Part I
Drama: Scholar Who Walks the Night
Transported by: A Gayageum
Vampires can never truly die.
If only Kim Sung-yeol had known this. Yes. They may be turned to ash, but because they are mystical beings, over time, those ashes begin to gather.
It had been a long day; four hours of class followed by six hours of nursing clinicals, then home to care for the two miniature people I called my children. I was ready to sleep but there was more to do. So, after the little ones were in bed I changed into my pjs, pulled out my books and moved to my desk to begin working on my homework. It was just like every other night; nothing special. The tiny two bedroom apartment lay silent as the night stretched on.
That was until I heard the twang of strings from across the room. I turned to look but the room lay still.
The old gayageum my grandfather had brought back to America in his youth lay still in its stand. My grandfather had taken it from his time serving in the Korean war of the 1950's. He had claimed that it was some ancient relic and when he was suffering from Alzheimer's he had raved that it was magical. Of coarse, we never believed him but he died swearing that it needed to be kept in its stand or if it was moved that it go directly into its leather case.
I narrowed my eyes at the old instrument but it did nothing. Shaking my head I turned back to my books. I was clearly hearing things. I knew I should go to bed but I had to finish my work.
But it came again and I turned my head just quickly enough to watch the strings settle into silence. I stood at that and slowly moved over to the instrument. Just as I reached it, the strings began moving again but this time they didn't stop. Even as I lifted the cumbersome instrument and leaned it against my hip, it continued. It played an old song, slow and steady. It was pretty but it was creeping me out. My hands wrapped around to try and silence the strings and immediately the world began spinning. I felt like I was on the spinning cups ride at an amusement park. I couldn't tell which way was which. The dizziness grew worse and worse until all at once it stopped.
I was left standing in the middle of a dirt road still in my slip-like pajamas. The gayageum was gone and the streets were empty and dark. Nervously I looked around. Surely, this had to be a dream. I stood in what looked like an old Joseon era village. There were dim lamp lights and the homes lay completely silent.
Suddenly, I heard boisterous male laughter behind me, causing me to turn around in a half panic. Three filthy-looking men in tattered hanbok looked at me with leering eyes. It was at that moment that I realized what I was wearing and made a vain attempt to cover myself.
"Ya! Pretty lady! Are you looking for someone to play with?" One of them laughed as he made a grab for my pajamas.
I dodged and his hand passed through empty space. "Please, just leave me be," I attempted to ask.
"Aw," another grumbled, "but look at you. Why else would you walk around like that? Let's play."
They moved for me again, and fight or flight kicked in. I turned and ran. I knew nothing about self defence. There was nothing else I could do. The three men were quickly in persuit. Luckily for me, I was fast and they were drunk so I quickly out paced them. I managed to round a corner without them seeing me and slip into a shadowed area. Thier stench wafted past me as they continued running.
Heaving a sigh of relief I began assessing my surroundings. I was pressed up against a tall stone wall with a shingled roof. Looking further I spotted something in a yard a bit further away that I desperately needed. Clothing.
I felt bad about even thinking about it, but running around wherever I was mostly naked was not a good plan. So, I moved to slip over the smaller wall that blocked my path to the clothes and timidly began tugging off some of the clothing. This looked like a traditional Korean village so, as much as I wanted to wear pants, I steered away from them and took a jeogori and chima skirt.
As I began wrapping the chima around and began to tie it, I stopped frozen at the sound of footsteps approaching from behind. I swallowed hard and slowly turned to come face to face with a rather stern, albeit handsome looking man. He looked at me with narrowed eyes.
Pursing my lips nervously I finished tying the skirt before clapping my hands together in apology. "I'm sorry! I just really need clothes! I woke up here and I don't know where I am and there were these guys..."
I was stopped by his hand raising in front of him curtly. The man took in a slow deep breath. For what seemed like forever he stared at me silently.
Finally, he turned his hand palm down and motioned me over with his four fingers. As I nervously began moving he turned and headed toward the street. A bit uncertain I held onto myself and began following him. He was a fast walker. I practically had to run to keep up. He headed out of the village and down a long road.
I briefly wondered if he was taking me somewhere to kill me. I shivered at the thought slightly and hugged myself to ward off the night's cold. Stopping, I wondered if I should head back but truly where else could I have gone?
The feeling of a warm jacket wrapping around my shoulders stopped me however, and I looked up to see the man staring at me calmly.
"It's not much further." He spoke for the first time before turning to walk again, this time a bit more to my pace.
A short time later we arrived at a nice home on a hill. He ascended stone steps to the home and directed me to one of the outside doors. Removing his shoes he stepped up on the the little wooden porch before motioning me up. His eyes shifted to my bare feet as I joined him on the wood floor.
Gingerly he slid the door open and motioned for me to enter. I nervously complied. The moment I entered he spoke; two words. "Wait here."
So I waited.
And waited.
While I waited I silently explored the room he had put me in. It was small but nice with a large beautifully engraved amoir on one wall and a little table with two silk pillows for seats. On one end of the room there was a small bed laid out on the floor consisting of a silk mat, a thick silk blanket and a small cylindrical pillow. There was a small make up table against the third wall with a matching chair in front of it. It was a nice room, if simple.
The sound of footsteps on the wood floor outside drew my attention and the door slid open. An adorable old woman and two others stood in the door frame. An old man carried in a relatively large tub of water and a second old woman carried a pile of what I could only assume was clothing.
The first old woman smiled at me and spoke kindly, "hello, you've had a rough night haven't you?"
She motioned for the old man to set down the tub before shooing him out quickly. When he was gone she grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me to a small stool that the other old woman had set near the tub. Without even asking she grabbed my feet and put them into the tub. While she began to scrub them, the second women pulled out my pony tail.
I watched as she stopped short looking oddly at the black elastic as if it were a cursed item. I slowly reached out to take it from her and smiled.
"It's a hair tie," I told her, pulling it to show her the stretch.
She only looked at me stone faced and shook her head before taking a wide toothed comb to my curly hair. It took her a while to realize that it wasn't going to smooth out and eventually settled for getting it as smooth as she could before braiding it at the nape of my neck.
In no time my feet were cleaned and I was dressed in a white jegori top and chima skirt with thick silk socks. The first woman directed me to a bed while the second left the room to fetch the old man who came back to pick up the tub of water.
"Get some rest," the first old woman told me, "We'll talk in the morning and figure things out, okay?"
I nodded dumbly and watched her leave, closing the door behind her.
The moment she left I felt panic well up inside me. My children! Where they okay? There mother was gone! What if they woke to find me missing!? They were only four and seven and still depended very much on me, it wasn't like they were teenagers who would be alright for a while without their mother.
"They'll be fine. Time is frozen there." A voice from the other end of the room caused me to jump. I leaned to try and see who was standing in the shadows.
"Who are you!?" I said in the firmest tone I could manage, "come where I can see you."
From the shadows came a scraggly looking man in a fully black hanbok. His black hair was messy and his mottled and messy beard looked like he hadn't attempted to trim it in years, if ever.
"I am called Hae-sun, but you should call me teacher," he said in a gruff voice, "I foresaw your arrival. You're the only one who can truly end his tyranny."
I furrowed my brows in confusion, "who's tyranny?"
"My once disciple, the traitor, the once shadow king," he said in an annoyingly eerie tone, "the vampire, Gwi."