When Yugeon returned home, he went straight into the bathroom, grabbed the toilet, and threw up. Forcing himself to eat had caused trouble after all. On the way home, he tried to buy some digestive medicine, but it was late and there were no pharmacies open. As a last resort, he stopped by a convenience store, but they said both digestive medicine and digestive drinks were all sold out.
“What timing….”
Yugeon pressed firmly between his thumb and index finger and came out after washing up roughly.
His whole body was heavy like waterlogged cotton. Though he desperately wanted to lie down, he folded up the bedding he had spread out and put it away, then sat leaning against the wall, turned on the TV and raised the volume. He felt like he would have strange dreams again if he fell asleep.
“Haah.”
A sigh escaped naturally. Sitting while changing TV channels meaninglessly, Yugeon matched his breathing to the tick-tock sound of the clock hands and ended up falling asleep without knowing it.
*Chadak chadak*, he heard some sound in his sleep. A sound like dry soles stepping on the floor. Then he felt a chill. The chill that approached even closer with the footsteps circled around his body. From his toes to his body to his face didn’t take very long. The chill that had been circling near his face gradually descended again and groped his ankle. Goosebumps rose at the sensation colder than ice.
He felt that he had completely awakened from sleep, but his body wouldn’t move.
‘Sleep paralysis?’
Yugeon desperately tried to get up. But no matter how hard he tried and struggled, his body didn’t budge. His eyes wouldn’t open either. Meanwhile, the chill completely wrapped around his ankle and began pulling down his body that was leaning against the wall.
Yugeon screamed in horror, but no sound escaped outside his mouth.
His body, dragged down, came to lie completely on the floor.
He was even more afraid because he didn’t know what was happening to him, what would happen. Even more so because his eyes were closed and everything was darkness. He screamed with all his might and struggled, but contrary to his mind, his body was only still.
The chill that had been gripping his ankle seemed to move away, then he felt a chill near his solar plexus on his chest. It felt like it was groping not on top of his body, but inside his body. At the sensation as if even his internal organs would freeze, his body trembled involuntarily.
‘I should have gotten a cross, I should have gotten a Bible!’
He was so scared that tears burst out. He wanted to wail loudly, but no sound or tears came. Even when he shouted at the top of his lungs for help, for someone to please save him, no voice came out.
– Good… thing. You have.
A completely dry and cracked voice whispered in his ear.
Good thing? What is that?
The moment puzzlement and anxiety crossed and assaulted him, his legs were spread apart.
‘What…?’
Before he could even grasp the situation, he had to gasp. Something cold and hard began pushing inside his body. Along with indescribable agony, his insides twisted. At the sensation he was experiencing for the first time, a scream burst out involuntarily.
‘Aaah… aaaah!’
As if unconcerned with his pain, the chill slowly began moving in and out of him. The sensation of the inside being forced open, the feeling of the inner walls being pulled out was vivid. It felt like his insides were turning over. Nausea surged up.
The chill endlessly moved in and out, pushing forcibly inside, deeper inside. As if searching for something by rummaging through his insides.
Rough breathing that grew intense clung stickily to his ears that shook helplessly. Along with the breathing came a foul odor. Everything was terrible. If only this were a dream, if only it were a dream….
‘Please let me wake up quickly.’
“Huk!”
His eyes opened. Without even breathing, Yugeon looked around with his eyes wide open. A familiar room scenery. It was his room. But what he saw was not the ceiling but the window. When he moved his body, his back separated from the wall. Yugeon turned around and looked at the wall he had been leaning against.
“Why am I sitting…?”
He was definitely lying down?
It suddenly occurred to him. The cold chill that had pulled him down from sitting to lying. And…. The terrible things that had happened all night, whether dream or reality. What he had suffered seemed to be ghost molestation. Disgusted, Yugeon bent over right there and threw up.
With nothing eaten, only yellow gastric juice came up as Yugeon vomited, then clutched his lower abdomen in agony. It still felt like he was open down there, like something had come inside.
Why is this happening to me?
The crying he couldn’t do and the tears he couldn’t shed all night burst out like a broken dam.
After throwing up and crying for a long while, Yugeon remembered the chill that had groped over his body and scratched his whole body as if tearing it apart, then fled into the bathroom and washed his entire body. Until that sensation like a slug crawling all over his body completely disappeared.
“Yugeon-ah!”
When he arrived at work at the mart, Han Yunyeong, who had been pacing near the entrance, waved her hand widely and called Yugeon. Yugeon made an effort to compose his expression and approached Han Yunyeong with a face no different from usual.
“Unnie.”
When he greeted her with a smile, Han Yunyeong stiffened her face and looked closely at Yugeon’s face.
“Couldn’t you sleep? Your face doesn’t look good….”
“What? No, no…. I slept well.”
“You didn’t have strange dreams again, did you?”
Yugeon, who had been avoiding eye contact and stroking his own face as if asking if it looked that strange, flinched unconsciously, but it was such a minute reaction that Han Yunyeong didn’t notice.
“No, maybe because I ate well thanks to unnie yesterday, I slept soundly.”
“Really? That’s a relief then…. Oh, I talked with Ahjussi Jacheol, and there’s a famous shaman he heard about through someone. They say her spiritual power has been declining a bit lately, but she’s still quite skilled, so if you want, he said he’d make an appointment.”
“Re-really?”
“Yeah. Should I ask him to make one?”
“Yes, yes…!”
Yugeon nodded desperately. Just then, Choi Jacheol coming out of the warehouse came into view. Han Yunyeong waved her hand toward Choi Jacheol and called him, and Choi Jacheol, who spotted the two, approached.
“Ahjussi, Yugeon says he wants to go see that shaman.”
“Really?”
Choi Jacheol asked back while looking at Yugeon. Normally he would have said something about believing in and seeking such superstitions, but in Choi Jacheol’s gaze looking at Yugeon, faint guilt was reflected.
Choi Jacheol cleared his throat unnecessarily and patted Yugeon’s shoulder a couple of times.
“Should I schedule it for your day off? Or should I schedule it for the soonest possible day?”
“The soonest possible day.”
The answer came back without hesitation. This was Yugeon, who worked by the hour and whose monthly pay would be reduced if he took time off, so he never rested even when sick.
Choi Jacheol swallowed a sigh and nodded, then called somewhere. After finishing a short call in a rough voice, Choi Jacheol told Yugeon.
“She says to come at 1 PM tomorrow.”
“1 PM tomorrow?”
At the appointment sooner than expected, color returned to Yugeon’s face. He had heard that famous shamans and fortune tellers could take months just for a reservation. He didn’t know if the shaman could really solve this situation, but there was nothing to lose. Right now he had to cling to anything.
“I’ll take you there tomorrow.”
“Ahjussi, isn’t tomorrow not your day off?”
“How can I send you alone? The snake liquor thing is partly my fault too…. It’s okay to step out briefly during lunch time. It’s not far, so I’ll drive you there. Find your own way back.”
Yugeon didn’t refuse and obediently nodded.
After getting off work at the mart, Yugeon was about to go home when he stopped walking. He didn’t want to be alone in that small underground studio room. No, honestly, he was scared. He might have dreams with the snake appearing again, or suffer sleep paralysis and ghost molestation. He didn’t have anyone close enough to impose on for a night or call to stay with him. No, even if he had someone, he wouldn’t be able to call them or visit. Dreams were one thing, but what if he suffered ghost molestation?
Yugeon, who had been wandering around, purchased beer and snacks from a nearby convenience store and headed home. If he drank heavily and passed out, wouldn’t there be no chance to dream or suffer sleep paralysis?
When he arrived home, Yugeon turned on the lights and TV and immediately began drinking. Riding along with the lively atmosphere in the TV, laughing and enjoying himself while emptying can after can, before he knew it the beer he’d bought was all gone and his face was flushed red.
Shaking an empty beer can, Yugeon realized it was the last one and sprawled out on the floor. Yugeon normally didn’t drink alcohol. Because his bronchial tubes were weak, he preferred tea over alcohol. Things like bellflower root tea, omija tea, jujube tea. When he was young, his grandmother seemed to have often made him baesuk.
Not knowing his drinking capacity but needing to get drunk, he had grabbed quite a lot at random, but he didn’t know he could drink it all. Yugeon looked at the beer cans scattered around him and laughed with a snicker. If his grandmother had seen, she might have smacked his back.
“I miss Grandmother….”
Muttering vacantly, Yugeon tossed and turned here and there, then soon closed his eyes. Borrowing the power of alcohol, praying he could get through the night safely today.
When he opened his eyes, he saw the dark room. Along with black fog writhing as if alive.
Yugeon let out a sigh without a word. In the end, even alcohol was useless.
Between the fog that scattered and gathered, black scales were visible. It was coiled in a corner of the room, looking down at him. Yugeon met the bright yellow pupils and suddenly thought those pupils were familiar.
‘Is it because I’ve seen them often in dreams?’
When he first had this dream, it was creepy and ominous. It felt like some distant being was monitoring him, watching him. But the snake always just looked down at him quietly. Just like observing.
Korean ghosts are supposed to attain Buddhahood if you resolve their grievances—does that snake also have resentment or grievances? Because it became snake liquor? Because I drank it? No, everyone drank the liquor together, so why does it only appear to me? Could it possibly hold a grudge against me? Or is it asking me to resolve its resentment?
While he was thinking various thoughts, he felt a chill from somewhere. Yugeon trembled and hurriedly turned his gaze. In another corner of the room, emaciated legs wrapped in black fog were visible.
“!”
Yugeon froze right there, unable to move at all. They were familiar legs. Those legs reflected in the TV screen. And this chill was….
Yugeon unconsciously stepped backward. When Yugeon retreated, the legs wrapped in fog flinched, but couldn’t step forward. It looked exactly like they were blocked by the fog and couldn’t come out.
When it seemed like the legs couldn’t approach him, Yugeon gradually calmed down and watched it carefully. It occasionally moved as if walking in place, and whenever it moved, the sound of *chadak chadak* stepping on the floor could be heard.
The more he watched, the more certain he could be. That was the legs reflected in the TV screen, and the chill that had tormented him last night.
The thing that had only been walking in place intermittently began stretching out its arms and groping through the fog. It looked exactly like it was searching for something. Yugeon covered his mouth and retreated further.
– Mi…ne…. Mine, mine….
Words uttered in stumbling, slurred pronunciation flowed out from within the fog.
Taking one step, two steps back, Yugeon’s back hit the wall. There was nowhere left to retreat. In one corner was the snake, in another corner was the chill. Yugeon leaned against the wall and slid down to sit. It was a terrible nightmare with no way to escape.
