Chapter 11
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 11Anomalies (2)
March 10th.
A television placed on the floor. A talk show program with plain entertainment is being broadcasted from within the rectangular frame. A red single-seater sofa placed closely in front of that television.
There's a guy named me buried in the sofa, blankly watching only the television. It's not like I feel any great entertainment from it, but it possesses a bizarre magic that makes me strangely keep watching it. Is this why it's called an idiot box. If so, wouldn't it be right to classify this television as a supernatural entity as well?
'Just how many hours have I been watching this?'
Because I don't sleep, I end up watching it unceasingly. Before this, I used a method of briefly blacking out my mind as if sleeping, but since obtaining the television, there's no need for that anymore. After boldly shaking off the temptation of the television, I left the sofa and moved to the window.
An empty room with nothing in it. Thanks to the blackout curtains, I let sunlight infiltrate that place which was dark even though it was morning.
Swish.
Because I have no eyes, there is no glare either. Far beyond the discolored and stained window, countless commercial buildings can be seen. And above the heads of those buildings. A towering white hospital stood there as if looking down at everything.
'It's quiet from the morning.'
There are this many people diligently coming and going to the hospital even in the early morning. My detection ability, spreading widely up to the hospital, clearly detected the bustling people. The expression 'quiet' that I used could absolutely not be fitting.
And yet, the reason I described it as quiet.
'It's empty.'
Deep inside the hospital. A suspiciously thickly laid dark energy is interfering with my detection ability. The visible exterior of the building isn't everything. Somewhere inside is completely empty, like a vertically pierced deep-sea hole.
It's true that the hospital is bustling with medical staff and patients coming in and out. However, compared to the empty interior, one would feel it is not just quiet, but empty.
'It's the trace of an anomaly.'
Ordinary evil spirits do not possess such abilities. If it has a dark shadow enough to cover even my visual range, it is definitely the trace of an anomaly.
'I should meet it.'
Because it has such dark energy, it brings uncertainty to communication, but I must at least attempt contact for the sake of my goal. Seeing that the hospital's dark energy is old, it must have been active as an anomaly for quite a long time. If so, it must be equipped with experience and knowledge as an anomaly.
I will have that knowledge shared with me. What if it attacks? I guess I have to prepare to fight.
'Still, I can't approach it right now.'
Perhaps because it's morning, there are too many people. Seeing that there are this many sick people in a single day, humans are indeed weak creatures.
After observing the hospital, I closed the curtains again. After returning to the sofa, I sat buried in it like earlier and continued watching the channel I was watching before.
Finding an empty house was miraculously lucky. Electricity comes in, there's a television and a sofa, and the channels work normally too. It's a guess, but it seems the person who originally lived here moved out, and the landlord forgot to disconnect the room. The landlord is expected to have a somewhat clumsy personality.
'It's great for me, though.'
From the perspective of a wanderer like me, it's an unparalleled happiness, isn't it.
I focused on the television again. Just in time, the program host received something called noodles from a local resident. He devours the noodles so deliciously that the expression 'greedy' fits.
I don't have a mouth, but I feel like my mouth is watering. I've never put food in a stomach before, but I feel like I'm hungry.
'What does it taste like?'
The only tastes I've ever felt in my life are things like the sewer. I'm so curious what on earth those foods humans eat taste like.
'I really want to try eating it.'
It's truly a demonic television. I can't take my eyes off it for a single moment.
What is the Bureau of Management doing? Not isolating such an entity when it exists in every single house.
What was handed over was mixed coffee in a paper cup. Park Jong-seo, who looked at the coffee under his chin with tired eyes, turned back to the friend who handed him the coffee.
A man with round glasses wearing a good-natured smile. A youthful, handsome appearance on a baby face, and an upright impression. It was Lee Dong-hwa, a doctor who was actually very popular and his longtime friend.
"You like coffee, right? Especially mixed coffee."
The hand opposite to the one holding the mixed coffee. His own coffee is an iced americano bought from a nearby coffee shop. Giving cheap coffee to others while drinking proper coffee himself? It could be offensive, but Park Jong-seo did not show any signs of discomfort.
"Of course."
Stubble that grew sparsely because he hadn't shaved. The area around his eyes left with dark blue marks, beyond just having dark circles.
The man who looked overall exhausted with dry skin is Park Jong-seo. A former journalist, he is Lee Dong-hwa's longtime friend.
He, who had only ever drank cheap mixed coffee, wouldn't touch an americano even if someone went out of their way to buy it. Knowing that, Lee Dong-hwa went out of his way to find mixed coffee in the staff break room and made it for him personally. The two men sat side by side on a bench in front of the hospital and drank their respective coffees.
Wordlessly. Continuing just like that.
"Hello, Doctor." "Yeah. Hello."
Just in time, nurses with visible intentions greet them as they pass in front of the two men. When Lee Dong-hwa smiled brightly and replied, the giggling sounds of the nurses hastily running away into the entrance spread. Park Jong-seo, who was just sipping his coffee with sleepy eyes, chuckled.
"You're still popular." "Really? I wouldn't know."
Lee Dong-hwa, lying brazenly, shrugged his shoulders. Handsome people know they are popular. Park Jong-seo, who saw right through his friend's inner thoughts, placed the paper cup he had downed in one gulp on the ground and took out a cigarette.
"The hospital is a non-smoking area." "It's outside here." "It's not a designated smoking area, though." "Cut me some slack. If it wasn't for cigarettes and coffee, I'd probably get drugs and shoot up."
It's not something to say even as a joke in front of a doctor. However, Lee Dong-hwa turned a blind eye to his friend's misdemeanor with an expression that said he understood everything. Around the time cigarette ash piled up inside the paper cup. Lee Dong-hwa spoke.
"Your wife will be safe."
The hand holding the cigarette paused for a very brief moment. Park Jong-seo's expression distorted greatly, as if he was about to cry yet furious.
"So trust the police and try to live like a human being."
He knows it's not comforting, but he's saying it out of pity because he's living too much like a wreck. Park Jong-seo crushed the cigarette he was smoking and then rubbed it out inside the paper cup.
"Since my wife went missing, are you acting like my wife instead? What does it matter to you how a stranger like me lives." "Even I have to take care of you. Does the way you're living right now look human?"
Lee Dong-hwa, who took a sip of his coffee, watched the hospital entrance blankly and spoke.
"I'm worried you'll die before you find your wife." "…I'll absolutely never die. Not until I find Ye-eun."
He gripped the paper cup until it crumpled and then threw it into a nearby trash can. Seeing that, Lee Dong-hwa increased the speed he was drinking his coffee.
"Did the police say they found anything?" "No. Would they have? Sitting on their heavy asses. Parasites wasting tax money." "Don't curse them too much. The police must have their reasons too. Haven't the patrol numbers increased recently?" "Only the numbers increased, nothing has changed."
Park Jong-seo, who had deep distrust in the police, ground his teeth. A brownish light flickered in his eyes.
"Even up to this moment while useless cops are slacking off and dawdling, only the number of missing people is increasing in this damn city." "⋯⋯."
The two men watch the hospital entrance in silence. Through the entrance, two young men come in bickering with each other.
"Let's just get examined once. It could be because your head really hurts." "I said I'm really fine? It'll get better if I rest at home." "What if there's something wrong with your brain? I'll pay for it, so just get a diagnosis. Huh? Just a diagnosis." "I'm telling you, just because I saw an Object Head doesn't mean my brain is sick!" "It's not that, you've been spacing out and lacking energy all day. Then let's just get an IV drip. Just an IV drip!"
The two young men disappear into the building. Lee Dong-hwa, who stood up from the bench, threw his coffee cup into the trash can and shoved his hands into the pockets of his white coat.
"My break time is ending soon. I have to go in now. Do you want to get an IV drip too to get your energy back?" "Dong-hwa-yah."
Park Jong-seo, who leaned his elbows on both knees and rubbed his face as if smearing it, threw a sharp look at Lee Dong-hwa.
"Please. Please get permission for me to investigate your general hospital a bit."
Lee Dong-hwa's eyes sink heavily. He let out a troubled sigh and shook his head softly.
"Jong-seo-yah. The hospital isn't a hospital I use alone. The doctors, nurses, and even patients coming in and out number thousands in a single day." "I know. That's why I'm asking you to let me investigate even at night." "It's not like anything goes just because it's night. What sin did the inpatients commit?"
He understands Park Jong-seo's feelings, but he can't just blindly grant his request either. Park Jong-seo, who has had psychological anxiety since his wife's disappearance, has frequently been making unreasonable requests lately. Even for a longtime friend, what can't be done can't be done.
"And why our hospital? What does this place have to do with the missing people." "There's a story that the missing people are taken from the hospital." "Park Jong-seo. That's an urban legend."
Lee Dong-hwa looking quite angry. He looked up at the hospital full of worry, as if someone might hear, and then urged him.
"Don't take kids' urban legends seriously. You're believing strange superstitions right now because of stress." "⋯I'm just trying to do something." "You're treating an innocent hospital as a hotbed for crime just to try to do something?"
Park Jong-seo falls gloomily silent. Lee Dong-hwa continued to press him.
"If you argue like that, I must be a kidnapper complicit in a crime too, huh?" "Haa, I'm sorry for talking nonsense." "⋯Should I introduce you to a good psychiatric hospital?" "No. I'm sorry for holding you up when you're busy. Go on inside."
Lee Dong-hwa, who watched him with pity, threw words of encouragement and went into the hospital. Park Jong-seo, who continued to guard the bench, leaned his back and glared at the sky. It's a damn clear sky.
"I'm sorry, but I have to believe even in urban legends."
That night. When it gets dark, the hospital becomes quiet as if it never was anything else.
Perhaps because it's late, the lobby is gloomy and pitch black. The staff member guarding the desk was yawning and playing a game on a phone hidden under the desk.
Tap, tap.
Fast footsteps. As the nurse raised his head, a white coat swiftly passed by.
"Doctor?" "Yeah. I just left something behind for a bit. Go back to work."
There was no time to even see his face. Still, the nurse, remembering the white coat, nonchalantly turned his attention back to his phone. Park Jong-seo, who easily passed by, sighed in relief.
"In all my life, to think I would buy a doctor cosplay outfit."
Why are cosplay outfits so expensive anyway. Is it because the quality is good? It paid off to closely observe Lee Dong-hwa's attire.
"The night is long. Where should I look first."
If someone were to hide people, the basement would be the universal choice, right. Since the elevator has a risk of getting caught, let's take the stairs. Park Jong-seo, who went to the emergency exit stairs, intended to go straight to the floor below. However, the sound of dress shoes coming up from the floor below.
Click-clack.
"Oops. Are they on patrol?"
What should I do? Should I go up? A frontal breakthrough like earlier?
"I can't rely on people's complacency forever. Let's go up."
This time, it's someone on patrol, so I won't be able to fool them easily. Swallowing his regret, he headed towards the upper floors.
2nd floor. 3rd floor. 4th floor. There were locked floors too, and as he kept going up to avoid the footsteps, he reached the 6th floor. He had gotten too far from the basement. To think he'd climb all the way to a general ward floor.
"Damn it, am I in a position to be picky? The night is long."
Consoling himself like that, he hid his body in the 6th-floor ward for now. A long, continuous hallway. Ward doors lined up on both sides. Around the center position at the end, a nurses' station can be seen. The only place where lights were on was towards the station.
"Hoo."
For now, he walked naturally. Lightly skimming the names hanging on each ward door as he passed towards the station. Before passing the station, Park Jong-seo just poked his head out and checked first to see if there was a nurse.
"There is. Ah, shit. There is one."
Of course there would be. Due to the position, only the shoulder and head part of the nurse uniform is slightly visible. Wondering what to do, he decided to make a frontal breakthrough this time as well.
"Hoo."
He strides past the front of the station with fast steps. He knows there's an emergency exit at the hallway on the opposite end too. He has no choice but to go down to the basement through there.
Without giving the nurse a single glance, he was passing by with only his white coat fluttering when suddenly his head turned. A person appearing to be a doctor is passing by, yet the nurse has no reaction? Could they be dozing off? Or so he thought.
"Heo-eop!"
He was so surprised that he abruptly stopped.
Unnatural white skin, as if powdered. A face sitting on a chair in a bizarrely upright posture, staring intently. Lips rising up to the cheekbones, to the point one might wonder if they were torn. Unpleasantly large pupils, like someone whose surgery failed.
The nurse, whose appearance was so terrifying one might wonder if it was a mannequin, only turned its head following Park Jong-seo. No greeting. Doesn't ask who he is either. It really just stares intently like a mannequin.
"What, on earth…?"
Makeup? It must be makeup, right? What nurse in the world sits in front of a ward room looking that scary. Forgetting even the goal of having to pass by, Park Jong-seo froze stiff with dizzying fear.
"Th-that look is… what on earth?"
He shouldn't have spoken to it. But he couldn't bring himself to pretend he didn't see that appearance that defied common sense. Even pranks should have a limit!
"Who does makeup looking like that! Are you trying to play a joke? What are you going to do if patients get surprised and it becomes dangerous!"
He's not a doctor, but he scolded it feeling like a doctor. However, the nurse remains motionless. From beginning to end. It only stares without moving a single pupil.
"I-it's not a mannequin, right?"
Who would make a mannequin like that and put it there. Besides, seeing as its head turns following him, it's hard to see it as a fake.
"I-if you don't want to get disciplined, wipe off that makeup right now!"
After ending it like that, he passed the station. After scolding himself internally, wondering why he scolded it. He reached the emergency exit stairs on the opposite side. He should have.
"Huh?"
He arrived at a nurses' station, not the emergency exit stairs. The exact same nurse from earlier is staring at him again.
"Uh-uh?"
There can't be two nurses' stations in one ward. It's even a straight hallway, so there should only be one station. He looked back. The station he passed by is nowhere to be seen. Rather, there is only a pitch-black hallway without a single speck of light.
"No… huh?"
He looked straight ahead again. Straight ahead, the emergency exit stairs on the opposite side can be seen.
"Uh, ahem."
An illusion? But how could he mistake this? Trying hard to push away the strange feeling, he passed in front of the station again. The nurse only turns its head with the exact same face.
Around the time he reached the emergency exit again. A station appeared again.
"……."
Now words don't even come out. The bizarre emotion of feeling like his thinking is broken scrambles his brain and confuses his eyes. Once it crosses the point where everything makes no sense, he now doubts reality.
"Did I pass by it?"
Even knowing it's nonsense, he comes to doubt it. Because it doesn't make sense otherwise. Rather, because it feels like he'll go crazy. So he ended up asking a foolish question to the nurse.
"I haven't passed by here, right?"
The nurse smiles. Just with the exact same face.
"…I guess I should have gone to a psychiatric hospital like Dong-hwa said."
My brain finally broke because of the obsession and sorrow that I have to find my wife. I've gone crazy and can't distinguish between delusion and reality.
"Fuck. I should just go back for today."
He made that judgment. How could he find his wife looking like this. There will be plenty of opportunities, so it was when he was turning around, promising a next time.
"Patient Park Jong-seo."
A chill washed over his spine. The beautiful voice of a woman heard right from behind his back. Park Jong-seo, who turned deathly pale, carefully turned around, trembling his head.
Still the exact same face. But the mouth moves.
"It's time to take your medicine." "Medicine…?" "Here, take your medicine."
The nurse placed a medicine envelope on the desk. A single unidentified pill.
Park Jong-seo, who was looking down at the medicine with vacant eyes, looked at the nurse again. It's a face that's hard to keep looking at because it looks too bizarre.
"How do you know my name?" "Patient Park Jong-seo. You need to take your medicine. That's how you'll get better." "I asked how you know my name." "Patient. It's troublesome if you keep refusing to take it." "Why am I a patient!"
It was the moment he slammed the desk with both hands with a Bang!. The fluttering sleeves are unfamiliar. The moment he saw a blue striped outfit, not a white coat, Park Jong-seo realized he was wearing a hospital gown.
"…Huh?"
Since when? It definitely should have been a white coat. No, even the clothes underneath the coat disappeared. He had truly become a patient.
"What is going on? On earth… why this? Something… something is wrong."
It went wrong. It went terribly wrong. Since when did it become like this.
Let's think differently. Actually, couldn't it have been like this from the beginning?
I never had a wife, and I was a patient. Because I didn't take my medicine, I fell into a very long delusion, and I've only barely returned to reality now. Right, I was a schizophrenia patient.
"Patient Park Jong-seo."
His head turns at the nurse's call. The nurse smiled kindly and pointed at the medicine.
"Take your medicine."
Right. Let's take the medicine. I have to take the medicine to get treated. It was the moment he gladly accepted the medicine and was about to put it in his mouth.
Click-clack.
Footsteps. These footsteps are the sound he heard at the emergency exit earlier. He stopped taking his medicine and turned his head. It's being heard from the pitch-black hallway.
"……."
The nurse's face stiffens. The nurse, who stood up from its seat, came out of the station and stood by the hallway. The nurse, glaring beyond the dark hallway, shouts.
"You must not come here! Because you are a danger to the patients, get out right now!"
It shouts coercively, but it is terrified. The moment it hesitated and backed away.
Fwoosh.
It was engulfed in blue fire.
"Kyaaaaaak!"
A tearing scream ringing through the hospital. He dropped the medicine out of sheer surprise, and barely realized reality while watching the burning nurse.
"Sch-schizophrenia my ass, bullshit!"
The white coat outfit that returned as soon as he realized. It feels just like he had a dream. Of course, that ghost-like nurse burning in the fire is not a dream. It screamed, then stopped and collapsed on the floor. The flames do not die down. Crackle, crackle, sparks flew.
Click-clack.
The footsteps heard again. The pitch-black hallway brightly lights up in blue.
"Heo… Heo-eo… Heo-eop……."
A man in a suit. He has no head. Instead, a blue flame situated in that place. That thing, which had an appearance far more bizarre than the nurse, stopped at the station's location.
Swoooooosh-
The flame on the floor is sucked into the flame man's head. The corpse that had become a lump of charcoal was also dragged along and disappeared into the flame.
The blue flame man turned his body towards Park Jong-seo. Since he has no face, he has no mouth, and since he has no mouth, he does not speak. Since he has no eyes, he can't even figure out if he is looking at him or something else.
Click-clack.
Perhaps because of that, he passes by without a word. The blue flame man, who suddenly appeared and unintentionally saved him, disappeared just like that.
"Heo-eok."
Thanks to that, his tension released. His trembling legs couldn't hold up and he slumped down. In that brief moment, his entire body was drenched as if he had fallen into water and come out.
It's not a dream, an illusion, nor a delusion. This is clear reality.
"Heo-eok… Heo-eok… Heo-eok⋯…. Keu-heuk!"
He covered his face with his hands while leaning his back against the desk. He has no idea what is going on. Is his wife really even in this hospital?