Chapter 147: Cornered (2)

Chapter 147: Cornered (2)

I'm writing all this down so that I don't forget.

Looking back, Hak-Cheol didn't start displaying signs of madness right away. No, I thought he was simply suffering from extreme anxiety, that's all. But he got progressively crazier every day, didn't he

Will that happen to me, too

If I can't escape from that man, then yeah, I'll also probably go mad.

Day by day... writing this down to prevent myself from losing my mind. What if my emotions and thoughts today changed when tomorrow arrived? That's why I must write. I am gradually going insane, but I believe that looking at these records will bring me back to sanity.

That bastard will surely show up again tonight. I confirmed it last night. He has no plans of killing me. At least, not now, anyway.

If he wanted to kill me, he could have done so anytime. With that devil's unknown powers, it wouldn't have been difficult to kill me and get rid of my body, too.

Even then, he’s going to kill me for a simple reason. He's looking for entertainment. I became sure of that after I looked into his eyes last night.

It was as he said. He wasn’t being driven by some cheap sense of justice here. He wouldn’t care whether I repent or not. After all, he wasn’t doing this to make me repent in the first place. He simply thought of me as an eyesore, so he wanted to torment me, that was all there was to it.

He told me we were the same—that we were cut from the same cloth. Maybe he's right. No, wait. He's definitely right.

He told me something else. He said that he was merely trapping my body, but I had been trapping a person's mind. Even though my target could feasibly fight back, he said that I would gradually drive them to a corner so that they would lose the strength to resist. He also said that I... I enjoyed this process.

And I realized something when his low voice was driving me into a corner. Ju Yeong-Gi and the others had been staring at me as if I was a demon up until this moment... They all must've felt this way.

And then, that shadow bastard crushed my body.

I had to endure the pain of my bones breaking one by one without being able to scream...! That was hell itself. Yeah, I witnessed true hell with my eyes wide open.

He'll come again tonight. Before that happens, I need to come up with a plan. According to him, I only have a week to figure this out. If I fail, then I... I'll end up in the same state as Kim Hak-Cheol.

I will never let that happen. That's why I'm writing this down.

Come tomorrow, I'll read these words back to myself. I'll read them again and again to keep my mind sane and functioning. If I endure his torture for a week or find a solution before that... It'll be my victory!

***

It's the second day...

I want to tell someone. One week... I want to tell them how long a week can be.

One week could easily slip by you in the blink of an eye without doing much, yet... Yet, it feels so stupidly long that I can't hardly stand it.

Even though I am praying for the time to go faster, I am also scared of the night that will inevitably come, so I pray for time to go much slower.

My mind is still in one piece. I'm not crazy yet. However, I must look like a madman to other people.

I had no idea, but while looking at the sunset, I apparently started convulsing like crazy.

After that, Sang-Yeop began to stare weirdly at me. He's definitely wary of me now. Moreover, the Battery Commander showed up and asked what was going on with me.

He asked, ‘What’s going on ’ Would he have understood if I told him? Would he believe what happened to me if I came out clean

Ah. So, Hak-Cheol had been fighting against this kind of loneliness, eh? I'm doing my best to fight against the devil that would show up again later, but everyone else simply sees me as a lunatic who is steadily losing his mind. Their gazes are getting harder to endure.

I won't last for long at this rate. I gotta find a way first. To do that, I need to know more about my enemy. However, even today, Kang Jin-Ho... He still looked at me as if he didn’t have a clue. And the damn 3rd Squad stopped me from getting close to him. Did they think I'd do something crazy

What a bunch of insane bastards! Do they even know they are protecting a monster, a devil

It's already night. I can't sleep.

I'm scared.

***

It's the third day...

I phoned my dad. I need to escape from this place.

I used to think I was strong enough to endure it all. No matter how cruel his tortures would get, I was confident in my extraordinary willpower. But now

Finally, I understood why some people became traitors during times of war. Actually, if that devil bastard had been the torturer, Korea would have never had freedom fighters fighting for independence from the Japanese Occupation, or people fighting for its democracy. No, wait. They were at least in a better position than me.

Well, they had secrets and stuff to blab about, to begin with. They could cling to the hope of being freed from the pain by divulging all the information they knew.

However, I couldn’t do that. That bastard didn’t want anything from me. He was simply observing with great interest how I was gradually breaking down and falling apart. And that's what's been driving me crazy.

The Battery Commander saw my state and decided to hospitalize me right there and then. But that's going to happen in four days. Four bloody days?!

Scratch, scratch... I can still hear the noises of bones being scratched.

Yes, I know. I'm already crazy.

No need for a belated acceptance, too. Just taking one look at myself through the mirror, and these scratching noises, were enough to let me know, anyway.

The person in the mirror was the monster. It's not me. It can't be me. A face contorted unsightly, his hair half fallen out, and a pair of sunken, hollow eyes? That's not how a human should look.

I broke that mirror, and that granted me a hint of release from my insane hatred bubbling inside.

I... I gotta get out of here. I gotta escape from that devil!

It's already been five days. Two more days, and I can gain my freedom. However, I'm gonna run away.

I have to run away. Because, I know the truth.

Since that bastard is the same as me, he will never uphold his promise. He won't even care about it. No, he probably made that false promise just to break it and enjoy my despair—to get a kick out of it.

In that case, there's only one way to survive. And that is to get out of here and hide somewhere where he can't find me!

If I don't do that, I'll never escape from his grasp.

He... He...!

He's incredibly cruel. He's truly demonic!

I gotta get out of here. Escape from here. I gotta run away!

I want to live. I want to live! I want to live!

.

Sun is setting again.

I had another episode during sunset. I threw up everything in my stomach in every direction. I couldn't stop my tears and snot from raining down everywhere.

I'm scared. Scared. So scared.

I'm scared about seeing that devil again.

Now, I know why Hak-Cheol hanged himself. And it's not because of the pain. No, it's the fear!

He couldn't withstand the fear of encountering that devil again after nightfall. He couldn't stand the fear of becoming the devil's toy again!

This fear is too much. It's too much...

***

Sixth day now...

I'm getting out of here. It's a leave.

My dad called in every favor he could and somehow got me an extended leave.

Yes, I'm finally getting out of here. I'm free!

I'm gonna be free from that devil's reach!

I'm not gonna come back here. I'm gonna hide forever in a place where he can't find me. Somewhere where there's no one.

Where there's... there's... Where there's no one.

That's right, if I hide at the end of the world, surely he can't find me. Right? I'm prepared to do anything to make that happen.

***

Kang Jin-Ho slowly closed the diary. His eyes moved away from the notebook to stare at a black sedan accelerating away from the base's training field. He remained expressionless before slowly raising the diary.

Rumble...!

The diary gradually went up in flames. Whether it was Ju Yeong-Gi's diary or Noh Su-Bong's... There was no need to keep them around.

However, the meaning behind Kang Jin-Ho's actions was not the same. He had eliminated Ju Yeong-Gi's diary because he couldn't accept the idea of judging the guilty through the flimsy confines of modern law. However, he destroyed Noh Su-Bong's diary for an entirely different reason.

This thing no longer had a purpose, after all. An object that had lost its purpose didn't need to exist anymore.

This diary was meant for Noh Su-Bong to read and maintain his sanity. In that case, it would no longer be necessary after tonight. Well, he wouldn't get to read anything else come tomorrow morning.

Kang Jin-Ho dusted the ashes off his hand, and a quiet little grin formed on his lips.

1. In 1st person POV

2. In 3rd person POV