"Hurry it up!" Jina urged Shinjin who was speeding past the cars. The ghosts were in the back, giving directions through Jina.
"I am going fast!" Shinjin complained. "This is the fastest limit!"
"Your car is a dump!" Jina shot back. "I knew that we should have taken our one! It's faster."
"Yeah well, kid, your car costs more than my lifeti earnings!"
"Your car is a snail!"
They were bickering back and forth. It had been hours and even though they had started early in the morning, the sun was already setting. Shinjin's old truck was slow and further slowed them down when they had to stop at the gas station to refill the tanks which took a long ti.
"Will you two shut it?" Yumi snapped at Jina. "We're trying to find the way!"
"But you two already went there!" Jina frowned. "You should know the route."
"We followed that thing at night," Yumi explained. "That too by using the faint trace of my heart in its...Anyway we need to rember the route."
"What's the ghost saying?" Shinjin asked.
"They're trying to recall the route," Jina sighed. Casper was peering out of the window, noticing a ship in the distance. They were driving along the peninsula and the sight of the ship made him rember sothing. He waved at Jina to make hand gestures.
"There was a ship?" Jina asked. Casper nodded and held up 7 fingers.
"There were 7 ships?" Jina interpreted. "So it must be around the docks?"
Casper nodded and Yumi slapped her head in realization. "Oh yes!" she exclaid. "It had driven straight past the docks and into those woods. I rember there was a marker there too. That thing drove into the forest and I noticed there was a bodhi tree which we passed on the way."
"And that there was a cabin. It took him over an hour to drive from the forest to the cabin."
"What are the ghosts saying?" Shinjin frowned, not being able to hear what they were saying.
"Just head for the docks and drive into the forest," Jina ordered him impatiently before turning back to the ghosts. "What else?"
"The cabin did have a lab but the detective wasn't kept in it," Yumi said. "In fact, she was completely conscious! The CCK was even talking to her but I have to give it to the detective. She sassed the shadow and turned the tables. But I don't know how long she can keep up. She was badly beaten up when we were there."
Jina bit her lip in worry. The CCK was probably torturing the Lady Cop and she needed their help more than ever.
"My dad and uncle Kanji are already there," Jina stated. "I'm sure they will be able to take the killer down."
"No," Shijin said grimly. "They will get the lady doctor but not the CCK."
"But it's in her body, right?" Jina asked. "So if they get her, they would get the shadow as well."
"That's not how it works," Shinjin explained. "You see, a spirit can move from one host to the next. So even if they get the doctor, the shadow possessing her might move on to another person and create more havoc. It might move onto soone close to your family as well."
"It can possess us?" Jina asked in shock.
"Depends on a person's will power," Shijin went on. "If the person has a weak will then they are more prone to getting possessed. People with strong will rarely get possessed. Only a very powerful spirit can do that. In fact, I know of only one such person who had a monstrous willpower but was possessed by a very dangerous spirit."
"Who is it?"
Your grandmother, Shijin added in his mind but aloud he said, "Doesn't matter. She's gone. For now, we gotta focus on finding Gayoon."
Jina clasped her hands together in a prayer. They were only a few miles away from the forest and she could not help but think what the CCK might have done to the Lady Cop. What if she was already dead?
Fear crept into the little girl's heart. Her Lady Cop was strong but for how long could she last? Tears fell from her eyes as the images of Gayoon's lifeless body flashed in front of her mind. Yumi and Casper, noticing her tears, reached out to pat her.
"She'll be fine," Yumi whispered. She knew the fear Gayoon was going through and the sheer will it must have taken her to face the CCK head on.
Unlike the other victims, he would make sure that she felt each and every bit of pain it was going to inflict on her. Even if Yumi did not rember much after she bled out, she knew the feelings of fear and anger she had felt. The shadow had not hesitated to take her life. Many tis she had asked herself, "Why ? What did I do?"
Her heart also went out to the other victim who was killed. She, too, must have felt the sa fear and pain. The shadow did not have an ounce of sympathy in it and it was about to unleash its worst side on Gayoon. The little girl in front of her would either save her Lady Cop today or be traumatized for the rest of her life.
"We're at the docks!" Shijin exclaid. "Where's the route?"
"Take a right turn," YJinai instructed. "There's a narrow opening between next to a fir tree. Drive through it and head south until you reach a bodhi tree. After that, turn left till you reach the river and drive alongside it. The cabin should be there."
Shijin stepped on the pedal and tried to speed up his poor truck without wasting ti. Jina watched on, ash faced and fearful of what she was going to find there. They drove on silently, trying to squash the ominous thoughts coming into their minds.
Please be safe, she prayed. But were prayers enough?
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