Bride
Her body was terribly emaciated, yet her belly protruded in a grotesque, rounded swell, exactly like that of a pregnant woman. The elderly couple sank into shock and horror. They could not conceal the terror etched across their faces. The daughter standing before them no longer looked like their child at all. They could not recall the joy of having gained her after so many years of hardship. Soon the girl, having lost interest at the sight of the collapsed shaman, was swallowed by the thick darkness and vanished. The news that the shaman who had performed the ritual had died reached them the following morning. Until her final breath, the shaman had spoken of regretting that she had touched what should never have been touched. She had even demanded that every won of the money received from the old couple be returned, warning that anyone connected to them could fall under the same curse. When the assistant shaman arrived the next day to return the payment and revealed the full truth, the old man lost the last of his hope.
He no longer knew what to do. Everything felt as if it had collapsed into ruin. Ah! The daughter they had finally received in their late years, the joy of her acceptance into the university she wanted—it seemed like only yesterday. Her bright face when she landed her first job still floated before their eyes. That same daughter had returned to her rural hometown only days earlier, complaining that her body felt wrong. And that was not all. It had not taken long for her belly to begin swelling. The entire situation felt like a nightmare. He wished desperately that all these impossible events would prove to be nothing more than a bad dream. But this was no nightmare. It was reality.
They had tried everything for their daughter’s sake. They took her to the hospital. They sought out priests and monks. This time, believing it was their last chance, they had even called in a shaman—yet even she had failed. Worse, she had been struck by a counter-curse and died. What in the world was happening? How had things come to this? Could this truly be real? The things they witnessed refused to be believed.
Several more days passed after the shaman’s death. The yard remained exactly as it had been left—a complete disaster. The house was deathly quiet. The old couple sat motionless in the living room, staring at nothing. From time to time, faint groans drifted from the inner room. Sometimes a pitiful voice called out for her parents. At other moments the sounds resembled lewd, obscene moans. Then suddenly she would scream at the top of her lungs, begging to be saved. The old couple did not know what to do. Their daughter—how were they supposed to help their daughter when she suffered like this?
Yongha drank without end. Sunja spent every night weeping until dawn. They called upon merciful Buddha, upon Jesus, upon God, over and over, but no deity answered their desperate prayers. Time simply slipped away, empty and meaningless.
No one could say exactly when it began. At some point she had started having the strange dreams. She saw people wearing masks. She was surrounded by them. And she was completely naked. At the time Heejin had not been in her right mind. Even though it was a dream, her consciousness was blurred as if she were heavily drunk or drugged. Resistance was impossible. She could barely grasp her own situation. She could not even tell whether what she experienced was dream or reality.
While she struggled to hold on to her hazy awareness among the masked figures, something approached. It was… ah! It was not human. It resembled a beast. Yet it was no ordinary animal. It was a monster. The creature came closer, sniffing at her scent. Heejin felt revulsion. She also felt an overwhelming terror at the sight of the grotesque beast, but her clouded mind refused to let her body move. She still could not decide whether this was dream or reality.
The beast continued to smell her body, then let out a satisfied queek. At once the masked figures around her began making bizarre noises. They sounded like some kind of incantation. The sound was so skin-crawling that merely hearing it raised gooseflesh. Meanwhile the enormous beast seemed delighted by the chanting. It looked excited, as if it had finally found something it had sought for a very long time. It lowered its head and stared at her. Its yellow beast eyes gleamed with obscene hunger.
Ah! Only then did Heejin realize. This being—this grotesque monster—wanted her. It was wildly aroused by the sight of her flesh. She tried to resist, shaking her head frantically, trying to move her limbs, but it was no use. Her wrists and ankles were tightly bound with ropes. Her legs had been spread wide apart. Her most private parts lay completely exposed before the monster.
N-no… no… She tried to murmur the words, but her voice would not come out properly. The shame was unbearable. Waves of disgust and agony crashed over her. Heejin screamed. She thrashed and wailed, begging it to stop. But the monstrous beast and the masked figures surrounding her did not cease. And then… she saw it. The organ slowly emerging from the beast’s body. It was enormous, rigid, and a horrifying shade of vivid red.
Ah… It wanted her body. Her body… She screamed and shook her head, pleading desperately, but they ignored her. At last… schlick. It forced its way into her.
The scream she had been holding back finally tore free. At the same moment she regained consciousness and realized it had only been a dream. Yet the sensation remained vivid throughout her body.
After that, the same dream repeated endlessly. She never understood why it had begun. Each time the scene was nearly identical. She was tied to something like an altar. The masked figures never changed. And the bizarre beast violated her. Again and again. Ironically the feeling remained so vivid that when she finally woke, the space between her thighs was often wet. She felt ashamed. She felt terrified. She felt disgusted. She began to wonder if she was losing her mind.
At some point an unbearable fatigue settled over her. She could hardly lift a finger. Yet Heejin was a new employee who had only recently started her internship. She had to go to work no matter what. So even when she did not want to sleep, she forced herself to rest. She tried everything to ease the exhaustion. Perhaps because of the nightmares, her mistakes at the office grew more frequent. Just yesterday she had blundered again and received a scolding from her supervisor. She had no excuse; it was entirely her fault.
In any case, she even tried sleeping pills to overcome the fatigue and sleep deeply. But she could not escape the terrible nightmare. If anything, the pills seemed to prevent her from waking in the middle of it. She remained trapped in the dream until the horrifying violation ended. Eventually she became afraid to take the medicine. No—she became afraid of sleep itself.
That was not all. After the dreams began, her stomach turned constantly. She often felt nauseated at the mere sight of food and could not eat. It was exactly like morning sickness. She visited the hospital, but the doctors found nothing physically wrong. Just in case, she consulted a psychiatrist. They told her that stress was likely the biggest factor. She took the prescribed medication. Her mind grew a little calmer, yet the horrific nightmares continued.
Several more months passed. Her body grew thinner and thinner. Her colleagues began to worry openly. Heejin herself knew she had reached her limit. In her current state she could accomplish nothing. In the end she quit her job and returned to her hometown.
Her parents, who had given birth to her so late in life, were visibly shocked by her gaunt appearance. Heejin wept as she explained what had been happening—the constant, bizarre nightmares. At first her parents seemed to think it was simply severe stress. Since she had left the company, they soothed her, saying rest at home would surely help her recover. But it did not. Days passed and nothing changed. The nightmares continued. Her body continued to waste away.
Yet that was not the worst of it. Something even stranger began to happen. Her belly started to swell. When they took her to the hospital, the diagnosis was, ironically, pregnancy. The old couple was stunned beyond words. They pressed her—did she have a boyfriend? Had she slept with someone without protection? But Heejin felt wronged. It was impossible. There had never been anything of the sort.