When I came to, it was already near noon and I realized I wasn’t far from the village.

The taste of blood lingered in my mouth.

Okay, I don’t know what the heck happened, but it’s definitely nothing good I thought.

Groaning, I got up and walked back to the village.

 

Once I got there, I saw that nearly half of the villagers had gathered around something.

Getting curious as to what happened, I went over to them and nearly vomited at the gruesome sight.

 

A young girl had been ripped to shreds by what seemed to be large animal claws.

I recognized Yerin, one of my female friends that had been with me the day before.

I don’t know what happened to her, but I sure was glad that, whatever it was that had killed her, hadn’t gotten to me or any of my other friends.

Her parents were there as well, unable to believe their daughter had been killed.

I couldn’t bear the sight anymore and decided to leave.

 

“Myung! There you are!” I suddenly heard someone yell.

I turned around and was met with Sungyeol, my best friend.

“What’s the matter, hyung?” I asked.

Sungyeol shook his head.

“Nothing much, I just wondered where you went off to last night.” he said.

I nervously looked down.

“Oh, that.” I said “I just decided to go home, I wasn’t feeling that well.”

The elder raised an eyebrow.

“That’s why you decided to just run off? Don’t you know how worried we were?” he scolded.

“Yeah, sorry about that, hyung.” I apologized.

Sungyeol sighed.

“I’m just glad you’re okay. Seems like that wild animal is back.” he said.

 

My eyes widened.

“Wild animal? What wild animal?” I questioned him.

“I don’t know.” my best friend hesitantly admitted

“But seeing as Yerin is totally ripped to shreds, I’d say either a giant wolf or a bear.” he grimly stated

“I thought there weren’t any bears here?” I wondered.

Sungyeol shrugged

“You never know. One could have gotten lost and ended up here.” he said.

“Maybe.” I said “But wolves don’t usually attack people, unless they’re angered.”

“that’s true.” he admitted.

 

“But you know, something seems off.” he continued, frowning.

“Oh, what then?” I questioned.

“That animal always attacks at around a certain period. And if we go looking for it, there’s no trace to be found.” he explained.

“What do you mean by ‘around a certain period?’” I questioned again.

“Well. I don’t quite know. But it seems like there’s a pattern in the moments of attack. As if there’s something causing it to be more aggressive around that time.” Sungyeol explained.

“I see.” I said.

“Do you think it will attack again?” I wondered

He nodded.”

“Certainly, but I’ll be keeping an eye on that thing.” he said. “

 

After the conversation with Sungyeol, I became confused.

It seemed like there was some kind of wild animal attacking the villagers.

But this time, it was around the same time I out in that underground cave.

Maybe I should go to that cave again and see if I can find anything there. I thought.

 

That afternoon, I went back to the forest and slid in the familiar tunnel.

Once I got in the cave, I looked around in every nook and canny.

At first, I didn’t seem to find anything unusual, until I got to the furthest corner.

There, I found some sort of black hair.

I also noticed there was some sort of opening, leading to another part of the cave.

 

The walls of the second room were decorated with paintings of sorts.

I couldn’t recognize what was painted, since it appears to have been here for a very long time already and it had started to fade.

There was also a giant, flat rock in the middle of the room.

As I looked up, I noticed there was a gap in the roof, through which sunlight entered and illuminated the flat rock.

 

Brr. This place gives me a bad feeling. I thought. I don’t know what’s wrong, but I better get out of here.

 

Slightly shivering, I left the cave with the strange, black hair in my hand.

I decided to investigate it further when I got back home.

 

After investigating for a while I figured that it definitely wasn’t human hair, it was too hard and rough for that.

So I came to the conclusion that this must’ve been a bit of the wild animal’s fur.

How come I never noticed it before? I wondered. And why does it only appear now? I have been in that cave many times.

 

Seeing that this bit of hair seemed to only bring more questions, instead of answers, I decided to let it rest for now.

But I couldn’t help but wonder.

If this bit of fur only appears now, and I had a black out last night in that cave, then what does that mean?

 

Suddenly, something dawned on me.

If those black outs happen at night, I can try to see if it happens again tonight. I thought.

 

With that, I set out towards that freaky cave again and waited for nightfall.