Two Weeks Later…
“All right, all your stories are boring. I have something more exciting — listen up!”
“Ah, Shiwoo hyung, don’t tell me you want to brag about all the women you’ve seduced. This cherry-lipped lady I did this to, this curvaceous prostitute that..”
“Yeah, no one wants to hear that, Shiwoo hyung! You talk about it so much you make my ears bleed!”
Five guards sat around a polished wooden table, drinking beer from giant wooden cups, which were really more like barrels. About thirty guards sat and stood leisurely at different tables in this wide, dark, dim room, all on break in the lower level of the infamous Prison of Hell — Diyuu Prison, which sat about fifty miles from the imperial capital in one of the most deserted areas of the Empire. What a boring assignment! Most of the hordes of guards had little to do all day, guarding empty cells. After all, the Diyuu Prison was hemmed in by at least ten invisible barriers and endless traps, all created by the divine hand of His Majesty himself. They all knew they’d just been assigned there as a formality after a new prisoner was transferred to the prison — after it hadn’t been used for ten years, at that! What’s more, fifty whole guards had been assigned! Seemed way overboard, but the Emperor’s word was law, so that was that. He must have a reason for going all-out. That prisoner must be a notorious one.
All of them were quite relaxed on break, telling stories and drinking because they knew there would be no need for them to do any real work besides their useless assigned patrols. Besides not being able to work close to family and being boring…it was a pretty good deal!
Shiwoo put his beer down, looking grumpy. “My stories of seduction are all exciting and racy! Who wouldn’t like them? You bunch of prudes!”
“Heh! Someone’s getting worked up over his ego again. Don’t let your pride run away, Shiwoo hyung, haha!”
“You — you little — ! Respect your elders!”
“Aish, hyung, it’s just a joke! Anyway, what exciting thing did you want to tell us before? Tell us what it is!”
Feigning grumpiness, Shiwoo sipped from his barrel-cup. By the time he sighed in satisfaction and put the cup down, he looked much more satisfied. His eyes twinkled with the excitement of a true gossip as he leaned in to share his story with his colleagues:
“Friends, I’m sure you’ve all heard some things about the prisoner being housed here, hm?”
Eyebrows raised all around.
“Of course…There’s all kinds of stories going around. She got the most severe sentence from His Majesty in living memory!”
“I heard something! I heard she was his lover, but she cheated, so he got really mad…”
“Don’t be stupid! You really believe that shitty gossip? Everyone knows the Emperor only has eyes for one person, heh. I think she offended him in some way…but which way, to end up like this, I can’t imagine!”
Shiwoo wiggled his eyebrows, raising his hand for silence. “Eh, there’s all kinds of bullshit stories going around. They say she could be His Divine Majesty’s lover, His Majesty’s long-lost sister, his mother — ”
“Fucking bullshit! The Emperor’s practically an immortal god! Does he even have a mother?”
“ — a gang leader, a fortune-teller who gave the Emperor a bad fortune…all kinds of crazy things.”
“Shiwoo hyung, the last one doesn’t seem too crazy. Wasn’t the last person to be detained here at Diyuu Prison a fortune teller who gave His Immortal Majesty a bad fortune? They say her sentence was two months, almost as long as the current one!”
Shiwoo nodded gravely. “That’s right. The last person to be detained here, ten years ago, was a fortune teller. No one saw her except for the Emperor himself and a few guards who brought her to the palace, but they all died mysteriously afterward. It’s rumored that she told the Emperor someone was coming who would…” Shiwoo lowered his voice to a whisper, “Kill him!”
Everyone choked on their alcohol.
“Hyung, you can’t say that!”
“Ah, be careful, Shiwoo, you don’t want to be heard promoting blasphemy…”
“There might be people listening!”
Shiwoo waved his hand irritatedly to show he didn’t care. “Who cares? The rumor’s out already; it’s all over the upper guard regiments and the Huo Palace staff, it’s only a matter of time before it trickles down to the common people, too. The rumor says that the fortune teller who was detained here told the Emperor someone was coming who would end his reign — snap, like that! — and that the one from her fortune is the woman being tortured here upstairs this moment!”
A hush fell over the group. Several pairs of eyes traveled upward, terrified to imagine what kinds of tortures that prisoner must be enduring right now. Sometimes, when the torture was especially bad, very muffled scream could be heard even here on the lower level, four stories below the prisoner’s cell.
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“So, Shiwoo hyung…you’re saying she’s supposed to…to…” The young guard lowered his voice, looking nervous. “...She’s supposed to kill His Majesty?”
Shiwoo stroked his chin. “Indeed, that is how the rumor goes.”
“No wonder His Majesty locked her up and sentenced her to death! She’s probably a magician, too!”
“...But…” One guard muttered puzzledly. “Isn’t this only gossip? And if it’s true…how could a young woman kill His Divine Majesty? He is immortal, isn’t he? He is practically a god…”
“I agree! What would His Majesty have to fear from the prophecy of an old woman? This rumor seems too dramatic to be true! And Shiwoo hyung, you always get your information from the strangest places!”
Noises of agreement came from around the table.
“It’s probably just old maid’s gossip!”
“Someone probably changed it down the line…”
Shiwoo leaned back in his chair and smiled, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “That amy be true…but in my veteran opinion, all rumors come from somewhere…”
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Two More Weeks Later…
Guards in the lower level spoke in hushed whispers. The atmosphere was strangely fragile these days. The merry talk of the break room was often suddenly pierced not only by the periodic sound of blood curdling screams, but also the sound of high-pitched, bone-chilling laughter.
Shiwoo and his fellow guards were gathered around a table again and were sipping beer apprehensively. This time, more people were gathered around, hoping to hear some of Shiwoo’s wisdom. The noises coming from upstairs were simply too terrifying for them to joke around comfortably any longer.
“Shiwoo hyung, your station is on the level closest to the prisoner’s chamber. Do you have any idea what’s going on? People saying she must’ve reached the breaking point. According to His Majesty’s decree, that means she’ll be killed soon, and we can all go home. Do you think it’s true?”
Shiwoo set down his barrel-cup grimly, casting all of them a solemn glare that was his hallmark introduction for telling a ghost story. Everyone leaned in, heartbeats loudening. Shiwoo leaned forward as well, folding his hand under his chin, face half-shadowed.
“I don’t know much…but I’ll tell you what I’ve heard, and what I know…
“Being in the upper regiments positioned on the higher floors, I’ve heard General Magnus speak on the state of affairs a few times — you all know that he was appointed in charge of this prisoner’s torture. Apparently, the process went like this:
“In the beginning, that young female prisoner was belligerent and defiant, trying to murder the General and anyone else who dared enter her cell. They say she didn’t make a single noise of pain, biting her lips until they bled like rivers and she looked like a ghost who drinks blood — what a show of resilience!”
Everyone murmured in agreement. This prisoner—she sounded like a truly courageous person, even if she was a notorious criminal! Shiwoo continued:
“...Eventually, as she is only a human and not a god, she began to show signs of pain. You all remember when screams could be heard throughout the prison. This was around that time. The great General must have changed his methods, and the prisoner finally began to show a response. Even though she screamed, however, they say she became even more fierce, almost succeeding in killing the General and a few other guards — but of course, she failed in the end. They say she laughed with a murderous glare in her eyes every morning, even in the face of another day of suffering. I remember hearing her shouting voice, though I couldn’t hear what she said. That day, the great General came downstairs looking shaken. I thought to myself, what an intimidating prisoner, who can even make the great General quake!”
More noises of applause and agreement. This prisoner was truly a character! And ‘great General’, my ass, all the guards thought. Everyone knew General Magnus was a delusional, power-hungry fiend. Shiwoo went on:
“Then, all at once, the prisoner stopped speaking. She seemed to have lost her voice! That was about a week ago — you all remember when we had a few peaceful days, with no strange noises. She went silent as a rock, not making any noise even when severely tortured and provoked. The great General looked very happy after finishing his work those few days. You all know General Magnus enjoys breaking notorious criminals, and that he particularly hates that prisoner and speaks of revenge against her to no end. The torture must have gone well; she had begun to crack.
“And then, over the past week, something strange must have happened in her mind. One day, the great General went up to her chambers to find the prisoner still as stone, like a dead person. But when she raised her head to look at him with dead eyes she let out the chilling, eerie laugh of a female ghost—the very same laugh we’ve been hearing for days. That one!”
Everyone in the breakroom jumped. There was that awful cackle again! The prisoner’s high-pitched, shrieking, gleeful laugh, though muffled, permeated the stone ceiling like acid.
“That laugh, my friends, is the laugh of someone who has gone utterly mad. It is undeniable! A fact! The prisoner has reached her breaking point after only a month of her sentence, and now…she is a madwoman!”
The breakroom was uncomfortably silent. It felt uncharacteristically cold and eerie.
Shiwoo leaned forward after soaking in the fear, and grinned. “Of course, that means he will be executed any day now, and we can all go home.”
The atmosphere relaxed a little. That was true…they would all be able to return to their original posts as soon as the prisoner was disposed of. Murmurs of agreement filled the air.
That’s right! The sooner this pitiful, mysterious prisoner was dead, the sooner they’d all get to go home. Better to focus on that happy thought, then the thought of someone driven mad from torture…
Shiwoo cleared his throat. All eyes returned to him, and relative silence settled back over everyone.
“However,” he said eerily, flashing everyone a dramatically dark look. “As an elder to you all with famously accurate intuition, I have a bad feeling about being in the same building as this madwoman. You never know what a person who has given up on their life is capable of. Let’s all be careful until the end of this assignment…in the case that something unexpected occurs.”
Silence fell over the break room again. Shivers trickled down more than a few backs. What was Shiwoo hyung saying…? Was he implying…that the prisoner was dangerous, even under lock and key and with a broken mind?
When Shiwoo grinned, satisfied, and began slurping his beer again, everyone awkwardly returned to conversing and drinking, though it was pausing and forced, periodically punctured by the cold, high laughs of the insane person far above, like the sound of ice cracking and threatening to shatter into a thousand knife-sharp shards.