Chapetr : 02
“Father!”
“…….”
“P-Please, save me!”
Tears streamed endlessly from the eyes of a young woman who looked to be in her late teens.
Her desperate pleas for her life were pitiful enough, yet there wasn’t the slightest trace of emotion on the man’s face as he watched her.
No, there was one emotion.
Contempt.
A cold, contemptuous gaze directed at her.
“Take her away.”
“F-Father!”
The moment the man gave the order, several knights standing nearby approached and grabbed her.
Even as she was dragged away by the knights, the woman continued crying out for someone to save her.
But no one listened to her.
It wasn’t just the knights. Everyone around her looked at her the same way.
With contempt and mockery.
A moment later, someone approached her.
He was a young man who appeared to be in his early twenties.
“Brother!”
His gaze toward her was just as cold.
“I-I was wrong!”
“…….”
The man silently watched her as she begged for forgiveness, practically pressing her head against the ground.
Then he drew the sword hanging from his waist.
And then…
“S-Save—!”
Stab!
‘Holy shit!’
Sia suddenly opened her eyes and immediately placed a hand over her chest.
Thump. Thump.
Feeling her heart still beating, she let out a sigh of relief.
‘At least it wasn’t the guillotine today.’
Was that supposed to be something to be happy about?
Sia let out a short sigh. Suddenly, she remembered the first time she experienced this phenomenon.
‘Was I five years old back then?’
It was the day the incident happened.
The day she saw a ghost for the first time.
‘Mom…’
Her mother, who had died beside her.
After seeing her mother look at her with eyes that were somewhat sad, yet also somewhat relieved, before disappearing…
From that day onward, Sia had been able to see ghosts.
‘Yeah.’
Seeing ghosts was one thing.
‘But what the hell is this?’
Sia had started experiencing this phenomenon around that time as well.
Not long after her mother died, she experienced it for the first time.
‘It’s not a dream.’
She wasn’t dreaming.
Sometimes, whenever she closed her eyes, this phenomenon simply happened.
It was as if she were being sucked into another world, and an entirely new world would unfold before her eyes.
‘The very first scene I saw was…’
Stab!
Someone being stabbed by a sword.
Just like now.
‘My heart.’
No.
That woman’s heart.
The chilling sensation was so vivid, as if Sia had actually possessed the woman’s body.
Even after opening her eyes, Sia couldn’t say anything for a long time.
That was the beginning.
After that, whenever she closed her eyes, she was occasionally sucked into that strange world again.
And there, she continued living the same life over and over.
In that world, Sia was always the same woman.
A woman who appeared to be the daughter of a noble family from the medieval era.
That woman was, in one word…
‘Dark.’
Gloomy!
She barely spoke, and her expression was unbelievably depressing.
Yet at the same time, her pride as a noble was ridiculously high, and she absolutely couldn’t stand being ignored or rejected.
At first, Sia was incredibly annoyed by the woman, who would immediately start shouting whenever she got angry and constantly behaved terribly.
Because that woman’s ending was always the same.
Death.
At the hands of the man who appeared to be her older brother.
At the hands of the man who appeared to be her father.
Or sometimes, she would be dragged to the guillotine, where her head would be chopped clean off in front of countless watching people.
‘That feeling was truly…’
Horrifying.
Sia had watched it happen countless times, but she still couldn’t get used to the moment of death.
She had shouted at her countless times, telling her to please stop dying and try living differently for once.
Every time the woman died, she returned to the past and repeated the same life all over again.
Sia’s annoyance eventually went beyond frustration, and she even began to feel pity for her.
Was it because she kept entering the woman’s body as if possessing her and watching her life unfold?
Gradually, Sia began wishing for the woman’s happiness.
But…
Stab!
Today, the woman met her death once again.
‘Damn it…’
During a short break while waiting for filming, Sia had closed her eyes and experienced the phenomenon of being dragged into that strange world again.
She cursed repeatedly in her mind.
She felt absolutely terrible.
“Unnie, are you okay? Did you have another nightmare?”
Jihyun, who had recently returned after completely sorting out her grandmother’s house, hurried over with a worried expression.
For a moment, Sia remembered the sight of Jihyun’s eyes becoming red as she repeatedly thanked her after finding nearly 30 million won buried beneath the persimmon tree.
Jihyun had said that she cried for several days thinking about how her grandmother, despite living in difficult circumstances, had saved the money without spending it because she wanted to give it to her.
“…It’s a nightmare.”
“Look at all that sweat. I’ll redo your makeup.”
“Okay.”
Letting out a short sigh, Sia closed her eyes as she felt Jihyun’s familiar hands touching her face.
“……!”
But not long afterward, she quickly opened her eyes again.
“Unnie?”
“…….”
“What’s wrong?”
Jihyun asked in confusion as Sia’s face became even paler.
But Sia didn’t have the strength to answer her question.
‘W-What is this?’
The moment she closed her eyes, the scene from earlier continued immediately.
‘This has never happened before…’
After experiencing the phenomenon once, things would usually remain quiet for several days.
But this time, the moment she closed her eyes, that world appeared again.
Was it because the woman had died?
This time, Sia wasn’t inside the woman’s body.
Instead, she was floating in midair, watching the world from above.
Soon, her eyes met those of the woman lying dead and bleeding.
“…….”
Sia couldn’t relax her stiff expression for a long time after seeing those eyes.
Eyes filled with resentment and sorrow.
“Um… Sia.”
“What?”
“Get some sleep.”
“I’m fine.”
I’m not fine…
Manager Hyunseok looked at Sia and gave an awkward smile.
The sight of Sia sitting there with her bloodshot red eyes wide open was extremely eerie.
The moment they entered the waiting room, he had told her to get some sleep.
But for some reason, every time he said that, Sia only forced her eyes open even wider.
Her eyes were already large, and with the way she was staring intensely like that, she looked rather frightening.
“It’ll be more than an hour before the scene ahead of yours is finished.”
“I know.”
“Then get some sleep.”
“I said no.”
Fine. Do whatever you want.
Unable to overcome her stubborn refusal, Hyunseok eventually shook his head.
His expression clearly showed that he had no idea what was wrong with her today.
Sia couldn’t exactly explain her situation to him, so she quietly suffered in frustration.
‘I don’t want to close my eyes either.’
I want to sleep!
They were filming all night.
Sia knew very well how important it was to get some sleep during these short breaks.
‘But…’
Today, she somehow felt that she shouldn’t.
Sia let out a quiet sigh as she remembered the scene she had seen earlier that day.
The eyes of the dead woman, filled with resentment and sorrow.
‘I’d rather play gonggi with ghosts whose heads are cracked open.’
She never wanted to see that sight again.
Until now, she had seen countless horrifying sights through the many ghosts she encountered.
But she had never once felt afraid of those ghosts.
She knew very well that unless she became afraid, it was extremely rare for ghosts to physically harm humans.
But…
‘Why?’
The moment she saw the dead woman’s resentful eyes, a strange chill ran down her spine.
It wasn’t as if she had only seen the woman die once or twice.
So why?
‘Something was different today.’
Those eyes had looked as though they were staring directly at her.
Sia never wanted to see that sight again.
Those eyes.
Her heart pounded, and it felt as if something sharp were pricking her entire body.
‘Sympathy?’
That wasn’t it.
The woman’s life was frustrating and pitiful, but it wasn’t painful enough to truly break Sia’s heart.
She had watched the woman die countless times for over twenty years…
No, she had practically experienced those deaths with her.
Why would she suddenly feel that way now?
No.
It was simply the woman’s final gaze from today.
That gaze remained in her mind and wouldn’t disappear.
‘Damn it…’
That’s why she should have lived a better life.
『Three members of a family have been found dead in an apartment in Daegu. Mr. A, who had been suffering from financial difficulties, is believed to have killed his wife and six-year-old son before taking his own life…』
“How terrible…”
At that moment, the news began playing on the television in the waiting room.
Everyone’s attention naturally turned toward the TV, which was covering the tragic story.
Manager Hyunseok, who was standing beside Sia, clicked his tongue and wore a saddened expression.
“…….”
Sia also looked toward the television.
The screen showed the family’s small basement room where they had died.
It was a scene that clearly showed the desperate poverty they had been living in.
“He must have suffered so much… Tsk.”
“So that makes it okay?”
“Huh?”
Hyunseok, who had unconsciously muttered to himself, flinched when he suddenly heard Sia’s quiet voice.
“Then he should have died alone.”
Sia’s expression and tone remained completely calm as she stared at the television.
But Hyunseok suddenly remembered something and couldn’t hide his discomfort.
“Uh, um, Sia…”
“What did the child do wrong?”
“Exactly…”
Hyunseok wanted to turn off the TV immediately, but he couldn’t find the damn remote.
“At least that man who called himself a father died with them.”
Sia gave a small, bitter laugh.
Seeing that, Hyunseok eventually unplugged the television entirely.
Then he turned toward her with an awkward expression.
But Sia still couldn’t take her eyes off the now-dark screen.
“Sia, are you—”
“Sia, please get ready.”
Just as Hyunseok was about to speak to her again, a member of the filming staff entered the waiting room.
‘Phew.’
Sia let out a quiet sigh inwardly.
Only then did she finally look away from the television and slowly stand up.
‘This isn’t good…’
Trying to suppress the sigh that was about to escape, Sia headed toward the filming set.
Her luck was terrible today.
Was it because she had spent so much time around ghosts?
Sometimes, she had an extremely strong feeling like this.
A feeling that something was about to go wrong.
And whenever she felt that way, something always happened.
Whether it was something big or small.
On days like this, it would be better to simply go home and get plenty of rest.
“Are both of you ready?”
It was a romantic comedy drama about the romance between a handsome and capable young CEO and his secretary.
This wasn’t a particularly difficult scene.
Sia was attending a party as the male lead’s partner and, as his secretary, carefully taking care of him.
Creeeak…
‘Creak?’
Sia was filming a scene where, as his secretary, she checked the food because the picky male lead couldn’t eat certain dishes.
Then she suddenly heard a strange noise coming from somewhere.
“Ahhhh!”
“Sia!”
The moment she raised her head, people began screaming.
“……!”
Sia looked at the expensive chandelier falling toward her head…
No.
She looked at the ghost hanging from above it.
And then she immediately lost consciousness.
