HUNTERS || ENHA/LSFM || - A K-pop Ghost Hunting Story

28. Lost

A small sob escaped from Kazuha's mouth.

Yesterday could've been the last day she would ever see him.
And nobody ever got to say goodbye.
Not even once.

...

"Go, go go!" Jungwon told them in a rushed voice, egging them forward through the trees.

He hacked and shoved branches and overgrowth away with his hands, clearing them a path as they bounded, their legs like lightning.
Yunjin could feel her heart pumping, and the adrenaline coursing through her.

"I can hear him." Sunoo panted, just behind Jungwon, his bag clanking at his hip.

In front of them, muffled by the trees, they could hear the faint cries of the spirit, in pain. Although it was screaming bloody murder, its voice was worn, and all they could hear was a broken cry.

Jungwon cleared them an opening, and wasted no time in unsheathing his sword and running out into the clearance, through the thick array of bushes, pinpointed on the spirit's voice.
Sunoo and Yunjin followed his example, brandishing their blades in their hands and running after him.

"He's got to be here!" Jungwon said, looking around.

Sunoo pointed somewhere off to the side, where there were branches and bushes rustling. The spirit's voice was also mostly concentrated in that particular area.
"Over there!" He shouted.

He led them through, his foot padding over branches and wet mud on the damp ground. It mushed against their shoes, sinking into the ground like paste.

They now had set eyes on the spirit. He was shifting from one place to another, stumbling like a drunkard. His hands were up to his face, where two sticks were impaled to what were his eyes, and most of his face was covered in dark blood, unlike a human's red blood. His screams, once a blood curdling type, was now yet a hoarse cry, completely drained.

Jungwon walked up to the spirit, and, with it unaware of his presence, he sliced the neck of the spirit with one fell swoop.
A quick and painless death.

Instantly, the spirit turned to just a mere pile of ashes which mixed in with the mud ground below.

Jungwon sighed.
"Better have made it a quick one. He must've been in pain for a while, waiting for one of us hunters to kill him."

"Shame that we're the only few with our daggers. Whatever happened to him, he was feeling the pain up until now. They don't die the same way as humans do, their mortality isn't decided upon just any material." Sunoo said, patting his bag, slightly happy that he hadn't needed to use it.

Yunjin felt a small disgusted shiver run down her spine.
"Those sticks... in the spirit's eyes... It's not just anybody who could do that. It had to be..."

"Niki and Sunghoon." Jungwon finished, yet his reaction did not differ much.

"I'm not surprised. Those two get themselves into all sorts of trouble. But, hey, it's a lead. That means we're close." Sunoo said.

"Look around, we could find some clues. They can't be far from here, can they, now that we've figured something out." Jungwon said, looking down at the muddy ground.

Almost in an instant, Yunjin called out to them.
"There's been a disturbance through these trees. Footprints in the mud, as well! I think we've got what we need! Come on!" She shouted to them, pulling some branches away to show a very clear trail, which consisted of multiple footprints in the mud, trampling over small weeds and plants.
But there were also specks of blood splashed around on the nearby leaves.

Sunoo's heart quickly sank.
"Blood... that's not good..." he muttered to himself.

"That can't be good..." Jungwon said, noticing the little specs splayed around on the leaves.

He walked on forwards, ushering the other two to follow him from behind. They trailed along, following the blood path and the show-shaped indents in the mud as their guide. It seemed to zigzag all around the place, almost like a maze.

There was traces of disturbance everywhere, as if someone had left in a rush.

It was only by now that Yunjin realised something that made her bones chill.

There was only one set of footprints.
If it really was Sunghoon's and Niki's footprints, surely someone had fled.
But that would've meant that the other had not.

She feared the worst. But she tried calming herself down, pushing the menacing thoughts aside.

Niki and Sunghoon were perfectly capable people, hunters, even.
Surely they'd be fine. There were sticks in the spirit's eyes when they found him, so that would mean that they were able to fight him off, if that were the case.

Still, it did not explain the blood splatters.
But what more could Yunjin do about it than worry?

"I see light. We've got to be close now..." Jungwon mumbled.

There were just a small layer of bushes left in front of them, nearing the end of the tree line.
Jungwon quickly listened to their surroundings, for a small precaution in case there were any threats nearby.
It was a very, very silent response. Nothing apart from the rustle of branches and trees around them broke the silence.

He nodded to them.
"Let's go."

He walked through the hanging overgrowth. The other two followed him from behind.

And what they saw was a shock to all of them.
Relief.
Realisation.
And alarm.

"Sung... Sunghoon-" Yunjin mumbled.

He was there, half his back leant against a wall of a building, as if he'd just been dropped there. Sunghoon was lying down, out cold. His hair was clothes were ragged and dirty with blood and mud, it almost made him look half dead.
He was unconscious, and blood was seeping from a large cut on his head. One of his eyes was blackened and bleeding, and his lip was split along the side.

His black uniform was laden with splinters of wood and grime, and there was a long and deep scratch along one of his arms, jagged and infested with flakes of broken off bark and tree dust.

Sunoo reached for his kit, slinging it up and over his head. He fumbled inside for his honey-liquid vial, and clasped it firmly in his hand as he ran over to Sunghoon.

Jungwon cursed under his breath.

Sunoo lifted Sunghoon up by the shoulders, and poured a few drops onto the wound of his head. The wound stopped bleeding, but his skin still needed to be patched up and was susceptible to infection.

He lightly tapped Sunghoon's face, trying to get him awake.
"Sunghoon... Sunghoon? Can you hear me? Please open your eyes, Sunghoon." he said, a drop of cold sweat building up on his brow.

Sunghoon's skin was cold under his hands.

We're they too late?

He checked for Sunghoon's pulse.
It was there, thankfully.

But Sunghoon would not wake up.
And, for worse, Niki.
He was nowhere to be found.