Doctor Demon

The shaman was in a fix. He paced back and forth in his small shack, growling in anger but the demon was adamant. 

"Are you crazy?" he hissed at the demon which was glowering at him from above. "You want to chase her? Even after all these years? Just possess someone and make a baby like you are supposed to! Why are you after that bitch?"

"Her…" Sungki whispered. "Only her…"

The shack was in the slums of the town, a few miles deep within the main city. The roads were broken and full of puddles there. The houses were semi-basement lodgements made of cheap wood and tin. The shack the shaman lived in was small and congested with books. There was no furniture except for a cheap bed in a corner. Rest of the shack only consisted of books on the occult which the shaman had written himself but unpublished. These books were his own findings about Hell and demons which he was using to communicate with them. He could not see them but his skills gave him enough powers to sense their presence and hear them.

For years, he had honed his knowledge with the help of the cult members who harnessed the power of the true Prince. They were a large brethren, awaiting the arrival of the true Prince of Hell. They spent their lives searching for and worshipping him to the point of fanaticism. Their goal was simple: to ensure the birth of a half demon vessel which the Prince could easily possess. 

The shaman was named Hong Wongshik and he had been part of the brethren for over thirty years. He had been working with Sungki before the latter's death. Sungki had summoned a demon named Alganal to ask for fame and power. Sungki was an ambitious idol who wanted to achieve love from the public while hiding his own true sadistic persona. In return, the demon wanted regular human sacrifice otherwise he threatened to take Sungki's soul.

As a result, Sungki brought some of the girls from his club in exchange for his own life and fame which only grew day by day. He was obsessed with his career but all that took a backseat when Jisoo arrived. As soon as Sungki found a new obsession, he abandoned his original mission and tried to make Jisoo fall in love with him. He tried to make the demon force Jisoo into loving him and being with him only but the demon refused.

"A human's will can never be bent," the demon had warned. "It is against all laws of nature."

But Sungki did not give up. He beat up Jisoo everyday in the hopes that he could scare her into loving him but her feelings of disgust remained. No matter how much he abused her, she was scared of him but not in love with him.

One day, when she gave birth to a girl, Sungki was even more enraged. He was so angry and disappointed that he trashed his whole room, not wanting to share his wife's love with anyone and definitely not with a daughter! His parents wanted a boy as well and were trying to console him but he was enraged. 

But Jisoo turned out to be extremely protective. One day when Sungki was trying to choke the child with a pillow, Jisoo stopped him on time and stood up to him. Even after several beatings, Jisoo stood her ground, even hitting him back for the first time in their marriage. She was enraged by his actions and threatened him that if he tried to harm Yeonjoo again, she would reveal what he did to her.

Instead of hitting back, Sungki left her alone for a while. He was patiently plotting his plan and one day when Jisoo was in the bathroom, he set the baby's room on fire. Jisoo came out of the bathroom and was horrified to see what Sungki had done and rushed in to save the infant who was already burnt beyond saving. 

But Jisoo still ran with the baby from hospital to hospital. The Cho's warned all the hospitals in the city from treating the child and warned them that if anyone did, the facility would be shut down. What they did not expect was that an influential resident was studying at one of the hospitals and had enough power to defy them: Kang Siwan.

"That bastard is sleeping with my Jisoo!" the demon growled. "He's with her! I saw it."

"It's been eight years," the shaman pointed out. "You are dead and she has a life to live. She can't wait for you all-"

His words were cut off when an invisible hand clasped his neck, choking him. The shaman wheezed and coughed as Sungki lifted him in the air, fuming in anger.

"She is mine!" Sungki claimed. "Only mine! I don't want anyone else but her to give birth to my son! And if she's with that guy, then I'll only possess him. I"ll use him to make her give birth to my son and then take both of them away!"

"Y-You c-c-c-c-can't!" the shaman managed to say. "You p-promised us that your child will be given to the cult!"

"I lied," the demon revealed. "Once my child is born, I'll take my wife and son away to make them live with me. They're my family, you hear me? Jisoo can only love me and no one else!"

The demon was obsessed. Even after the torture he went through in hell, his obsession and deeds were so great that his demonization was faster than usual. Within a few years, he reached the level of the fourth most powerful demon lord which was unusually fast progress for a human soul to achieve.

But unlike others, Sungki reveled in it. He boasted his newfound abilities which gave him so much power over humans. It was surreal that he was summoned back to the human world by his own foolish parents. He had tricked them into selling their souls and once they died, they would also come with him.

Only Baekha remained out of his contract but that was okay. She was his power source, the only living human who could give him her soul energy to survive on. Even though he was a Kistris level demon, he was still unstable. It took centuries for a demon to fully gain control over their overwhelming abilities and adhere to the laws of nature. But Sungki was too impatient to wait centuries. He wanted Jisoo and could wait no more. 

In his blind obsession, he turned into a monster which was worse than a demon. He started to stalk women who looked like Jisoo in the hopes that he would find her. But seeing them with other men enraged him and he killed them. Once they were dead, he tried to capture their souls and forcibly take them to Hell with him but the Gates just would not open. No matter how much he tried to create the symbol and open the Gates, they would remain shut.

"Tonight, I'll possess him," the demon said. "And take Jisoo with me! Maybe the Gates will open…"

He threw the shaman aside. The old man was still coughing and wanted to say something but decided against it. He knew demons and their laws. Whatever Sungki wanted, was not easy to get. The Gates would not open easily. Furthermore, while Sungki could kill Jisoo, it was impossible to take her to Hell against her will. Everything had laws and the brethren were aware of it. They had spent years bending those laws but some were unchangeable. No one could enter a contract with a demon against their will.

But the demon would not understand all that. He was already too far into his obsession to care. The shaman was not worried but rather let him do anything he wanted. He watched the demon leave and once he was gone, he headed towards a pile of books to take out an object.

It was a 3D pentagonal puzzle which had the symbol of a star and a cross encased by a circle. The symbol was drawn on every block of the pentagon and was the object the shaman had used to keep the demon in the living world.

For now.

"I must tell the clan that Sungki is going out of hand," he muttered. The object in his hand was glowing ominously under the dim light.

…

"Agh!" Hobin winced in pain. He was reading some files in his room when he suddenly felt a sharp pang in his head. A strange static sound was echoing in his ears and he tried to clear it out but the sound would not go away. 

Zzzzzzz...the sound was playing in his ears. The headache was getting worse by the second and he staggered off his chair. Slowly trying to stand up, he shakily grabbed a bottle of headache pills and swallowed it. He downed it with a bottle of water and gasped. 

He stood leaning against a wall, letting the headache ebb. A strange image of a funny looking man being held in the air as if being choked, flashed in front of him.

"What the hell?" he muttered. "What was that?"