Chapter 7: Red woman # 6

I must never leave a trace.

To obscure my movements, I always alternated between taxis and public transportation.

A single moment of carelessness, and I would be murdered by a vampire.

Such paranoid delusions consumed my mind.

I repeatedly slept in motels, using the cash I had withdrawn.

I had plenty of money, after all.

Despite being on the run, I experienced no significant discomfort.

I kept my contact minimal.

I had to avoid completely disappearing.

If I cut off all communication, I would be reported missing, and my parents would try to find me.

In doing so, they might become targets for the vampires.

I must never contact my family.

Not only must I hide myself, but I must also conceal my parents.

It was best to keep communication to an absolute minimum.

Even so, I doubted vampires could trace communication records, but I had to be careful just in case.

“Crosses…!”

I adorned my entire body with crosses and even had cross tattoos etched onto various parts of my skin.

My bag was always filled with garlic, stakes, and silver.

I was also prepared to conjure flames anywhere.

I felt myself transforming into a legendary vampire hunter, much like Van Helsing.

Was I not constantly devising methods to combat vampires while on the run?

If this wasn’t Van Helsing, then who else could be?

—Clank.

My luggage, consequently, was quite heavy.

To conceal the cross ornaments and tattoos I wore, my clothes had become thicker, and constantly carrying a backpack made me feel somewhat sluggish.

Messages of concern arrived from my parents and friends.

Every night, I would shove my fist into my mouth, sobbing as I longed for them.

‘…How much longer must I endure this life on the run?’

Days of traveling by car, eating in restaurants, and sleeping in motels continued.

I was still tormented by extreme, inhuman nightmares.

Death and regression… all of it a twisted delusion…

There was only one way to sever this suffering.

‘Like the legendary vampire hunter, Van Helsing.’

It was to kill that vampire.

****

Only that could save me!

“Oh, Lord! Oh, God!”

I decided to visit the largest church in South Korea to absorb its sacred energy into my body!

“Pastor! I desire salvation! Can I receive some good energy from this church?”

“What’s wrong with this person?! Go, register, or something, why are you like this…!”

“I want to register!”

As I clutched the pastor’s ankle, pleading.

“What’s all this commotion!”

A booming voice resounded.

Looking up, I saw a very famous pastor.

He was a leading, prominent pastor who commanded countless fanatics.

He was the very person almost everyone in South Korea knew.

Originally, I didn’t care for such churchgoers, but now it didn’t matter.

Someone who commanded so many fanatics surely possessed something.

“Well! This person is just—!”

“I came here because I want to register with this church! Please, let me register!”

“What? A new follower?”

His face instantly turned benevolent as he knelt on one knee and extended a hand to me.

I took his hand and stood up.

“If the Lord’s lamb is wandering, it is our duty to guide them.

Pastor Kim.

Register him immediately.”

“Understood!”

“Thank you!”

Thus, I was able to enroll my name in a very large church.

Of course, I wasn’t satisfied with just this.

“Ah! Islam!”

Itaewon, the street of Islam!

“Itaewon Freedom!”

I made my way to the Islamic mosque in Itaewon, a place brimming with youth.

Numerous Arabs, wearing turbans, stared at me with surprised eyes.

“Allahu Akbar! I wish to learn about Islam and the Quran! Please, bestow your teachings upon me!”

“Ma Haza Al Insan?!”

Regrettably, I failed to register with Islam, but the fighting spirit burning within me did not extinguish.

Now, I was a Crusader!

A devout follower praying in a holy place to receive the Holy Spirit’s energy before embarking on a holy war!

‘Your lamb now heads to the battlefield!’

I had to kill the vampires!

Such worm-like monsters must not be allowed to crawl on the hidden side of the world.

I would eradicate those pestilent spawn infecting people.

This was not only an act of self-salvation but also an act to save innocent lambs.

I absolutely had to kill that bastard…!

Only then would this nightmare end.

‘Come find me.’

Only then would this life on the run cease.

‘Come find me, I say…!’

Only then would I escape the fear of death!

‘I am here!’

Having completed my preparations, I ceased my flight.

After stockpiling a large quantity of anti-vampire weapons, I deliberately left traces.

I also made sure to visit the subway station where I had first encountered it.

That damned monster would soon find me.

The final duel was imminent.

It was still human daylight, so if it were to attack me, it would be at night.

They say night is the time of monsters?

Don’t make me laugh…!

Night or day, it didn’t matter.

The faith in my heart would not be extinguished even in the abyss’s darkness, always shining nobly in the form of a cross.

And the time had come.

I could sense that something had come for me.

A quiet alley in the dead of night.

It was even a corner of a city district where all residents had evacuated due to redevelopment.

For someone to deliberately crawl into such a place, they must be either irredeemable trash or a young, aspiring delinquent from a new nation who enjoyed mischief.

Otherwise, it would be an anomalous entity.

—Thump.

I sensed a presence.

I could feel the vampire approaching.

A cross and a stake were clutched in my hands.

A 500g pack of minced garlic purchased from the supermarket, along with a large quantity of peeled Chinese garlic, likely peeled by Chinese prisoners with their teeth, were also prepared.

China was a country that denied the supernatural.

The Cultural Revolution.

The red tide of communism denied ghosts and eradicated anomalous entities.

While using garlic from such a country in kimchi was a sin, using it to turn evil beings as crimson as kimchi was the righteous path.

“Bù jìn chángjiāng gǔn gǔn lái (TL Note: A Chinese proverb meaning ‘The endless Yangtze River rolls on and on,’ often used to describe something relentless or continuous).”

I stretched my arms towards the sky and arched my back.

The Chinese garlic, imbued with the red energy of exorcism, would protect me.

Come, I am ready.

‘Come…!’

I would throw garlic, brandish the cross, and drive a stake into its chest.

I could not imagine a future where I would be defeated.

I would surely defeat it and return to my normal life.

“There.”

A voice reached my ears.

‘Behind me?’

“Vampire hunter.

Is that right?”

‘What?’

Turning around, I saw two men in black suits.

Both were burly, as if they were former ssireum (TL Note: Korean traditional wrestling) wrestlers.

Furthermore, they were wearing sunglasses on such a dark night.

‘Who the hell were these bastards?’

‘Humans?’

My first thought was whether they were truly human.

According to lore, vampires could transform.

If those suited figures were transformed vampires, it seemed entirely plausible.

Even from a brief glance, I could tell.

They resembled humans but were utterly inhuman.

“Vampire hunter.”

“No.

Should I say coin trader?”

The two men approached, uttering those words.

‘Wait.’

‘How did they know I was a coin trader?’

“You… what are you?

Vampires?”

Just as I was unsure how to react.

—Thwip.

One of the suited men drew a pistol from his jacket.

“f*ck?!”

Immediately afterward, a searing agony ripped through me.

—Pew.

A tiny, muffled shot.

It sounded like a toy gun had been fired.

Yet, the pain I felt was real.

A bullet, a small lead fragment, had lodged itself in my body…!

“Aghhhhhh!”

I screamed, rolling on the ground.

‘Vampires shoot guns too?

This is cheating!’

Everything I had prepared until now was for naught!

My faith and tattoos offered no defense against bullets!

To think my opponents would come armed with guns…!

Gathering crosses, garlic, stakes, and silver against such foes was utterly idiotic!

It made no sense for me to be shot dead by a vampire here!

“Target secured.”

“Commencing retrieval.”

With voices that sounded as if they were reporting to someone, the men’s rough hands seized and twisted my body.

—Crack!

“Hngh!”

Even as my arm broke and my leg shattered, I couldn’t let out a proper scream.

My mouth had been gagged, and a black hood pulled over my face.

“Mmmph!”

My breath hitched.

As I writhed in pain, I felt the men lift me and load me into a car.

‘Was I being transported directly to the vampires’ headquarters?’

‘I had been foolish.’

‘I had been foolish!’

The vampires’ power was truly vast!

Yet, I had tried to resist them with the strength of a mere individual!

Yes!

Everything I read on the internet was true!

Vampires had already infiltrated the core of every nation, joining hands with those in power to establish their own kingdoms!

The American President and the British King were all the same!

They were sacrificing humans…!

‘Why were Koreans so obsessed with churches?’

It was because religious people had spread faith with all their might to protect the citizens.

‘I had been foolish.’

Instead of trying to solve it alone, I should have consulted with the church and worked with them.

If not, I should have at least informed the Itaewon Islamic mosque about this matter.

—Thwock!

“Ugh!”

Something sharp pierced my neck.

Feeling the drug being injected, I closed my eyes.