Treasures of The Damned

27. Soy Sauce

Briar took a deep breath. She hadn't seen Jongho since that earlier morning when she was in the snack bar with Seonghwa. She looked around, finding a clock and squinting a little bit to see what time it was. She took a deep breath. "3:37...Uncle Yeosang said that the park staff gets back at 6-...three more hours..." She took a deep breath and nodded her head.

Jongho could be anywhere, she realized. She had no clue where to look for him. The best place to start would be his section of the park...dumbass. She huffed softly, shaking her head at her stupidity.

She made her way silently to where she knew Jongho's section of the park was. She was mainly quiet, besides the clap of her sandals that sometimes rang throughout the section. She hissed softly and paused for a moment in the soft light to look down at her feet. Some parts of her skin were rubbed red and raw from when she'd fallen off the building. Some skin was also rough like she'd been running through thorn bushes. Which, she's been running away from murderous animatronics long enough it might have well been.

She sighed as she thought to herself for a few moments before yanking her sandals off and tossing them to the side. They were ruined after all her running anyways. She wouldn't be able to use them anymore.   

After throwing her shoes away and walking through Yeosang's area of the park, she made it silently to Jongho's and looked around for a few moments to make sure that she was in the right spot.

"What are you doing here, Briar?"

She jumped at the voice right behind her, and she turned around quickly, her eyes wide as she came face to face with Jongho. He was quiet, waiting for an answer as he looked down at her.

She paused for a split second, just looking at him. "I came to find you, Uncle Jong..." She whispered after a few moments.

Looking at Jongho, memories started to come back to her, memories of when she was a kid. Jongho, the ever-loving member who hated physical affection. Whenever he saw her he would smile and pick her up, when he would hold her close and cuddle with her, and make her feel like she was on top of the world when he would sit her on her shoulders.

Jongho looked down at her, pausing for a moment. "What are you talking about, Briar? Why would you need to come to find me...?"

Briar paused, looking around for a few moments before she saw a bench, and paused before sitting down silently, curling up there and burying her face in her hands.

"I'm so tired, Uncle Jongo...Hongjoong won't stop trying to kill me, and now he's killing the other members..."

Jongho paused at that for a moment. "Wait what? He's killing the others? Who has he killed already?" He asked softly.

"He's killed Uncle Woo, Uncle Sannie, and...and he just killed Uncle Yeosang..."

"He killed Yeo...?" Jongho's voice made Briar pause for a moment before she remembered. Jongho and Yeosang were married and had been for many years before they died.

Briar slowly nodded her head. "Uncle Yeo was helping me try to find the office, which we found, but then Hongjoong found us...he protected me for as long as he could but in the end, Hongjoong killed him out of anger..."

"You watched it happen...?"

"I've watched all three deaths."

"Then why did you come to find me...? There's no way for me to help you, Briar."

"Because of my dad. Hongjoong has been controlling him since Papa rebuilt him...he told me that Hongjoong planned to kill you next..."

"Me? Why? I've barely seen you all day."

"When you and Seonghwa cornered me in the kitchen and I slipped away from you..."

"Seonghwa told me to let you get past us, so I did. I figured that one of the other members would eventually get you. I didn't think that Hongjoong would do something like this to the others. Killing them? Why would he stoop so low? I mean- I get killing other people because they can't see us and see that we're still alive. But killing the other members is insane. Even for him."

"I don't understand why you had to kill the other people though. They were just poor souls who accidentally got locked in here, just like I did."

Jongho didn't say anything for a few moments before he glanced over at her. "Did you not know?" He asked softly, tilting his head like a kid.

"Not know...what?" Briar asked, looking up as Jongho came and sat down beside her.

"Briar...Hongjoong made a deal with the people who run the park. Every month or so they purposefully lock someone in the park. Hongjoong says it's for us to have something good to do, and it's a way for us to test out our powers. But we all knew the truth. He just enjoys the hunts and forces us to join him in killing these innocent people."

Briar stood up with that news, looking at Jongho. "No-...no you're kidding yourself...he wouldn't do that-..."

"Briar. Think about it...how he's been attacking you, why he's now killing the other members because they can't find you." Jongho explained softly and gently, standing as well and carefully wrapping his arms around Briar. "There's no reason he'd need to do it otherwise. His eodum is angry...and because it's angry, he's lashing out. He's killing the other members and there's nothing we can do to stop it..."

"There is a way to stop it, thought..."

"There is? How?" Jongho looked down at his niece, the one he'd always promised to protect and take care of.

"To do what he's doing to the other members...to destroy his body and make it so he can't move..."

There was a pause and just silence. "Briar, do you know what you're saying?"

"Of course I do...I have to kill my Uncle..."