Precautions of a Snakepit - Chapter 82

Won calmly looked around the interior.

A bed with chains, a large screen on the ceiling, and cups on the table.

There was a sense of life, but she wasn’t sure she would call it ‘living.’

‘Target was held here.’

Won thought the ritual would be performed here, but she was wrong. It’s been moved elsewhere.

It’s not hard to imagine what Target went through here. Strapped to a bed, limbs chained, forced to watch the video on the ceiling against his will. Even if he closed his eyes to avoid seeing it, the sound would still be in his ears. Won understood what would happen: hypnosis, brainwashing…

‘Maybe Target’s mind has already broken down.’

Won tightly closed her eyes as she pictured Target looking like Dr. Hudson.

Black Cat whispered in a low voice and broke Won’s thoughts.

“Won, Rock. There’s a door over there. Shall we open it?”

“Wait, I’ll go and open it.”

She couldn’t leave it to Black Cat, who was just a regular person, in case an opponent ambushed them from the other side. Won quietly approached and grabbed the doorknob. She could see Top Dog wordlessly reaching for his golf club. If anything popped out, he was ready to hit it.

‘That guy doesn’t hesitate to hit others.’

Swallowing a sigh, Won pulled the door open and quickly ducked down.

To her relief, there was no one on the other side of the door. Instead, a passageway opened up. It was much narrower than a typical hallway, and the nearby walls were lined with pipes thicker than a man’s thigh.

Won remembered the blueprints she’d seen earlier. This is the pit area, marked with an X, at the back of the religious room. Next to it is a real pit space, and next to that is…

“I think they’re illegally using the pit space. This is probably…”

Black Cat seemed to notice and Won finished his sentence.

“It must lead to the evacuation stairs.”

“Evacuation stairs? The one with the people on a green background and EXIT written on it? That means it’s a straight shot to the first floor.”

Top Dog is right. According to building codes, an evacuation staircase must be a direct route and must be installed in such a way that it can be accessed without passing through other rooms. The fire escape is the floor above ground, the floor that leads to the outside of the building and is usually the first floor, but the first floor isn’t the problem here.

The back room and the fire escape stairs are connected. It means that the “sacrifices” locked in the back room are secretly transported through the fire escape, and there is a space where the “sacrifices” can be left and the ritual can be performed unnoticed…

“Let’s go to the basement.”

The basement floor is blocked by an iron gate. Due to its location, fire escape stairs lead down to a room just inside that door. The ritual must take place there.

Black Cat and Top Dog’s expressions changed as they came to the same conclusion. They walked down the corridor without saying a word. Soon, a door opened in front of them and revealed the expected evacuation stairs.

All three took the stairs down. Won stopped at the first floor and unlocked the door before descending to the basement. If they came back here later, they could exit through the first floor. Of course, it’s possible to escape by another route without going through there, but it never hurts to be prepared.

The first thing that greeted Won upon reaching the basement was the strange smells. It was faint but sweet, and it was different from the artificial scent of air fresheners; something she had never smelled before in her life.

Covering her nose and mouth with her sleeve to avoid inhaling as much as possible, she moved forward. She headed in the direction of the changing and a stereotypical cult-like scene unfolded before them.

It looked like it was designed to invoke the feeling of being an ant in front of a giant being.

The unnecessarily high ceilings and large chandeliers, the grand and solemn arrangement, the props that give the impression of purity and restraint even though the actual prices are insignificant, the pure white robes that look holy, and the square altar with people lying on it.

‘One is Target, and one is an alternative…’

Won didn’t head straight in, choosing instead to hide behind a pillar and spy on the cult for a moment. That’s when she saw Black Cat pull out the cell phone.

‘Are you trying to film?’

She gestured for him to cover the speakers to prevent the shutter when he began.

Black Cat understood, so he covered the speaker with his hand, pulled up the camera, and stood behind the wall to film. When Won looked at the screen, she saw he was taking a video.

The cult was muttering incoherently as a group in a strange prayer position she saw before in the religious room: arms crossed, hands clasped together.

“Do you recognize the person lying on the altar?” Won asked Black Cat. The phone had a zoom feature, so it would be easier to see.

“Wait a minute, I can zoom in further-”

“So, one’s the bastard that pretty girl is looking for and one’s some b*by?” Top Dog interrupted, cutting Black Cat off. Won wrinkled her brow at his language.

‘Well, at least one of them is Target, and the one who he said is like a b*by…’

“I’m not going to let a b*by run her mouth like that. You know what got her hospitalized?”

“Ju-hee?”

Why was Ju-hee lying on the altar?

“Are you sure?” Won asked.

Instead of answering, Top Dog extended two fingers from each hand. He probably did that to show his vision was at least 2.0 on the left and right.

Visual acuity charts typically only measure up to 2.0, so he might be better than that. In any case, Top Dog was confident enough to identify the figure lying on the altar.

Won was caught off guard and forced to confront a problem: Target is a sacrifice, so why was Ju-hee on the altar?

‘I thought she was working with the cult, wasn’t she?’

Had she been brought in as a scapegoat like Target? But unlike Target, who was locked in the back room, Ju-hee wandered the ward until she was given medication after dinner.

‘Did they drug and drag her out while she was unconscious?’

No. Why go to the trouble of taking Target out beforehand and keeping him locked up for weeks if they could just drug him and use him as a “sacrifice” right away? There probably are certain procedures to follow, such as a vegetarian diet or starvation to purify the body.

Offerings cannot be rushed. Jubilation is not a sacrifice.

“The next time we talk, I’ll be a different person than I am now. Maybe that will be good for you because I don’t think it will suit me to call you ‘noona’ anymore. So, this will be the last time I call you noona.”

Sol acted as if he would look completely different the next time they met.

If Sol is a non-human being… If he can freely move into other people’s bodies, and if that’s why he’s abandoning Ju-hee’s body to take over Target’s body… what if that is what the “ritual” is about tonight…

‘It can’t be.’

Reason would not allow her to continue with her unrealistic hypothesis, but the other part of her brain, as if divided into two sections, continued to raise suspicions.

The shadow of Ju-hee, in Won’s feverish state, was shaped like a giant snake.

A cult that seemed to favor snakes.

‘Can this really be happening?’

If the “snake” the cult worshiped was actually Sol in Ju-hee’s body, that would explain almost everything that had happened.

At that moment, the sound of the cult’s prayers stopped. Won held her breath as the tension settled in. She had a premonition that something was about to happen.

Two men walked up to the altar and over to the podium. They were dressed in pure white robes, but a red, silk stole wrapped around their shoulders with a gold thread embroidery. It looked a lot like a Catholic stole, except instead of a cross, it was embroidered with a snake. Regardless, it was clear that they had a higher status than those who only wore white.

The hoods of their robes came down almost to their noses, so their faces weren’t visible. Nevertheless, when they opened their mouths, Won recognized one of them.

“The Epistle says…”

The voice was cold and hollow, reminiscent of cold, clear ice.

Won was curious. Won wondered if the voice reveals a person’s personality, and if so, she wondered what her voice sounded like to others.

“Madison.”

Black Cat, hearing Top Dog’s murmur, nodded in agreement.

“What do you think he’s trying to do?”

“I don’t know, but there’s a knife over there.”

“What?”

Black Cat gulped at Top Dog’s nonchalant response. Won gave him a look to explain more, so Top Dog became more specific.

“There’s something that looks like a chalice over there on the right, and there’s a dagger or something on a silver tray.”

“… You can see from this distance?”

Black Cat sounded like he was in awe. Just as they all came to terms with his vision, the non-Dr. Madison of the two priests walked to the right and respectfully returned to the center with the tray propped up with both hands. A new person stepped up to the podium. At a glance, he was dressed more ornately than anyone else in the room.

“The High Priest will preside over the ceremony.”

Dr. Madison finished speaking and the ornately dressed figure, the High Priest, reached for the silver tray.

True to Top Dog’s word, the object was a dagger. It was obscure when it was lying flat on the tray, but it became clear in the High Priest’s hand.

Approaching the altar, the High Priest held the dagger in front of Target. The metal blade flashed bright blue in the light.

 Kofi