MBOMEN 05

Episode 5. Things That Shouldn’t Be Seen

2023.12.05.

Eustar crept forward, feeling his way with his fingertips across the damp, dark earth. It was as if his figure was being swallowed gradually by the deepening darkness.

Lyla followed desperately, afraid to lose him, but the deeper they ventured into the forest, the stronger her urge to run away became.

Hugging herself tightly, Lyla whispered in a trembling voice.

“This place… feels awful.”

It was rare for her to show emotion, but her voice was now thick with fear. Eustar only nodded calmly, as if he had expected it.

“It’s probably because of a Sink nearby. If you’re not used to the energy a Sink gives off, it can instill deep fear. But you mustn’t let it consume you. Lyla, you’re especially susceptible to Sinks. Your eyes and ears… and the blood of a witch in you—everything about you makes you a sweet delicacy to the Sink. Like a fig oozing honey.”

A chill ran down Lyla’s spine. At that exact moment, Eustar came to a halt. Tense to the extreme, Lyla reacted to even the smallest of his movements.

“What is it? Do you see something?”

Eustar stood up slowly and replied.

“A child died near here. And his mother, too.”

Then, he looked around the pitch-black forest, not a single point of light in sight, and turned to Lyla.

“If you see something—tell me, Lyla.”

“See? I can’t see anything. It’s too dark. I can’t even see your—”

It appeared at that very moment.

At first, Lyla couldn’t comprehend what was happening. All she knew was the overwhelming urge to escape this place.

Though Eustar’s arm was shielding her, even his presence gave her no comfort now. Her heart pounded violently in her chest, a shrill alarm ringing in her head: Run. Run now.

It was a hole. Blacker than anything, as if another layer of darkness had been draped over the night, like the powder Eustar had thrown earlier. It was so dark that its edges were clearly visible.

Lyla instinctively understood that the hole had no bottom. She realized this at almost the same instant her feet started moving toward it. The alarm in her head had suddenly stopped.

“Lyla! Snap out of it! Don’t empathize with the Sink!”

Empathize? What is he talking about? And who even is this man?

It’s so sad, Lyla thought. There’s something so unbearably sad in there… someone is in pain. The thought echoed in her mind, again and again, until she felt sympathy. She needed to go in—to help.

—Lyla Crislard.

Lyla’s eyes flew wide open as if she’d been stabbed. Her whole body shuddered.

She didn’t know whose voice that was. It sounded like Eustar’s, but she felt someone—or rather, something else—had spoken through him.

It wasn’t human. She was sure of that.

Regaining some clarity, Lyla turned to Eustar.

“Is that… a Sink?”

He pulled her closer and nodded.

“A Sink is both a ‘phenomenon’ and a living entity.”

“That thing’s alive?”

“Not like a human, or a dog or cat, with flesh and blood… but in a conceptual sense, yes, it’s alive. That’s why you mustn’t empathize with it. I told you before—you’re like a fig dripping with honey in its eyes. It will do anything to consume you. So don’t let yourself feel anything toward it.”

“I can’t help it. It’s not something I can control…”

Eustar gave her a gentle smile, trying to reassure her.

“I know. Everyone reacts that way if they encounter a Sink unprotected. But remember what I said: as long as I’m here, nothing can hurt you. That includes the Sink. Now, Lyla… I need your eyes. Look closely. What do you see?”

Lyla didn’t want to look back. But she realized Eustar was gently guiding her with his hand.

Why doesn’t this feel unpleasant? she wondered.

That’s when she saw it: a figure in shades of gray and white.

It was a child.

A boy, sitting near the edge of the Sink, legs stretched out. Around him rolled what looked like marbles…

No, Lyla thought. Those aren’t marbles.

Suddenly, her throat went dry.

“Those are… eyes.”

She whispered.

“The eyes of dead children. What the hell…”

Eustar moved closer, half-embracing her, and looked over her shoulder. He adjusted the lens of his monocle slightly and murmured, “Ah.”

“Good. I can see it clearly now. With this level of resonance, I can share your vision.”

While he whispered some unknown words, the boy’s ghost began picking up the scattered eyes and inserting them into his empty eye sockets—then taking them out again, over and over.

Lyla gasped. The boy’s own eyes were gone. It was a horrifying sight, something not even nightmares could conjure.

“Look closely,” Eustar said again. “Watch and listen. What is he trying to say?”

“I can see… but I don’t hear anything.”

“Oh, but you will. Just listen.”

Lyla took deep breaths and focused on the boy who kept inserting and removing the eyeballs.

She knew she shouldn’t stare too long—but with Eustar beside her, she felt a little braver. Just a little.

She didn’t know how long she’d been watching. A few seconds felt like years.

Then—an eerie sound echoed in her ears.

It was indescribable. Like dry leaves brushing in the wind, or countless insects flapping their wings and skittering across a confined space…

The sound grew clearer, louder. And then, in the middle of the rustling, one phrase pierced through:

—They killed me. They killed me.

It hit her like a stone between the eyes. At that moment, she saw the memories of the boy who had created the Sink.

Vin… his name is Vin.

Vin had just turned eleven. He lived with his mother on the village outskirts, sometimes helping her when she went to neighboring villages for work. Life wasn’t bad—except for one thing: he was blind.

When he was six, Vin suffered a severe fever that left him alive but robbed him of his sight. His world turned dark overnight, and he became too afraid to leave the house.

Whenever his mother had to work all day, she locked the door from the outside. Vin was left alone in the pitch-black house, day and night. Only the faint warmth he felt through the window told him time was passing.

Then the accident happened.

One morning, Vin’s exhausted mother overslept. Panicked about missing work and being scolded, she rushed out without properly locking the door.

The latch fell open.

Vin realized the door was unlocked. He knew he shouldn’t go out, but the temptation overwhelmed him.

As he stumbled out, Tommy—the local neighborhood bully—spotted him.

“Hey, look at that! The blind freak’s out for a stroll!”

Tommy was cruel and mean, known for tormenting younger kids. Vin was about his age, but completely defenseless. Playing with Vin was easier than twisting a baby’s wrist.

Tommy and a group of boys dragged Vin into the woods. Then they ran off, laughing, leaving him alone. No matter how much he cried and screamed, no one came.

“He… he fell off a cliff…”

Lyla’s lips trembled as she spoke.

She turned slowly and pointed to a cliff swallowed in ominous darkness—right above the Sink. Jagged rocks lay below.

Two days later, Vin’s mother found her son’s torn remains, ripped apart by wild animals. She clutched his shredded body, screamed in grief, then smashed her head against a rock to end her own life.

The villagers tossed their bodies into the forest and returned home, pretending it never happened. No one ever spoke of it again. They demolished the house where Vin and his mother had lived.

Lyla’s body trembled with pain and sorrow. She felt Vin’s fear stabbing her like needles. Just before she could scream, Eustar gently patted her shoulder.

“Thank you, Lyla. Because of you, I saw it all clearly. I’ll take care of the rest.”

At that moment, Vin’s ghost stood up, brimming with rage and hatred, glaring at Eustar.

A surge of malevolent energy erupted from the Sink. Lyla felt like she might pass out from the pressure, but Eustar calmly stretched his neck, as if relaxing in warm steam.

He extended one hand.

Vin, who had endlessly sought the right eyes even in death, suddenly flung open his eyelids. Two snakes shot out of the empty sockets, racing toward Eustar’s ankles to bite.

“You have no bottom. Look—you have no bottom. Look beneath your feet.”

—I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!!

A piercing scream tore through the air. Wind howled, branches scraped against one another.

“Look beneath your feet. See where you truly stand!”

Suddenly, Boom! Something exploded.

Vin’s soul was sucked into Eustar’s hand.

The once-human figure became grotesque, like stretched taffy. As Vin’s elongated ghost wailed, it became clear his body held no organs—just an empty shell.

The sound of the explosion faded.

And Lyla lost consciousness.