The Twenty-Ninth Tale

 Sobbing was the first thing Hongbin heard when he entered the desolated ruins of a town. His face paled at the noise as he suddenly felt a rush of panic enter his body. 

He darted his eyes from left to right, narrowing his shoulders and pulling his elongated scarf close to his face while hovering his other hand above his weapon holster. 

There in a distance, was a little girl crying—her arms over her face and around her knees—under a leaning, flickering lamp post. 

Hongbin's shoulders slumped in relief, heaving an incredulous huff at his reaction.

He made his way over towards the crouched form of the girl.

"H-hey," he shivered at the sudden drop of temperature. "Are you alright? Did you get lost? This is a restricted area, children should not be wandering around here."

The girl wailed louder and Hongbin inwardly cursed at his recklessness. He opened his mouth to speak but the girl had already spoken before he could.

"They took my parents! They took my grandma and my friends! They burnt them! They forced everybody out of their homes and hanged them! They pulled everybody's fingers and toes and they whipped and hurt everybody until they couldn't even scream anymore! Everyone's dead because of them!"

Hongbin held his breath at the disturbingly gruesome imagination of the girl; his heart pounding loudly in his ears.

He placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, chuckling nervously.

"D-don't worry! Your family and friends are safe. They're probably waiting for you in the town nearby. I'll take you there and help you find them."

"R-really?"

"Really," he firmly reassured.

The girl hiccupped. "W-what's your name?"

"Hongbin, Lee Hongbin, newly appointed police investigator at your service," he proudly proclaimed, slightly puffing his chest.

"Hello Mr Lee! Nice to meet you! Do you mind if you carry me? I can't exactly see."

Hongbin's breath hitched, brushing the fact aside that the girl hadn't introduced herself. "You're... blind...?"

"No." The girl finally raised her head from her arms.

Hongbin felt his stomach dropped.

"I can't see because they took my eyes out," the girl answered, a bit too merrily, sockets sickeningly hollow and filled with nothing but empty darkness.

A scream managed to rip out of Hongbin's throat. He staggered several steps back as the girl took slow steps towards him. Now that the girl had stood on her feet, he slowly came to notice the dried blood on her tattered clothing and the slashes of blood and scars that defaced her limbs.

The girl smiled at him.

"Mr Police Officer... I thought you were going to help me find my parents...?"

He felt tiny hands hold onto his own; his vision suddenly obscured by tiny black dots.

"Let's go?" she mouthed.

Hongbin lost consciousness.

...what did I just write.