Misfortune Never Comes Alone, Part 1
When I opened the gallery app, I found a video I didn't recognize.
"Why is it so long?"
The video was well over two hours long.
I figured it had probably kept recording until the phone's battery died.
With the trepidation of opening Pandora's box, I cautiously tapped the pitch-black thumbnail to play the video.
Rustle, rustle.
A rustling sound came through the speaker first, followed by a long stretch of a dark, empty screen showing nothing.
Soon, a bright light flared up—likely from the recording flash—illuminating a section of the room.
"Let's skip ahead a bit."
Growing impatient, I slowly scrubbed forward through the timeline. Suddenly, the screen flared with light.
"What...?! M-my voice?"
The voice coming from the speaker was unmistakably my own.
On the illuminated screen, fragments of my familiar bedroom and parts of my own face flickered into view.
The camera remained fixed in place, motionless for a while.
It was because the version of me in the video was looking around the room, as if suddenly dropped into an unfamiliar environment.
Why... why is he doing that? Sleepwalking?
I had absolutely no memory of acting like that.
After scanning his surroundings, the me in the video began to stare intently at one spot.
He was looking at my wife, who was fast asleep on the bed.
Though my face wasn't fully visible due to the angle of the camera, a wave of anxiety churned in my chest.
"What on earth is this..."
The fact that it was clearly me on screen, yet I had no memory of it, made my skin crawl even more.
Soon, the me in the video took slow steps forward and began positioning the phone to get a clear view of the bed, just like how I had found it.
Then, as if checking to see if it was recording properly, he suddenly shoved his face right up to the camera.
"...!!!"
It was definitely me.
The man on the screen was unmistakably me, as if I were looking into a mirror, yet a bizarre sense of alienation crept up from the tips of my toes, as if I were looking at a complete stranger.
After confirming the camera angle, the me in the video split his mouth into a wide, ecstatic grin, as if he couldn't contain his joy.
It was a clumsy yet chilling sneer, as if he were using muscles he had never used before.
It felt as though something wearing my skin as a shell was using my body.
"..."
A bizarre sense of unfamiliarity—the realization that I could even make such a face—and a visceral disgust washed over me.
Just watching the video made my entire body break out in a cold, clammy sweat.
"W-wait a minute..."
Terrified, I paused the video and clamped a hand over my mouth.
Nausea surged, and I struggled to breathe.
An overwhelming sense of dread warned me to stop watching, but I had to keep going to find out what the other me had done.
I closed my eyes tight, opened them, and stared back at the phone screen.
What is he so happy about?
The me in the video was smiling, his lips stretched wide as if he couldn't contain himself.
It felt like a mocking sneer directed at 'someone' who would eventually watch this video, but I forced myself to ignore the feeling and hit play.
As the video resumed, the me on screen began walking toward the bed.
Clack, clack, clack, clack.
Before I knew it, my teeth were chattering uncontrollably.
'I' was approaching my wife, who was sound asleep in bed.
At a glance, it might look like a husband reaching out to care for his beloved wife, but I had already 'witnessed' the truth. There was no way it was anything so innocent.
I knew what was about to happen, and the horrific aftermath was right beside me.
Slide.
I watched myself pull back the blanket covering my wife.
My hands lifted her upper body.
Seeing her limp form, it was clear she was in a deep sleep brought on by her narcolepsy.
"Wake up, wake up, wake up...!"
Even though I knew she couldn't hear me, I screamed at her through the screen.
The me in the video tapped her cheek with the back of his hand, as if checking to see if she was conscious.
It was enough stimulation to wake any normal person, but my wife's eyelids didn't even flutter, and her breathing remained perfectly steady.
At that, a lustful grin stretched across the face of the 'me' supporting her upper body.
The me in the video muttered incomprehensible words to himself, then pulled my limp wife against his chest.
The two people captured in the recording looked exactly like the familiar couple, Choi Jihun and Lee Hyeonju.
It looked like the usual scene of a husband and wife who loved each other, cared for each other, and offered a shoulder to lean on.
The only difference was the lustful sneer on my face, and the fact that my wife was completely limp, unconscious from her narcolepsy.
The me in the video seemed deeply curious about whether they looked like a real married couple on camera.
Then, as if hugging a beloved partner, he wrapped his arm around the shoulders of my sleeping wife.
"Haah!!! Haah!!! Haah!!!"
The heavy breathing coming from my mouth was so loud it was deafening.
I couldn't comprehend what was happening—or rather, what had already happened.
The me in the video pulled my wife's shoulder to rest her head against his, playing a sick game of house, before finally showing his true colors.
He then lifted her head up, as if introducing her to whoever would watch the video.
The me in the video giggled like a mischievous child.
Then, he shoved his fingers—which had grown larger and thicker since before my discharge—into my wife's mouth and pulled at the corners of her lips.
"H-huh...?"
My wife let out a strange groan in her sleep, and by some coincidence, her eyes fluttered open slightly.
Her hazy, unfocused eyes stared directly into the phone lens.
It felt as though she was looking right at me through the screen.
"..."
The sight of us on the screen was so grotesque it felt like my mind was fracturing.
Suppressing the urge to fling the phone away, I forced myself to keep watching.
My wife's innocent, confused face filled the screen, completely unaware of what was being done to her.
Every time the me in the video playfully yanked at the corners of her mouth, thick saliva dripped down her chin.
Stretching her mouth wide enough to expose her red tongue, he began to speak to himself like a ventriloquist.
The me in the video kept pulling her mouth, mimicking her speaking.
The me in the video seemed to have only fragmented pieces of information about my wife.
He kept rambling as if trying to recall details about her—details that the real me could never possibly forget.
He rattled off her personal details as if she were an actress introducing herself at the beginning of an adult video.
"Haa... ah... ah..."
She simply kept her eyes half-closed, drool spilling from the corners of her mouth.
"Ah, ah... ah...? What... what the hell is this..."
My head spun.
I couldn't breathe.
My vision went white as if burning up, and my hands and feet began to grow ice-cold.
Shaking violently, I couldn't hold myself up any longer and collapsed onto the bed where my wife lay sprawled.
On the phone screen, another nightmare was playing out.
"Ugh, ugh..."
My limbs convulsed as if I were having a seizure, and my consciousness began to fade.
But just as my consciousness seemed on the verge of snapping, it suddenly cleared up completely.
What... what is this?
As if the chills had been a lie, all of my senses returned to normal.
But I couldn't move my body.
To be precise, my body was no longer obeying my will.
It was like sleep paralysis; my consciousness was fully awake and my senses were incredibly sharp, yet my body was moving entirely on its own, independent of my volition.
Am I having a lucid dream?
It felt similar to the lucid dreams that everyone experiences at least once.
Panicked by this inexplicable phenomenon, I looked around and quickly realized the situation I was in.
It felt as though I had been pulled directly into the moment the video I was just watching was being recorded.
What on earth is happening?! A memory...? Is this a memory of my body?
Had watching the video triggered a latent memory?
The exact moment my body had moved on its own was unfolding right before my eyes.
I couldn't make heads or tails of it.
There was nothing I could do but watch the scene that was about to unfold.