Doctor Demon

Miyoo was pouting in a corner. Her gum hurt thanks to the broken teeth and the tooth fairy did not even arrive. Instead, she caught her grandfather trying to sneak in a dollar under her pillow when she was pretending to sleep.

"I'm sorry, Miyoo!" Junho apologized for the hundredth time. "Tooth fairies don't exist!"

"Pffft!"

Her grandfather sighed. They were sitting on the floor. Junho was on his knees, trying to appease his granddaughter. Miyoo was disappointed that the tooth fairy turned out to be fake. What else was fake? Santa Claus? Was he also her grandfather in disguise?

"Tch!" Magrod scowled. "You can't even pacify a girl! How lame."

"It's all your fault anyway!" Junho snapped. "Who told you to feed her the idea of pretending to be asleep?"

"I wanted to see the tooth fairy too, ya know!" Magrod snapped back. "What if she had cookies?"

Yisub, who was sitting on the floor with Miyoo, was simply poking the floor. He was uninterested in their banter and was wondering how many dust particles were on the ground.

"Cookies? Why would a tooth fairy have cookies?"

"If she has money, surely she can buy cookies!"

The two oldies were engaged in their banter until Miyoo exclaimed, "Meanies!"

That made them stop. Junho turned to Miyoo and sighed. "Look dear," he began. "Not every myth is true. Things like tooth fairy don't exist."

"Santa Claus?" Miyoo asked, her eyes large and hopeful as if she wanted Santa to be real.

"Er…" Junho was perplexed when his granddaughter looked at him like that. Her puppy dog eyes were preventing him from bursting her bubble that Santa was real.

"Santa Claus? What's that? Does he bring cookies too?" Magrod asked.

"Santa brings gifts," Yisub said slowly. "And happiness."

"Santa is the best!" Miyoo claimed. "Miyoo likes Santa!"

Junho was now in a fix. How was he going to explain to her that Santa does not exist? To top it all, the demon was making things worse.

"Ooooh, Santa brings gifts?" Magrod asked. He was now pumped up, wondering if Santa would bring him cookies. "Where is this Santa? I wanna make him bring me the finest cookies!"

"He comes on Christmas," Yisub stated. "On a sledge. He wears red clothes and has a white beard."

"Why on Christmas? Why not on other days?" Magrod frowned. "Oi, old man! Where can we find Santa at this time?"

"Huh? Who the hell are you calling an old man you five thousand year old demon?" Junho growled. "I was quite the catch when I was young. My Tinder-"

"No one cares about your Tinder profile!" Magrod snapped. "Where is Santa?"

"Miyoo wants Santa!"

"Santa brings gifts!" Yisub added to the banter, making Junho want to tear his hair out. How did the conversation take such a drastic turn?

"STOP!" He yelled. "Christmans is months away! Santa will come then. Stop making a fuss!"

The three of them shut up and were pouting. Magrod lamented for his cookie while Yisub wanted gifts and Miyoo wanted to see Santa. They would have to wait for months for all these?

Junho was sighing loudly when the doorbell rang. "That must be Soobin," he said. "Thank god!"

He opened the door to find Soobin and to his surprise, Baekha.

"I brought Baekha along today," Soobin said. "She stopped by the restaurant and I suggested that she can accompany me to babysit Miyoo. I hope that's okay!"

"Sure!" Junho exclaimed. He was already fond of this cool chick who managed to handle his family's eccentricities. Baekha slightly bowed at him unsure of how to greet an elderly person but Junho seemed to be very welcoming towards her.

"The twins will be late," he said. "And I'll be off on an assignment till midnight. You guys can order dinner tonight. I already left some cash for you."

"Really?" Soobin asked. "Are you sure, Mr. Hwang? I can cook!"

"Think of it as a treat from this old man!" Junho winked. "Don't tell the twins though. They always complain why I don't buy dinner for them."

Soobin and Baekha snickered. They waved goodbye to Junho who set off for his work.

"This family is weird," Baekha muttered. Miyoo came running towards them, jumping into Soobin's arms.

"They're warm and friendly!" Soobin said. "In a weird way but they're still amazing!"

"That's what makes them weird," Baekha replied with a small smile. Miyoo was reaching out her palm to touch Baekha's cheek. Baekha was now more comfortable around Miyoo, even giving her a slight poke on the head.

They spent a relatively quiet evening, ordering pizza ("What is this cheesy stuff? Where are my cookies? I'm a Vozakel lord ya know!" Magrod claimed) and playing games. Finally around 10 PM, Miyoo drifted off to sleep.

"Poof!" Magrod said. He was completely full and was watching his favorite drama on TV while the girls put away the plate. Yisub had gone on his routine visit to his family so it was just the three of them.

"Hey Baekha, did you hear that strange rumor at school lately?" Soobin asked.

"What rumor?"

"The one about the game?"

Baekha frowned, trying to recall any such rumor. Then it hit her.

"You mean about that Fish?" she asked. "Blue Fish?"

"Yes!" Soobin nodded. "I overheard a couple of students talking about it. Such a weird game."

Magrod overheard them and was now interested in the conversation. He jumped from the couch and prowled towards the dinner table.

"Game?" he asked. "What game?"

"It's an internet game and an app," Soobin explained. "Apparently at midnight, you can log into this website and you'll be able to play the game. If you complete the game and its conditions, your wishes will come true. I found it kinda strange. How can a game fulfill wishes?"

Baekha was now in deep thought. "This is strange," she agreed. "No game can do that. If it did, then people would be playing it all the time. But…"

She trailed off as she tried to come up with a rationale. "But if it's on the dark web, then the issue may be more serious than it seems."

"Dark web?" Magrod frowned. "What's that? A cookie?"

"Dark web is what you call an alternate internet," Baekha said. "Kind of like...the other side of the internet. The websites we usually visit are part of the clean web. It's vast and even dangerous at times if used wrongly but otherwise safe in general. By safe I mean that you can control the content you want to see. Your data is tracked and using that information, you're being shown things which go through a rigorous filtering process. In a way, your mind is being tricked into believing that whatever you're seeing on the clean web is all that the internet has to offer."

"Eh?" Soobin and Magrod were confused. Baekha sighed. It was going to be a long night for her.

…

Junho pulled up in front of a house in the sub-urban area. He was miles away from home, on a quiet street. Everyone was asleep and there was not a soul in sight. All the other houses were shrouded in darkness except for one which was still lit.

He made his way to the porch and knocked on the door. An elderly woman in her sixties opened the door. She looked nervous and scared but upon seeing him, she was relieved.

"Thank goodness Mr. Hwang!" she exclaimed. "I'm so glad you're here. I was starting to get worried!"

"My apologies for being late, Mrs. Jun," he said. "I was caught up trying to appease my granddaughter. You know how children can be!"

Mrs. Jun stepped aside to let him in. Immediately, Junho was hit by a strong odor of rotten eggs. His EMF meter was beeping loudly in his pocket and he took it out to see that the indicator was pointing at red.

"The demon," he began. "Is it strong?"

"It's very dangerous!" Mrs. Jun howled. "That thing won't leave her alone at all! I tried everything but to no avail. It only makes her suffer more."

She was sobbing hard, thinking of her poor granddaughter, Seohyun. For the past week, she had been acting strange. Her once cheerful and lively granddaughter lost her zeal and began to withdraw herself. At first, Mrs. Jun thought she was upset that her boyfriend cheated on her.

But soon, Seohyun began to display erratic behavior. She was cutting herself and even chopped off her beautiful hair in a shoddy manner. Soon, she was skipping meals and grew thin almost overnight. Mrs. Jun took her to a psychiatrist but he could not deduce what was wrong with her. Seohyun continued to be wild and to Mrs. Jun's shock, she once slashed her wrist.

What shocked Mrs. Jun even further was that after slashing her wrists, Seohyun ran around the house laughing like a mad person without feeling any pain!

"Please save her!" Mrs. Jun begged. Junho patted her shoulder.

"I will," he promised. "Take me to her."

Mrs. Jun nodded and motioned him to follow her. She led him to a room in the corner and opened the door.

The stench of rotten eggs was so strong that it would make a normal person throw up. A figure lay on the bed, tied to the bedposts. It stirred and snapped its neck in his direction.

Ding!

Mrs. Jun jumped in shock. "Who could that be?" she wondered out loud.

"My new assistant," Junho said calmly. "Please let him in."

Mrs. Jun nodded and went to open the door. Junho stood there scrolling on his phone, not talking to the entity which was possessing the girl. After a few seconds, footsteps approached his way.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Junho asked coolly, not looking up.

Siwan's face was crunched up in disgust and worry.

"I do," he replied.. "Let's get this over with."