try begging
"Enough with the boring pranks, honey."
It must be a joke. It's just one of the cute tricks and schemes this woman has been using. She's just pretending to be dead to make me unhappy.
"If you don't get up right now, I'll cut you down."
He picked up an autopsy knife from the small table in front of the doctor's office. He held the gleaming blade menacingly over her pale face, but Grace, being the bold woman she was, didn't even blink.
As if he were dead.
"... I really will do it. You won't regret it."
Leon slanted the blade against the pale skin. The blade was shaking as much as the voice he was spitting out through his teeth.
Clang.
As soon as the knife was thrown to the floor with a jarring clang, a swear word burst out along with a suppressed sob.
"Fuck...."
He was planning on shaking her head until she was dizzy, telling her to stop messing around like this. But as soon as he grabbed Grace's cheeks, Leon pulled his hands away as if he had been burned.
Is there such a cold fire in the world?
I know very well that there are such cold people in the world.
dead.
Only then did Leon collapse into a reality he could no longer deny. He hugged Grace's body and despaired.
The woman whose heart was always cold to him but whose body was always hot had become cold. Who knew that it would be so painful for her not to push him away anymore? It was also unbearable to think that Grace's cheeks were getting wet and damp and that it was all my fault.
"Why are you in a place like this?"
I've been desperately hoping to find her every moment, but I've never hoped to find her in a place like this.
"If you had come to me, this wouldn't have happened."
As soon as he started blaming Grace out of habit, he broke down again.
It was I who sent you to your miserable death. It was my fault that I missed the chance to ask for your forgiveness and make up for all the mistakes I made, and that we ended up in tragedy.
"Sorry."
Even if it was sincere, an apology that did not reach him was useless. At the end of his reflection and apology, he shamelessly waited for these words to be said along with forgiveness.
Don't do that again.
But now there was no next step for the two of them. This was the end.
"Grace."
Leon stroked her cold cheek and looked her in the eye, calling her name over and over again. With all his hatred gone, with only affection. For the first time. After she died.
"Grace... ."
Even until the very last moment, the things I regretted continued to increase.
The tears that fell suddenly soaked her dry blue-green eyes. Leon gave her bloodless lips one last kiss and smiled crookedly.
"Grace, you said you wanted to kill me. You know what? I want that too."
He lifted Grace's left hand and kissed her empty ring finger.
"If I'm going to die, I want to die by your hands."
He bent his stiff fingers and placed them on the trigger. The gun's muzzle was pointed under his chin. He put the trigger guard on his beloved woman's ring finger like a ring and wrapped his cold hand around it without hesitation.
bang.
The moment his body shook, Leon's eyes widened.
"We have arrived."
When he removed the hand that was resting on his forehead, he saw the taxi driver's face looking back at him.
"ha...."
Leon roughly wiped his face. He must have fallen asleep during the brief moment he came here from the train station. Even that brief moment was plagued by ominous dreams.
You're not in your right mind.
My heart was still pounding hard. I tried to catch my breath and regain my composure for a moment, but it didn't work. I finally gave up and got out of the taxi with Campbell, giving instructions to the driver.
"Please wait a moment."
It won't take that long, probably.
Leon put on his sunglasses before stepping into the building so people wouldn't recognize him.
Even in June, the hospital basement was cold. The sound of footsteps thumping down the hallway was eerie. Leon's steps soon stopped in front of a door. There was a sign on the door that said, "Morgue."
Campbell briefly observed his superior's expression and then knocked cautiously on the door.
"Yes, please come in."
A voice was heard from inside. As I opened the door, a middle-aged man sitting at a desk in a corner of the mortuary stood up. He must have been playing solitaire, as there were several rows of cards on the desk.
"Did you come here after receiving a phone call?"
The morgue staff pointed to a cork board on one wall. In the corner, amidst various notices and rules, was a flyer for missing persons that had been hanging for months, fading. Perhaps today, that flyer might disappear. The staff couldn't decide whether that was a happy or sad thing.
"Yes, that's right."
As a dark blond man who looked to be in his mid-twenties answered, the clerk walked around the desk and headed toward the morgue.
"Looking at your phone number, it looks like you came running as soon as you answered the phone."
It was a five-hour train ride from Winsford. I thought he would arrive the next day, but he must have been quite anxious because he came running right away.
It was at that moment that I felt sorry. The young man opened the door wide and came inside, then stepped aside, as if giving up his seat for someone.
Wasn't that young man the one looking for the woman?
His eyes widened as the tall young gentleman strode in. From his neat appearance to his luxurious suit, the man looked very wealthy at first glance.
The dead woman looked poor. Could she be the runaway mistress? The middle-aged man blinked blankly, making a tired guess.
The young gentleman stopped in the middle of the mortuary. He was wearing sunglasses so his eyes were not visible, but he could feel his gaze wandering over the tightly closed doors of the morgue, as if he was looking for a missing woman.
"This way."
The staff guided the man to the left. He bit his dry lips nervously as he unlocked compartment 2B.
What if it's true?
The dead missing person was a tragedy whether they were found or not. Everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing, and there was tension in the mortuary. Even the tall man who looked calm seemed nervous, as the corners of his hardened lips trembled slightly.
'No matter how many times you do this, you never get used to it.'
The employee opened the door and took the storage rack out, sighing inwardly. The young man's face darkened as his eyes scanned the silhouette of the body covered in white cloth.
How long had he hesitated whether or not he should take off the cloth covering his face? Amidst the anxious ticking of the second hand and the occasional sound of someone clearing their throat, the man, who seemed to have stopped time, raised his head.
'Why are you looking at me like that?'
Leon gritted his teeth. The staff member was looking at him with pitying eyes. Just like the nightmare from earlier.
But this time, I couldn't laugh and guarantee that the woman under the sheet was not mine.
He nodded briefly, avoiding eye contact. The employee glanced at him and tentatively reached out to cover his face with the cloth.
It was as ominous as the nightmare from earlier.
My heart raced like it had when I first saw that woman's face in my nightmare. No, it beat even faster. I could feel the throbbing in every part of my body.
Then, the moment the curtain lifted, my heart stopped.
"... ... ."
The eyes of the employee who had been waiting solemnly for the man's reaction widened.
"under...."
He laughed. The man burst into laughter when he saw the corpse's face, then handed him a bill and said thank you for his hard work before walking out.
"No. Please report back next time."
Campbell followed the major, leaving a greeting and a request to the staff member who was looking at the closed door with a puzzled look on his face. As soon as they entered the pitch-black darkness outside the hospital, the major took off his sunglasses and asked him.
"That vicious woman couldn't possibly be dead. Right?"
"Yes, that can't be true."
The major smiled dangerously as he took out a cigar with his skinny hands, the blue veins standing out.
I immediately got into a taxi that was waiting and headed back to the train station. It had taken six hours to get here, but I would only be there for 20 minutes.
In the backseat of the taxi, Leon closed his eyes tightly and placed his hand on his forehead.
This was already the third time this had happened.
As my due date approached, I waited for the tip to come in. But the phone never rang.
In the meantime, the days passed quickly. Unable to wait any longer, Leon expanded the wanted list. From the hospital and the maternity home to the morgue. Something might have gone wrong during the birth. After that, he was not happy about the phone ringing at all.
So, this is the third time that you take a step in front of a cliff and then hesitate and step back. Then, what should you do when the day comes when you cannot step back?
Leon swallowed a quiet sigh as the gunshots from his nightmare rang in his ears.