CHAPTER 156: YEAH, BABY!

Yun-Ha’s jaw opened so wide, it nearly hit the floor.

She blinked her eyes. But the article was still there.

She rushed to the sink, rinsed her eyes, and looked again.

"Averie Quinn Auclair," she muttered, "arrested in England?"

Like a mindless woman, she stared at it for a second, and suddenly she raised her arms in the air.

"Yeah, baby!" she yelled.

"Shut up, Yun-Ha!" her mother screamed. "Have you gone mad?"

Out of spite, she didn’t tell her mother about the good news.

The article went into detail about how Averie was spotted in a blue Supra.

"They even have a video."

The video was from the car chase filmed by a news channel.

It clearly showed Averie giving the finger to the chasing police cars.

"Oh, my god, it’s him."

She could recognize his hand anywhere. It was a ridiculous thing to consider, but truly, she was one of the most dedicated fans the diabolical actor had.

"That skin, those veins, that color... It’s his hand!"

Yun-Ha’s eyes became wet with joy as she saw her actor committing a dangerous crime.

"It’s so beautiful."

If her mother had heard it, she would have been extremely concerned. Thankfully, she was busy gossiping with a friend on the phone.

"Yeah, it must be him," she said, one hand on the phone and the other on her mouth. "No wonder he was so good as Asmodeus. He was a cold-blooded killer, all along."

"You know nothing, Mom," whispered Yun-Ha.

Her eyes were lost in the thousands of comments.

- Holy, what a turnaround!

- The TV channels are also showing it! They are milking The Quinn!

- Please don’t say it like that.

- Say it like what?

- Don’t say stuff like ’milking him.’ It sounds wierd.

- God is writing a thriller script for the Quinn fans.

- Did you see the video? He is going really fast, like ’fast’ fast.

- Wait, so the previous poster wasn’t lying?

- Is this what they were filming? What kind of project is it?

On the other post, where the poster claimed seeing Averie at a police station, fans were rushing to apologize.

- A thousand apologies, good hero.

- I shall reflect on my behavior.

- Please forgive me, for I have sinned.

- I questioned the oracle. Punish me!

- Tie me to a pole, and make me watch Ha-Joon Chae’s acting! I’ll take the torture!

’How surprising,’ Yun-Ha thought. ’No one ever apologizes on the internet.’

But something far more eye-catching was happening on a new post made by the chief moderator of the community, who also happened to be the president of AQuinn.

’Punishment and Reflection.’

The title was grim.

Yun-Ha, after taking a deep breath and with some understanding of what it could be about, read the post.

We have sinned.

We have mocked our savior.

We have burned his effigies and defaced his likeness.

And we must pay for it.

Yun-Ha nodded her head, not realizing how truly deranged all of it was.

We suspected him based on the words of some journalist.

We have doubted and questioned his wisdom.

We questioned life itself.

And we must pay for it.

"And we must pay for it," Yun-Ha chanted.

Her lips quivered as thoughts of fanaticism swirled about in her head.

***

The arrest of Averie, which in most other circumstances wouldn’t have fallen on the ears of non-fans, was passed from person to person in the city of Seoul.

"Did you hear?"

"What?"

"The actor of Asmodeus was arrested."

"So, he did kill her? Wow!"

"No, you idiot. He was arrested in the UK for racing! He wasn’t even in the country when it happened."

"Wait, so he is not a suspect."

"Yeah, the guy was filmed driving at high speeds. It couldn’t have been him!"

The life of the dead woman was being treated as a subject of chatter. Her feuds, her habits, everything was seeping into society through the media.

Somewhere, empathy had ceased to exist. All that mattered was gossip.

And Averie always made for great gossip material.

He was spoken of in offices.

"I heard that those two were lovers."

"Who?"

"That Auclair kid and that dead woman."

"There’s no way!"

"I’m telling you it’s true. Why would I lie?"

"Where did you hear it?"

"My nephew’s uncle’s grandfather’s third cousin said it."

"Are you serious? That guy is the most reliable source of information. It must be true then."

In the shady bars, where poor girls mingled with rich men, his name was whispered.

"I heard she committed suicide."

"How would she stab herself in the heart?"

"It’s not that hard, is it?"

"What kind of psychopath can drive a knife in their heart? The shaking body won’t allow it."

"Really? But one of the detectives on the case is a friend of mine, and he says there was no sign of anyone having entered. There was no camera footage."

"Really? That’s weird."

In the countryside, shopkeepers chatted with housewives about conspiracies.

"Why are they removing suspicion from that guy? Wasn’t he always the violent kind?"

"But he was in England at the time."

"That’s suspiciously convenient."

"Are you suggesting the news is fake?"

"No, I think he arranged for someone else to kill her. He must have hired hitmen."

"You are watching too much TV."

In places where the outcasts of society lived quietly, a few truths were whispered.

"He didn’t do it, but I feel like he had something to do with it."

"Why?"

"Who, in their right mind, would kill a rich lady and not steal her jewelry? Why is no one suspecting religious fanatics? Satanists?"

"Why would they? A young actor killing his rich lover sounds too exciting for reason to take its place."

And as time passed, in certain communities, Averie racing on the streets of Birmingham gathered more attention than the murder.

- What’s he even filming for?

- So, he was street racing? Isn’t that dangerous?

- Is it a film?

- Oh, thank you. Thank you! Finally, I know he is working on something.

- Don’t they usually have stunt doubles and a set for this kind of thing?

- I bet he just wanted to race and used filming as an excuse.

Such conversations helped Long Live the Quinn’s promotions before the announcement about it was released.

***

While the diabolical actor was being treated as a gossip subject in Asia, Averie was in a place far from reality.

Pink and grey, everywhere the eye could see.

He was in Lilith’s Womb again.

Sitting beside him was his friend and the most feared creature in Hell, Lucifer.

"Do you understand my sorrow as I had to pay a hefty fine? That judge talked my ear off. I wanted to beat him like a dog. Only Hell gets to judge me, no one else. The driving ban doesn’t concern me, though."

His sharp amber eyes had been studying the creature since he entered the place.

"You seem awfully happy. Did something good happen?"

The gaze of the warden turned from the sky to his friend.

In its depths, there was a burning desire for something. It seemed to swallow his mind.

Averie clenched his jaw.

"What did you see?" he asked.

There was a certain sharpness to the air between them.

"Your madness is seeping out; what did you see?"

Lucifer chuckled.

"Something funny happened."

"What?"

He remembered something.

"Do you mean that lady? Patricia Kim?"

The creature smiled. "Maybe."

Averie clicked his tongue and turned his head towards his feet. They weren’t tired now, but they were before he went to sleep.

"That woman died terribly." His gaze became unfocused. "Even I wouldn’t have gone that far. So, who did it?"

"I didn’t think you cared."

Averie felt a bit irritated. "It concerns me."

"Why?"

"Because it feels like you are involved."

The devil grinned. "Oh, I assure you that I had no hand in it; directly, at least."

He took out a leather-covered diary from his suit.

"Is that human leather?" Averie asked, his eyes wide. "That’s a flex, if I’ve ever seen one."

"Made only with faces of serial killers."

The diabolical actor was in awe. "Must be nice, living in such luxury."

The devil scribbled something in the diary, tore the page, and burned it in front of Averie.

"What was that?" Aveire asked.

"Just sending a message to someone." He placed the diary back in his suit. "Tell me, what do you want?"

"Where’s this coming from?"

"Don’t be coy. You seem to want something."

Averie thought about it for a second.

’Should I?’ He frowned. ’But only an idiot would show his weakness to the devil.’

After tormenting himself for what felt like half an hour, the actor opened his mouth with an attitude of who-gives-a-damn.

"I need something to keep my sanity."

He opened his shirt and touched his chest where the tattoos were.

"I can’t sleep with all those alarms. I can’t do this for the rest of my life. I will go insane."

Honestly, he believed he had already gone a little insane.

"Lend me something to seal off Lilith’s Womb."