Second Coming (4)
Second Coming (4) — In front of the Guro-gu Safe Zone, Seoul
The zombies that had come flying, the zombies that had come running. The men twisting their bodies and writhing in agony, even the ones who had given up on living itself — all of them froze in place, taxidermied into the world.
"...Ah."
Kim Jiho's eyes came to rest on the hand of the man who still faced forward. A power that could only be called a miracle.
"Ju-Judgment! The Cult Leader has passed judgment on the unbelievers!"
It was judgment upon the unfaithful. The white-robed crowd cheered, laughing as they watched them. People were dying, people were on the brink of death, and they hardly cared.
Whether they'd become family, or outsiders.
To them, we were thorough outsiders.
"Who among you!"
A resonant cry cut through the believers shuddering with the joy of vengeance. It was that man. He still held his right hand raised as he rebuked the faithful.
"Who among you smiles at the shedding of family!"
At his single sentence, everyone held their breath. Into the sudden silence, the man gestured to him and spoke.
"Kim Jiho. Bring forward the men who went outside with you."
The moment the man finished speaking, he felt the power binding him fall away. Kim Jiho immediately led his newly reclaimed body forward and carefully approached Park Yeongho.
"Gkk— gkuuuuh—!"
Park Yeongho, now perfectly a zombie, was screaming in torment as if gagged. With trembling hands, Kim Jiho slowly pushed Park Yeongho's back. As if someone were helping, he slid smoothly forward until he stood before that man.
One by one, with the re-frozen Park Yeongho at their head, all of the men who had turned zombie lined up before the Cult Leader.
"You've worked hard. Rest easy, now that you've come back."
Kim Jiho, panting after herding the whole group over, flinched at the man's words. Habitually clutching his journal tight in his hand, he settled himself apart from the white-robed crowd. Lee Jiwoo and the people around her gave him looks sharp enough to sting.
The man smiled as if he understood him perfectly, then spoke while looking at Park Yeongho.
"My children, do not hate this man too much. This man merely resents a world that stole his daughter away. His group is the same."
He raised his left hand — the one he hadn't been holding up. From it, bottles filled with bright light leapt out and floated in the air. The bottles drifted gently up above the lined-up ranks of Park Yeongho's group.
"Do not laugh carelessly at their sorrow. Simply open your arms and embrace them. I shall do the same."
Park Yeongho's group lifted their heads in unison and looked to the sky. Liquid cradling light trickled down into their slowly parted mouths.
"Kkii, kkiaeeeeee—!"
With screams of agony, their bodies flashed brilliantly. They collapsed in heaps like puppets with cut strings, bodies still twitching. After a very brief silence, they slowly rose to their feet.
The white-robed crowd, seeing their faces, covered their mouths in shock. Kim Jiho, watching them just the same, whispered softly.
"Resurrection..."
Those who had died as zombies stood again as humans. Park Yeongho, feeling over his own body again and again, looked at the man before him and fell to his knees. All of Park Yeongho's group, who had made their reckless, childish bolt for freedom, shed tears of contrition.
"Aaah— I, I..."
Kim Jiho, with nothing left to see, closed both his eyes. Now. In this place, the only one who did not believe in him was me.
—
"Brothers and sisters, please collect today's rations!"
"Any sisters who need sanitary products, please come here!"
Kim Jiho watched Park Yeongho's group distributing food and supplies. The pure white clothes they wore were spotless, without a single sweat stain.
Rustle—
He quietly clutched the last snack bar he had left. There was no other food to fill his hollow stomach, yet he did not join the line. Even when rations were handed out, the moment you glanced away, they would vanish somewhere.
An unbeliever.
He knew that the man's followers were quietly shunning him — the last remaining unbeliever. He had no power to store things in empty air like their leader, so receiving rations would be pointless anyway.
A petty, pathetic revenge — stealing food on the sly. But when that revenge became a direct threat to survival, it grew terrifying beyond all else.
Why am I being so stubborn about this?
He asked himself, but could not answer. Strength wouldn't come into his body. He could simply feel himself withering away all over. He was dying now, very, very slowly.
"Going to eat?"
Thump—
Someone sat down beside him and offered food. Kim Jiho, seeing the face of the person holding out the snack bar, swallowed a wry laugh.
"So this is the give-and-take kind of gift, is it."
"You could think of it that way."
The man smiled, entirely unbothered by his barbed tone. He simply set the snack bar down at his feet and studied his face intently. At first Kim Jiho thought it was because of the sour stink coming off his body, but no.
"Looking at you reminds me of the daughter I left behind in the Sanctuary."
He looked at Kim Jiho as if thinking of someone.
"So you say the Sanctuary actually exists."
"Because it's the truth."
He was calm and serene, as he always was.
"She was just like you, you know. She was afraid that if she forgot the past, she might never be able to return there again."
Kim Jiho's lifeless eyes trembled faintly.
"She used to hurl her grievances about the ruined world at me. But I didn't mind it. I knew it was another expression of love."
He spoke as if addressing the daughter he'd left in the Sanctuary, but Kim Jiho understood at once. He was projecting her, speaking to him in her place.
"...Then what happened to her?"
And so, the question he had to ask was already decided. The man gazed into the distance and said quietly.
"I embraced her with love."
Love.
What on earth was this love he spoke of? The eyes that had stared into the distance turned toward him.
"What would be good for you?"
The man looked at the journal clutched in Kim Jiho's hand.
"Those who love to record things always like everything to be clear-cut."
Without waiting for his answer, the man slowly rose to his feet. Then, to Kim Jiho looking up at him from below, he said:
"Tomorrow, I will show you the proof you desire."
Meeting him with eyes full of certainty, the man spoke one last time.
"Do not be swept away by the atmosphere and the bewitchment. Face me with nothing but your own logic and reason."
He wore his bright smile, as always, and walked toward the door.
"I'm terribly fond of people like you."
Kim Jiho gathered the snack bar left at his feet and held it to his chest. Curled up tight on his blanket, he murmured the man's words over and over.
Tomorrow.
He prayed that tomorrow would not come — and, at the same time, that it would come quickly.
—
The 'tomorrow' the man had spoken of began rather noisily. The lobby, lively since morning with ration distribution, filled with silence. Everyone looked at the man prostrate on the floor.
Park Yeongho, stripped even of his believer's robe, wept naked at the man's feet.
"Cult Leader! Forgive my unbelief, I beg you!"
Park Yeongho hammered his forehead against the floor.
"My faith in you was so young, and so foolish!"
Thud— thud—
At the impact sound that hypocrisy could never imitate, Kim Jiho's eyes wavered. He was truly regretting the days when he had failed to believe the man — so much that he would grovel like this, begging forgiveness with his whole body thrown to the ground.
The man crouched before him and stroked his forehead.
"Your heart aches, and so mine soon aches with it."
"Aaah— Cult Leader."
"Rise. Today is a day of great pain, but also of great joy."
The man raised Park Yeongho to his feet and cried out to everyone.
"Today! The first believer to achieve a body and soul of purest white has been born!"
And that believer was Park Yeongho himself. Shock dawned across the believers' faces. Was this not the very man who, until only days ago, had led the charge in defiling the Cult Leader's name!
But the man cried out again.
"Speak not of the time that has passed! You have obeyed for a portion of your lives, but this man has lived every day since his rebirth in obedience!"
The man led Park Yeongho and walked slowly outside. The white-robed believers and Kim Jiho followed. In the center of the road, now emptied of every zombie, the man raised his voice once more.
"And so I bestow my Grace upon this man!"
With those words, the man whispered something into Park Yeongho's ear.
"Aaah—"
At once, hot tears streaming from both eyes, Park Yeongho fell to his knees and lifted his head. The man smiled faintly at the sight, and he too looked up at the sky.
"Ah......"
Gasps of awe poured from every eye and mouth. The man's body rose softly into the air. Kim Jiho could tell that the man's gaze was on him.
"And so I prove salvation to my son!"
Proof.
Kim Jiho could say nothing; he could only stare at the man floating in the air. With everyone's eyes upon him, the man spoke.
"Speak! My son who yearns for peace! The one thing you truly desire — I shall grant it!"
The white radiance welling from the man's body spread wider and wider. Blinking against the glare, Kim Jiho heard Park Yeongho's sobbing cry.
"Cult Leader! On your sinner, I beg you! Please, please grant salvation!"
Flasssssh—
As if answering that desperate prayer, light descended before Park Yeongho. The eyes of the believers who had been staring blankly grew as wide as they could possibly go. Something that truly could not be called anything but light descended before Park Yeongho.
Light plunging straight down from the sky slowly took shape, and became a holy and immense door.
"Aaaaah—!"
Park Yeongho, on his tottering legs, walked carefully toward the door.
Creeeeeeak—!
As if welcoming him, the door filled with bright light and slowly swung open. As it opened, Park Yeongho wept at what grew clearer within. It was real. It was really there — the Sanctuary, just as he had said.
A feast of peaceful, verdant green. People in white clothes gathered together, talking and laughing and embracing one another. Behind them stood a magnificent temple, and above it, high and alone...
"...Light!"
Creeeeeeak—!
With Park Yeongho's single brief word, the door closed. The immense door vanished without a trace, like a dream on a midsummer night.
"......"
Everyone stood gaping at the miracle no words could capture. Again and again, one single truth echoed in their minds: Park Yeongho had truly entered the Sanctuary.
"...Serpents."
After a long silence, the man's voice quietly awakened them.
"For quite a long time, I watched the serpents growing in your hearts."
The door was gone, but he remained, whole and luminous.
"Those of you who put on the clothes I gave you out of hunger, because others belonged there, out of loneliness that kept you awake at night — or merely out of boredom."
He rebuked those who remained.
"You fools, who raise the spear of doubt against me, who embrace you with love!"
At the man's solemn, cold voice, everyone trembled. Kim Jiho too stared at the man with shaking eyes. He smiled upon those watching him with his usual benevolence.
"And still, I love you."
"Aaaaah—!"
Amid the believers pouring out awe and adoration, his gaze lingered on one spot. Naturally, Kim Jiho met his eyes as he always did.
"You who moan at the monster — open the door that has come before you."
At the Cult Leader's whisper, Kim Jiho's whole body shuddered. He was demanding an answer of him.
"Do not doubt."
The Cult Leader spoke, and
"In faith, I shall obey."
Kim Jiho answered.
"To the one who opens the door, there is only radiance."
And truly, for Park Yeongho there had been only radiance.
"I shall cleanse your sullied flesh and souls."
And truly, the Cult Leader was purifying us.
"And so, all of you—"
The Cult Leader smiled at him. And so, he had to answer in faith.
Answering the Cult Leader's bright smile, Kim Jiho whispered:
"He will dye us in the light of salvation."
Apparently pleased with his answer, the Cult Leader beamed again. And this time, looking out over everyone who was watching him, he said:
"I shall surely—"
His resolve. His promise. His salvation. Everyone whispered with one heart:
"—save you."
Whump—
He alighted gently on the spot where Park Yeongho had been. Everyone watched, trembling from head to toe. He said nothing at all. He simply opened his arms with a soft smile.
"Aaaaaaaaah!"
Like a bursting dam, the believers raced toward him. Lee Jiwoo, at the very front of them, threw herself into his embrace and wailed.
"I believe! I believe! I belieeeeeve!"
"I love you! I love you! I love you with all of me, Cult Leeeeeader!"
A believer prostrate before him pressed his lips to his feet, weeping. Catching his gaze, she lifted her head and trembled all over. Another believer, tripping mid-run, fell where she was and wailed, flailing her arms and legs wildly.
Faith is contagious. Faith explodes.
Shaking his head wildly, Kim Jiho began drawing something into his journal. His ballpoint pen scratched across the page as if possessed.
"Forgive me! I repent! I repent! I repenntttt!"
"Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah!"
The believers wept and shouted and rejoiced. Kim Jiho, having finished what he had to do, threw down his journal and ran toward him. His every word had been true. What I truly needed was not doubt and vigilance, but faith and obedience.
"Aaaaah! I believe! I belieeeeve!"
The journal Kim Jiho had cast aside fluttered in the heat of that faith. The brilliant sunlight caught the final page he had written.
The Gate of Salvation magnificently unfolded. Park Yeongho entering the Sanctuary. And above it all, one god, alone and resplendent.
There was no more need to write in the journal. He had already completed the final sentence of his most recent entry.
As the journal settled slowly to the ground, the last line wavered in the light.
—