I am sitting at my office desk in the studio and have been for the past 15 minutes. I wasn’t particularly busy with anything save for some write ups. Apparently, the producers of the show weren’t happy with the output I gave them on paranormal incidences of city folk. Neither were they the least bit satisfied with my paper on mythology and folklore of other nations, which by the way cost them a lot of money.It took them more than thousands to send me to Malaysia and Japan. Airline fee, accommodations, and everything else were on them yet they were still not pleased with the paper I had produced. I guess the joke’s on them now. They shelled out way too  much money!

My name is Tiffany Hwang. I work for a broadcasting company called the Voice of the Land and my particular segment is Sights and Frights. Its aim is to explore the supernatural world through visiting some of the so-called ‘haunted’ places not just in Korea but all over the world as well as interview people who have encountered these “ghosts” or “beings”. People think that my job is exciting and personally, I don’t think they’re wrong. However, most people believe that this job is scary, since it deals with the paranormal. As far as I’m concerned, not many people have heard of my show neither have they seen it yet. We’ve only started airing 5 episodes and that’s barely enough to get the recognition of the masses. Yeah, sure, people have heard of it or seen it on TV via commercials but if we’re talking about a large scale audience, enough to put me on top of the Most Watched Prime-time TV shows or to land me a TV award, then it’s not  my show you’re probably talking about.

“Tiffany!” calls my co-worker David Joo. David Joo is another Korean-American who has come to Korea due to difficulty finding a job in the States. Journalism is a tough job and the competition over there is even stiffer that you need like, two teams of broadcasters and staff to create just one show. I actually doubt this show would fare any better there than here.

“Whattaya want?” I holler from my cubicle while half of my lip is submerged in the latte cup that I’m drinking. David walks over to my area and smiles. I wonder what he is grinning about.

“The producers have a new assignment for us!” I nearly choke and spit the latte as it comes to me as a total and utter shock. After more than 3 weeks worth of failed and rejected proposals as well as a day’s worth of suspension for flipping out on my boss (which he didn’t really take that seriously. I thought he was going to fire me already!), he still gave me a job! Finally! Someone who actually cares about me! I eagerly grab the papers from his hand and scan them.

“What’s this?” I ask with a slight hint of confusion. I just schemed the paper and I didn’t really read it properly. My excitement always gets the better of me.

“Read it!” David points. I furrow my brows and arch them. I try, very lazily, to go over the paper once more an read it. Word per word I read and absorb it, trying to get the gist of whatever it is trying to say. My heart skips as I read some main points. I’m sure David saw the look on my face. He comes over and asks me.

“What’s wrong? Is there something the matter?” he asks. I lower the paper that is covering my face and smirk at him. The kind of smirk that would give you an uncomfortable feeling that the person you are looking at is some kind of a maniac. David’s heart races even faster.

“No. Nothing’s wrong.” I answer in a calm and collected manner. My smile is still quite suspicious to David.

“Then why are you looking at me like that?” I slyly smile at David and hand the paper to him.

“I want you to read it as well.” I feel an energy crawl up my skin upon handing the paper to him. I am really ecstatic about this project and I want him, David, to be my partner in accomplishing this. David reaches for the paper, never taking his suspicious look off of me. He pays no mind to the paper, rather his eyes are locked into mine. I notice the slanted brown ones crawl from me down to the papers once more, carefully reading them. Then, it dawns on him. The whole truth of my thrill and excitement becomes clear to David.

“T...The Hullberry Hill school?” David mutters. His lips shake as he mentions the name of the school written on the paper. Sheer fright and terror can be read on his face while the eyes move up and down, re-reading the words.

“Yes. Is there a problem?” Obviously, I have no idea what he is talking about neither do I about his emotions.

“There seems to be.” he mutters softly. I arch my eyebrow and smile.

“Hullberry Hill school. I’d love to go there.” I say ecstatically. David gives me a puzzled look as his mouth hangs wide open.

“You?! Why?”

“Well, aside from the fact that it is a rumoured ‘Satan Scholastic Center’, I think that we could do a little bit of history digging.” I tell him.

“Tiffany Hwang, you are one twisted person! I can’t believe you are actually anxious to see this school!!! So many people do not want to have anything to do with this!” he worriedly says. “Can’t we have a venue change?”

“No.” I say without hesitation. “I do not want to change the venue. First of all, this is what the producers have for us. We can’t change it. Second, what are you so afraid of? It’s just a school that is  rumoured to be a demon worshipping place. We’re not even sure if that rumor is true!” I scold him. David still looks frightened but having no other choice, since he usually is under me and works for me, he complies.

“Alright. I will do that project of yours with you.” My heart jumps with glee. I am more than willing to start the project as early as now. In my excitement, I stand from my seat and gather the papers. I breeze past David who seems to still be thinking about what he had just said.

Much later, David and I head to Mr. Yoon’s office. Mr. Yoon is our show producer and the very head of the show. He sits in his office all day, typing away and giving orders to his talents. David and I decide to talk to him about it. No, actually it was David’s idea to go to Mr. Yoon and consult about this project. He thinks that we better ask him to orient us on the school first before we head there. To me, I think this is another one of his schemes to convince Mr. Yoon or to get him to think that this mission is unsafe. As for me, I’m willing to risk even my soul just for this special coverage.

David and I reach the doorstep of the office. I persuade David to knock on the door since it was his idea to come here and talk to Mr. Yoon about it when we know perfectly well that it was him who assigned this project, meaning it has been certified, approved, inspected, and thoroughly checked by his men already.

“Come in!” comes Mr. Yoon’s voice from inside the office, signaling that the door isn’t locked. David slowly opens the door and together we creep into his office. Mr. Yoon is a friendly guy and he tells us to come in, persuades us in fact.

“Come in. Why are you two being so shy? Come on in!” he motions us with his hands. “Have a seat.” We sit down on the chairs before him and smile. He clasps his hands together and asks us what we need. I look at David and motion him to start speaking.

“It’s your idea to come here.” I mouth at him. Mr. Yoon glances at me, sensing uncertainty. He hates uncertainty. If you come to his office for a particular agenda, you better be sure of yourself. Otherwise, he’d say that you’re wasting his time.

“Mr. Yoon.” David clears his throat before proceeding. Mr. Yoon finally smartens up and places his chin on his knuckles. “I would like to ask a question. About the Hullberry Hill School project.”

“What is it?”

“Are you sure it’s safe to go there? I mean, there have been reports of Satanic rituals, abuses, kidnappings, mind control-” Mr. Yoon loses it and clenches his fist. I have detected annoyance and impatience in his face early on, from the moment we walked in his office. It has given him this impression that we do not want to do this project.

“David. Please, let us be logical and use our heads. As the head of the production company, it is my duty to ensure that while you two deliver nothing but truth, quality, and fun fright to the viewers, that you two are safe as well. I have had some experts go over to the place to examine it and see if there was anything that could be a threat to your lives and they found nothing.” Mr. Yoon says. “It’s totally safe for the two of you to go and film there.”

“But what about the-”

“David.” Mr. Yoon’s temper has reached its boiling point. If I know anything from the 5 years of employment here as a writer and now for the first time a TV show host, Mr. Yoon hates redundancy and people who ask way too many questions. He’s the ‘when I say so, you do so’ kind of guy.

“Please.” Mr. Yoon calms his voice down. “Please. I beg of you. Trust me on this. If you don’t want to do this project, kindly leave the building and let Ms. Hwang here do it.” For some reason, I feel flattered that Mr. Yoon refers to me as ‘Ms. Hwang’ and is complimenting me for my dedication to this about to be documentary on one of the most horrifying and feared schools in Korea.

“Mr. Yoon, we are very sorry.” I tell him apologetically. I use a sweet, doe-eyed facial expression to make him pity us and not be so hard on us. “We’re more than willing and excited to do this project. As a matter of fact, we’d like to start now!” I enthusiastically tell him. I see the blood drain down from his face as he pales with fear.

“No. It’s alright. You don’t have to apologize. You have always been a work-oriented person, Ms. Hwang. How’s about you take a break while David here fills in for you?” The more blood got drained from his face! David turns pale and starts to shake so to save him from utter fear, I tell our boss that I am willing to do the project with him.

“So when do you want to start?” asks our boss. I arch my eyebrows and being a workaholic (self-professed), I smile widely and tell our boss.

“Right now. As soon as possible. When can we start? When’s the earliest?” I ask.

“You can start next week. That’s the earliest I can give you.” Mr. Yoon tells us. “I still have to ready the cameramen, the crew, everything else. Plus, we have to check on the place again.”

“Mr. Yoon,” David butts in, the color on his face seems to have returned. He has become fleshy again. “I think it’s safest if you tell us about the place first.” Mr. Yoon lowers his eyeglasses and arches his eyebrow.

“That, my son.” he starts. “Is your responsibility as reporters. You and the researchers must collaborate on this.” The frustration seems to be coming back as David goes from intelligently inquisitive to lacking common sense.

“You should know that.” I tell him. “We’re reporters. We’ve been in this for five years. Why do you ask such questions.” My voice gradually becomes louder upon the tension of the situation. It is quite frustrating to hear that a fellow expert has no idea how to retrieve information on a particular place.

“Sir, thank you so much for your time. We greatly appreciate it.” I say as I slowly stand up from my seat and walk out of the office with David trailing behind me. Mr. Yoon lowers his glasses and nods, taking a small sip of water from his glass, sweating cold.

“You’re welcome.” he says with a slightly cynical tone in his voice. It is clear that he isn’t pleased with our presence in his office. He sees us as a disturbance to the tranquility of his working area. Sensing this, David and I meekly and quietly exit the room.

As David and I walk down the hall, we start talking about our show’s main agenda: The Hullberry Hill School.

“Do you believe the rumours surrounding that school, Tiffany?” I my head towards his direction, staring at his inquisitive, curious, fearful face. It is clear that David doesn’t want to have anything to do with this job.

“Well, I can’t say for sure. I mean, I’ve not gone there before. But I think if we do careful research about it, we can feed our minds some knowledge on this school.” I tell him. “I can’t wait to do research on this. They say, according to what I’ve read because you know I love reading about demons and the occult, that Hullberry Hill School was once used as the headquarters of a Satanic cult.” David’s face starts to turn pale white again.

“Satanic cult?” he asks. He doesn’t seem to have any idea what this is so I have to undergo the tedious and boring task of having to explain it to him.

“You don’t know what that is?”

“I do but my understanding isn’t deep enough.”

“A satanic cult is a group of people who worship Satan and offer other people as sacrifice.” I explain to him.

“So that’s a Satanic school?”

“Not exactly. It isn’t Satanic but rumor has it that Satanic groups use this school to hold their meetings and perform their rituals.” I explain it to him. It seems as though this whole new information on cults and demons overwhelmed my journalistic partner.

“How much will they pay us for this.” he asks. I recall the hard money we have earned and have to earn. Our salary highly depends on how many people view our show. Recently, we haven’t been doing that well and I still have bills to pay.

“ing depends.” I crankily answer him. I am pressed and determined to start this project not just because I am interested in the subject but because I am honestly, in desperate need of money. If you people think that just because a person appears on TV it means that she earns a great fat sum of money, well think again. I don’t earn a great big fat sum of money and I could only wish I did.

“That’s why we have to get started on this project. I have to live.” I tell my partner.