The next morning, Uclos was empty. There was only an old lady at a table crying.

Himchan rushed to her.

“Is everything ok?”

“It all came true.”

She said inconsolable.

Yongguk and Jongup joined them.

“Can we help you somehow?”

“No one can help. The boy was cursed. I knew it… I just thought that with time maybe it wouldn’t happen…”

The old lady started crying again. The boys shared concerned looks.

Lately it was common for witches to curse babies at birth. Usually the curse would be asleep for years before they came back to get them as young adults. Witches used them to feed on their energy for dark purposes.

“It’s the boy, Daehyun.”

Yongguk remembered his red strands of hair.

“My only grandson.”

The lady spoke.

“Please help me get him back. He’s everything I have.”

Yongguk kneeled and looked at her.

“If a witch took him, we’ll get him back.”

Yongguk and Himchan got up and left.

“We can’t just leave her here.”

Jongup said worried about the old lady.

Himchan looked at him with caring eyes.

“We have to go Jongup. We go where the evil goes. The boy is in danger.”

A few hours later they were in the middle of the Green Forest when all of a sudden the leafs started to turn grey. Jongup reached for Himchan’s hand remembering what had happened when his room became dark.

“It’s the Grey Forest.”

Himchan said holding his hand.

“We’ve been in places like this before. It’s a witch’s territory.”

“When the trees become grey it means they have noticed our presence.”

Yongguk explained.

“Now it has begun. We can only leave when we kill it.”

“Wait!”

Jongup said suddenly.

“How do you know it’s the same witch that took Daehyun?”

“We don’t.”

Yongguk admitted.

“But usually witches stay close enough to their preys and they live in the same place for many years.”

Jongup felt a brise on his right ear. It was different. It was like the air was talking to him and he knew it...

“It’s that way.”

Yongguk and Himchan looked at each other and smiled confident in Jongup’s habilities.

“Let’s go!”

“Someone dares to enter my territory.”

Said the same dark figure with grey eyes who was in Hubleona last night. His name was Youngjae.

“They won’t take you away from me.”

He said looking at Daehyun.

“What do you want from me?”

The boy asked aggressively.

“I own you Daehyun.”

Youngjae said as a matter of factly.

“Your parents were weak...”

“What have you done to them?”

“Nothing, they were already dead when I found you. Just a little baby. I saved you, Daehyun.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I see I have to tell you the whole story.”

Youngjae Daehyun’s hair.

“The evil plague killed your parents, and you were sick too. So your grandmother asked for my help.”

“She knows?”

Daehyun asked confused.

“Oh, she tried everything to make you happy. She even tried to kill me once… but I forgave her as I had to let her take care of you until you were to be mine.”

Youngjae looked Daehyun in the eyes.

“You can’t leave or you’ll die. We’re bond together forever now. I can’t live without you, and you can’t live without me.”

“What kind of curse is this?”

Daehyun was starting to feel sick.

“Witches feed on humans to grow their power, Daehyun. This pretty boy you see in front you was once just a weak human body, but now he’s me and I’m him. Where do people think witches come from? We come from inside them. We’re their evilness.”

“What do you mean?”

“We come from your dark thoughts. As long as there are humans, there will be witches. Those witch hunters have no idea. They are actually murders.”

Suddenly a dark shadow lifted up from Youngjae’s body and he fell on the ground.

The shadow looked like a dark thunderstorm.

Yongjae started to move. Daehyun noticed his once grey eyes were now a regular shade of brown.

“Daehyun.”

Youngjae said in a weak voice.

“Help me…”

Then the shadow got inside Youngjae again. His eyes were grey once more and he started to laugh.

“Now you know everything. So you can’t let them kill me.”

Finally, Yongguk, Himchan, and Jongup reached to a palace in the middle of the Grey Forest. It looked like it was once a beautiful palace, now completely degraded.

From one of the windows Yongguk noticed Youngjae looking back at them.