How to Rewrite Ghost Stories - Chapter 4

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

◈ How to Rewrite Ghost Stories ◈

Episode 4: Odaesan Blood Creek (2)

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The valley I reached with my heart racing at the thought of taking spirit photos had clear air, cool wind, and the scent of grass. Dense trees served as natural parasols...

‘This place feels like such a hotspot.’

It was a spectacular view. The valley continued alongside a broad, gently sloping rock waterfall, perfect for sliding down, and clear stream water filled a wide pool that looked perfect for swimming.

‘Just as I thought...’

When I held the action camera near the surface, it captured a black bottom. Nothing but a black bottom and water. There were no fish, not even tiny bugs.

There was no moss or waterweed either. Even though there was a waterfall, the water flowed as though frozen on a paused screen, without so much as a ripple.

‘How is this going to show up in a photo?’

Click.

Come here! You jump first! Youjumpfirst!No, letusjumpfirst!Watchclosely!Watchusjumpfromupclose!

Along with the phone shutter, loud laughter echoed from above me. It was the laughter I had heard earlier. The tone children used when teasing a scared friend.

Splash!

Ripples spread as water splashed in every direction. The dull sound was much heavier than a rock falling in. It was about the weight of a human child.

Something rose from beneath the surface. A laughing child...

‘No. ...That isn’t a person.’

It looked human. Hair clung to its face. It wore a short-sleeved shirt instead of a swimsuit. It looked exactly like an ordinary vacationer visiting a valley.

But it was neither human nor child.

Flesh endlessly sloughed from its pale, bloated body. Strange body parts had been sewn onto its clothes. Where an arm should have been, five long bones were attached, twitching. They curled as if they were fingers, then splashed at the water.

Where its mouth should have been was torn half open downward. Something sticky, whether blood or mud, streamed down its chin.

‘I’m screwed.’

This was nothing like movie CGI. It went beyond disgust. Terror flooded my brain.

If it saw me, I would die. If it noticed me, I would die. If I heard its voice, I would lose my mind. Every kind of bad ending flashed through my head.

Seeing something “real” was enough to drive someone insane. A fear beyond reason made me unable to do anything but throw myself into the water...

Crunch.

I bit down hard on my tongue. A fishy taste filled my mouth, and blood I could not swallow dribbled down my chin. The irrational thoughts consuming my head retreated.

‘Getting close is dangerous. Stay as far away as possible.’

I kept thinking of other things. Otherwise, I would be enchanted again. Blinking rapidly, I watched the water. Now that I had seen the ghost, if the water turned to blood, I could escape.

『Not long after the splash, the valley water turns to blood.』

That was what it said.

But the water showed no sign of changing. From the path I had taken, I could still hear the scratchy sound of hands crawling around.

‘Why? There was a splash. Why isn’t it changing? Is there another trigger?’

The ghost was still looking around in the water, its bones clicking together. What would trigger it? Should I climb up there like in the ghost story? Dive in myself? No. That was the instant-death route. There had to be some unexpected angle...

Clack.

Clack clack.

Clackclackclackclackclackclackclack.

‘Oh, no...!’

The moment I turned my head, our eyes met.

A blue face. A melting face. Wobbling flesh. Bones clicking together. Gums knocking as they shook.

Clack. Clack. Clack. Clackclackclack.

It saw me. It recognized me.

It had recognized me from the beginning.

It had been waiting for me!

The ghost split its mouth wide open and grinned.

You come in too. Let’s jump together here. The view is nice up there. The water isn’t cold at all! I mean it, if you jump upside down just once, you’ll warm up right away. The water might change color a little, but it’s fine. We’ll catch you. Come on, jump jump jump jump jump, go-go-go-go-go u-u-upupupupupupup!

Splash.

The sound of endless bodies diving into the water rang out.

One by one, things that were almost human-shaped rose from the water, where there were neither bubbles nor spray.

Some had no faces. Some had no arms. Some had half their bodies missing. Mismatched limbs jutted out through their hair.

And they laughed.

Torn holes opened and closed as they laughed. Arms and legs from different people linked together and played in the water as though showing off. They laughed, chattered, and imitated children splashing around.

‘Cold.’

My panting breath came out white. My hands and feet were starting to go numb. My body shook uncontrollably, and the smell of rotten meat lingered around my nose.

Clackclackclack. Jump. Clack. Jumpjumpjump...

My gaze was forcibly turned upward, as though someone had spun a camera.

A person stood staggering above the waterfall. They flailed a few times to regain their balance, then looked down below.

It was a familiar face.

...My face.

I was looking at myself. I waved at myself and smiled. I spoke to myself. My own voice struck my ears.

“Okay, I’m jumping. You’ll do it with me, right?”

Splash.

“I” took a large step forward. It smiled at me as it fell upside down, then vanished into the water in an instant.

Suddenly, my fear sank away into cold stillness.

And slowly...

‘Cold.’

Water droplets burst from my mouth instead of breath. Every time I inhaled, water filled my lungs. A chill that felt like it was freezing my skin burrowed into my bones.

Ah. I fell into the water.

I was sinking. I was going to die like this. Deep, quiet, cold. It felt like something was consuming me, leaving me unable to think.

Was this what dying was like? If it was this peaceful, maybe dying would not be so bad. Down here, beneath the bottom, together with everyone...

“...Don’t make me laugh!!”

My shout rang in my ears, and the cold vanished at once.

It was my own shout.

When I barely twisted my stiff body and came to my senses through the ringing in my ears, my ears were muffled and my vision blurred, as though I had just emerged from underwater.

No, I really had been half submerged.

In that short time, my clothes had gotten wet, and my frozen fingertips were stiff. I was knee-deep in the valley water, with signs of my struggling all around me.

“...What was that?”

The final moments in my memory were a complete mess. I had jumped from the waterfall while simultaneously looking at myself from below and looking down at the me looking back at me.

Which one had been me?

I pressed play on the action camera and watched the recording again.

In the footage, I looked up toward the top of the valley, then started walking into the water on my own. Even when half the action camera was underwater, my gaze remained fixed above.

Once the action camera was completely submerged, I began shouting and struggling. The screen shook, water splashed around, and the water gradually became shallower, reflecting the ground and sky in a dizzying blur.

Then came the sound of me rising out of the water, and the recording ended.

‘So I had been enchanted from the moment I saw the ghost.’

A fresh sense of caution came over me. The elevator and the ghosts from the past week had not physically harmed me or enchanted me.

I had been too careless. I supposed a “real ghost story” was the kind of thing that made people act irrationally. I needed to come up with countermeasures.

‘More importantly, the bottom wasn’t black.’

『They say someone was found sitting upright underwater, their head smashed open.』

It was not waterweed or rocks.

Human hair, or rather, probably ghost hair, was tangled together in thick black strands, drifting beneath the water. The bottom was a mass of black hair, so dense I could not tell how many people had sunk there.

‘If I had been a little later, there would have been one more water ghost.’

The water ghost from before was still floating in the valley. There was no reason to make myself more noticeable. I moved as far away from the water as possible to wring out my clothes and begin analyzing the situation.

The valley water was still clear and transparent, and ghosts occasionally rose to the surface before sinking again. I checked the path I had come from, but the fingers over there were still having their cozy little meetup.

‘So getting a little wet isn’t enough to let me out.’

Let’s sort this out again.

Those water ghosts drew people toward them.

Once the conditions for water ghosts to appear in the valley were met, the path would collapse into bloody water, making it impossible to go back. Probably.

After hearing the ghosts playing, people could be enchanted. Once enchanted, they would climb up to the waterfall or enter the water.

People like me who did not climb right away seemed to see a hallucination of themselves falling.

When there was a “splash,” the water turned red. Once it changed color, I could go back down. The people who escaped made it down the mountain and found adults without any trouble.

‘Ah.’

A hypothesis crossed my mind.

The common condition when the water turned bloody was that there had been a splash when a “person” fell in. Then did the ghost story only activate if it was definitely a person?

Would something “like” a person count as human?

Could the ghosts distinguish humans? If they could, did they react to their shape or sense their existence?

I was human, but there had been no splash when I entered the water. It had not turned bloody, either.

‘But their reaction changed when I used my voice.’

Water ghosts. Water. Sound. Human. Existence. Shape.

‘This might work.’

To test the hypothesis forming in my mind, I picked up a small stone and cleared my throat.

“Wow, this water is really nice!”

My voice was worse than terrible acting, but the water ghosts stopped moving when they heard it.

‘Now!’

Splash!

The stone struck the water with a loud splash, sending ripples outward. The water ghosts gathered around the ripples. As they clustered together, the water briefly turned red, then cleared as they scattered.

‘My theory was right!’

First, the water ghosts could not leave the water. As long as I did not get close to the water, they could not even perceive what was outside it.

Second, they recognized human voices. They could not perceive objects that made sounds without a human voice. But when something fell while a human voice could be heard, they seemed to mistake it for a person and approach it.

Third, the water only turned red after something fell in when the ghosts perceived it as human. The moment that perception faded, the water returned to normal.

‘So I just need to throw out the right bait.’

I opened my bag and took off my coat. Being careful not to touch the water, I searched around the valley again for what I needed.

An old trash bag, abandoned branches, tangled weeds, wet fallen leaves. A hat. The pajamas and coat I had brought just in case. Shoelaces. Spare cables.

Then I crouched down and started making what I needed.

I used wet dirt and pajamas for the head, stuffing branches, plastic bottles, and other things inside to make thick limbs. I wrapped the coat, filled with garbage and half-eaten snacks, around it and tied it tight.

I stuck plenty of weeds and fallen leaves into the head. To add weight, I filled the part where the pants should be with stones and tied the bottom securely.

I could make it.

I could fool them.

I was making a huge straw effigy. I pictured its structure in my mind as I kept tying, bundling, and pulling it tight.

After nearly thirty minutes of exhausting work, I had made something human-shaped, roughly half the size of an adult. From far away, it would definitely look like a child.

I stuffed my remaining belongings into a small bag and did not forget to take photos for my post. The valley, the water, my pseudo-human creation...

Only after taking enough pictures did I hug the human-shaped bundle and return near the waterfall.

‘If I touch the water one more time, I think I’m done for... I need to make this a one-shot attempt from a place as close to the way down as possible.’

The closer I got to the top of the waterfall, the more I felt unpleasant laughter, water sloshing, and the sensation of something following me creep up behind my back. My legs wobbled, and my fingertips tingled.

What if they realized it was not human too quickly? Could I escape before then?

There was no point whining. It was all or nothing.

Holding my breath, I stepped onto a slightly protruding rock.

One deep breath. Then another.

“The water is really clear! You called me, right? I’m jumping in too!”

Forget acting. Shouting as loudly as I could, I threw that human-shaped bundle into the valley.

“You all better be ready!!”

Splash!!

The water struck loudly, spraying everywhere.

Then it turned bright red.

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