Chief suspended kelvin. Badge, gun, everything. "You fired your weapon in a residential building. Three shots. No body. You're lucky I don't arrest you."
Kelvin didn't argue. He didn't need a badge anymore.
He took kalina, Hana, and Mrs. Nkechi to Daku. To Dark Mountain. Or what was left of it.
Just hills. Overgrown. No village. No cave. Nothing.
"This is it?" Aoi asked. She came anyway. Suspended or not.
"It's under," kelvin said. He put the mask on.
The world shifted. The hills were gone. Now he saw the mountain. Tall. Black. Split down the middle like a wound. At the base: a cave. And inside… crying. Hundreds of babies. All 15 years apart.
Kelvin took the mask off. "They're under us. A whole village. Buried alive in 1847. The demons aren't demons. They're the villagers. Cursed. Starving. They eat time. They eat years. That's why Kalina didn't age. They were saving her."
"For what?" Hana asked.
Mrs. Nkechi answered. "To break the curse. One pure soul. Given willingly. Every 15 years. Keeps them alive. Yume refused. She jumped. So the cycle broke. Kalina was supposed to die in the river. But she didn't. Now the curse is breaking."
"So they're dying?" Aoi asked.
"No," kelvin said. "They're escaping."
The ground rumbled. A crack split the earth 10 feet from them.
A hand came out. Black. Clawed. Then another. Then a head.
No face. Just a hole.
The demons were digging out.