The Great Whore Within
I approached Gyeopsik silently as she sat on the sofa. "Explain yourself."
"......"
"S-man. We're starting an informal exorcism now. You'll be my deacon in this rite—and the recorder."
"Understood."
S-man rummaged through his duffel bag and pulled out a bundle wrapped in red cloth. "A binding cloth dyed in chicken blood and dried in the sun for a long time."
"Bind her."
I set the Google Book aside and drew the Bible from my coat. Gyeopsik tried to resist S-man's hands, so I grabbed her head and crushed it down.
"Ugh?!"
"Everyone sins at least once in their life. Sin is so fucking absurd—something that wasn't a sin in the past gets recognized as one today. And vice versa. That's why humans change laws with the times, dragging in all sorts of law scholars to trials and parliaments to debate the legitimacy of sins. Call it cherry-picking. 'We'll make this a sin this era,' 'We won't criminalize that this time.' No one's lived without sin so far. Except Lord Jesus Christ—every other human sins their way through life and dies."
From a Christian viewpoint, applying the exception for 'innocent children who know nothing,' you could say sins committed before age ten don't count.
"But a nineteen-year-old who knows everything, a girl with a tragic life—it's weird as hell that she doesn't have even a shred of sin."
From little lies, pranks, and gossip to big stuff like assault, fraud, murder. Countless sins, but every human commits at least a tiny one sometime. Yet no matter how I looked at Gyeopsik, who'll be twenty and a full adult next year, not even a fragment of sin showed. Is that possible? How can a human go without sinning? Unless this bitch is the Second Coming of Jesus, it's impossible. And there's no way the Second Coming would show up in this world anyway.
"All bound. Arms spread wide on the sofa, legs neatly together, tied tight." Gyeopsik thrashed even harder.
"One more time. Explain what you are in a way that satisfies me. Fail, and you die. I told you—our office is all about gender equality. I won't go easy just 'cause you're a girl."
"...I'm the victim."
"You?"
"I've been like this since birth! Everyone tries to give me what I want, sucks up to me for no reason, and ends up... liking me."
"I know the gist of your past. The problem is, I couldn't see any of that in you. If you didn't intend it, it might not be sin—but you lived here ten years knowing people around you end up like that couple. That's intent proven."
"I... thought it'd be okay with my adoptive parents who raised me like their own!"
"But they couldn't take it in the end. And you knew that's what happens if someone around you can't handle it."
"I-it wasn't because I wanted it! I was basically abandoned to the orphanage, and there I learned I had to kill my personality—my nature—to survive! So for the last ten years in this house, I tried my best to live quietly and normally!"
"Say a criminal killed your parents. You grind your teeth your whole life, then decades later get revenge. Is that justified revenge a sin or not?"
"......"
"Answer: of course it's a sin. No one gives a shit about the process. They only see the result. Even the guy up in heaven isn't any different."
Career criminals caught red-handed get life or death, rot in prison, then have epiphanies all the time. They mumble about converting to Buddhism or Christianity, paying for their sins, being reborn. And religious folks don't care how many lives they wrecked—forgiving human sins is their one true God's natural power and grace.
Yeah, results. In the end, only results matter. Like the sinners who repented through me all ascending to heaven—this fucked-up world ignores the messy middle and judges by the outcome. Does he truly believe in Jesus? Yes. Then he's worthy of salvation. Amen.
"Hallelujah, fuck."
Clean sinners don't exist in my book. Every sinner who passes through my hands should be filthy. All my acts—whitewashing their bodies, pouring on white paint, scraping with sandpaper, scrubbing with bleach—deserve respect. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." I'll gladly take those stones for you. But you sinners, come to me and repent. I'll forgive you, witness your rebirth, and bat away every stone headed your way. Fly high into heaven for me.
"If you're no sinner, you're no human. If you're no human, you're something else."
"I'm just me!"
"How the fuck would I know! I can't see your sins! Where's the proof you lived like a human!!!"
Like a human. Sinning as if it's natural, repenting as if it's natural. Human life spins like an endless hamster wheel—easy to spot at a glance. Joy, sorrow, love, hate all mixed in; voluntary and forced; good and evil in constant tug-of-war; irreconcilable duality. That's human. That's why it's human. Who dares mock humanity?
"Holy water."
"Here."
What S-man handed me wasn't holy water blessed by a devout priest's faith—just plain lye water. The ashes left from burning reek of sulfur, evoking the fringes of hellfire. The first sinners burned there become firewood for the next batch. Ashes pile up, their souls scattered like dust without rebirth, turning hell itself into eternal torment. So nothing's more familiar than lye water. All water there is lye; wine is black blood. Eternal thirst.
I dipped my thumb in the lye and drew a reverse cross on Gyeopsik's forehead.
"I ask not our Father in heaven, but the king of hell. You wicked, ancient being—if you remember this smell and mark, reveal yourself."
"Hnnngh...!"
"You who toy with all creation with your lascivious tongue, trampling them underfoot to prove female lust's supremacy. You who seduce the children of Lord Jesus the Father, leading them down sin's path—Satan's spawn. I ask again your king: reveal yourself for him."
"Hngh, nng... stop!"
That instant, S-man—holding the lye bowl beside me—foamed at the mouth and collapsed. Normally I'd catch him, but weirdly, my body wouldn't move. I didn't care. I'd finally got what I wanted.
"I see your sin."
"......"
"I see the being inside you."
"......"
"I see its intent to descend into this world through you as medium."
Just existing, it scatters bewitching yin energy. Her pale, voluptuous flesh is covered in evil script mocking Father Jesus; she pours her cup of whoredoms and fornications over her head, mocking anointing baptism. But the seven-headed, horned beast she rides has vanished—no rider to bear her up—so she uses this pure-souled girl as medium, gradually staining her her own.
"You are the 'Great Whore of Babylon, mother of earth's whores and abominations.' Even if this world turns like Sodom and Gomorrah, you won't defile this child's soul with another sin. I've already whitewashed that sin, and I'll make her repent—so your cunning lust won't leak from any hole. Your paltry power won't reach heaven; the world won't hear your mockery of Him."
"Aaaaaaaaaah...!"
"You failed. To fully enter this girl, you left only what you 'sacrificed,' dragging your wretched, lowly form back where you belong. On the final day, when you appear on your pathetic beast, I'll personally repent you to the Lord's side. No worldly kings will aid you then; no fools drunk on your lascivious wine will sin foolishly. The world you mock and defile is fleeting—you'll writhe in hell's pit, reflecting only when all ends."
I've pierced your true name. Now a true master of this world—a human—declares:
"You shall never become human. Amen."
"Hraaaaaaaaah!!!!!"
"I know you sacrificed too much! I know you used this girl's body to scatter lewd pheromones seeking your vanished beast! So now realize your failure—you can't stand tall in human realms! Return where you belong!"
A gush. From Gyeopsik's mouth burst a dark red lump, small enough for one hand. I gazed at the dark red flesh blob, wrapped in thin membrane—the Great Whore's aborted fetus, dead before it could grow. Even tumbling to hell's pit, this lascivious thing mocked the Virgin Mary's conception before retreating.
I crushed it in my fist.
I looked at Gyeopsik, head slumped, unconscious. Now I saw her sins, hidden by the Great Whore's pheromones. Her human struggles, human trials, human life. She was human. Though the Whore left 'much' in her body before fleeing, she was undeniably human.
"Amen."