When Hongbin opened his eyes he was met with a blinding light. He quickly snapped his eyes shut and groaned before reaching for his phone to check the time. When  his hand was met with nothing but grass his eyes snapped back open and he sat up. Instead of being in his bed like he expected he sat in the middle of a clearing in the woods. For a moment he thought he was dreaming, but this didn’t feel like a dream. It lacked the foggy haze that he felt in dreamland. Everything here felt too real to be a dream, but it didn’t feel like reality either. “Am I being visited?” He thought to himself. Before he could wonder about the answer to his question he saw movement in the corner of his eye. He whipped his head to the direction of the movement and was met with a small dog. It looked to be a cream colored french bulldog. If Hongbin had to guess he would say that the bulldog was there to guide him through the visitation. “Hello little guy. Are you here to show me where I need to be?” The dog barked at him before turning around and dashing into the forest. “Hey wait for me!” He shouted before getting up and running after the small dog.

    Hongbin noticed that the deeper he got into the forest the worse he felt. When he was in the bright clearing he felt fine, but as time went on everything in his body became a source of pain. His teeth and gums felt incredibly sore, his stomach ached, his legs felt numb, and with every step he got more and more tired. He had never felt this much pain coming from one spirit. Even back when he couldn’t filter out the pain that spirits had felt when they died he had never felt this much pain. He would have to talk to his grandmother about this. In the meantime he continued to follow the dog until they were met with an opening in the woods, which led to a lake. This lake was not like any lake he had seen before. Instead of being filled with calm blue water this lake looked like it was filled with sticky black tar. He walked closer to the lake, just to confirm his suspicions. The dog sat at the edge of the lake, panting slightly from the run. Hongbin took a stick and poked at the liquid in the lake, and sure enough it was tar. Hongbin’s eyebrows furrowed at the sight, but his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the dog jumping into the lake.  To Hongbin the lake looked and felt like it was made of tar, but the dog looked like it was swimming through water with how easily it swam through the lake. Once it reached the middle the dog was under the water. Hongbin was about to jump into the lake to save the dog when a figure popped out from where the dog once was. Hongbin had a feeling that this was his visitor.

    The figure was tall, but not much taller than him. His hair was two different tones, on one side it was bubblegum pink and on the other side it was lavender. The figure’s eyes looked a bit droopy and here hidden behind thin wire framed glasses. He was wearing what looked to be some hospital garments. The more Hongbin got a feeling for the spirit the more he knew that while he was living he did not look like this. Hongbin wondered why he had changed his appearance in death. Was he in an accident? Did he die violently? Did he die of starvation or disease? Before Hongbin could ask the figure opened his mouth. As soon as he did tar began to flow out of it. The figure wheezed and choked, he was trying to say something but nothing but inky tar came out of his mouth, falling into the lake of tar below. Hongbin stood horrified at the sight. The figure began to walk towards him. Every step was jerky and stiff, the figure looked like a puppet whose strings were cut. Hongbin tried to run, but he was stuck in place. He tried so hard to move his body but he couldn’t even move his eyes away from the sight of the figure getting closer and closer to him. The figure was in his space now, and hands soaked in tar grabbed at his arms. Hongbin’s breathing picked up, to the point where it was hard for him to get a deep breath in. He felt like he was drowning, like the tar from the lake was slowly filling his lungs. It got harder and harder to breathe, and the last thing Hongbin remembers before succumbing to the darkness that was swallowing him whole was a small desperate whisper. “Help me.”

    Hongbin bolted upright in his bed, taking in huge gulps of air. He thought back to the nightmare he had just had. He wasn’t sure if it was a visitation or not since he couldn’t feel any spirits anywhere in the house. He reasoned that it must have been a nightmare, since during the few times he was visited in his dreams the ghost would stay in the room with him to get help from him. Hongbin took a few more deep breaths as he reasoned with himself that it was just a nightmare, and nothing more. His hair was wet from sweat and plastered to his forehead. He reached up to get the hair out of his eyes when he saw they were covered in tar. The sight of the tar sent Hongbin into a panic. He jumped out of his bed and ran to the bathroom that was connected to his bedroom. He the sink, not even caring about the temperature of the water as he rushed to scrub at his skin. He scrubbed harder and harder, still not able to get the tar off of him. His eyes filled with tears, blurring his vision to the point that he could see nothing but the blackness of the tar on his pale skin. He began to sob in fear that he would never be able to get it off. But he wanted to get it off so badly that he continued to scrub harder and harder at his skin. “Get it off. Get it off. Get it off. GET IT OFF!” he thought to himself as he grew more and more desperate. He jerked his hands out of the sink and rushed over to turn on the shower. Right when he was about to turn it on there was a ringing that went through his home. “The doorbell.” He thought to himself as he turned his head to the source of the noise. The doorbell rang out once more. Hongbin turned back to look at his arms and saw that the tar was gone. Instead he saw that his hands and arms were bright red and they felt raw. He looked at the sink and saw that the water was steaming from how hot it was. He let out a few shuddered breaths as he sank to the floor, trying to collect himself from the whole ordeal.

    After he managed to calm himself down, Hongbin got up from the floor and cooled down the temperature of the water coming from the sink. He then rinsed his arms in the cool water and wet his face to help get rid of the redness from all the crying. He took a deep breath before turning off the water and slowly making his way down the stairs to his front door. When he opened the door there was nobody there, but there was a bouquet of flowers placed in front of the door. He looked around to see if anyone was around, but the street was empty. He picked up the vase and brought the bouquet inside reading the note that had come with the flowers. “Congrats on your new home!- Jack Attack Johnson” Hongbin chuckled at the letter, remembering his friend Jackie from college.  She was a funny exchange student he had met in one of his photography courses, but she moved back to America before they could graduate. Thinking of the photography class reminded him that today was his first day at the studio. He looked at the clock in his living room before rushing back upstairs. He only had twenty minutes to get to work before he was late. After rushing to get ready he grabbed a piece of fruit from the counter as breakfast and ran out the door. He made it just in time, but he looked like a panting mess as he stood in front of his new coworkers. “Sorry. I had a rough morning and time slipped by.” One of his coworkers stood up and gave him a pat on the back. “It’s no problem. You made it just in time. My name is Jaehwan, my desk is right next to yours. How about we get you settled into your desk and then I can give you a tour of the place.” “Sounds good. I’m Hongbin by the way.” Jaehwan smiled before leading Hongbin to his desk.

    “And finally this is the main studio. This is going to be a place that you are going to be working a lot in. As you can see there are a lot of lights and props in the room, so don’t be afraid to use any of it. Any questions?” Jaehwan said as he showed Hongbin the large room. “No I think I know roughly the set up, but if I have any questions later on I can just ask you.” “Great! So if you don’t mind me asking what brings you here?” “What do you mean?” “I don’t know, this is just one of those towns that is so small no one really wants to move in. Most people would be happy to leave.” Hongbin gave Jaehwan a smile. “I kind of like the feel of this town. Everyone seems nice, and everything I need is within walking distance of my house. Plus my great uncle passed a really nice house onto me when he died, so I didn’t want to pass up a free house.” Jaehwan nodded. “I mean who would say no to a free house?” They both continued to talk while they made their way to the door at the end of the long hallway they were walking in. Hongbin looked at the door seeing the name of his boss etched onto the plaque nailed to it. Jung Taekwoon, the plaque said. “So this is where I leave you. Don’t worry about Taekwoon, he may look cold and scary but he’s a real sweetheart when you get past the poker face.” Jaehwan gave him a few slaps on the back before heading to his desk. Hongbin took a deep breath before knocking on the door. “Come in.” said the voice of his boss.  Hongbin opened the door slowly. “Good morning Mr. Jung. My name is Hongbin, I’m the new photographer.” When Hongbin looked up he was horrified.

Standing behind Taekwoon’s desk was the figure from his dream.