Flowers Are Bait Prologue
Prologue
Even with the power saw gripped in her hand, terror made her freeze on the spot. In the darkness, a pair of blue eyes gleamed ominously. His murderous gaze pinned her feet in place. Paralysis gripped her as her stare locked with the man's, who was in the midst of burying someone alive.
Her mind spun chaotically like an alarm blaring. The single word she'd only encountered in news reports rattled her deeply. Cold sweat drenched her body, raising goosebumps everywhere. All she ever wanted was a peaceful, secure existence. Was that really asking too much?
The day had unfolded in an utterly ordinary fashion. She'd visited the hospital, reviewed her overdue bills, checked on trees recovering from illness, and clashed with a client delaying payment for over a month.
For the tree specialist So Lee-yeon, venturing into the mountains after dark to tend to overlooked trees was a longstanding routine. This particular day felt just as routine and relaxed as usual. Though the area belonged to private land, it received no upkeep, allowing wild trees and shrubs to create eerie shadows suggesting phantoms and beasts lurking.
Similar to foliage in forsaken spots, the trees here endured starvation and disregard, prompting her to lavish them with special attention. Without fail.
“Help! Please, help!” The voice of the one being interred came out muffled. Yet the cries halted sharply as dirt heaped over them, plunging the surroundings into utter quiet.
A towering figure clad in a glossy black plastic raincoat shoveled earth into the hole with practiced ease. It seemed like a task he'd repeated numerous times.
“Pl-please!” The plea emerged. From the newly turned soil, an arm thrust out, clawing frantically for any grip. “I will t-tell you everything.”
In stark contrast to the desperate fighter against death, the man hummed a melody serenely. “Wrong!” he declared at last, “You should be begging me to kill you here.”
Silence lingered heavily. “Help…”
“The show has just begun,” the man announced, shoving the exposed hand with his boot and stomping down over and over, crushing it.
“Ahh!!” The buried one wailed.
His expression remained impassive, yet he stomped with frenzied intensity. The fingers appeared shattered and slick with blood.
“Aaaa……!” A choked, heartbreaking cry echoed from beneath the earth.
“Don’t you know that the more you scream, the more excited I get?”
“Aaaaa!”
“I can’t stop doing this because a dumbass like you comes out once in a while.”
The man evoked the birch tree, known for its luminous glow even in darkness. His skin was pale and smooth like polished ivory. But he lacked the vital hue of the living. In sheer horror, she watched him gaze at his reflection in the blade.
“Aaaaa, please!” The ground quivered with the wails and sobs from below. A head surfaced, but he ground it down with his heel like extinguishing a smoke. With the raincoat hood shadowing half his features, only his elongated lips were visible.
As the struggling figure's motions grew feebler and then ceased entirely, the horrifying reality dawned on So Lee-yeon.
The horrifying scene playing out before her defied belief. She swallowed hard in anxiety. Fear consumed her, slicking her palms. She concealed her phone behind her and attempted to dial 112 by touch alone, guided by instinct.
Her attention fixed on her fingers sliding across the screen, she crunched a twig underfoot. That snap would be trivial any other time, but in the night's hush, it rang out deafeningly.
The man, who had tuned out the fading pleas, halted his digging abruptly. He let the shovel fall, and So Lee-yeon's eyes tracked it down. Breath escaped her. Only then did the metallic tang of blood from the still form assail her senses. Peering closer at the corpse, she noted the white shirt soaked dark with crimson.
“What the fuck is this?” a voice growled close by, “Isn’t it about time you ran for your life?” A shot rang out.
So Lee-yeon bolted. Rain had turned the terrain to sludge. Her footwear plunged and slurped in the mire. Running steadily proved tough, but any pause meant capture and death. Her pulse thundered in her throat as she fled. Breath ragged, she pressed on without halt.
At last, the call linked through.
“Hwayang Police Station,” came the response.
“H-hello,” she stuttered.
“Yes, please speak slowly.”
Tears flooded her eyes. Terror overwhelmed her. Words tumbled out haltingly. “I s-saw somebody b-burying a body here. Please, come quick. I got caught. I a-am in danger.”
“What’s your name, ma’am?”
“So Lee-yeon. Please, I might die.”
“Please calm down, ma’am. Are you able to give me a location?”
“Y-yes. There are dozens of Japanese Oak trees here. You can also see an elm tree with a large hole. I just passed that now. Please!” she managed, striving for composure amid heaving breaths.
“Can you give me more information? Is there any sort of building or infrastructure nearby?”
Lee-yeon drew a steadying inhale and gathered her wits. “Spruce Tree Hospital. The mountain right behind that.”
“We are coming. Ma’am, I don’t need to tell you that if this is a prank call, there will be consequences.”
“Please. Please come quick.”
She arrived at the trail's access road. Gasping, she tried to steady her breathing. A slender wire like fishing line snared her throat, yanking her backward. She clawed at it desperately, but its fineness sliced into her flesh.
“Hey, you dropped this.”
Hairs rose on her nape. The hot breath by her ear chilled her to the core. One hand cinched the wire tighter while the other forced a weighty object into her grasp. In her final moments of awareness, she lashed out with full force at her attacker.
The impact's recoil surged through her as the saw struck the man, accompanied by a crack. She wielded her tool twice again. The noose around her neck slackened. Frozen in fright, So Lee-yeon didn't glance behind. The power saw finally whirred alive. This marked her initial encounter with her hidden patient, a man in a vegetative state, bedridden and inert for two years.