Chapter 6
I absolutely could not leave any trace of my movements behind.
To throw off anyone tracking my route, whenever I moved I always alternated between taxis and public transportation. If I let my guard down for even a moment, a vampire would kill me. That paranoid delusion consumed my mind.
I kept repeating the cycle of withdrawing cash and sleeping at motels. I had plenty of money anyway. I was living on the run, but it wasn’t that inconvenient.
I kept in touch only enough to be appropriate.
I had to avoid disappearing completely. If I cut off all contact, I'd be reported missing, and then Mom and Dad would try to find me. And then they might become targets of the vampire.
I could never make contact with my family... I had to hide not only myself, but my parents too. It was best to keep communication to a minimum.
No matter how I looked at it, I didn't think vampires could dig through communication records and everything, but still, better safe than sorry.
"A cross...!"
I wore cross accessories all over my body and even had cross tattoos inked in various places. My bag always had garlic and stakes. It was packed with silver. I was also prepared to make fire anywhere, anytime.
I could feel myself turning into a legendary vampire hunter like Van Helsing. Wasn't I living on the run while constantly coming up with ways to fight vampires?
If this wasn't Van Helsing, then who was?
ㅡClink.
So my load was pretty heavy. To hide the cross accessories on my body and the tattoos, my clothes got thicker too, and since I always carried a backpack, I felt a bit sluggish.
I got messages from my parents and friends worried about me. Every night I shoved my fist into my own maw and bawled my eyes out, missing them.
"...How much longer do I have to live like this?"
The days went by as I rode in cars, ate at restaurants, and slept in motels. I was still plagued by extreme, inhuman nightmares. Death and regression... all of it, warped delusions...
There was only one way to end this pain.
"Like the legendary vampire hunter Van Helsing."
I had to kill that vampire.
* * *
Only that could save me!
"Oh, Lord! Oh, God!"
I decided to visit the biggest church in Korea and let that sacred energy fill my body!
"Pastor! I seek salvation! Could I receive some good energy from this church!"
"What's with this guy? Why don't you go register instead of doing this...!"
"I want to register!"
As I clung to the pastor's ankle and begged him.
"What is all this commotion!"
A booming voice rang out.
When I looked up, I saw that he was an extremely famous pastor. A leading megachurch pastor who led countless fanatics, a man almost everyone in Korea knew.
Normally I didn't like churchgoers like this, but now it didn't matter. There had to be something to a man who commanded so many fanatics.
"Well! This guy just..."
"I came because I want to register with this church! Please register me!"
"What? A new believer?"
In an instant, his face turned benevolent. He dropped to one knee and held out his hand to me. I took it and stood up.
"If the Lord's lamb is wandering, then it's only right to guide him. Pastor Kim. Register him at once."
"Understood!"
"Thank you!"
That was how I was able to put my name down at a huge church.
Of course, I wasn't satisfied with just that one.
"Ah! Islam!"
"Itaewon, the street of Islam!"
"Itaewon Freedom!"
I headed to the mosque in Itaewon, a world full of youthful energy. Countless Arabs in turbans looked at me with startled eyes.
"Allahu Akbar! I want to learn about Islam and the Quran! Please teach me!"
"What the hell is this human?!"
Unfortunately, I failed to register with Islam, but the fighting spirit burning inside me did not go out.
Now I am a crusader!
A devout believer praying at the holy site to receive the Holy Spirit's energy before heading off to the crusade!
"Your little lamb is headed to the battlefield!"
I have to kill the vampire!
I couldn't let a verminous monster like that crawl around in the world's hidden underbelly. I would root out the pests infecting people.
This was not only to save me, but also to save the innocent lambs.
I must kill him...!
Only then will this nightmare end.
"Come find me."
So that this life on the run can end.
"I said come find me...!"
So that I can escape the fear of death!
"I'm here!"
Once I finished preparing, I stopped running.
After stockpiling a massive amount of anti-vampire weapons, I deliberately left traces behind. I also made sure to stop by the subway where I'd first encountered him.
That damn monster will find me soon enough.
The final duel was at hand. Since daytime belonged to humans, if he attacked me, it would be at night.
The night is the time of monsters?
Don't make me laugh...!
I don't care if it's day or night. The faith in my heart will not be extinguished even in the abyss of darkness, because it always shines nobly in the shape of a cross.
And then the time came.
I could tell something had come looking for me.
A quiet alley in the dead of night. It was even a corner of the city where all the residents had moved out because of redevelopment. Anyone who deliberately crawled into a place like this was either trash beyond saving or some young delinquent who enjoyed chasing thrills, I supposed.
Or else it would be an inhuman being.
ㅡRustle.
I felt a presence.
I could feel the vampire approaching. In my hands were a cross and a stake. I also had a 500g pack of minced garlic I bought at the mart, and a huge stock of Chinese peeled garlic, peeled by Chinese prisoners using their teeth.
China is a nation that denies the supernatural.
The Cultural Revolution. Communism's red tide denied ghosts and erased inhuman beings. Using garlic from such a country in kimchi is a sin, but using it to turn evil beings bright red like kimchi is the right thing to do.
"The endless Yangtze River rolls on and on."
I spread my arms toward the sky and arched my back. The Chinese garlic, suffused with a red aura, would protect me.
Come, I am ready.
"Come...!"
I would throw garlic, flash the cross, and drive a stake through his chest. I couldn't imagine a future in which I lost. I would definitely bring the bastard down and return to everyday life.
"There."
A voice rang out.
"Behind?"
"Vampire hunter. Am I right?"
"What?"
When I turned around, I saw two men in black suits. They were both as big as former ssireum wrestlers. What's more, despite it being such a dark night, they were wearing sunglasses.
What the hell are these bastards?
Human?
My first thought was whether they were even human. According to legend, vampires could transform. If those suit-wearing guys were vampires in disguise, it would make sense.
I could tell from just a glance. They looked human, but they didn't feel human at all.
"Vampire hunter."
"No. Or should I say a crypto nut."
The two men approached me as they said that.
Wait.
How do they know I'm a crypto nut?
You guys... what are you? Vampires?
I didn't know how I was supposed to react.
ㅡThud.
The suit-wearing man pulled a pistol from inside his coat.
"Fuck?!"
What I felt next was a searing, agonizing pain.
ㅡPew.
A tiny crack of gunfire.
It sounded almost like a toy gun, but the pain was real. A bullet, a tiny piece of lead, had lodged itself in my body...!
"Aaaaaagh!"
I rolled on the floor screaming.
A vampire shoots a gun too? That's cheating!
Everything I had prepared was for nothing! My faith and tattoos couldn't defend against bullets at all!
I can't believe my opponent came armed with a gun...! Preparing crosses, garlic, stakes, and silver for a bastard like that was all just brain-dead bullshit!
Here I am, getting shot to death by a vampire? Does that make any sense!
"Target secured."
"Begin retrieval."
With voices that sounded as if they were reporting to someone, the rough hands of the men seized and twisted my body.
ㅡCrack!
"Hup!"
Even as my arms broke and legs shattered, I couldn't manage a proper scream. There was a gag in my mouth and even a black hood over my face.
"Mmmph!"
I was suffocating.
As I writhed in pain, I felt the men lift me up and load me into a car.
Was I being transported to the vampires' headquarters like this?
I was foolish.
I was foolish!
The vampires' power was truly vast!
Yet I had tried to oppose them with the strength of one lone individual! That's right! Everything I saw online was true! The vampires had already infiltrated the centers of every nation, joined hands with those in power, and built kingdoms of their own!
The US president and the British king are all the same!
They're sacrificing humans...!
Why are Koreans so obsessed with churches? It was because religious people had spread the faith with everything they had in order to protect the people. I had been foolish. Instead of trying to handle this alone, I should have consulted the church and worked with them. If not that, then I should at least have told the Itaewon mosque about this.
ㅡPuk!
"Ugh!"
Something sharp pierced my neck. Feeling the drug being injected, I closed my eyes.