What Happened Last Night

Inside the cell, everyone sat huddled close, faces nearly touching.

As if something had just clicked, Ruia tilted her head and asked Yejin,

"Come to think of it, unnie — other than the spanking marks, your whole body is nothing but whip welts."

"Would you stop calling me unnie already…? Anyway. It's not like anything that would leave lasting marks happened to me. Put simply, I got the solitary-confinement deluxe version of torture."

"Solitary?"

"Yeah."

Yejin let out a long breath. After steadying herself a moment, she gave a hollow little laugh and began to talk.

What spilled out of her sounded less like reality than a scene torn from some filthy piece of erotica.

"They spanked me a few dozen times, then strapped me to an X-frame while I was still sprawled on the floor. You know the one that's always in the guards' office. They wired my wrists and ankles to it completely."

She must have meant the same frame they'd been bound to during the intake physical on day one. Yejin glanced between me and Ruia — the two of us ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with the shortest sentences — and kept explaining in careful detail.

"Once I was strapped in, they fed me about three pills… After I swallowed them, this heat just flooded through my whole body. I'm pretty sure it was some kind of aphrodisiac. You two might not know, but among Waltz Production's sponsors there's a pharmaceutical company, right? They actually put out a female sexual stimulant for people ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with dysfunction, and it felt exactly like that."

"Ah… you mean Exlemer."

"That's the one. So Ruia already knew. Yeah. I bought some once out of curiosity and tried it — same feeling. Back then it was just one pill, but god… taking three at once, I finally understood what people mean when they say they're so in heat they could die."

The memory must have come flooding back; Yejin dropped her head and ground her teeth.

This place already ran thick with sexual acts that could spike your arousal without warning — and on top of that, they'd forced a chemical high. If it had seized not only the mind but the body as well…

I honestly didn't think I could have held out.

Which raised a question.

"But… isn't that an illegal drug?"

Even in a modern world where the pharmaceutical industry had advanced this far, the sheer volume of drugs being thrown around felt wrong. Just look at dinner — we swallowed a hundred-odd pills in one sitting. Could a human body really endure that kind of chemical load for days, months… years? More than anything, I worried about the side effects.

The answer I got, though, was nothing like what I'd expected.

"Probably. So what?"

"Come on, Yejin. Nayoon's allowed to think that way."

"Ah… yeah, I guess she is."

Yejin and Jaehee's exchange. Honestly, the way Yejin said it didn't matter at all felt exactly like the tone the guards used whenever they explained something to me. Precisely the words Leviathan himself had once spat out.

"We don't have human rights, so we just take whatever they give us…. Honestly, even if they fed us poison, what could we do? We came here knowing that."

Of course. The moment the words I'd already braced for left her mouth, I had no choice but to bite my lip.

I was an inmate who'd made the same choice. In the face of Prison Island's absolute logic — the logic that rationalized every injustice and every humiliation — there was nothing to do but shut up.

Ruia chimed in.

"Nayoon unnie, don't worry too much. The pharmaceutical company is actually pretty famous and trusted. You know Fenaciner, right?"

"Uh… yeah. The painkiller?"

"That's the one they make. The company is called Alisea Lombe."

That was a little surprising. Alisea Lombe was one of the top one or two pharmaceutical giants in the world. And they were a major sponsor of Waltz Production. The power these people held was even more terrifying than I'd imagined.

Ruia had probably shared the information to soothe my nerves, but all it did was wrap me in a deeper dread of that unknown authority.

If they ever decided they wanted me dead…

I really… could die.

"Anyway, after I took it I was thrashing around, and Leviathan gave me a choice…. It was… a terrifying, horrible choice."

"A choice?"

"Yeah. He lined up a few sexual torture devices and told me to pick…. Hoo…. God, even thinking about it now, that bastard Leviathan is a genuine psychopath."

"Ah… so he held out vibrators or a Womanizer or something?"

"No, Jaehee. If it had been that, I wouldn't be talking about it like this. That stuff is just daily life for inmates, right?"

"Is it? Then what was it?"

"Ah, hang on… just trying to say it keeps making me sigh. Give me a second…. Hoo. Hoo…."

What kind of tools could possibly make her stall like this?

Yejin exhaled several more times, swallowed hard, then stared up at the cell ceiling and recited, one by one, the instruments that had been waiting for her.

"The Pear of Anguish."

A name I'd never heard. But Jaehee and Ruia's eyes went wide, their faces turning grave — so they already knew.

Why? What is that…?

"Ginger."

"Chinese yam."

And two more tools added to the list.

Okay, but could you even call those two tools? Hearing the names of things you could buy at any grocery store come out of her mouth left me puzzled. One device I'd never heard of, plus two vegetables. But unlike my baffled expression, Jaehee and Ruia were trembling as they looked at Yejin. And to the woman who had forced herself to name them, they each offered a quiet word of comfort.

"That must have been terrifying…."

"Unnie, having those right in front of you… ah. I would have fainted…."

"Haha. I really did feel like the world went black. But you know why Leviathan is such a sadistic bastard?"

"…?"

"He told me to pick just one. That part I could live with — but what he said next was something else. He said he'd shove the other two into my pussy and my ass, and leave out only the one I chose. Haha. God. That fucking bastard… that sadistic piece of shit…. Haa…."

"That's…!"

I could only sit there with a blank look on my face, lost in a conversation I couldn't follow. Should I ask? But Yejin already looked so wretched — wouldn't asking only drag the bad memories back up again and again?

While I fidgeted in that careful silence, Jaehee noticed and stepped in for me.

"Um… Nayoon. Do you not know what the Pear of Anguish is?"

I nodded. Something seemed to click for Jaehee, and she asked me a few more questions.

"Come to think of it, when Leviathan was dealing with you he said something about you being a half-virgin or whatever… wait. Do you not have any experience at all?"

"Experience with what?"

"You know… master-slave stuff. SM partners."

"Yeah… none. Just self-play, and then I applied here."

"I knew it! That's incredible. But for your first real experience to be Prison Island…. Wow — I never could have made that choice."

Jaehee, who usually came off so blunt, gave a small smile. Probably a mix of worry and sheer disbelief that a fellow inmate who'd walked into this brutality of her own free will had no prior experience at all.

Yejin seemed to feel the same; she shook her head with a laugh. Then, as if she finally understood where I stood, she added a fuller explanation.

"Then it makes sense you wouldn't know. Mm… the Pear of Anguish is a medieval torture device. You insert it into the vagina or anus and turn the handle, and it slowly expands. If you're unlucky, one of the two ends up torn open."

"…There's something like that?"

"Yeah. And the pain is real…! Especially the anus — if it tears, they say you'll spend the rest of your life leaking shit without reconstructive surgery…. Well, I haven't been through it myself yet. Jaehee got it last month, though, right?"

"…Hah. Yeah. They say back in the old days there wasn't even surgery for that…. Anyway, Leviathan left me like that for three days. The misery was so deep I thought my mind was going to break."

Just hearing the description made it a terrifying instrument. If something like that were set in front of you, you'd do anything to avoid it. Which meant the tools Yejin had chosen must have been the ginger and the Chinese yam. And if those went into her pussy and her ass… what would that even do?

"Anyway, so I had no choice — I picked the ginger and the yam. Nayoon, you probably haven't experienced either, but those two are vicious in their own right."

"…Vicious?"

"Yeah. Jaehee and Ruia here have both been through it. Ah… they'll use them once or twice during training hours anyway, so even if you haven't done anything wrong you'll run into them eventually. I'll explain properly."

"Okay."

I swallowed hard. And then the explanation continued.

"Once ginger is inside you, it gets insanely itchy and hot. Like it heats your body harder than most fairy dust or sex toys."

"G-ginger does?"

"Yeah. And the Chinese yam… ha. That one just makes you itch until you lose your mind. It varies person to person, but the way I felt it, the stronger your masochistic streak, the worse it gets."

"I see. I had no idea."

I couldn't claim to fully understand without having lived it, but even the description alone made my lower body start to prickle. Looking at Jaehee and Ruia's faces beside me, though…

This clearly wasn't anything you simply "enjoyed."

Was there ever a moment on Prison Island when inmates got to enjoy anything completely, anyway?

"Mm… so, to keep going — because of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my choice, the Pear of Anguish was out, and Leviathan shoved the ginger into my back hole and the yam into the front. And then… he left me like that for hours."

"…What?"

"For hours?"

"Yeah. And… every time I made a sound, he spanked me. Just kept telling me to endure it. And something I learned this time — god, once it passed the one-hour mark, I honestly started thinking it'd be easier to just get torn open by the Pear of Anguish. If any of you ever end up in the same spot… especially skip the yam."

"That bad?"

"Yeah. Straight-up insanity."

Reliving it, Yejin closed her eyes and shook her head. Still with her eyes shut, she went on quietly.

"…I was thrashing so hard the wire was cutting into my wrists…. Hooo…. And Leviathan just stood there watching…. And for a second I really did go crazy. I started screaming that I'd do anything if he just took the yam and the ginger out… and he tossed something at me."

"What?"

"…A seriously huge dildo."

"A dildo?"

"Yeah. I mean… bigger than my forearm. He threw it at me while he was unstrapping me from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the frame… pulled out the yam and the ginger, then tossed me this thick, massive thing I couldn't even get the head of inside. First time I'd ever seen it in Leviathan's office. And he told me to masturbate with it. I was dying from the leftover itch of the yam and ginger still coating me… and that was what he gave me."

"Leviathan is seriously… wow…!"

"I was so far gone… I tried to force it in. Like a total lunatic, grabbing that huge thing and trying to ram it into myself down there…. Watching Leviathan sneer at me while I did it, my heart was just collapsing, but my body was still… still trying to push past its limit…. Hic… uhhic…."

"Stop talking…. I understand what kind of situation it was."

Even just hearing it was brutal. What Leviathan had done to Yejin was personality destruction dressed up under the name of a "durability test." Maybe the point hadn't been the body's endurance so much as the mind's.

The tangle of emotions in her sobs left a restless unease in me. Even if Yejin's attitude had set her apart from the other inmates and earned her that treatment, everything done to her was something that could one day be done to any of us.

It was frightening. It was terrifying.

"Hoo~ It's fine. Hey~ Nayoon. Don't make that face. You've gone completely stiff."

Yejin trying to reassure me. But she couldn't know.

Buried inside that expression — beneath the fear and the dread — was a thread of arousal.

…I'm scared, so why do I want to go through that situation myself?

Is it just me?

I crushed the feeling I couldn't possibly say out loud and slipped back into the conversation.

Our talk wasn't finished yet.

At the same time the inmates of Cell 3 were talking, a man was watching footage on a portable terminal.

On the infrared screen's distinctive green wash, four women in handcuffs and leg irons sat conversing.

A fragment of their conversation. The man watching studied Yejin carefully as she cursed Guard Leviathan on the screen. Then he murmured under his breath.

"Inmate A691…. Heh heh. Right. We'll have a little talk when I get back."

His name was Park Sihu. Guard of Cell 3, and the man currently working Prison Island under the name Leviathan.

He logged, one by one, every insult his inmates were unloading about him. Prison Island regulations required that the fact guards could monitor the cells be kept hidden, so he couldn't make an issue of every word… but he could still add one more measure of suffering to Yejin's days ahead.

She would never know it, not even on the day she was released. But that single extra mark on the record alone would be enough to ensure her time here grew that much more painful.

"Hmm."

Still watching the feed, Sihu hit the record button and looked out the window. The drone he was riding had begun its takeoff.

A drone lifting off from the farthest edge of Prison Island. Looking down from above, Leviathan closed his eyes to steal what little sleep he could.

The same commute home, every day.

But today was a little different.