Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Heejae barely bothered with her umbrella as she ran through the rain. She stopped in front of the village hall.

A yellow fence she hadn’t seen before blocked the tightly shut glass doors. It wasn’t like the barriers at other demolition sites. Thick and heavy, the iron fence was clearly meant to keep someone out.

Maybe that someone was her.

The memory of running into Kim Sewon here brought back the same creeping unease she’d felt that day.

She hadn’t set foot near the place since. It gave her the creeps. But the nightmare she’d just woken from had driven her right back.

Crack. Thunder tore through the air behind her. She flinched, looking back. Lightning fractured the pitch-black sky, throwing harsh, intermittent flashes across the dark alleyway.

A familiar silhouette slithered over the soaking wet gravel.

The sky split again. She locked eyes with a pair of gleaming golden slits.

It was the black snake from her dream.

It always slithered into her bed. Tonight, for whatever reason, it was crossing the gravel instead.

It slipped into the village hall, moving with familiar ease, and made straight for the small, rusted iron door.

D-don’t come. Don’t come, please…

A single room, reeking of mold and damp even in the dead of summer. A much younger version of herself sat inside, crying in terror. She wore a navy-collared school uniform. It was from eleven years ago.

Did this damn nightmare really start here?

Why…

She scrambled backward, dragging herself away from the approaching snake, until her back hit the side door. Nowhere left to run. The young girl wailed.

Why are you doing this to me!

The snake didn’t answer. It just reared its head, flicking its red tongue.

One slip and it would swallow her whole. The child kept her eyes wide open, staring until they burned red.

But she couldn’t hold out forever. She blinked. The black snake uncoiled and launched itself through the air.

Ah!

The child threw her arms up to shield her face. She lost her balance and tipped backward. The side door burst open. She tumbled down, a drop barely knee-high, and a dizzying spray of red roses exploded across her vision.

Crack! She jolted awake in her bed to the sound of thunder.

By the time she came to her senses, she had already bolted from the motel and was running through the rain.

She didn’t know what was driving her. Maybe it was the wine she’d practically inhaled before bed, or the extra sleeping pills she’d swallowed. Her mind was consumed by a single, obsessive thought: she had to get that rose from her dream.

It was just a flower. But somehow, she was convinced it would fix everything. The endless nightmares. Her completely twisted life.

False hope… No. The more impossible the hope, the more desperate it made her.

The hallucination faded from the alleyway. Heejae pulled at the closed glass doors. The yellow fence was set up crookedly, leaving just enough of a gap for a person to squeeze through.

She dropped her umbrella on the ground. She wedged herself through the gap and stepped inside. A sharp scream pierced the air.

“Ah!”

“What the—fuck!”

A flashlight beam hit her in the face. Heejae threw an arm up to shield her eyes.

She squinted through the glare. Yeom Sangcheol stood there holding a small flashlight. Right next to him, sprawled on a table, was a young woman.

The woman locked eyes with Heejae and frantically started pulling up her half-removed clothes. Her face burned beet-red, humiliated at being caught in a late-night tryst. Sangcheol’s face was just as red, though for entirely different reasons.

“What the—who the fuck…?”

Sangcheol stood frozen, his pants still unzipped. Heejae barely gave him a passing glance before turning and heading straight down the narrow hallway. He pointed a shaking finger at her back, sputtering in disbelief.

Anyone else would have been flustered by the scene. Heejae couldn’t care less. She shoved open the iron door at the end of the hall and marched straight for the side door.

She didn’t hesitate like she had in the past. She grabbed the knob and yanked it open.

Her vision bled red.

The streetlight spilling over the crumbling old wall was red.

Vines had grown wild and tangled over the forgotten years. Nestled within them, roses were just beginning to bloom, their petals a blinding, vivid red.

It was a beautiful, grotesque sight. Heejae stared at it, mesmerized, before brushing a drooping vine aside with the back of her hand.

She stepped out through the side door. A strong hand grabbed her arm and yanked her back.

The dark ceiling flashed across her vision. She slammed hard into the floor.

“Ugh!”

The back of her head cracked against the ground. She groaned. Sangcheol had gone down with her, and he didn’t waste a second. He straddled her slender body and roared.

“You ruined everything, you crazy bitch!”

Ruined what? Dragged violently back to reality, Heejae didn’t even have time to ask. Sangcheol grabbed the front of her shirt. She grabbed his wrists on reflex, her eyes going wide.

“What the hell are you doing!”

“You really asking? That girl took off because of you!”

Najeong was just a tea room hostess, but she played hard to get. Sangcheol had put a lot of work into finally getting her on her back. Blind rage boiled over him.

Now that he looked at her, the woman was awfully familiar. Sangcheol finally remembered seeing her at Dong-a Supermarket. He remembered trying to hit on her, only for Sewon to interrupt. He remembered the weird tension between the two of them.

“Well, well. If it isn’t the fancy lawyer. You remember me, right?”

Getting fired by Sewon overnight had left a bitter taste in his mouth. This was perfect. A nasty smirk twisted his lips.

“Well, what can you do. You ruined my night, so you’re gonna have to make up for it.”

“What are you—”

Her words died in her throat. Sangcheol ripped the front of her shirt open.

Small buttons popped off and scattered across the yellow linoleum. Tap, tap. It sounded like raindrops. The surreal detachment shattered as his sickening voice slithered into her ear.

“Fuck. You should’ve just stayed in bed. Why the hell are you wandering around in the middle of the night?”

“…”

“Damn, nice tits.”

He hooked a finger under the cup of her black bra, pulling it down slightly, and licked his lips.

“Are you crazy? Get off me!”

Heejae thrashed, kicking her legs wildly, but she couldn’t dislodge the heavy weight crushing her stomach.

“You’re gonna blow my eardrums out. Shut the fuck up.”

He didn’t just yell. He clamped a massive hand over her mouth to muffle her screams. She thrashed her head from side to side, but his grip was like a vice.

“You psycho— Mmph!”

He shoved her shirt violently off her shoulders. Heejae threw a punch, but he caught her wrist effortlessly and pinned it to the floor. His eyes never left her bare skin.

“Let’s not make this hard, yeah?”

He gave a filthy grin and dragged her left bra strap down her arm.

Heejae stopped fighting. She just stared at him, her eyes bloodshot. She bit down hard on her lower lip, forcing her body to go limp, while her free left hand blindly scoured the floor.

“See? Isn’t it better when you just behave?”

He thought she’d given up.

He was wrong. A moment ago, when she’d thrashed her head, she’d spotted chunks of cement scattered across the floor from the crumbling wall.

She was reaching for one. Carefully. Quietly.

She played dead. She let him think he’d won. But when his rough hand brushed her bare arm, a scream clawed at her throat.

Please…

She clamped her jaw shut and swallowed the scream. As his hand slid behind her to unhook her bra, she arched her back slightly, pretending to cooperate.

She shifted her weight. Her fingertips brushed the rough edge of a rock. She kept her eyes averted, chanting in her head.

Just a little, just a little more…

“Ugh…”

His fingers found the clasp. Heejae twisted violently and grabbed the chunk of cement. She swung it hard at his temple—but a long leg shot out of nowhere and viciously kicked Sangcheol in the head.

“Agh!”

The crushing weight vanished. Sangcheol’s massive body flew backward into the open side door. The rotted wood splintered and snapped under the impact.

Before Heejae could even process what was happening, a large hand seized Sangcheol by the hair.

“Ah, fuck!”

Sangcheol thrashed. The man drove a knee brutally into his face. Heejae watched the man’s back with trembling eyes.

He was tall enough to scrape the ceiling, with broad, imposing shoulders. Black hair. Black shirt. Black pants and black shoes.

Dressed entirely in black, like the snake from her dream, the man dragged Sangcheol like a slaughtered animal and hurled him into the center of the room.

Sangcheol was still reeling. He pawed at his face, blood pouring from his nose.

“Fuck, fuck,” he slurred in a daze. The man in black pulled out a pack of cigarettes and let out a low, dark chuckle.

“You stupid fuck. What did you just say?”

Bohem Cigar Master. Even the cigarette pack in his hand was black. Heejae finally realized who he was.

Sangcheol looked up at the heavy voice. The color drained from his face.

“D-Director…?”

Lightning struck the backyard, illuminating the man in the room.

Kim Sewon. The man held a cigarette between his teeth and struck a lighter.

He took a deep drag and raised his head. He turned on his heel, his gaze sliding lazily over to where Heejae sat by the side door.

He held her gaze. Gray smoke curled from between his lips. He took another drag. The tip of the cigarette burned a bright, vivid red.

Black and red. Heejae couldn’t tell if the man standing over her was the snake or the rose. She scrambled backward.