Bo Ah lay silently in the hospital bed, machines beeping steadily beside her. Her skin was pale, her body motionless—lost in a deep coma. She didn't know where she was, nor what had happened to her. All around her, the world continued to turn, to unravel secrets she had yet to face. But for now, she was still. Somewhere between life and death.
Meanwhile, across town, inside a secured conference room at the National Special Crimes Unit, tension stirred like a quiet storm.
Detective Woo Joon stepped into the room. Several officers sat around a long metal table—Detective Kang, Officer Han, Lieutenant Seo, and a few others. The mood was tense. Silent. Until the head of their division, Chief Yoon Dae Shik, entered and placed a thick file down with a heavy thud.
The chief's stern eyes scanned them all. "Close the door."
The youngest officer got up and sealed it shut, the lock clicking with finality.
Chief Yoon took a seat and folded his hands. "Let's talk about what we know."
A screen flickered on behind him, showing two side-by-side crime scene photos. Both of dried corpses, twisted in unnatural poses. Flesh clinging to bone. One from the beach investigation—another from the destroyed house Woo Joon had visited earlier.
"Two bodies," Chief Yoon said grimly. "Both in completely different parts of the city. Both within the last month. Cause of death? Unknown. Time of death? Unclear. Weapon? None. No blood. No signs of external injury."
Lieutenant Seo adjusted in his chair. "It's like something… sucked the life right out of them."
"Like a damn vampire," Kang muttered.
Woo Joon spoke up. "Both scenes had something else in common—there was no CCTV footage during the time of death. It's like everything glitched. Power surges, corrupted files. Even the backup feeds were blank."
Chief Yoon nodded. "Exactly. These aren't ordinary murders. And I'm not about to slap a supernatural label on it yet—but what we're dealing with is not normal. So I'm authorizing this as a Tier 3 classified case."
Everyone in the room straightened. Tier 3 meant limited access, sealed files, and a whole lot of pressure.
Officer Han leaned forward. "Sir, is there any pattern? Are the victims connected?"
"Not directly," Chief Yoon replied. "But both victims had a link to something… strange. One was a man who ran an illegal cult—name was Kim Do Won. The other, the one from the destroyed house, was a middle-aged woman. Her daughter is the girl in the hospital now. She's the only survivor."
At the mention of Bo Ah, Woo Joon's jaw tightened.
"We can't get anything out of her right now," he said. "She's in a coma. But something happened in that house. The damage wasn't caused by any explosion or structural issue. It was too precise. Like something… tore through it."
Lieutenant Seo glanced at the photos on the screen again. "Two dried corpses in one month. If this continues…"
Kang finished his thought. "We might be dealing with a serial killer who doesn't leave fingerprints. Or worse—something we're not trained to understand."
A silence fell over the room, thick and unsettling.
Then, Chief Yoon broke it. "I want all eyes on this. We're forming a special task group under Detective Woo Joon's lead. Coordinate with our forensics team. Interview the girl if and when she wakes up. I also want our cyber unit checking deeper into the security grid failure. Someone—or something—is covering its tracks."
Woo Joon nodded silently, his thoughts already racing. He could still see Bo Ah's lifeless expression, her lips trembling as if whispering a secret only she could hear.
"And one more thing," the chief added. "No leaks to the press. I don't care if they're breathing down your necks. We give them nothing. If word gets out that we're dealing with corpses like this… the panic alone will destroy this city faster than the killer ever could."
The room remained quiet. Grave.
Woo Joon looked down at the photo of the dried corpse—its sunken eyes and collapsed skin etched into his memory.
He had a feeling this was just the beginning.
And whatever was hunting in the dark…
Wasn't done yet.