, Queen of Diamonds, sewn on the crown of her head. Act of revenge is suspected… 

 

“Jongdaë-ssi..” A voice called out to him but he was too preoccupied with the news. “Jongdaë-ssi!”

 

A gentle shake was enough to pull his attention away from the television and to the man who had called him.

 

“Do I know you?”

 

The man looked shocked - almost hurt for a second - before an easy smile spread on his face. “That’s not funny, you know. I almost got hurt.” He laughed it off and continued, “I can’t believe that bossy lady is dead. Her murder scene is just a few blocks away from us.”

 

Jongdaë didn’t know any ‘bossy lady’ in this area though… 

 

The man held onto Jongdaë’s hand firmly and gazed into his eyes, “Jongdaë-ssi, you better be careful. You always do the cafe’s closing all by yourself. You could very well be the next victim, you know.”

 

Who is he again? Jongdaë had sworn he never met the man before and it was weird how he had known Jongdaë was the one who would do the closing sale of this cafe. Maybe he’s just a worrisome customer , Jongdaë concluded before replying with a smile, “I’ll be fine.”

 

中

 

Jongdaë quickly locked the back door to his little cafe and jogged back, as he had some unfinished business to do. He had left the meat out for days now and if he didn't hurry to take care of it, the rotten smell would fill his entire place.

 

As he went past a corner, he couldn’t shake this awful feeling of being followed. Jongdaë picked up his pace and swiftly hid in a small alley. Peeking through the gap in front of him, a man walked past him as his head turned left and right, clearly searching for Jongdaë. He picked up a littered glass bottle on the ground and held it firmly in his hand.

 

Jongdaë’s eyes were trained on the man as he followed him inside the woods, going through various overgrown, unused paths before reaching an old abandoned building. The dead silence of the woods was eerily disturbing and unsettling. The man stopped in his tracks as he hesitated to walk any further than he already had.

 

Jongdaë didn’t stop. Quite the opposite, actually. His mind was reeling with ways to play with this curious little cat, dared to crawl inside the devil’s den. He calmly walked up to the man, sticks and leaves crunched under his feet causing the man to turn around. 

 

中

 

A few days later, his body was found on a riverbank, buried in shallow graves as his heavily mutilated body was scattered around the riverbank. His limbs were torn apart and his skin was flayed and sewn back together. His head was poking out of one of those shallow graves. When dug out, his eyes were carved out of its sockets and stuffed inside his mouth. His jaw was ripped apart and was hanging by the torn skin.

 

Stuck on top of one of his graves was a playing card - King of Spades - taped to a stick. Carved on his every limb were the words of the murderer; “Death for the wise”. 

 

The grisly sight was more than anyone could take. But Jongdaë couldn’t take his eyes off it. The sight was so beautiful. So captivating. Even more magnificent was when he had skinned the man alive. His screams sent chills down Jongdaë’s spine. The way he pleaded with tear-flooded eyes, voice hoarse from the constant screams as he shivered under Jongdaë’s hold. It was truly a mesmerizing sight for him.

 

Yes. He finally remembers him now.

 

He is the King of Spades.