The Difference Between the Grotesque and the Uninvited

Jinseong looked at the screaming Lise and the despairing Kenji, then spoke.

At that, Lise jerked her head up and wailed.

But Jinseong merely gazed at her outburst with pity. The expression on his face so closely resembled the one the doctor had worn while she wandered lost in that dream within a dream that Lise abruptly stopped screaming and stared blankly at him.

"Huh…?"

As he spoke, he drew several short sticks from his robe. They were the rough, slender green sticks commonly seen in rituals—incense. Yet unlike ordinary incense, which remained a uniform green, the ones Jinseong held shifted color and texture with every flicker of light. From translucent green to opaque green, then to the ordinary texture of incense. Next came a glossy green, then one reminiscent of moss, and finally the fresh hue of young leaves. The incense that kept changing color and texture seemed less like an object and more like a living thing—an uncanny creature that could not possibly exist in nature.

Jinseong stepped in front of Lise holding the incense and blew gently across its unlit tip, as if scattering dandelion seeds.

"Kyaa!"

The incense sprayed out a cloud of green powder like an aerosol, and Lise, caught off guard, took the full blast directly in her eyes. Naturally, she also inhaled a generous amount through her nose and mouth.

"Wh-what… is… this…?"

"Ti…me… dream… don’t… want…"

The powder she had breathed in took effect instantly. Lise felt her eyes glaze over and every muscle in her body go limp. Not only the muscles in her limbs, but even those used for breathing lost their strength. Her breath caught in her throat and she could feel her brain starving for oxygen. Terrified of falling back into that dream within a dream, she fought desperately to keep her eyes open, but her mind grew increasingly hazy, her eyelids felt as heavy as lead, and her throat kept closing up. The slackening muscles dragged her down until she collapsed onto the floor as if lying down to sleep. In the end, Lise slipped into unconsciousness with pure terror etched across her face.

"Again! What are you doing to my daughter this time!"

Seeing this, Kenji thrashed violently against his bonds and shouted. The way he strained until the veins bulged in his neck almost looked like genuine paternal love, but Jinseong merely scoffed.

Indeed, the word “almost” meant that it was not the case at all. As proof, Kenji’s gaze was not fixed on his collapsed daughter but on the incense in Jinseong’s hand. His lower body had swollen at the mere memory of the pleasure he had felt while drugged, his breathing had grown ragged, and his face had flushed bright red with excitement. Truly a revolting sight.

Jinseong muttered to himself as he plucked a single strand of hair from his head. He slowly rubbed it between his index finger and thumb.

The hair he had plucked gradually turned pure white. It was not the dull white of bleaching; it gleamed with a clear, lustrous white. Then, as if the earlier limpness had been a lie, it stood rigidly upright and began to wriggle with what looked like joy.

Jinseong seized Kenji’s face in one powerful hand.

"Ah, aaaaaagh!"

Kenji screamed in agony. The wriggling strand of hair slipped into his wide-open mouth.

"Ah? Ah! Ack! A, ah? Ah? Ah. Ah…."

As the worm-like thing burrowed into his body, Kenji kept screaming. But the nerves ruined by narcotics did not register only pain. His body twisted and writhed, cycling through heat, shock, and pleasure in bizarre spasms. Jinseong watched quietly until the man’s eyes began to roll back, then blew the incense toward him.

Hooo—.

Just like Lise before him, Kenji’s head lolled forward and he fell into the world of dreams.

"■■"

Saetani, who had been watching the two sleeping figures, twisted its body grotesquely as if drooling and tilted its head sideways. Jinseong grabbed its head firmly, preventing it from moving.

Saetani looked at him strangely, then used its broken fingers to knead its own face. The shattered, rotting black fingernails scraped across its skin as the broken fingers reshaped themselves again and again like clay. When Saetani finally removed its hands, its face had become that of the nurse Lise ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had seen in her dream.

In the nurse’s face, Saetani spoke.

At first glance the voice sounded like an ordinary woman’s. But if one listened carefully, it was clear that every syllable came from a different person. Five syllables. Five different voices. It was less like speaking with its own vocal cords and more like perfectly imitating the voices of others. The mismatched tones combined in a way that felt as eerie and alien as letters cut from a newspaper to form a ransom note.

Saetani’s head twisted further. What began as a slight tilt became ninety degrees, then one hundred twenty, and finally a full one hundred eighty. The mouth at the very top of the inverted face kept opening and closing as if trying to mimic a human.

Jinseong stared at the bizarre sight for a moment, then spoke.

Crack!

He struck Saetani with the peachwood prayer beads he kept inside his robe.

"Kiiik! Kyaaaaagh!"

The moment the seemingly light blow landed, Saetani writhed in pain and screamed.

"Hik! Sowwy! Sowwy!"

Saetani begged for forgiveness with a face that was already collapsing. Jinseong stared at it coldly.

"Yes! Unnerstand!"

Saetani kept shouting in its crushed voice, then scurried into a corner out of Jinseong’s line of sight and curled up to hide. Even then, apparently thinking it could still be seen, it folded its arms into crumpled shapes, twisted its legs, and buried its head between them, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠turning its entire body into a spherical lump to avoid his gaze.

Tsk. I expected as much, but it really is completely unruly. It would be best to put a proper leash on that thing as well.

He hurled the unconscious Lise and Kenji in the exact opposite direction from Saetani, then began the ritual.

Jinseong closed his eyes and shook the small bell in his hand.

Cling———ling.

A massive sound that could not possibly have come from such a tiny bell. Moreover, it stretched on endlessly like a tape that had been slowed down, vibrating throughout the entire main shrine before vanishing. Jinseong swung the bell once more.

Cling———ling!

The clear, pure tone rang out again. This time the sound flew not through the whole shrine but toward an empty corner, where it became trapped, amplified, and reflected, concentrating all its vibration in one spot. The sound, imprisoned by an invisible intangible wall, evoked the image of an evil spirit struggling to escape a pit of fire. Anyone who witnessed the scene would surely think they had seen a nightmare given auditory form.

Following the sound of the bell came the mantra Jinseong recited. The spell, infused with sorcerous power, left his lips and immediately began shaking the space, attempting to restore what ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had been distorted to its original state.

Cling——ling!

The distorted atmosphere that had been desperately trying to hide something exerted all its strength to maintain its existence, but it could not withstand the echoing bell that shook it from within and the mantra from outside that sought to return the space to its ‘normal’ state.

When Jinseong recited the mantra for the third time, a sharp ringing sound accompanied the revelation of what the distorted space had been concealing. A curtain of divine power formed to hide something. An elaborately prepared altar. And atop it, a stone that resembled a dog.

Looking at it, Jinseong said,