I Became a Professional Horror Story Cleaner

“Aaaaaagh!!”

Woo Minhyeong’s eyes flew wide open, and when the pain hit her a moment later, she writhed and dropped to her knees, letting out an agonized scream.

I snapped back to my senses and reached out to pull Woo Minhyeong by the arm. What was Park Hyeonho doing?

“You over there! What are you doing? Are you just going to leave her like this?!”

“No, I, uh…….”

The duck didn’t just bite down on Woo Minhyeong’s calf. It violently shook its head like a rabid dog refusing to let go of its prey.

Chunks of flesh flew in every direction, and Park Hyeonho’s face, as he watched it all from closer than anyone else, turned completely pale.

He had panicked.

“Haebin, take that man and run.”

“Yes! What about you, Boss?”

Could I force that tightly clenched beak open?

It looked like a duck on the outside, but on the inside, it was an anomaly. Rather than grabbing it and awkwardly wrestling with it…… Screw it.

Wham!

I kicked it in the stomach, and the duck, much lighter than I expected, went flying into the bushes beside the path and crashed into them.

In its place, an enormous amount of blood began gushing from Woo Minhyeong’s calf, where a fist-sized chunk of flesh had been torn away.

“Aaaaaagh!! H-Hah, haah! My leg, s-save me…….”

“Hold her.”

I released Woo Minhyeong’s arm as she panted, her face covered in tears and saliva.

Park Hyeonho, who had gone ahead while Haebin practically dragged him along, must have heard the scream because he came back, his face still deathly pale.

“Minhyeong, hey, Woo Minhyeong. Stay with me. Are you okay?”

Rustling and scraping sounds came simultaneously from the bushes where the duck had been sent flying.

The creature limped out from between them as though the kick had broken one of its legs, the feathers on its chest soaked in blood.

Inside its mouth, it noisily chewed the chunk of Woo Minhyeong’s flesh until it finally swallowed it.

— Quaaack!

The creature opened its empty maw wide and spread both wings.

Inside its beak, instead of a tongue or teeth, several layers of shards from broken glass bottles of various colors were growing.

No wonder her leg had ended up like that after being bitten by that thing.

“Aren’t you going to hold her?”

Park Hyeonho’s unfocused eyes turned toward me. He seemed to regain his focus and nodded.

“M-Minhyeong. Let’s go. Okay?”

“Hah, haah……. It hurts…….”

In my current condition, carrying an adult woman by myself while we fled would have been too much, but when Park Hyeonho supported Woo Minhyeong’s other arm, the weight I had to bear decreased considerably.

“Haebin, go ahead and record the anomalies.”

“Yes!”

I entrusted the task to Haebin, the only one among us who could move freely, while Park Hyeonho and I supported Woo Minhyeong, who was trembling and could barely use her left leg.

— Quack, quack! Quack!

The duck’s metallic, strangled quacking pursued us, accompanied by the flapping of its wings and the uneven sound of its feet splashing against the ground.

“What happened to the path? Hey, i-is this the same path we came through before?!”

The park had clearly changed.

The humidity had increased so much that a whitish mist covered the area, making it difficult to see normally.

Leaves hanging from the overgrown trees repeatedly lashed against our faces.

“Yes, it’s the same one. Keep moving.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Park Hyeonho’s breathing grew ragged as he felt threatened by the transformed surroundings.

“Then stay there.”

“……Fuck off!”

Since he didn’t want to run into the duck again either, Park Hyeonho hoisted Woo Minhyeong’s arm higher and began moving forward with greater effort.

Could I have said it more kindly?

Try walking 45 kilometers without eating or drinking anything, staying constantly on edge, and then running while carrying someone with a mangled leg.

Let’s see if you can still come up with kind words.

— Quaaack!

The duck continued chasing us without falling behind, dragging one of its legs.

However, our group suddenly came to a stop.

Park Hyeonho, who had been breathing heavily just moments ago, stood frozen in front of the stepping stones crossing the pond, unable to move forward.

“What are you doing?! Cross!”

Haebin, who had already made it about halfway across the stones, shouted from ahead, but Park Hyeonho’s terrified voice trembled.

“The water rose even more! And what the hell are all these weird fish?!”

The level had risen again.

The pond water was already covering the stones enough that it would reach the tops of our feet as we crossed.

The fish had multiplied tremendously as well. There were so many of them that it looked more like a landfill than a pond.

As if desperate to escape the water, they forced their way onto the stones and even onto dry land, where they writhed and flapped around.

— Quack! Quack! Quack!

The duck’s shrill quacking drew even closer, accompanied by the cracking of branches as it pushed through them.

“Ugh…… Ugh……. Fuck!”

Park Hyeonho cursed and jumped onto the stones.

The foul-smelling water splashed violently.

The garbage fish trapped beneath his feet thrashed violently, making the surface of the pond bubble as though it were boiling.

“Shit! I fucking hate this shit, fuck!”

Following Park Hyeonho, who couldn’t stop swearing, we climbed one after another onto the stones crossing the pond.

And I couldn’t blame him. Every time we stepped on one of those fish made of garbage, they burst and spilled their guts everywhere.

The water was sticky and crunchy, a mixture of glitter, pieces of plastic, straws, and things resembling melted ice cream.

Feeling that water seep into our shoes was disgusting beyond description.

But we couldn’t stop or turn back. All we could do was look straight ahead and force ourselves to take one step after another until we reached the opposite shore, which had practically turned into a mud pit as well.

“Hah, the duck, haah…….”

With our breathing pushed to the limit, only then did we realize that we could no longer hear the duck’s quacking.

“Looks like…… it’s gone, hah…….”

“I’m seriously going to die…….”

Now that we could finally stop running, exhausted groans began sounding from all around.

I was no exception. My entire body was drenched as though I had just stepped out of the shower.

“……Let’s have Ms. Minhyeong lie down here for a moment.”

“S-Slowly, plea…… Aaaaaagh!”

Even changing her position seemed to cause unbearable pain, and Woo Minhyeong’s scream echoed through the silent park.

The wound, with an enormous chunk of flesh missing from it, had come into contact with that contaminated water and now looked so revolting that I hesitated to even touch it. On top of that, it was still bleeding.

‘How do I stop the bleeding?’

Of course, I had never treated a person before.

All I knew how to do was put on a bandage, apply ointment, and take someone to the hospital.

I vaguely remembered having some unopened disposable cloths inside my bag, but we had lost everything and now I had nothing.

At that moment, Haebin lightly nudged me aside with her shoulder and slipped in between us.

“Let me see. You, take off your jacket!”

Park Hyeonho took off his windbreaker almost reflexively and handed it over. Haebin took it and, without the slightest hesitation, pressed it firmly against Woo Minhyeong’s wound.

“Agh! Hah……. It hurts, it hurts.”

“Of course it hurts! You’re alive because it didn’t reach your artery. And are you just going to stand there and watch? At least lift her leg. Boss, bring me the headband she was wearing.”

Although she had suggested abandoning them not long ago, Haebin seemed much more accustomed to this kind of situation than I had imagined.

She tightly tied the headband a little above Woo Minhyeong’s wound while Park Hyeonho kept her leg raised. Apparently deciding that wasn’t enough, she snapped off a long branch hanging nearby, slipped it through the headband, and twisted it like a tourniquet to tighten it even further.

Only then did the blood that had been dripping nonstop begin to slow.

“Huff! We’ve stopped the bleeding for now. Though I don’t think she can hold out like this for very long.”

After tightly tying one of the windbreaker’s sleeves to maintain the pressure, Haebin finally straightened her back, as if she could relax a little.

“You’re skilled. Have you done this a lot?”

“A little? Team Leader Yong says people like us, who get injured so often, should learn this stuff, so he gives us first-aid lessons from time to time.”

“Ugh…….”

Woo Minhyeong still seemed to be conscious.

Park Hyeonho, who was still holding up her leg, stared at us.

“Do you really work for a cleaning company?”

Ah.

Right. Employees at a normal cleaning company usually didn’t get injured this often.

Before I could make up an answer, Haebin spoke first.

“You should be grateful. What if we didn’t work for a cleaning company?”

“I-I was just asking.”

“We went through the trouble of explaining everything to you, and all you do is question us. You’re just getting in the way.”

“I’m sor……ry.”

The defiant attitude he had shown earlier disappeared, and Park Hyeonho apologized timidly, completely subdued.

Well, he had probably become aggressive because he was having trouble accepting the situation too.

I would try to understand.

Anyway, before crossing the pond, we had clearly heard the duck’s noisy footsteps and quacking, but now there was absolutely no sound.

‘It seems like something changed.’

The fish desperately trying to escape the pond, and the duck, which had never left the water before……

‘Did something happen in the pond that’s preventing it from feeding in the water?’

If so, it would make sense that the duck couldn’t cross.

But the rising water level alone didn’t seem like enough of an explanation.

What was I overlooking?

Woo Minhyeong, lying on her back on the ground, panted in a voice that sounded as though she were on the verge of death.

“Can’t we…… rest for a moment before we keep going……?”

There was only one level left before [Perfect].

The park, which hadn’t seemed particularly dangerous at first, was now beginning to take on an appearance worthy of a horror story.

Without knowing what variable was affecting the pond, I didn’t want to waste any more time.

And there was also the condition of Woo Minhyeong’s leg.

“I’d like to let you rest longer, but if we’re not careful, you might end up resting forever.”

“I-I’ll go. I can…… keep going.”

Woo Minhyeong clenched her fist as if she had made up her mind and began to sit up, reaching out her hand for me to help her.

“Good decision.”

It happened just as I took her hand.

Flap―.

Completely white feathers filled my field of vision for the briefest instant.

And then Woo Minhyeong’s head disappeared.

I had never wanted to know what sound a person’s body made when it lost its head.

Thump. Splurt, gush.

Her heart, which had not yet stopped, continued pumping blood, and a stream of fresh blood shot from her carotid artery like a fountain.

The hand she had just reached toward me fell.

The headless body collapsed onto its knees on the ground.

“Woo, Woo Min…….”

A name stumbled from Park Hyeonho’s lips, never reaching completion.

It was an empty call that no longer had anyone to reach.

— Quack, kwek.

A beak opened and closed with a sound as though something were chewing ravenously.

My gaze naturally shifted toward it.

The duck stood there, flapping its fully spread wings with its beak raised.

A lock of fine, curly hair, along with an ear, protruded above its beak before being swallowed and disappearing.

And as if even that weren’t enough, the creature continued snapping its beak as though chewing its cud while staring at us.

Was it possible for such a small duck to swallow a person’s head whole?

No.

Before that, could a duck even tear a person’s head off in the blink of an eye?

Only then did I notice the ground beneath its feet.

From the spot soaked with Woo Minhyeong’s blood all the way to the bushes along the edge of the pond, a trail of white, misshapen feathers marked its path.

‘Instead of crossing over the stones, did it follow us all the way around the edge of the pond?’

“Fuck……. ……say it.”

Park Hyeonho’s muttering broke the silence.

The last thread of sanity he had been clinging to had finally snapped.

His eyes, red from the whites all the way to the eyelids, bore into me.

“Tell me right now that this is a fucking hidden-camera prank!!”

What could I say to him?

I already knew that horror stories could take human lives as easily as those of mere flies.

But seeing it happen right in front of my eyes……

Wham!

At that moment, Haebin punched Park Hyeonho.

In the cheek.

With her fist.

The blow was strong enough to make him stagger as he clutched his face.

It was so sudden that even Park Hyeonho, who had been beside himself with rage just a moment ago, stared at her in complete shock.

“I already told you that you were getting in the way.”

Then she turned toward me and smiled broadly, as though expecting praise.

“I tried to do it the way I was taught, but I guess it’s not that easy to knock someone unconscious with a single punch!”

She had been calm for so long that I had forgotten.

Right.

Myeong Haebin was that kind of person.

Someone capable of becoming infinitely inhuman.

The headache I had forgotten returned.

“Haebin, the situation is already complicated enough. Don’t cause me any more problems.”

Woo Minhyeong was dead.

Park Hyeonho had lost his mind.

Myeong Haebin was acting unpredictably.

And on top of that……

No feeding.

Was this really okay?

Hadn’t the water-level gauge gone up again?

If it had finally reached the maximum, then what came next would be……

“Since it looks like we’re screwed anyway, why don’t we feed the duck some more first?”

I literally just told you not to cause me any more problems.