still as she stumbled along the road, shadowy figures followed her, she could sense them stalking her. They whispered to her. Taunted her as she hobbled with no sense of direction.
Killer.
Murderer.
Monster!
“No,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “Leave me alone!”
She stumbled over her own feet, slamming into a trash can and falling with a clatter.
She covered her head with her arms, hoping it would keep the shadows at bay, but a door opened and light slanted over the asphalt beside her. She scurried back, hoping whoever it was hadn’t seen her.
“Who’s there?” The voice was angry and gravelly, slurred with drink. “Boy! Come out here!”
“Yes, Abeoji?”
Miyoung squinted at the familiar voice.
“Didn’t I tell you to put the lid on the trash can securely, otherwise stray dogs would get in?”
“I did.” She recognized it now. Jung Jaegil. Which meant the man grabbing him by the collar was his father.
“Well, you obviously didn’t!” A thud and a grunt. Jaegil crashed into the door frame, his hand covering his cheek where his father’s fist had connected.
“Useless boy!” the man said. “I’ll do it myself. Need to go out for more beer anyway.”
The door slammed shut, taking the light with it. Shuffling steps approached Miyoung.
Here he comes. Ripe for the taking.
Was that her own thoughts? Or those shadow voices? She didn’t really care as she realized she was starving. Hunger overshadowed the fear and pain she’d been experiencing seconds earlier.
Boots crunched against gravel and Miyoung’s mouth watered.
Can you taste him?
She shifted onto her feet, crouched beside the toppled trash cans.
Rip him apart. It’s what you were made for.
A boot collided with her shoe.
“Wha—”
She didn’t give him a chance to finish the word. Rising from her hiding place, she grabbed him by the throat. His eyes bulged in surprise. They were already bloodshot from drink, his face ruddy from a long life lived the wrong way.
He’s scum, she told herself. He beats his son. He’s a bad man.
She squeezed his throat as he clawed at her hand. She could already taste his gi before she opened herself to it. Siphoning so quickly that he let out a scream of agony. She’d never taken energy so fast before. She never knew she could cause someone pain like this.
“Abeoji?” The door opened again and Jaegil stood there, looking out into the darkness.
And Miyoung froze. What was she doing? This wasn’t another one of her criminals and murderers. He was just a drunk. He was someone’s father.
She dropped the man, now unconscious, but she saw his chest rise and fall. He was alive.
She slunk away, turning the corner and taking off in a sprint.
I didn’t mean it, she told herself. I’m not a monster.
Yes, you did. Yes, you are.
Miyoung spun around at the voice. Had someone seen her?
“Hello?” she called into the night.
Shadows danced in her vision, dark shapes that twisted and turned.
“What are you?” she shouted.
The shadows converged, becoming columns of smoke filled with faces. A tornado of spirits, all the men whose lives had been taken by Miyoung.
They accused her with their eyes. Their gaping mouths emitting a chorus of screams.
The ghosts of her past had finally broken free from her mind and swirled around her. Was this her punishment for living through death? She covered her ears with her hands to drown out the warbling sound of their voices. And when that didn’t work, she ran.
TO KNOW WHY the fox was cursed with a murderous fate, we must go back to the first gumiho.
A symbol of wood and tree, the liver feeds the fire that is the heart.
Everything in the body passes through the liver. It detoxifies the chemicals and metabolizes drugs. The liver is the only organ in the human body that can regenerate itself.
This process involves a lot of gi.
The fox did not begin by eating the livers of men.
As with any tragedy or curse, it came about because she loved.
When the first gumiho came to be, she lived off the gi she had gained over her long life.
Though in her later years she grew weary from her travels. She wished to settle in one place, to find a true home. It was then that she met two very different men.
One was a sansin, a mountain god, who would visit her every night to profess his love.
However, she had given her heart to a mortal man and wished to become human for him.
The sansin claimed to know of a way for her to become fully human. He offered the knowledge to her as