Troll

‌⁠♡⁩ TL: Khadija SK

 

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A red double-decker bus moved sluggishly along the road. Passing through the bustling Oxford Circus and exiting Holborn, the bus was heading toward its final stop, Farringdon Station.

 

Jin-ah, checking the location of the hospital on her map app, began to feel a bit motion-sick and slipped her phone into her pocket.

 

It seemed the hospital wasn’t too far from the station—a walkable distance. She decided it wouldn’t be an issue to get off and navigate on foot.

 

“Sigh.”

 

A sigh escaped her lips. The place she was heading to now wasn’t the hospital booked by the hotel.

 

⟨Apparently, they were transferred from Scotland to here.⟩

 

Jin-ah recalled her phone conversation with Inspector Haywood.

 

Introducing himself as Andy Haywood, he explained that the injured from the Kno-Dearg estate had been moved to London, and from now on, he would be overseeing the investigation there.

 

⟨The deceased has also been transported, and the funeral was held yesterday. All other minor injury cases have been discharged. The individual transferred to London, William Evans, remains hospitalized due to severe injuries.⟩

 

Though his voice sounded fatigued, it still carried a sharp, commanding tone that made her feel tense. From his clipped and brisk manner, Jin-ah had a feeling this man would be both meticulous and a source of trouble for her.

 

And, as expected, after his explanation, he said:

 

⟨I’d like you to come to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital by 2 PM today.⟩

 

“Why do I need to…”

 

⟨William Evans is hospitalized there, and he requested to meet you. He believes you might have information regarding the disappearance of Colin Parker.⟩

 

With that, Inspector Haywood suggested they discuss the details in person, making the arrangement without leaving much room for argument.

 

When Jin-ah hesitated, saying she might not be available today, he nonchalantly asked if Christmas Eve would work instead.

 

Realizing he wasn’t going to take no for an answer, Jin-ah reluctantly agreed to meet at the hospital today.

 

After all, if she dealt with everything now, she could spend Christmas and the New Year quietly holed up at home.

 

‘I can’t believe I’m heading to someone else’s hospital before even attending to my own treatment.’

 

Though the cut on the back of her head had scabbed over, bruises still marked her body. Resolving to head to her designated hospital right after her meeting with Haywood, Jin-ah’s thoughts were interrupted by the bus announcing its final stop.

 

She got off and followed the signs leading to the hospital. Aside from the clusters of tourists snapping photos of the building due to its appearance in a famous drama, it didn’t look much different from the surrounding structures.

 

However, as she turned and stepped into the hospital, a spacious courtyard with glass walls and an open ceiling came into view.

 

The description on the map had labeled it as the oldest hospital, so Jin-ah had pictured an aged and crumbling building. To her surprise, the interior was modern and sleek.

 

Checking the time, she realized there were still 30 minutes left until her meeting with the inspector.

 

“Hungry…”

 

The moment she confirmed the free time, a wave of hunger hit her. Come to think of it, all she had consumed since waking up was a single glass of water she drank at the hotel room.

 

Luckily, there was a café right on the first floor of the ward where she was supposed to meet him.

 

As soon as she stepped inside, a gust of warm air from the heater greeted her.

 

Her throat felt parched to the point of tearing, so she quickly ordered a coffee. While browsing the sandwich shelf and food menu to satisfy her hunger, she couldn’t find anything that appealed to her.

 

She knew all too well what kind of ingredients were used in these types of café foods: cheap bread, overly sweet sauces, soggy vegetables, and damp chicken or bacon.

 

The cooked food options would likely be even worse—some mediocre sauce heated from a budget can and poured over lukewarm frozen items.

 

In the end, Jin-ah settled for a warm flat white coffee and a small portion of pre-cut fruit, taking a seat at one of the tables.

 

‘If I were still working, at least I wouldn’t have to worry about meals.’

 

She must be crazy. Even after experiencing that ridiculous incident last night, she was longing for the food from the hotel. Her overly picky palate felt particularly frustrating today.

 

Not wanting to dwell on thoughts of the hotel any longer, Jin-ah pulled out her phone.

 

After replying to a few messages from friends, she found herself at a loss for what to do and opened YouTube.

 

Suddenly, she remembered the channel run by the people responsible for this entire ordeal and decided to search for it.

 

“They haven’t taken it down yet.”

 

It wasn’t her first time visiting their video channel.

 

When Colin Parker sent his introductory email and the news of the incident broke, Jin-ah had searched for their channel out of curiosity while waiting for her flight to Edinburgh.

 

She wanted to understand who these people were and what led them to create such chaos. That was the first and last time she watched their content—just thinking about it afterward was exhausting.

 

After the incident, she assumed the channel had been abandoned. To her surprise, a new video had been uploaded just days ago.

 

Curious about who might have uploaded it, she clicked on the video.

 

It featured a woman sitting alone with a somber expression.

 

⟨Hello to everyone watching this channel. My name is Camilla Jenkins.⟩

 

Camilla Jenkins. She was one of the minor injury survivors mentioned by the police.

 

⟨Some of you might have heard about us from the news… Today, I have some heartbreaking news to share with all of you. Our proud team member, James McCoy, passed away during a shoot. As you all know, James was always the lively one in our group. No matter how scary the place was, his presence made everything less frightening. Our subscribers know this, right? Even spirits would flee from his endless chatter.⟩

 

At that point, the woman couldn’t hold back her tears, using a tissue to dab at her eyes.

 

⟨It was such an unfortunate accident. The lobby seemed so stable at first glance—we never expected it to collapse so suddenly. I, too, fell along with the other team members… By the time I came to, James had already passed away. Oh, Lord…⟩

 

Camilla shivered as if reliving the moment.

 

⟨Over the past few weeks, we’ve received so many condolences and messages of support from our subscribers. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Although we couldn’t shoot together anymore, Rob Fisher, myself, and William Evans—who is still hospitalized—are all finding strength in your encouragement. And…⟩

 

Camilla hesitated for a moment, her lips twitching as if choosing her words carefully.

 

⟨We hope Colin Parker is watching this broadcast. If so, please contact us. We’re not looking to hold him accountable for anything. We just hope he’s safe and doing well.⟩

 

After that, the video ended with formal expressions of gratitude.

 

“They still haven’t found him, it seems,” Jin-ah muttered, recalling the mention of Colin Parker.

 

From the articles she’d read, she already knew that Colin Parker, the channel’s creator, had gone completely off the radar after the incident. Police suspected that he fled out of fear of the repercussions after his team members entered the mansion and the fatal accident occurred.

 

‘They even confirmed from the footage that he didn’t go inside with the others.’

 

Since the incident, Jin-ah had received several calls from Inspector DeCasticker in Scotland, who kept her updated on how things unfolded.

 

The first piece of news was about her grandmother’s remains.

 

After a single hand bone was found, police thoroughly searched the area. Days later, they uncovered a tibia, but that was the end of their discoveries.

 

No skull or other significant parts of the skeleton were recovered. They deployed trained police dogs, but strangely, the dogs froze in place and refused to move any further. That marked the end of the canine-assisted search.

 

The next update was about James McCoy, the team member who had bled to death from a severed arm.

 

The problem was that his arm was nowhere to be found in the basement where he died.

 

Despite multiple searches, all they found were bloodstains, with no trace of the missing limb.

 

⟨Colin Parker or that missing arm—how do they vanish without leaving a single clue?⟩

 

Inspector DeCasticker had clicked his tongue over the phone, calling it an utterly baffling case.

 

In the end, police speculated that a scavenger or predator that had previously desecrated her grandmother’s remains might have also taken the arm.

 

After all, what other explanation was there for an arm disappearing from the basement?

 

‘But then again,’ Jin-ah thought, ‘that man was rather large.’

 

The police had sent a part of the video filmed by the channel operators. In the video, James appeared to be so large that he could have been mistaken for a bear.

 

No matter how big a bird of prey might be, it would be difficult to lift such a person’s arm and fly away. Besides, how could it just happen that at that moment, only his arm was taken?

 

But just like with the grandmother’s body, there was no clear answer to that either.

 

While absentmindedly fiddling with her phone, Jin-ah tapped on an old video. Nearly all of the videos began with Colin greeting the audience.

 

He was an ambitious man. When he heard the story about the grandmother’s body, his eyes sparkled, as if thinking about uploading it to the channel.

 

‘Such a person would flee if a colleague died?’

 

No matter how she thought about it, he was the kind of person who would film everything and upload it as a 10-episode series.

 

At that moment, Jin-ah’s finger absentmindedly tapped on one of the old videos from the channel. This time, it wasn’t a ruined exploration site, but rather the members of the channel sitting around a table talking.

 

There were six people sitting around the table.

 

Colin Parker, William Evans, James McCoy, Camilla Jenkins, Rob Fisher, and Ian Aylesford.

 

In the previous video she’d seen, Ian hadn’t appeared, so she had thought maybe he was just funding the project, but upon closer inspection, it seemed that he hadn’t been with them for long.

 

At the time this video was filmed, they likely had no idea what was going to happen to them.

 

[Today, we’re going to talk about some amazing places we’ll be exploring this winter.]

 

‘Probably a boring topic.’

 

Just as Jin-ah was about to press the back button, Colin turned his body and spoke to the team members.

 

[Has anyone heard of the Troll family?]

 

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