Vol 3 Ch 17

I closed my eyes again and then opened them. Before I knew it, the morning light had arrived. I jumped out of bed and threw off the blanket.

From outside the room, I could hear my mom’s voice calling me.

‘…Yeowon-ah!’

Through the door, I saw my mom’s back as she stood by the stove. Sensing my presence, she turned around. She ladled a generous scoop of hot bean sprout soup into a bowl and set it down on the dining table.

My mom smiled at me.

‘Can you bring this inside? Your father’s been drinking, so I made some refreshing bean sprout soup.’

‘…Okay.’

I answered in a small, reluctant voice. My mom raised her hand and gently rubbed my cheek, her fingertips carrying the faint scent of food. Her pale face was tinged with a peachy blush, as if perfectly ripened. She looked the same as always, yet for some reason, my eyes stung. The tip of my nose prickled like I had eaten something spicy.

‘Why aren’t you bringing it in already? The man says his head feels like it’s splitting open!’

 A sharp voice barked from outside the kitchen. My mom nudged me, urging me to hurry, and lightly tapped my back.

The last to appear, scratching the back of his head, was my uncle. Once everyone was gathered, the family sat around the table.

‘Ugh, d**n it,’ my father grumbled as he sat down. His expression was as menacing as ever, and he cursed under his breath, muttering “d**n it” repeatedly. He kept clutching his head, grimacing from the hangover. The tension around him made me shrink in on myself. I focused intently on eating, knowing that even a moment of hesitation could earn me a slap across the face.

He must’ve stayed up all night gambling, coming home just before dawn. Without a doubt, he would’ve made a scene, demanding my mom, who had just finished her night shift, prepare him soup the moment he stepped in. I didn’t need to see it to know.

Though fear prickled my skin, afraid of when I might get hit, I kept glancing at my father out of the corner of my eye.

…So, was everything that happened just a dream? It had felt so unreal, now that I thought about it. Like a nightmare too long to endure, one I never wanted to revisit.

My father continued cursing hoarsely, staring blankly into space.

‘D**n it all…’

‘Should I go out and buy some medicine from the store nearby?’ my mom asked hesitantly.

But my father didn’t respond. He only glared aimlessly at some spot in the yard, spewing out more curses. My mom shot me a quick glance. Yeowon, say something to him. If you don’t, he might lash out again.

‘D**n it all!’ he roared.

The vile words hit my ears like whiplash.

‘Filthy, worthless…!’

The string of incomprehensible profanities poured endlessly from his lips.

‘…Dad,’ I finally said.

He didn’t hear me. He was still staring outside, his face eerily expressionless. Following his line of sight, I turned my gaze to where he was looking. His eyes were unnaturally tilted to one side, fixed on the bottom of the stairs.

The moment I realized this, a chill ran down my spine.

I whipped my head around to look directly at my father. At some point, he was staring right at me. His eyes were unnervingly large, like saucers. Fear surged through me, and I grabbed onto my mom’s sleeve, asking weakly,

‘…Are you okay?’

An icy silence filled the air. Clutching my mom’s sleeve tighter, I felt the tension creeping up my back. Slowly, my father opened his mouth. The darkness inside looked like the gaping mouth of a cave.

‘It’s all your fault!’ he screamed.

Suddenly, there was a loud pop, and blood gushed like a fountain from the top of his head. The hot liquid streamed down, spilling into his empty eye sockets and nose.

‘Aaah!’ I shrieked, pulling frantically at my mom’s sleeve. She snapped her head toward me—but it wasn’t my mom. What I saw was my father, his eye sockets hollowed out.

***

“Ah!”

I jolted awake, trembling as though struck by lightning. For a while, I couldn’t shake the shock of what had just happened in the dream. The sound of thunder rumbling outside finally brought me back to my senses.

Crack! The roar of thunder shook me to my core. My palms were damp with sweat. I quickly realized that everything just now had been nothing more than a dream.

Feeling the chill seeping in through the empty space where someone once lay, I hugged myself and glanced at the clock on the wall.

“……”

2 a.m. I was still alone in this big house.

Boom!

Another thunderclap echoed. The television buzzed, and strange sounds started playing through the speakers. My growing unease made me stare at the screen.

If the TV suddenly turned off…

As if mocking my thoughts, the screen abruptly went dark with a pop. The only sound in the house was gone. The oppressive silence that replaced it felt like a tidal wave crashing over me.

With the noise gone, my sixth sense kicked in. I felt it—someone’s gaze. I didn’t know when it began, but it seemed to come from the end of the hallway, watching me. For a moment, I wondered if it could be CEO Jang, but I shook my head. The door hadn’t opened.

Slowly, I turned my head.

A blood-soaked, cold body stood there. My mind went blank, as though a fuse had blown.

Clutching a bottle of pills in my hand, I ran wherever my feet would take me. I dashed into the bathroom and quickly locked the door behind me. Sitting on the closed toilet lid, I looked down at my trembling hands. The pill bottle was clenched tightly between them.

“……”

I’d reached for it out of impulse, but keeping it with me had been a conscious decision. I held on to it because I was convinced—convinced that even if he found out, at least he wouldn’t cut off my fingers.

The man who had once threatened to chop off my fingers if I ever tried to run away. The man who had actually tried to follow through with it. Yet when CEO Jang had seen the scars left on my fingerprints, what had he done? He’d let the knife drop by his side. Instead, he’d even treated my fingers. Never once laid a hand on me otherwise.

Surely, he’d noticed that I’d taken the bottle. And yet, he’d let it slide. Maybe he thought of me as some puppet dancing in the palm of his hand.

It was laughable. That b**t**d. I wished him nothing but misery. Over and over, I cursed him in my heart.

“……”

Rumble. The heavens growled once more, threatening the earth below.

…The CEO I had loathed so deeply was now… Now he would never come. Not tomorrow. Not the day after. Not ever again.

An eerie chill swept over me, as though a spirit had entered my body. I shivered violently.

This was what I had wanted all along. So why did the tips of my fingers and toes feel like they were being cut with knives? Why this sharp, frigid sensation?

I lowered my gaze back to the pill bottle. Slowly, I took out a towel and poured the pills onto it. The powder scattered like finely crushed glass, glimmering under the light and distorting my view. Mesmerized, I buried my nose into the towel. The fine powder tickled my nose.

“……”

A memory surfaced—the image of CEO Jang pressing his prominent nose into my palms, inhaling the d**gs as if they were cigarette smoke. That scene replayed vividly in my mind.

I followed suit, taking a deep breath. The powder rushed into my nose.

Clatter. The bottle fell and shattered on the floor. The towel in my hand dropped onto my thigh. My vision blurred for a moment, and I felt the world spinning.

Losing my balance, I collapsed onto the cold bathroom floor. On all fours, I crawled weakly until I reached the bathtub and leaned my back against it. Curling my legs toward my chest, I wrapped my arms around them.

A high-pitched ringing filled my head, and my lips felt unbearably dry. The lines of the bathroom tiles rippled, blending into one chaotic mess.

There was the sound of movement outside. Could it be my father’s soulless body, which had been at the end of the hallway, coming to find me? My father’s cold, lifeless body crossed CEO Jang’s office and approached, gripping the bathroom doorknob. Clunk, clunk. After checking that the door was locked, the movements paused for a moment.

Then, as if possessed, the figure began rattling the doorknob violently. Clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk. The wooden door shook so forcefully that it seemed it might break apart at any moment.

“…Uh-huk.”

The sound of someone sobbing—I realized it was coming from between my own lips. Completely overcome with fear, I buried my face into my arms.

Please, let this be a dream too…

Clunk, clunk, clunk! The rectangular space trembled as if a giant were gripping both sides of the bathroom and shaking it recklessly.

I could almost feel a lightning-bolt-shaped crack forming across the bathroom floor, ready to split it open. The thought of one side collapsing made the back of my neck prickle.

B**g! The door, trembling like a thin sheet of glass, finally burst open with a loud crash. The echo of the sound enveloped the cold space.

Someone standing in front of the bathroom door caught my gaze. Their face was obscured by the shadows, but my fear projected the monster I had seen earlier onto the silhouette.

“N-no…”

The shadow, wearing my father’s face, cast a long shadow on the cold tiles as it approached me.

“No…!”

Shaking my head frantically, I tried to reject my father. But it was futile. In an instant, he was right in front of me. Drowning in despair, I buried my face deeper into my arms.

“…….”

“…….”

Even just standing beside me, his presence was overwhelming. Trembling uncontrollably, I pressed myself against the bathtub, as if I could crumble into powder and seep into it like a new material.

A brief silence passed. I wanted to scream and run, but there was no escape. His frigid body stood next to me. Though I hadn’t seen it with my eyes, the mere thought of it coiled fear tightly around my brain.

“…I’m s-sorry…”

My feeble voice crept through the cold air.

“I’m sorry…”

It felt like my insides were being crushed by an enormous force. My esophagus burned as though scorched by a lit cigarette. My tongue, tangled and clumsy, kept tripping over itself, yet I kept mumbling the same words.

“I’m sorry…”

Save me.

A voice that wasn’t mine spilled from above my head.

“So, this is the kind of nonsense you’re pulling now?”

Whether it was the medication numbing my brain or something else, I couldn’t process the words. All I heard was a high-pitched ringing. …Like my brain had switched to test pattern mode. Dazed, I repeated fragmented sentences like a broken recorder.

I’m sorry, I’m sorry…

My vision blurred. Tears gushed out of my eye sockets, pooling on my chin before dripping onto the tiles. A mysterious scraping sound came from below, accompanied by a sharp pain in the palms of my hands. My fingers seemed to be gouging at my skin on their own.

Just as something seized my wrist, my father’s hand gripped my chin. His fingers clamped down with a crushing force, twisting my head in his direction.

“…Aagh!”

“What the h**l do you think you’re doing?”

I twisted my head desperately, trying to free myself, but it was useless. My head was firmly pinned in place, as if nailed to the wall by his unyielding grip.

“I’m sorry, please, spare me…”

The word “Father,” squeezed out in a final desperate plea, scattered into the air. A low, resonant voice followed.

“Open your eyes, Seo Yeowon.”

The voice, which had sounded muffled and distant, became clearer, taking on a distinct form.

“I said, open your eyes.”

Even as I shook my head and kept my eyes shut, the hand gripping half of my face forced my jaw to tremble.

“…Ugh.”

Gritting my teeth, I resisted, but eventually, I let out a pained groan and opened my eyes. Whether fortunate or not, tears blurred my vision, obscuring the face of the monster before me. Hot, suppressed breaths grazed my closed eyelids.

“Seriously, pulling this kind of stunt with that calm face of yours could drive anyone mad.”

The breath made me flinch and shudder. Through the haze of my blurred vision, I caught sight of white eyeballs filling their sockets.

Was this a person? …Yes, it was a person.

Desperately, I reached out and grabbed the arm of the one clutching my jaw. Thick, muscular arms overflowed in my hands. Slowly, I tried to work my tongue, which felt like it was curling up and trying to choke me.

“There’s a monster in the house…”

“…….”

“A person with a cracked skull is here. They’re coming this way soon.”

I wanted to warn him to escape quickly, but CEO Jang remained still. His unreadable gaze bore into my face, incomprehensible in my current state.

Suddenly, a chilling cold enveloped my body. Shivering uncontrollably, my limbs trembled, and the chattering of my teeth echoed. It felt like I was submerged in water filled with chunks of ice.

“S-so cold…”

A long, low sigh spilled over my face. Rising to his feet, CEO Jang reached out toward me.

“…Ha.”