The Grip of Nightmares
A soft groan escaped Hyesu's lips. "Ah... aah..." Her body felt incredibly heavy and stiff. Even when she tried to sit up, a sticky, unpleasant sensation clung to her skin. She must have drenched herself in sweat. With great effort, Hyesu placed a hand on her forehead and let out a deep sigh. Was it a dream? If so, it had been a truly eerie and unpleasant nightmare. Should she call it a _Gwoeyi_? Or a _Gwicho_? It didn't matter anyway! It was just so unpleasant. The feeling of being behind in the present lingered. Especially the shameful, disgusting sensation from the dream still lingered vividly, causing her body to shiver uncontrollably. But to be sure, Hyesu looked at her own body. Thankfully, her clothes were still on. Thinking about it, she must have fallen asleep in the outfit she'd worn to stay up late working on her graduation exhibition. It was a rumpled T-shirt and shorts. At least the habit of playing OTT movies on her tablet must have continued until she dozed off. She swept her hand across her face and sighed again. She staggered to her feet. She had sweated so much that a shower was probably necessary. Aah! But first, maybe drink some water. She headed to the kitchen and opened the small refrigerator. A bright light flashed as she took out a 500mL bottle of cold water. Gulping it down, the stuffiness in her body eased a little. Then she was about to head to the bathroom when... Aah! Her legs suddenly gave out. She nearly collapsed onto the floor but managed to steady herself by grabbing the dining table. The table creaked. It was the one she'd bought through a second-hand trading app. It had been four years since then, right? It made a painfully ugly noise when she shook it slightly. Well... she would only have to endure it a little longer, anyway, because she was going back to her hometown soon. She just had to hold on until then. She sat down on the chair and tightly closed her eyes. The dizziness didn't seem to go away. Moreover, there was this strange sense of discomfort all over her body. And not only that. A wet feeling between her legs. It was as if her period had started. Of course, it wasn't like real menstruation. It was all because of this horrible nightmare, she supposed. Aah! That unpleasant, uneasy feeling wouldn't go away. She struggled her way toward the bathroom. ////// Aah... the fatigue wasn't lifting. Why did her body feel so heavy and limp, like she was carrying a lead weight? She had always had a tired expression because of it. Her face must have looked bad, too. Her friends kept asking her worriedly if she was sick. When that happened, she would force a smile and say she was fine. Yeah, there really was nothing wrong with her body. It was just that it felt so heavy and she couldn't shake off the fatigue no matter how much she slept. Maybe it was all because of the strange nightmares she'd been having lately. The content was too embarrassing to tell her friends. Yeah, she couldn't even bring herself to say it out loud. It was called a _Gwoeyi_ or _Gwicho_. She wasn't the type to brag about such things anyway, so she hadn't been able to talk to anyone about it. Aah! She was worried. It had been more than a week since she'd been tormented by this embarrassing nightmare. At first she thought it would end with a simple nap, but it had dragged on far longer than expected. Now she didn't even want to sleep. No, it was more like fear. Today, thanks to her graduation exhibition, she had come out of school late again. Fortunately, Hyesu boarded the last subway and sat in an empty seat, letting out a sigh. The nightmare was one thing, but the root cause was probably the graduation exhibition after all. Still, since it was her last time at school, she wanted to finish the exhibition as best she could. Because of that stubborn desire, she had poured her all into it. Perhaps because of that, the fatigue wouldn't go away. On the other hand, there were only two stations left until her home stop. Normally she could have walked it, but her body was so bad that she had no choice but to take the subway. If it had been normal, she would have saved the fare. Anyway! She would just have to hold on until she finished the exhibition. Maybe once she completed it, she would finally be free from this horrible fatigue. Hyesu endured it with that thought in mind. It must have been just stress piling up. Otherwise, she would have been scrolling through her smartphone, researching the nightmares. Most sources said stress was the culprit. Severe stress could cause weird nightmares, and it could even lead to chronic fatigue. Yeah, it was probably stress. Hyesu thought that and, like always, put on her earphones and turned on the podcast she always listened to with noise cancellation. That said, she was worried about the future. Once she graduated, she would immediately dive into the job market. For that, she naturally needed her TOEIC and TOEFL scores. So recently she had started listening to English podcasts. But concentrating on them was still difficult. Maybe it was because the fatigue was building up. She stretched her legs out and crossed her arms, lifting her head. A sigh slipped out like always. Now it seemed she was sighing every day. Then... the subway lights suddenly flickered. She frowned and tilted her head. Flicker... flicker... The lights flickered again and again. Well... subways sometimes had flickering lights, so she figured it was nothing. There had even been times when the lights went out completely. Of course, those had only happened at specific stations. It was her first time experiencing it on the way to her home station. Curious, she looked around. On the opposite bench, a middle-aged man in a suit was sleeping with his head nodding. And a little further inside, someone looked young enough to be hunched over. Maybe he was drunk. Hyesu didn't think much of it and turned her head back to the flickering lights. Was she the only one bothered by these flickering lights? Then... Suddenly, the lights went out with a _thud_! ////// In the pitch-black darkness, the air itself seemed to grow cold. _Clunk... clunk..._ Except for the subway train's rocking, the whole car felt eerily quiet. From that moment, Hyesu had to feel a strange fear. Her body wouldn't move, either. Whoa! It was the same situation again. This _Gwicho_ had started and continued for days now. She bit her lip hard. She twisted her body desperately to move, but it was as difficult as her mind had been. Anxiety gradually swelled. The fear kept growing bigger. Then... from her cheek came a breath of an unknown presence... It felt far colder than any living person's breath. Aah! A chill ran down her spine. Her heart dropped like a stone. 'No... I don't want this...' It was the same every time. No matter how hard she resisted or fought, there was nothing she could do. She could only pray that this awful time would pass quickly. Her trembling eyes met the person sleeping on the opposite bench. The face was dark inside, but it was clearly a sleeping person. 'H-hey...' Her trembling lips moved with difficulty, but no voice came out. 'Please... h-help me... I need you to help me!' The voice still wouldn't come. The fear only grew stronger. Her eyelids reddened. She was powerless. So incredibly powerless. There was nothing she could do. Meanwhile... Aah! It started again. Something horrible and disgusting began to sweep over her body. Long, wet, sticky... This time, too, something like tentacles swept over her body. Like petting... Nausea rose in her throat. It was terrifying, and her body shivered. Even the cold breath carrying a faint smell of something animalistic grew clearer. It felt like the breath of an excited beast. Her body trembled like a leaf in the wind. 'No... I really don't want this...' It was truly... so unpleasant. But her body still wouldn't move. Sadly, she couldn't resist. She was left helpless to be toyed with. The sticky, wet thing approached her legs again. "Ugh..." A painful groan barely escaped Hyesu's lips, and that was all she could do. Her body kept shivering. Finally, tears began to well up from behind her reddened eyelids. "Hic!" Eventually, it forced its way into her most private place. A sharp breath was taken in. A horrific sensation traveled through her most intimate area. It was painful. Terrifying. Disgusting. Negative emotions that couldn't even be named wrapped around her entire body. Most of all, the fact that she couldn't resist even a little was the biggest agony. Aah! This humiliation couldn't be described in words. How could she explain the shame? She tightly closed her eyes. She bit her lip hard. It seemed to be getting clearer every day. That horrific feeling of being roughly violated between her legs... the feeling of something large, sticky, and cold—like a penis—violating her intimate area grew clearer and clearer, bit by bit. Every time that happened, her body inexplicably felt pleasure.