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The night was sharp, cool for what this part of Canada could muster up for a summer evening. Not that the youths that darted around the city cared. It could be sweltering, and they’d still be out here, neon splattered clothes shining in the street lamps as they ran, hand in hand. The two dipped out of the exposing lights, ducking into the shadows and giggling like teenage punks did when they found something new to get into. They were stopped by a wire fence that encompassed a large lot filled with long, rectangular buildings. It was a storage facility, the kind people could pay rent to in order to store whatever copious bullshit they had accumulated that couldn’t fit in the attic or garage.
The boy, Hak Ji-Woon, pulled the dark backpack from his shoulder, handing it off to Susie. He raised a finger to the cloth mask that covered his mouth. She nodded, and he began to scurry up and over the fence. There was no barbed wiring to prevent such excursions, something that would most likely change in the near future. Especially if they were caught. Once he had scaled the fence he gestured and Susie tossed the bag over with a grunt. Ji-Woon staggered, reached out, and caught the bag before it missed him.
Ji-Woon waved her to follow, shouldering the bag again and hearing the satisfying rattle of the spray paint cans within. She struggled a little, not quite as athletic as her wiry companion. Her skirt got caught on a metal twist at the top, and she tore it free with a tug on her way down.
“My skirt…” She whispered in disappointment, tugging at the fabric.
“Ah well, I think you look better without it, gwiyomi,” Ji-Woon replied smoothly, shooting a wink. Susie smiled, feeling the familiar flush rise on her cheeks. He always seemed to make her blush, even when he wasn’t trying. “C’mon, let's pick a spot.”
It wasn’t unusual for the two of them to dart around in the dead of night, avoiding prying eyes to tag buildings, explore abandoned property, or explore each other. Tonight was the far former. This place had been pristine, untouched in its years of service to the town, and Ji-Woon wanted to make it bright and pretty. They couldn’t possibly tag the entire complex in one night, but today would be a start at least.
He took her hand and they took off amidst the rows of garage door guarded buildings. Susie didn’t question when Ji-Woon stopped at random and pointed at a white door to start working on, just reached into the bag for a pair of spray paint cans and began shaking them up. Before she forgot, she grabbed her own face mask out of the bag too, tugging it on and examining her canvas.
Together they melded bright colors into wild and expressive tags. Susie wished she could do what she called ‘real art’ with spray paint, but she could do fun lettering. Large pink bubble text, outlined in thick black with white highlights at the curves. Ji-Woon thought this counted as real art, regardless of what Susie thought. Waves of color with sharp and jagged stylized Hangul, neon blue and yellow outlined in black smears. Together, their styles seemed to compliment each other, and Ji-woon would try to make sure their work flowed together, to have a connection.
They stood back and looked at their first masterpiece. The fumes from the cans were overwhelming, Susie starting to feel a little lightheaded and her heart starting to race, but it was all part of the experience. The adrenaline high mingled with a mild aerosol high, usually burnt off afterwards in the form of messing around with each other. Her green eyes fell on Ji-Woon, her partner in crime. His profile, even with the black face mask on, was striking and handsome. She’d thought so since the first time he walked into her classroom last fall semester. She wanted to reach for him right now, fall into his arms and kiss hot and heavy.
Instead, an idea crossed her mind in a moment of impulse.
“You ever wonder what’s inside these?” She asked, looking down at the lock at the base of the pull-up door. “I mean, I dunno if we could even pick the lock but..”
Ji-Woon turned to her, his contact colored eyes shining with excitement. The mask hid his smile, but she could see it in his eyes.
“Let’s try.” Was all he said.
She stood behind him as he knelt down and pulled his lockpick from his pocket. She’d asked him once where he got the kit, but all he did was wink and say it was a secret. A few moments of clicks and fiddling, and Ji-Woon exclaimed lowly in Korean.
“Got it! C’mon, let’s see.” He said, fingers hooked in the groove above the lock and hoisting the door upwards. He didn’t pull it high enough to walk under, crouching on his knees and gesturing for her to slide under in the small space he had created. As if sensing her apprehension, he added, “Don’t want anyone wandering to wonder why the doors open.”
“Yeah, good idea.” Susie said, crouching down and working her way under the door.
She pulled out a small flashlight, turning the back piece— the white light blazing out in the dark shed. Ji-Woon scooted in and gently lowered the door so as not to make any noise. Pulling out his own flashlight, he tugged his mask below his chin before exhaling.
“Looks like a lot of shit.” he said.
“Yeah… It smells funny, too.” Susie replied, tugging her mask down and looking around. “Kind of familiar, but I can’t place it…”
“Maybe it’s a dead body.”
“Oh gross, don’t even joke,” but she was laughing as she elbowed him in the ribs.
He smiled, eyes darting over the stacks of boxes and plastic totes. Who even needed this much shit? The unit felt large and wide, but inside it was cramped. Susie wandered around what felt like a maze as Ji-Woon put the thin flashlight in his mouth and unlatched one of the tote boxes.
Inside were stacks and stacks of photos, news clippings, paper, and full copies of newspapers. The photos seemed innocuous, pictures of streets and homes and trees, a cafe on the edge of a sidewalk, someone sitting on a park bench… On the other hand, the newspapers were bold statements of terror.
WOMAN FOUND MURDERED IN OWN HOME .
GHOST FACE KILLER STRIKES AGAIN.
Ji-Woon's brow furrowed as he looked over the front page articles. He’d heard of the Ghost Face killer, though the serial murders were exclusive to America. Maybe they’d stumbled into the storage unit of a true crime fanatic. He rifled deeper, but Susie called out.
“Hey, Ji-Woon, come look at this!”
He put the top back on the tote, snapped the latches shut, and began to navigate the storage maze towards his friend’s voice.
He found her with her flashlight beam running over the far wall.
“Huh, what’s all this?” He asked.
It was like a small hovel for someone to live in, or at least relax in. There was a chair and a footrest, but the more interesting stuff was against the wall. In one corner was a large basin sink, several tables running along the wall next to it. Jugs of liquid lined one table, a stack of three-inch deep plastic trays pressed by the sink. On another table was a large black contraption that Ji-Woon couldn’t fathom the use of. His flashlight ran over a few standing lamps, the light reflecting onto the red bulbs.
“It’s like a homemade photo developing center,” Susie explained. She pointed to the jugs. “Those are the solutions used to develop a photo. And the lamps have red bulbs because red light doesn’t damage film rolls. That weird machine -” she pointed at the black contraption that sat on a table on its own. “- is used to blow up pictures from photo negatives, and put them onto photo paper. I took a photography class freshman year, so I knew the smell of those solutions.”
“Meosisseoyo…” Ji-Woon said. “Why would someone set it up in here though?”
“Dunno, maybe they don’t have a place at home to do it, or don’t wanna have someone else develop them.” Susie said with a shrug. “You find anything cool in the-”
She stopped, and Ji-Woon froze. The pull up door was rattling, someone jostling keys in the already unlocked slot. Susie gasped, reflexively grabbing Ji-Woon's arm. Ji-Woon felt a cold calm wash over him, focused and sharp. Why was this person out this late? It had to be nearly 2am now. Ji-Woon pulled her back over to the maze of boxes and ducked down, hearing the frustrated sigh of an adult man as they turned off their flashlights.
The teens crouched low in their pocket of safety, the door pulled up with loud metallic shudders. The man stepped in and carefully dropped the door behind him, moving around the boxes as if he knew the area like the back of his hand, even in the dark. He didn’t flick on an overhead light, or shout for them to come out. That meant he hadn’t even noticed that the lock had been picked in the first place. Ji-Woon took note of that. They might be able to slip out as easily as they had come in, if he was so distracted by his own business that he hadn’t noticed his considerably more artsy storage unit had also been privy to intruders.
Red light illuminated the storage unit, causing sharp and dark shadows to jut out and obscure what shapes they could make out with their darkness adjusted eyes. It was a dim red, one that almost washed out all other colors. Ji-Woon could feel Susie’s unease grow at his side…
The man was muttering to himself, but too low for Ji-Woon to make out. He almost wanted to creep closer, to sneak further into this stranger's business, and had he not had Susie trembling and digging her fingers into his sweater he might have. But he didn’t have time for that.
He looked to her, her eyes wide in fear and lips parted as she breathed shakily, and raised a finger to his expressionless lips. She nodded slowly, squeezing her lips tight and taking a slow breath in and out of her nose. Ji-Woon took the lead, inching around the boxes and feeling his way forward. His other hand was holding tightly to Susie’s, ears perked to the sounds the man was making behind him.
After Susie’s brief run down on the photo developing station, he could hear what he assumed to be the click of a camera being opened, the film removed, the hollow rattle of film canisters being dropped and a spat curse from the man. He seemed to be absorbed in his work, and Ji-Woon counted them both thankful for that. The teen did have a plan B if needed, but as eager as he was to implement it, he knew Susie wouldn’t want him to attack a stranger if they didn’t need to. She didn’t share that same thrill of danger that he did, the urge to make someone else bleed and scream. He’d kept it in check for her sake, enjoying her company more than he initially thought he would.
But he always kept his butterfly knife on him. And if push did come to shove, he would drive it into this man's throat to keep them safe.
They were almost at the door, where they could slide out and even if he did notice the noise, they’d already be running to the wire fence. And then Susie hit a box.
She’d been running her hand along the wall of storage shit like Ji-Woon had, but the black shadows cut into their vision by the red lights didn’t alert her to the uneasy way some of the boxes were perched. She and Ji-Woon shared an electrified glance, communicating desperately with their eyes.
“Go,” Ji-Woon mouthed, urging her to run for the door so he could stay back and deal with the man if he got violent.
She did, but the stranger swept up suddenly and silently as she ran for the door. Susie screamed, one hand shoving her against a wall by her collar bone, and the other holding a blade to her throat. Ji-Woon could make out the red profile of the man, sharp face and hawk nose, bright eyes with thick brows and dark hair. There was something in those eyes that looked deadly, fear and anger among them.
“Sorry kid, looks like you chose the wrong storage block to fuck around in.” The man said, his voice tired yet with a lilt of excitement.
“N-no- please-” Susie squeaked, tears shining in her terrified eyes.
Ji-Woon ran out, blade flipped and opened in the blink of an eye as he jammed the knife into the man’s shoulder.
He cried out more in surprise than pain, having been wearing a thick leather cloak that absorbed most of the small but lethal knife blade. Susie took her chance to escape his grasp as he jerked back, swinging out at the second intruder in his storage. Ji-Woon was holding the blade tight, and as the man turned and swung it pulled out with a brief string of blood. Blazing fury was all he could see in the stranger’s eyes now as they locked on his face, but he didn’t stay.
The man was bigger, older, and wearing what looked like leather armor. He didn’t like his odds, not right now, and the sooner he got Susie to safety, the better.
He darted, the man taking another swing with his wicked hunting knife and missing, slashing into a cardboard box instead. Susie was holding the storage door open from the outside, Ji-Woon scurrying out and running. She was on his heels in an instant, jumping at the thunderous bang as the man slammed his fist against the metal door.
Inside, the man who most knew here as Jed Olsen seethed. He ignored the blunt throbbing pain from his fist that he hit against the door, his anger more consuming than the physical sensations. Anger was the emotion he was more attuned with than any other, having been given the short stick where emotions were concerned.
Fucking brats. They looked young and soft, the girl especially with her too big doe eyes and braces filled mouth. The boy was a little sharper, eyes giving away some type of Asian descent that Jed couldn’t place off hand. His mind was racing. Had they seen anything? How long had they been in here? If they had been the ones who sprayed his door, then not long. The paint was still pungent and damp when he’d arrived…
But what had they seen ?
This was dangerous for him, to have not one person but two who so easily got into what was supposed to be a desperately secret place. Part of him chided and nagged at him for hauling around all this evidence constantly, but he found he couldn’t possibly part with it. The memories, the stalks, the murders, the stories…
But now it seemed, Karma might have caught up on him. After over a decade…
No. He’d find them. They were young, maybe high school, maybe college age. School was still in session for a month, he could develop a route to start watching for them. He’d seen both of their faces, cemented in his photographic memory. The red light obscured the colors on them, but he didn’t need that.
He’d find them, sooner or later. And he’d make sure if they saw anything, they’d never be able to tell anyone.