SPECTER: Night of mist

In the dead of night, a narrow alley in Seoul's Gangbuk District 13 lay shrouded in darkness. A faint streetlamp glow barely held the shadows at bay. It was past 2 a.m., and not a soul was in sight—the street was utterly silent.

At that moment, the streetlamp flickered a few times, and in an instant a red mist engulfed the alley. The crimson fog billowed thickly, blurring the world, and a clammy dampness clung to the skin.

Just then, a man on his way home from work was making his way down the alley, a phone pressed to his ear as he talked to someone.

"I'm almost there... Ah, wait—this fog suddenly..." he said, trailing off as he stopped mid-sentence and looked around. He had sensed something stirring within the unnaturally red fog. What was that? Was that a shadow...? A wave of unease crept in as his heart began to pound. He took a step back, anxiously scanning his surroundings.

The streetlamp flickered again, plunging the alley in and out of crimson-tinged darkness—and in that split second, whatever presence he'd felt was gone. Panicked, the man decided to hurry on and get out of there.

Just then, from somewhere behind him came a faint, eerie noise—like something being dragged along the ground—and then it abruptly stopped. Startled, he shouted, "Is someone there?!" in a trembling voice, whipping around and casting his phone's light behind him. But beyond the swirling red haze, there was nothing—only quivering shadows against an old wall. A deathly silence had fallen over the alley.

Holding his breath, the man took a cautious step forward. Suddenly, the red mist behind him swirled and hurtled toward him. "Ugh!" A strangled gasp tore from his throat as his arm went limp and his phone slipped from his grasp, clattering to the pavement. The screen struck the concrete with a flash of white light. What's happening?! he screamed in his mind, but not a single word passed his lips as he was yanked into the fog and vanished.

In an instant, all was silent and still. The alley was empty, save for the blood-red mist drifting lazily through the air. Even the flickering streetlamp sputtered out, and only the fallen phone's screen remained to cast a faint glow in the dark.

 *

About half an hour later, Detective Jung Hae-jun and the rest of the Major Crimes Unit team rushed to the scene. The alley was already cordoned off by officers from the local precinct who had arrived first. Dawn had yet to break, and tatters of red-tinged mist drifted through the air like ghosts. Hae-jun's eyes swept the area, cold and alert. The pungent odor of damp earth mixed with a whiff of blood pricked at his nose, tightening the unease coiled in his gut.

Sweeping his flashlight beam over the ground, Hae-jun soon spotted a cell phone lying shattered on the pavement—it looked like the one the victim had dropped. "Park, bag this phone as evidence," he ordered.

"Yes, sir." Park Jae-min swiftly pulled out an evidence bag and sealed the phone inside.

They also noticed a long, irregular trail of footprints on the alley floor, as if someone had been dragged. Detective Yun Tae-sik, who had been sweeping his flashlight near the wall, suddenly stiffened—his keen eyes had caught something. "Detective Jung, over here—look at these footprints," Yun called out, his voice unsteady. Hae-jun and Park hurried to his side.

On the damp ground, a few clear footprints were visible. But the spacing between them was far too large to be a normal human stride. It looked as if someone had been sprinting away in terror, running for their life.

"These steps are too far apart... Did someone run off in a panic?" Park Jae-min murmured, furrowing his brow. Hae-jun moved his flashlight closer, studying the prints intently.

Beside him, Yun spoke up again. "Take a look at this. The footprints suddenly stop here," he said, voice shaking. Sure enough, the prints abruptly ended at a certain point—vanishing cleanly with no drag marks at all, as if the person had simply been lifted into the air at that spot. Yun's face went pale. "Could it be... they were pulled straight up?" he whispered.

Without answering, Hae-jun crouched down and slowly examined the end of the trail. His lips pressed into a hard line as he carefully surveyed the area around them. The thought flashed through his mind that there might be another clue nearby, just like the phone they'd retrieved. This alley ended in a wall on one side and opened onto a main road on the other—but it was a blind spot, with not a single CCTV camera in sight.

Missed it again... someone vanished right in front of me and I couldn't do a thing. Hae-jun shook his head sharply, casting off the wave of helplessness. He had to find some clue here, no matter what.

Just then, Park Jae-min's voice rang out from near the alley entrance. "I found something over here!" he shouted, pointing to the corner of a concrete wall. Hae-jun hurried over. There, on the gray concrete, he saw a jagged scrape—and a small piece of cloth snagged on the wall, fluttering gently.

He plucked the cloth free and saw that it appeared to be a fragment of a navy-blue padded jacket. It matched the jacket that the missing man's wife had identified earlier. The way the fabric was torn suggested it had been caught on the rough wall and ripped off with force—a telltale sign that the victim had been dragged away violently.

Hae-jun's eyes narrowed sharply. He slipped the torn fragment into an evidence bag, rapidly assessing the situation. "We need to determine which way the victim was taken," he said in a low, resolute voice. Even as he spoke, the bizarre incident from a few nights ago flashed through his mind. Back then, too—on a night filled with red mist—someone had vanished right before his eyes. Could it be the same culprit...?

A dreadful hunch was solidifying into certainty. "Yun, what about the nearby CCTVs?" Hae-jun asked, turning to his colleague. Yun Tae-sik, checking footage on his tablet, shook his head. "I pulled the feed from a nearby shop's CCTV. The footage around the time he disappeared is completely distorted—everything's blanketed in red static."

"Figures," Hae-jun muttered, scowling. If this were a normal crime, the cameras would have caught something. But if even the video was washed out in red, this was no coincidence.

The team combed through the alley again and again for additional evidence, but nothing turned up beyond what they had already found—the bizarre footprints, the torn cloth scrap, and the distorted CCTV footage. There were no eyewitnesses at all.

Once the victim's wife had been escorted home, Hae-jun and his two junior detectives walked the length of the alley from end to end, piecing together the timeline. It was only a few meters from the spot where the victim vanished to the point where his footprints had stopped. If someone could disappear in such a short span, then the culprit had to be lurking in that red mist.

Hae-jun's heart thudded fiercely in his chest again. Puzzle pieces were clicking into place—he instinctively knew that this case was connected to the nightmare that had nearly claimed him just days before. Red mist and missing people... the same pattern, all over again.

By around 4:00 a.m., with most of the lingering fog dissipated, the detectives expanded their search. They swept their flashlights through every corner of the alley, and even ventured into a narrow side passage by the dead-end wall that led into an adjacent back street. There was not a soul to be found. Only the darkness grew thicker, and the frigid pre-dawn air crept into their bones.

Yun Tae-sik kept casting nervous glances around, biting his lip. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. "I feel like... something is watching us," he whispered. Park Jae-min placed a hand on Yun's shoulder and said softly, "Easy. You're just on edge."

Still, Hae-jun was gripped by the same unease. Every alleyway and dark window around them felt like a pair of eyes staring back. The sensation of invisible eyes following them from beyond the darkness sent a chill slithering down his spine.

Suddenly, a distant thump broke the silence—the sound of a door closing. All three detectives snapped their heads toward the noise. At the far end of a connecting alley stood an old, abandoned house, barely visible in the gloom. Its windows were shattered, and the interior beyond lay in pitch darkness.

Park Jae-min scowled. "It's supposed to be empty... who would go in there?" he murmured.

"Maybe... the culprit," Yun whispered, his face taut with tension. Hae-jun drew his gun and began cautiously approaching the house.

At that moment, from somewhere inside the vacant house came a low, drawn-out wail. Mrrroooow—...

It was a cat's meow. Yun jumped in surprise, halting in his tracks. "A c-cat? A cat inside the house...?" he stammered.

Park let out a breath, forcing a calm tone. "Probably just a stray. Don't get so worked up."

Even so, Yun's face had gone pale. "That house... it's been empty for ages..." he mumbled.

A prickling chill passed over all three of them. There wasn't even a whisper of wind, yet a tree branch beside the wall suddenly creaked and trembled, and a few dry leaves skittered across the ground.

Hae-jun steadied his breathing. "Yun, Park—you two check that side. I'll go to the far end," he instructed quietly. With that, he stepped forward and headed off alone into the darkness at the end of the alley.

Tendrils of lingering red mist still slid along the ground at his feet. An unnatural chill permeated the air, and he felt a heavy pressure on his back. This fog... it's not natural, a voice in his head warned. Every instinct he had was screaming the same thing.

His flashlight beam flickered across the corner of a wall, revealing that the alley continued around the bend. Heart hammering, he transferred the flashlight to his left hand and gripped his pistol tightly in his right. The thud of his pulse was the only sound in his ears.

Then—through the reddish haze ahead—he caught a glimpse of something moving. At first he thought it might be just a swirl of mist, but it wasn't. It was a figure.

Farther down, where no streetlamp reached, a human-sized silhouette flickered in and out of the darkness. Hae-jun's breath hitched. The silhouette in the fog was standing as if it were facing him.

It had unnaturally long, thin limbs—and on its face, a gash-like opening stretched into an impossibly wide grin. The sight was so grotesque he thought his eyes might be deceiving him. His stomach lurched with dread. That's not human... what the hell is that...?

Just then, the silhouette began to slink backward, retreating into the mist. Hae-jun, who had been staring in stunned silence, snapped back to his senses. "Stop! Police!" he bellowed, his voice shattering the quiet as it echoed down the alley. At the same time, he broke into a sprint, charging toward the figure at full speed.

In Hae-jun's vision, nothing existed except that shape in the fog. He chased the grotesquely contorting form as it slipped toward the wall and vanished into the shadows.

"Damn it!" Hae-jun snarled through his teeth. He skidded to a halt, swinging his flashlight up to try to catch it in the beam.

Right then, a harsh szzzk sparked from the flashlight—and the beam abruptly died.

Darkness swallowed everything, sudden and complete. Hae-jun's heart thumped in his ears like a drum. He held his breath, straining to listen. Nothing. It was here just a second ago... right in front of me. Cold sweat slicked his palms. Until his eyes adjusted, all he could hear was his own ragged breathing and the pounding of his heart. For a moment, he could swear an unseen presence was standing right there in front of him.

Even so, Hae-jun's gaze did not waver. With a trembling hand, he clutched the now-dead flashlight. He hadn't caught the culprit tonight, but a certainty had taken root in his chest: there was something out here in the red mist. And he had no intention of letting the thing lurking in this fog—whatever it was—continue its deadly hunt unchecked.

Hae-jun let out a shaky, hollow laugh and shook off the haze of confusion. He steeled himself with a firm vow. There's definitely something here... and I will find it.

At that moment, the red mist around him began to thicken once more, slowly swallowing the world in crimson.