TO CELEBRATE THE AMAZING, OUT OF THE BLUE, SUCCESS OF SWEET DREAM, AN UPDATE ON ALL THREE STORIES

Chapter 14. Moon is in trouble

Hyukjae was driving while Kyuhyun was checking his phone, still not decided on whether he was supposed to call Leeteuk and let him know what had happened. If he revealed that Moon had basically gone rogue under his command, Leeteuk was going to put a stop to everything even before they could reach the house and they would no longer be on their way to extract her but on their way to the police office. Someone else was going to pull Moon out and then her back to jail. No. He couldn’t call. Instead he called back at the house and put the call on speaker so that Hyukjae could hear as well.

“Siwon...” Kyuhyun addressed him since he had taken charge of the computers. “Is Donghae next to you?” he questioned.

“I am here.” Donghae’s voice was heard next.

“Pick any identity for a female in mid-twenties and if you know how, please upload it online and put Moon’s photo there.” Kyuhyun instructed.

“So that if they check her fingerprints, they would connect to a fake name?” Donghae enquired, just to make sure he understood the instructions perfectly.

“Yes. In the worst case scenario, maybe we can pass her as a thief or something and get her out of it with only a few days in police custody.” Kyuhyun massaged his forehead, starting to get a serious headache.

 “I know how. I will have it done in half an hour.” Donghae let him know, leaving Siwon to carry on the conversation.

“We found she used your card to order a cab.  We can search for it and ask where she wanted to be dropped.” Heechul added in, doing his best to help out although he did not know how to use complicated systems.

“She is probably going to his house. Find where it is.” Kyuhyun instructed.

“That is all?” Siwon questioned.

“Find her location and make sure you have a track on it at any given time.” Kyuhyun instructed before saying good bye and closing the call.

Hyukjae didn’t dare ask anything. He felt he was at fault for the disappearance of Moon. He had been the one tricked and dumped inside the supermarket and he was a trained police officer. Sure, he was not keeping tabs on her like he would have done to someone in custody but it was still shameful to have just lost someone. He had no way he could explain to Kyuhyun how that happened and he had no excuse for not keeping her with him at all times. If he was on official duty and she would have been an informant or a captive, he could have gotten fired or sanctioned in an instant. 

While everyone was working on figuring out where she was and making sure her real identity was buried, Moon arrived at the house of the doll shop store clerk. She walked around the house and noticed there was a secondary entrance inside the house and shook her head, mentally cursing once she realized there was no CCTV on that side and the guy could have left the house through that exit. She had stopped at a convenience store before reaching her final destination so she walked closer to the secondary entrance and put on a pair of gloves and a mask like those used when people had a cold. She had a few hairpins that she also brought and hopefully, by using them, she could unlock the door.

She had checked before leaving if the man had any security system installed and nothing came up so she was pretty sure no alarm was going to turn on. Getting inside the yard of the house, she moved towards the house and used the hairpins to unlock it. Once inside, she was careful not to bump anything and began looking around. Reaching towards the middle of the living room, she felt a weird pressure on the wooden floor when she stepped on it and stopped, crunching down to see if there was anything there.

“What....?” she frowned, noticing that the floorboard in that area could be removed, something that was weird.

Pulling up one of the tiles, she moved her hand inside the small opening to see if there was anything that was hidden there. Just as she was about to give up, her fingers bumped into something. Pulling a little package that was wrapped in bubble sheet, she turned it around in her hand and tried to see through it. The more she looked, the more it looked like a key. Removing the wrapping, she took it and went around looking for anything that was locked. A drawer, a safe, a closet, a stand, anything that needed to be opened and to which the key could fit. She was running out of time and it was annoying her like nothing else.

“The garage.” She suddenly got a new idea, leaving the house and heading towards the garage.

Finding her way inside, she started looking for any other item that could be opened with a key and eventually found another door.  The key fitted inside and it made her happy to have gotten access to a new area inside the residence. The door revealed a basement on the other side but in order to get there she had to go down the stairs. She didn’t know how much time she had or if it was a safe place to be nor whether it was a good idea to go down the stairs, but she had found absolutely no sign of the victims inside the house and this was the last place she could search.

Though nervous and frankly scared, she carefully walked down the stairs and looked around for anything that she could relate to the killings. What she found was much more than what she would have imagined. In the middle of that storage room or basement or whatever purpose the room had, she found a series of dolls arranged one next to the other. Each and every one of them resembled one of the victims to the point it looked as if they had been instantly turned into dolls. It was creepy but it had to have some meaning since those were the only dolls there and they were being kept in the center as if they were some sort of trophy. Approaching the table, she noticed that there was another doll, one still in the making. It didn’t have a head or hands yet but the dress of it was already done and she couldn’t help but think that the next victim had already been decided.

“What are you doing here?!”

Moon jumped in fear and turned around, panicking instantly upon noticing that the person who just shouted at her was the store clerk. Gulping, she looked around for an escape route and eventually came to one single conclusion: she had to make a run for it. She tried to move to the side and run back upstairs but the guy was not just going to let her get away. He reached her just as she placed her foot on the second stair and pulled her down, his fingers pressing hard against her neck.

“What do you know?” the man asked in anger, using his other hand to stop her from putting on a fight.

She was not going to answer that. Donghae had been right with his hunch and she had been right to find those dolls and the beauty criteria’s matching the victims but now she had a problem. Those dolls were proof that the man was indeed the killer but she needed to leave that place quickly and make a call so that the police would arrive in time to seize them as evidence. With her mask and gloves on she could lie and say she was a thief or something but surely that was not going to be enough. Struggling to get out of his grasp, she decided to use her leg. It worked because he cursed in pain and let her go but it had not been enough.  She barely reached halfway up the staircase when her hair was grabbed. The next thing she knew, she was thrown down the stairs and could only whimper in pain as her back and head slammed against the floor. Attempting to stand up, she was kicked in the stomach and then punched straight in the face. Everything turned black.

When Kyuhyun and Hyukjae reached the house, they hesitated a bit before leaving the car. They needed an excuse to be there and there was only one possible scenario. Calling at the precinct, he had to tell them he saw a strange figure in the vicinity of the house and that he was going to go and check it out. Since he had identified himself with name and badge number, the call finished without any problem and they forged their perfect excuse to enter the house. Getting out of the car and approaching the door, he tried the doorknob and found that the door was locked.

“Through the back.” Kyuhyun looked towards Hyukjae, pulling out his gun since the door was locked but a light was still on.

“Got you.” Hyukjae nodded and pulled his gun out as well.

When both of them reached the back of the house, they noticed the second door and decided to enter in the courtyard. They instantly saw the opened garage door and followed inside. They made sure to keep their guns ahead of the if it was needed but there was no one around. They were about to give in and retreat, thinking she had finished searching and returned to the house. They looked at each other and shook their heads, letting the other know that nothing was found. They were moving towards the exit when Kyuhyun noticed a bit of light coming from the corner of the garage. Moving towards it, he noticed the door and quickly called Hyukjae. It was still partially opened so thy used their legs to push it aside and then began descending.

“Hyukjae...call this in.” Kyuhyun spoke in horror as he saw the inside of the basement.

“I’ll call Leeteuk.” Hyukjae was quick to react, taking his phone.

As the black haired called the Superintendent to let them know what they had found, Kyuhyun took his phone out and made a call of his own. Moving around the basement, he saw the dolls and noticed a few other pictures on the wall, hidden outside of the lighted area. They had dolls that looked perfectly like the victims and 13 photos hanged on the wall, 10 of the people already killed and 3 more women that fitted the style of the victims and of those the store clerk liked to immortalize as dolls. Moon had been right. Donghae had been right. While they were supposed to feel happy to have caught the criminal, now they had a much bigger issue. The front door was close but a light was still on. The garage had a hidden door that was open with a lot evidence they could link to the murders and that could have meant only one thing. The killer arrived while Moon was still there and given how no one was inside the house anymore, he had to have found her and then took her away.

“Siwon... find me her location. Now.” Kyuhyun urgently asked, running up the stairs back towards the garage to see if there was any hint of where the man could have gone to.

“The signal is still not clear. Either it is being jammed or she did something to it.” Siwon replied. “What is happening?”

“They were right. He’s our guy.” Kyuhyun bit into his lower lip. “And it seems he has Moon.”

“Maybe if she touches any electronic device the signal will spike but....” Siwon replied, his voice showing lack of confidence and concern.

“Track the car.... I don’t see it here.”  Kyuhyun looked around before talking, hoping that would offer them some lead.

“I’ll do my best.”

As Siwon closed the call, he took a few seconds to relax himself. This situation was not good. There was absolutely nothing good about it except revealing who the actual killer was. Even if they did found him, if he had Moon and now they were somewhere in the middle of nowhere, he could have and kill her as well. For all they knew, by the time they found their location, she could have already been dead and they couldn’t allow that. Donghae noticed the grave look on his face and moved closer, putting his hand over his shoulder.

“What is going on?’ he asked, sensing that there was trouble.

“You were right. He’s our guy.” Siwon took a deep breath.

“That’s great news!” Heechul stopped pressing the refresh button for her location. “Why the long face?”

“He might have Moon.”

Donghae felt like crying the moment he heard that. Heechul gaped in surprise, keeping his mouth open as he found absolutely no proper words that could have helped the situation turn better. There was nothing he could do except try and see if at some point her location would pop up on the screen. Donghae had to move to the side and covered his face with his hands, keeping his head down as he tried to figure out what could he possibly do.

“We don’