the longest dawn

[that thief stole my wallet!]

at a cold and windy night, a thief fled away from a policeman, and a policeman ran after him.

a thief robbed an old woman of her wallet in the suburb bank.

a policeman happened to witness the scene. as soon as he saw a thief going out the bank,

he took his gun from his waist pocket and said to the thief "wait or I will pull the trigger!"

but the thief didn`t give up his plan.

after the policeman persuaded a old woman whose wallet was stolen to wait here,

he also went out the bank to arrest.

their sounds of steps melted in the bustle of advanced city.

pedestrians saw the scene as a slice of daily life with a famous proverb "in this city sometimes a drama comes about. "

they were young but the policeman was about 20 years older than the thief.so, the policeman ran after desperately and

tried to manage to catch up with him.

when he finally found the thief`s back, they found themselves in a rural forest covered with dense fog.

both of them got to be fully exhausted, the thief running forward him hide behind a big tree to rest.

from the shade of a tree, he carefully watched his chaser. the chaser seemed to lose the appearance of thief

and gazed around his leg.

suddenly, the thief saw a slight light over the crowd of big trees.

he soon began to move there and creep toward the light.

approaching near to the light, to his surprise, it was spilled from the window of the old house.

there was a strange house. the light he saw was just possessed by the house.

he was very astonished in spite of his being thief because the strange house was

situated on an abnormal place, that is, in the gloomy forest darker than a cave.

the thief stood still for a short time. a overwhelming silence dominated the forest all around.

he sat on the grass without making any sound and gazed at the house, but nothing was heard

except the scream of wood around there.

a strong wind blew through the forest , innumerable leaves were shievered.

he stood up and found the light was vanished.

he was threatened and could not move even a step.

the policeman who chased after found him again.

once he saw him, he took his gun and aimed at him.

he almost said to the thief "don`t move!"

but the behavior of thief was so odd that the policeman stopped his plan and

tried to stare at the strange man.

moving through tree to tree, the policeman saw his face.

although he could not see his face because of the darkness of night, he found that his face was pale

just like the fish which felt the existence of an eagle over the sea surface.

as if breaking the unreal atmosphere that surrounded around them,

a slight sound was heard from the strange house.

both of them swallowed saliva.

[our life was full of happiness, don`t you think?]

it was old and intimate, masculine voice.

[I think so.]

on the contrary of previous voice, it was very feeble and fragile, feminine voice.

at the back of the window, an old couple seemed to enjoy their conversation.

forest still kept silent.

the thief perceived the approach of the policeman behind him, but he had no longer a brave enough to intrude in the house.

then the policeman confirmed that the thief had heavy and useless legs, he walked next to the thief, and talked to.

[we are just astray in the labyrinth.]

the thief nodded without being surprised and said to him.

[don`t you have handcuffs? it is lucky for me.]

[to your regret, the fortune does not belong neither. our lives almost vanish.]

he took his handcuffs out and return it where ought to be put.

[I thought the same thing. I heard a rumor somewhere similar to this situation.]

[what rumor?]

[In a profound forest, there were a strange house. the owner of the house got acts of violence to the wife. the wife fled from him,

spent a rest life. but when she sent a letter to her mother, her mother made a mistake and her address was also informed of with her husband.

soon after that, she suicided by hanging neck. the owner took the dead body to the house where they had lived once and cut

wife`s head off to embrace it at any time.]

[it is a horrible story like salome.]

[the story has a continuation...]

a wolf growled somewhere. the barking sound reflected through vast forest.

in according to the barking, the conversation in the strange house started again.

[I worked very hard to spend our life without unhappiness. but you left from me in sudden.]

[it could not avoid.]

[as long as my life went on, you had nothing in any trouble and could get everything you wanted.]

[but..]

[and when I finally reached you...]

[it had just gone. we will be together at any time.]

[I always keep an eye on you lest you should leave from me.]

light in the house still remained black out. the curtain of the window did not move at all.

the policeman watched his watch. it passed much more quickly as he had expected when he watched it last time.

after about three hours, cocks would roar noisily.

[their relation seems to have something intricate.]

[even a thief felt a distortion between them.it is not me but the husband who you should arrest.]

[exactly. you have a reason. but,]

[but?]

suddenly, inside the house, a terrible voice was heard.

[are you mocking me! why won`t you answer my dedication! I am ashamed of showing our attachment to the two

seeing us over the window!]

the two was very frightened to hear that.

the policeman stood up and took his gun from his waist.

[if you help me to arrest the one behind the window, I will not make you a prisoner. what will you do?]

he also stood up there and said.

[ok. I just want to see their face.]

they ran toward the house. when they arrived in the front of the door, the policeman kicked it powerfully.

the door was broken and they entered.

the policeman at first held his gun with the hands and moved it around to prepare an unexpected attack.

the thief positioned behind him was looking for the switch to turn light on.

soon, he found the switch and turned the light on.

[you did a great job.]

the policeman said that without seeing his face.

they run through the corridor, entered into the room where the conversation was heard.

[we are police. a neighborhood announced the dangerous circumstance in this house to the police and we came here.]

the man sitting with his back to them on his chair had no answer.

they heard a cock roar strongly to the shining of the sun instead of an answer.

as soon as the policeman walked to the chair, he retreated from there with a frightened voice.

the thief approaching him, also screamed when seeing the scene.

what they saw is a skull sitting on the chair and holding a severed head of beautiful woman.

[I think the skull has passed at least over 30years since he was dead, but the head of a woman is just new.]

[incredible!]

[I don`t know what is happening now. who turned the light off? where is the conversation? did the skull do that?]

dawn ray began to pervade into the house. but soon the light was prevented by clouds.

the room got dim again and was illuminated with only a slight light.

[without betraying a previous promise, you will forgive my leaving, can`t you? ]

[I will do.]

[I will give you her wallet. I think it leads me to this doom.]

[you stole it because you had a lack of money, didn`t you?]

[yes.]

[then, I think it will be more favorable choice for you to be arrest and live in a prison. ]

[I don`t have none of my relatives, I will try to rely them on.]

[ok, while I wait for police coming here, you had better flee away.]

no sooner had the police said to him than they heard something move around the second floor.

the footstep was approaching to the stair, and began to go down to the room.

[I finally found you. I just waited for coming this time for decades.]

the gun of the man is aiming at the thief.

[hands down! for decades? what you talk is beyond my understanding.]

[you should shut up and must not do anything.]

the man pulled the trigger and shot the thief.

the thief was injured in his shoulder and fell down on the ground.

[I can`t overlook.]

the policeman shot him by the gun. at the same time the old man fell down, a bad ache penetrated

through the policeman`s head. he got blind and lost his consciousness.

in his dream, someone whispered to him.

[curse and elate your prior fortune.]

[the story should never be ended by your mind.]

he thought that he heard the voice somewhere.

[the owner of the voice is the skull, I am sure!]

he felt that he was dragged by someone to the outside of the strange house.

but he could distinguish whether the event is real or unreal.

after a while, the other voice was heard near his ear.

[I owe it a great deal to you. see you again.]

he awoke up to find himself lay on a tree.

there were a lot of policeman, but the house was not seen anywhere.

after uncountable years had gone by, the day when the policeman resigned his job came.

he was engaged in police as soon as he graduated from university and worked for about 40 years.

although he had no special ability with which could surpass other people in particular,

he worked at police longer than any other colleague.

police officer from young to old got together all the way to celebrate his retirement.

they planned to hold a banquet to applause his carrier, but he turned the propose down

because he knew they were very busy and would not deprive them of their time for working.

at the rooftop where he used to smoke, he looked up to the stars remembering past memories.

the cold wind blew strongly in spite of the late of spring.

it also reminded him of that incident that he never forgot until the retirement day.

[I will make an end to the past.]

he put a coffee can and left the police office.

the day before yesterday when he resigned , he received a letter with a picture from the old woman

whose wallet was stolen by the young thief about 30 years ago.

he and the old woman sometimes kept a contact each other, but not so much, thanks to some contacts,

he knew a little about her family.

[my grand child married recently, please look at the picture.]

that sentence was written on the letter. he opened it carefully so as not to break or tear her picture.

as is often the case with her, the letter was so crowded with a lot of trivial stories that it had no longer any space.

but this time, something was peculiar. her style of sentence was changed modestly.

he tried to read the letter vertically from the top row, and then got another message on it.

the message was that.[i f y o u w i s h a s y o u w i s h]

besides that, when he looked at the picture enveloped, he lost his smile and got pale.

her grand child was just akin to the severed head he saw in the house, and her husband was the thief.

the premonition that the thief would kill her grand child and cut her head off suddenly occurred to him.

after leaving the police office, as if to be led, he went to the profound forest.

he walked in the forest for a few minutes, soon he saw the light beyond some trees.

he knew where the light source was.

as he would do so once, he kicked the door and intruded into the house.

there were not a terrible family in the house.

after he walked around the room, he turned the light off.

he went up stairs to hide himself from the thief who would come here soon.

[I should have killed him at that time.]

nothing was heard except roars of the wolf.

at no time, the sound which the door was kicked and broken was heard through the second floor.

he thought the sound was something odd because the door must be already broken.

under the second floor, someone screamed.

he recognized that this space was same as that horrible day.

the voice was the thief`s.

he took his gun from his waist and grabbed it firmly.

exhaling a deep breathe, he began to go down the stairs.

in the presence of him, there were two men.

the one was the thief, and the other was him.

[I finally found you. I just waited for coming this time for decades.]

his gun was aiming at the thief.

[hands down! for decades? what you talk is beyond my understanding.]

[you should shut up and must not do anything.]

he pulled the trigger and shot the thief.

the thief was injured in his shoulder and fell down on the ground.

[I can`t overlook.]

the bullet penetrated his head. his blood bursted into flowing beneath.

he found himself getting uncouscious gradually.

at the edge of his scope, he saw the skull and the severed head stared at him despite that

the former had no eyes and the latter fell asleep eternally until just now.

he fell down feebly on the middle of the stair.

[the thief stole my wallet!]

he heard someone beg a help.at no time, he recognized that he seemed to be in the bank.

as he saw around the surroundings, a thief was about to go out the bank.