The Junkyard

The property on the hill was full of junk. There were dead cars, bicycles, mountains of cans or other jugs, carpets, used tires and many other objects that had been thrown away. In other words – junk. The gate to the property was always open but no one seemed to live or work there. It looked like the people living in the neighbourhood were ignoring its existence. However, when you stared at the open gate for a while you could feel something unnatural about that place. Some kind of force that told you to enter it and you could either want to do so or be off. Son Gain belonged to the first group.

Since she had moved to this part of Seoul the junkyard had caught her interest. Everyday, when riding a bicycle to work, she would pass by it and every time she could feel the strange power of that place.

One autumn day grey clouds covered the sky. The wind was cold and blew really strongly but the summer warmth could’ve still been felt in the air.

Gain was wheeling her bicycle. Riding down the hill was fun, but pedaling up required a bit more determination.

When she was passing by the property she decided she wouldn't be looking at it, like she usually did. However, her urge to look was too strong. The place was calling her, really small voices could’ve been heard in her mind. She felt like she’d been hypnotized.

“Rotten weather, huh?” Gain flinched as Kim Shinyoung approached her silently. The woman was her neighbour, the closest one; they would often talk to each other. Shinyoung was a very dashing person, chubby with an unabashed sense of humor. She was a few years older than Gain and lived alone in her parents' flat.

“What have you been looking at?” she asked but Gain shook her head, telling it was nothing. She offered Shinyoung a cup of tea and they went to her little apartment.

Just one room with a kitchen and a small bathroom but for Gain it was a symbol of her life as an adult, independent woman. She had managed to get away from her parents' overprotective arms and sustaining herself on her own.

Gain boiled water, brew the tea and together with her guest she sat down at the low table. They sipped their tea in comfortable silence. Outside, rain started to drizzle.

“Who does the property belong to?” Gain suddenly asked. Shinyoung looked away but Gain’s gaze was too intense. The woman sighed and said:

“ Ok, I’ll tell you. When I was a little girl, a woman called Granny Kim lived there. I don’t remember much of her, more what people said about her. She was kinda… you know…”

She circled her finger near her head. “She was picking up all this stuff, junk and dragged it over there. No one knew what for. Some people said she was a witch and could talk to ghosts; others said that she was just wacky. She was making these…ahmm… talismans! And hung them up all around her property. Moreover, this feeling when passing by her place. This is not the regular thing. There must be a hint of truth in what people have said. She wasn’t normal.” 

A sound of a thunder made the women wince. Shinyoung looked at the window with distress. She stood up and said she had to go.

“ Wait till it stops raining!” Gain said, accompanying her friend to the exit.

“ It’s just a few meters. I’ll run between the raindrops!”

Something was wrong about Shinyoung acting like that. Did the memory of Granny Kim affect her so much? Or maybe Gain wasn’t the only one that felt the mysterious aura of the junkyard getting stronger than usual? Yes, she could feel it even in her own house.

Something has happened here, something really bad. But what?    

Horrible nightmares tormented Gain the whole night. She heard pained screams and glowering chants. When she finally woke up, she looked at the clock and realized it was past 2 in the night. She wiped her eyes with her hands and walked over to the window. The street was empty and quiet. The clouds had separated releasing the moon light’s glow.

She the bedside lamp, put on a sweater and checked what was on TV at this absurd hour.

A murderer stabbing a woman with a knife, , a woman walking alone in a scary-looking mansion, , teleshopping, late night news.

Lovely.

After making up her mind, she halfheartedly watched how a jolly man tried to sell a juicer. However, after a while she caught herself thinking about the junkyard.

Granny Kim. Medium. Talismans. The junkyard. What had Shinyoung been afraid of?

Her thoughts circulated around the previous conversation.

I’m going there.

A grit crunched upon her every step. Gain was determined and there was no way of turning back for her. The fear struck her only  when she stood in front of the junkyard gate. She couldn’t feel any force, though. Suddenly it was quiet. Too quiet.

She slowly approached the gate and crossed the lane of the property. Indeed, there could’ve been seen many useless things. Broken furniture, canes, bottles. She even noticed a creepy porcelain doll which seemed to stare at her with blue eyes. Gain gulped and turned her sight the other way. On the tree there were hanging the talismans she had been told about by Shinyoung. Some other talismans were hanging around the place, each looking different than the others.

In the center of the parcel there stood a large, wooden shed, certainly abandoned. Some of the panes were crushed. On the door Gain noticed some sort of symbol. It looked like a star in a circle and there were some smaller signs around it. But she didn’t know what that meant. However, she felt sudden uneasiness.

Ok, I guess I can go back now. It wasn’t so bad-

As she turned to leave the odd power, the same as always, struck her stronger than usual. Her legs were petrified, all the little voices she used to hear now came as one loud sound, piercing through her head. She covered her ears and closed her eyes. She screamed of the top of her lungs to block the horrible noise.

Gain felt like she was losing her balance. The world started to spin in every direction; her stomach began to turn.

Despite the eyes being shot, images started to appear in front of her, inside her mind.

She could see something like fragments of a movie, but she was also participating in it.

The crowd was surrounding her; they were yelling and cursing. Some man shoved her and she fell to the ground.

Gain couldn’t hear what the people were shouting, but from the tone of it she understood it was terrible.

“Burn the witch!” suddenly someone yelled and others followed him, constricting the circle around Gain.

“No…” she whispered as she felt that she was being dragged. “No! No! NO!”

The strength of the crowd was too great. They dumped her on the ground and took a few steps back. Gain felt like some liquid being poured over her. She heard the sound of a match being lit. She started to scream and wanted to run but she couldn’t, no matter how hard she tried.

A man with a burning match was approaching her. Now she was screaming like crazy, choking on her tears. The people were chanting and praying. It all felt like a nightmare, a horribly realistic one.

Please…It can’t be real…   

She cursed herself for being too cocky. She wanted to proof herself that she was brave and strong. But trying to proof that by stepping into the cursed property? So childish of you, Son Gain!

The flames covered her sight. She could feel the hotness and the pain. She flounced and begged the gods for mercy. The chants didn’t stop.

And suddenly…she found herself at the junkyard, huddled in front of the porcelain doll, in the middle of the night.

Her voice withered, she began to cry silently. Her knees stiffened and were making it difficult to get up.

Tripping, she dashed out from the junkyard.

The wind, blowing gently, moved the talisman hanging from the tree.