Scars of the Dead (1)
Scars of the Dead (1)
"So…you're saying that there's a ghost sitting here?" Mina asked, pointing at an empty chair right across her. Minho and Gayoon had come to her with a bizarre case about a little boy's ghost who broke into their winter mansion and was looking for his father.
"Is the pretty doctor gonna use an injection on me?" Shinho asked.
"No, my dear," Gayoon said gently. "She'll only ask you a few questions."
"I don't mind a shot from a pretty doctor like her!" Shinho piped up.
"What's he saying?" Mina asked, feeling alarmed.
"He's calling you pretty," Gayoon stated.
"That I am," Mina boasted. "But what's the deal with him?"
"We think he might have gone through some abuse," Gayoon explained. "He was hitting himself when he was about to pick up the chocolate we laid out for him. Also, Minho saw him a few days ago and he had some bruises on his skin."
"So why did you bring him to me?" Mina frowned. "You're the ghost interpreter!"
"You're a doctor," Minho shrugged. "Maybe you'll be able to fish something out."
"I treat humans not ghosts!"
"So what if he doesn't have a beating heart?" Minho scoffed. "Gayoon can interpret his words for you. Maybe you'll be able to know more about his abuse once you hear it."
"Ugh!" Mina scowled. "This is so bizarre! We don't even have a body for me to examine!"
"He said he doesn't know where his body was buried," Gayoon sighed. "The whole area was new to him but I have a feeling his grave is somewhere nearby. It seems to me that he's a new ghost. His body must have been recently buried too!"
"Can't you use your police force to find it?" Mina asked.
"Well…I'll need someone to file an official complaint about the kid going missing," Gayoon said, glancing at Minho. "And since we don't know his parents, we can't issue a search warrant."
Mina did some quick thinking. "So you can't officially check for bodies…"
She glanced at the place where the ghost sat. Only eight years old and already dead. He was the same age as Jina too. Even a selfish person like Mina could not help but sympathize with the child. She had many patients who went through severe abuse in their lives, with a lot of them dying in obscurity or killing themselves. But knowing that a ghost came to her for help and that too a child was making her sad. No one deserved such a fate.
Suddenly, she clapped her hands together. "Leave that to me. I can convince someone to dig that area. There's a forest nearby, right? I think I can hook a fish to do the job."
"Who?" Minho frowned. "Kanji?"
"That idiot is out of town," Mina waved. "He ran away after giving Gayoon that useless magazine."
Gayoon shifted in her chair while Minho looked away.
"Anyways," Mina went on. "I'd like to ask some questions to Shinho."
She turned towards the chair where Shinho sat. Taking out a pen and paper, she placed it on the table and scribbled down the alphabets in a circular shape while writing Yes and No in the middle.
"I don't know how this works," Mina said. "But this is a makeshift planchet. Even though these are used in seances, since we have a ghost amongst us, we can use this to help him answer our questions. Brother, from what Gayoon had said earlier, he seems to respond to you the most. I think you should be the one to put your hand on the paper so that he can guide you."
"This might work," Gayoon said. Minho nodded and put a finger on the paper.
Mina then addressed to Shinho, adopting an unusually gentle tone. "Shinho," she said. "This pretty doctor will ask you a few questions. All you have to do is put your hand on the bunny uncle's finger and guide him to make the words which will answer our questions. For example…"
She took Minho's hand and guided it across the board to form a word.
"A-P-P-L-E," Mina explained to him. "I created the word apple. That's how you can answer our questions. Got it?"
"I did!" Shinho said.
"He understood," Gayoon interpreted. Minho felt something cold touching his hand.
"Ask away," Minho said.
"Shinho, where is your mother?" Mina asked.
Shinho moved Minho's hand to form the word 'Dead'. Mina scribbled the answer on her notes.
"Where's your father?" she queried.
Minho's hand began to move to form 'Big House'. "Maybe he used to live in a mansion?" Minho frowned. "What is your father's name?"
To their surprise, Shinho replied with 'I don't know'.
"Why?" Gayoon asked.
"Father came after mother's death," Shinho said through the planchet. "Took me away and locked me in a dark room inside the big house."
Mina tapped her pencil on the notepad. "Shinho, were your father and mother married?" she asked.
As she had suspected, Shinho moved Minho's hand towards 'No'.
"Where did your father hurt you the most?" Mina asked, trying to keep her voice steady. Shino was silent for a while before moving Minho's hand across the board to formulate multiple words.
"Chest," Mina read. "Legs, head, stomach, lungs, feet…"
But the words would not stop. He kept on revealing the places where his father had hit him over the years. Minho did not say anything but stared in shock as his hand was being sprawled on the paper to narrate the sufferings of the child. There was not a single place on his body which had not been abused and it sickened him that such monsters could become parents.
Gayoon was also wincing at the little boy's revelations. She had seen so many abused children and yet, she was disgusted at the audacity of some people. For once, she wholeheartedly wished that the CCK had eaten out Shinho's father's heart. But then again, did demons like them have any heart to begin with?
"That's enough," Mina said, trying to stay calm. Even though they could not see the ghost, the room's temperature had dropped significantly due to Shinho's increasing sadness. Even after death, the boy wants to return to his father out of love.
The trio were silent for a while. Shinho was unsure of what he did to have offended the adults who looked upset. He then moved Minho's hand on the paper again.
"Am I a bad boy?" he asked. "Will I be punished?"
"He's been wired to think that if something is wrong, then it's his fault," Mina said in a grim tone.
"Abusers do that," Minho gritted. "They blame others for their own mistakes."
It did not take them long to figure out why Shinho's father had abused him. The little boy was illegitimate and Shinho's father saw him as a burden he never wanted. Instead of owning up to his own mistake, the man took it out on the innocent boy whose only crime was to have been born in this world.
"You're not a bad boy," he said, reaching his hand out in an attempt to pat the invisible Shinho. "Whatever your father did was not your fault. So don't ever think you're a bad boy."
Shinho was staring at the bunny uncle whose hand felt warm. He never felt someone patting him when he was alive so this was very new to him.
"Excuse me for a minute," Mina requested. The others nodded as she stood up to leave the room. Glancing behind her to make sure they were not following her out, she quickly made her way towards the VIP ward.
Haejong was dressed up in a light shirt and pants, ready to be discharged. The wound was bandaged and needed changing everyday so he would have his private physician attend to him once he was back in his mansion. His men were about to escort him secretly in a highly secured car and he was fiddling with his phone while he waited for them.
But for some reason, he was feeling restless. He was reluctant to leave the hospital. It felt as if he was leaving something behind.
Mina's image flashed in his mind and he cursed himself.
"Fucking hell!" he muttered. "Why can't I get that woman out of my head?"
Did she put any enchantment on me? He wondered. He had slept with better and much more beautiful women than her without feeling anything for them. Then why was his mind lingering on the puny doctor?
"Oi!"
Mina's shrill voice startled him. He looked up to see Mina fidgeting a little.
"What?" he sneered.
"Do something for me," she ordered. Haejong leaned back, studying her. The woman had the audacity to order him around without a care in the world.
"I don't take orders," he said coolly.
"Oh, save your ego for another time!" she snapped. "We both know that mafia people have this thing about repaying debts and what not."
"What debt do I owe you?" Haejong asked warily.
"The fact that I didn't 'accidentally' cut off one of your artilleries during surgery is a huge debt to repay," Mina said sweetly. "You owe me your life, chum."
"You've been watching too many movies," Haejong said. "But if fulfilling your wish keeps you away from me, then I might do it. Whom do you want dead?"
"I don't want anyone dead," Mina said. "I want to find someone who is dead."
When Haejong frowned in confusion, Mina said, "I want you to dig up a dead body."