CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
BLOOD ON MY PORCH
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Theo
Birds were singing and the sky was blue when Seok and I saw the school bus approach. If not for the fact that I’d been in a life-and-death battle only a short while before, it would’ve been a perfect day.
Seok and Narae had argued about going to pick up their girls, but they’d rationalized that both of them were already on the bus home, and we were both relieved to see that they’d arrived with no complications.
“Who is this, Appa?” asked the older of two young girls as they approached the front porch while the bus trundled on down the gravel road to drop off more kids.
“This is Theo Tande. He is our neighbor from the house that way,” Seok said, pointing a finger toward my house on the next mountain. It couldn’t be seen now, but in winter when the leaves were gone, I had been able to make this house out through the treeline.
The youngest girl’s eyes widened comically as she turned to me. “Oh, you’re the one with the big doggie!?”
I grinned. “Yes. Her name is Genji!”
“I love that dog. Could I come over and pet her sometime?” the girl asked, without the slightest hint of her parents’ accent.
“Well, best make sure we’re both home when you do. She’s kinda scary around strangers for the first time. She’ll warm right up to you if we put some treats in one hand and a dog toy in the other,” I said with a grin.
The girl beamed. “Yes! I’m gonna go tell Mom!”
She sped off into the house before Seok could tell her that Narae wasn’t home, but both of us laughed. The older girl did, too, as she stepped up to the porch and gave a small bow. “I am Haru. It’s nice to meet you, Mister Tande.”
Seok grunted with approval.
“Likewise, Haru,” I said, feeling uncomfortable.
The girl’s eyes suddenly widened as she noticed the bandages on her Father’s cheeks.
“Appa! What happened to your face? Are you okay?” she asked as she approached. The shocks kept coming for the poor girl, though, as she spotted the rifle resting comfortably in her father’s lap. Coupled with my unusual dress and the guns I was wearing, we must’ve been quite a sight.
“Haru, I was attacked today down in the ravine. You are not to go down there until I tell you otherwise. Nor are you to go into the backyard. Only the front,” he said sharply.
Her eyes narrowed at me momentarily before she said something in Korean.
Much more fluently, her father responded sharply.
She turned back to me and gave another one of those strange bows, that just felt so out of place to me.
“I’m sorry. Thank you for helping my Dad,” she said.
I hadn’t even realized she’d done anything rude, but I think I got the gist of the short conversation. Seok must’ve scolded her for speaking in Korean when I couldn’t understand it.
“You haven’t been rude at all. I know this is probably a little strange,” I replied.
“Very. What… what attacked you, Appa?” she asked. “Was it a bear!?”
Seok chuckled. “No. No, it wasn’t a bear. We will explain when Narae is home. Go inside and get ready. We’ll be having Mister Tande and his wife for dinner. Tell Taemi she…”
He grunted in irritation before looking at me and apologizing. He then turned back to Haru and began to speak quickly. I didn’t need any further context. His grasp of English was just fine for me, but I imagined it would be a lot easier for him to tell his daughter not to go into the backyard if he could do so in his own language.
The girl nodded respectfully and entered the house, shouting for her little sister.
Seok let his face sink into his hand.
“This day has scared me, Theo,” He said. “Now I am arming Haru? She is fourteen. Just a child.”
“Me too,” I replied. “I’m planning to go down there and cement the entire entrance. I’d like to see those little goblins get out here with a foot of concrete in their way.”
He eyed me skeptically. “Will that be enough? How many are there? I saw you kill… eight? The bodies down there. How long have you known about them?”
“Just a few days. There weren't nearly as many when I first saw them,” I sighed. “I already tried to seal the entrance once, and they took it as a challenge. There were a lot more this time.”
“So there are more. Maybe many more. The creatures dug up here. They can do it again. No concrete. Waste of time. This is for the police. For the army,” he said.
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I frowned. Dammit, he might be right. I’d been pretty sure there hadn’t been a cave on my property before stumbling onto it. Odds were good that the goblins had created the cave. Not that it was just natural and undiscovered.
I just didn’t have any idea how the heck I was going to convince police officers that invaders from below had come, and they were little red men who wanted to kidnap us.
As if reading my expression he said, “Kidnap one.”
I blinked. “Huh?”
“Capture one of the goblins, and bring it to the police. Proof. One of them escaped. At least one is roaming around out here,” he clarified. "Or just get one of the bodies."
“Shit, that might work,” I said.
“It should not be difficult for you. Considering…” he trailed off, and I shot him a questioning look.
“I was muddy. My mind was not right down there,” he said, trying to form the right words. “I saw you do something. You commanded the dirt and roots rose up and caught those seki. I know this.”
Shit. That was just what I needed. Still, was there any good reason to keep my new Druid powers from him? I couldn’t think of any, especially considering I’d intended to give up goblin-slaying altogether.
“I… yeah. Killing them did something to me. Gave me abilities. The more of them I kill, the more abilities I get. I hoped to just wall them off and wash my hands of the whole thing. They almost killed me. More than once,” I replied.
He grunted.
“I… should warn you. There are other things down there too. Not just the goblins,” I said.
“You went down?” he asked.
“Once,” I replied. “It was pretty stupid, in retrospect. I’ve almost died in every encounter I’ve had with these things until this one.”
“And you gained the ability to control roots?” He asked. “Heal? I felt you do something before. Before the potion.”
“Yeah,” I said simply. I hesitated. I didn’t want to spark a panic, but the words when I’d first chosen my class still haunted me.
“The seals are broken. The hells awaken. Take up arms, humanity. The ancient enemy comes once more,” I said gravely. “That’s what the screen that gave me these abilities said.
Seok grinned.
I looked at him, confused.
“Hells awaken? Ancient Enemy?” He said with bemusement. “You were going to wall that off with concrete?”
“Heh,” I flushed. It did sound pretty stupid, when I thought about it. Then again, maybe not. “Frankly, yeah. You saw how they acted. They’d never seen a gun. If they’re really some ancient enemy, they expect us to have knives. Swords. Bows, maybe. Perhaps they’ve never come across concrete?”
He laughed, running a hand through his graying hair.
“If only. I… think we must call the police, my friend,” he said when he calmed down. “We… will leave out any mention of ancient enemies. This…? It must be seen to be accepted.”
“Yeah. I think you’re right. It’s just too big. Even with these abilities, there must’ve been at least twenty that tried to get out. Who knows how many more are down there?” I agreed.
He nodded, and with that, we settled in to wait for Rio to arrive. We made small talk for a while, and we both discovered we liked the same cigarettes but neither of us smoked regularly. We talked about local diners and where we’d like to visit. He told me about leaving Korea, and I told him about the suburbs of Chicago. He was in his late forties, so there was a bit of a barrier there, but I liked the guy. I didn’t know if we’d end up as family friends or anything, but it was nice to talk to someone other than Rio or Dane for once.
The girls seemed content to stay in the house, but I occasionally heard their little dog barking. Time flew by, and before I knew it, we saw a car pulling into the driveway.
Narae’s car.
I frowned. It must’ve been two straight hours since Narae had left. The sun wasn’t below the treeline yet, but a quick glance at my phone told me it was almost six-thirty. It had only been three or so when I texted Rio, so what was keeping her?
I called, but there was no answer. I called again. No answer.
This happened sometimes. Occasionally, she would be busy and have her phone on silent. It happened when she called me too. She’d seemed excited from her text, though, and assured me she’d be able to leave at four and that she’d be straight over. Five thirty at the latest. I'd told her to come straight over, and she'd said she would. In retrospect though, a command from god probably wouldn't have convinced her not to stop at the house and get changed if she was meeting new people.
A creeping feeling of anxiety began to make the hairs on my neck rise... There’d been a lot of dead goblins down there, but at least eight had made it out to assault the Mins. What if there had been more?
With a scowl on her face, Narae stepped out of the vehicle, an old Ford Taurus with chips and bubbles in the green paint.
“Didn’t go well?” Seok asked, oblivious to my growing worry.
“Mandatory cool down, period. They seemed to think I intended to kill you,” she said with a laugh.
Seok nodded sagely and said, “Hmm. Wise.”
Narae snorted, and I laughed too. The guy was funny.
Narae turned back to me with a questioning look. “I thought Rio was going to be coming over. Did something happen?”
I shook my head.
“She said she’d be here. I’m… starting to worry. She does this sometimes, but she told me she should be over here no later than 5.”
Narae’s eyes narrowed, along with Seok’s.
“She… is often late?” Seok asked.
I nodded. “Yes, but not usually this late, Narae. I… think I’d better go check on her.”
Seok nodded. “Take the car. I… would offer to go with you but…”
“No. No, I get it,” I said as I saw the two girls peeking out of the entryway. I'd stayed here to ensure they were alright rather than going home to meet Rio after all, but at least they were aware of the danger now. “Thank you. I… don’t like the idea of climbing back up the mountain. Could I get your number? I’ll let you know as soon as I’m sure everything is alright.”
Narae was the first to answer and she sidled up to me before handing me the keys to the old Ford. We exchanged numbers, and I was mildly surprised to find she had a newer iPhone than I did.
“Don’t worry. I’ll have it back to you in a jiffy,” I said before I calmly and gently slammed my head against the roof of the tiny car.
The girls in the door giggled, and I couldn’t help laughing at myself, too, before adjusting the seat as far back as it would go.
“Thank you,” I said through the car window. “We should be back over in just a bit, okay?”
“We look forward to it,” Seok said, holding back his own chuckles. His expression turned serious as I made to leave, though. “If something is wrong, I will help however I can.”
I nodded before pulling out of their long driveway.
The distance between our two homes wasn’t really all that far as the crow flew, but it took almost ten minutes on the winding roads to get back to my own driveway, down and up the next mountain. I also didn’t want to damage the car, but I still probably drove it a bit faster than I should’ve.
I arrived at the house, happy to see my wife’s car in the open garage.
I didn’t see the front door until I got out of the car, but when I did, my blood ran cold. The door was propped open by a goblin’s decapitated body.
They’d come to my fucking house.
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