Escape (2)
I ran down the corridor.
The floor began to undulate, rolling like waves beneath my feet.
"Got you."
A hand punched through the paper screen and seized my ankle. Bang. Bang. I yanked out the pistol and shot the hand. It vanished with a scream.
But the anomaly wasn't just one strange hand. I had already passed dozens of them on the way here.
Tag's so much fun!
An anomaly burst into laughter. I shook my head against the sound of it.
Why the hell is this useful now of all times?
The situation was desperate — and yet not entirely bad. If anything, I was more bewildered than terrified.
The clues were right here all along.
Goe-bung-i1231's comments still held the answers for dealing with these anomalies.
Why the hell can't I be in the same space as that guy?
I dodged a headless cultist and sprinted for the end of the corridor. Escape was right in front of me — and still I couldn't understand why I'd been separated from him into a different space.
Modern architecture.
I stopped. Goe-bung-i's words came back to me.
If the comment was right, I couldn't go any farther down this corridor.
There's nowhere left to run.
I scanned my surroundings. Surrounded on all sides. Even the path I'd come from had already transformed into a modern hallway.
Got you. Come on in. Play with me.
Click. Creeeeak.
A door opened by itself — swung wide as if inviting me in. The doorway rushed toward me.
"Ah."
By the time I came to my senses, I was already inside.
"What the…"
My field of vision dropped. I lifted my hands. My height had shrunk; my skin had gone soft and smooth. I had been returned to myself at seven years old.
A kindergarten?
My blurry vision snapped into focus. I was standing in a kindergarten classroom.
"We have a new friend today. Everyone, give a round of applause."
An adult who seemed to be the kindergarten teacher led me by the hand and stood me in front of the children. Seven-year-olds with no eyes, no noses, no mouths clapped their hands.
"Ah…"
Before I knew it, I was clapping along with them. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. The sound rattled through my skull. In a daze, I bowed and stepped toward the kids.
"Hi. What's your name?"
The child beside me asked.
"My name is Seol In-yul."
My mouth moved on its own and said it.
"In-yul, nice to meet you."
The children crowded in, surrounding me, holding out their hands. I had to take every single one of them before I was allowed free.
"Next is talent show time. Number one, come up and show us your talent?"
"Yes! I'll pull out my eyes and show you!"
Squelch. The child dug out their own eyeballs and held them up proudly. Red blood poured from the empty sockets. The kid beamed, weeping tears of blood.
"Very good. Number two, please come forward."
"I'll show you my real organs!"
The child stabbed their own belly and pulled the guts free. The kids around them giggled. Similar "talent" performances followed — one child displaying their own brain.
Fuck. Fuck. I have to run.
My turn was coming. I tried to force my body to move, to get out of there — but nothing budged. Cold sweat ran down my back from the tension. Before I knew it, they had called my number. I was the only one left who hadn't performed.
"Last one. In-yul, come on up and show us your talent."
The kindergarten teacher called my name. My body moved on its own and stood me in front of the children. Faceless kindergarteners stared up at me.
I have to run.
I had to run. If I stayed, they would tear me apart and kill me in the most brutal way. But my legs might as well have been nailed to the floor.
It's an anomaly. Nothing they do to me would be strange.
I clenched my teeth and tried to move my legs. All I had to do was walk toward the exit beyond the children.
Snap out of it. Move, damn it.
I gritted my teeth. My body still wouldn't budge.
What did I come here for again?
My head went foggy. What was I trying to do… right. The talent show. Most of the good acts had already been done by the kids ahead of me. I had nothing original left.
Then I'll just do all of them.
After a moment's thought, I had it. I would copy every single talent the kids before me had shown. I raised my arm, about to dig out my own eyes —
The text floating in front of my eyes snapped me back.
Hah—
I lowered my hand. The hand that hadn't been moving worked just fine now. My seven-year-old body, on the other hand, stayed locked in place as if nailed down.
"In-yul, what's wrong?"
"Are you okay? Does something hurt?"
The teacher and the children asked with concern.
These are illusions.
I understood. They were all illusions.
I took a photo and uploaded it to the gallery. It captured. Not an illusion — reality. In reality, I was lying on the kindergarten floor staring at the ceiling, fingers a breath away from gouging out my own eyes.
I have to run.
I had to free my locked body. I wriggled my fingers, working the stiffness out the way you do when sleep paralysis has you. Bit by bit, the rigid body loosened. I forced myself upright in the real world.
Not far off, I could see a door leading outside. I moved toward it slowly.
"What's wrong?" "Does something hurt?"
My mind was still trapped in the illusion. Figures came up beside me and shook my body. Their forms tore as easily as paper.
Ghh—
The pain was real. I staggered and collapsed to the floor. My strength was gone; I couldn't push forward.
Where the hell did that thing come from?
An unidentified anomaly in the photo — its entire body blackened and burned — was crawling toward me on all fours.
"Class is still in session. You can't just do whatever you want. If you try to run, Teacher will have to punish you."
So that was the kindergarten teacher's true form. I forced my body into motion and ran for the door.
"Everyone, In-yul seems a little nervous. But he introduced himself so well — let's all give him a round of applause."
Clap. Clap. Clap. The sound shook my skull. The boundary between reality and illusion thinned.
What was I trying to do again?
The mental assault kept getting stronger. The line between real and false grew fainter. I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood and crawled across the floor.
"No. You mustn't drag yourself across the floor like thaaat."
The anomaly had closed the distance and seized my leg. Bang. Bang. I fired into the teacher-anomaly's face — a shot strong enough to blow half its head off.
"That hurts. You shouldn't play tricks on Teacher."
The head regenerated in an instant. Gunfire was nothing more than a mild prank to this thing.
Damn it. My head's getting worse and worse.
Even biting my lip was hitting its limit. Shooting was a bad trade — the item that burned blood for bullets was fogging my thoughts.
"Lift In-yul up. Take him back to the corner."
Kindergarteners appeared from nowhere and surrounded me. My body was slowly lifted into the air. The world spun. I couldn't tell what was real and what was false.
Baaang.
I raised the gun and shot my own arm — a hit I took knowing it would cripple me. Massive pain flooded my vision red.
Moving again!
I clenched my teeth and pushed. I shook off the kids and aimed at the kindergarten teacher's head.
I hit the floor. I drove power into my legs and kicked off, sprinting for the door. Kids and teacher stretched out their hands to grab me.
I kicked free of the kid clinging to my leg and grabbed the doorknob.
Wait — how does this door open?
Turn it? Push? Pull? I sat there blankly for a second, frozen.
"Can't open the door? You push it, remember?"
At the teacher's words I tried to shove —
"Aagh!"
The gunshot wound tore open and I screamed. The shock snapped me back to myself.
Turn it. I snapped a photo to the gallery and cleared my head.
I twisted the knob and opened the door. I shoved my body through and got outside.
"Don't go. Class isn't over yet."
"Play with us more. Play with us forever."
I ignored the kids and the teacher and shut the door. Click. Fully closed.
I'd crossed a mountain only to find another mountain waiting. Metaphor and literal truth at once — a real mountain stood in front of me.
"A mountain?"
Deep countryside without so much as a power line in sight. Near a mountain valley sat a single small thatched house.
Auto-saved.