He found the CCTV that illuminated Won and pulled it up to m*sturbate in earnest. He remembered the naked body he saw and touched on the first day in the ward.

The way her br*asts bounced when he tugged at her n*pple piercings, the killer glare in her eyes when he asked her to spread her legs so he could inspect underneath, the way her legs shuddered, and her soft insides clenching around his fingers…

Frowning, he roughly tugged open the desk drawer. With only the sensation of his fumbling fingertips, he found what he was looking for, grabbed it, and pulled it out. It was the n*pple piercing connected to the metal chain that Won had been wearing.

Wrapping the chain around his c*ck, he rubbed it hard against his shaft.

The serpentine eyes behind the glasses were filled with lust.

“Aaaah!”

His c*ck jerked, spewing a stream of c*m onto Won displayed on the monitors.

Catching his breath, Dr. Madison reached for the monitor. Slowly spreading his c*m across her face, he grinned from ear to ear.

“You look good.”

He better tame her before someone else gets to her.

Looking over her shoulder, Won glanced at the CCTV.

She wondered if someone was currently watching her from the other side. Sometimes, the CCTV feels like a human gaze.

She can’t help but tolerate it because it has a purpose, but the environment creates mental distress. Being watched around the clock without the slightest bit of privacy, she can’t believe that in the 21st century, human rights violations like this are so commonplace. She wondered if it was even real sometimes.

Tearing her gaze away from the CCTV, Won casually turned her head as if she were taking in the area.

She was currently on the third floor.

Patients in the locked ward are not allowed to go outside, but there are no restrictions on their movement inside. As long as there wasn’t a sign that says “staff only,” they can go wherever they want.

The hottest spot was the first floor where the main hall is located, but patients who don’t like the hustle and bustle often go for a “corridor walk” on the second or third floor. At this moment, a patient was taking a picture of the far end of the hall on the third floor and walked toward her.

Like the second floor, the third floor had various rooms, but the ones that caught Won’s attention were a religious room and an unidentified cloakroom with “No Entry” sign. The latter would have to be explored when the cameras were off, so for now, only the religious room was accessible.

Hospitals of a certain size have chaplains’ offices, chapels, and prayer rooms for religious patients. However, she didn’t know if this was for Christian, Buddhist, or Muslim patients.

‘Are they different inside?’

She’ll find out once she enters.

On a whim, Won grabbed the doorknob for the religious room, but when she turned it, it was locked. Apparently, it’s not supposed to be open when it is unoccupied. A quick check revealed that the hours of operation were from 15:00 to 16:00.

‘I’ll have to come back later.’

Won let go in disappointment.

“No! Don’t go in there.”

The terrified voice struck her in the back like a thunderbolt. Won turned around. The voice belonged to Ms. Yang.

“It’s a devil’s lair, and if you go in, you’ll be cursed. You’ll die surrounded by hundreds of snakes.”

Ms. Yang is a patient with Alzheimer’s. She has a history of calling other patients evil spirits and demons, so what she says needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

‘Demons, snakes… Sounds like a classic case of delirium…’

Delirium is a condition that affects those with Alzheimer’s, causing frightening hallucinations of bugs, snakes, and ghosts. It can also be accompanied by symptoms of paranoia, suspicion, and fear, leading people to believe things are real when they aren’t and others are trying to harm them. Still, Won asked Ms. Yang to confirm.

“Have you ever been here?”

“Yes. Once with Dr. Hudson.”

Dr. Hudson, a familiar name.

“Why are you bothering Dr. Hudson?”

That’s what she once said to Won when she tried to talk to Old Man Gugu once, but it was hard to confirm if they were the same person. There are roughly three possibilities.

First, Old Man Gugu and Dr. Hudson are the same person.

Second, they are two separate people and Ms. Yang is projecting the existence of Dr. Hudson onto Old Man Gugu.

Third, “Dr. Hudson” could be a fictional character who doesn’t exist at all, given Ms. Yang’s condition.

“Who is Dr. Hudson?”

“Someone. He’s a doctor.”

“A doctor?”

“But he shouldn’t have done that, he shouldn’t have broken the ‘precautions,’ ah, ah…”

Ms. Yang put her head in her hands, looking terrified. Won grabbed her arm and locked eyes with her.

“Precautions? What is that?”

“The precautions for the closed ward.”

“Precautions for the closed ward?”

“Yeah, you know, the ones that are written on the paper. He broke them and the demons and snakes dragged Dr. Hudson away. Alas, poor Dr. Hudson!”

Won tried to talk and see if she could get more information out of her, but it got worse. She started to say things that would never come from someone who is sane.

One minute he’s an old man, the next he is Dr. Hudson, and the next he’s dragged away by demons and snakes. And ‘that thing’ written on paper? Won never saw any paper with precautions on it.

Swallowing a sigh, Won tried to calm the agitated Ms. Yang down.

‘On my first day in the hospital, I was given a handout with some sort of house rules, but it didn’t have anything that could be called precautions.’

She didn’t throw it away, so it was probably still in her room somewhere. She decided to look for it and reread the instructions, but Ms. Yang suddenly started to yell at the top of her lungs.

“You bastard! Who are you to pretend to be a doctor? You aren’t a doctor just because you wear a robe. You don’t know anything about my condition. I don’t want to be treated by a quack, so discharge me!”

Without another word, Ms. Yang stormed off, crossing the hallway and walking away. Won thought about following her, but decided against it given that the staff would be watching. She turned away.

Back in her room, Won looked by her side table and saw a piece of paper folded in half under the plastic containers. She pulled it to reveal an information sheet for the hospitalized patients. She read it and saw nothing unusual, just a bunch of common sense living tips for anyone in the hospital. It seemed out of place for this suspicious facility.

‘Am I taking her ramblings too seriously?’

Folding the paper and placing it on the table, Won crossed her arms.

‘Precautions for the closed ward.’

It was an improbable phrase to use in everyday life, but it wasn’t unfamiliar. It meant she had heard it before. To figure out when Won searched her memories.

‘Target, Black Cat, Ju-hee, Sol, Mr. Baek, the clapping guy, Mrs. Gil, Mrs. Sook, Old Man Gugu, Dr. Madison…’

“There’s more sh*t to come, but if you keep one thing in mind, you’ll be able to live in this shitty place just fine. I’m going to tell you the precautions to take in the locked ward, so open your ears and listen.”

Won’s eyes widened.

Top Dog.

On her first day in the ward, the phrase ‘precautions in the locked ward’ clearly came out of his mouth.

‘Is it a coincidence? Or is he hiding something more?’

Won isn’t a detective looking to uncover the secrets of this hospital, she is just a mercenary trying to save someone. If she can get Target out, that’s one thing, but now that he is gone, it’s a different story.

She has to actively gather information to find Target.

If Target’s sudden disappearance is connected to any of the dark secrets here, she’ll need to uncover them all.

That is her new playbook.

She needs to find out if those precautions have anything to do with Target’s disappearance, and her first stop is Top Dog. That is after she checks the religious room.

Won looked down at her wristwatch. It was almost 15:00. She could stop by the nurses’ station, grab a cup of coffee, and be on her way. In the main hall, an inevitable stop on the way to the station, Top Dog was there occupying the most prestigious couch, as usual.

“Hey, sweetheart. What are you doing?”

“We’ll talk later.”

Won, holding a lukewarm coffee, completely ignored him and continued to the third floor. The religion room is open for only one hour a day. She might have to wait until 15:00 tomorrow if she stopped and talked to him.

After gulping down the contents and tossing the empty paper cup into the trash, Won reached for the doorknob. The coolness of the metal brushed against her palm and she felt a strange tension. There was no way a horde of demons and snakes could be leaping out of this place, as Ms. Yang claimed.

Slowly, she turned the doorknob. With a clank, the interlocking mechanisms shifted, and the door swung open to reveal a panoramic view of the interior.

First of all, it didn’t look like a temple. There were no statues of Buddha or anything else, and there was no crucifix. It didn’t look like a Muslim prayer room.

Since the space is shared by people of many faiths, did they intentionally avoid any particular religious symbols?

Unable to find anything distinctive about the space, Won looked over the patients.

Kofi