After what seemed like an eternity of staring at the trail of red shimmering dust left behind by the mysterious Devil who claimed to be my future husband. I realised that I have to return to take care of my mother. She might be ill with worry. 

I stroll over to the basin and wash my hands before spritzing some water on my face in the hopes that it will help me think more clearly. I'm beginning to get the strange impression that he isn't really gone and that he is still watching me as the glowing dusts haven't yet vanished into the thin air. 

I suddenly startle at the sound of the restroom door opening. I exhale with relief upon realizing it was only the cleaning lady. 

She pauses as soon as we lock eyes. Her bucket and mop fell to the ground. Her eyes were frantically darting all over the restroom. I watched her movements and saw that she was staring at the shimmering dusts. 

"Do you also see it?" I gesticulate as I inquire.

The cleaning lady looks back at me. Her entire face was painted with a mixture of shock and horror, and her body was violently trembling.

I am baffled as I stare at her. "Did you know something?"

She simply shakes her head and slowly moves away. She yells as soon as I get a little closer. 

"Demon, keep away from me!"

At this point, I'm sure she knew something. 

"Madam, if there is anything you know that could have helped me, please let me know. I believe I'm in trouble." I plead.

She doesn't do anything except keep shaking her head before jerking the door open and scurrying away.

"Wait-!" I yell and run out after her but she has already vanished. I lost sight of her in the throngs of patients, nurses, and doctors in the hallway.

I start to turn the other way as I walk back towards my mother's ward. My anxiousness is pounding in my chest. Surely she had some sort of knowledge to my situation. I have to find her. I need to find her.

"Soojin?" 

I startle a little breaking out from my trance and catch sight of my mother staring at me with a somewhat troubled look on her face. I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I was unaware I had arrived at her room. 

"You appeared to be a bit tense. You're doing okay, dear?" 

I briefly blinked. I took several deep breaths inside to regain my composure before breaking into a broad smile.

"Mama, don't worry! I'm good."

She doesn't say anything as she continues to look at me. She then gives a little grin and pats the area of the bed next to her. 

"Come sit next to me before the visiting hours are over." she said. 

I silently approach and nod slightly. She almost certainly was aware that I was lying. She just did not want to expose me. For which I gave thanks to God. I simply don't have the energy to deal with this right now, and I have no idea where to begin.

I sat down on the soft mattress and immediately lay my head on her shoulder.

She hums a gentle melody that she used to hum when I was a child as she lifts her hand and begins to tenderly touch my cheek.

I implore you, if you are listening, not to separate me from my mother.

As soon as I finished thinking, his voice started to reverberate in my thoughts.

I can't promise you that, Soojin. You are mine. 

I instantly sat up and looked around the room. My breathing was laboured and up and down.

"What's the matter, sweetie?"

My mother sees my wide-eyed turn to her, and she swiftly cups both of my cheeks to calm me down.

"It's okay. Mama's here." she draws me in for a hug after reassuring me.

"You don't have to explain what happened. All you have to know is that I am always here with you."

As I lift my hand to once again examine the sign on my hand, my eyes started to feel a little moist. It begins to shine slightly once more, perhaps as a sign from him that he is never going to leave me alone.

My tear-stained eyes were slowly closing as I began to drift asleep as she continued to hum the song while holding me in her arms.

--

A sound that was disturbing my dreams jolted me awake, and I slowly open my eyes to see a nurse staring at me. 

"I apologise, but visiting hours are over. You should go, and you may always return the next day." she say. 

I take my phone out of the pocket, and the intense light it was radiating almost impaired my visions. 

Squinting my eyes I look at the time that says 8:00 P.M.

"I am sorry," I apologise. "I will take my leave now." 

The nurse nodded and smiled a little before leaving the room. When I turn to face my mother and saw that she is still asleep peacefully, I decided that I would not wake her up. 

To avoid waking her awake, I carefully moved her after getting out of bed. I give her a quick kiss on the forehead as I draw the blanket up over her body.

I gave her small sleeping form one more glimpse before eventually closing the door.

I spend some time in the corridor leaning against the door. Now that my mind is awake, I can clearly recall what transpired during the day. 

Then, from a different corner of the room, my peripheral vision noticed someone turning into the hallway.

I instinctively turn in the direction of the stranger and realise it was the same cleaning lady I had met in the ladies washroom. She had not noticed me as she was silently mopping the floor.

I quickly push myself off the door and run towards her. 

"Madam!" I yell, she jerks slightly in surprise.

She halts her work and raises her head. She drops the mop once again and steps back as she realises who I am.

"I told you to stay away!" she yell back. 

I swiftly grasp her arm before she can turn away from me and flee.

"You must have known what is going on with me, right?" I question.

She tries to pry her arm away from my grip but I was younger and stronger than she was, preventing her from jerking her arm away.

"You have to help me! I believed I am curse!" I raise my voice a little as I plead. 

She turns to face me, her lips quivering with an unknown terror.

"Please," I beg again as my voice grow softer. "Something is haunting me, and I don't know how to save myself."

She glances into my desperate-looking eyes with a gentler expression on her face. 

She inhales deeply and lets it all out with much frustration.

"Let's talk somewhere else," she says as she moves her arms away from me and stoops to pick up her mop and bucket.

I watch her as she walks ahead of me and then turns back to me.

"Follow me."

I follow her in silence, and soon we are outside the hospital. She strolls over to a little park next to the hospital building, sits down on a bench, and sets her bucket and mop down by the side.

"Come have a seat," as she motions to the open place next to her.

I sat down next to her in silence. As the winds blew in this chilly Seoul night and the sound of leaves rustling on the concrete floor, we sat there in quiet.

I'm sorry, I can't assist you," she says abruptly.

When she said that, my stomach plummeted, and I nodded subtly in resignation.

There was another moment of silence until she speaks again, "But I do know someone who has suffered the same fate as you, and she was someone very dear to me."

She has been looking at me the entire time as I turn to look at her. 

"I also want to apologise for my erratic behaviour before. I simply was unable to control it. Seeing those things again just made me think of her," she says.

"Those things?" I ask in confusion. 

She responds, "The red glowing dust in the washroom earlier today."

"You can see those too?" 

With a nod. "I saw the exact same thing two years ago," she says.

"Did it also happen to you?"

"No," she says, shaking her head. "My daughter."

She turns away from me and casts a faraway glance. Her eyes seem vacant and lonely, filled with a sense of longing.

"Two years ago, my daughter, who is around your age, received a stage 4 cancer diagnosis," she began her account by adding, "Every doctor we met said the same thing, indicating that her time was limited and that we should be prepared for the worst."

"She tries every method of recovery, refusing to give up to fate. That is, until one day when she rushed to me when I got home and said her cancer cells had disappeared. She stated that she had heard of a Shaman who had the power to bring someone who was about to pass away back to the world of the living,"

At the mentioned of the Shaman, my breath hitched. Not to mention that her story felt somewhat familiar that it triggers a scene that kept playing over and over in the back of my mind.

"You reminded me of a young girl who came to me with the same look of determination you wears on your face right now." 

"She wanted to bring back a loved one?" I asked and sat down facing her. 

"No. She wanted to bring herself back."

"What?" 

"She was the one that was dying."

It can't be possibe...can it?

"Believing it to be a gift and a miracle from God, I paid no mind to who this Shaman was or her dubious ability to raise the dead. I was simply incredibly grateful that my daughter did not have to pass away. However, odd events started to occur a few days following her miraculous recovery," 

She continues. Her voice began to tremble a bit.

"She began to exhibit paranoia and believed that a mysterious man was haunting her, taunting her into following him to Hell. She thought the man was the Devil, and her hand started to reveal this strange sign that none of us had ever seen before,"

I swallowed my saliva hard. Could it really be the same person who was after me? I trembled at the notion that she may be referring to the same man, and that perhaps he hadn't truly planned on taking me as his wife. Nothing more than a pretence to lead me to Hell and devour my soul and body, just like he did to her daughter.

"By any chance do you think its the same one you saw back then," I ask as I show her my hand with the odd symbol on it.

I'm sorry," she says as she gently places my hand back on my lap after carefully inspecting it near to her face. "I don't really recall how it seems,"

"So what ultimately happened to her? Did she succeed in driving the Devil away?" 

She looks at me with a terrified and haunting expression, giving me a feeling that the next thing she says might not have a pleasant ending.

I was right. Because what she says after that really horrifies me.

"Do you recall the odd occurrence in Seoul two years ago when the moon looks reddish in hue during complete eclipses? The media referred to it as the "Blood Moon."

I vaguely recalled the numerous media story about this phenomenon that completely shooked all the South Koreans.

I gave her subtle nod. 

"It was not a natural occurance," she declared.

I look at her, perplexed. "You mean..." I sputtered.

She nods as though she predicted what my question was.

"She contacted me on the same night that I was doing a shift at the hospital. On the phone, she sounded panicked and she was hysterical as she insisted that he was here to take her away. The conversation abruptly ended with a frightening wail after that,"

"So, what happened next?" I say, grabbing her hand instinctively out of terror.

Her look was filled with unspoken regrets, "I was too late to save my daughter." 

"No..." I muttered.

"I rushed home to discover her room empty, with only a trail of red shimmering dusts remaining as evidence of what happened to her."