A Fatal Mistake

Maybe this was all a terrible dream. Ryung pinched himself. "Oww." He muttered, reaching up to rub his cheek. No, it would seem Ryung was not that lucky.

There was a courtyard a few hundred meters from his current perch atop the machine shop building. Directly below the machine shop, facing East toward the gymnasium and swimming pool, a meandering walking path led to the courtyard. It was common for couples to frequent the courtyard because it was so far from the main part of campus, and some old-growth trees gave the illusion of privacy. Not that it had ever stopped Ryung from observing. The trees only partially obscured his view from the rooftop.

Coming from the direction of the Gymnasium, four figures were barely visible. The first one was being chased by the other three. There was something odd about the chasing figures' movements though. They were on all fours, and moved with a strange loping gait. Ryung squinted, trying to make out more details. Curious to know what was going on, Ryung jogged back to the machine shop, and retrieved his trusty binoculars from a crooked wooden shelf.

When he returned to his perch, he spent a moment adjusting the magnification for the binocular lenses. The first figure was a student. In fact, Ryung knew him. It was Sung-Hoon from class 2A. But it was the other three figures that gave Ryung pause. They had cornered Sung-Hoon in the courtyard; his back was against the dolphin fountain. And they were definitely not human.

Towering over two meters, they were some sort of freakish canine monsters. Their bodies were covered in a coat of thick, black, bristly fur. The snouts were elongated, and reminded Ryung of a wolf's snout. Snaggly jagged teeth poked out from their impressive jaws. And their backs were hunched, much like the deformed midget Ryung once saw at a circus performance. But it was the sharp claws that really caught Ryung's attention. Their human-like hands ended in razor-taloned tips that had to be no less than ten centimeters in length.

As he watched, two of the creatures pinned poor Sung-Hoon down, while the third--who must have been the leader--knelt in front him, placing those wicked taloned claws on Sung-Hoon's chest.

Ryung wondered if he should do something. He had been taught since he was small that a good citizen should stand up to evil. And if this didn't qualify as evil, he couldn't imagine what did. After all, the karma sown in moments of peril would be repaid a hundred-fold in the next life.

But then Ryung looked at those taloned hands again and shivered. It wouldn't do to be too hasty. Anyway, Sung-Hoon had had some good years of life. He was hardly a child. Why, there were children in Africa that died before their sixth year from Malaria. Compared to them, Sung-Hoon had lived a fine life.

Ryung gazed on in horrified fascination as the creature inserted its claws into Sung-Hoon's chest, and pulled upward. The chest split open like a ripe melon, and Sung-Hoon's lower intestines spilled out into his lap. The creature opened its jaws impossibly wide, and a forked tongue slowly slid out. It was long, like a chameleons'. The tongue reached into Sung-Hoon's chest cavity, and ripped his heart out. The heart was still pulsating, and the torn aorta hung loosely.

The leader held the heart in mid-air with its tongue, and then made a gesture to the left wolf monster. The one on the left moved forward eagerly, poked the heart with its snout, and sniffed. Then it let out a terrifying howl, and clamped down on the heart, twisting its jaw, and tearing off a piece of the heart flesh. Ryung noted that the throat muscles contracted and released as it tilted its fanged snout backward and swallowed.

This process repeated with the other wolf creature on the right. After it finished, the leader slowly retracted its tongue with the remaining third of the heart, and swallowed. Sung-Hoon was twitching, and Ryung winced. He wasn't dead yet?

At that moment, Ryung made a fatal mistake. His shoulder was uncomfortable from the nap on the stone bench, so he twisted it, trying to stretch, and nearly toppled off the roof. Fortunately, he caught himself at the last moment. Unfortunately, he lost his hold on the binoculars.

He watched them fall to the ground, and smash against the concrete. Clack, Clack, Clack. It was much too loud.

He looked toward the courtyard. The leader and other wolf had ripped the arms off of Sung-Hoon, and were busy feeding. However, the third wolf creature had dropped down onto all fours, and was racing down the path from the courtyard to the machine shop building.

Fuck! Ryung quickly darted into the machine shop building, and frantically dragged the sliding door closed.

As Ryung sat with his back against the door, trying to calm his elevated heart rate, he had the thought that fate was a fickle bitch.