Doctor Demon

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....

After they searched the apartment and concluded that the painting had disappeared, they returned to the twins' penthouse. Jina sat on a couch while the men began to explain the details.

"Two years ago, I was investigating a series of murder-suicides," Hobin stated, showing her his old case files. "That time, there was a rise in such deaths. It was always the same pattern. The youngest member of the family suddenly turned into a crazy maniac and killed their family members when they were sleeping."

"The deaths also followed a similar pattern," he went on. "First, the siblings were killed. Then the mother and lastly, the father."

Jina flipped the pages, frowning as she read the details. "This murderer here is a six year old!" she exclaimed. "And she killed her family members with a rifle? Where the hell did a six year old get a rifle?"

"That's the question!" Hobin pointed out. "How does a six year old get a rifle?"

"It's possible," Junho said. He stood up to address them.

"The link to all this," he started. "Is this painting."

He pointed at the picture of the Park's which was published in the papers. Jina took the article from his hand and examined it carefully. It looked something like serpents in the middle of a burning forest.

"This is a painting I've been chasing for years," Junho said. "It's a cursed one. During my investigation, I discovered that whichever house this painting was kept in, the family members were killed in a murder-suicide style."

"There must be hundreds of copies of this painting," Jina pointed out. "And why this painting in particular? How did it get cursed?"

"The Prince's Bone," Junho stated.

"What the hell is that?" Hobin frowned.

"You know about the three places where the spirits are sent to after death, right?"

Junho took a blank page and began to draw on it. "The Afterlife," he said, drawing a star. "Where the pure souls or good souls go to. The World of the Dead or Purgatory as most people know it where impure souls are sent for redemption before they can move to the Afterlife."

He drew a scythe over Purgatory.

"And then, there's Hell."

Junho drew flames on one side to depict Hell. "This is the palace for souls who made deals with demons. It's reserved for them. They can't be purified nor can their spirits go to the Afterlife because they have sold their souls to the demons."

"But how do they do it?" Hobin questioned him. "And why?"

"Power, money, fame," Junho replied. "It's not that hard to figure it out. Make a deal with demons and you get everything you want. But there's a cost to everything. Once the demons come to collect their payment, you can't escape. And that is how this painting came to be."

"This painting is drawn by an artist named Kok Gwangwoo. Twenty years ago, Kok Gwangwoo was a failed painter and on the brink of bankruptcy. He was not a good artist but there was no way he was going to accept that! Soon, he was obsessed with creating a masterpiece. He wanted to make a painting which the entire world was going to remember."

"So he started to dab into the dark arts and summoned a demon to help him. In one night, he created this painting which depicts a portion of Hell."

"What happened to Gwangwoo?" Jina asked.

"He became famous overnight," Junho explained. "His painting was a hit and thousands of copies were made and sold all over the world. But that was it for Gwangwoo's talent."

"What do you mean?"

"The idiot made a deal with the demon to make only one masterpiece instead of asking for actual talent. After the hype of the painting faded, Gwangwoo was back to his old self. He gambled away his newfound money and his subsequent paintings failed to reach the same success. Depressed and broke, he committed suicide. As for the paintings, they were sold to many wealthy buyers but a strange phenomenon began to take place."

"People who were buying the paintings, their entire families were being annihilated in a murder-suicide. The youngest member got possessed and killed the family before committing suicide. I was called in by one of the families when they managed to subdue their child who was trying to kill them. I instantly recognized that he was possessed and the painting was the cause of it."

"Did you manage to get rid of the demon?" Hobin asked.

"I managed to extract the demon out of the kid," Junho said. "But the demon escaped and the painting disappeared with it. I investigated several buyers of the paintings and deduced that destroying the copies was useless. I'll have to find the main painting. It's the demon's source of power and if that one can be destroyed, the killings will stop."

"So where is the painting?"

Junho sighed sadly. "After Gwangwoo's death, no one was able to find the real painting. It just disappeared! But I know it's out there somewhere. If only I could find it and get rid of the demon."

Hobin was now deep in thought. It now made sense why he could not get to the bottom of the mystery all those years ago. Even though the pattern was the same, he was looking for logic. He did not think that something other than logic was the cause of the murders.

But now that he knew about the existence of spirits and demons, he could not help but wonder if there were more such cases where the supernatural creatures were at play.

His thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of Jina's phone. She excused herself to pick up the call. Takinghis chance, Hobin turned to Junho.

"Old man," he began. "I want to know one more thing. Is it possible that when a person is possessed, they'll not have any memories of the time they were possessed?"

"When a person is possessed, the original soul enters into a catatonic state," Junho nodded. "Unless they have a really strong willpower, it's hard to fight against a demonic or spirit possession. Sometimes the original soul takes over but they don't remember what they did during their possessed state. Moreover, the other entity residing in their bodies can weaken their mental state which makes the person vulnerable to more possession. In fact, a mentally weak person can be possessed by more than one spirit or demon."

"Which means they can commit murders and not know about it?" Hobin demanded.

"Yes."

Hobin was quiet for a while before adding, "Old man, there is one more thing you need to do for me. But you can't tell anyone else about this."

Junho was about to ask him what it was but at that moment, Jina re-entered the room.

"Kyuhyun is done with the autopsy," Jina sighed. "His official diagnosis is that it's a murder-suicide. We'll be closing the case by tomorrow."

To her surprise, Junho was smiling.

"Good," he said. "Now we can work more freely without worrying about pesky cops."