Chapter 2

The sirens of two ambulances were heard blaring the road towards the Royal Hospital, carrying three patients who had been victims of traffic accidents. A man in his sixties with bandages on his head and scratches on his body was crying for his wife, who was lying naked on a gurney. Ambulance officers are busy carrying out medical procedures by occasionally doing heart massages. The older man sobbed, blaming himself for why this unfortunate accident that happened to his family.

"Alice...." he softly called his wife, who was risking her life. "You have to hold on, Dear."

The ambulance attendant with the name tag on the left chest that reads Norin looks tense, sweat dripping down his forehead. Both hands covered in medical gloves were stained with blood because they had to suppress the bleeding on the right thigh. Meanwhile, other officers were busy inserting drugs into IV tubes, hoping to save the victim's life.

The older man wept even more when he heard Norin explain that his wife was in critical condition due to her head, chest, and leg injuries. Hope for survival is running low; even he can't imagine what will happen to his life, which is already twilight without children and his soulmate.

The ambulance stopped in the lobby marked Emergency Room with a glass door which nurses and doctors immediately greeted. The two bodies covered in blood were pulled off the gurney and rushed to the emergency room with the voices of medical workers giving instructions to each other to save the victims. Meanwhile, the man was ushered into another room to treat his wounds.

For a moment, the mind of the man named William Dawson now retreated to the disaster that occurred to him right at the bend of Lower Domain Road to avoid someone suddenly appearing in the middle of the road. Between believing it or not, he saw a man with slightly long hair covering his neck, wearing a black shirt with bright red eyes and a mouth, and both hands were bleeding. Of course, William, who doesn't believe in ghosts, tries to deny what he sees. He couldn't hallucinate during the day, even if it were cloudy in mid-autumn.

However, when the ambulance staff evacuated him, William did not see the red-eyed man. He disappeared like a puff of smoke and left no trace. William told officers there was a man with blood on his mouth and hands, but they didn't believe him as only William's family were at the crash site.

"Are you okay, Mr. Dawson?" asked the nurse who had just finished dressing William's wounds, interrupting the long reverie of the man with the white beard.

"Well ... yes, I'm not well. I'm thinking of my wife and daughter, miss. But, have you guys ever received a victim in that corner crash?"

The oriental-looking nurse who handled William frowned for a moment, then nodded. "There have been a lot of accidents over the last few weeks, sir. And unfortunately, they have happened in the same place as if someone had put the bait in there on purpose. I am very sorry what happened to you, sir."

"Do you believe I saw someone with red eyes around the corner, Miss? Someone who suddenly appeared made me swerve the car, and he just disappeared," said William.

The nurse was silent for a long time before finally telling the patient to rest and explaining the chronology of the accident to the police. Meanwhile, William was still wondering, feeling awkward with the mysterious man. How could a red-eyed man appear and disappear so quickly? No human can disappear, even if he is the most excellent runner.

"Mr. Dawson!" exclaimed the doctor who appeared at the end of the treatment door. His face looked tense with a pale face making both the man's shoulders slump as if he knew the look on the doctor's face.

His life seemed to be turned upside down by the time that now could not be turned back. He doesn't know how long it's been; he sits with shaking shoulders crying over the two people who have become a part of her life. His chest was so tight that it was difficult even to breathe. He kept blaming time and himself for choosing the road that was his wife's and child's last journey. His body is far from sick, but his heart is so broken that the family he loves has left him alone.

William mourned alone before the morgue after doctors declared his wife and child dead. Heavy bleeding and severe injuries made both of them unable to survive. Moreover, Jessica, William's only daughter, suffered a neck injury that affected the respiratory system, causing the girl to die earlier than her mother.

"Good afternoon, sir," a policeman greeted, making William look up. "We want to ask for a little chronology of the accident that happened to your family."

William's heart sank even more. He closed his eyes, trying to get rid of all his guilt, when the police asked him to repeat the unfortunate incident. His tongue felt so numb that he couldn't say anything.

"Please give me a moment, sir," William pleaded while stroking his face with his right hand.

The fat policeman was silent without replying to William's sentence. In his mind, he was so sorry. Still, on the other hand, this time, his task demanded to be completed immediately, and an investigation was carried out into the accidents on Lower Domain Road, which always claimed lives.

"I'll be back here in fifteen minutes, sir."

Silence. William was left alone in front of the mortuary when the police officers left him somewhere. In their old age, the two eyes stared far away, imagining that if God gave him one chance, William would not waste time saving his family. But, the universe has written the line of one's life destiny. William knew his wife and children would not return, even if he begged to exchange their lives.

Faintly in the autumn air that began to enter the evening, William heard a scream. Even though he is old, his sense of hearing is still as sharp as when he was young. Several times William tried to convince himself that it was not a hallucination caused by losing a relative.

Following instinct, the man in the red flannel shirt got up from his seat and entered the mortuary. The hair on his neck was bristling, considering that this room had several unique cupboards for storing corpses. With mixed feelings, William took two steps to trace the source of the sound in the cold, tense room. For a moment, he turned his head to the gurney with two bodies covered in white sheets and red spots running through them.

It's impossible, right, if my wife screams? But why does it sound like it's in a cupboard?

His wrinkled, bandaged right hand touched the refrigerator on the right side of the room. The coldness of the silver and iron wardrobe made William's guts shrink even more. He felt the cupboards one by one while sharpening all his senses. He hoped it was just some silly imagination. At least he didn't want to meet a ghost, even if he tried not to believe it.

William's tall body stopped at cupboard number 1205. His hands felt the vibrations inside, accompanied by increasingly clear screams. William wasn't sure how a corpse could come back to life in four degrees of heat. If alive, he should've screamed less loudly due to hypothermia.

"Help me!"

A woman's voice came from inside the wardrobe. William took a few steps back with a shiver. His mind, which had been frantic, was suddenly enveloped in a shadow of horror. He swallowed hard, then came back carefully to touch the cupboard while ensuring that what he felt was the one with the bodies.

His body shook uncontrollably when he tried to reach the key that hung sweetly on the door of 1205. Various kinds of speculations were spinning in his head. Could it be a ghost or someone who recently made it past death and regained life? Both legs couldn't hold William's weight any longer; his guts wholly disappeared, and the feeling of loss he had experienced earlier evaporated somewhere. He repeatedly swallowed his saliva, trying to convince himself that whatever was in the cupboard, William was ready to see.

But who's in the cupboard?