The old couple were sitting inside their home playing checkers. The old man suddenly stood up and sniffed the air. His wife looked at him curiously and then sniffed at the air too. They both then looked at each other fearfully.

“Can you smell it too?” the man asked his wife. She nodded. They both rushed out of their small house into the forest. Fortunately for them, all was not over yet.

“You cannot stop us unless you sacrifice a life,” the old lady smirked, “What will you do? Who will sacrifice themselves in the fire?”

*****

“There is one way…but it requires great effort. Spirits, especially one this evil, are not dealt with that easily."

Sungmin shook his head. “We will do whatever it takes to save our members, no matter how hard or life-threatening they are.” The other two nodded in agreement.

Sungmin’s grandfather eyed the three men. “Very well,” he finally said, “We will need to light a huge fire which means petrol which we don’t have. However, I do have a large stack of oil and matches. And we’ll need salt and incense which you have already brought. Sungminnie must still remember him that small ritual I taught him. Anyway, we can’t afford to be seen so we must only use one torch. We’ll carry all this in backpacks, ok?”

The three Super Junior members nodded and made to get up but were all stopped by Sungmin’s grandfather. “Do you guys really think going out dressed like that is okay? I know that the spirits out in the forest are evil but even they have a sense of humour you know.” The boys looked at themselves and realised what the old man was talking about. They were still wearing their disguises. Only their shoes were normal.

After Sungmin, Eunhyuk and Shindong had changed into normal clothes, everyone set out hand in hand to fight the spirits. As there was only one torch being used to minimise risk of being seen, everyone decided to hold hands so no one got hurt. When everyone entered a part of the forest where the spacing between the trees became smaller, Shindong began to shiver violently.

“It’s so cold here. It seems so lifeless,” Shindong said through his chattering teeth.

Sungmin’s grandfather nodded grimly in response. “This place is known for its evil vibes. No sane animals dare to come near this place because evil spirits have built their home here.”

The four then came to a large clearing in the forest. The grass in some places was charred black, as if it had been mutilated in some way. The full moon was out that night, adding to the cruel atmosphere of the scene. Though the air of the countryside had seemed clean and fresh at the bottom of the mountains, up here it was cold, lifeless. Worse than dead.

“Let’s not waste any time boys. Let’s get out the oil and spread it out on the areas you see the charred grass.”

They worked in silence. The charred grass area turned out to be ring shaped and the oil glistened showing the outline of the shape. Each one of them lit a match and dropped it onto the ground. The ring caught on fire almost instantaneously. Over the next few minutes, they spent their time adding salt to the fire and setting incense sticks alight, spreading a bittersweet aroma. They saw flashes of dark things appearing in the fire and eerie sounds emanating from it. And then they saw the couple.

The woman spoke first. “You cannot stop us unless you sacrifice a life.” Here she smirked. “What will you do? Who will sacrifice themselves in the fire?”

The man added, “We have been sacrificing lives throughout our whole scheme. We even got the spirits inside your friends force them to kill some elderly people. You may have seen on the news.”

Sungmin felt his stomach drop. So his band-mates had been the murderers of the old people? The couple seemed to know that he was feeling uncomfortable. “All you people have to do is just sacrifice one life to balance everything out. Who will it be?”

Sungmin began to walk towards the fire.

I never thought I could ever write a cliffhanger successfully but Ii did for this...YAY!!!

The ending has already been written (but I won't update for a couple of days : P) so nothing can be changed...

Remember to comment and I'll speed up the update for the final part ^_^