The silence in the room felt like it could crack the walls, but it was broken by the sharp sound of a door slamming open.
Ji Gun stood frozen, her wide eyes staring at the blood-soaked scene before her. Her father’s lifeless body lay crumpled on the ground, a dark pool of blood surrounding him. His eyes, were wide open, staring but seeing nothing. Her mother stood at the entry, her breath shallowed and panicked as she screamed, the sound clawing at Ji Gun’s mind.
“No! No! No!” Her mother’s voice shouted, her face contorting in horror. “What have you done?!”
Ji Gun couldn’t look away. Her hands were shaking at her sides, but she felt as if her body wasn’t her own. Her feet were rooted to the floor as if someone had tied her down. Every fiber of her being screamed to move, but she couldn’t. She just stared at her father, at the blood that seemed to pull her into it, like a horrible ripple she couldn’t escape.
She could hear her mother sobbing, distraught, her voice rising higher with each word. But Ji Gun’s mind felt disconnected. The world around her moved in slow motion, the sound of her mother’s despair muffled, the sight of her father’s body not making sense. Was it real? Was it her fault? Had she done this?
But then, the thoughts came, like dark clouds rumbling in.
She didn’t want him here anymore.
He had hurt her too many times.
He had always hurt them.
Isn't this better?
Her mother screamed again, her voice shaking the room. “Ji Gun! Why? WHY?!”
Her mother’s hands were at her sides, shaking as she approached, but Ji Gun couldn’t meet her eyes. Her mind was lost in a haze, the voices growing louder, the doubts clouding her vision.
You never loved me, did you, Mom?
Her mother’s face twisted in confusion and horror. “What is this? What are you doing, Ji Gun?” Her voice was cracking with despair as if she couldn’t even recognize the daughter she had raised.
Ji Gun’s eyes skipped for a second, a strange surge of panic mixing with the numbness inside. She wanted to say something, anything to make it stop. But the words, were all jumbled in her mind.
“You don’t understand,” she whispered, her voice hollow, the words barely escaping her throat. “I had to do it... He... he was never going to stop.”
Her mother didn’t hear it. She just kept screaming, her face distorted by grief, her voice rising higher and higher, becoming a frantic wail that pierced Ji Gun’s mind like a knife.
“No... No! You killed him!” Her mother’s hands reached out, but Ji Gun didn’t move.
She didn’t feel anything anymore.
But then a thought cut through the fog in her mind—this is what it feels like to be free.
The silence after her mother’s scream was even worse.
The pounding of her own heart was all she could hear now. And in that moment, Ji Gun understood.
She was no longer trapped.
ns 15.158.61.16da2
