Precautions of a Snakepit - Chapter 57

Even though he wasn’t touching her, his presence alone made her legs buckle.

Won spoke the words that had been lingering on the tip of her tongue.

“Wh- Why are you doing this?”

There had to be a reason. Like in the storage room, he wouldn’t do this for nothing.

‘There’s got to be something going on.’

He’s not a man who would do something like this, no matter how disrespectful he is. The man she has seen so far, the man she knows…

“Can’t you tell? You’re so naive.” A sneer tugged at the corners of his mouth and he added, “You’ve been fooled by me.”

Her heart felt like it dropped from her chest to her stomach. Won stared at his face, frozen in shock. A terrible chill ran through her body; she felt like she had been doused in ice-cold water.

‘What did I just hear?’

She was dazed. He didn’t say anything complex, but her brain short-circuited and refused to accept it. The sentence was so simple and the meaning was so clear, so it couldn’t be misinterpreted.

“You were… in cahoots from the beginning?”

She asked even though she already knew the answer. She tried not to shower her agitation, but she felt like her heart would burst from betrayal.

“I was. You’ll never escape this ward.”

At his declaration, Won felt something shatter inside her. Trust? The broken trust was part of it, but it wasn’t the only thing.

A menacing column of flesh loomed beneath her as she was engulfed by the feeling of falling into an abyss.

“I’ll continue to make love to you, like a pretty toy.”

The great mass of flesh stretched her opening to its limit as it mercilessly plunged in.

***

At the same time, Won’s eyes flashed open. The ceiling of the hospital room came into view. She sat there for a moment, unable to comprehend the situation, and frantically looked around the room. Top Dog was nowhere to be seen.

She pulled back the covers and her clothes were still on.

She looked down at her wrists. There was no sign of handprints.

“… Ah.”

A strangled groan escaped her throat. She buried her face in her palms as a wave of exhaustion washed over her. She couldn’t stop her hands from slightly trembling. Her heart was racing.

‘It wasn’t real. It was a dream, all of it.’

Won lay dazed, unable to escape the aftermath of the nightmare. It was too vivid to shake off, like it had really happened in another world, and she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

She never had a dream come true in her life. Some people have dreams about winning the lottery or dying, but none of that applies to her.

In fact, she didn’t even believe that dreams meant anything. If she dreamed a thousand times, ten thousand times, maybe one or two of them will happen to be true. The odds are not significant. Wouldn’t someone need to be superstitious to see the future through their dreams? She doesn’t believe in superstitions.

Dreams are just a reorganization of stimuli people encounter in their daily lives. It’s just a randomized video of all the information stored in the brain.

‘I know. Even though I know it…’

“You’ve been fooled by me.”

Won squeezed her eyes shut as the voice echoed in her ears. She couldn’t calm down.

‘I fell asleep, wondering if I should trust him, and I dream of this.’

At this point, she had to know.

She was terrified of being betrayed by him. Terrified enough to have a dream like that.

‘Why? Because I don’t think I can win if he turns against me? No, no…’

In a dream she is helpless, but in real life, she isn’t.

She can assure anyone, she won’t lose to Top Dog.

She isn’t afraid of not being able to beat him.

‘What I’m afraid of is…’

“It’s the taste I wanted to feed you.”

“I’ll fix it somehow, so do whatever you want.”

“I dragged her here, so I’m the only one going, okay?”

“Are you worried about me? It’s okay, I’m strong.”

“What the f*ck did you get yourself into, huh?”

“Ah, I was hiding my pretty girl behind me, so if anyone approached, I’d punch them and knock them out. It was so they would only see my face and not yours.”

All that time being a lie.

“F*ck.”

Won couldn’t help but swear. This was something she really didn’t need to realize. She wished she never found out, so why did she have to?

Why doesn’t her brain realize when the right time to strike is? The brain stem should have a feature that blocks out information that won’t help its master.

‘No, really…’

Fully awake, Won was about to get out of bed when she felt a slippery sensation between her legs. Her underwear was soaked through and her thighs were sticky. She cautiously slipped her hand under the quilt-covered lower half and felt it; it was viscous.

At her age, m*sturbating in her sleep would have been ridiculous in its own right, but with a dream like this…

She buried her face in her pillow. She wanted to hide in a rat hole.

***

The first day after the strange dream didn’t go well.

That morning, Won started her period.

‘Why did I have that dream?’

Her hormones were playing tricks on her.

She locked herself in her room, feeling grumpy. She didn’t want to see Top Dog, and she knew she would be less energized than usual, so she took a break.

As she lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling, a sense of solemnity washed over her.

‘Is this how my ancestors lived?’

Life without a cell phone, computer, or television was monotonous. If she wanted to go somewhere, she could go to the library and borrow a book, but she didn’t want to. She didn’t have the concentration to read.

Reading is an activity that requires good, physical condition. She can read the same book when she is in good shape and not, but it won’t be the same experience.

‘I have nothing to do, so I’ll just sleep.’

She usually refrained from sleeping more than necessary, as it was detrimental to her health, but today she felt lazy and wanted to do nothing but rest. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Won opened her eyes to an uncomfortable sensation. Her body felt heavy. Every muscle screamed as if she had been beaten. She wondered if she slept in the wrong position, so she rolled over to her side, but breathing was still difficult.

Won touched her forehead in disbelief and groaned.

‘A cold.’

It could just be a body ache, but she wasn’t a doctor so she couldn’t make an accurate diagnosis, but there was no doubt it wasn’t normal.

She hadn’t been sick in years, yet here she was, in this place. Was her immune system compromised from being in the ward for so long or from not seeing sunlight?

Won sighed as she came to the conclusion that it was a confluence of factors, including Dr. Madison’s tickle torture, exploring the ward, losing sleep over Top Dog’s remarks, and starting her period.

‘Great timing.’

She had no luck,

Dr. Madison’s harassment, navigating the ward, Top Dog, nightmares, and her period. If only these things hadn’t happened, she might not be in this mess.

She reached for the button to alert the nurses, but pulled her hand back. She couldn’t trust the hospital staff to give her proper medication.

‘I’d be lucky if they didn’t give me something weird.’

Won shook her head as she imagined Dr. Madison giving her anything but a fever reducer. She would be better in a day or two anyway, so she didn’t want to risk it.

‘Let’s get this over with as quietly as possible.’

She checked her watch and it was two in the afternoon. She skipped lunch. At this rate, she wasn’t sure she would make it to dinner. Skipping two meals in a row would ar*use suspicion…

Even though she thought about it, she didn’t have the energy to lift a finger. She dozed on and off, waking up, forcing herself to go to the bathroom to change her sanitary products, and groaning.

After dinner, she was lying in bed in a daze when she heard a knock on the door.

“Unnie, it’s me, Ju-hee. Are you sleeping?”

“No, I’m awake…”

“I’ll come in.”

Without waiting for permission, Ju-hee opened the sliding door. Won didn’t want to see anyone, but she let her in any way.

“You haven’t been around much today, so I was wondering if something was wrong.”

She felt footsteps approaching her bedside, so Won tried to pull herself together. It’s only polite to talk to someone face to face when they come to see you.

She was lying with her back to Ju-hee, so she started to turn around. She froze when she saw a shadow on the wall of the hospital room.

The shadow had a strange shape.

It was too elongated and uniformly thick to be a human.

It reminded her of a snake.

“Unnie, are you sick?”

Won didn’t recognize the voice asking her.