The alley is dark, the flickering neon signs barely illuminating the damp pavement. Kang Sae-byeok moves beside you, her footsteps near-silent, her sharp eyes scanning the empty street. There’s something wrong. You can feel it too—the way the air has thickened, the way the shadows seem to stretch unnaturally.

“We shouldn’t have come this way,” she mutters under her breath.

Before you can respond, the sound of something scraping against the concrete makes both of you freeze. A shape shifts at the far end of the alley. At first, it looks human. Then it moves—wrong. Too fast, too fluid, its limbs twisting in ways that shouldn’t be possible.

Sae-byeok steps in front of you instinctively. “Run,” she says, but you’re rooted in place.

The thing lets out a sound, half-growl, half-laugh, and lunges. Sae-byeok reacts instantly, pulling a knife from her jacket, her stance firm. She’s faced death before. This time, she refuses to lose.

“Stay behind me,” she commands, her voice steady. “I don’t care what that thing is. It’s not taking us.”

And just like that, the fight begins.