Dawn broke, and faint shadows fell through the windowpane where I sat at the kitchen table. A familiar shadow, familiar to the wooden cottage kitchen, moved comfortably before my eyes. Breakfast was being prepared.
I felt a surge of relief, and almost imperceptibly, my gaze fell upon a piece of paper on the table in front of me. A yellow sheet of paper with words written in deep crimson. Without thinking, my hand trembled, and I remembered what it was: an exorcism spell.
I don't understand why my chest tightens. I reached out and touched it gently. The writing was clear in my memory, but I didn't know who it belonged to. The color was dull, not the vibrant red usually used for spells.
Then, unexpectedly, an idea struck her. The color looked musty and old. Just like blood… blood…?
The thought occurred to her in an instant, and the atmosphere changed the next.
The faint shadows of light cast by the dawn's first light vanished, and the familiar shadow faded as if it had never been.
It was still an hour until sunrise, so why...?
I touched the dust that had settled on the table, and it brought me back to reality.
My grandmother had passed away two weeks ago.
Memories I had been trying to forget flooded back. I rose slowly, trying to compose myself, but I was quickly overwhelmed by the memory of that fateful night.
~~~
I rushed into the house, stumbling, carrying happy news to share with my grandmother: I had been accepted to Seoul University. But as soon as I entered, I didn't see her in any of the places she usually frequented.
Suddenly… I noticed bloodstains on the white carpet in the living room. My heart sank, and I climbed the stairs, following the trail of blood until I reached my room.
My fingers trembled, and a feeling of dread washed over me.
"Grandmother…?" My voice came out, trembling and filled with anxiety.
I reached out; the handle was cold and covered in a reddish liquid. I froze, and my blood ran cold… Then I pushed the door open. As soon as it opened, my legs went numb, and I felt nauseous.
"Grandma!!!"
I gasped loudly. Her body lay motionless in the middle of the room, a pool of blood surrounding and staining it.
I fell backward, time seemed to stand still. Then I crawled to her and scooped her into my arms. I shook her gently at first, then panic seized me and I screamed, "Grandma! Wake up! Answer me!"
I pressed my face, stained with blood from holding her, against her chest, hoping to hear her pulse. But it was no use… Grandma wasn't breathing. Then I stopped moving.
My body jerked, and I screamed hysterically for help.
I felt dizzy, as if my consciousness was fading away, all the while screaming.
I continued to hold her cold body, with all the strength I had left, and I didn't stop screaming, even after some villagers came in, having heard my cries.
They pulled me away, and a man pinned me to the ground.
***
Three days later in the mourning hall:
The body of a young girl knelt motionlessly in the mourning hall, dressed in white mourning clothes.
When they carried the grandmother out that day, she was already dead. They held the funeral immediately, without delay.
According to the will Mrs. Li Yuhua had left while she was alive, her body was to be buried in the earth and not cremated, and the villagers obeyed.
That day, everyone in the village mourned the death of Mrs. Li Yuhua. She was a wise and virtuous woman, and also a shaman, who had helped the villagers since her youth. Therefore, the houses were filled with grief upon hearing the news of her death.
Meanwhile, Ji-yeon was praising her ancestors in the mourning hall, kneeling for three days, not fully conscious.
Suddenly, the hall door burst open, startling her. She regained consciousness and turned to see who had come.
Then the village elders entered, led by a man in his mid-thirties, his face contorted with anger. He spoke in a loud voice that suddenly made her feel ominous: "Ji-yeon! I really didn't expect this from you!"
This man was their close neighbor, Woo Hyun. She spoke, bewildered, "Woo Hyun, what's going on? What are you saying?"
His eyes narrowed, then a man stepped forward from behind, grabbed her roughly, and threw her to the ground.
She gasped, her breath caught in her throat as the bones in her arm cracked. She writhed in agony as accusations flew, eyes blazing with fury.
A shiver of terror ran down her spine, and moments later, several men, many times her size, were beating her.
She awoke with a sharp pain, her throat burning, and blood gushed from her mouth. They looked at her with contempt, and Woo Hyun stared at her, his gaze like fire, stinging her skin.
She heard his cold voice: "This is what happens when you commit a crime…" For no apparent reason, unlike the accusations of the others, it was simply a raging anger, a thirst for destruction. He reached out and grabbed my arm tightly, pulling me roughly out of the funeral hall—or rather, dragging her body—and walked out into the village. Then, in an instant, a woman from the crowd threw boiling water on her, screaming hysterically and hurling the worst insults at me.
The boiling water splashed onto half her face, and a scream burst from my burning throat. I clutched my scorched face and screamed uncontrollably.
The neighbor I had always thought was the best didn't care. He dragged me along, my soul writhing in agony.
He dragged me to my grandmother's house, carried me upstairs, threw me into my room, locked the door, and left.
My nerves shattered as I lay on the dry pool of blood in the middle of the room. This is where my grandmother died.
Then I heard a loud voice outside the house telling them about the murder of Lady Li Yuhua, the village shaman. It said he was connected to a vengeful spirit that had possessed the granddaughter's body because Lady Li had cleansed the place she lived in. The voice claimed the spirit had killed the grandmother and was still inhabiting the body of the granddaughter, who was me…
Upon hearing this story, which was pure fantasy, my breath caught in the stench of dried blood, and I felt my consciousness fading until I lost consciousness.
***
Korea
Busan Suburbs
Seven Days After Mrs. Lee Yoo-hwa's Death
2:46 AM
Night had fallen over the small villages on the outskirts of Busan, except for one.
Hand pallets lit instead of lamps, and the sounds of Buddhist prayers filled the air.
In the midst of this chaos, a young girl sat curled up, five steps from a freshly dug grave,
exactly inside a circle of salt.
Women were sprinkling water on her from three sides with a willow branch.
"Enough!" A man's voice suddenly rang out, followed by silence.
It was Woo-hyun, Mrs. Lee's young neighbor before her death.
He walked steadily toward the curled-up girl, ignoring the commotion around him.
He stepped onto the circle of salt, prompting his mother, Mi-young, to call out to him:
"Son! That circle is unlucky. Get out of there quickly!" she cried anxiously.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine."
He smiled at her, then looked at the girl with slight displeasure and stepped forward, kneeling quietly on one knee before her.
"Ji-yeon…answer me…" He reached out and his fingers slid through her dull hair, then guided them to the side of her face, lifting it to meet the half of her face disfigured by burns.
He stared intently at her, as if about to devour her, then knelt on both knees and cupped her face in his hands.
But she seemed unconscious, evident in her blurry, tear-filled eyes.
He felt a surge of pleasure at her surrendering without resistance, then whispered to her where no one else could hear:
"Ji-yeon…my little Ji-yeon…just surrender to me and I'll get you out of this hole…" He began to look at the people around him as if reciting a prayer over her.
Finally, she began to respond to him, meeting his smiling eyes, and felt the same way he had when he visited her the first night after her imprisonment.
***
The door opened, and a man in his early thirties peered in.
Ji-yeon, lying on the floor, flinched at the creak of the wooden door.
She forced herself up and lifted her head to see a blurry image of their familiar, kind neighbor entering and closing the door behind him.
"Brother Woo-hyun!" she cried out his name eagerly, as if she had forgotten the heartfelt speech she'd given him the day before.
With difficulty, her limbs aching, and the fever from the burn on her face causing her to become somewhat delirious, she sat up and continued,
"Brother, what's going on? Why did you do this to—?"
Just as she began to speak, the man, who hadn't turned to look at her, appeared, shaking as if laughing.
Then his manic laughter echoed throughout the room.
"Ji-yeon... Ji-yeon...! Ji-yeon!!" he suddenly shouted, making her jump, as he repeated her name like a madman.
Then he turned and strode toward her, collapsing to his knees in front of her. He gripped her shoulders tightly and shook her repeatedly, cursing and berating her incessantly:
"Can't you stop?! Answer me!! Why doesn't this face get ruined?!"
A boundless obsession, as if buried for a long time, flashed through his eyes. He shoved her back hard, slamming her back against the bed, causing her to fall to the floor, writhing in pain.
Then he stopped, panting and breathing heavily, his limbs trembling from the sudden outburst of his emotions.
But he felt euphoric, a feeling that he no longer had to hide anything.
Relief surged through his chest as he watched her tremble in terror beneath him.
He ran his hands through his hair and tugged at it roughly, as if trying to rein in the very breath he had unleashed.
He bit his lip until it bled.
After moments that felt like endless years to Ji-yeon, he sighed softly, then reached out to touch the undamaged part of her face and said in a reproachful tone, as if she were being blamed for his outburst,
"Why do you have to be so beautiful... even with a half-disfigured face and a damaged body...? I can't stand you..." He smiled as if flirting with someone, not as if he were squeezing her to death.
"Woo-hyun... what... why...?" Fear gnawed at her chest and paralyzed her limbs.
"No, no... don't call me that... I can't control myself like this, Ji-yeon..." He finally uttered her name as if savoring it like an addict.
Then he encircled her helpless body, lifted her in his arms, and stood up, placing her on the bed.
As if a bucket of cold water had been poured over her head, the moment of realization struck her.
"Why are you doing this to me?! Woo-hyun!!" she cried helplessly, trying to push him away with her undamaged hand.
He began to lose his temper, grabbing her broken hand and squeezing it, causing her to cry out in unbearable pain:
"Didn't I tell you not to call me that?! Do I look like I'm joking?!"
He shook her body and shouted at her angrily:
"I'm sorry!! I'm sorry!! Please let go, this hurts!!!"
Her tears flowed uncontrollably, like waterfalls of pain.
Finally, he released her, but he yelled at her harshly, making her gasp for breath:
"Shut up!"
She began to sob quietly, stifling her cries and swallowing all the pain.
He sat down and cupped her body, which lay on the bed, his hands encircling her face. He gazed at her face without pause—five minutes, ten, an hour.
He remained motionless, the only sound his breathing and her soft gasps audible.
Time seemed to crawl by, like blades tearing at her skin.
"Ji-yeon... do you know why you're like this...?" Finally, his voice came out, calm and still. He continued, "It was me... but believe me, I didn't do it... I didn't kill your grandmother... he did... but I'm the one who said you were the culprit... but he told me! He said I could have you like this! You believe me, right...? Say it! Say you believe me!!"
He spoke coldly, his voice laced with an indescribable obsession and madness. She screamed in fear and pain, sobbing, as he shook her body and shouted back, "Please say it!! Ji-yeon!! I didn't do it!! He said we'd have you like this!! He said we needed to remove whoever was distracting you from me!! Speak to me through my mind! Do you believe that?!"
He seemed to have lost his mind.
She screamed as if her body were on fire.
Her body shook and convulsed violently as she heard his sick confessions.
She screamed until her voice was hoarse, then, calmly, he laid her gently on the bed.
He sat watching her until she felt herself collapsing after hearing the truth.
He held her conscious as she listened to him whisper filthy words to her, telling her that he wanted her for himself alone, until she felt as if her skin had become dirty.
He told her about his "true" love, as he believed, and words about her being the chosen one, that she would save him from the filth of the world and that she should stay with him and belong to him.
Then, helpless, she lost consciousness.
***
Exactly… I remembered what I felt.
A feeling of hatred and disgust.
Then she lunged at him and slapped him across the face with her good hand.
"You filthy thing! How dare you?!" shouted a man from the crowd, and Mi-young screamed in horror as her beloved son was struck.
Just as the man was about to enter the salt circle, pull Ji-yeon out, and hit her, Woo-hyun raised his hand to stop him.
Then he looked up, revealing his slapped cheek, scratched by her fingernails from the force of the blow. His unchanging smile showed, and he said,
"It's okay… Don't go into the circle. I'm fine. You'll get hurt…" The man stopped before he could enter.
Woo-hyun turned his gaze back to her, and she looked at him as if she were about to tear him apart.
"It seems you haven't learned your lesson yet… Do I have to destroy everything for you to give in? Is Ms. Lee better than me?" He spoke in a low voice, his smile fading.
"Ji-yeon… remember… you are the cause of your suffering…"
Then he stood up calmly and walked past her.
He suddenly called out,
"Come on, everyone! It seems the evil spirit refuses to obey. Let's rid Ji-yeon's body and the village of its wickedness. Dig the grave…"
Ji-yeon's heart sank, and she froze at his words.
"Dig the grave…? What do you mean?!" she exclaimed, as they headed toward her grandmother's grave, shovels in hand, ready to dig.
"Woo Hyun!! Stop!! You will not desecrate my grandmother's body!! Woo Hyun, please stop!!"
She collapsed to her feet, unable to rise, watching them dig the shroud out of the earth.
She lost control and sprang to her feet as if her mind had been erased, forgetting all the pain she was enduring. She tried to run toward them to stop them.
But the women, acting on orders from Mrs. Lee's young neighbor, entered the circle and pinned her to the ground. She stared at them… or rather, at him,
desecrating her grandmother's body, which hadn't even been buried for six days.
She pleaded at the top of her lungs until she vomited blood,
but it was no use.
They called her possessed, insane.
The bastards!!!
Her body convulsed and trembled wildly. She gasped for breath, feeling utterly devastated.
She lay helpless under their pressure, closing her eyes, no longer wanting to stare.
She wished with all her heart that she were blind.
She could no longer move her body.
She felt a foot step beside her head, and the pressure of the women on her body vanished.
Then she was lifted from the ground, her injured limbs dangling in the air, and the hateful voice fell upon her ears:
"Bring the calligraphy tools… Let's save little Ji-yeon…"
Then she remembered nothing.
Only when she awoke did she find her body inscribed with Buddhist prayers.
But the color… a dark red.
And a foul odor crept into her nostrils as if it had risen from a freshly dug grave.
Red…?
The image of her grandmother being dragged from her shroud flooded her mind.
And everything froze.
A biting cold pierced her thoughts, paralyzing her limbs.
Suddenly, a violent spasm seized her, lifting her body off the ground for a moment, before hurling her into an endless wave of trembling. She pushed herself away with force and fell to the ground.
She felt her soul being ripped from her chest, and she gasped, then the spasm subsided…
But a wail erupted from her throat.
It rose until she shook The wooden walls of the house, her body still trembling, the tightness suffocating her until she felt death approaching.
And then… she was locked in the house.
In her room, specifically.
She was forbidden to wash herself, and every attempt to remove the red dye ended with a slap from Woo Hyun, who would drag her and forcibly redraw the line on her skin.
He forbade her from leaving the kitchen.
It was as if Mi Young, the only person allowed in the house besides him, was forbidden from speaking to her or crossing those same boundaries, by order of her son, who coldly declared that no one but him could touch or speak to her…
until she was "healed."
She would place food on the kitchen doorstep and leave silently, then he would come in, feed her with his own hands, as if she were something he owned.
In just ten days, she suffered successive attacks that shattered her consciousness, beginning as panic attacks and then escalating into a complete detachment from reality.
She seemed empty… like a shell devoid of jewels.
Hollow… hollow… scarred and bruised.
And he wouldn't let her escape him, not even for a moment.
~~~
Then…
She regained consciousness to the sound of the front door being flung open and then slamming shut with a deafening bang.
Her body flinched and trembled. Heavy footsteps approached the kitchen slowly and then moved toward her.
She shuddered and lowered her head. He didn't come closer but slammed the glass of water near the tap, causing it to shatter. The sound of breaking glass echoed through the kitchen, and water splashed onto the floor.
He fell with the glass and crashed to the floor, followed by a low-pitched voice that sent shivers down her spine.
"Didn't I forbid you from talking to anyone…?" He moved closer to her, standing near her, then shouted angrily, "Answer me!"
He grabbed her face with his hand and slowly lifted her to his level.
"Aren't you tired of this...? Answer me..." He lowered his voice, and she nodded fearfully.
She didn't dare move and heard a mocking remark from his mouth:
"Then why did you talk to Mi-young...?"
He gently set her back down, held her in his arms, squatted down, and began to play with her hair softly.
"I was so thirsty..." her voice came out like a mosquito's, strained and trembling.
"Thirsty...? Then you should have waited for me... Why did you talk to her...?"
That bastard didn't even call his own mother "Mother."
Disgust gnawed at her, and she glared at him through her hair, which fell across her face, with deep-seated hatred.
When their eyes met, a loud, mocking laugh escaped his lips:
"Ji-yeon!! Don't you dare play ball with me now! I'm warning you!"
He grabbed her arms tightly and deliberately squeezed her broken hand hard,
making her wince silently.
Then he let her fall quietly to the ground.
He sat looking at her coldly.
Afterwards, a jumble of confused memories flashed through his mind: when he was twenty-three, a college student in the prime of his youth.
When he was first diagnosed with psychosis.
Our neighbor, the elderly Mrs. Li Yu-hua, was a shaman who healed people and cleansed houses of spirits, and she lived alone.
I spent my days with Mrs. Li, avoiding noises and helping her with her work because she was an old woman.
Then, one morning when I visited Mrs. Li, I didn't find her at her house.
"Did she leave early this morning? Where could she have gone?"
I left and went back inside. Three days and nights passed since she left, and she still hadn't returned.
I felt like I was in a shell, especially since the voices had grown louder after the old woman left.
I shut myself in and waited for her to come back. I didn't want to lose control and hurt anyone again.
After three days and nights, Mrs. Li returned.
When she finally came out of my room, she was laughing with my mother outside.
When I looked closer, I saw a little girl, about seven or eight years old, hiding behind Li Yuhua's body. She looked very shy.
Mrs. Li pushed her in front of my mother to greet her.
As soon as I caught sight of her clear, small face, flushed slightly with shyness,
the voices disappeared.
Wait… the voices disappeared?
As soon as they did, my mind cleared, and my eyes met her almond-shaped, watery eyes.
For a moment, she looked away and went back to hiding behind Mrs. Lee, who laughed at her.
A few moments later, my mother came back inside. A voice came out of me unconsciously:
"Mother... who is that little girl with Mrs. Lee?"
My mother was startled to see that I had finally come out of my room, then answered simply:
"She's her granddaughter, her daughter's daughter. Mrs. Lee's son-in-law is sick in the hospital and she can't look after her daughter, so she called her mother and asked her to go and look after her." She said this as she started doing some housework, then added:
"If you're all right, go and say hello."
I sat quietly where I was, because as soon as the little face disappeared, the voices started gnawing at my head again.
So I decided to try and see if what I was feeling was real.
An hour later, I walked toward the wooden house, which wasn't far from the woods, unlike the other houses nearby, and knocked on the door.
And then I heard a soft voice, a little girl's voice, say,
"Grandma, there's a knock at the door!"
Then, a few moments later, the door shook and opened; she must have told her to open it.
A beautiful image of a little girl appeared, looking shyly at me from behind the door. She asked,
"What do you want, brother...?" Then she looked at me expectantly.
And for the second time, the sounds and the headache disappeared as if they had never been.
It seemed real.
I smiled, I smiled from the bottom of my heart. It seemed I had found the answer! Finally!
After that, I tried to get closer to her little by little. Although her discomfort was obvious, she eventually got used to me and began spending endless time with me.
I was happy and oblivious to everything, until a year passed. Then, just like when the old woman disappeared for me, she disappeared again!
I went to their house in the morning, but they weren't there.
I felt anger gnawing at my ribs, so I went back home and locked myself in.
But this time the voices weren't the same. It was a different voice, a voice like mine, whispering that she was mine alone:
"She's yours alone..."
"No! She's still too young!" I shook my head stubbornly.
"What's the problem? All you have to do is make her attached to you until she's big enough for you..."
"I said no!" I slammed my fist on the vase, and it shattered completely on the floor.
I gasped, then my gaze fell on the mirror that fit me perfectly in the corner. Then it whispered:
"She's ours..."
"Smash!" I punched the glass mirror, shattering it until its features were distorted.
"She's mine alone...!" I screamed angrily, then it dawned on me... She is mine! She's mine!
Yes! God sent her to me to save me from evil! How could I not have realized that until now?
Then I looked at my reflection in the shattered mirror, blood dripping from my hand from the broken glass. He looked terrifying… I must never let her see that face! Never!!
"So you're finally convinced…"
"Stop it!" I yelled angrily.
"I can make her completely yours…" he whispered seductively.
"And how…" I hissed, excited by the idea: completely mine? Ji-yeon completely mine? I want her…
"Let's be one…" I heard his voice echoing, but I didn't care.
"You're sure… you'll make her completely mine…" I said incredulously.
"Yes… completely ours…"
I went to sleep that night thinking: It's okay to be one body, but she's mine alone.
A week later, Ji-yeon returned, dressed in white, her eyes red and her face sad. After speaking with her, I learned that her father's condition had suddenly worsened, and her mother had been forced to donate a kidney to him.
But he died after the operation. As soon as his wife awoke and discovered this, she suffered fatal complications from the overwhelming grief,
leading to her death shortly after his.
The girl who had longed to return to live with her parents was now deeply saddened and broken. This was his chance.
He had told him he would help him. He hadn't intended to exploit her feelings. She wouldn't leave him if she knew, would she? Of course not... She belonged to him.
Then the voice began to command and forbid, and he obeyed without resistance.
He did everything he was supposed to, everything he was asked to do, but he still hadn't won her!
He felt like he was going mad and banged his head against the wall until it bled.
But at least when she saw his injury, she would care. She would ask him how he was hurt, and she would stay with him for a while.
She would stay if he was hurt.
With this thought in mind, he hurt himself a lot; at home or while working in Seoul, deliberately. Then he would return to her, bandaged, with an innocent expression.
And one day, she came back to him with good news—or so she thought.
She applied to college after the entrance exam, and there's a good chance she'll get in.
But that college is far away, and he—despite working in Seoul—always came back to the village.
How could she leave him and go away…?
I won't allow it…
At that moment, a whisper in his head ripped my body from his grasp.
When I regained consciousness, I was covered in blood.
It was Mrs. Lee's blood.
He killed her…
But I didn't feel guilty.
I'd been trying to keep Ji-yeon away from me lately, so she deserved what was happening to her.
But the thoughts wouldn't stop, so he held them back. He no longer had to hide his feelings!
All he had to do was wait for her to say, "Yes… I'll stay with you forever."
That was all he wanted, and he would do anything to get it.
He stared at her body lying on the ground before him, then smiled genuinely. He knelt, brushed her hair away from her face, and gently kissed the half of her disfigured face. Then he left. Quietly, as if he'd never caused a storm in the otherwise peaceful cottage.
Disgust washed over her. She stayed motionless,
then got up and walked back to the cellar.
Her grandmother had seemed worried a few days before she was killed.
She'd reminded her of a door in the cellar, one she'd always told her about when she was little, warning her never to tell anyone.
Her grandmother… had seemed worried in her final days,
and knew what kind of lunatics surrounded her granddaughter.
Ji-yeon knelt and lifted one of the old, dusty rags, taking a small silver key from underneath.
Then she opened the door, pushed it open, and stepped out.
The door opened onto the forest beyond the cottage. She ran quickly, leaving the cottage and plunging deep into the woods.
She ran until the sun was just beginning to rise and reached a river with a powerful current.
This river was the lifeblood of the village; the people ate and drank from it.
She stood on the large stones on a slope near the river.
She thought and thought, and finally came to this conclusion.
For the last time, she cursed them from the bottom of her heart and threw her battered body off the slope into the river.
She hit the surface hard and quickly sank to the bottom, swept away by the current.
The last thing she saw, as she felt a strange warmth seep into her bones despite the cold water, was a dirty white dress.
White had always been unlucky for her. She hated him so, so much…
Her eyelids grew heavy and closed. She smiled and thought,
'Finally… I'll be free…'
And then she felt nothing.
~~~ Ji-yeon felt extremely dizzy. She raised her numb hand and placed it on her head.
Wait! I'm alive!
For a moment, she forgot the pain in her body and sat up.
A curl of fiery red hair hung before her eyes.
She lost consciousness and pushed herself off the bed, falling to the floor. A woman stood before her: red hair, unfamiliar features, and amber eyes that shone brightly even from a distance! That was the last moment of her memory before she lost consciousness.
***
Hi, this novel has been translated into English, and this is the first chapter.
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