Sharp, masculine grunts blare over the speakers, followed by a feminine laughing.

Kisa’s eyes are wide. “Oh, gods,” she whispers, a hand rising to her mouth, “are they…”

Seokga is considering it, too, but that particular theory falls away as the man starts to scream. And scream. And scream. There’s no way to block it out, no way to ignore the sheer agony in the voice—in Captain Lee’s voice, Seokga realizes, recognizing something in the anguished cries that remind him of the mustachioed man.

“Oh, gods!” the captain screams. “Please, stop! Stop! Help! Please!”

“Shut up,” the woman snaps, followed by a wet squelching that makes even Seokga’s hardened insides turn. The living captain, apparently, won’t be living for much longer.

“Soo-min?” Kisa’s eyes are bright, shining with horror and unshed tears. “That’s Soo-min’s voice…Why is she hurting him?” Seokga hesitates, but his thoughts must flicker down the thread, for Kisa’s eyes widen. “Her?” she gasps out. “She’s…? But I thought—”

“HELP!” wails the captain as Seokga pounds on the elevator buttons, desperate for it to start moving, so they might help Captain Lee.

“Oh, gods,” cries Kisa, burying her face in her hands. “I think I…I think I might be sick.”

“Pull out the heart,” a new voice demands over the speakers. “Throw it into the river. His ghost won’t return to the ship if the organ leaves. He’ll end up in some obscure corner of Jeoseung.”

Hwanung. Seokga sees red. He’d know that fucking voice anywhere. His knees nearly give out with fury.

Hwanin’s body was missing its heart, too.

Somewhere far above the elevator, screams resound through the ship, horrified guests clutching their ears and shrieking as Captain Lee lets out a terrible cry.

“S-Seokga,” Kisa whispers, but he barely hears her. His body has begun to vibrate as he begins the teleportation process, itching to rip his nephew’s head from his body and throw that into the river. He’ll still reincarnate as a baby in the same spot in which he died, but clearly the fucking rookie didn’t know that when he murdered his father and tossed his heart overboard.

What did he think? That baby Hwanin would reappear somewhere deep in Jeoseung and forever be stranded from Okhwang? Foolish boy.

Seokga is about to step through time and space, to bend it to his will and take him directly to the bridge, where the murder must be happening…But something, a sharp tug on his pinky, stops him. The red thread is quivering in concern, yanking him toward Kisa as over the speakers, Captain Lee screams himself hoarse—and then abruptly falls silent. There’s a crackle as the intercom shuts off.

“Kisa?”