Flowers Are Bait Novel - Chapter 1.1 Prologue.

Despite the electric saw in her hand, her whole body froze.

A chilling blue light in the dark mountains. Her ankles were caught by a murderous aura that seemed to press down on her limbs.

That is, the moment her eyes met with the man burying someone alive.

“……”

“……”

A thought that something was terribly wrong, buzzed like a siren.

‘A murderer…?’

A word usually seen on the 9 o’clock news dully brushed past her mind, but the goosebumps that rose like a rash were each vividly distinct.

How did she, whose life’s goal was to live quietly and safely, end up witnessing such an absurd sight?

‘It was just a normal day.’

She went to the hospital, read overdue bills, examined trees that had undergone surgery, and argued on the phone with a client who hadn’t paid their treatment fees for over a month.

Moreover, secretly climbing the mountain behind her house at night to check on neglected trees, like a homeless person, was an old habit of So Yiyeon, the tree doctor.

It was just one of those ordinary days.

Especially this mountain, it was clearly private property with a known owner. Yet, it was completely unmanaged, with countless branches looking like a ghost’s disheveled hair.

Just like trees living in abandoned houses, many here suffered from malnutrition, which had always concerned her.

“S-save me…!”

The person buried underground cried out with muffled pronunciation. But the scream, blocked by the fiercely piling earth, only amounted to a vibration.

The man, tall as a pole, wore a shiny black plastic raincoat. It wasn’t his first time shoveling, as he scooped and threw dirt into the pit with considerable skill.

“P-please…! I’ll tell you everything, everything…!”

An arm burst out through the bulging earth. His desperate scratching gestures on the ground looked urgent.

But unlike someone flailing in a panic, the man slowly hummed a monotonous tune.

“Wrong. Here, you should ask to be killed.”

Boredom stretched out like a long shadow.

“Hmph…!”

“The show has just begun.”

The man hummed, poking the other person’s fingers with the toe of his shoe. And then, like hammering, he began to mercilessly strike them.

“Aargh!!”

His expression was utterly placid, but his kicks were as vicious as a madman’s. The bent fingers snapped, completely shattered.

“Gaaah…!”

A scream, laden with dirt particles, rumbled from beneath the ground.

“Don’t you know the more you do this, the more fun I have?”

“Ugh…!”

“Because stupid, stubborn bastards like you occasionally pop up, I can’t quit this.”

The man resembled a birch tree, said to shine brightly even at night. His face was just as white and smooth. Yet, it didn’t look like a living person’s complexion at all. There was only the chilling sharpness of a blade reflecting on his face.

“Ugh… argh…!”

As the dirt heaved and a scalp became visible, the man pressed down on it, as if stubbing out a cigarette. The only thing visible from his face, half-covered by the raincoat hood, was a long, slit-like mouth.

As the movements of someone trying to survive, their own form of resistance, slowly dulled, So Yiyeon could only think one thing.

‘It’s a murder scene!’

The scene unfolding before her eyes was too surreal. She swallowed dryly, and her hands began to sweat.

She hid her phone behind her back and started dialing 112. Relying solely on instinct, she fumbled and pressed the screen.

Just then, with all her nerves concentrated on her fingertips.

Snap, a twig was stepped on.

Perhaps a very subtle sound.

But the man, who had paid no mind to the loud screams, suddenly stopped shoveling at a sound that would have been easily covered by an owl’s hoot.

“……”

And then, as if intentionally, he let the shovel drop.

So Yiyeon saw that fleeting moment, stretching like taffy. Her gaze followed the tilting shovel, and simultaneously, her breath caught.

“……!”

The smell of blood wafted to her nose. There, a motionless, blood-soaked man lay slumped. Looking closely, his clothes were dark, but only his arms were white. It meant it was originally a white dress shirt. All stained with blood.

“Damn, what is this now?”

The moment she faced a beast hunting in the forest she loved.

“You don’t have to run away, do you?”

That low murmur soon became a gunshot pushing her back.

So Yiyeon began to run without looking back. The ground was muddy from the rain last night. Her sinking shoes were cumbersome, but if she hesitated even a little, she felt her hair would be grabbed. Her heart pounded wildly, as if it would burst out. She gasped for breath so hard that she tasted blood in her throat.

—Yes, this is Hwayang Police Station.

Just then, she heard a savior’s voice from beyond the receiver.

“H-hello?”

—Yes, please speak slowly.

Tears welled up. She stammered.

“Someone, someone is burying a person alive right now…! Please come quickly! I’ve been discovered!”

—What is your name, caller?

The voice, well-trained like a machine, had no intonation.

“It’s So Yiyeon! I’m really going to die, sir!”

—Please calm down first, and what is your location?

“Hoo… hoo… There are dozens of larch trees gathered here! I also see an elm tree with a big hole in its trunk, and I just passed that spot!”

She answered, gasping for breath, doing her best.

—Haa…

At the same time, the police officer sighed deeply.

—I don’t know what you mean by that. Are there any buildings nearby?

Yiyeon realized her mistake and quickly pulled herself together.

“Spruce Tree Hospital! It’s behind that mountain!”

—We’ll dispatch immediately. If it’s a false report, you’ll have to pay a fine.

“Quickly!”

Just as she was entering the downhill path leading to the mountain entrance.

“Gasp…!”

A thin wire, like a thread, pulled at her neck. A fierce force, eating into her flesh and tightening tautly, made her feel nauseous. She scratched her neck wildly, but the string was so thin it wouldn’t catch on her fingernails.

“Hey, you dropped this.”

Even in a situation where her breath was cut off, her fine hairs instantly stood on end. More than anything, the breath touching her ear was chilling.

He handed her something, as if mocking her. Then, a heavy weight she had forgotten about fit perfectly into her palm. It was the saw that had been working with her for years.

At that moment, she didn’t know where such strength came from, but she struck the man with all her might.

There was a heavy impact along with the sound of something breaking. She swung the tool, thump, thump, repeatedly. So Yiyeon, already consumed by fear, couldn’t bring herself to look back. Only the electric saw, whose switch had been belatedly pressed, hummed loudly, trembling.

This was her secret patient.

It was her first meeting with the man who had been in a vegetative state for two years.