The Vengeful Spirit

I stared in horror as the beautiful woman with skin as white as freshly fallen snow before me began to shift and change, her appearance becoming more grotesque with each passing moment. Her long, graceful fingers had become elongated and her nails had become knives. Her long, black, sleek hair unfolded itself from the ornamental hair stick made of ivory that held it in a tight bun and started going in every direction as if she were immersed in water. Even her traditional silk hanbok started to rip and decay as she stood there trembling in hatred and anger. She stabbed my chest with her fingers, pulling me in closer to look straight into the endless void of her eyes. Smiling with satisfaction, she stabbed me in the forehead with her other hand. I expected things to go dark, for my life to end. Things went dark very briefly, but in a flash of bright light, I was standing in a rice field. Looking around, things are very surreal, blurry around the edges. Everything except the small farmhouse, in front of me, that stood out very solid and clear. The house stood a few yards away, made from what looked like clay and thatch for the roof. An unseen force shoved me forward, like a wall closing in behind me. I hustle a bit to get away from the feeling, I cautiously approach the little house. A man in fine silk clothing stormed out the door as I drew close to the entrance, not paying attention to me at all. The invisible force hit me and projected me into the house, I land on my back in the middle of the living room. Rolling over with a groan, I quickly flattened myself as a panel of the floor flew at me, crashing into the wall. Looking down into the hole, I see a lone candle sitting on a small table, the rest of the room is shrouded in darkness. Knowing that I wouldn't have a choice, I dropped down and approached the table. There was a news article clipping, at first it was in a language that I couldn't read, but as I scanned the article the words flashed into English.

"The Korean Fact -we report everything newsworthy-"

Earlier this year, Lord Tae's wife mysteriously vanished without a trace. The lord has insisted that his bride is not missing, just not currently in residence. When pressed for details, the lord declines to respond with anything other than death threats upon us humble folk, so the answer to Ha Rin's disappearance may never be found. -1899-

1899? Presumably the year the article was written, but that doesn't help me at all. It might give me the name of the woman but that's all. I sit on the cold, hard dirt floor and press my hands to my eyes. Think! How did this nightmare begin? I remember going on a haunted tour of a creepy-looking place, looking for inspiration for my next story. I got separated from the group when I had stopped to look more closely at the diary they had on display and when I turned back, the beautiful stranger was standing there and that's when this hellish nightmare began. Putting my hands down at my sides, I stared at the hole in the ceiling. I need to get out of here. Pushing myself up, I noticed that my hands felt wet. Looking down, I saw in the dim candlelight that my palms were covered in blood. The distinct metallic scent has caught my attention now, glancing down I see blood is now up to my shins and rising rapidly. Looking up for a way out, I am rooted to the spot by sheer fear. Floating above me with that same vicious smirk is the woman from before. Blood is flowing from her hands like faucets, the source of my current predicament.

"What do you WANT from me??!?!?!" I shriek at her out of panic.

She cocked her head at me and started to laugh. It sounded like distorted crystal on the wind and grew more hysterical as it went on. The blood had risen to my chest, I went to the wall in front of me and started to try to climb. Above me, the woman laughed harder. It was so hard to move through the thick blood, but something else was wrong. The blood had formed into hands, the hands were grabbing me, pulling me back and down. Resisting hard and failing, I lost my grip on the wall and fell back into the dark fluid. The woman ceased laughing and screeched "DIE!!!!" as the tiny hands rushed into my mouth, choking me from the inside and drowning me at the same time. When I open my eyes again, the dark open sky above me and blood stained ground with fire geysers dotting the landscape greet me. Am I in Hell? Before I can ponder it further, a shriek from my worst nightmare brought me back to the present. She is poised to kill me, once and for all. A glint from the ground catches my eye, it's the ivory hair stick the woman had before. The woman unleashed another inhuman cry and lunged at me just as I dove for the stick. Somehow, she missed me, and I thankfully able to grab the stick, which I now brandished like a sword. Now what? No time to think, she strikes at me again. A cry of pain escapes her lips as she backs away from me. The ivory hair stick was now sticking out of her chest, where her heart should be if she even has one. Looking down at her wound in terror, she looks back at me and whispers "thank you" as her body turned into ash and blew away in the wind. The world around me shifted sharply and started to rapidly melt like fresh paint hit with a bucket of water, dissolving into the house museum where I was before. A tour guide found me, dazed and confused sometime later. I think the next time I need inspiration I might just go play with some puppies instead.