Chereads / Mari-am / Chapter 21 - Chapter- 21

Chapter 21 - Chapter- 21

He shouted her name in pain, the alligator grabbed her by his human arms with alligator skin beneath and sniffed her, and showed his sharp teeth like an alligator, but she stood neutral against him, which confused the crocodile as well.

Saeng talked in a low tone," You and I, we both are same, we are both animals, you are neither superior nor we humans are, I know you are that same alligator, who used to stay in 'Upo Marshland', who attacked this boy out of hunger like humans hunt for animals when we are in hunger or hunt for plants when we aren't flesh eaters.

You just need some kind of revenge upon this boy, who hurt you more than you deserved, instead of throwing you into the river, he tried to extend your torture as he doesn't like animals that much, and the reason is unknown.

But behind those intense emotions, there is a desperate emotion for looking for someone, like you are taking revenge on behalf of someone close to you.

Can you tell? It may help you free yourself from your suffocation of desperation. You don't need to take revenge as it is just a time waste, you need to live for yourself Practically, you are not alone, there are a lot of creatures present.

We humans and animals all are the same, we may look different but our hearts are made of the same material.

So, don't waste your energy on something useless and just go back to your home or you could just kill me, don't worry, either choice you make, you would be human /animal, which is just the same as humans also do make ridiculous choices".

She then gave him an understanding smile, the alligator looked at her in shock, amazed and clueless, and his grip soften for a minute.

Then again his grip tighten, and he lunged toward her neck but stopped just an inch away from her neck and just rubbed his rough scaled beak-like mouth against her cheeks, like giving her some signal or message, which she understood, she smiled lightly, which was she unaware of.

Then she suddenly saw Si-U hurriedly running towards the alligator with some sharp kind of metal, she immediately released herself and stopped that metal from reaching the alligator's back.

She glared at him, which puzzled him, the alligator turned back and saw that Saeng saved him from being injured, he looked quite angry at him.

The alligator was going to attack him but he stopped as if he remembered something and looked towards Saeng and put his green scaled-skinned hand upon her shoulder.

She turned and looked at him and she looked back into his eyes and her eyes widened when she observed something in his eyes.

She just nods her head, then he ran away back to where he belonged.

Then she released her hand, and that sharp metal left a bleeding mark on her palm, she stared at it and felt suddenly a horrible feeling, something like hurt, she felt her tears rushing down her cheeks.

She also observed that her palm reddens again turning into a light rosy hue color, this was also noticed by Si-U, he took her handbag from her shoulder and searched for something useful inside.

But while searching for it, he found some weird drawings like structures, and finally, he found a scarf, he wrapped it carefully around her palm and secured it with a soft knot.

He also noticed her tears, which were continuously flowing, which he didn't expect, he felt pain seeing her like this, he put that handbag down and wiped her tears and hugged her tight and pats her head, and comforted her and his other hand is rubbing soft circles upon her back.

She felt overwhelmed by all these weird feelings inside like sadness, anger, warmth, affection, curiosity, pity, etc.

She just let him handle her, she gave in and let those emotions take over, she returned his hug, and she felt a small smile forming on her lips when she felt calm.

After long minutes, she fell asleep upon his shoulder, so, he carried her in her arms to the bench and made her sit on the bench and sat beside her and held her close.

He observed the small smile on her lips, which was a beautiful scene for him as he rarely saw her expressing emotions, he felt happy to be the one.

Suddenly Saeng woke up and she notices him staring at her face, she felt her cheeks flush, she felt different than usual, she noticed his eyes looked more alive and beautiful to her, and she felt drawn, closer to him.

She tries to control whatever that sickness is causing her, Si-U as well leaned closer to her face and they were staring at each other and were just an inch distance away from each other's face.

Si-U closed his eyes and almost reduced the gap between them but Saeng turns her face down making him put a kiss on her hair, she just felt something like nervousness and fear, which she doesn't like to feel, she decided to cure this sickness fast as possible, as this is not she expected from herself, she decides that she needs to go.

She stood up and step back from him and he also looked kind of red maybe due to being embarrassed or feeling angry.

She thought he should realize this is a sickness that she needs to cure.

She might infect him with this sickness, she can't let that happen. She ran away and Si-U was frozen for seconds as he saw the desperation and fear in her eyes.

He did feel betrayed by her rejection but he realized that it may be hard for her as she is not aware of this thing, he then decided to make her realize and aware of these emotions, but more than that he was afraid for her safety although she is strong.

He then runs after her outside the park but found no trace of her, so he started to search for her.

Saeng ran quite fast far away from that park, running endlessly and her face was filled with confusion and annoyance, she then stumbled and fell, and then she stood up and noticed a lake in front of her, which looked transparent and beautiful, shining under the moonlight.

She reaches the edge of the lake, and slumps down on the ground, slowly she noticed tears falling on the ground, and she starts to sob, but she is, unaware of the reason.

She felt every moment of her life replay in her mind, it makes her feel all those emotions, that she had never been born with, she felt like waves of different feelings rushing in her heart, she felt miserable and alone.

She then looked forward into her reflection in the mirror, looking as pale as ghost, looking at the water with frightened eyes, screaming at her reflection upon the water on that still night, filled with silent tones of despair, confusion ringing in her ears and her hands in fist form placed tightly against the ground, grits her teeth in rage as her eyes are clouded with a lot of emotions like anger, confusion, emotional and fear.

Her eyes are painted with dark smoky eyeshadow with wing-shaped black rough patches surrounding her eye.

The night seems silent with the moon being asleep in its glorious form shining upon her and the storm inside her is killing her silently as she felt things happening to her are unfair and she doesn't like this new change in her.

She leans towards the river water just inches above the water's surface and whispers with a smirk,

"당신은 당신이 이겼다고 생각합니다.

죄송합니다!.

당신은 곧 잃을 것이기 때문에, 나에게 일어나는 이 불의를 받아들이지 않을 것이기 때문에 이 변화에 맞서 싸울 것입니다.

(You think you won.

(Sorry!).

Because you are going to lose soon as I am going to fight this change as I won't accept this injustice happening to me).

그냥 기다려 봐. (Just wait and watch) ".

She then rigorously rubs her hand against the ground, resulting in her palm being covered with soil particles.

She laughs seeing this and talks to her reflection about her being back to her fair original self and undoing all these changes done to her mind, body, soul, and mostly her.

Her white dress was tainted with dirt stains, soil particles, and scratches upon it and her black hair was messy, loose, and open, with small baby hairs sticking to her forehead due to sweat on her face, her thin lips colored with dark purple lipstick smudged with small bleed cuts upon the upper lip.

She stands up and her pale skin highlights with muted glow under the moonlight like an empty and dull white color, her tainted white dress, gives off a ghostly vibe, and her jet-black eyes stare at the darkness ahead with neutral emotion, just like a black hole, holding a power to gravitate all towards her if she desires and then like a black hole swallows planets, stars and everything with its powerful gravitational force.

She turns away and walks in the opposite direction of the river with a neutral face and an intimidating and strong aura emanating from her.

She walks with heavy and overwhelming emotions birthing inside her, which is foreign to her, blending everything into feeling nothingness inside. She walks endlessly until she reaches a place, where something caught her attention.

Her footsteps halt and she stares at a bakery store, which was less crowded than usually crowded days. She walks and stands in front of the store, which is named 'Sung sim dang', and enters and bought herself some cookies, choco puff rolls, and some macarons from that bakery store and saluted them goodbye by slightly bowing her head, and went out of the bakery store, and wandered around.

While wandering around, she notices mindless violent scratches carved by artistic creatures upon the metal surface of car doors, which were parked in the parking lot. She giggles at this scene with emptiness in her tone and a mocking expression of feeling sorry appears on her face for the car owners. But she minds nevertheless for anyone right now. She bypasses the parking lot and carries on walking with a lost identity.

She continues walking even after hearing wild animal noises coming from nearby surroundings, instead, she walks with a fearless attitude, unaware of the nightmare taking reign of their lives and following them into a dark and long journey, which may end someday or never.

After walking endlessly on the road, humming a Korean song, she finally arrives at her resident building and then walks upstairs and reaches in front of her flat, extends her hand to unlock the door but before she could unlock it, she hears a painful scream from the flat just next to her flat, she thinks for a while and, stands in front of the neighbor's flat and knocks on the door but no response, then she continued to knock for 5 minutes and feels foolish to wait anymore longer.

She sighs and turns back and steps a foot towards her flat but then she suddenly hears the creaking sound of the door opening, which makes her smirk, then she speaks in her usual neutral tone, Mrs. Mun, May I ask, why didn't you open the door earlier and what happened that made you scream like that. Please answer.

She turns and finds that door is slightly open and hears some weird animal noises coming from their flat.

She steps in closer and closer by each second and then presses her hand against the door and pushes it wide open.

She walks in and removes her sandals and slowly walks into the hall room and finds no one inside the room, she then feels her senses heightening, sensing something weird and strange aura, which she is unable to comprehend.

She feels like she is being watched by someone and she looks all around her and again finds nothing then she searches through each room and still no other presence is found except her.

She then again hears a strange animal-like noise coming above her, she looks up, her eyes wide open and the thing observing her, jumps upon her and makes out some strange noises, and wraps her tightly in thick, smooth, and silky material like a fine spider web, but the hold tightens, which squeezes her body and spreads pain over her arms but her face remained neutral as if she felt no pain.

She tries to get out of this web trap but she feels powerless as the web material was quite strong and fine. Then, she observes the terrific beauty in front of her, who looks dangerous but a beautiful spider creature in its humongous form.

She felt the spider coming closer to her, who is a lady as her structure was female body type. She observed her numerous eyes watching her keenly, she saw burning fury, which made her black eyes standout, she was standing quite closer to her, she extended her two violet-colored legs and held her and pulled her closer and she could see her fang-like jaws and she felt her beat fastening for an unknown reason, she still tried to wriggle out of her trap, but no use, she is stuck.

She felt her web being tightened more and more and she then opened her mouth, and only a hissing sound coming out of her mouth, she did not know the language but she knew that she wants to say something to her, she then saw her eyes were getting glossy like she was hurt and in pain.

She then asked the spider lady, " Mrs.Mun, you look hurt, which is obvious through your emotions reflecting from your body. I know this was an unexpected change but life is full of these unexpected changes, you shouldn't be frightened instead embrace them, then you might adapt to them and mold this change to your advantage. Mrs.Mun, I don't think this change is something terrible as it may show you something beautiful later. And, about him, do not worry, he might already like it, who knows. Isn't it a great and beautiful phenomenon to experience?".

Mrs. Mun's expression shifts from anger to sadness, she turned her head and looked towards the bedroom with helplessness. Even after this, she is still in a neutral state but then she hears her neighbor's pleading voice asking her to save her family from this terrible fate.

She hums and denies her request and commands her in a neutral and dull tone," 죄송합니다, Mrs. Mun ( Sorry, Mrs. Mun), This is something you need to accept and surrender to your fate and leave rest upon the universe. The universe will help you to lead your fate. But I can only help you to give in to fate".

While speaking this, she stared at those thousand eyes, which were staring back at her with desperation and hunger, with no intention of releasing her immediately from the web trap, she then just decided to remain still and be stuck in that trap.

Mrs. Mun, still then begged her to change this all back to normal, and she stated, " This is not at all good for anyone. This is wrong and you know this deep down in your heart. You were emotionless before but never heartless. Unfortunately, you are now turning into a selfish and heartless person just because you don't know how to express or understand yourself.

After that, Mrs. Mun slowly loses her grip and melted her trap, she was now free from the web trap.

She turns away from her and walks up to the door and was going to unlock the door but stops when she hears her speaking loudly in a distressed tone, " Ms. 빈생사초 (Bin Saengsacho), you are stepping on a dark and dangerous path, which might put you too in danger. So, take a step back right now before you cause unrepairable damage to yourself and the people around you".

Still, Saeng-sacho pretending deaf to her warning, she opens the door and turns back to her, and greets her goodbye, then she walked out, and while closing it, she heard her cries, which sounded vulnerable and helpless, she felt her chest ache for a few seconds, then she returns to her neutral behavior and shrugs it off and walks inside her flat and feels relaxed.

She sat on the beautiful purple-colored sofa with small intricate patterns on the arms, rested in the hall room, unwraps the paper bag, and eats those cookies, feeling her stomach satisfied.

All of a sudden, she hears a booming sound like a glass shattering noise, which she assumed came from her room, she rushed inside as she can't let any creature neither human nor animal, ruin her long-term efforts and hard work of 5 years.

She notices the broken glass pieces scattered on the floor, some on the table located nearby the window, some upon the bed, and those glass pieces shimmering like gems in the moonlight, which lightened the dark violet walls of her bedroom in a more light hue, which give off a mysterious vibe.

She then observes something that makes her footsteps rush towards the corner, but she trips and falls upon the floor, where the glistening glass pieces were lying around, which bruised her legs with bleed cuts due to glass pieces sticking skin deep within the leg area, making her hiss.

She stands up and gets a painful feeling like thousand needles are stuck in her leg, but her sight is more focused on the scattered and torn documents, which made her hiss angrily and shout in a loud voice," Who dare to touch my documents, whoever that being is, will be punished for sure for trying to destroy my precious belongings".

She then felt a wave of overwhelm and tiredness in her body, her facial expression turned neutral in an instant and she felt her anger evaporate in seconds.

She felt confused about her recent behavior, and she ignores everything and focuses on her scattered documents, lying in a slightly torn condition.

She scans each corner of the room to find a clue and finally after searching for 5 minutes, she finds a hair strand nearby the window area, she collects that clue in a plastic pouch and seals it, and keeps it inside a medium-sized treasure chest box, along with many other things already inside it.

She then covers the window with long curtains and then picks out her night clothes from the wardrobe and then goes to the bathroom to take a relaxing shower bath, after 20 minutes, she came out wearing a bathrobe, changed her clothes, and then she cleaned the floor and trashed those broken glass pieces in the trash can and casually applies the ointment on cuts on her leg without feeling pain.