Chapter 18: Cellar of names
1608 Words
Somewhere in Seoul — Underground Location
A man was following a girl home,hunger and evil clearly visible from his eyes. He wore a black hooded jacket and cap,a black mask too. He was clearly up to no good and when the girl notices him,she only thinks of one thing,'the serial killer!'.
She tries to pick up the pace. She nears the corner that lead into the oassage and she knew that if this person was really who she thinks he is,he will kill her on the passage so she started to run towards it since there is not other route nearby which she could use. Thats when she realises that the man had disappeared behind her and walked into one of the yards. The girl relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief only to realise with horror when she turned to walk our of the passage that that man who was following her was already there.
Waiting for her.
She made a turn trying to escape but he caught uo with her and hit her with something hard and sharp...pain sipped through her and she blacked out.
Adrian's flat
Adrian woke up with a thought in mind
I need to find my parents' killers...I can't just sit idly without doing anything. He is out there killing people. He needs someone strong.
He stood up and made the bed,washed himself and brushed his teeth and went for a run around his neighbourhood. Then he went into hissecret training room. The room was filled with lifting machines,punchbags,and all the othernecessary equipment used for training. She started doing pushups,and punching his punchbag furiously...images of his mother cluding her vision as she did that...
Underground location
The girl woke slowly.
Her head hurt.
Her vision blurred.
The air smelled cold.
Damp.
Metal.
She tried to move — and realized her wrists were tied.
Her ankles bound.
Her back pressed against a cold concrete wall.
She tried to scream.
Nothing came out.
Her lips —
Stitched together.
Thick black thread pulling skin tightly.
Pain burned through her mouth when she tried to open it.
Tears fell silently.
Around her —
Other girls.
Young.
Beautiful.
Their bodies tied.
Their eyes red from crying.
Their lips also sewn shut.
They looked at each other.
Desperate.
Helpless.
They couldn’t speak.
But fear passed between them through eye contact.
The Structure
Footsteps echoed from above.
Slow.
Measured.
Heavy.
The sound moved downward.
Closer.
The girls froze.
The footsteps stopped at the first metal door.
A key turned.
The door opened.
He entered.
Mask covering his face.
Black fabric.
No visible identity.
Only eyes.
Cold.
Calculating.
He walked slowly through the row of cells.
Scanning faces.
Observing.
Like a predator selecting prey.
The girls trembled.
Some lowered their gaze.
Some tried to look invisible.
He tilted his head slightly.
“Hmm…”
His voice was smooth.
Controlled.
Almost polite.
He stopped.
His eyes locked onto the new girl.
She felt it.
Targeted.
His gaze didn’t move.
He walked closer.
Unlocked her cell.
The door creaked open.
He stepped inside.
Kneeling in front of her.
Eye level.
Too close , as if to comfort her but he did it only to intimidate her .
He said didn't need to close the cell beacause he knows she can't defeat him.
She can't fight him. He is way too strong and powerful for that.
She tried to move backward.
There was nowhere to go.
He studied her face carefully.
Then he spoke softly.
“You’re new.”
She shook her head.
Tears streamed down.
He leaned closer.
“You remind me of someone.”
Silence.
His fingers lifted her chin slightly.
She tried to pull away.
He tightened his grip.
Not violently — but firmly.
“Don’t struggle,” he whispered.
“It makes things difficult.”
He stood slowly.
Walked around her.
Circling.
Analyzing.
Then he spoke again.
“I’m searching for a woman.”
His tone shifted.
Anger underneath.
“Twenty-five years old.”
“Born in a St.Joseph hospital — the one I tracked.”
He mentioned the hospital.
The same one.
Where Adrian/Jade was born.
The girls around her stared in terror.
He continued:
“Her parents ran.”
“They changed names.”
“Changed countries.”
“Thought they could hide.”
He laughed quietly.
“I found them.”
The laughter stopped.
“Slowly.”
“Painfully.”
“Both died.”
His eyes sharpened.
“But she escaped.”
He turned toward the group of girls.
“And she thinks she’s safe.”
He walked slowly again.
“I checked every record.”
“Every birth file.”
“Every travel record.”
“Every country.”
“I killed those who protected her.”
His voice lowered.
“I killed the wrong women sometimes.”
The girls reacted slightly.
Fear intensified.
He continued:
" Wanna know why?"
“Because some of them resisted.”
“Some fought.”
“Wrong move.”
His hand brushed the stitching on one girl’s lips.
She flinched violently.
He smiled.
“Those who fight — get silenced.”
He demonstrated the thread with his fingers.
“Like this.”
The room filled with muffled crying.
He looked back at the new girl.
“Tell me.”
“Are you born in that hospital?”
She shook her head rapidly.
He stared.
“Liar.”
He knelt closer again.
His voice turned colder.
“If you lie — you join the others.”
He stood.
Walked behind her.
Suddenly grabbed her hair and forced her head back.
Not for desire.
But domination.
“You girls die because you’re unlucky.”
“I tried kidnapping first.”
“But then they fight...and turn me into a bad guy," he made a sorrowful face,as if someone hurt him.
Then he shook his head.
“Bad choice.”
“Fighting makes me angry.”
“And anger makes me creative.”
He released her.
She collapsed forward.
"The girl I am searching for ...and her parents had ran away from country to country."
" They even changed their names,can you imagine the audacity?" He pushed the girl down and tears her top apart violently.
" I killed the girl's mother." The girls muffled in silent cries.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!"
"You can cry! I feel like crying too." He made a sad face as he continued to tear at the girl's skirt with his knife,terrorising the girl who was still trying to scream in pain.
"I loved her mother."
The girls looked at him with bloodshot eyes and he was like," Yeah! Am a human too, I have feelings."
"I didn't grow up to be a serial killer."
The girl flinched under his touch, he tied her already tied hands with a chain to hold her down properly.
"She turned me into the man I am now. Evil. Strategic and a rapist...you guys should blame her."
"I loved that woman more than anything. But she rejected me."
"She betrayed me and got pregnant for another man. And that didn' land right on me. So I decided right then and there,that I would take her daughter and keep her to myself.
You know,turn her into my wife and stuff. But she must have figured it out or something and hence they ran away.
You guys should blame them for this. Had they not ran off,I would never have searched for them or girls born that fateful day."
He took his clothes off,his body was full of bruises and scars,scars of years of searching and killing and of victims who fought him for survival. The girl looked at him in horror,feeling like throwing up.
He looked down at her,anger clearly written in his face and eyes.
"You were born on that day.
You all were. And it's a sin to be born on that day." He slapped her hard across the face and spit on her.
"And those women who died,well...i didn't mean to...they died out of their own luck. They fought me. They never should have. They made the wrong move and you all can see how the consequences turned out to be."
He scanned the girl,and strangled her and told her,
"If you resist, I might have no choice but to kill you."
He started to put his pressure on her ,forcing himself on her. The other girls who had gone gone through the same thing could only cry in silence out of desperation and pain. The girl getting r***d muffled loudly,trying to scream because she was in an excruciating pain. She was only waiting for him to finish and get off her.
After he finished,he stood uo,spit on the new girl and wore his clothes again.
"Good thing you didn't resist,because if you had... then the consequences would have been dire."
He looked at the entire room.Mufed cries dried out,some of the ladies avoided eye contact with him afraid they might make him come for them next.Some ducked behind tables and some tried to pretend to be asleep.
“I will continue searching.”
“Until I find the girl.”
He turned toward the door.
Paused.
Then added quietly:
“She cannot hide forever.”
He left.
The door locked.
Footsteps faded upward.
Silence returned.
The girls began crying silently again.
One of them looked at the new girl.
Eyes filled with warning.
He is not done.
Meanwhile — Above Ground
The killer wiped his gloves clean.
His mask remained on.
He took out a small notebook.
Names crossed out.
Countries marked.
He added another line:
“Target still missing.”
He smiled.
“She must be close.”
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