Precautions of a Snakepit - Chapter 84

As Won approached, Dr. Madison held the knife to Target’s throat. The blade lightly sliced through the flesh as smoothly as if he were slicing tofu.

“Do you realize that if you take one more step, I’ll end Jin’s life?”

Blood spewed out from Target’s neck. It wasn’t a deep cut, but a poorly placed one. If it had been haphazardly touching another part, Won would’ve lunged in without hesitation to subdue Dr. Madison, but that dagger’s blade was aimed at Target’s carotid artery.

Won didn’t ask Dr. Madison how he had gotten past the locked door and followed them. He must have taken a shortcut to ambush her while everyone else was rushing to catch up.

“What’s faster, your knife or my gun?”

Won stated, holding the pistol in her hand. Dr. Madison let out a snicker.

“That’s a plastic gun, isn’t it? It’s not very durable, and once it’s used, it’s done.”

He had a point: even if it looked good on the outside, the inside of the gun was already broken after one shot. The plastic barrel, which had been scraped by the metal bullet, had been permanently deformed by the friction and heat. Won had only brought one bullet with her to the asylum. She already used it to bring down a chandelier, but…

“We can try it.”

Won pointed the gun at Dr. Madison’s head and put her index finger on the trigger. Without a moment’s hesitation, she pulled.

Dr. Madison, who had been half-heartedly watching her finger, flinched for a moment and closed his eyes. A reaction born of instinct, unable to be suppressed by reason. It was a brief moment, but it was enough.

In the blink of an eye, Won closed in on Dr. Madison and slashed at the wrist that held the dagger. At the same time, a beam of light from behind shined into Dr. Madison’s face, blinding him. Black Cat, wearing the watch, came to Won’s aid.

Frowning, Dr. Madison lost his grip on the dagger and Won pulled Target to safety, then kicked the dagger. Once it fell onto the floor, she snatched it up and drove it into Dr. Madison’s right shoulder.

“Ah!”

“Take it. It’s a gift.”

The only thing she could give him.

“… Ha ha!”

Dr. Madison laughed, his oily eyes twinkling even as his face contorted in pain. It was an oddly relaxed demeanor.

“You think that’s going to get you out of this ward?”

Suddenly, an unidentifiable sense of foreboding wrapped around Won’s entire body like a slithering snake. She consciously ignored the feeling and pulled Target away.

Glancing back as she ran, Won saw Dr. Madison was still there, not bothering to chase.

“Sorry about your ankle.”

Won apologized to Target. She had high standards, including the safety of her Target, in mind, even if she was in awe of his mental strength to keep up while drugged.

“No, I was just being careless.”

“Can you two stop getting all cuddly?”

Won was stunned by Top Dog’s snide remark.

‘This is just a normal interaction. What the f*ck is he talking about?’

Would he rather everyone freeze and die?

“The problem is that my pretty girl is too popular. A psychopathic doctor, a rich and spoiled heir, and the civil servant type. It seems it’s enough for you to seduce everyone by just making eye contact, right? Ah, but you’ll still be mine, right? Maybe the problem is the men?”

If there is one thing Top Dog is good at, it’s spewing bullshit whenever and wherever he can.

Won laughed and entered the main hall.

The ward’s lights flickered.

For a moment, she wondered if lightning had struck outside, but then she realized that all the windows were covered with curtains. Even if lightning had struck, it wouldn’t be noticed from inside the building.

‘Is it an illusion?’

Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. Won tried to shrug it off, but her vision flickered again. This time, not just once, but constantly, like someone kept fiddling with the light switch.

Won lifted her head and looked up at the ceiling. All the lights were flickering.

‘Bad converter?’

It was a disturbing sight, but it wasn’t a problem that would hinder their escape. She just needed to swipe the key card and the iron gates would open, but just in case…

“Gyeom, go as fast as you can and swipe the key card!”

Black Cat immediately understood and raced to the nurses’ station to get a new one. Won gritted her teeth and dragged Target, who was struggling to keep up due to the drugs. Suddenly, her burden was decreased to less than half as Top Dog stayed on the other side, helping hold Target up.

“Hurry up.”

The one who was always smirking and spewing dramatics, the one who she thought couldn’t form a sentence with saying “sweetheart” or “pretty girl,” the one who normally would have cracked a joke or two at this point was now demanding things with a rigidness she had never seen before.

“It’s coming.”

Won felt goosebumps.

‘What? What’s coming?’

As she walked to the nurses’ station with questions, she heard a noise.

It was an unfamiliar noise. She hadn’t heard it enough times to become familiar with it. She just knew the answer to what it was because it had been imprinted in her brain. She couldn’t understand why she was hearing it in this situation.

There was no reason to hear it now, because it was meant to scare the patients, who either hadn’t fallen asleep after taking their medication, or who had woken up and made up stories to keep them from leaving their rooms…

The noise of something huge and slipped moving against the floor and brushing against the walls. A hissing, breathing-like sound that seemed to come from something much larger than a human mouth, and with a structure distinctly different from that of a human.

“That’s ridiculous,” Target muttered in a terrified voice. “I thought I was hallucinating, then what I saw was real… Ah…”

Target’s clasped hands trembled like those of an aspen tree. He was being swallowed up by panic, as if he had uncovered some shocking truth himself.

“Cha Mu-jin!” Won bellowed.

She wanted him to put pieces together on his own, not here. Only when they get to safety.

“Get a grip before I drop you!”

Target reacted as if he was struck by lightning. The trembling in his hands, which had been reminiscent of hydrocephalus, stopped.

“… I’m sorry for my behavior.”

She didn’t respond to his apology. She wasn’t angry, but she didn’t have time to acknowledge it. The unidentifiable sound, like a large snake slithering, was getting closer and closer.

In fact, she felt like her head was about to explode.

All this time, she had been convinced that the bizarre sounds were fake, prepared by the hospital. A recording and someone wandering the halls with a loudspeaker to play to patients at night when the CCTVs were off. She inwardly laughed as she imagined the absurdity of it all.

‘But now?’

There’s no way the hospital is going to chase them down with speakers and recordings now. Why would they do something so futile? They’ve already revealed the secret they don’t want anyone to know. Now it’s time for them to come in with a scalpel, intent on killing them to shut them up forever.

This is not staged.

‘Then what is it?’

If it isn’t a stunt, then what is that snake-like slithering sound coming from the hallway?

She could go out in the hallway and see for herself, but she didn’t dare.

It would be stupid to go back to the hallway she came from when she just entered the nurses’ station for the steel door. Her job is to get Target safely out.

But that wasn’t the only reason.

Her instincts were firing off every danger alarm. They were screaming that she didn’t need to know, and she shouldn’t try to see.

Run away. Get out of here as fast as she can!

Even the lights, incessantly flickering, seemed to be seizing out of fear. Is it too much of an anthropomorphism to say that they were running around like panicked humans in the face of an unbearable horror?

Filled with dread, Won stubbornly ran forward. She saw the iron gate open. Black Cat, with the key card pressed to the door lock, was shouting for them.

“Come on!”

Fortunately, it was only a short distance to the entrance.

If they could just get through there, they would be safe outside.

Filled with a sense of confidence, Won ran with all her might.

“Hurry!”

Black Cat’s face was eerily pale as he looked over and urged them on. Won wondered what he saw right then; wondering what was behind them that would cause him to become so urgent.

A chill ran up the nape of her neck and down her spine. It was a chill she couldn’t describe. It felt like the blood in her body had evaporated and was replaced with a coolant, like she could rub an ice cap against her and back and it still wouldn’t compare to the cold she felt.

The flickering lights had gone dark and darkness swallowed her whole.

She didn’t need to see to know what was coming.

It’s here.

‘Behind me.’

In the eerily slow passage of time, Won looked down at the floor.

Two steps. The iron gate was two steps ahead, and yet she would be caught. Some intuition, outside of the realm of logic, and she just knew.

She is one step away from being caught.

‘The best thing I can do now is…’

She let go of Target’s hand and stopped, placing her feet on the floor and pushing as hard as she could against Target’s back.

She could see Black Cat outside the steel door, reaching out and pulling his arm.

She immediately spun around, not willing to give in to whatever was behind her. At the same time, something leaped at her from the darkness.

im reading this chapter for like the 4th time and im still so incredibly stressed from it

 Kofi